One

“Military school? You can’t be serious,” my heart beat frantically, trying to figure out an alternative meaning to those words.

“It’s called Jack Edwards Outdoors Military Camp. So it’s more of an outdoors camp.”

“Camp? I’m not ten years old. I don’t go to camp.” I was aching to bury myself back into my book but I knew if I got lost at this very moment I’d end up at military school! Or as my parents call it ‘camp!’

“What did I do wrong? Scratch that, I haven’t done anything wrong, I never get told off at school, my room’s tidy most of the time and I do what you tell me to do, most of the time. So why the hell am I being shipped off to military school during my SUMMER HOLIDAYS?”

“What else have you got to be doing?” My brother joined the debate from the sofa, crunching on a crisp noisily. My brother’s called James, he’s the tallest person I’ve ever met with blonde hair so spiky it could impale a small mammal and blue eyes filled with mystery and knowledge. Some people mistake us for twins but I don’t see how that’s even possible.

I have brown hair with red highlights (I’m such a rebel, not) and dodgy coloured eyes. Some days they appear to be blue, then others they look green and then on special days they turn a morbid grey. My name’s Charli, spelt like that. I hate it when people spell my name with an e or call me Charlotte thinking I’ve just shortened my name. It’s my name so get it right for once people!

I have a warped sense of fashion, the only colour that doesn’t cross me at any point, not in my wardrobe or anything else for that matter is pink. I hate the colour pink, it’s too bright and colourful and it reminds me of pigs in a dirty pen stinking of god knows what, so yes, pink is out.

“What else?” My voice rose to a high pitched squeal. I never made a point of complaining about big decisions in the family but I was putting a stop to this. I glanced at the clock, damn; I only had five minutes to sprint to the bus stop.

“I have a HELL OF A LOT MORE TO BE DOING!” With that I grabbed my backpack, shrugged my blazer onto my back and picked up my pink Nokia mobile.

“I don’t care what you have to be doing. The car’s coming to pick you up tonight and you are going to go.” My dad sounded certain on that point, his voice left no room for arguments. Well, damn it I was going to argue.

“You’d have to cart me off to military school in a straightjacket. I’d never go there willingly.”

“We’ll do whatever it takes. We’ve paid a lot of money for this, you will thank us one day for it.”

“I doubt that.” And to think, I’d been in a good mood when I’d woken up, oh well.

“Hold on, did you say tonight? Thanks for the warning.”

“We knew you wouldn’t be very happy.”

“Damn straight.” I wanted desperately to say more but I really had to go. I left with the words,

“There’s no way I’m going to military school. You can’t make me.”

How wrong I’d been.

It turned out I caught the bus just in time. My legs had cramped completely by the time I charged on and plonked down on the seat opposite one of my mates, Tara. Her mousy brown hair was curled up to her chin and her mild blue eyes shone with an eerie glow. She was up to something.

“Guess what I did last night?” She pounced on me as soon as my butt was down on the cushion.

“Not even a hi.” I muttered, turning to face her after removing my bag from my shoulder, “I’m taking a guess it was something good?”

“Duh.” She rolled her eyes at me dramatically, her sharpened fingernails tapping away madly on her phone. I managed an eye roll in return.

“What?”

“You don’t really want to know.” She pouted, feigning hurt. I rolled my eyes again, except this time I almost achieved it to her standard.

“If I didn’t want to know why would I be asking?” The bus creaked noisily beneath me and it started rolling down the road, making irritating chug chug noises along the way. Today was going to be one of those days.

“Right. You know it’s going to be the last week of school next week? I already have a summer romance on the way.”

“That’s good for some of us.” I said bitterly. She’d reminded me of what my summer holidays would be holding if my parents got the way they wanted.

“His name’s Cal. Short for Callum. I’m going to see him again next week at street dancing.” Her eyes were wide and lovesick. This was going to be a soppy relationship; she continued to tap away on her phone for a couple of minutes.

“I already have a cute little nickname for him. Cal bear.” Now that wasn’t the sort of thing I’d want a girl calling me in public.

“Like I said. At least you’re going to here for summer.”

“And you aren’t?” She narrowed her eyes at me. Just as I opened my mouth to explain about the whole military school situation the bus skidded to a halt, sending me flying into the back of the seat in front of me. I rubbed my nose and swore at the seat, hoping to send it straight to hell for being anywhere near my nose.

Another one of my friends, Victoria- who had gorgeous, long brown hair and vivid green eyes- plopped down beside Tara and widened her eyes as she took in me, who was rubbing my nose and Tara, who was trying her hardest not to giggle loudly at my discomfort.

“Did the chair get in the way of your face again?” Victoria guessed.

