Christine had never really wanted to come to this camp in the first place. But, her parents had decided that this would be good for her... help her push past her social anxiety. Right, by just chucking her in the deep end, and making her figure out how to swim. And, look, it hadn't really failed. She really was starting to open up to people. She'd really never been a people person, but her parents really believed that she just needed the right push.

Ultimately, they would prove to be right in that assessment, but this experience wouldn't end up being the push that she needed. For a while, it seemed to be working, she was slowly starting to open up around the other kids at the sleep-away camp, and even was starting to be more active in joining in on their games.

She'd even only been slightly reluctant to go on the trip rafting on the river. She wasn't particularly familiar with the river, which may have played into her lack of reluctance, but in the end, it was good that she'd gone. Even if she wouldn't see it that way.

They were all in life vests and helmets as they rode down the river, all of them working together to control the raft as it rode the currents, but one of the girls in particular was not doing well, and she was having a little bit of a panic attack. The counselor turned to see what she could do to help the girl, but she had stepped away from her role as navigator at a very bad time.

The girls didn't realize that the fork they were heading toward was not the one they wanted to take. They just didn't know that this was a point where they needed to fight the water's pull. But then again... they were only nine or ten years old. By the time the counselor looked up to see where they were because she felt the raft moving faster than it should have been did she realize what was happening. “Girls! Hold steady. Follow my instructions, and we'll be just fine, okay?"

That was about when they realized what was happening... they were heading into a stretch of rapids, and there was a collective scream from the group of girls. At first, they made a valiant effort to maintain the control of the boat, but they just weren't able to keep it up as they fell one by one to fear. Thankfully, none of the girls were thrown from the boat, but too many of them dropped their oars to cling to the ropes, and the raft was tossed all about.

The counselor, however, was a bit less fortunate, getting thrown for a loop as she fought to keep control of the raft as it rattled down the stretch of white water. By the time it was all over, there were only eight girls in the boar, staring at each other in blind terror. Or... seven girls consumed by the frantic terror. Christine was afraid, yes, but she was doing the best of any of them at keeping her head. She breathed deeply as looked around the river.

She saw the counselor floating along not far from them, and she used her paddle to push them toward the limp figure. “Casey, Jenna, Alex. Help me pull her aboard," she said, her voice full of command all of a sudden, and the other three girls latched onto that authority in this moment of crisis, just needing that strength to cling to.

They pulled the counselor back onto the raft, and Christine quickly started checking on her, doing everything she could to breathe calmly and steadily. The counselor wasn't breathing at first, but as Christine moved her, she coughed out a lungful of water and started breathing steadily, though she was still solidly unconscious.

Thankfully, the water they had made it down to was calm enough for Christine to paddle them over to the bank, where the girls jumped out to pull the rubber raft up onto the grass. The other girls were milling around, clearly still pretty eaten up with panic. Christine sighed and rubbed her temples, trying to clear her mind and just breathe for a moment. Panic wasn't going to do any of them any good.

She went over to the unconscious woman who was still in the raft. The less they moved her, the better off she would be, and getting her onto the boat was an unavoidable risk in that regard. Leaving her in the water would have meant her drowning. Still, the counselor had to have things that could help them figure out what they needed to do.

As she went through the counselor's pockets, she couldn't find her radio. It must have been lost in the rapids. No matter. It wasn't going to do her any good worrying about things that they didn't have. She found several pieces of other gear on the counselor, filing them away in her mind for if they needed them later.

No the real prize was the map she found in the counselor's pockets, and she let out a triumphant “Aha!" The map was even waterproof, meaning that the dip in the water hadn't damaged it. She took it over to a patch of grass and pulled out the compass that she carried with her. She looked at the map and found the main camp. She followed that down to the river where they'd gotten onto the raft, and then traced the river downstream.

She saw where things had gone wrong for them, the fork in the river. It really was only a small mistake, but it had proven to be a very nasty one. She breathed deeply and followed the river down from the rapids, looking for anything that could help them... and then she found it. There was a station marked on the map a few miles down the river. They would never be able to walk that with the counselor, and they couldn't just leave her here. Nor could they split the party.

Christine stood up, straightening herself as she looked around the area. “Alright," she said, her voice full of far more confidence than she felt, but she remembered the effect that it had had on the frightened girls, even out on the water. Here on land, she might even be able to get all of their attention. “There's a station down the river, just a few miles. We can't carry the counselor the whole way there. We can't leave her here. We can't leave anyone to watch her."

“So, the only thing that we can do is to drag the raft back into the water and ride the rest of the way down to the station. There are no more rapids on this river, so we will be safe. How many of us still have their oars?"

