Ashleigh's Short Story

Squinting into the mid morning sunlight, Ashleigh saw the tangle of knots that made up the Pioneers Ropes Course at Spring Lake Camp, the course that she was expected to have completed by...today. It sure does look high, she thought, and they were, that is, if you considered fifty feet in the air to be high. No one’s fell...yet. “Ashleigh! Ashleigh, where are you?” Tom, Ashleigh’s ropes counselor called. “It’s your turn!” Ohh great, Ashleigh thought. “I’m coming, Tom! I’m right over here!” She hustled over to where Tom was standing, right at the start of the tangle of ropes that made up the course. “Ashleigh, I know you can do it, and this equipment will keep you safe,” Tom said, and he started attaching the rope …show more content…
“You’ll be fine. Just don’t think about it,” Tom promised. Ashleigh gripped the rope, which burned her palms. She used her strength to lift her body up the rope. She was about ten feet in the air, and she looked down. Big mistake. She saw the hard rocky earth staring up at her. She sighed and climbed down. “What do you think you're doing?” asked. “Tom, I’m sorry. I think I need to talk to Mallory” Ashleigh said quietly. “I’m sorry.” Mallory, Ashleigh’s best friend, came over and gave her a huge hug. Then, Olivia Taylor, a bunkmate of Ashleigh and Mallory, came over, with her two best friends, Abby Campbell, and Sarah Williams. Ashleigh despised Olivia, because of her rude behavior. “Awe, Ashleigh, it absolutely stinks that you couldn’t complete the course,” Olivia said in her sugary sweet voice. “I completed it when I was seven.” “Oh, of course you did,” Mallory said, defending Ashleigh. “But everyone knows Ashleigh’s amazing just how she is.” She turned to Ashleigh. “Ashleigh, you are will complete that course. I’m sure of it.” “Oh, be quiet Mallory!” Olivia squealed. “She’ll never do it!” Abby and Sarah …show more content…
I think you're going to do it this time, Ash,” Tom replied. He attached the rope, and Ashleigh looked up, and gripped the rope, the one that led her up to the course. She started climbing, up, up and up. She quickly looked down, at the rocky earth, and at Olivia’s face, who stuck out her tongue. She looked at Mallory’s smiling face. Do it for Mallory. Do it for yourself, Ashleigh thinks, as she starts to climb on the tangle of ropes. Her legs shook, her palms burned, and her knees ached, but she was determined. Ashleigh got to the toughest part of the course, where you had to climb across one long rope. Ashleigh started, and her legs swing back and forth. It’s kind of like doing the monkey bars, Ashleigh thought, only one-hundred feet in the air monkey bars. She swung her arms, and she got to the halfway point of the rope, and she kept going. She was less than five feet away from the end of the rope, and when she got to the end of the rope, and she felt a huge wave of relief flow into her, like waves crashing down on the shore, but then slowly going back out to sea. She heard people start applauding, and when she got down she was wrapped in a huge