Chapter One – The Crash

When Katherine came to, the first thing she noticed were the palm trees. But wait, that wasn’t right. Why would there be palm trees in an airplane? That was when she discovered that she was no longer up in the air with her school mates because airplanes didn’t have sandy floors or oceans attached to them. She jumped up.
“Ashley? Ashley?!” she yelled, running aimlessly through the dense jungle in search of her friend.
Where was everyone? Where had they crashed? She continued, rushing through the vines on the forest floor. Once, her Grandpa Ralph had told her that vines were creepers that turned into snakes at night, and even though she was only five at the time, remembered thinking how ridiculous that was. It was then that she heard girlish shrieks emitting from behind some shrubs.
“Mommy! Mommy!”
“I want to go home!”
“Where are you Laura?!”
Katherine scanned the huddles of girls for Ashley and spotted the redhead right away. She rushed past the shell littered lagoon and embraced her friend.
“Are you ok?”
“Yeah, I think so. You?”
“Fine. What about the others?”
They surveyed the masses of girls.
“No one’s bleeding. They’re just freaked out,” said Ashley understandingly, “But look at Charlotte. Uhg, I can’t stand her. Did you know she was on our flight?”
Katherine nodded. When the shrill voices didn’t cease, she decided to take action herself.
“Hey! Be quiet! Guys! Hey!” she yelled, trying to get everyone’s attention.
Most girls sucked up their sobs and turned their snotty faces in her direction.
“Who’s got paper and pen?”
“What for?”
She crouched down to be eye level with Rachel. “We gotta keep track of everyone and keep everyone together so no one gets lost.”
At her explanation, several hands reached into backpacks for journals and pens. Fuzzy ones, shiny ones, feathery pens, and even pens with lip gloss on the top. She asked the girls to line up.
“Who died and made you President?” asked Jacklyn haughtily.
“I think when we found the headless pilot in the forest,” answered Patty.
“Who do you think you’re talking to Fatso?”
“She’s not Fatso! Her name is Patty!”
Some girls laughed. A mean girl shouted, “What kinda name is Patty? More like hamburger patty with extra cheese by the looks of her! McDonalds much?”
“Shut up! God, stop being a spoiled brat so we can finish attendance,” countered an annoyed Katherine. She turned back to the little girl in front of her, “Who’re you?”
“Sally James, 5291 N. Addison, (773) 867-5309.”
“That’s great that you can remember all that, hon.” She patted her on the cheek.
“I know all that too!”
“No me first!”
“I want a pat!”
They were all clamoring for attention, and the rest of the roll call went off without a hitch. The clever girls had already warned each other about the greenish, identifiable fruit that were all over the island. The consensus was that you’d probably die from eating it or be poisoned or something; anyway, you weren’t supposed to eat things you didn’t recognize, at the very least.
Then the elephant in the room, er, island was finally addressed: “How are we gonna get found?”
“In Girls Scouts were learned that we should make a fire for smoke so a plane’ll see us,” said a proud Cadet Scout.
“But we don’t got any matches.”
“It’s getting dark!”
Katherine sighed. “Why don’t we sleep on it and figure out the fire tomorrow?”
The tired girls murmured their assent. No use climbing a mountain in the dark. It didn’t take long for the girls to fall into a fitful sleep.

Chapter Two – Up the Mountain

"Who wants to go up the mountain with me?" asked Katherine the next day.
One blonde girl walked over to her and whispered in her ear, "I'll go with you as long as Sarah H. doesn't come. I just hate that little bi—"
"Cliques aren't going to solve anything!" she interrupted.
The blonde let out a disgusted noise. "Whatever. God!" She stormed away. Drama queen…
After asking around, she found she had more luck with the other girls. She organized a party to go up the mountain, checking off names as she went down the list she had made yesterday. Katherine then appointed several big girls as baby sitters to look after the little girls that were too young to go with them. She stood for a moment, watching the groups of girls. She saw the little brat from yesterday knock down Amber's sand castle in the sand. She was happy to see that she was promptly put in a timeout, something a boy would never think of doing. They would probably just laugh and punch each other and forget it ever happened.
Feeling that the children were in good hands, she got her group, and they set off. Almost immediately, the complaints started.
"Owwww! I got a splinter in my foot!"
"Ahhhh! A ginormous spider!"
"Do you even know where we're goin'?"
"Yes, we're going this way," she answered, pointing straight ahead of her, "Who's got the lenses?"
"Lenses? What for?"
"Allison said she read Lord of the something-or-other and they used glasses to start a fire."
"You can use mine," Sarah Q. volunteered, holding them out with a flourish.
Katherine was glad that everyone was cooperating. Sure, there was Island gossip already and sure the circles of friends carried over from school, but everyone was doing their part. There was even a shelter being made for the small girls.
"Are we there yet?" whined eight-year-old Hannah.
"Yeah. Here we are. This is it…Duh! Does this look like the top of the mountain?" cut Jacklyn.
Everyone ignored her.
"Come on, let's just keep moving. We're almost there."
They struggled and stumbled until they reached the top and a few girls did a little Rocky dance while others provided the music.
"Ok, Stallone, can you get some sticks and then we can light this baby up!" said Katherine excitedly.
"You gotta put rocks 'round it or else you're gonna set the whole forest on fire!" warned the Cadet.
"Smart thinking. Us big kids can get those while you little guys get the wood."
They went around collected dry sticks, and the Cadet remembered that moss would make good smoke once the flames got going. She credited "Man vs. Wild" for that idea though.
"Ahhhh! Bugs! Get'emoff, get'emoff, get'emoff me!" wailed Sarah H., slapping all over her body.
Several girls rushed over to help her slap and pick the crawlers out of her hair. Once a thorough inspection of her body had been made, she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thanks guys."
The bug incident was forgotten once they saw the merrily crackling flames get to the top of Ashley's head. They all joined in in putting on the moss, wiping their hands off on their shorts after touching the muddy grassy. They all wished for the luxury of having one of those mini bottles of hand sanitizer. And, after deciding that the aloe smelling one was the best, they set off back to the camp, leaving the twins, Samantha and Erica, in charge of the fire until the next shift started at sunset.