Three girls raised their hands, and she saw that they did have their oars. She still had her own oar. “Four of us will be more than enough. Alright. So, all together, let's get this into the water, and we'll make our way down to the station," she said, delighted at the cooperation that she got from the group of girls, who were looking less frightened than before. That was good.

The current was gentle, but steady, and with the four sets of oars, they were able to have a fairly decent degree of control over the raft as they made their way down the river. But for the rapids, this would have been a really nice river... but no. They had hit the one set of rapids around, and they had been caught by surprise by it. She inwardly used a word that her mother had stressed that she was never to use out loud. That didn't mean that she couldn't use it in her own head, though.

Outwardly, though, Christine started singing one of their camp songs, giving the girls something to focus their brains on as they rowed. It took them about twenty minutes, and most of the songs that Christine could remember, before they saw the station's tower rising over the trees. There was a cheer from the girls, as they got ready to row the raft to shore.

Soon enough, they were able to pull it up onto the bank right by the cabin, and Christine instructed the girls not to move the counselor from the raft. She wanted adults to do that, with the proper medical equipment. She'd seen enough shows to understand that you don't move an accident victim any more than necessary, and they didn't know what injuries she had. The best thing was to let people who knew what they were doing handle her.

She got off of the boat and quickly made her way up to the station, thanking all of her lucky stars that the door was unlocked. She sighed and went inside, looking for a radio. She found one quickly enough, thank goodness, and quickly turned it on. She didn't touch the dial, hoping that it was already tuned to the right frequency. If not, she could do a sweep of them after she'd tried that one.

She honestly had no real idea what to say, so she just went off of what she'd seen on the shows, so she pushed the button next to the microphone and said, “Mayday, mayday, this is troop 531. We are lost, and our counselor is injured. Please respond."

She waited a moment, praying that someone would reply... and the radio crackled. “Troop 531, we read you. What is your location?"

She pulled the map out, looking at the station on it and didn't see a name. “We went down the rapids by accident. We found the station downriver from them. The counselor is unconscious. Probably injured, but she's breathing."

“Roger that. We have vehicles on the way. Stay where you are. Do not leave the station."

“Acknowledged," she said, not fully understanding the word, but she remembered it from the shows. “The rest of us are not seriously injured. Scared more than anything. The raft is on the shore. We haven't moved the counselor after we got her back in the raft."

“Good job," the person on the other end of the line said, and what she could make of his tone over the distortion of the radio, he seemed surprised.

“Signing off now. I'm going to tell the others what they need to do. Over and out." She didn't turn the radio off, but just walked away from it. That had all been imitation of what she'd seen on TV, but it felt right enough to her at the time. Anyway, she walked out to find the other girls.

She stood tall and walked proudly as she looked out at the group, who were mostly just sitting on the grass around the raft. “Okay. I talked to someone on the radio and told them where we are. They said that they have vehicles on the way to come and get us. So, for right now, Jacqui, I need you to go inside and sit by the radio. I'll show you what button to push to talk. I really just need you to listen for if anyone calls."

The lanky girl nodded her head and got up, going into the station to sit with the radio. She looked to one of the other girls, who she'd noticed doing pretty well on the obstacle course, and who had been one of the girls who'd kept her oar. “Bev. Think your up for a climb up the tower? I'd like someone up there who'll be able to see the cars coming so that we can be ready when they get here."

Bev gave Christine a big-old grin and nodded her head. “Not a problem, boss," she said with a little laugh before she made her way up the tower. That made Christine's heart race when she called her that, her stomach turning in knots. Boss... She wasn't anyone's boss. She was just in charge of a group of girls in a crisis because she'd been the only one to step up, and... it didn't feel either comfortable or natural.

She took a breath to re-center herself, looking at the other six girls. “Casey, I need you to sit with the counselor and keep an eye on her. If she stops breathing, or anything else bad happens with her, I need you to get our attention. I'm going to go back inside and see what medical supplies I can find. We probably won't need them, but it'll be good to have them ready in case we do."

“Jenna, if you could get a campfire going, I'm sure that we could all do with a bit of warmth. I'm sure there's wood at the station. It's the kind of thing that they keep there."

Casey nodded and got back into the raft to watch over the counselor as she had been directed, and Jenna went to gather the wood for a fire. Christine looked at the remaining three. “The rest of you, I just need you to be ready to help any of the others. But more than anything, I need you to know that we are safe, and that things are going to be alright. It's still early in the day, and there's plenty of daylight for them to make it here before the sun even starts to get low."

They nodded, actually seeming... kind of excited to have survived something like that. Christine was... horrified at everything that had happened. But all of the girls were safe, and the counselor was alive. She reassured herself with those facts as she went to walk Jacqui through how to use the radio before she found the medical supplies. There wasn't anything there that she knew they would need to help the counselor, but she grabbed one of the first aid kits and took it back outside with her.

