We stayed on board for another five minutes while Mr Meredith and a couple of the security guards checked the building and the grounds. We’d been told to call the guards ‘camp assistants’, but that didn’t really fool anyone, mainly because they were all large and unsmiling and had guns in holsters around their waists. I imagined they were checking the place in case anyone had broken in, though we were so far from civilisation that it seemed unlikely anyone would have made the trek. Then again, there was apparently five days’ worth of food for twenty-five kids stashed in there, not to mention medicines and other luxury items, so it would’ve been an attractive target for thieves. Anyway, it seemed the coast was clear because Mr Meredith stepped up into the coach and addressed us.

‘As you must have worked out, we are here,’ he said, smiling. ‘This is home for the next five days. Your luggage is being taken out of the hold as I speak and I ask that you claim your bags first. Then the boys will follow me and the girls will follow Ms Anderson and we will show you where you are sleeping. Once you have made yourselves comfortable and unpacked whatever needs unpacking, we will have lunch and Ms Anderson and I will tell you about the activities for the rest of the day. Any questions?’

There weren’t, so we filed down the bus’s steps and made our way to the mound of luggage that the driver had emptied from the belly of the coach. I had only one smallish bag and Aiden’s wasn’t much bigger and we managed to get through the scrum of kids to pick them up. I was the first to line up behind Ms Anderson, a small woman with unnaturally dark hair and a large hairy mole on the left side of her face. She smiled at me, but it didn’t shed much warmth. I didn’t know who Ms Anderson was, but guessed she might have been a teacher from another year level. Perhaps she was the principal. I suppose I could’ve asked her, but her expression didn’t invite questions. Already I was missing Mr Meredith and we hadn’t really started the camp yet.

Sixteen girls eventually got their stuff and lined up behind me. Charlotte was towards the back because she’d brought three suitcases. When Dad saw her at the school he’d made some comment about bringing the kitchen sink, but he doesn’t really know what girls need when they go away from home. I would’ve taken loads more if my parents hadn’t stopped me.

The dormitory was large with a high ceiling fretted by wooden beams. Old-fashioned electric lights dangled occasionally from the rafters, though they were turned off. Two barred windows spilled light onto polished floors and twenty or thirty bunk beds were lined up along the walls. Ms Anderson said we could choose, so Charlotte and I picked a bunk close to the toilets and shower. It was only later that I wondered if this was wise. After we’d put our stuff in lockers beside the bunks, we took our toiletries into the bathroom. There were five toilets and five shower cubicles. Ms Anderson said we would have to negotiate the use of both and that this was one of the aims of the camp, to instil a sense of cooperation among students who might find that a challenging and maybe unique proposition. I didn’t quite understand what she meant by that.