"I should have stayed at the campsite," Apple grumbles, kicking at the rocky ground with her black school shoes, nails scratching fervently at the reddened bumps on her skin. "Too many mosquitoes."

Nana, on the other hand, sticks closer to her, flapping a Dora The Explorer hand fan in her own face. Her arms unblemished, she flashes a wide grin at Apple. "Sometimes I love having you as my sister."

"You didn't bring a spare Tiger Balm ke?" I ask, swatting a particularly large mosquito perched on my wrist. I douse my neck in mosquito repellent, spraying some on Apple's hand as she motions to me. "You had like, five, masa spotcheck kat sekolah haritu."

"Guys," Umaira turns around, hands on her hips. "We just left the campsite. I can still see our tent from here!"

"The guys are past the bridge," Layla says ahead, chin pointed towards the hanging rope bridge as she adjusts the straps of her backpack. She frowns. "Cepatlah, korang. We're last."

"We're always last," Umaira mutters, but Apple lurches forward, her satchel bouncing off her hip. "Tengku better have my Tiger Balm with him!" 

She dashes to the bridge, only to stop and stare at the murky river rushing below it. Apple gulps and waves at us, foot thumping on the wild grass. "I don't want to go across alone." She latches on to me, eyes decidedly fixated on the teh tarik waters as we scuttle across the bridge. 

On the other end, Sir Uwais steps away from talking to the boys in our group to face us. He cups the side of his mouth and yells, "Yang last tu cepat sikit! Kawan-kawan kamu tunggu ni!"

His hand lands on one of the ropes suspending the bridge, and Apple and I tense up at the same time. The bridge begins to wobble, thanks to Sir Uwais's relentless throttling of the rope. Apple starts to scream, prompting everyone else to do the same, and even Layla freezes in her tracks. 

"Sir, janganlah, sir!" Apple cries out, gripping the rope with pale knuckles, eyes trained on the fast-flowing river. 

One of my hands latch onto Umaira's forearm, the other firmly attached to the rope. My feet are planted into the wooden planks of the bridge, unable to move. 

"Cepat sikit. Kalau tak, sir buat lagi." Sir Uwais reaches for the other rope. Everyone screams one octave higher. 

"Okay, okay," Umaira holds a hand up in surrender, the other clutching at the rope. She takes a few steps forward, only for Sir Uwais to rattle the bridge again.

Nana screeches and runs for her life, ditching the rest of us. Layla stares after her incredulously, and Apple taps her on the shoulder. "Dia memang camtu," she says with a shrug, and then continues screaming her head off with me on the bridge. Layla takes a few steps forward, brows furrowed at Apple, whose eyes are closed and mouth wide open in a primal scream. 

Umaira groans in exasperation and grabs Apple's wrist, dragging her along the bridge. "Lambatlah kau."

As soon as we are off the bridge, the boys regroup with us. Dark circles highlight Tengku's eyes, while Nelson's eyes are all watery from constant yawning. Sam, however, is the epitome of sunny, arms stretched in the air in the chirpiest way one can imagine. 

"Someone had a good night's sleep," Layla remarks. 

"Yes, someone did." Tengku's voice comes out in a half-hiss. Next to him, Nelson throws Sam a glare, which the latter pretends not to notice. 

Apple holds out an outstretched palm to Tengku, who stares at it blankly. "Huh?"

"My Tiger Balm."

"Oh, that." Tengku scratches the back of his head. "I left it in the tent."

"WHAT?!" 

"Eh, apa ni, jerit-jerit pagi-pagi macam ni? Kamu pengawas, kena jaga adab." Ustazah Suryani chides Apple. She's wearing a long-sleeved shirt paired with a tracksuit today, though her khimar still reaches below her shoulders. 

Apple shrinks back and nods in acknowledgement to Ustazah's words, then proceeds to nudge me when Ustazah walks away to chastise a group of boys trying to step on each other's feet. She juts her lip at a new mosquito bite rising from her knuckles, and I dutifully spray more repellent on her. 

"Hari ni kita sekadar menghayati alam semula jadi, takdelah lasak sangat, tengok biodiversiti di sekitar Kem Kelapa Sawit sahaja," Sir Uwais says. He notices some of the campers' faces fall, and raises his thick eyebrows. "Nanti kita akan ada water games, pastu malam nanti ada operasi burung hantu."

Sir Uwais and the other facilitators begin to lead us deeper into the area, pointing out markers and birds and flowers while we trudged obediently behind them.

"They're going to leave us in the forest, aren't they?" Nana remarks. "That's why they're showing us around now."

"We should leave tracks," Apple says, still scratching at her arms as she turns Nana around to open her bag. She pulls out Nana's chia seed wraps, ripping off little pieces and dropping them onto the ground.

"Apple." An amused smile forms on my face. "You don't think the birds will get to them first?"

"That's how Hansel and Gretel got lost, you know," Nana adds, her back still turned to her twin, backpack unzipped.

"Mana tahu, hutan ni ada penjaga dia jugak," Tengku chimes in, one eyebrow raised.

"Ish, janganlah. Seram aku dengar," Nelson shudders, smacking Tengku on the shoulder.

"Girl, what are you doing?" The sound of Pn. Kalaivani's voice freezes Apple in her track-making, pieces of the wrap balled up in her hands.

Her eyes dart to me. "Mimi said she's hungry, Pn. Kalaivani. So I'm giving her wraps."

I shoot a look at her that says apa, aku pulak? and attempt to push the blame back. "No, I'm not."

"You were all supposed to eat at breakfast," Pn. Kalaivani says, flipping her hair over her shoulders and securing them with a single loop of her hair tie, like when she's about to launch into a lesson on solving equations. "Not in the middle of a jungle trek."

"Mimi has a very fast metabolism." Apple shrugs apologetically, stuffing the wrap balls into my palm. I try to give it back, but she pulls away quickly, leaving me nowhere to dump the wrap pieces.

"And gastritis too," the liar adds, the words rolling smoothly off her tongue as she zips up Nana's bag mid-walk. A glint appears in her gaze. "If Mimi doesn't get to eat, she'll throw up."

The cover-up clicks into place in my head, and I bite down on my lips to stifle a grin.

Pn. Kalaivani's expression changes, probably reliving yesterday's experience on the bus. She gives me a quick look, the type you give to a cat when you think it's going to attack you at any moment.

"Alright, but make sure it doesn't happen again." And with those words, she scurries off to shadow some other unfortunate group, ideally with kids that haven't puked on her. 

Umaira bursts out laughing. "Did you see the look on her face?"

"She was terrified!" Nana attempts to recreate the expression, ending up with something in between a look of pain and pure constipated agony.

Apple shoots me a peeved look. "Mimi, you were supposed to play along."

"I didn't know, I thought she was going to marah me," I replied, a huge grin on my face. I extended my handful of chia seed wrap. "You can take these back now."

"Nah, you can have them," Apple shrugs.

I make to move towards her, and she breaks into a run, colliding with Sam and knocking his notebook full of jungle trekking notes out of his hands.

"Hey!"

"Sorry!"

A panicked Apple snakes between Layla and the other two boys, determined to put as much distance between us as possible so that she wouldn't have to take back her wraps.

"Jangan lari!" Ustazah Suryani yells.

She skids to a halt, now walking at the front of our group. "Sori, ustazah!"

"I don't know her," Nana says out loud, shielding her face in mock embarrasment as she slips a wrap ball from my hand into her mouth.  "We met in the forest."

"Yela tu, Nana." I pick a wrap ball and pop it into my mouth, watching my step as the ground becomes gradually steeper up ths trek. The taste isn't all that bad; I can probably finish this before we head back.