Jenna had the campfire going, crackling away as the other girls came in close to enjoy its warmth. while they waited.

It was a good hour before the jeeps got to the station, and the sun was still high overhead. Bev called down to the others that she saw them before she quickly came back down the stairs. Even Jacqui came back out to sit with the fire, smiling at Annie, who had actually nipped into the station and found marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers.

They'd started making s'mores, making sure to pass them out to the other girls while they waited. Casey had done well watching over the counselor, who had, thankfully just seemed to sleep for the time being. But her breathing was doing just fine.

The ranger hopped out of the lead jeep and came over to the group of girls. Christine got to her feet and walked toward the man. He smiled and looked at her. “So, is it you that I have to thank for our earlier conversation on the radio?"

Christine smiled sheepishly and blushed a little. “Yeah, that was me. I was honestly just guessing at what to say for most of it, but everything I said is true. The counselor is still in the raft, unconscious, but breathing. I had them build a fire to help warm up and... well someone found stuff for s'mores," she said, chuckling and shaking her head.

“Hey, morale is an important thing," the ranger said as others brought a rescue board over to the raft and carefully transferred the unconscious woman onto it, securing her down before picking her up and carrying her back to the jeep. “Unfortunately, we need to get that fire put out and head back to the camp. The s'mores stuff... can come with us, and you can make some more at the main fire," he said with a grin as everyone loaded up onto the jeeps, Christine wanting to ride in the one that the counselor was in, just breathing deeply and beyond grateful that they were all still alive.

The ride back to the main camp wasn't too bad. A little bit bumpy, but they were being careful with the counselor. It took them an extra half hour to get back to the camp as a result, but she was carried into the nurse's station, and a short while later, the nurse came out, and let them know that she would be alright. No broken bones, just a bit of a concussion. It had been a good thing she'd had her helmet and vest on, otherwise it could have been a lot worse.

Christine was finally able to breathe, remembering how she hadn't been breathing when they had first gotten her into the raft, but then she'd coughed up the water... and if they hadn't pulled her in, she would have died, and her mind just raced along while she sat there at the nurse's station, as they started giving the girls a check-up to make sure they didn't have any injuries, themselves. When Christine got to her turn, the nurse was kind of impressed. “Well... you look like you came out of that without even a scratch. And I've heard what you did out there today. That was very brave of you. Thank you very much."

Chrke istine just stared up into the nurse's eyes, and the woman was able to see just how completely overwhelmed the girl was. She was physically unhurt, but having to take the lead like that had really taken a lot out of her, and she was not doing well. “You're welcome," she said, her tone very flat. “I need to go home now."

Christine's mother came to get her from the camp that night. There was no question there. Christine was done right now, and she'd already been putting so much energy into being alright being here at overnight camp in the first place. It was unfortunate but understood.

Her mom understood better than to try to cheer her up or play fun music for them to listen to on the drive. That was unfortunate because it was a very long drive to do in silence, but she knew her daughter better than that. Right now, she just needed some quiet time to process everything she was working through in her brain... and there was a lot.

If she ended up needing anything, she would let her mother know. She was a very direct child like that. Direct enough, that after about an hour of driving in silence, she simply said to her mother, “No more water."

Joan understood what she meant by that. Water activities were out of the equation until she said otherwise. If she ever said otherwise... and given the fear that they'd all been through going down those surprise rapids... she really couldn't blame her. So, for the moment, she just nodded her head, and confirmed, “No more water."

And as she had suspected, “until" became “if"... and that never came while she was still growing up with her family. What broke her mother's heart more was that Christine, as a child who had helped save nine lives by taking leadership in a crisis... seemed to have become adverse to that, too. Any opportunity to take the lead on a project, or with her friends... even when she was clearly the one in the right position to do so... she allowed to slip from her hands.

She would always defer to other children, always allow others to take that burden that she was still too scared to bear, herself. Her friends noticed quickly and were disappointed that this formerly take-charge girl had lost so much of that within herself... but they knew why it had happened, and they really just... didn't have a lot of choice but to adjust to the new way of things with her.

She was still their Christine, and they still loved her very much, as sad as it made them to see her lose that determination and drive. None of them had been on that camping trip, let alone that raft, but the way that she described it, it was a legitimately terrifying experience, and she had needed to take on a role that she hadn't been ready for because the counselor had been flung from the raft.

Still, they all agreed to look after her through school, making sure that others didn't take advantage of her passivity. Heck, with their help, few people ever really learned of the change in her.

Thankfully, even if she'd lost her decisiveness, she hadn't lost her brilliance, and she still made it into a good college. They all did, and they were able to stick together. The Three Musketeers. Okay, six musketeers, but who cared?!? They were unstoppable together, and they all believed fervently that if they could just stick together, they'd be able to help their friend through this.