Misbegotten

Six

“Okay, everyone here?” Tera asked for the third time. It had been a struggle trying to get a certain someone up this morning and therefore we were late again, which earned me a not-so-subtle glare from Florence.

“Yes, sorry,” I apologised to Tera. She seemed nice and I felt bad she had gotten stuck being our leader. She gave me a toothy smile and moved on.

“Okay today, in groups of three you will complete an orienteering course, to make it a little more interesting it’s a competition between the groups. I was thinking it could be the three older kids versus the parents and little Cleo?” That resulted in a groan from Chelsea. She had been quiet all morning and had said nothing about what had happened last night. She had been acting like her normal self only groaning whenever I spoke to her or when she was forced into a situation with me.

“That sounds fine,” dad answered despite Chelsea’s indignation.

“Great, so each group will get a map and on it are three locations around the island, some are in the more rural areas, others closer to the main part of the resort. Oh and here is a whistle to blow if you get lost or in any trouble. First team back here to me wins. Have fun and good luck.” With that dad had seemingly figured out where to go and started off with Cleo and Florence. Cameron was staring intently at the map while Chelsea picked at her nail beds.

“Where to first?” I asked Cameron.

“I think this way,” he said pointing into a area thick with foliage and trees.

“Great,” Chelsea said sarcastically.

“Come on Chels, if we’re going to do this at least try and be pleasant,” Cameron told her as we trudged off towards the first point.

“Can’t,” she muttered under her breath. Cameron ignored her and dedicated his time to trying to find the first stop. I trailed behind him, Chelsea following slowly behind me as we trekked through the thick foliage getting further and further from our starting point. After about twenty minutes of silent walking Chelsea finally snapped, “Cameron, do you even know where you’re going?”

“Sort of,” he mumbled stopping to look at the map again.

“What do you mean sort of, this is so ridiculous,” she yelled.

“We’re so lost aren’t we?” I asked Cameron as he continued to stare at the map.

“Well, it may help if I could actually read the map,” he replied.

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” Chelsea screeched.

“What do you mean you can’t read it? Why did you take charge then?” I asked. For once I had to agree with Chelsea, this was crazy.

“What it’s not like either of you two can either,” he retorted.

“I can read a stupid map Cameron,” Chelsea snapped back.

“Bullshit,” Cameron called her out.

“Fine, I can’t but still,” she rolled her eyes, before looking at me “Can you?”

“Yeah I can actually,” I said grabbing it from Cameron. Turning it the right way up, I was surprised to find we weren’t actually too far off the first point. “This way,” I told them pointing to the right.

“You sure?” Cameron asked sounding sceptical.

“Very sure,” I confirmed. Within five minutes we’d reached the stupid marker. I picked it off the pole and waved it around. “Oh wow look at that, the evil step-sister can actually do something right for once,” I said sarcastically.