Chapter Three – The Fire

Jacklyn was bent double, hidden in her bush with a few other brave girls.
"Do we really gotta kill a pig? There'll be icky blood and we don't got anything to clean ourselves up with," whispered Sally.
"But I want bacon!" said Jacklyn viscously.
"This is dumb. I'm going back to camp," said a brunette, getting up to leave.
"Nuh-uh, you're gonna be bait."
The girl didn’t like the look on her face.
"What, uh, what's bait, and why'm I gonna be it?" she asked fearfully.
Before she got an answer, she was thrust out into the clearing with a scream. She covered her face, expecting to be eaten by some crazy pig. She pictured herself slowly dying of swine flu, oinking her last breath this far away from her family. When nothing happened she uncovered her face.
"There's ain't nothing here."
"Just wait a sec…"
Then something starting tearing through the bushes, making loud noises and making shivers go up their spines. When the piglet rushed through the vines towards them, they starting running in the opposite direction. The rushed as fast as they could back to the five shelters that had been built, pasted the wooden shelves holding various fruits, until they reached the curtained off area that was their bathroom.
"Think we lost it?" Jane puffed.
"Yeah, but I wasn't scared. Were you?"
"No! Not me!"
"I just didn’t feel like eating pig right now, that's all."
"Yeah.
After the hunting party chose to keep their escapade a secret from the rest of the girls, Katherine came by to tell them some good news.
"Guys! Hey, guys, hear that?"
The beach went silent.
"That's a helicopter!"
"No way!"
"Wizzo!"
"We're going home!"
Due to the fact that Samnerica, Kelly, and Roberta had kept the fire going while everyone else built the things they needed under the guidance of Katherine, the helicopter had seen the smoke and had come to save them! The girls began jumping up and down. Because they had been diligent, organized, and thoughtful, they were being rescued in just over a month. It hadn't even been that bad; it had almost been like one long camping trip with their best friends. The helicopter pilot was making hand motions to warn the girls to back away, and it wasn't long before he was landing on the beach.
"You kids alright?" he asked, taking off his helmet.
The older girls froze. They took in the dark brown hair, bright green eyes, strong chin, and chiseled arms and began to stare.
"Hot helicopter pilot, pass it down!" whispered the girl to each other.
Katherine stepped forward.
"Y-yeah, we're great."
She tucked a dirty strand of hair behind her ear and straightened her tee shirt self-consciously.
"Good to hear! My search party and I have been looking for you guys since you crashed here. Who's ready to go home with me?" he asked with a dazzlingly white smile.
"Me!"
"I do!"
"Yes!"
"Guh…"
"Well, let me notify the other choppers, and then we can start loading you guys up."
He walked back to the copter and grabbed his radio, not noticing that girls were all watching his backside. While he was talking, the whispers broke out.
"Isn't he cute?"
"I'm gonna marry him some day."
"Did you see his eyes?"
As soon as he walked back towards them, the conversation stopped immediately and all eyes were back on him, hanging on his every word.
"Ok, so I can take five girls with me and then there's four more coming your way. So I'll take you, you, you, you, and you."
Katherine, Ashley, Kelly and Samnerica ran after their handsome savior and settled into the seats. They were going home.

Epilogue

All the girls made it home safely, especially with helicopter pilot Todd leading the way. They were all congratulated on how well they had worked together in keeping track of each other and knowing how to build a safe fire. No one died because girls are smarter than boys.

The End