Ashley Swihart Period 5 Ms

“A port-a-potty! Let’s go!” Sophie screamed, pointing to a grey

handicapped port-a-potty in the middle of a field. We all gasped, gazing at

the port-a-potty as if it were some kind of heaven. All ten of us girls,

covered in wet sticky cold mud, ran as fast as we could through the pouring

rain to the only shelter we could find. Before this moment, I never thought

I would be so happy to be inside a disgusting, wet, smelly port-a-potty

We all huddled inside, sitting very close in an attempt to warm each

other up in any way possible. We sat there, laughing, and wondering how

we possibly managed to get ourselves stuck in the middle of Tilden park with

no sense of direction whatsoever, while the torrential rainstorm was being

thrown down fast and hard from the clouds. The raindrops were so loud and

powerful, it was as if they were bullets crashing against the outside

suggestions being brought up just made everyone laugh harder and realize

1
we were becoming more and more hopeless with each idea.

“My head is so freakin’ freezing and wet I think I am going to develop

a bad case of pneumonia.“ whined Hannah as she cuddled up in a ball

“Why don’t you just put a plastic bag over your head then? It’ll be nice

and warm and cozy, and will also keep your head dry…” Kelly recommended

“Great idea, idiot! She would die of suffocation first!!” Liza quickly

added while staring at Kelly like she was some kind of imbecile.

“Hahahahahaha….I forgot about that…” laughed Kelly. A silence went

by as everyone just sat around smiling and shaking their heads while their

“Weeeeell, how about we like, make smoke signals like that movie we

watched in Ms. Bonsall’s class?” I suggested, thinking that it might actually

“Oh my Goddd. Shut up before I throw you out of this little hut…

“First of all this isn’t a hut, and secondly I don’t hear you making any

2
suggestions, Mrs. Smarty pants..” I sarcastically responded.

“So you really think you can make fire? Go ahead Sitting Bull, give it a

shot…” Ariel said chuckling as she swung open the door of the port-a-potty,

ushering her hands to the outside. I stood up and took one look out the door

“Hah! No thank youuu…“ I said staring at the trees rocking from side

to side from the wind, and the rain that was going in all directions. “I think

gotten ourselves into, what were we actualllly going to do? Ten fifteen year

old girls, stuck in Tilden. Not to mention we were wet, freezing, and hungry.

We had no idea which direction to walk in to get back to the main road. It

already felt as if we had walked three or four miles, only to land us in a

grey handicapped port-a-potty; our home for the next two hours.

“Let’s just stay here until the rain dies down and then start

to think of what we will do, okay? Okay.” It was the first thing Daniela said

As I sat smushed in between Ariel and Hannah, I began to think back

3
to how we had gotten here in the first place… I found myself drifting off

into a day dream of that morning…

* * *
“What the HELL is on my face? Is this honey?!?” was the first thing

Catherine said one morning after a night filled with pranks. Ariel’s birthday

parties are always the most fun. We have been a group of ten best friends

since middle school, and every year when it’s Ariel’s birthday, we all gather

at her house to have an all girls crazy night together. We make it really

childish with sleeping bags put around in a circle with all of our heads

facing the middle, with a huge fort above our heads made from chairs and

blankets. We play silly games like truth or dare, make hot fudge sundaes,

watch funny movies, and just have a whole bunch of innocent fun.

“Well, yes it is, Catty!” I say with a evil smile on my face, holding a

“You’re gonna get it, Ash!” screamed a tired Catherine trying to

scramble out of her sleeping bag as I ran like Speedy Gonzalez into the

“Truce truce truce!” I pleaded, reminding her of the whipped cream

4
“Okay fine.” Catherine agreed holding her hand out to shake mine. I

am shaking her hand when I feel an extremely cold, large amount of water

“AAAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA….” laugh the rest of the girls

who witnessed the whole thing. I grab a towel and walk back into the

living room where everyone else was nice and warm in their sleeping bags.

“I feel so energetic right now!” Hannah said excitedly as she popped

up still in her sleeping bag. “We should do something fun again today!”

