So, even though she was hungry as she stood at the front of the lunch queue, she couldn’t make up her mind.

By the time Evie sat down with a handful of things on her plate, almost everyone had finished. The clean-up crew were getting ready for action. She looked at her meal. An apple that looked a bit bruised on one side. A spoonful of dry-looking rice with raisins. A couple of crackers and a slice of cheese that was the wrong colour. The only thing she could possibly eat was the crackers. The rest, she just knew with a guilty stab, would go to waste. She had only taken it because the leaders all insisted that she eat something.

The crackers were so dry they made her mouth feel like it was full of cotton wool. Evie wandered back into the food tent to look for the water jug.

The tent was empty, except for a boy called Charlie. And he was carefully dropping a stone into the jug. He stared at it like it was really important.

“That’s disgusting!” Evie couldn’t help a flash of temper. “I was just about to pour a drink!”

Charlie whipped his head round.

“Oh, sorry.” He reached into the jug.

Evie saw what he was about to do.

“Don’t put your fingers in the water too!”

Too late. Charlie had picked the stone out of the water again.

“I could get you a drink from the tap?” he suggested as she trudged back to her seat outside.

Evie was grateful when Charlie brought her the glass. She was surprised when he sat down with her. Her meals were usually lonely because she took so long picking her food.

They chatted a little while Evie finished her crackers, trying not to grimace too much as she swallowed. They talked about the afternoon activities. Evie had thought she would try the Construction Challenge.

Suddenly Charlie reached into his pocket and held out a compass.

“You know,” he said shyly, “whatever you do this afternoon, I think this might be useful.”

“Er, thanks,” Evie said. She took it, even though she wasn’t sure why a compass would help with building things. “Do you want to swap something for it?”

Charlie shook his head.

“It’s okay,” he said. “Just consider it a gift.” He gave a last smile. “See you at Construction Challenge,” he called over his shoulder as he hurried off.

Evie took her tray over to the rest of the piled-up dirty plates. As she headed for the tent exit, she checked the compass.

“Oh, thanks, Charlie!” she thought grumpily. The compass had five directions on it, not the usual four. And what was wrong with the needle? It kept spinning round and wouldn’t rest. “Like a broken compass is going to be really helpful …”

Evie stepped out of the tent into sunlight.

Way too much sunlight. She squeezed her eyes shut against the sudden glare.