Ginger Island

Chapter 1 -- The Arrival

It seemed like a good idea. The staff called it "a bonding experience for the children." But in reality, twenty something children onboard a cruise ship with no chaperones but the cruise ship staff is a very, very bad idea.

At six-oh-six pm, just as the cruise ship was passing through the Bermuda Triangle, it happened. The sky was pale pink from the sunset, with wispy clouds all around. It had been a beautiful day.

Suddenly, the sky darkened. The students that were dining outdoors were the first to notice this change. The pink sky had turned dark red, and the wispy clouds had turned grey and thick.

That's when the rain started. First, it was a light drizzle, but not long after, it was like spikes, hard and spiky, that were hitting your skin. Sudden winds twisted the tables and picked them up. One table hit someone, and they were knocked overboard, but the crew was too preoccupied with a new danger that had appeared -- a giant sea monster that had risen over the side of the ship. It waved its tentacles about, hitting people around.

The students had the upper hand, as they were younger, thinner, and more active. They jumped over the side of the ship together, but unfortunately, none of the crew made it.

The students swam for a long time, never turning back to see what had happened to the cruise. Even when they were so tired they couldn't move their arms any more, and would rather have drowned, they kept on swimming.

Finally, at dawn, someone saw the outline of land. "Look!" they cried, "an island!"

The first people to arrive on the island were Kate and Ruth. This was expected, since they were both on the swim team and had been swimming for years. Next were Eddie, Rowan, and Vivian L, and about twenty feet behind them, the rest of the class.

Since they were natural leaders, Alana, Kate, and Josie decided to help everyone. They divided up and sorted everyone into different groups -- the badly injured over here, which included those who had not survived, the minorly injured over here, and the people who were fine over there.

Just to make sure that everyone was accounted for, Josie did a headcount. It looked like everyone was there, but then Josie realized someone wasn't.

"Violet L is missing!" she exclaimed. Everyone turned their heads and looked back at the ocean. Not too far off, a green cape could be seen floating. A few feet next to it, the water was blood-red. An arm popped out of the water, then went down again.

Kate, with their quick instincts, was the first one to dive into the water, closely followed by Ruth. Both of them swam as fast as they could to get to Violet.

The shark was circling Violet, so Kate couldn't get any closer. But then they had an idea. They took the soaked, half-eaten Butterfingers out of their pocket and shoved it into the shark's nose. Their act of bravery worked -- they had remembered how long ago, in the third grade, their teacher had told them how Superstition Sharks --the type of sharks that lived near the Bermuda Triangle -- were allergic to peanut butter.

But there was no time to celebrate this achievement. Kate quickly hefted Violet onto their back and swam back to shore, Ruth helping prop Violet up.

When they arrived back at the shore, Eddie, Sym, and Vivian B helped pull the three students onto the sand. 

Sym was the first to register what had happened -- and what needed to be done about it. "Violet's arm has been bitten off; we need to sew it up to stop the bleeding!" she shouted, "Someone, get me a needle and thread, ASAP!"

Ava was the first one to hand it over. She pulled a needle out of the first layer of the skin of her thumb, where she had absentmindedly (and grossly) stuck it. She pulled a spool of brown thread out of her pocket, and handed these both over to Sym.

"I don't know why you had these," Sym said, threading her needle, "but I'm glad as hell you did!"