Chapter One

I looked down out the window, suddenly wishing I hadn’t. Somehow my best friends had talked me into this, now sitting here waiting until I was to high to even see trees anymore I couldn’t believe how stupid I was to agree to this. After what seemed like an hour the pilot told me to get ready, before we took off he showed me the S.P.L.A.T (Squat, Pray, Leap, Ahh, Touchdown,) for sky diving. I grabbed my parachute and closed my eyes, still not believing what I was about to do.

The next thing I know I’m falling about 1,000 mph down to the ground, now I understand why the S.P.L.A.T was so funny to the pilot when he showed me. Scared to death, I reached for the parachute string and pulled, suddenly I slowed down to what felt like the speed of a turtle trying to run away from an angry dog. I finally started to calm down out of my panic attack-like state, it was then I realized I had pulled the parachute out to early, and the wind was picking up.

Like a child trying to ride a bike for the first time, I had no control over where the wind was taking me, which of course was straight into a forest. The wind then changed directions and blew me away from the trees toward a cabin and lake. As if the wind couldn’t change it’s mind about which way to go it changed directions again, heading straight to the forest. All the screaming I was doing started hurting my throat, and I had to stop to breathe. The wind pushed me straight into a tree and a branch caught the parachute.

After hours of crying for help I was ready to give up, then I heard a snap and I found myself heading straight to the ground. I yelled at myself-and the tree- for causing all of this to happen. Why is it that every time I’m with my friends I get into crazy trouble like this? It’s now dark outside and I’m lost in a forest...great. I sighed to myself and grabbed some twigs, leaves, and about 15 hand-fulls of grass to make a “bed.” It was the most uncomfortable thing I’ve ever laid on, and the next morning I found I could barely move without crying out in pain.

Later that day I found some recognizable berries and an apple tree, so at least I wasn’t completely starved. After I explored around a little more i found my way to the lake I had seen the day before, gleaming when I got a drink of water. I turned around to the huge cabin, you could tell that in its day it had been a ‘first class’ lake house get away. After looking around, seeing no cars, no people, and no random personal property laying around I decided it would be okay if I searched the ran-down lake house.

In the lake house, I found nothing I could think of that would have any purpose for me. The only half helpful thing was a straw mat and fur pillow on the floor by a very old, dirty, and dangerous looking wood stove. In another room was some sticks with a kind of sharpened end, an old net that was torn, and a small wood table and chair. Was this supposed to be a dining room or kitchen? If it was then the people that owned it really needed to get a clue about how to live.

The last room was a tiny room, filled with old dusty furs that looked 100’s of years old. What is with these people? Do they not know there’s such thing as a store where they buy food, not hunt it? It was almost dark now and I didn’t know what else to do so I laid down by the wood stove and eventually drifted off to sleep listening to the rhythm of the crickets.

I woke up the next morning, greeted by a squirrel running around the room. It had knocked down a bunch of stuff and I really didn’t feel like cleaning-especially in a house that wasn’t mine. I sighed and wondered outside, I was starving and there was nothing to eat. I sat down in the sand that surrounded the lake and put my feet in the water. It relaxed me a little but not enough to knock the thoughts of food out of my mind. About an hour later I still didn’t know what to do, so I started walking down the dirt road towards what I hoped would be a town.

It felt like I had just come back from a 30 mile race by the time I got back, the only thing I’d found earlier was trees, trees, and more trees. I let out a sigh of relief when I saw the lake house come back into view, glad I could at least rest and warm up inside. When I made it to the porch I thought I heard someone say something, then I realized I was just imagining things since I missed my friends and family so much. I opened the door and saw a boy-about my age- sitting on an old chair in the room with the wood stove.