“How about we go to Tilden like how we did in 8th grade and go down

“YEAAAHHH!!” everyone agreed as they got out of their sleeping

bags and gathered all their stuff together.

After eating breakfast and putting on lots of Ariel’s clothes, we all

walked over to Andronico’s to get some garbage bags to use as ponchos. I

felt like a sumo wrestler wearing two pairs of sweatpants that were size

large, (when I am four foot eleven and weigh one hundred and two pounds)

along with two regular t-shirts and two huge sweatshirts. My little head that

5
“Wait, I think I see the bus!” Leila said squinting down Shattuck. “Yes!

There’s the 65!” We flagged down the bus and scurried into it like a football

team. Everyone on the bus along with the bus driver himself took second

“Let’s get off right here, pull the little stringy thing.” Sophie said as

we all looked out and agreed we should be let off at this specific spot. We

thanked the bus driver as we jumped off the bus and into Tilden park.

“Ooooo, this trail! It looks adventurous!” announced Liza as she

stretched her pointer finger towards the trail, jumping up and down.

“Alright let’s go!” we said as we were off into the wilderness, not

SPLAAAT, was the next thing I heard. I look around to see that

“AAHHHAHAHA….” laughs Ariel as she runs away from Kelly, knowing

“Let’s get Hannah.” Liza whispers in my ear as she bends down and

grabs the mud with both of her hands. I do the same as we sneak up

behind Hannah with four hands filled with as much mud as we could fit in

them.
6
“One….two…..THREE” I say as I start to run towards Hannah like a

“Waaaatchout Hannah!!!” Daniela says as fast and as high pitched as

she could possibly make her voice go. Hannah turns around as fast as

lightening as I wrap my arms around her tiny little waist and yank her to the

ground with me.

“EW Lizaaaa you got it in my mouth!” Hannah yells as she tries to spit

all of the mud out. I laugh to myself as I sit there watching Hannah try to

“Don’t think you’re funny, Ash.” Hannah says with a red face looking

like she is about to attack me. I see her feet start to pick up speed as I

jump up like the ground just caught fire and start running for my life.

“HAhaha you’re waaaayy too slow to catch mmmeee!!” I yell while

looking over my left shoulder at Hannah as I run full blast down the trail.

“AAAHHH” I scream in mid air… *Ccrrrassssshhhhhh*… Next thing I know,

I am sliding face first, down some wet mud slide because of some stupid

branch that happened to wrap itself around my foot and take me down.

“Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee….” I yell, actually having fun on this spontaneous mud

slide which I had no clue I was running towards. I get up, muddy as can be,
7
and everyone is looking at me, laughing from up above. “Try it! It was hella

fun!” I say, while using both hands to smear the mud off of my face.

Everyone forgets about who they have to get back at for throwing

mud at them and take turns going down the amazing slide. We were at the

slide for approximately an hour until we decided to go further down the

“This way!” Leila says, seeing a creek about fifteen yards away. We

walk off the trail to go wash our hands and faces in this creek….Our first

“I’m so tired, let’s go sit up on that rock up there for a little bit.”

Catherine says as she starts stomping on a bunch of long grass to make a

trail up to the rock. A few of my friends make their way to the rock and sit

“Let’s be trail blazers!” Hannah says as she looks at the ground while

stomping her feet hard, mimicking Catherine’s trail techniques. Hannah, Liza,

Sarah and I try to make a maze on this big open field while we wait for the

“Stop being lazy and come join us!” Hannah screams to our friends up

on the rock.
8
“Who are you calling lazy?” Ariel asks as she jumps down from the

rock and lands perfectly on the ground. Catherine, Kelly, Leila, Daniela, and

Sophie jump down quickly after as they join the rest of us on the field.

“Let’s go climb that tree, it looks so fun!” I say while running

“Who are you?… Some kind of dare devil?” Daniela asks me as she

“Tasmanian Devil!!” I say back as I bust out into an axel (an ice

skating jump). We all try and climb into this tree while something happens

“Does anyone know where we are?” Sophie says, kind of scared.

Everyone looks at each other for a few seconds in silence hoping that

“Uuuhh, well if we find that rock then I know exactly where we are!”

