Claire12

Hi everyone

Here is my rainforest story.

One in-school, Mr Dredge took the year 5/6 class on a trip to the Amazon Rainforest.
“We’re almost there.” He said.
“Wow!” Tania and Erin lifted their cameras to eye level and snapped away at the approaching jungle.
“Far-out!” I breathed excitedly.
“I knew the Amazon was big,” Mitchell said, “But not that big!”
“At least we won’t have to do any maths in that jungle.” Tom laughed.
“Why?” asked Becky curiously.
“Because if you add 4 + 4 you get 8! Get it?”
“We’re there!” Mr Dredge shouted over the laughter in the plane.
“Lucky we came in a school plane!” William exclaimed, “Or else we’d get kicked out!”
“Have fun kids!” Mr Newman shouted from the pilot’s seat.
“We will!” the class shouted at the top of their lungs.
“I’m glad I got to come on this in school.” said Erin to Tania.
‘You mean, out school!’ I thought to myself, overhearing.
“I’m going to get a tree python and take it home to scare mum!” Max told William.
Just before the plane left, Mr Carroll and Ms Pearson stepped out of it; both dressed in safari outfits, much different to the kid’s shorts and t-shirts.
For the next 5 minutes the only sound which could be heard was the sound of cameras clicking and snapping away.
“ALL RIGHT YEAR 5/6!” the three grown ups shouted at the same time.
The chatter and clicks slowed down a little.
“Settle down now plea…”
“When and what are we going to eat?” demanded Tom.
And that was all it took to start up the chatter again.
“Wild boar!” shouted Max.
“Fried fish!!” yelled Mitchell.
“Roast snake!” roared William.
“Grilled bear!” bellowed Tom.
“Diced Tiger!” called Lori.
“Lion patties!” screamed Erin.
“Crocodile schnitzel!” howled Becky.
“Monkey stew!” cried Tania.
“Rice.” I said simply.
All eyes turned to me.
“That’s what I live off of at home and I’m still alive.” I again said, again simply.
“I think we’ll go with Claire’s idea.” Mr Dredge, Mr Carroll, and Miss Pearson said decided quickly.
Then all the class started taking pictures of Mr Dredge making rice in the cooking hut.
“It tastes weird!” complained Becky.
“Do I have to eat it?” said Lori.
“It’s gross!” yelled Max.
And so the complaints went on and on while I ducked to my back pack and pulled out some thing, and put it in my rice. It was…salt?

