G4+Group+2

The Scavenger Hunt

//"Does he have any friends?" Ralph Deere heard the new kid say.

"No, he's kind of pathetic," one of the other boys replied.

The rest of the students chimed in."Nothing to offer." "Doesn't even talk." "Stands around by himself staring at nothing."

Ralph sighed. He had hoped that the new kid might be different, that he might be someone who was interested in paper airplanes and books, someone who wouldn't talk so much! (How did people think of that much to say, anyway?) Someone who might teach Ralph all the games the other boys played. Someone that would stick up for him once in a while. Someone who wanted to be friends with him, and someone Ralph could be friends with.

Unfortunately, this new kid wasn't going to come over and make friends with him. Ralph decided that he would have to go over to him while he was with the rest of the boys. After all, that was how they had gotten the new kid to join them.

"Can I play?" Ralph asked in a mumbled rush.

"You?" asked one of the boys. "Do you even know how?"

"Who would have taught him? He's never had any friends," replied another.

"Well, I want to have friends," mumbled Ralph quietly.

"Whatever. No, you can't play. You wouldn't be useful, nobody likes you, and nobody would pick you. You are a hopeless case when it comes to friends. Don't even try," said one of the boys.

"But I want friends. It would be fun," Ralph managed to say.

The others laughed and made fun of him and said, "You can't get friends. Who would want to be friends with you? You can't do anything. You have no real friends; those people who pretend to be nice to you don't count. You never will have friends. Just go away, you friendless freak."

Shocked, Ralph walked back up to the 3rd grade classroom to escape their tormenting with jumbled thoughts bouncing around in his mind. **I have no friends? I guess I have no friends. What's wrong with me? People pretend to be friends with me and they aren't? I have no friends? I won't ever have any friends? No Friends? No Friends? No friends…No friends...**// 

“Wake up! We’re at Camp Blue Ridge!” exclaimed a boy, a bit too close to Ralph Deere's ear.

“…No friends…no friends…” Ralph moaned, his mind still entangled in the memories shunned to the back of his mind, now brought up again by the unpredictable realm of dreams.  “What was that? Something about no friends?” the boy said. Upon hearing this, Ralph immediately awoke and sat bolt upright, causing the startled boy to flinch and take a step backwards. At first look, he seemed about Ralph's age, though a little taller and more powerfully built. A disheveled mop of blond hair covered the top of his head. "Sorry,” said the boy.  “No, no, I'm sorry,” Ralph murmured, and, in an effort to escape embarrassment, turned around to take in his surroundings. At the moment, he was sitting beside his bag of clothes in a bus that was completely empty of people, save for him and the boy. A quick glance out the window told him that the bus was, as the boy said, in front of Camp Blue Ridge, which was confirmed by the sign right outside the bus that said, “Welcome to Camp Blue Ridge!” Beyond the sign was a gravel path that made its way to a building that looked like a combined mess hall and lobby, with smaller buildings, probably cabins, spread out around it. In front of the main building was a group of children struggling to enter through the double doors before everyone else.  The boy made an effort to make conversation. “My name’s Michael Vanderoff. What’s yours?”  Ralph acted like he didn't hear the boy, in hope that he could keep Michael from talking to the others about "Ralph, the weird guy".  Refusing to be discouraged, the boy tried again. “Do you think you’ll like this camp? I can’t wait for it to begin.”

Ralph remained silent as he picked up his baggage, walked down the aisle of the bus, and exited through the door. As he walked down the gravel path to the mess hall, ignoring Michael altogether, he thought to himself, //Ok, this camp is my chance. I'll just walk up to someone and say hi.// With that in mind, Ralph opened the wooden doors into the mess hall and joined the rest of the children. One of the camp counselors appeared to be assigning cabins to the campers. He looked to be in his mid-20s, with pitch-black hair which completely covered his ears. He was extremely tall and probably couldn't pass through a door without ducking. "Over here, campers!" he yelled to the incoming wave of children. "Come get your cabin numbers!"

Ralph silently headed towards him, trying to ignore everyone else. //Too many people,// he thought. //I'll talk to some of them later, when there aren't so many around//. When he arrived, the counselor asked him for his name, which he gave, and in exchange he received a small white piece of paper with the number 7 printed on it. With a sigh, he turned around and began his trek through the noisy, formless mass which made up the ongoing throng of excited campers. After numerous bumps and apologies, Ralph exited the mess hall and walked up the path to Cabin 7.

