HALF AN HOUR later it had started raining again and we were lost.

‘I said we should have turned right!’ protested Emma.

‘We did!’ I replied, getting annoyed.

We’d turned right and left and right again and it was still no use. No matter what we did we just found ourselves deeper and deeper into the spinney. The branches were sopping wet and huge droplets of rainwater were thudding on top of my head.

‘Where did we put the last sticker again?’ Emma asked.

‘I can’t remember,’ I told her. ‘It was back there somewhere.’ I gestured to the left with my head.

‘What are we going to do?’ she asked.

I thought for a minute. The map that I’d seen hadn’t been that big. Surely if we just kept going in a straight line we’d come out somewhere. But that was part of the problem. The trees and bushes were so dense that we couldn’t be sure we were actually moving straight ahead.

‘Let’s go back the way we’ve just come,’ I said.

‘This is like one of those silly movies,’ replied Emma.

‘What movies?’ I asked.

‘Silly ones – I just told you. Knowing our luck, there’s probably some monster lurking in the trees waiting to eat us for dinner,’ she moaned.

‘Don’t be so daft,’ I told her.

Suddenly there was a loud cracking sound.

‘What was that?’ asked Emma with a start.

I spun round to see where the noise had come from, but I couldn’t see anything.

‘What is it?’ Emma asked again.

‘Nothing,’ I replied. ‘Come on . . . let’s go this way.’

I led her to the left, away from the noise. I was sure it was nothing but I was still a bit spooked out, mostly because of what Emma had said about silly movies. But they were just films. There was no way there could be anything out there. That was just stupid.

CRASH!!!!!!!!!

‘Oh, my God!’ shrieked Emma. ‘There’s something out there!’

This time I was properly scared. Whatever had made the second noise was really close by. I lifted my paint gun and held it in front of myself.

‘Let’s just go anywhere,’ suggested Emma.

‘Yeah,’ I agreed.

We pushed through some branches and suddenly there was a slight clearing. In the middle was an upturned tree. I walked over to it and sat down.

‘What are you doing?’ asked Emma.

‘I’m thinking,’ I told her. ‘We haven’t been this way before.’

She sat down next to me and sighed.

‘Shall we just shout out until someone hears us?’ she asked.

‘We could,’ I replied.

From within the tree-line something moved quickly. It stopped and then it moved again.

‘It’s nothing,’ I told Emma. ‘It’s probably just a bird or a badger or something.’

‘I’m not scared!’ said Emma. ‘Honest . . .’

‘Do you think the others are looking for us?’ I asked.

‘I hope so,’ she replied. ‘It would be a bit mean if they weren’t.’

‘But we’ve only been gone about an hour,’ I said. ‘Gavin said the course normally takes a few hours . . .’

Emma looked worried. And we’ve not seen anyone,’ she reminded me. No one at all . . .’

‘I’m sure they’ve missed us by now,’ I replied.

There was some more rustling in the trees. Then another loud crack. And then something began to growl . . .

‘Come on!’ I shouted, grabbing Emma’s hand and running towards the other side of the clearing.

Emma screamed and followed me. We pushed our way through more trees, and then suddenly my feet slipped from beneath me and I went crashing down a steep bank with Emma right behind me. We ended up knee-deep in the stream. The water was freezing.

‘Eurghh!!!!!!!!!!’ moaned Emma.

Something moved along the top of the bank.

‘It’s still there,’ I said. ‘Let’s just follow the stream.’

‘But I’m wet!’ she complained.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ I told her. ‘Let’s go . . .’

Whatever was up on the bank moved again and then there was another growling sound. Only it was deeper than the first one.

‘I’m scared!’ Emma told me.

‘So am I,’ I admitted.

Whoosh! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! The water around us turned blue and then red. And then someone started giggling. Someone else started laughing. The third person sounded like they were almost crying with laughter. I looked up the steep bank and saw them: Chris, Abs and Lily!

‘What are you doing?’ I demanded. ‘Chris! Lily! We’re supposed to be on the same side!’

‘GOTCHA!!!!!!!!!!!’ shouted Abs, before splattering me with blue paint balls.

‘You nasty, horrible, nasty . . . horrible idiots!’ shouted Emma.

She didn’t get to say anything else because Lily blasted her with paint too. Red paint . . .

When we got back to everyone else, I wasn’t bothered about who’d won the challenge. I was cold and wet and my feet hurt. But I wasn’t as bad as our goalkeeper, Gurinder, who had tripped and twisted his ankle. It was really badly swollen and it was obvious that he wasn’t going to be able to play in our next game. His dad had taken him to the hospital to get his ankle x-rayed.

Lily was excited because Gurinder’s injury meant that our reserve keeper, Gem, would get a game.

‘She’s brilliant!’ Lily told anyone who would listen.

I looked around at the squad. The Blue team had officially won and no one from our side was even complaining. It was strange because everyone was just having a laugh together – boys and girls. It looked like the coaches had been right to bring us on this team-bonding exercise. And everyone had cheered loudly when Emma arrived back and blasted Gavin with one paint ball after another!

‘OK, people!’ shouted Wendy. ‘Time to go home. Training on Thursday this week, although we’ll be around on Tuesday too, for anyone who wants to do extra. Hope you had a good time and bring on the next game!’

‘YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!’ we all shouted.

My mum walked over to me and gave me a hug.

‘Mum!’ I complained, trying to get away.

‘Oh – don’t be like that, Jason! Give your mummy a hug . . .’she said.

‘Yeah, Jason,’ Parvy said to me, with a huge grin. ‘Give Mummy a huggy-wuggy!’

My face went red as Parvy, Lily, Chris and Abs started laughing at me. Dal didn’t laugh. Instead he gave me a shrug.

‘Parents . . .’ he said, just as his dad walked over and complained about losing.

‘That was all a set-up!’ Mr Singh said.

Dad!’

‘Well – it was!’ he continued. ‘There was no way I was shot three times . . . !’

‘It’s only a game, Dad!’ Dal reminded him.

‘Don’t care!’ replied Mr Singh like a spoiled little kid. ‘Your team cheated!’

I grinned at Dal. ‘You reckon it’s easy to swap your parents for some less annoying?’ I asked.

‘Hope so,’ joked Dal.

‘Come on!’ said my mum. ‘Let’s go home.’