“Mine tastes fine.” I said to the others.
The class all turned to stare at me.
“What are you talking about?” asked Lori. “It’s horrible!”
“It is obviously DISCUSTING!!” yelled Max.
“NO IT ISN’T!!!” I shouted. “See, taste some.” I said to Lori, winking at her.
“It’s actually not bad!” exclaimed Lori.
While all this was happening, the three grown ups just sat in a corner of the hut, eating their rice and trying not to think about the plain, flavourless taste.
“I’m tired!” yawned Mitchell and Tom at the same time.
“So am I!”
“Same!”
“I am too!”
So we all went to the two separate sleeping huts, one for the boys and one for the girls.
“Bags top bunk!” I shouted as the girls entered the hut.
“What does ‘Bags’ mean?” asked Lori.
“Do you know what ‘Dibs’ means?”
“Yes”
“Well, ‘Bags’ is the same as ‘Dibs’.” I explained.
“In that case,” mumbled Tania…
“Bags top bunk!” yelled Tania.
“Di…Bags bottom bunk!” cried Erin.
“Then I’ll ‘bags’ a bottom bunk.” Sighed Lori, as she dumped her bags on the bed underneath mine.
“That leaves Becky and me for the last bunk,” said Miss Pearson, “I’ll have the bottom if you don’t mind Becky.”
“Ok” Becky answered.
We could hear the boys arguing in the other hut, “HEY I WANTED TO SLEEP THERE!!!!”
“TOO BAD FOR YOU!!”
“OUCH”
“WATCH OUT!”
“OOF!!”
“GET OFF MY BED!”
“NO, IT’S MY BED!!”
“NOW BOYS LETS NOT GET CARRIED AWA…HEY, WHO DID THAT?!”
We all buried their heads in their pillows and almost wished we were back home. All except me, who didn’t have a very quiet household, so this was quite peaceful.
“Oh well,” shouted Miss Pearson above the boy’s noise, “We might as well have a night time swim in the river, it’s beautiful and clear! The boys are making so much noise they probably won’t notice that we’ll be having fun while they argue over beds!”
“Sounds good to us!” we chorused.
“Where is this river?” asked Erin, shivering.
“It’s just behind these vines,” Assured Miss Pearson, “I saw it as we were flying in.”
So as we carefully got into the water which, much to our surprise was lovely and warm!
“Miss Pearson this isn’t a river, it’s a hot spring,” exclaimed Lori, pointing to the steam, then to the water, “and wow, it sure feels good!”
But then, just as we thought things could never go bad again…
“Oi!!” bellowed Max, as he pushed through the vines, “I FOUND THEM!!!”
As Max turned to tell the other boys that he’d found them, we quickly swam over to an ENOURMUS leaf and duck dived underneath, coming up for air again beneath it.
“They were here a second ago!” Max was saying.
We all hoped desperately that they wouldn’t look into the water, or they would see our legs from under the leaf.
“You were LYING!” shouted Mitchell as they turned and walked away, “But we might as well have a swim until they get back.”

Back in the boys hut they were unpacking their bags while they looking for swimmers.
“WOW,” cried William as some thing gleamed from inside Tom’s suitcase, “IS THAT WHAT I THINK IT IS???!!!!”
“Yep,” said Tom proudly, bringing out a shining rifle, “I got it at Christmas! I want to take mum back a purse made out of snake skins! Just don’t let the grown- ups see or hear about it, please.”
The boys all completely forgot about a swim as they gathered around Tom and his gun.
“Hey, weren’t we getting our bathers?” reminded Mitchell.
There was a scramble to get back to suitcases as they yanked their bathers out, and ran for the hot spring (not knowing it was a hot spring) yelling like that’s all they could do.

We thought it was time to give they boys a scare, so while they went to get their bathers, we dived down to the bottom of the hot spring and scooped up armfuls of the black mud. When we got to the bank, we clambered up and hid behind a big bunch of mangrove trees, covering ourselves in mud. Afterwards there was a lot of giggling at each other, because we all looked like aliens!

They boys finally reached the water and jumped in, not feeling it first.
“OUCH, IT’S TOO HOT,” screeched Tom, because he had gone first, “DON…”
But it was too late, and the water was full of yelling boys.
That wasn’t all because now they were yelling even louder, for out of some mangroves were strange black, stumbling, creatures.
“Mmm mulch shhllchh” they moaned.
“Cummmm ere ooooo.” They groaned.
“Mahahahahahaha” they droned.
“AAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” we even had Mr Carroll & Mr Dredge yelling.
“AAAAHHHHHHH!!! HHEEELLPP!! SSSAAAVVVEE MMMEEEEEEE!”
Suddenly they scary creatures (us) ran straight into the water towards the boys.
“Mahahahaahhah HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!” spluttered Tania awkwardly.
“Uh oh, the mud’s coming off!” groaned Erin.
“WHA…YOU LITTLE…OUCH!!”
“IS IT JUST ME OR ARE THERE PIRANHAS IN HERE???!!!” yelled Mitchell.
“NO! They’re CROCS!” shouted William
“Look!” cried Ms Pearson, “There ARE piranhas here!