Upon arrival, he noticed the door was already open and there was movement inside. As he entered the cabin, the kid from the bus popped his head out of the bag he was rummaging through on one of the bunk beds and looked at him.

"Oh, hey," he said. "Are you in Cabin 7, too?"

"Yes," Ralph replied, as he threw his bag on the bed opposite of Michael's.

"Cool!" Michael exclaimed. "So, what's your name? I gave you mine on the bus, and asked for yours, but I guess you didn't hear me."

"Ralph Deere," he mumbled.

"Nice to meet you, Ralph! I'm 13 now, but I'm turning 14 pretty soon. What about you?"

"13," Ralph said, trying to avoid making eye contact with Michael.

"I'm so excited about this camp, it's not even funny. Did you hear about the gigantic high-ropes course they have here? It's supposed to be huge!" Michael said while looking out the window, furtively trying to spot the ropes through the gaps in the trees.

Suddenly, a bell rang four times in the distance. "Back to the main hall, everyone!" a counselor yelled in his megaphone. "C'mon, let's go," said Michael, and he ran out the door and to the mess hall. Ralph finished unpacking his belongings and followed Michael up the gravel path and entered the mess hall. Upon opening the door, Ralph's ears were assaulted with the sounds of the cafeteria. Trying to drown out the noise, Ralph shuffled through the buffet line as quickly and inconspicuously as he could. Once his plate was as full as he liked, he turned around to find a seat...and was completely lost. Every time he saw an empty table, he would rush as quickly as he could towards it, but some group of kids would always beat him to it. Soon enough, there were no suitable spots left. Now completely overwhelmed, Ralph began to panic.

Suddenly, he heard someone call his name. "Ralph! Hey, Ralph Deere!" Ralph looked around for the source of the voice. "Over here!" it said again. Finally, Ralph saw who was calling his name, and lo and behold, it was Michael Vanderoff, the blond-haired, energetic kid from his cabin, smiling at him as if he'd just spotted a friend he hadn't seen in years. Ralph, relieved at finally having a place to sit, made his way over to where Michael was sitting. As he pulled out his chair, the faintest hint of a smile played about the corner of his lips, but it immediately disappeared when he saw that there was another kid sitting at the table, too. He was much taller than Ralph, about 5' 10", and had so many freckles his face was almost completely brown, matching his straight, ear-length hair.

"Hey, Ralph," said Michael. "This is Ivan. Ivan, this is Ralph."

"Hi," mumbled Ralph.

"Yea, whatever," sneered Ivan, as if disgusted by the fact that Ralph wasn't as tall or strong as he was.

Suddenly, the counselors interrupted the lunch with an announcement. "Welcome, everybody, to Camp Blue Ridge!" one of the counselors said. "We're going to have two fun-packed weeks! To kick off the excitement, we'll start the afternoon with a scavenger hunt. After lunch, please find a partner for the activity and then find a counselor to get a list of the items to find. These items can be found anywhere inside the boundary marked by trees with orange ribbons on them. Be sure to be back here in the mess hall by 3:30, and the team who has found the most items will win a special prize. Happy hunting!"

This announcement elicited cheerful reactions from nearly all of the campers, except for Ralph. //Oh no!// he thought to himself. W//here will I find a partner?// Thankfully, and to Ralph's surprise and relief, Michael turned around to face him and, without a moment's hesitation, asked, "Do you want to be my partner, Ralph?"

"Y...ye...ye...yes," stammered Ralph.

"Great!" exclaimed Michael. "Let's go!"

Slightly stunned, Ralph followed Michael to the counselor, who gave them the list, and then they headed out the door to the forest.

"This is going to be great!" Michael told Ralph as they were heading to the edge of the camp. "Come on, let's go faster and get a head start on the others!"

"Ok," Ralph said, as he began to run.

Two hours later, they had found three fourths of the items and had a definite advantage over the other groups. They were currently on the lip of a hill covered in brown pine-needles overlooking a wide expanse of trees so green they radiated good health. Michael was pondering a clue while Ralph examined the cloudless sky.

"Hmmm, this one's clue says nature is 'crying over it'," pondered Michael. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"What about over there?" pointed Ralph, "There's a weeping willow with an orange ribbon on it."

"That's it, Ralph! Good guess!" exclaimed Michael, as he began to run in its direction.

