Rick Frost & the Alaskan Adventure

By Todd Bush

It was supposed to be an adventure in the wilds of Alaska, a test of manhood for all the boys signed up on the school trip. But the whole prepackaged thing was nothing more than a long hike through some pretty trees. That is until Rick Frost and his friend Ben Nakni see a plane about to crash into the forest. A real adventure has just found them.

The only survivors of the crash are Robert Blair and his daughter Alexis, who just happens to be the hottest teen actress in Hollywood. She was on her way to make a movie in the Katmai National Forest when the unthinkable happened. Rick and Ben pull Robert and Alexis out of the wreckage just as a team of assassins arrive to finish the job.

The crash was no accident. Someone wants Alexis Blair dead and that puts Rick Frost in the cross hairs. He wanted an adventure; he got a wild ride through the unforgiving wilderness of America's last frontier.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Todd Bush
• Release date: May 11, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458195715

Todd Bush

Todd Bush is the writer of RICK FROST & THE ALASKAN ADVENTURE, the first book in the Rick Frost series. He served in the US Air Force and now works in administration at a high school. He lives in South Florida with his family.

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Rick Frost

&

The Alaskan

Adventure

Rick Frost

&

The Alaskan

Adventure

Todd Bush

RICK FROST & THE ALASKAN ADVENTURE

By Todd Bush

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2011 by Todd Bush

Cover art copyright © 2011 by Matt Elliott

All rights reserved.

RICK FROST & THE ALASKAN ADVENTURE is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

For more information about the author, please visit:

http://toddbushwriter.blogspot.com

For more information about the artist, please email:

[e-mail]

This book is dedicated to my father, Thomas Bush,

Who taught me that any guy can be a father,

But it takes a real man to be a Daddy.

I miss you and love you, Dad.

"As a father has compassion for his children,

So the Lord has compassion for those who love him."

Psalms 103:13

Chapter 1

Alaska, 10:30 AM

Alexis Blair sighed and drew a sad face on the fogged-up window.

That’s not funny, Lex. Her dad frowned as he glanced at her.

News flash, Dad, it’s not supposed to be. Art is an expression of the artist’s inner feelings and emotions.

Alexis rolled her eyes and looked out the window of the noisy seaplane. You want to explain this to me one more time? I mean, what kind of sense does this make?

I told you, Lexie—

Please don’t call me that.

Lexie—

Dad… She wanted to see him say it.

Fine… Alexis. There, that better?

Yes. A little smiled played across her face.

Alexis, I’ve called you Lexie since you were born. What’s wrong with your old man calling you that now?

Well, for starters it’s not my name. Haven’t you seen it on all those posters and trailers and at the beginning of all those movies? ‘Starring Alexis Blair’? I mean it’s not like it’s a short list.

Believe me, I know. You remind nearly everyone you meet.

What’s that supposed to mean?

Just forget it, enjoy the flight.

Whatever…

Alexis turned back to the window. Miles of trees and mountains stretched across the horizon. It was like an artist was stuck with green, brown, blue and white as his only colors and decided to go nuts with them. Alaska was everything Los Angeles was not. In place of palm trees and ocean breezes, she saw only cold, pine and rock. No lattes, no cell signal, no texts from friends.

Was this really necessary?

You know it was, Lex… sorry, Alexis. The judge was pretty clear.

What a jerk…

Actually, I thought he was pretty fair. You are underage. For driving and drinking. And it was the second time. Considering all that, I think you got a good deal, don’t you?

You think spending a month in that hole is a good deal?

Live Grove is hardly a hole, Lex. More like a spa then a rehab center.

Ever spent much time in rehab, Dad?

Robert didn’t say anything. He didn’t look at his daughter.

It’s not fun. Ever had the sweats? The dreams?

He didn’t say anything.

Ever gone through therapy?

Yes, he said. Alexis’s eyes narrowed, then looked at the floor.

Yeah… suppose you have.

I miss your mom too, Lex. But that doesn’t give you an excuse to—

You think that’s why?

It’s got to be one of the reasons.

You know what, conversation officially changed. Alexis turned back to the window. What is the stupid movie about, anyway?

Robert unbuckled his belt and reached under his seat for the script. It’s actually a really good story. A young, single mom living in a small Alaskan town; she takes care of her son and her grandmother and somehow manages to hold down two jobs. All of that while falling for a local shop owner.

