Boot Camp for Bad Boys

Chapter 3

     My limbs hung lifelessly to my side and I am convinced I’ve lost all feeling in both my legs and I was actually floating on air. I dropped to my knees dramatically and turned to the side, lying down with all of my limbs spread on the grass patch.

I managed to do about 10 laps until I decided I lost every last energy I had, by just jogging earlier, I am proud to say that I can now publish my very own cuss word books, free of charge to all. I turned my head to my side as I watched Demi and Caleb who now was walking towards me on the grass patch from afar, with some water bottles in hand. Guess they too were done with their laps.

The only sport I actually liked was probably, eating? I used to be real god at track and field during my sophomore year, and ever since I started skipping practice, I seem to have fell out of touch and the muscles that came with have dissipated into thin air as well. As I lay here thinking what the hell happened to me? I touched my belly and pinched it. I winced in embarrassment.

Oh dear lord, with all the marshmallows and late night snacks I’ve been taking, I was gaining weight without even realizing it. Looking at Demi, she had a perfectly toned legs and arms, I quietly thought to myself, yes, that was definitely my end goal. Self-care right? Gotta make sure you’re healthy and fit as a horse by the end of this ‘rehab’ program I got thrown in.

“You shouldn’t lie down once you’ve finished an intense workout, because that’ll cause you all sorts of cramps later tonight.” Caleb’s shadow hovered above me. I sat up almost immediately after hearing what he had just said.

I hated muscle cramps I swear they were the worst. I knew that I had to ‘warm down’ after every intense exercise I did, I learnt that when I was on the track team but I’ve completely forgotten since I’ve stopped all athletic activities. Well, not exactly per se, surely running after an ice cream truck does count right?

“Here, let me help.” Caleb extended his arm as I attempted to sit up but I was just too tired. I took it without thinking twice, my thigh muscles were starting to ache, so did my butt but I held on. Demi walked over to me and passed me a bottle which I gladly took it. “How was your first workout in camp?”

“Absolutely terrifying.” I stretched my sore arms from side to side, balancing the water bottle between my knees. “Don’t worry, you’ll soon get used to it in no time.” she patted my shoulder comfortingly. “I’ll make you some good ol’ hot chocolate later on to make you feel better.”

“Guys! Get your butts over here!” Danny called loudly from the other side of the football field, waving.

“We’re not done yet?” I wanted to cry, I don’t think my legs could carry me any further as I watched the scene that unfolded in front of me. “This obstacle course pretty much tests out your balancing skills.” Caleb said without looking at me. I instantly regretted walking all the way here.

“Welcome to Shrek’s swamp.” Danny said to me, clearly enjoying the forlorn look on my face. The water was so murky there who knows what the hell is in there? There were tree wigs and branches floating everywhere, dead leaves included, occasionally there were bubbles popping out here and there, was that a snake?

“Nu uh, there’s no way in hell I’m getting in or anywhere near that.”

“What a princess indeed.” Caleb blew a low whistle and I narrowed my eyes at him.

There were two strong solid ropes that were wrapped around onto two giant tree trunks by the side, Danny explained that both your hands were to grip the top rope tightly and make sure your feet stays firmly on bottom rope. “Don’t clowns do that all the time in circuses? Balancing themselves on a tightrope? Then yeah, I think that seems pretty easy” I drew out a breath once I made my conclusion. Demi shook her head, smiling at my sudden boost of confidence. “I think you meant the acrobats.” Danny offered.

“I’m pretty sure it’s the clowns with the big hair.” I nodded.

“Should we tell her?” Caleb asked, his arms folded as he turned to Demi and she just shrugged.

“Tell me what?” I asked.                                                    

“I think everyone, including you deserves a good experience on their first time at this course.” Demi nodded thoughtfully at me. “Now that doesn’t sound too convincing at all.” I argued.

“Well, before you go, have some of these.” Danny shuffled around in his pants pocket and plastic crunching noise rustled. "Here, taste the rainbow.”

“If there was one person I appreciate more in this world right now, no doubt it’s you” I took the red packet of skittles from him and poured some on my hand.

“Good luck out there, you’ll need it.”

“Okay everybody hustle up, you know the drill. So I heard we have a new trouble maker on camp ground. Welcome and I’m sorry that Buffy back there has scared the bejesus out of you but I hope you have a great time here.” The male instructor spoke to the campers that gathered around and then turned his attention to me. Well at least he was nice and I do think he was pretty scared of…wait, did he just call her Buffy too?

“In order to kick start this evening’s activity, the newbie gets to go first” There was another instructor with bowl cut who clapped his hands to get our attention after there were a series of cheers I supposed was meant for me. But, yes as I was saying— A bowl cut. I stared at the instructor thoughtfully, doing the calculations in my head of the dimension of hair that covered his head. What in the world was this man thinking when he went to the barber?

“Any last advice for me?” I stretched my neck from side to side like a wannabe badass, not wanting to embarrass myself again in front of all these people.

"The trick is not to fall into the lake." Caleb whispered.

