Payback

Chapter 6

Recap:

As I got under the sheets of my bed and turned out the lamp, I vowed that I would get Sadie back for locking us out of the room.

-------------------------------

When I woke up the next morning, Sadie, Emma and Sarah were still asleep.  I propped my pillow up against the headboard and leaned against it, deep in thought.  I wanted to get Sadie back for what she did - there are pretty serious consequences for being caught out of your room after curfew.  What could I possibly do, though?

I glared at Sadie's sleeping form.  There was a strip of bluish light coming from a crack in the curtains on the patio door, so I could just barely make out the shapes of the beds, dresser, and suitcases lying on the floor.

I knew that I had to stop Sadie from locking us out of our room again, so I made a mental note to ask at the front desk about getting an extra key for our room.  Good, that problem was taken care of.

I started to think about today's activity.  We were going to hike to a waterfall, where we were going to have a picnic lunch.  The forest we were going to hike through was rated "easy to moderate", which meant that there were some challenging sections in it.

Hm...

I had an idea.

I tiptoed over to Sadie's suitcase that was lying open next to her bed.  There were only two pairs of shoes that she had brought:  fancy silver strappy sandals, and a pair of pink Converse.

I took the Converse and slid them under Sadie's bed, in a way that looked like they had simply fallen out of the suitcase and under the bed.

I smiled as I went back to my bed.

Good luck on the hike today, Sadie.

-------------------------------------------------------------

"WHERE are my shoes?"

We had gotten back from breakfast in the hotel lobby half an hour ago, and were supposed to meet in the parking lot of the hotel in five minutes to leave for the hike.  Sadie was rummaging through her suitcase like crazy, trying to find her Converse.  I smirked as I watched her become more and more frustrated. 

"I can't go hiking in those sandals!" Sadie whined.

"Bye, Sadie.  Sarah and I are going down to the lobby," I said, smiling.  The last thing I saw before we left the room was Sadie giving me an evil look.

Sarah and I started to make our way to the lobby.

"So.  What did you do with Sadie's shoes?" Sarah asked me.

I stopped in my tracks.  "How did you know I hid them?"

Sarah rolled her eyes.  "The look on your face when you saw her going crazy looking for them.  You were enjoying it."

I smiled and shrugged.

When we arrived in the lobby, I quickly made my way over to the front desk and asked for an extra room key.  

"Listen up!" Ms. Mayten called out.  Everyone stopped talking and turned to look at her.

"We will be leaving for the hike shortly," she said.  "As you know, we will be having a picnic when we arrive at the waterfall.  You will be divided into 8 groups, and each group will take a different route to the waterfall.  Two people from each group will be in charge of carrying food." She started reading out the groups.  They were arranged by room, which meant that I was with Sarah, Sadie and Emma, as well as Erica and her roommates (they were in the room next to us) and four other girls I didn't know too well in the room on our other side.  Erica and her friend Melissa were given the backpacks of food to carry.

After everyone was organised into groups and the food was handed out, Ms. Mayten started attendance.  Sadie rushed into the lobby just in time to hear her name being called.  "Here!" she yelled breathlessly, rushing up to our group.  She was wearing the silver sandals.  I smiled.  Her feet were going to be killing her by the time the hike was over.  And I knew that it was a long hike - several miles.

Ms. Mayten then handed out maps to one person in each group.  Sadie got the map.

"Why do we need this thing?" she asked.  "We're all traveling together, right?"

"No," Erica said.  "Each group is taking a different route."

Sadie sighed in response.  "My hair is going to become so frizzy on this stupid hike."  Sarah and I rolled our eyes in unison.

We then boarded the bus, which would took us to the entrance to the forest.

"All right everyone.  Get out your maps to your trail, and good luck," Ms. Mayten said.

We all rushed off the bus.

"What does the map say, Sadie?" Melissa asked.  

"Uh.." Sadie clearly didn't know how to read maps too well.  "This way," she pointed right.

We started walking.  There were several other groups walking with us at first, but every time we got to a fork in the path, one of them took a different route from us, until eventually we were alone.

It was a really pretty trail.  The trees were extremely tall, and there were all kinds - pine, oak, maple, you name it.  Occasionally we passed a small waterfall that  we had to cross using a little bridge that was laid down for hikers.  The sun was bright and the air was warm.  It was really peaceful, walking through the forest, except for Sadie's constant complaints about her feet.

About an hour into the hike, Erica and Melissa gave me and Sarah the food bags to carry for a while.  After another five or so minutes of walking, we reached a fork in the trail.

"Sadie, what fork are we supposed to take?" asked Nicole, one of the girls in our group.  Even though I didn't know her that well, I'd talked to her a few times, and she was pretty friendly.

Sadie took the map out of her pocket.  She squinted at it, traced her finger along it, and turned it around several times.  A minute later, she pointed to the left fork.  "This one."

"Are you sure?" Erica sounded uncertain.  It was clear that Sadie couldn't read maps well.

"Yes," Sadie snapped.  

We didn't want to argue with her.  So,  we listened to her and took the left fork... the wrong fork.

--------------------

A bit of a cliffhanger there... 

I know not much happened in this chapter, it's kind of a filler :)

Next upload:  probably in the next week or so, but I'm not setting any definite days.

Comment and vote pleaseeeeee :D

-chiaraa