Slowly the sun sank lower and lower in the sky.
Jess, who had been concentrating on the map, looked up. "It's getting dark. We ARE nearly there, aren't we?"
There was an ominous silence from both Jimmy and Patrick, broken only by the sound of Cartman crunching the Cheesy Poofs he had bought in the Post Office and smuggled aboard.
"Guys, I asked if we were nearly there." Jess repeated.
Patrick glanced back at the map. "Well..." he said, pointing at the large land mass on the map, "that is Australia." He paused.
"Right, and where are we?" asked Jess.
Patrick turned the map over and unfolded a bit of it. "Here." He pointed to a patch of water an extremely long way from anywhere.
"But... it's getting dark!" Jess said, looking scared. "We can't stay in the dinghy all night!"
"Well, we have to," Jimmy said, pointing at the sea. "I can't see any land, can you?"
Jess looked terrified. "Hannah... tell them - tell them we can't just float all night!"
"There's nothing else we can do." Hannah sighed.
Jess was nearly hysterical, and started crying messily, which was most unattractive.
Hannah started to get a bit worried. "Are you sure there's nothing we can do?" Hannah enquired, looking straight at Jimmy.
"Look..." Jimmy swung his arms around in the air wildly, "...Can you see anything? I can't, that's for sure!" he said edgily with bitterness.
"But, Jimmy..." Hannah started.
"LOOK, I ONLY DEAL WITH PLANES, OK?! I'm not a fishy person!" Jimmy exploded.
"You look like a prawn to me," said Patrick.
Hannah picked up the lone paddle and jabbed it into Jimmy's ribs. "We go to sleep now. First thing tomorrow morning when it's light we start paddling like we've never paddled before and eventually we've got to end up somewhere!" She paused to let the idea go down. "I suggest we all get some power sleep and wake up for a day full of work."
Everyone stood aimlessly.
"NOW!" Hannah screamed.
Everyone hurriedly sat down and pretended to be asleep to escape any more barking orders.

It was still dark when Hannah opened her eyes after a short sleep. The gently rolling boat had actually turned out to be quite relaxing and she had slept well. She glanced around the dinghy. Jimmy was propped up against one side of it, his head hanging down loosely, swaying with the movement of the boat. Jess was curled up in the opposite corner, again using Cartman as a pillow. Cartman was snoring loudly; each exhalation blew Patrick's fringe across his face. She was surprised she was the only one awake. And she didn't like it. "Jess, get up."
"What?" A bleary eyed Jess sat up and rubbed her eyes.
"I said 'get up'!" Hannah repeated.
"Oh, OK," Jess said, obediently, rolling onto her knees and rising to Hannah's level.
"I'm bored, entertain me."
Jess sighed.
Hannah stared out of the boat. They weren't moving anywhere fast, she began to doubt that they'd moved at all during the night. Hannah looked to the left... nothing. The right... nothing. She didn't get her hopes up about anything ahead of her, or behind her for that matter. Surely enough there wasn't a speck of land to be seen in any direction. "OK, time to work," said Hannah, rising to her feet. For once in her life she felt like taking command of a group of people. She looked around at the people lying at her feet... they were completely out of it. "RIGHT!" she screamed, picking up the paddle that Jimmy had been cuddling all night. She whacked him over the head with it and whacked Patrick. "Wake up you morons!" she bellowed. They picked themselves up slowly. "Jimmy, start paddling."
Patrick started chuckling.
"You can shut up." Hannah said, turning around to Patrick. "You'll both be taking turns on the paddle."

There was a sudden bump, and the dinghy shook. The vibration sent Jimmy and Patrick, who were busy paddling, flying. Patrick landed squarely on Cartman, who shouted out a string of obscenities. Jimmy landed on Hannah. Right in her lap.
"Ow, what the hell was that?" Jess asked, clutching on to the side of the dinghy and glancing fearfully out into the sea.
"I don't know," Patrick said, picking himself apologetically off Cartman.
"A**hole." Cartman concluded, turning away.
Jimmy, who had been frozen on Hannah's lap, finally came to his senses and got up. "...Sorry."
"No, don't worry about it," said Hannah, dazed.
Jess and Patrick exchanged amused glances before leaning over the side of the boat to see what they had hit.
"Wow, it's... well, it looks like..."
"Is it coral?" asked Jess.
"Oh my God!" said Jimmy awestruck. "It's the..."
"Great Barrier Reef!" Hannah finished the sentence for him.
Everybody stood and stared at the sea. Corals of all the colours of the rainbow and matching fish swarm around it in shoals.
"Wow, rock on!" said Jess.
"I can't believe it... we must have drifted all the way around the north-eastern tip of Australia," said Patrick.
"Looks weak to me!" Cartman said.
"Oh, thank God! We are so close to Australia now!!" Hannah said excitedly.
"But we're stuck on this bloody coral," said Jess, dying to get onto dry land.
"Yes," said Patrick.
"Let's wait for a proper boat!" said Jess.
"No way," Hannah commented. "We're going to swim."
Everyone stared at her aghast.
"It's only a few miles and it's basically a paddle. Plus there is fantastic sealife which will keep us entertained."
"You have a point," said Patrick. He carefully got out of the dinghy and revealed the depth of the water - it only came up to just above his waist. "Be careful everyone, because you can kill the coral and put species into extinction just by treading on them."
Everyone nodded and stepped timidly out of the boat into gaps between the sparkly, colourful coral.
"It's times like this I wish I had a camera," Jess said, watching Jimmy wading into the water.
"Shut up and get in." Jimmy commanded, holding out a hand to help Hannah into the water.
Hannah took his hand and held it tightly, not letting go even when she was out of the boat.
"OK, are we all ready?" Patrick asked, turning around. Cartman was thrashing around, trying to float, and Hannah and Jimmy, hands linked under the water, were standing nearby.
"What about me?" asked Jess, still standing in the boat.
"What about you?" said Hannah, turning around.
"Well, can someone help me out of the boat?"
There was a pause.
"Please?" Jess begged.
Patrick bounded over killing 10 coral species in the process. He held up his hands and lifted her out of the dinghy.

After one hour of walking, everyone was tired out.
"Couple of miles, my ass," panted Jess.
Hannah pointed, and there, in front of them, was land.

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� Jess and Hannah 2001