“Sadly yes.” I managed to bite my tongue by saying those two words and I started swearing all over again. This time I had Tara and Victoria chuckling like complete imbeciles.

“How can you enjoy seeing me in pain?” I faked hurt which made them laugh even harder. The bus doors creaked shut and we were off again.

Knowing my luck I’d fall into the middle of the isle and make a complete and utter idiot of myself.

“I’m being dumped in military school.” I didn’t mean to say it so outright, it just happened. Tara stared at me like I’d just admitted to having a sex change and Victoria laughed even harder (how that was possible I don’t know.)

“Seriously? Aren’t parents meant to send their kids to military schools if they don’t behave? You’re the best behaved person I’ve ever met.” I thought back, my parents hadn’t actually given me a reason for their decision.

Maybe they were finally suffering from old age.

“I don’t know why. They didn’t give me a reason.”

“Hold on.” Victoria was balancing on the edge of her seat now, her legs were folded under her and her expression was one of disbelief.

“You’re telling me that Maria and Luke are sending you to military school?”

“My mum called it ‘outdoors camp’ but I know when they’re trying to cover something up.”

“Tough break. Oh God, what if my parents find out? I might be dumped there along with you!” Not the kind of support I had been looking for.

“Thanks.” I said sarcastically.

“No.” Victoria smiled sympathetically at me; Tara had been lost to us as her mobile started to ring. I knew who it was when her face lit up like a birthday cake with all the candles. Cal she mouthed anyway though.

“Nice to know I mean so much to you. What the hell am I going to do?” I directed the first part at Tara and the second at Victoria, who was still listening to me intently. We’d pulled into Benington now and three teenager girls climbed on, laughing at some joke I probably wouldn’t find funny.

It was like a world separated me from the giggling teenagers of today’s society.

“There’s not much you can do.”

“What would you do if you were in my situation?” I quizzed her, Victoria was normally good at giving advice, it was her personality. She was always trying to help everyone but herself. She really needed to work on that.

“If it was me being shipped of to military school? I’d probably run away. Of course you wouldn’t do it though, where would you go?”

“Not to military school.” I said, jumping on her suggestions with eagerness. She widened her eyes, mocking me.

“Come on. I’ve known you three years. You’re scared of getting a detention. If you had the police searching for you because you disappeared you’d probably drop into the police station and hand yourself in.”

Note to self, do something reckless to prove that I wasn’t boring.

“Fine, give me something else to work with, because there’s no way I’m being dumped in military school for six whole weeks!”

“I can’t really help you. I’m off to Greece tomorrow.”

“Exactly. You have a whole day to give me suggestions.”

“Charli...listen. It’s Friday. We have one more week of school and I miss it, I can’t do anything about your military school situation. Do you know how much those freaking places cost?”

“Obviously not enough.” I muttered,

“Is your brother going?” Tara had finished on the phone and she joined in with the conversation again easily.

“No. He was encouraging them. I’m going to get him back.” I was already planning, would my deodorant sprayed over and over again in his bedroom do it? Should I be a little meaner?

“I feel sorry for James then. What have you got in store for him?” My brain raced at 50mph, happy to have a distraction from the military school problem.

“Hold on though. Isn’t military school like a boarding school? And how come you miss the last week of school?”

“Maybe I should have asked instead of storming out.”

“That was your reaction? I would have smacked my mum and whacked my dad in the stomach.” Tara said, laughing at the expression on my face.

“No one can throw me away like a forgotten tissue.” She wrinkled her nose at the very idea.

“They’re not throwing me away.” I said, defending my family even though I wasn’t sure why. They were sending me off to military school, I was going to waste my whole summer holidays at this place!

“What was the place called?” Victoria asked. The bus drove over a pothole as we pulled into the school gates and we all bounced in our seats like jack in the boxes.

“Jack Edward Outdoor Military Camp. I mean, how lame does that sound?” Tara nodded her agreement but Victoria was staring at the chair seat, obviously uncomfortable. She obviously knew the name.

“What is it Victoria? Do you know the place? God is it really that bad?”

“My cousin got sent there last year. Tony, you know the one who never socialised? He spent most of his life reading and writing?”

“Hey, that reminds me of someone.” Tara smiled at me in a cruel way. I stayed back at her, meeting that gaze evenly.

“Well...umm....the camp focuses on them becoming more social able.”

“What’s that meant to mean?”

“It means...” Victoria didn’t finish her sentence as everyone around us rose in their seats as the bus pulled to a stop. We all piled out, me, Tara and Victoria at the front of the line.

“What?” I asked as they started walking the other way. This is where we normally split up, I went to the maths block to hang out with some of my other friends and they went into the library to hang out and chat with yet more of our friends.

