I am not exactly the type of person that lives an exhilarating life, unless you count starting homework at 9 p.m. and consequently having to stay up past midnight. But this trip was one of the few exceptions.

My favorite part of the trip was probably the first day, including the three hour drive in where I was entertained by the constant high chirping of my chickens. Prior to reaching our cabin, we stopped to get some firewood. So my brother and I took the chicks out of their little home and let them stretch their wings as we introduced them to our family friends.

After my friend and I arrived and chose our room, we went outside to see our family by the campfire roasting marshmallows.

This was when the fun began. Since my friend and I had nothing to do and our parents left for a hike after the campfire died out, we went to the game room and tried to convince our younger siblings to let us use the pool table, but they didn’t let us. We couldn’t do much about it, so my friend and I decided to go outside into the pitch black night, which I would’ve been too scared to do if she weren’t with me, and find a way to entertain ourselves.

Then we thought, “What could be more fun than messing with the people on our trip?” Immediately we saw a big pile of pebbles near the porch of the house and proceeded to throw some of them toward the back patio closest to our older siblings. No matter how many we threw and how much force we put into hurling them, we never got the reaction we were expecting from them. We continued to fling the rocks until we saw lights flashing our way. As a result, we bolted away from the source of the light and into the woods 15 feet away from the cabin.

Once the lights finished surveying our area and moved into another spot in the woods, my friend and I attempted to make a run toward the cabin. But before we could, voices, probably from our parents on their way back from the hike, forced us deeper into the woods. Finally, when our parents were out of sight, we snaked around to the cabin to where we thought our younger siblings were and tried to throw some rocks at them despite how stupid and risky it was.

Like before, we got nothing that indicated we were heard, so we then proceeded to do the same with our moms at the very back of the cabin. Again, nothing. Even then, I still decided to just throw one more rock and then sneak back into the cabin with my friend as if nothing happened. But, as I was holding my hand back and positioning my aim before throwing the rock towards the cabin, out of the corner of my eye I saw my friend turn around and sprint.

For a second, I was confused, but when my rock missed and made a noise upon contact with the ground, I heard someone scream followed by some rustling in the woods, indicating that someone was charging toward us. Like my friend, I began to rush toward the front of the cabin praying that we would escape this attack.

The moment we stepped through the door, my friend and I transformed from running fugitives to two friends who were coming back from a tiring walk. Before more people could notice our sudden reappearance, we casually walked back to the pool table and began conversing with our siblings as if we had been there the whole time. A couple of seconds afterward, we heard the person who charged at us slam the door in urgency and expressed the problem. All at once, the adults poured into the room to make sure all of the children were present and safe. As they began to reassess the situation someone spoke out “Oh what if it was the girls? They ran in a couple of seconds before you did.”

All eyes turned to my friend and I; we tried playing it off but after catching the tone of concern in our parents’ voices we had to confess. But we didn’t confess the whole thing, instead, we only mentioned the part of messing with our younger siblings and then twisted up the story to make it seem that we didn’t mean to frighten anyone else. I thought that we were in serious trouble, but instead of being scolded in front of more than 18 people, everyone bought our little story and broke into relieved laughter. It turned out that while my friend and I were throwing the pebbles and thinking that no one heard us, inside the cabin everyone was in distress. My friend and I also presumed that everyone except us was inside but actually, while we were hiding, the majority of the adults were spread out behind different trees in search of the threat.

If my flight response had been five seconds late, my friend and I might’ve gotten caught in a situation where our made up story wouldn’t be believable, or worse I could’ve gotten hurt. My friend and I were lucky to escape that situation with nothing but a few scrapes, unfortunately our little stunt will continue to be the subject of many conversations.