Hello dear readers. I published this story in 2016 after reading the Lord of the Flies for the first time. As I was reading, my imagination dreamed up a single girl that got stuck on the island with the boys. And so this daydream became a reality in my piece "The Last Girl". Please keep in mind as you read that I am in the process of editing the story.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading. I hope you enjoy. xoxo (7-24-2019)

Prologue

I woke up surrounded by grass. Laying in the middle of an opening, I sensed I was not on the plane anymore. I sat up to see a blur of green but dizziness consumed me. A warm weight around my waist held me to the ground. I realized it was an arm. An arm attached to a boy with fair hair. I wondered who this boy was and how I got here but then I remembered...

Three Hours Earlier

"Miss, please just get on this plane" said the very stressed flight attendant at the boarding area. She huffed in annoyance at my self-inflicted situation, "They are both going the same way".

That day my boarding school, J. Hartford Academy for Young Ladies, had all it's students evacuated. We were taken to the airport in hopes of our safety as our country was in the midst of a war. The day already felt long, as I had a restless night because we had to stay the night at Scott's Boarding Academy for Boys. Both schools forced their students to the airport, each with a small suitcase in hand. We had been sitting in the terminal for what felt like forever. The crowded room was full of the screaming and laughter of children. My head was spinning with worry about my situation, so feeling stressed and homesick I decided to call my aunt. The call took much longer than necessary, as she burned my ear off with her concern and well wishes. Finally saying my final goodbye, I hung up. And that is when I noticed that only maroon sweaters filled the terminal and the blue ones, similar to mine had disappeared. In a panic, I ran up to the stewardess and that is when she informed me that all the girls' planes had already taken off. I would have to go with the boys. Embarrassed from missing my flight, I sighed in defeat. "Fine, I shall go with them. Thank you for your patience."

"Thank you, Miss for your understanding. How 'bout I let you board first?" I nodded in agreement. "Have a safe flight", she sung smiling at last.

The plane was small and cramped. Rows of two lined the walls and it looked like only 50 or so people could fit. I decided that due to my inconvenience the window seat of the first row would be mine. Loud voices echoed into the plane, as my flight companions rushed on. And feeling the headache coming, I braced myself for a very long flight. All the boys came on the plane in a stampede. First to stampede in was a horde of young and the others who walked behind were about my age. Suddenly, the maroon sweatered boys were pushed away by the black robes of a group of choir boys. The tallest, who I assumed was the leader, wore a hat. He marched proudly onto the plane with a authoritarian look. Surveying his newest domain, he noticed me. He pushed aside the younger boys in the aisle and sat down upon the open seat next to me.

"Hello. I am Jack Merridew. I am 17. I am the head of the choir and I can sing a C sharp. Who are you?" he inquired. The boy had dirty red hair and freckles that scattered across his stiff cheeks. The appearance of stubble shaded his chin and his strong lips held a tight smile.

"I am Audrey Clarence. I am 17 also.", I stated, giving this attractive boy my best smile. His dark brown eyes surveyed my body just as he did to the plane. I couldn't tell what he was thinking. "Oh yes", he said. "I know! You were walking around last night trying to find the girls bathroom. I knew I remember that face."

"Yes, that was me." I blushed a little at the thought of a boy remembering me. It was true. Last night was awful. I was homesick and had trouble falling asleep and I decided I needed to use the restroom. But the only choice was male, and to my dismay I had to wander for about 20 minutes before I cam upon a female one.

"Yes, my friends and I were remarking on your very see-through nightgown. I must say, I liked what I saw." I was stunned, how could he say something like that. As soon as those words left his thin lips, all the attraction to him left my mind. I had no response to this remark but he didn't seem bothered by my reaction."Don't worry Audrey, I won't tell anyone else." Him smiled devilishly. "It will be our little secret." He picked up one of my pieces of blackish-brown hair and started to twirl it around his thin pointer finger. He was leaning in like he was going to whisper something in my ear, but someone interrupted.

"Excuse me, but I believe your sitting in my seat." A boy with fair hair looked down at us and presented Jack his ticket. "Can't you sit somewhere else? We are in the middle of something here." The boy again shoved his ticket into Jack's face. "Fine. I will move, but I will see you soon, darling." And he winked at me. Disgusted, I watched Jack get up and move across the aisle.

"Thank you." I said, as the fair haired boy took Jack's place. "Oh, no problem. I saw what was happening, what was he telling you?" the boy asked. "Nothing much. He just had to inform me that he saw me last night walking in my nightgown and well, he liked what he saw." The boy gasped, "He is rude. You don't say those things to a lady."