"You, the new girl you’re up!"

“That’s is not literal advice but I’ll take it.” I said, surprising Caleb as he raised his brow at me.

I pulled a face and looked at the two ropes ahead of me, okay, yeah well maybe it wasn’t so hard, I could do this, right? Why did I not sound convincing at all?

Maya and her group of skanks were snickering at me at a far corner but I ignored her, taking in a deep breath to calm my nerve. I walked to one end of the rope and I grabbed the top rope with both my hands making sure my grip was tight; I planted one leg after another on the lower rope. “Well, this isn’t so bad” I bit my lip and looked up.

My new friends cheered me on and I forced myself to only look ahead. Maya glared at them at then back at me and squinted her eyes like she was thinking of something. She had her back turned against me and whispered something to her friends. Allie, focus, stop looking at other people I told myself

I began moving one foot slowly, one in front of the other, along with my hands—and that’s when it got a hell lot tricky. The ropes started wobbling uncontrollably, my entire body lurched forward, knocking the wind out of my lungs as I let out a sound that was in between a laughter and a scream. I felt like I was falling really quickly but I gathered the remaining strength I had and bent my arms and legs and I was steady on the rope once again.

And that’s when I realized one of Maya’s minions went missing, there were four of them but now three of them stood in the corner. I glanced around and saw that one of them was diverting the attention of the instructors. Maya made sure I had realized what was going on and she walked ever so silently to the other end of the rope. My friends seemed to realize what was going on, especially Demi who had been my saviour this morning. She whispered something quickly to Danny and Caleb and they snuck behind the rest of the group who were watching and cheering me on.

It’s alright, Maya can do whatever she wants but I swear I have this all under control. Just keep moving forward.

I continued balancing myself slowly on the ropes, although there were another few more rounds of me doing some sick Michael Jackson moves on the rope, lurching back and forth uncontrollably, then wobbling out of control,

Allie, whatever you do, do.not.scream.

I felt the rope shaking rather rapidly all of a sudden and when I realized it wasn’t me who had caused the sudden reaction, I looked to the other end of the rope. That’s when I saw Maya’s left leg on the bottom rope. Her leg was bouncing up and down on it and I shouted.

“Stop that, it’s not funny! You freakishly tall and pathetic excuse of a person!”

“Oh I would watch that tongue of yours, but first try getting off this rope first!” she cackled. Oh my god, what is it with this red head crazy b***h? It’s not even a day but I’m starting to hate this girl already. The rest of her group starting bouncing the top rope rather vigorously and I was already beginning to lose my balance. Did the instructor not see this?

Other kids started laughing at me, it was as if I were at a circus show but this time I was the clown/acrobat. Damn it. My face was heating up in embarrassment and my movements on the rope made me look like a flailing octopus.

Demi’s fingers pointed to the right, gesturing me to look over. That’s when I saw Caleb and Danny who stood right behind Maya and her group. With one accidental slip of their foot, the boys sent Maya and skanks slipping ever so gracefully into the lake below. I stared at them with wide eyes the second the rope stopped bouncing and everyone burst out in laughter. Maya screamed and thrashed around the muddy swamp. Her once red hair turned black and she sputtered out the brown murky water from her mouth.

I wanted to throw up.

And I did.

More screaming and laughter.

“What the hell is wrong with you? You can’t just throw up on us like that!” she shrieked, flailing her arms around, now who’s the psychopath down below?

“Sorry, I have a natural gag reflex to trash.” I attempted to smile.

“I swear to god when I get out of her, I will end you.”

“Anytime would be fine.” I taunted.

The screaming from Maya and her minions finally got the attention of the distracted instructors. “Oh get yourselves out of there and stop screaming your head off.” he stuck his board under his arm. “Once all of you have passed the rope, you are to be dismissed and hit the showers.”

“Yes sir!” Everyone replied in unison and then they were back to laughing. Oh god, I was feeling so sick.

"You! New girl! If I’m in here you’re coming down with me” she swam below where I was standing and tried to pull my leg down. My instant instincts were to quickly head back to dry land. But I was wobbling like crazy. “Allie, get over here!” Caleb gestured as he stood at the other end of the rope, holding one of his hand out to me.

“Caleb! Why are you helping her?!” Maya screamed and Caleb ignored her. Everyone was cheering, wait they were cheering for me. “Shut up, the whole lot of you, shut up!” she demanded and flung some of the muddy water at the audience.

My limbs moved faster than ever and I had to mentally scold myself to stop wobbling and get my s**t together. Caleb reached across the rope and Maya caught my leg and tugged at me. She laughed and continued pulling. I looked down at her; damn she looked nasty as hell.

“Oh you’re not going anywhere.” the mud monster threatened. “Not today Satan! Just hours ago my principal had decided that having my parents place me in boot camp was the best idea to hopefully educate and because of this, I’m not going to see my friends, miss out on school activities for 4 whole months, got yelled at by a crazy she-male and made to run laps on my first day here.” I sucked in a deep breath as the rest went quiet, Caleb in particular looked extremely impressed but I was too far gone to be notice.

