Camping Disaster

• Gabriella Stranges, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2019

My mum called us down the stairs. We ran down excitedly to see what was going on. “We are going camping!” she announced. “YAY!!!” we all yelled. Straight away we started packing. My little brother is terrible at packing, so of course I had to help him, not my brother, not my sister, but me. “So, how are you going packing?” I asked him. He didn’t reply. "So, do you need help with packing?”, I asked him. So I helped him and we drove off.

On the way, my little brother said, “Are we there yet?” a million times until I felt like walking. “Can you just stop saying that?”, I snapped. We finally got to the camp-site. I was exhausted. I offered to put the tent up but my dad said no. Why can’t I help?, I thought. My dad was a mind reader. He could tell what I thought. “You’re too tired to put the tent up today. Go play some beach cricket. Sorry son, not today.”, he told me.

That night, I remembered what my dad had said earlier and realised that he was right. I fell asleep at 7:30pm, before my little brother had even put his pajamas on! The next morning, I got woken up by someone tapping me on the head with a cricket bat. "Owww", I groaned. "Sorry", Dad replied, "Your brother is tough with his backyard cricket, and someone has to deal with it! Luckily, it was me", Dad said in the most sarcastic manner I'd ever heard.

Finally, we had to leave. On the way back I got very car sick. The petrol tank went on low and we ran out of petrol. We were in the middle of nowhere. My dad was pacing back and fourth. “I was sure there was a petrol station somewhere!”, he said. When I remembered that we had a petrol refill tank and we managed to jump start the car until we got to the next petrol station. We refilled the car and the jump start tank just in case we needed it. Once we got back home, Mum decided that we’re more resort sort of people!