“You’ll find out soon enough.” Victoria promised, turning round, shoving headphones in her ears and walking away swiftly with a curious Tara on her heels. They spoke in whispers and I watched them go into the main building extremely suspicious of Victoria’s behaviour.

Why hadn’t she finished her sentence? What was so bad about Jack Edwards?

I shrugged of my uneasy feeling and started towards the smoke coloured maths block. Boston High School wasn’t that bad, and neither was the town of Boston either. There was a little too much traffic in both places for my liking but there was nothing I could do about that.

Boston High School was run by Mrs Brookway; the headmistress and she had a major Scottish accent which really suited her and eye-catching red hair which believe it or not was completely 100% natural.

The school itself was basically several buildings that were made of chestnut coloured bricks with white window frames and remarkably clean glass in them all. Inside they were basically pretty much the same colour, most of the classrooms except for the maths one’s were yellow or cream with old, threadbare carpets. The maths one’s had recently been changed to green. One of the places I never visited in our school any more was the canteen, because it had been painted pink.

Absolutely yuck!

“Hey Charli.” Another one of my friends greeted me warmly. Her long black hair was silky and straight down her back and her brown eyes shone with an eagerness to read and absorb knowledge, kind of like mine did when I caught a reflection of myself in the mirror. Her tanned skin made her look ageless.

“Hey Lilia.” Her smile faded as soon as she saw my face. Lilia was slightly smaller than me, so I looked down slightly when I spoke to her.

“I’ll meet you upstairs ok?” She nodded and disappeared into the classrooms at the bottom of the maths block. My feet slowly pulled me up the stairs step by step. People were coming up behind me but I ignored them, letting them pass if they thought I was going to slow to suit them.

I skipped going to my form room, I needed to check this Jack Edwards place on the internet and it couldn’t wait. As I opened the door my eyes connected to the two people inside, one was Debbie, yet another one of my friends. Debbie had shoulder length blonde hair, which was constantly in a pony tail and funky purple glasses. Sometimes I stole them and went around pretending they were mine because I love them so much. Under her glasses, Debbie had bluey/grey eyes, kind of like mine.

Her brother was the other person in the room. Justin freaked me out slightly, he never spoke and he rarely smiled, maybe he was just shy. He had cropped hair which was no doubt brown and a strongly chiselled face.

I leaned down to see what Debbie was looking at on the computer. Surprise, surprise it was something from her latest obsession. It was a quiz on whether or not you’d be a good or bad ninja. No trouble as to what I’d be, I had trouble squishing a spider when it crawled onto my hand. In less than ten seconds of my arrival, Justin signed out and left the room, not even saying goodbye to his sister.

I pulled up the chair he’d been sitting on, logged onto the computer that had refreshed itself already from his use and waited for it to load.

“Your brother scares me.”

“He’s just being Justin.” Debbie said dismissively, she turned to look at me, “What colour ninja suit would you wear? Red, black or white?”

“White, so if someone asked me why I was covered in blood I’d stab them and say ‘that’s why.’” I meant it as a joke but Debbie took me seriously.

“I’d have red because it’s cool.”

“Cool.” We both turned back to our computers. Hallelujah, the bloody thing had finally decided to load!

My fingers shook slightly as I opened the internet link, found the Google page saved in my favourites and typed in Jack Edwards. The door opened at some point during the loading of the page and Lilia pulled up another seat from somewhere, her eager voice joined Debbie’s in answering the ninja questions.

Now was my chance to get the answers I needed. Why out of all things had my parents suddenly decided that I needed to go to military school? And why hadn’t Victoria finished explaining? There was something fishy going on and I was going to get to the bottom of it.

All sorts of links came up, several of them mildly disturbing and after a couple of minutes of filtering through bogus websites I added the words ‘Outdoor Military Camp’ into the search bar.

The results lessoned dramatically and one link caught my attention. It was the second down, and it had the sub links you’d expect from something like a school, stuff like ‘canteen menus’, ‘admission fee’s’ and ‘timetables for students.’

I let out a deep breath I hadn’t realised I’d been holding and clicked on the link, watching a green background appear with army camouflage colours flashing across the screen, Welcome to the Jack Edwards Outdoors Military Camp, for all your survival needs, whether they be parents or children.

A navigation bar with over fifteen links appeared down the side of the page and pictures of kids trailing through the mud, competing in army courses and generally having a good time took up every available space. It didn’t look that bad, until I spotted the very last link.

‘Rules and guidelines.’ Why would a camp have rules? Especially rules published on the internet? Was it a strict place? Cautiously I opened the page and scanned the words that appeared on the screen. My heat sank.

The very first rule made up my mind. I wasn’t stepping foot in this place. I read the rules out loud in my head so their meaning could sink in.