“I’m not going to be like some weakling and get trampled over by girls like you in front of everyone here and I’m most certainly not gonna waddle around in mud and in my own vomit on my first day of camp!” I spat out my words I didn’t even realized that I was already on the other end of the platform and everyone erupted in cheers.

“Wow, you’re not quite the princess I thought you were, I’m impressed.” Caleb said and Danny just clapped for me.

“You’d better.” I let out a breath of relief. Maya fumed madly as some other campers helped her and the others who fell in.

“Here, have my shirt Allie!” some random guy from the back yelled. “Take mine too Allie!” another offered.

“Move along boys, unless you wanna get your balls waxed too.” Demi ushered me away from the crowd. “You, my friend are amazing back there, but it’s now time to hit the showers.” She laughed, holding me at an arms-length and I just hugged her, making her scream in protest since I was all sweaty.

I guess it was safe to say after my stunt today, Maya would lay her hands off me. As much as I wanted to knock the living daylights out of her, I didn’t want to give my parents another reason to be disappointed.

It was a good thing that there was an hour break before dinner begin so I could quickly take a shower and some time to sort out my suitcase.

“I can’t tell you how proud I am of you, you literally confronted a big bully on your first day here and you didn’t fall into the lake, for a first timer, I’d have to say, you amazed everyone out there.”

“Well, I bet everyone else did fine at swamp challenge back there.”

She shook her head, “I fell in three times, Danny fell twice, and the only people on camp who hasn’t fallen in yet, is you and Caleb.”

Caleb?

“Like you said, yet.” I smiled, unzipping the zipper on my bag to get a towel out.

“Well, it takes practice; all you gotta do is balance and pretty much run across those ropes.”

I took a large swig of water from the cup that Demi had passed me.

 “Why not you go hit the showers? I’ll make you that hot chocolate like I promised earlier.”

“Thanks Demi, for everything today.” I gathered my towel from my suitcase and a new set of clothes along with my toiletries and headed from the bath.

“Don’t thank me yet, the evening has barely begun.” she winked. And for the first time in forever, I was up for more exercises. Good god.

I tied my hair into a messy bun on top of my head and got out of my clothes and threw them into the empty laundry basket in the corner of the bathroom. I lathered soap on my body and I let my thoughts wander. I took back what I said, about me not caring that my ex cheated on me. I was fuming mad when I found out he had done me dirty. I was beginning to fall in love with him—and this was the same boy who had been talking to me for years but I only saw him as a friend. Until a week before prom he had asked me to be his date, and of course we didn’t just kiss only twice. I only said twice because I was so mad at what he did.

It was by default that I had found out that he had been seeing Cassie for a month now behind my back and I had no idea. High school romance, am I right? It hardly ever works out.

Was I not good enough for the boys I was with? I didn’t know the area I was lacking in and I hated myself for it. I felt my eyes beginning to sting and I splashed water on my face, taking a deep breath and blinked hard.

You’re gonna be okay, you will be.

**

"There you are, here, your hot chocolate." Demi handed to me a steaming hot mug. "Thanks" I held the mug with both hands and sat on a bed that now had a clean bed sheet thrown over it. Guess Demi did this for me too.

“I’m sorry but I took the liberty in setting up your bed for you, thought you might need some rest after what you’ve been through today.” she said thoughtfully. “Thank you, I really appreciate it, and for this” I held up the mug.

“You’re most welcome.” she echoed.

I took the first sip and let the warm liquid slide down my parched throat. "This is amazing" I sighed as I continue sipping slowly.

"I know, It’s the drink I’m good at making." she smiled. There was a short moment of silence before I began. “Now that we’re sort of friends, perhaps you would like to tell me the reason why you’ve been here for three years now?”

Demi pursed her lips as she pulled out the chair from her writing desk, sitting on it as she rested her chin on her hands.

“I was enrolled into this camp when I was 14.” she began. I put down my cup in between my legs as I listened. “My parents, they were renowned archaeologists and they were called to fly into Egypt for some research project but something went horribly wrong and the cave they were digging up stuff in collapsed on them, died on the spot. Before they left, they had me stay with an aunt. I barely turned 6 that year, about 8 years later my aunt died of leukaemia.” An unfamiliar wave of emotion washed over me. “Oh I’m so sorry.” I whispered, not sure of what to say.

She smiled. “That’s the thing about fate, you can’t change it no matter what. Whatever has happened, happened. It took me a while to accept it that how and why my parents left me all on my own and went on to pursue their dreams. I was this notorious trouble maker back in sophomore year, I got rebellious when I realized I had no adult figure to depend on, eventually everyone got tired of me, my relatives passed me around like I was some sort of pet.” she pursed her lip, there was a flash of sadness in her eyes but she shrugged it off easily.

I was at lost for words and I wasn’t particularly the best person to go to for comfort. So I did the most basic thing I knew of when somebody was upset, I gave them a hug.