Chapter 8: Summer Camp

Graduation day.

Kent and Eric grinned so wide at each other when the program was over. They threw their graduation caps at the same time. They embraced each other tightly like brothers.

Their family came over to them and congratulated them. As usual, Kent’s father, a businessman, was always busy in New York and was not even able to attend this special day. But he was grateful enough that his mom was always with him, supporting him and loving him in every way possible that he could never thank enough for. It was like she patched up her husband’s lack of interest in their son. Kent never did want to make this dampen the occasion but he couldn’t help it.

In a way, Kent sometimes envied Eric as both his parents were so loving and supportive of him and Elise. No wonder he gravitated to the Helmrick family. But aside from that, he was more attracted to Elise. In each passing day, it was making his attraction go deeper more and more so. And he had this natural growing feeling of protecting her in every way he possibly could. It was almost like he pledged his life to her, inside him. He had no idea and he couldn’t fathom it either but it was that kind of feeling he had for her ever since he saw her at school.

“Congratulations,” said Elise, breaking into his thoughts. He looked down at her hands, holding a gift for him in a blue wrapper.

“Hey, why you gave him first your gift? Where’s mine?” Eric demanded when he saw what his sister was doing.

“It’s at the house! Why would I bring it here?” Elise turned to her brother with a raised eyebrow.

Kent chuckled and accepted the gift from her hands. Their fingers brushed, and they suddenly both felt the tingling subtle electricity that ran throughout their body.

Elise bit her lower lip as she looked at him under her lashes.

“Thanks, Elise,” Kent only said and looked at his mother who was smiling at him. The latter then turned to talk with the older Helmricks.

“Hey, where’s my gift?” Diana broke into the group, grinning. Her seven-year-old little sister was on her heels, tugging at her black graduation toga.

“If you go to the house, I’ll give it to you,” Elise told her friend sheepishly.

Diana playfully frowned and glanced at Kent and his gift. “That’s unfair,” she said to him.

Kent just winked at her and smiled charmingly.

Diana still frowned then her eyes opened wide. “I know. We’ll go to Menominee’s Hut tomorrow. We’ll celebrate our graduation!”

“How many times do you want to celebrate your graduation?” Eric scowled at Diana, teasing her behind it.

Diana pouted prettily. “Don’t go if you don’t want to. I’m only inviting Elise and Kent. Just my friends! We’re not friends, so you’re not included!” she shot back, giving emphasis on the last sentence.

Elise chortled at Diana and noticed her brother’s disappointed face. She playfully slapped her brother’s face. Eric reacted like a child.

“I’ll get you for that!” he threatened.

Elise ran screaming. “Mom, Dad! Help!”

Everyone laughed, watching their childish behavior.

****

Waupaca High School.

It was the second week of their summer vacation. The Belmont High School bus loaded with the Belmont Braves cheerleading and football teams stopped. Everyone got off the bus and looked around them. It seemed that all Division 7 participants were there to join the one-week summer camp. It seemed that there were more people here than all people combined in Belmont town.

“What? Getting agoraphobia?” Eric mocked Elise who stopped to watch all the people around them.

She frowned and hit him in the ribs with her elbow. Eric just grinned and rubbed his side playfully but did not feel pain at all. Their two groups were guided by each of their coaches, and they placed their luggage in a room with beds cramped together for the athletes to sleep in.

On the first day, every team member was asked to introduce himself or herself but it was through their respective coaches. Mrs. Lee, an Asian who taught the subject Social Science, admitted that she was so nervous to speak. She also admitted that as a coach, she had without knowledge on anything about cheerleading.

Diana beamed at their coach kindly and threw an arm around her shoulders casually. “Mrs. Lee, you just have to introduce us to them. It’s no big deal. For us, you’re still the best!”

The others nodded in unison to give her encouragement. The poor coach smiled at them almost in tears.

“Thank you, Diana. You’re the nicest team captain I’ve ever met!” she stated appreciatively. “Well, I did not meet a lot in my younger years anyway,” she added belatedly.

The morning session went smoothly. The middle-aged black-haired Mrs. Lee introduced the girls proudly, and the girls were so happy that she got through it without any more fuss or turning herself into a clown.

In the afternoon, the participating teams were asked to mingle with the others and make a team with ten members. Everyone was nervous but excited to meet the other participants at the camp. Elise and Diana fortunately got together and got mixed with the others. The newly formed team soon became very close as everyone seemed to be so friendly, though the competitive aura was also there.

The official emcee at the camp was a very charming and gay lady, a professional cheerleader herself. She informed them she came from Belmont University and was proud to be one. She then later announced some rules.

“We are trying to build rapport and sportsmanship here at the camp. Therefore, say goodbye to your teammates starting the day after tomorrow, after the showdown, that is. Each participating team will have their last day together until tomorrow. Of course, you can say hi again to them when you’ve graduated this summer camp,” she said and grinned. “So, that’s the twist of this summer camp.” She paused, looking at everyone’s faces. “It would be championships first before learning some more new cheerleading techniques and routines. From there, we will know which team needs more improvement. And by making a team with other teams’ members, all of you will also learn from each other. All my colleagues will of course help me out to teach you all professionally.”