Here at Jack Edwards we have only three rules for you students to follow.

You must try all physical activities unless you have a phobia of one, and even then it must be an extreme case. Our aim is to teach children what danger and fun mean and their differences.

All the students must be polite to each other all the time. We have no problems with physical contact, up to a point. Girlfriends and boyfriends can kiss and hold hands in public but NO FURTHER!

No student is allowed to have books, notebooks for writing, mp3 players, mobiles or any other anti-social equipment. This stuff will be taken on arrival and given back on the day of departure.

That explained Victoria’s sudden quiet character. Everyone knew my life revolved around the books I read, the stories I wrote and my friends. How was I going to survive without all three of those? My parents were so not getting me to that camp, no bloody way in hell.

“What you looking at?” My Romanian friend snuck up behind me, slapping me hard on the shoulder. I spun round like a rabbit caught in a car’s headlights. Alizé, my clever and very opinionated friend had wild brown hair and playful eyes that were several different colours, those eyes were occupied at the moment, reading the rules on the screen. Debbie and Lilia were still doing the ‘ninja’ quiz.

“Whoa. Something tells me you wouldn’t get on in a place like this.” She’d obviously read the last rule. That got Debbie’s and Lilia’s attention.

“Go somewhere like where?” Debbie asked, dragging her chair along until it was beside mine. Lilia got up and leaned against Debbie’s chair, soon all eyes were on my screen again.

The silence lasted for a whole minute before someone spoke to break it.

“Why are you looking at camps Charli? I didn’t think you were the sort of person who went to camp. Especially not one with rules like that.” Alizé gestured at the third rule.

I sighed, I’d better tell them before Victoria and Tara passed it on through the whole student body and they heard a dodgy version mostly made up of rumours.

“My parents are dumping me at that...” I gestured to the screen, “Boarding school for six weeks. All the summer holidays.”

“But we were going to write through the holidays. Creative club remember?” Alizé frowned and Lilia joined in with the conversation. Her voice was low and husky, like she’d swallowed a pinecone (ouch).

“Can’t you just say you don’t want to go?” In response I twirled back round and clicked on another link. Admission fees. The first words that caught my eye were; No refunds will be given for failed participation in our programmes, however we can send out cars to pick up some ‘more troubled’ members.

“What’s ‘more troubled members’ meant to mean? It isn’t a prison is it?” Lilia said; yet again in reply I scrolled down the page and was met with another paragraph of writing.

One of the things our programmes aim to do is help families dealing with stroppy or otherwise withdrawn teens.

Three pairs of eyes came over to me and I glared back at them angrily.

“What? I’m not a withdrawn, stroppy teen!” Even as I said it my voice became more of a whine, I wanted someone to understand just how bad this whole camp thing would be. Debbie laughed slightly under her breath but I shut her up with an icy look. I so wasn’t in the mood to be laughed at.

“Maybe it won’t be that bad. You like doing physical activities.” Alizé tried to make me feel better about the whole situation. Lilia joined in, nodding in encouragement,

“You keep going on about how much you loved PGL. You get to do the whole thing again.”

“Yeah, but I also loved sharing a room with my friends at PGL and curling up with a book at the end of the day and reading for two or three hours. How can I go somewhere that they won’t let me do that? I’ll go crazy.”

“It’ll be a new experience. You won’t go crazy.” Alizé tried to cheer me up but it didn’t help. My eyes flashed back to the screen, I might as well finish reading the paragraph and get all the bad news out of the way.

We accept anonymous applications from parents who would like to enter their teens in the programmes. On the prearranged date we will send someone to bring your teen to us and then you can admire the change when they return.

“They so can’t do that can they? It’s basically kidnapping.”

“Not really. If they have your parent’s permission it wouldn’t be seen as kidnapping.”

“Yeah, but what if I don’t want to go?” Lilia pointed to the screen, at the section I’d just read.

“It doesn’t say anything there about forcing you to go. Stop jumping to conclusions. And another thing...” For the second time that day someone shut up halfway through a sentence.

“What?” I asked annoyed. I was scanning the same paragraph over and over again. My parents had signed up to this thing and now I had no way out, they must have paid a fortune for this. Great.

“Nothing. We need to go to form right now. We’re five minutes late.” Everyone started packing up and Debbie logged of the computer.

“So what do I do?” I asked from my still logged on computer. Lilia and Alizé had left but Debbie was in the doorway waiting for me to join her. Her answer didn’t exactly inspire me with confidence.

“You bend over and take the punishment girl. You can’t fight the whole world.”

“But I can try.”

I knew for certain two things. One, I was about to get my hands dirty and two, I would never willingly end up at Jack Edwards Outdoor Military Camp. Not for anything in the world.

So there.