The Secret. Ariana Chambers
ripples around the group.
‘I bet it’s something really outdoorsy and boring,’ Holly whispers. ‘Like a compass.’
‘Good, good,’ Mr Matthews says, still rifling through the papers on his clipboard. ‘OK, on your marks, get –’
Miss Black blows hard on the whistle that’s permanently hanging around her neck, causing Mr Matthews to drop his pen in shock.
I look down at the tent at my feet. It belonged to Aunt Clara and my mum when they were kids. When Aunt Clara said we could use it on our trip I was really touched. If your mum dies when you’re little you tend to grab on to every memento you can. Holly unzips the bag and slides the tent poles out and we start putting them together. Beside us, Eve starts unpacking her single-man tent and I feel a pang of sorrow. If our tent’s big enough I might suggest to Holly that we invite Eve to share with us. I glance across the clearing to Izzy, Vivien and Stephen. You would think that with three of them they’d be almost finished, but they haven’t even started. Instead, they’re looking around at everyone else with smirks on their faces. Oh, whatever. I pick up the tent tarpaulin and start pulling it over the frame.
‘We’ve finished, sir!’ Izzy calls a second later.
I look over in shock. How can they be finished? They haven’t even started! But their tents are up and all three of them are standing in front of them beaming smugly.
Mr Matthews looks as bewildered as I feel. ‘What? Oh, I say. How on earth . . .?’ He starts to chuckle. ‘Well done. Well done indeed.’
I look at Holly, my heart sinking as I figure out what’s happened. ‘Izzy must have time-shifted,’ I whisper. As a time-shifter, Izzy has the ability to slow down time.
Holly nods. ‘Why’d she have to get that power?’ she sighs. ‘It’s not fair.’
‘Can we have our prize, sir?’ Vivien asks.
‘Yes, yes of course.’ Mr Matthews scratches his head and looks at Miss Black. ‘Do you, er, do you know what the prize is?’
Miss Black sighs and reaches into her bag.
I vent my frustration by hammering a tent peg into the ground. Why should they get a prize for cheating? Then I see what the prize is and I start to grin.
‘Here you go, girls – and Stephen,’ Miss Black says. ‘Some bunting to decorate your tent.’ She hands them streams of bunting covered in pink bunny rabbits.
Holly starts to giggle. ‘What a lame prize! It’s even worse than a compass.’
Izzy and the others clearly think so too from the way they’re glaring at it.
‘Go on, then,’ Holly calls over to them. ‘Make your tent look nice and pretty.’
Izzy glares at us. I smile back sweetly.
As Holly and I continue putting up our tent I think of my mum and imagine her and Clara going camping when they were our age. I imagine Mum’s hands on the canvas where mine are and it makes me feel warm inside.
Next to us, David and James start play-fighting with their tent poles. Spiky-haired David is always fooling around. Seriously, you could send him to a funeral and he’d find a way of making a prank out of it.
Holly looks at me and shakes her head. ‘Longest three days in history.’
‘Stop it, boys,’ Miss Black snaps at them from behind us.
‘Sorry, miss,’ David says. ‘We were just . . .’ He breaks off and looks around blankly.
I turn and follow his gaze. There’s no sign of Miss Black anywhere near us.
‘Did you hear Miss Black?’ he says to James.
James nods and stares, confused.
Vivien walks past with a smile on her face. ‘Must have been a ghost,’ she says.
‘She mimicked her,’ I whisper to Holly.
Holly nods. ‘Another wasted power,’ she says wistfully. ‘Still, maybe we don’t need to worry about them on this trip if this is how they’re going to use their powers.’
Miss Black appears from behind the toilet block on the other side of the clearing. David and James start putting up their tent in silence.
‘My rucksack!’ Eve calls out, her voice shrill with panic.
I turn to face her. Eve’s tent is up and she’s looking around wildly. ‘It was right here, now it’s gone.’
‘Are you sure?’ I ask, walking over to her. ‘You didn’t leave it on the coach, did you?’
Eve shakes her head, her eyes wide behind her glasses. ‘No, I was just looking in it for the tent instructions. It was right here.’ She points to the ground by her feet. ‘Someone must have taken it.’
‘Is everything all right, girls?’ Miss Black calls over.
‘No. My bag’s gone missing.’ Eve looks distraught. ‘It’s got my phone in and my clothes and everything.’
Miss Black strides over. ‘Well, it can’t have gone too far.’ She turns to the rest of the group. ‘Has anyone seen Eve’s bag?’
Everyone shakes their head.
‘I don’t understand,’ Eve says, her voice wobbling. ‘It was here just a moment ago. How can it have disappeared?’
I look over at Izzy and she looks straight back at me, her pale green eyes glinting with amusement. ‘It must have been the ghost of Mad Bess,’ she says quietly.
I suddenly feel a very long way from home.
High up above me in the treetops a crow starts to caw.
‘First of all, you need to get your kindling,’ Mr Matthews calls.
It’s the evening and we’re all sat in a circle in the middle of the clearing learning how to make campfires. So far, this has involved hunting around the woods for dry leaves, moss and sticks of all shapes and sizes. Holly and I start putting our twigs and pieces of bark into the small pit we’ve dug in front of us.
‘Make sure it’s well spaced out. There needs to be room for the fire to spread.’ Mr Matthews starts walking around the circle, inspecting our efforts. He’s changed out of his suit into an ancient-looking tracksuit and a battered pair of hiking boots. ‘Good job. Good job,’ he says as he walks past each of us. ‘Now place your tinder on top of the kindling.’
We carefully put our leaves and moss on top of the twigs.
‘And now, you may light the tinder!’ Mr Matthews announces dramatically, as if he was declaring the opening of Parliament.
‘I’ll do it,’ I say to Holly, grabbing our box of matches. Although Holly’s got way better at controlling her energy-harnessing power, there’s no way I’m risking getting my eyebrows singed off.
‘If you insist,’ she sighs.
I strike the match and hold the flame under a clump of leaves. A flame shoots right up. Holly giggles.
‘Was that you?’ I frown at her.
‘I was only trying to help,’ Holly says. ‘And speaking of which, I wonder how Izzy’s getting on.’
We look across the clearing. Tiny flames are licking at their kindling like orange tongues. Holly frowns and scrunches up her nose. The flames splutter out. Stephen lights a match and throws it on the leaves. Once again, some small flames flicker – and once again they die out.
I look at Holly and grin. ‘Are you doing that?’
She nods. ‘After everything they’ve got up to today I think it’s time they were reminded that they’re not the only ones with powers.’
‘Good