Ralph took one last look at the sea of green in front of him, and turned around to the sound of a bloodcurdling scream so terrible his body immediately froze, both in movement and temperature, and beads of sweat began collecting on his dirt-speckled forehead: where Michael had been now stood a gaping hole. As he unfroze, his first thoughts were, //Step away from the edge...// and //Oh my God, Michael!// Ralph rushed over to the hole and looked down to find Michael sprawled on the ground, his eyes closed. "MICHAEL!" Ralph yelled. "MICHAEL!" He heard a moan. "I'm coming; wait!" Ralph shouted down, as he examined the slope of the hole into which Michael had fallen.

The hole was steep, very steep. //How am I going to get down there?// Ralph thought. He began walking along the edge, searching for an opening, anywhere for him to get down to Michael. There! The slope of the hole was just a bit less steep, enough, maybe, for him to slide down while slowing himself with his hands so that he wouldn't land as hard as Michael did. Without another thought, he sat on the edge of the hole, pushed himself down with his hands...and fell, too fast. He had underestimated the slope. It was too steep for him to slow down, and he was picking up speed faster and faster. The dirt that he was dislodging as he fell slammed into his face, too quickly for him to avoid. The bottom of the hole rushed up to meet him. //Nooooo!// thought Ralph. //I can't die; not now!// And with that he crashed into the ground, his body bouncing, bending on the hard, unforgiving rock and dirt. "Oof!" He was forced to breathe out as the air was expelled from his lungs upon contact with the ground, getting rid of the dirt in his airway and clearing it up. He took a huge, heaving breath, gathering his senses. The first thing he observed was, //Ow, my arm really hurts//. He shifted to take the weight off of his arm, and received a searing jolt of pain throughout the length of his left arm in response. //Note to self: don't move arm,// concluded Ralph. Slowly and carefully, he sat up and moved himself over towards Michael.

"Michael, are you okay? Come on, answer!" said Ralph, in fright and despair.

"Oooooh," moaned Michael. "That really hurts."

"Can you move at all?" asked Ralph.

"I think I broke my leg. I can't move it, but everything else is okay, I think," said Michael. "How are we going to get out of here?"

"Someone will probably come and get us," Ralph guessed.

"It'll be a while before they come; we're not supposed to be back at the camp for another three hours! They won't know that something's happened to us! You'll have to go and get help yourself," Michael reasoned.

"I can't do it! I'm not good at climbing or anything, I won't be able to get out of here! I don't even know how to get back to camp!" Ralph despaired.

"But, Ralph, think about how much harder it will be for the other people who would try to rescue us! They don't know which way we've gone or where we are! You do, though. I bet you can climb out of here and find your way back to camp. Come on, what other option do we have? You can do it," Michael said in an attempt to encourage Ralph.

But Ralph wasn't convinced. "But I can't do it!" he said. "I can't do things like this. We should just wait here. Someone could even come this way to follow the scavenger hunt clues! Please, I can't do this!" Ralph complained.

"Just try, please?" Michael pleaded. "If you can't get out after all, we can just stay here, but it would be a lot of help if you at least tried," Michael said, trying to persuade Ralph. Michael tried to sit up, and he visibly winced. //His leg must really be hurting him//, Ralph thought.

Ralph realized that there was no other option. It was also clearly evident that Michael was in a lot of pain. //Maybe, just maybe, I can do this//, thought Ralph. //I might as well try//. "Well, I'll see if I can get up the slope," Ralph finally agreed.

"Thanks, Ralph! Good luck!" said Michael. The effort needed to just make that much conversation was evidently more than Michael could spare. He laid his head back on the slope of the hill, let out a deep sigh of pain, and slowly closed his eyes. //He's going to need some rest,// Ralph realized. //I'd better hurry, before it's too late!// With that newfound energy, Ralph turned around and faced the long and arduous task ahead of him. //I sure hope I can do this!// Ralph thought. He leaned forward, and stretched out his arms in front of him. As before, the pressure on his left arm shot a lightning-like bolt of pain through it. Easing the weight on his left arm, Ralph raised his right foot, winced at its soreness, and planted it on the hill. Then he raised his left foot, and put it higher up the slope than his right foot, at the same time moving his right arm higher up the slope, leaning his body against the hill so that he wouldn't slip and fall backwards. For the next five minutes, he repeated the process: right foot, left foot, lean on side, right hand, right foot, left foot, lean on side, right hand. He glanced upwards, and saw that he was about halfway up the slope. Looking down, he saw that he had only climbed about 10-15 feet. Ralph sighed, and at this small instance of lack of concentration, he slackened the grip of his right hand. He felt a sudden lurch in his stomach and began to fall away from the face of the slope. Abandoning all caution to the wind, he scrabbled for a hold with his arms, and felt a handhold under his right hand. He tightened his grip, and the uncomfortable feeling of hopeless falling left him. Ralph grimaced; he wasn't done yet. So for the next five minutes, he repeated the process of right foot, left foot, lean on side, and right hand. Finally, when he felt like his muscles were about to fail him completely, his right hand touched grass. Finding a strong patch of weeds on which to secure his weight, he lifted up his right foot and then his left foot and then pulled both feet over the crest of the hill. He was safe!