I smiled, "I'm no lady."

"Yes you are um…. I don't know your name." he smiled back.

"Audrey"

"Ralph." He picked up my hand and kissed my knuckles. His kiss was soft, gentle, and sweet. His blue eyes sparkled with mischief and wonder. He was much more attractive then Jack and something about him was intriguing. The plane took off and we started talking about our families, school and what we like to do in our free time. Each subject led into another conversation. He made me laugh and I liked that about him. I noticed Jack staring at Ralph and me, face burning red with jealousy. We talked for about three hours, until the flight became very bumpy. I must have looked very uncomfortable because Ralph said, "Don't worry, Audrey it is just a little turbulence." Thirty minutes later it became much worse. "May I?" Ralph asked motioning to my hand. "Please." I said in a small voice. And he held my hand carefully, sending a sense of safety throughout my body. The turbulence was getting worse, throwing things around the cabin and the sound of boys screaming filled the air. It felt like the plane was going to drop out of the sky and I squeezed Ralph's hand tight. The captain's voice just rang over the loud speaker, when the plane hit the largest bump. I was thrown against the window, head first and the chaos around me became black.

Now

My last memories flooded in and a sense of panic filled my body; I was scared. Questions of concerned swirled in my mind, as I remembered all the other boys. The arm that lay protectively around my stomach was connected to Ralph. His face looked so peaceful with his eyes closed and his breathing was steady. For some reason, I felt connected to this boy. That fate brought us together and something beautiful was about to begin. I shifted to be closer to him and as I did I felt him stir. One striking blue eye opened and laid its gaze on me, Ralph smiled."Hi" his voice was groggy.

"Hi." His arm that lay upon my stomach tightened around my waist, pulling me closer to him. I could feel his warm breath against my skin, his nose gentle touched mine. We both smiled softly at each other. Ralph reached up and moved a strand of hair off my wet forehead. To my surprise, his gentle touch stung as his fingertip brushed my forehead and as he brushed it away, I saw red upon his hand. I must have hit the window with a lot of force before I went unconscious. Ralph's eyes noticed my face full of pain. "Just a little scrape. Don't worry you won't have a scar" he whispered.

"Where are we? How did we get off the plane?" I questioned, "I heard the pilot's voice just before I blacked out. Did he mention anything?"

"It was hard to hear with all the screaming, but I thought I heard something about emergency landing. I don't really remember. I woke up and it was dark out. I saw you passed out on the seat and thought we should get out of the plane, just in case. So I carried you out, put you down here. And here we are."

"Thank you." I said sleepily, deciding to rest my eyes again. But Ralph moved suddenly and stood up, pulling me with him. "No." I moaned, "I want to rest more."

"Come on, Sleeping Beauty we need to go." He smiled at me and pulled me forward. The world was all dizzy, but I managed to blush. A boy had never called me beautiful before. Ralph grabbed my hand and lead the way, as we began to pick through the jungle away from the rising smoke of the crashed plane.

After twenty minutes, we reached a cliff that looked over a beautiful beach with rough blue water. Behind us was thick jungle and a huge scar where the plane must have cut. Clouds covered the blue sky and the wind flowed through my hair with the smell of salt dancing in the air. Ralph decided we had to test the water and clean ourselves of the crash. Fearlessly he began to lower himself the ledge of rock, reaching up to help me every couple seconds. Upon reaching the sand, Ralph and I raced towards the water's edge. Ralph removed his maroon school sweeter and I, my blue one. The sun, just now hiding behind the cloud cover, was hot making the cotton sweater torture to the skin. I was glad to be rid of the sweater, freeing my arms of its heat. Every piece of my clothing was cover in mud. Dirt clung to my bare legs, underneath my thigh-length gray skirt. I could only imagine what my hair and face looked like. Ralph found large rocks in the sand and sat me down, examining my forehead. All of the sudden, a voice came from the other end of the beach. "Hi!" the squeaky voice shouted, "Wait for me."

A light rain began to drip from the clouds, Ralph moved take off his shoes and long white socks. The voice caught up to us, panting," I got caught up in all these creeper things." Confused about what he said, I moved to take a long look at the boy. He was rather plump and short, with a pair of thick spectacles upon his button nose. "Where is the man with the megaphone", he said. I had forgotten about him. The man shouted roll call into the megaphone just before the plane took the sky. Ralph spoke up ignoring the boy's questions, "I think we are on an island, see the reef out in the sea. Perhaps there aren't any grownups anywhere." Sure enough, there was a dark shadow about fifty feet from shore, indicating a reef.