And let me guess, she abhors anything to do with alcohol to the point of not allowing a single sale of beer or even a neon sign in the restaurant she works in.

Um… Robert flipped through the first fifty or so pages of the script. Nope, no mention of beer and I don’t see any neon in here. But, you never know. Production designer might be able to slip in a vodka reference for you.

Thanks, that really helps. You’re alcoholic daughter gets slammed by her father about the fact that she is, in fact, a freaking alcoholic. Real good parental skills there, Robert.

Sorry, Lexie.

They both allowed the words to float in the air. The roar of the seaplane droned in Alexis’s ears as she looked out the window once again. Fifteen million for her last film, now the entire budget for this disaster in the making was less than two hundred grand. Alexis made more than that for simply showing up at a New Year’s Eve or Super Bowl party. Not a week went by that she wasn’t on the cover of one of the celebrity gossip magazines. At least before all this happened.

Snow-capped peaks and deep-green forests flew by through the window.

Another cold day in hell, Alexis thought.

Rick Frost paced and heard the forest floor crunch under his shoes.

If you don’t stop wearing down the carpet and rest, bro, I’m gonna have to knock you out. Ben Nakni laid down on his backpack and looked up at his best friend. Rick ignored him.

I’m serious, that mulch you’re traipsing all over was specially ordered last year and has been specifically placed in that pattern you see there in order to give all of us the impression that it was cast there by the hand of the forest gods long before man was ever brought forth from the dust of the earth. And if you don’t stop messing it up, people might figure out that it’s not the real deal.

That got a look. But Rick didn’t sit down. He just stared at Ben.

I’m serious, man, Ben said. You walk by me one more time I’m gonna to have to go all Jack Bauer on you.

Rick finally stopped and looked at the ground, then spoke for the first time all morning. I didn’t sign up for this.

I know what you mean. Being coddled at the school is one thing. I mean I enjoy our time at Wooddale Academy. What with the four-star dining, the pre-shined shoes and wrinkle-free uniforms… but out here? Actually, I take that back. I like the wrinkle-free stuff. Hate ironing.

Rick finally smiled.

Ben relaxed on his pack. See, I always win.

How do you figure?

Didn’t I tell you that you’d hate this trip?

Kind of.

Kind of nothing, I did. Didn’t I also tell you that our esteemed and venerable dean of students, Mr. H. Bransford Hutch was maybe the worst person possible to lead any trip with the words ‘adventure’ and ‘wild’ in the title?

Something like that.

No, it was exactly that. You wanted to get out of Wooddale. I told you this wasn’t the way to do it. Of course, nearly getting expelled three times in the last three years is hardly the way to go either, but that’s beside the point.

Hey, one of those was your idea.

Ben tilted the brim of his hat so he could see Rick. Oh, and you objected so strongly to an impromptu trip to the girls’ school that I had to drag you by your ears. Please.

Rick smiled again. It was Mr. Hutch that caught them, but only because he was visiting a lady friend that wasn’t his wife.

Remind me how Hutch didn’t get in trouble with his old lady and yet we got a month of kitchen patrol?

Ben, that’s the wonders of politics, which your dad should have drilled in your head by now. I mean the guy runs the two biggest casinos in Mississippi. You’d think he’d show you a thing or four.

Believe me, he’s tried.

Stubborn?

Nope, just wouldn’t stick. I’m too old school according to Grand-pops.

Rick smiled at the thought of Ben’s grandfather. A full-blooded Choctaw Indian and tribal elder, he taught both of the boys hunting, fishing and other outdoor skills from the time they could walk practically. Ben pulled Rick out of his thoughts.

If my ancestors saw me taking water and food laid out by some advance team while I faked hacking my way through the forest, trying to make myself sweat just so all these prissy boys won’t feel so bad, they’d come out of their graves and beat me senseless.

Rick looked toward the so-called leader of their expedition and his dour look came back. I doubt Mr. Hutch would know what to do if these pallets weren’t here.

Oh, come on. Hutch knows exactly what to do out here. You extensively plan to find a perfectly flat patch of ground on which a group of forest fairies deposit extra food, supplies and water.

Don’t forget copies of Shakespeare, Emerson and Thoreau, Rick said.

Hey, was that a joke?

No.

I think it was. Let’s see, Ben said. Yep, survey says that it was indeed a joke.

Rick sighed again. An adventure this was not.

If the advance team up and disappeared, Hutch’d probably go right into the fetal position and call for his mommy, Ben said getting ready for a small nap.