Diana winked at Elise. She was so confident that their new routine was nothing like the others. They improvised more on their routine that they have showcased during the football championships. They were not only going to do the exchange of flyers in basket toss once but a few more times and some other additional dangerous stunts.

The next day, it was exactly what they did. Aside from their unique basket toss, they did a rotating scorpion technique, wherein the bases would rotate while the floaters executed a scorpion. When the bases stopped rotating, the floaters were then tossed up in the air and performed three body twists before they were caught again by the bases.

By the end of the championships, the Belmont Braves cheerleading team barely made it. But they won the competition. They had discovered potential new routines they were going to improvise and rehearse them after the summer camp.

“I’m full of inspiration! I’ve got a lot of ideas!” Diana was grinning happily at Elise.

Elise snorted and laughed at her friend’s good mood. “I’m sure you have.”

She looked at her teammates’ faces that were so eager to learn more on this summer camp. Then she looked at Aubrey. She could see her eyes were shining as well for more knowledge in cheerleading. She could empathize with her feelings. They were best friends once before after all. Therefore, she knew that the other girl was thirsting for more knowledge about cheerleading.

****

Eric was true to his word to his father. Every morning, he woke up so early ahead of his teammates to meditate at least ten minutes. And when his teammates were awake, they would start body exercises on the field and start some drills.

Just like the cheerleading teams’ rules, the championships were going to be held first by round-robin. The new playoffs were held to coach them some more offense, defense and what to do with the special teams. Belmont Braves had no extra players in the team, though, but it was also good to learn some more about special teams.

Because of the close teamwork of Eric, Kent and their teammates, they were able to gain the summer camp championships as well. They were so happy about their achievement that before the summer camp ended, the two guys visited Elise and Diana in their room.

“Hey, what are you doing here? It’s almost lights out,” Diana scolded the big guys.

“You heard the news?” asked Eric, grinning.

“What news?” Diana’s eyebrows rose.

“We won the championships!” Eric said loudly.

The other cheerleaders in the room heard it and gathered around the guys.

“Really? Wow! You were so amazing!” said Tiffany to Eric, forgetting he was Elise’s brother.

“Yeah, I am!” Eric boasted and he laughed at them.

Kent just smiled and slapped his friend in the back slightly.

A few minutes later, they exchanged experiences during their summer camp. They felt they were sorry that it was coming to an end. It would be their last day on the camp the following day.

“Hey, that’s enough. Get back to your quarters,” Mrs. Lee told them just a few minutes before the actual lights out was announced through a loud speaker mounted in a corner of each room.

Every night, they were given a chance to recall the things they learned during the day and every teammate could share his or her thoughts on the techniques taught to them. This way, everyone would grow in their specific roles in the team. And in this way, the teamwork of each member would be enhanced, and thus, their bond with each other would get stronger. Everyone thought that this was the best summer camp they had ever been in.

The two guys headed back to their room to sleep.

“Do you feel weird lately, Kent?” Eric asked while they were on their way back. The concrete pathway was narrow with bushes on each side.

Kent stopped for a second and continued walking. “Well… maybe yeah,” he admitted. “Why? Do you feel something weird, too?”

“Yeah. It seems that I’m always fired up. I did practice a lot ever since I was four. But lately, I just can’t get enough. It seems that I’m preparing… for something. You know what I mean?”

Kent laughed for a moment. “Yeah, I think I know how it feels,” he agreed with his friend with a nod of his head. “And I noticed that you meditate longer than usual. Before, you would only sit around five whole minutes as though your body has its own clock. You just stop at the right second in a full five-minute meditation. Now, it’s ten minutes or more,” Kent observed.

“Oh, I did not notice that, Kent. And I really feel weird. And you, I think there’s something weird about you, too. During the playoffs, you were also fired up. It’s not that I’m complaining, but what we did seems… it fired up our other teammates, too.” He cocked his head on one side.

They continued to walk, breathing the night’s fresh air that carried some conifer scent coming from the nearby mini-forest. “Oh, you noticed that, too? Me too. But… this is weird. Really weird.”

“Oh, well. Maybe it’s because our team won for the first time in the history of our school. We got the trophy of the championships. And then, we badly wanted to win the summer camp playoffs, too, right?”

Kent nodded even though something was still bugging him. It was just felt so weird. But he did not say that he felt so protective about Elise lately. He wanted to make sure that she was not harmed. He wondered if Eric felt the same. But no, he could not open it up to Eric just yet because he might take it the wrong way. He thought his friend wouldn’t like it because of his sister. Though Eric seldom showed it, Kent knew that he was pretty protective over Elise—and even if Eric did not say it out loud. Why else didn’t he give her number to him when he asked for it?

Kent just smiled to himself then. “Come on, let’s hurry,” he said to Eric instead, and they ran the rest of the way back to their room.

****

Back in the girls’ room, Diana officially announced that Elise is the next team captain of their cheerleading team. Everybody applauded her including Mrs. Lee.

“Thank you. I’ll do my best to serve the team and lead it to more championship trophies in the next three years,” Elise promised confidently with a smile.

Elise’s vow to her Belmont Braves cheerleading teammates was not easy but she’d try her best to keep the promise.