Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Ellie and Carrie are walking along and talking to each other.

Carrie: Ellie?

Ellie: Yeah?

Carrie: (dreamily) I want to go overseas some day, don’t you? I want to see different places and things. I want to stay away for years and years.

Ellie: Carrie! You got homesick during summer camp, and that was only four days!

Carrie: That wasn’t real homesickness. That was because Chris* and them were giving me such a hard time.

Ellie: Weren’t they such idiots? I hated them.

Carrie: Remember when they got caught bombing us with firelighters? They were crazy. At least they’ve improved since then.

Ellie: Chris is still a dork.

Carrie: I don’t mind him now. He’s all right.

Ellie: (rolls eyes; Ellie is not as forgiving as Carrie) So…will your parents let you go overseas?

Carrie: I don’t know. They might, if I work on them long enough. They let me apply for that exchange thing, remember?

Ellie: Your parents are so easy to get along with.

Carrie: So are yours.

Ellie: Oh, most of the time I guess they are. It’s only when dad’s in one of his moods. And he is awfully sexist. All the stuff I had to go through to come on this trip. If I was a boy it’d be no problem.

Carrie: Mmm. My dad’s not bad. I’ve been educating him.

Ellie: (smiles, laughs) And to think I once thought you were innocent!

Carrie: Yeah, about as innocent as you. So what is going on with you and Steve?

Ellie: Nothing. It’s completely over. I’ve moved on.

Carrie: Moved on? So who’s the guy?

Ellie: (uncomfortable) Ummm.

Carrie: (joking) It is a guy, isn’t it?

Laughter, smiles….

Ellie: Yes, Carrie, he is a guy.

Carrie: He’s on this trip with us. I know he is.

Ellie: If you’re so smart who is it?

Carrie: Lee, of course, who else would it be?

Add more…


Back at the campsite. Everyone sitting around lazily. Phil is the only one missing.

Ellie: You guys we don’t have much food left. We don’t have any more fruit, cheese, milk of any sort, no chocolate---

Kevin: No Chocolate! That’s serious. How are we going to survive?

Robyn: (ignoring Kevin) We could go back to the (vehicle) and get some food. We left plenty there.

Lee: It would be a long hike. Is any one willing to go?

Kevin: It’s like a hundred degrees! If we had chocolate it’d give me the energy to get up to the (vehicle) to get some more. But without it I don’t think I could make the first step.

Carrie is sitting on her sleeping bag reading a romance novel (Dirty! As Karin would say) and looks very absorbed in her book. She isn’t paying attention to the conversation.

Phil walks up quietly behind Carrie with a bucket of water he brought for washing up (or whatever else), and motions for everyone else to remain quiet. Once he’s behind Carrie he dumps the bucket of water on her and she reacts (jumps up, screams….) She drops her book.

Carrie: (outraged) Phil!

Phil: Ooh! What’s this here? (he bends down to pick up her book)

Carrie: Phil, give it back!

Phil: Why? What if I don’t want to?

Carrie: Please, Phil, give it back. I’m on the last page and I need to see if they make up.

Phil: You mean the lovers?

Carrie: Phil!

Phil: (starts reading out loud from the book? *evil look* or should I say *dirty look*)

Carrie: That’s not funny Philip!

Phil flips to the back of the book and quickly tears out the last page and Carrie gasps.

Phil: (hands Carrie the book) You can have your book back now.

Carrie: But the end? What happens? I need to know!

Phil: Well, nothing of interest.

Phil crumples up the page and stuffs it carelessly in his pocket.

Carrie: Fine! I’m not talking to you.

Phil: (being silly now) Ok, I hope you’re still talking to Kevin though because I hate to see it when two romantic couples don’t live happily ever after.

Ellie: (Ellie butts in to the conversation) Now that that’s over we can talk about something else.

Silence

Robyn: You know I don’t want to go back. This has been the best place and the best week.

Lee: Yeah, it’s been great.

Amy: I’m liking forward to a hot shower though, and decent food.

Carrie: Let’s do this again. Back here in the same place with the same people.

Phil: Even me?

Carrie: Yes, even you.

Phil: Ok, I was just making sure.

Robyn: Let’s keep this place a secret. Otherwise everyone’ll start using it and it’ll be wrecked in no time.

Amy: I agree.

Ellie: It is a good campsite. Next time we should have a proper search for where the hermit lived.

Lee: He might have just had a shelter here and it’s fallen down.

Ellie: But he built that bridge so well. You’d think he’d build his shelter even better.

Kevin: Well maybe he just lived in a cave or something.

Carrie: No, that’d be you Kevin.

They begin playing true confessions. I think we should come up with ideas together because that would be fun. Maybe we can begin a game ourselves.

Ellie goes off to bed, not wanting to reveal about her and Steve.

Kevin: Aren’t you going to stay? And tell us all about Steve?

Ellie gives Kevin a dirty look (not like that Karin!) and crawls into her sleeping bag. Ellie has trouble sleeping and so she tosses and turns.

True confessions resume.

The next morning everyone is packing and busy getting everything packed up. Soon they start leaving the campsite and heading back toward the (vehicle).

Phil walks by Amy and helps her along, never going out of her reach in case she needs him (awww! How sweet). Phil helps Amy over a log and Amy smiles at Phil and he blushes.

Carrie: (she rolls her eyes over to Amy and Phil) Do you think she actually likes him?

Ellie: I’m not quite sure. Why?

Carrie: I was just wondering if she was stringing him along.

Ellie: (smiles) It would serve Phil right if a girl did that to him after all these years of taunting every girl and claiming to be unemotional.

Carrie: Think about it: one girl could get revenge for all of us. (Blood will have blood.-Macbeth).

They reach the (vehicle) and have lunch. They start heading back when they reach the river they stop. They see fires burning in the distance, but no one says anything.

Robyn: Hey, we should go for a swim.

Kevin: Yeah. It’s so hot, I’m dying here.

Robyn: To hear you talk you’d think you’re dying all the time.

Kevin: Very funny.

Phil: So who’s for a swim?

Everyone raises their hand except Ellie and Lee.

Phil: Ok, majority rules. Five to two, we’re swimming!

Amy: Good, I need to cool off.

They get out of the (vehicle), and head for the river and get in to swim. Lee and Ellie don’t go swimming, but instead sit on the bank of the river waiting until everyone else is ready to go. Everyone else is laughing and splashing each other in the river.

Ellie: I wish they would hurry up. I really want to get home.

Lee: (looks at Ellie) Why?

Ellie: I don’t know. I’m in a funny mood; a bad mood.

Lee: Yes, you seem a bit wound up.

Ellie: Maybe it’s those fires. I can’t figure them out.

Lee: But you’ve been uptight most of this camping trip.

Ellie: Have I? I suppose I have. I’m really not sure why.

Lee: It’s strange, but I feel the same way.

Ellie: You do? But you don’t show it!

Lee: I try not to.

Ellie: I can believe that. (a pause) Maybe it’s guilt. I feel bad about missing the (show). We exhibit there quite a lot. Dad thinks we should support it. Dad was cool about me going, but I left him with an awful lot of work to do.

Lee: Yeah, I feel the same thing about leaving the restaurant….here they come.

Robyn and Amy are the last two people to come out of the water. They come out dripping and laughing. Amy looks fantastic, flicking her long hair out of her eye and moving with the grace of a heron. Kevin and Phil are talking, but Phil is watching Amy. Amy knows this and is a bit self-conscious about the way she walks, and the way she stands there cooling in the sunlight, like a model doing a fashion shoot on the beach. Amy knew Phil was watching her, and loved it.