For how long Ralph lay there, he didn't know. Somewhere between one and five minutes later, Ralph was awakened from his stupor by yet another flash of pain in his left arm. //Must have lain on it again//, he thought. He got up very slowly, taking care to lean only on his right arm and not his left for support. He took a final euphoric moment to enjoy the lack of constant physical effort, and then turned around. He peered down at the bottom of the hole, and saw Michael there, his eyes still closed, resting. Ralph was tempted to yell out to Michael that he had made it all the way up to the top, but he refrained from doing so because it was obvious that Michael needed the rest. Instead, Ralph turned to face the direction from which he thought they had come, and set off on a slow jog. He tried to remember the way back to camp, but felt like he was always messing up. At first, he was always going in the wrong directions: when he thought that part of the route back to the camp required him to climb over one log, he ended up having to climb over three more of them. And on top of it all, he felt like he was scratching himself on every thorny or even remotely sharp plant in his way, tripping over every root and log in his path, and falling on his face into every mud puddle he could find. None of this made his left arm, or any part of his body, for that matter, feel any better; soon he was having to stop multiple times every minute to catch his breath, and the pain in his arm had changed from a throb whenever he fell on it to the constant feeling that the bones in his arm were going to break in two. //I need a break!// Ralph thought. //I just need to rest for a minute...//Then an image of Michael, his eyes closed, his face pale white and scrunched up in pain, flashed through Ralph's mind. //No, I can't rest!// Ralph realized. //Michael is depending on me to get help. I can't stop now!// Motivated, he ran faster, not giving a thought to the weariness in his limbs that would have stopped him from running altogether yesterday.

And then, after what seemed like an eternity of running through the woods, Ralph heard the sounds of people! With renewed vigor, he rushed towards the source of the voices. Before long, he saw the camp up ahead. The grounds were completely empty of people, except for a clump of counselors and camp staff in front of the mess hall, to which he dashed. One of the counselors saw Ralph coming and turned around to meet him. Ralph stopped to a dead halt in front of the counselor, his chest heaving with the effort needed to get there.

"M-M-Michael...f-f-fell...hole...h-h-hurry!" was all Ralph managed to say.

"Slow down, there!" said the counselor. "Take a deep breath and then say it again, slower."

Ralph followed the man's advice, and tried again. "My partner and I were trying to find an item and he fell and broke his leg and he can't get out and he needs help," Ralph said, not daring to pause to take a breath.

"Where did this happen?" the counselor asked.

"By a willow tree with an orange ribbon on it," Ralph replied.

"How do you get there?"

"Well, you go in that direction." Ralph pointed to where he came out of the forest. "Then you go over some logs, and then you pass through a clearing with an apple tree, then you..." Ralph paused. "I don't know how to give the directions!" he wailed.

"No worries," the counselor said. "You can just take us there. Let me get a medi-pack and some other counselors, and we'll all go get your friend soon." The counselor turned around as if to leave, but then, seeming to remember something, he turned back around. "What did you say your friend's name was again?"

"Michael."

"Well then, let me tell you something. It must have taken a lot of guts and loyalty, not to mention stamina, to make it all the way here by yourself. Michael is very lucky to have a friend like you." With that, the counselor walked away from Ralph, evidently to go get a first aid kit.

But Ralph didn't notice that. As the counselor turned away, Ralph felt something in his chest, like the butterflies in his stomach that he had always had when he was around other people, but yet not like it at all; it was more like a warm fluttering feeling. He couldn't exactly place what it was, but of one thing he was sure: things would be different from now on.