The soft sound of a bird’s chirps filled the silence of the cabin. All my friends were asleep. Or dead, I wasn’t quite sure. They have not stirred in hours. My first ever school field trip and I was blowing it. I thought to myself. This was my first field trip in school. In the middle of the woods. You know, they want us to experience more than just city life. Without my parents or sister. My sister was really little, Rose is her name. She’s only two. My name is Camille. Camille Ever Stone is my full name. I’m twelve. The big one-two. 

This was my first ever school field trip and we actually stayed overnight somewhere. I was never good at sleeping over anywhere, that’s why I never really had sleepovers. But I like to pretend I can do it, always telling my parents that I can. It never happened though, although I wished I could. I sighed, too lazy to get up and check the time. But I pushed the front half of my body up and looked over at the digital clock on the nightstand. 11:07 p.m.. I lay back down and tried to sleep again when I suddenly heard a crash outside. I jumped in bed and shot my eyes open. Another crash happened. My heart was starting to beat fast at this point. I tried to slow my breath as I walked up to the window. 

There was something out there. I saw a dark shadow move around the campfire. What is that? I wondered to myself. Am I the only one that sees or hears it? Am I going crazy? I wondered. I was about to head back to bed when I heard it again, followed by a low growl. I went back to the window to see a bear standing underneath the only lamp at the time. I cupped my mouth to prevent myself from screaming. What should I do? I wondered. Should I wake up my friends? Would that even help? I stood there for a while, but the bear never left. I’ll just wake up my friends, it couldn’t hurt. I woke up to the closet bunk, which had Ruby lying in it. I shook her still body and pulled her red hair. 

“Ruby!” I whispered. “Ruby!”

Nothing happened.

“Ruby!” I said louder.

She finally gradually opened her eyes. 

“Huh?” She asked. 

“There’s a bear!” I told her.

“That’s nice.” She responded as she fell back asleep. 

“No, I don’t think you get it, there’s a bear!” I almost shouted.

“She finally sat up and looked at me with her brown eyes. 

“You sure?” She asked. “This better not be a joke. If it is, you disturbed my sleep and I will never forgive you.” 

“I’m sure, now come on!” I said while pulling her out of bed.

I basically dragged her to the window as we looked outside.

“Where is it?” She asked.

“It was right there! I saw it with my two eyes!” I said.

She sighed and said, “Look, let’s go back to bed and when we go back to the city, I’ll go get glasses with you.” 

“My eyes are fine! I have perfect vision. I saw it! I swear!” I pleaded to her.

Suddenly there was another crash and the bear appeared back under the lamp. She gasped.

“I told you!” I said.

“But why is it here?” She asked.

“We probably left some food out there. Even though our teachers told us not to.” I responded.

“What do we do?” She questioned.

Then the rest of our friends started to wake up.

“Guys! Come look at this!” Ruby said to them.

“They both basically rolled out of bed and dragged themselves over.

“What?” Abby and Lucky said in unison.

“It’s a bear! I said.

They looked outside and then they gasped too. 

“Everyone be quiet!” Ruby said.

Lucky pulled on her mid-back-length blonde hair and her blue eyes widened. Abby breathed heavily, blowing strands of her shoulder-length midnight hair in and out of her face. Her deep brown eyes also widened. 

“Let’s just huddle together in one bed,” Ruby said. 

She had natural leadership skills. Which I was glad for, the rest of us were more followers. We all sat down on Lucky’s bed (which was furthest from the door) and stayed close to each other. 

“I’ll go check if it’s still there,” Abby said. 

She walked back over to the window and looked out. 

“It looks like it’s gone.” She said, 

She walked back over and sat back down. We then heard a loud scrape against the door. We knew it wasn’t a good idea to scream, but we couldn’t help it. All the other cabins probably heard us. Why did we make noise? That’s probably what lured it here! We all ran around in panic as a hole was punctured through the door by the bear. 

“Everyone into the bathroom!” Ruby yelled.

We all ran in and slammed the door. 

“Everyone hush!” Lucky said.

We all quieted down and waited while the bear was tearing down the cabin. 

“Others probably have already heard us. They’ll come to save us, don’t worry.” Abby said.

“Nobody says a word,” I warned them. 

We all held our breaths as the bear rummaged through our stuff. Then it got to the bathroom and pushed its claws through the door, scraping my arm with its long claws. We all screamed as I saw blood streaming from the cut. Why did I have to be the one closest to the door? My arm throbbed with pain and I could feel the blood drip down to the floor. I felt dizzy and all the sounds around me faded. I wobbled and fell over, blacking out. The last I remember was my friends calling my name as they tried to pick me up.