"Aren't there any grownups at all?" the boy said sadly, sitting on the rock next to me.

"I don't think so." Ralph replied, as he made his way to the water.

"What about the pilot, Ralph? He must surely be alive." I remarked. But Ralph wasn't listening. Instead, he began to strip, taking off his white collard shirt and gray shorts. He waded his way into the sea, waves crashing upon his ankles as the rain slowed to a stop. But all my thoughts of the grownups ceased when I looked at Ralph. Now standing knee deep in the ocean, I couldn't help but notice his very defined chest and arms. I was stunned, no wonder the boy could pick me up, he was in great shape.

"What's your names?" the boy said and I stopped staring at Ralph.

"I'm Audrey and that is Ralph." I said and smiled, "What is your name?"

"I don't care what they call me, so long as they don't call me what they used to call me at school."

"What is that?" Ralph yelled.

'Piggy" he whispered.

"Piggy! Piggy!" Ralph laughed, and like that the boy was named. I gave him a look, so he stopped. "Are you coming in?"

"My auntie told me not to swim because of my asthma." Piggy said.

"Ass-mar?" Ralph asked. "Sucks to your ass-mar." I couldn't help but giggle.

"Don't worry, I have it too." I said, patting Piggy's hand. Ralph stopped laughing. By then the clouds disappeared and the sun shown brightly again. Feeling uncomfortably hot and dirty, I decided to join Ralph in the water. I took off my gray skirt and white polo shirt, neatly placing them on the rock next to Piggy. When I stood up, I met Piggy's eyes, wide in shock of seeing me in my underwear. I had on a bra and some little shorts that went under my skirt, and suddenly became very self-conscious. I turned to look at Ralph, who also looked stunned. Turning red, I realized no boy had ever seen me like this before. I didn't think I had much of anything, but you could tell from their gazes that it was there first time too. I was always told I was too skinny and plain. My hair fell shoulder length and was a mixture of black and brown. My green eyes were called by a friend swamp colored and set with bushy black eye brows. My cheeks, dotted with freckles, blushed red under their gazes. To escape the boys' eyes, I ran down to the waves, diving into the cool water. Feeling it rush against my skin, I felt fresh and renew appearing out of the water. The salt stung my eyes and forehead, as I rubbed the dirt off my face. Swimming out a little further, I started to float when Ralph's arms surround me. He dragged me under with him and as I surfaced I laughed, pushing him away. "What?" he replied giggling back at me. My hands slipped up his strong arms feeling his muscles as he embraced me. His face shown red, as held on to me becoming aware of my touch.

"You're really strong." I whispered.

"Well.." He smiled. Squirming in his arms, I began to try to swim away. Being much stronger then me, he stopped my effort and pulled me close. "Your beau-" he didn't get to finish. Piggy interrupted, "Guys, look at this!" He held up a big pink conch shell, showing it off to us. I looked at Ralph, who rolled his eyes and started to wade back to shore, in still holding my hand. "Ralph!" Piggy said, "We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting, they'll come when they hear us." Piggy was beaming. Drying off with my cotton sweater, I began to dress again, putting my skirt and shirt back on. Ralph with his shorts and unbuttoned shirt on, stood next to Piggy, who held a windbreaker and shoes. I grabbed my sweater, shoes and Ralph soon to be forgotten clothing and stood next to him. Taking the conch out of Piggy's hands, he examined it and pushed his fair hair back. He put the small part of the shell to his mouth and blew. Nothing happened, so he wiped the salt water off of his lips and blew harder. A low moaning sound came out of the shell, that mimicked a horn. After a few minutes, boys started coming out of the jungle. Young and old, they ran to the beach to join us. The first, a little boy no more than six, came running. He stopped right before me and decided to place his chubby little arms around my legs. "What's your name?" I asked patting him on the back, in a comforting way. I could hear sniffling and feel warm tears against my legs. "Johnny." He whispered between soft sobs. He shifted and motioned for me to pick him up. I hugged him tight and looked at Ralph, who smiled at me approvingly. The others surrounded us in a circle, but as soon as they reached us their gaze went to the other end of the shoreline. A massive dark figure walked down the beach. I could feel some of the boys stop in fear, wondering what this shadow could possibly be. It approached slowly and as it came closer, I realized it was not just a dark mass, but the choir in their robes. Led none other than Jack, who under his hat had a devilish smile plastered upon his face.

Disclaimer: some of what Ralph and Piggy say are taken right from LoTF. I wanted to make this story as accurate to the novel. In my opinion, the story feels more genuine that way.