And sure enough, there they were, swimming around at the bottom of the hot spring staring at us, waiting for us to make our next move.
“Well at least we’ll have plenty of fish to eat!” giggled Erin, a little hysterically.
“More like THEY”LL have plenty of humans to eat” I said, my voice was barely a whisper, and I was never taking my eyes off the terrifying fish.
“Well anyway,” said Tania casually, “Why aren’t they tearing the flesh off our bones right now?
“Maybe they’re trained?” suggested Becky hopefully.
“It’s either that or…” Ms Pearson’s voice trailed off.
“Or what?” Becky asked.
“Or they are the newly discovered species of piranha, a species which can nip people, but can’t kill or injure! They are called Suringi (sur-in-geye), named after a person called Surin because she discovered them.” It sounded like we were having a face-to-face IDL about fish!!
“So, they CAN’T kill us?” Erin asked timidly.
“No, I don’t think so.”, Mr Carroll answered.
“Good. Is it safe to breath now?” Max was speaking.
“No, I don’t think so.”, Mr Dredge replied.
“WHAT??? WHY???” Max yelped.
“Look.” Ms Pearson pointed VERY slowly towards the bank opposite to our campsite.
“Oh… no.”, Lori muttered, speaking what all of us were thinking.
“That just about sums it up!!” I said sarcastically cheerful. “We think we’re about to be eaten by piranhas, but then it turns out we will get eaten, except by a crocodile!!”
For there, on that bank, was an algae coloured crocodile, staring at us with unblinking yellow eyes.

I’m not sure who it was, but there was a faint splash, and I was sure someone had fainted. “Who?” I muttered out of the corner of my mouth.
“No-one.” A murmured voice replied. “Why do you as…”, “Oh… my…g…” It was William who had been replying. I then knew why he had gasped, because just a slight turn of my head showed me that there was a stranger in a bright red, fluoro green, and sunny yellow jacket /vest, standing knee deep in the hotspring, who was murmuring something non-stop, looking into (or at least at) the crocs eyes.

Just 5 minutes later and we were saved, and demanding an explanation from the grown-ups about WHY we had fully trained guards. “Well, the Amazon is interesting & beautiful, but also one of the most dangerous places in the world. That’s why we brought these very kind, generous people, all of whom volunteered for the job of guarding a group of kids. They got off of our plane when we had first arrived and all of you were taking photos.” Ms Pearson, Mr Carroll, and Mr Dredge explained.
“And some adults who aren’t very talkative when it comes to telling a bunch of intelligent, athletic, terrified, year 5/6’s if they are going to die or not!” a still slightly hysterical Erin accused.
“We thought it might take away some of the excitement if we told you. It was also amusing to see how you acted while thinking the end was a few minutes away.” Mr Carroll said.
“Well, I think it’d be very fair if you told us how you made those piranhas and the croc.” Tom announced.
“We didn’t make them; they were real life wild Amazon animals!” Mr Dredge murmured faintly. Thump. I was sure of it this time; someone really had fainted.

A Week Later…

A week later and we had already seen amazing Amazon creatures like poisonous spiders, red howler monkeys, a jaguar (from a long distance), a borugo, some sloths, an ocelot, orangutans, poisonous frogs, bats, a Tapir, a cassowary and lots more!! Tom had haggled a snakeskin wallet off of a guard called Mitsy for his mum. I had made friends with the crocodile guard, and she had told me her secret of how she does it; she has no idea!!!! On the plane back to Australia, we told Mr Newman all about our time, and were quiet for a long time while we completed our journals and made up long poems and jokes about the amazing Amazon (I saw Tom writing down a story for his mum about how he had bravely wrestled a tiger snake and killed it with a shot in the head with his rifle to make a wallet for her!).

We had arrived at Katherine, ready to take a bus to Alice Springs where our parents were waiting for us. “Hi!!” was all we could say, before blasting off into stories about the Amazon (Mr Dredge, Mr Carroll and Ms Pearson had made us promise not to tell anyone about how they hadn’t told us about our guards!).
THE END

Claire