Kelly says with a hint of hope in her voice. We all look around trying to find

“Greeeat! Just fantastic…are we….hahaha…. lost?” Liza asks while kind

of chuckling as nobody wants to really answer the question. A few seconds go

by as we still just look at each other biting our lips and raising our eyebrows.
9
“Well, I have no idea where we are….” Daniela says.

“Me neither.” adds Leila.

“Uhhh…me neitherr!” Sarah says from up above on a tree branch.

“Hahaha…how the heck did you get up there?” Catherine asks Sarah,

“Cuz I’m Tasmanian Devil!” Sarah says laughing, just to make fun of

me.

“Hah! Very funny.” I add. “No. But really, where are we?”

“No no nooo, are you serious? Are we actually lost?” Sophie asks,

“Well let’s just start walking this way. I think this is where we came

from…” Liza says, motioning her hands to follow her. We walk for quite some

time, until we realize it is most definitely not the right way. Unfamiliar

trees upon trees, upon unfamiliar grass fields… It was not looking too

promising. This was becoming kind of scary, but for some reason, none of us

were really freaking out that much. We were just walking in a single file line,

singing old camp songs that we remembered from when we were little. We

almost forgot that we were lost because we were still having a good time

being together.
10
“This is actually kind of funny, you have to admit!” Hannah says while

interrupting the song we were singing. A minute later, we start to feel little

drizzles of water on our faces. The drizzle turns to rain within seconds.

“Way to jinx it, Hannah!” Liza says with her hands pointing up to the

sky. As seconds pass, the rain gets harder and harder while we seem to get

wetter and wetter.
* * *
I begin to start drifting out of my day dream in the port-a-potty, as

I remember the next thing that happened was that Sophie spotted this

marvelous shelter for us. So that’s how we got into this smelly thing.

“I think the rain stopped!” exclaimed Leila as she opens the door and

“Well the port-a-potty must be nearby a road, don’t you think? They

wouldn’t just plop it like four miles into the wilderness, right?” Catherine

“WAIT! What the heck? It’s right up there!” Leila points out, amazed.

“I guess we couldn’t see it because of the rain before, let’s go!”

Catherine exclaims as we all follow. We walk along the road for about an

hour before we come upon a map inside a glass frame held up by two fake

wooden logs.
11
“Break it!” Hannah says. “Just break the glass so we can keep the map

with us.” Two seconds later, here comes Sophie with a huge stick.

“Hahaha you’re crazy!” Leila says to Sophie as Sophie swings back like

she’s about to whack a baseball and smacks the window extremely hard to

“Haaahaha…here, give it to me.” Ariel says to Sophie while shaking her

head. Ariel breaks the glass her first try, and reaches inside to claim her

“Waaalaa! Now that’s how the job is done.” Ariel cockily says to the

group while handing the map to Liza. We gather around trying to find some

“There’s a sign for the Quarry! Find it on the map!” Leila points out.

“Perfect! It’s riiiight here, meaning if we just walk this way, we will

find our way back to where the bus left us off.” Liza announces while

pointing right down the never ending road.

We walk and walk with our tired legs as we hear…..

“I HAVE SERVICE! WE ARE SAVED!” coming from Sophie‘s mouth,

holding her phone up in the air like it is a million dollars. We took turns using

her phone to call certain people and beg them to save us from the depths of
12
Tilden park, as Kelly finally convinces her brother and her mom to pick us up.

Kelly gives as much description of where we are to her mom and brother,

and within twenty minutes we are rescued! We are taken home to Liza’s

house while we all rip off our wet muddy clothes and run into her warm

As I was sitting in the sauna, surrounded by all of my best friends, I

began to realize how lucky I was. I was just freezing cold, hungry, tired, and

not to mention lost in Tilden park, but for some reason, I don’t regret it at

all! To this day we look back on our crazy experience and agree that it was

one of the best day of our lives that we got to share together. My friends

made it an extremely fun adventure that I wouldn’t trade for anything. If I

had experienced getting lost with anyone else, I probably would have been

terrified, but with them, I went into Tilden laughing, lost in Tilden laughing,