Isn’t there some Cherokee saying about not looking a gift horse in the mouth? Rick asked.

Choctaw, remember? We were the ones who didn’t cry a trail of tears.

Yeah, as I recall, you bloodied yours up pretty good.

Had to get you white boys to see reason somehow, didn’t we? His eyes were closed, but the smile wasn’t going away anytime soon.

Um, your family grew up on a reservation.

Yeah, I know. Say, how much money your uncles have lost at my dad’s casinos?

Rick laughed. Thankfully none of my trust fund. Not that I want the thing.

I don’t know why. How much is it?

Too much.

Don’t go bleeding-heart on me, please. You know I hate that crap, Ben said.

And I know my family earned every penny. But a bank account doesn’t make you a real man.

Ben rubbed his bald chin. No, it doesn’t. However, I’m pretty sure shaving is a factor. I think I feel some stubble.

Doesn’t start out as stubble, bud. Feels like peach fuzz that just turns dark. Not that you’re gonna have to worry about facial hair.

That, my friend, is a racist stereotype. And although I resemble that remark, I won’t have it from my greedy, lying white friend.

Rick smiled at the old joke. They’d been friends since before either of them could remember.

Ben adjusted himself on his pack and pulled his hat lower on his head. He checked his watch.

Not even eleven yet. You think Mr. Hutch is gonna take another of his ‘respites’ before lunch? Or have we hit the quota for breaks required by the Oxford handbook for the proper behavior of gentlemen?

Rick’s face clouded up. Just once I’d like to get away from this farce and do something… I don’t know… real! I’m sick of this crap.

Aw, it’s not so bad. Hey, you get a little nap in before and after a bag lunch, then it’s a brisk thirty-minute hike over gently sloping yet ‘brutally barren’ landscape, another quick stop for afternoon tea, then a forty-five minute trot to the next miraculously flat, totally comfortable and, of course, completely natural camp site. Oh, and the whole glorious day is wrapped up as a way-too-eager British academic reads to you from the complete works of that saint of the outdoors, William Shakespeare.

Ben smiled at him from under his cap. Rick wasn’t smiling. Mr. Hutch was gearing up again and urging the already winded students that it was time to get going with his normal motivational exclamation: Ok, gentleman warriors! Once more unto the breach, dear friends.

Rick smirked again.

You think he’d even know what the blast of war sounds like? Or how to summon up his blood?

Probably not. Then again, should we tell him that this is a mountain, not a breach?

Rick looked at his friend, who was readying his pack for the next hike. It would take at least ten minutes to get the younger kids and the less outdoorsy-types up and back on the trail. Rick looked up

Reviews for Rick Frost & the Alaskan Adventure

[andreat78_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Rick Frost and the Alaskan Adventure is the first book in a new series by Todd Bush. The book/series centers around Rick Frost, a 14-year prep school student. Rick’s life-long best friend, Ben, is his loyal sidekick and comic relief. Rick and Ben, are on a school trip in the Alaskan wilderness, when they see a plane spiraling out of control. Rick and Ben set out on their own hoping to find survivors, and adventure. Turns out, they will find more adventure than they could have dreamed of. The boys discover a spoiled Hollywood starlet, Alexis Blair and her father, Robert. Not only does the group have to survive their hostile surroundings, but also a band of ruthless mercenaries. Let the adventures begin! This book gets off to a fast, adventurous start. And the action and witty dialogue never lets up. Rick and Ben are so funny and honorable, you can’t help but love them. Alexis is entitled and haughty, but also has a vulnerability lurking under the surface. Rick and Ben are totally unimpressed by the pampered princess, and usually put her in her place with sarcasm. The author, Todd Bush, did an incredible job in writing these characters. Rick, Ben and Alexis are fully fleshed out. They are so well-developed, I felt Bush knew each character down to their core. In fact, each aspect of this book appears to have been well-thought out. The action scenes were so real, the scenery description so vivid, I could actually picture the scenes in my head as a movie. Rick Frost and the Alaskan Adventure would be an excellent suggestion especially for pre-teen and teen boys. But, honestly, I think anyone would enjoy this book. The fast pace, witty dialogue and well-written characters are universally appealing. The book is not very long, 164 pages, perfect for a lot of young readers. So if you’re up for the adventure, read Rick Frost and the Alaskan Adventure, available now. The next book, Rick Frost and the Sword of Calibum is due later this summer.