Boot Camp for Bad Boys

Chapter 7

          My body was aching all over when I rose that morning. My head was throbbing in pain as if Buffy were sitting on my brains. I had a feeling that it was most probably because of last night’s evening rain and the last few intense workouts that's finally taking its toll on me—damn I was really out of shape.

Groaning as I rolled over the mattress, feeling the cold side of the pillow on my face, stretching my back a little as I began to concoct a plan in hopes this could serve as the perfect excuse from being involved in those crazy activities later today—I was also partly tired of it all, period.

Slowly, I opened my eyes and scanned my surroundings , frowning a little when I realized Demi wasn’t around and almost immediately, the events of late last night came rushing back to my memory. I shut my eyes again, sighing. s**t, I was in Caleb and Danny’s shared cabin.

"Hey sleepy head, you’re finally up." Caleb spoke. His voice was raspy and he looked like he just woke up. As he stood at the edge of the bed with both of his arms folded across his broad chest, I was picturing a scene where in a movie scene, a random hook up had happened last night between two strangers and they were now experiencing an awkward morning where both of them were still together—well except that we didn’t hook up and we’re not exactly strangers anymore sooo..as I was saying..

His bed hair only made him look more attractive (What? Okay name me one girl who isn’t into boys with great hair), which also makes it even harder to look away through my barely open eyes. God, since when I was such a p*****t?

So to avoid any awkwardness, I pretended I was still asleep. "I know you were giving me a once over alright." his voice was light and teasing.

"Oh come on, at least play along with me." I covered my face in embarrassment, my hands buried deep in the sleeves of the oversize hoodie when he pulled the duvet covers away from my face. "How are you feeling?" he asked, looking concerned now. “You look pretty pale.”

"I feel a fever running and my body hurts, what time is it?" I leaned over the bed as if to around for a clock.

 "Almost 5:00 in the morning."

"That’s almost too early for a 17 year old to function" I pulled back the covers over my head. "Well, I think all you need to do is to report in that you're not feeling well, I think they'd let you off"

"One could actually do that?" I sounded hopeful with my voice muffled from being under the covers. I really wanted to stay in bed after the midnight torture and the whole body ache I was having was driving me insane.

"Yeah, but don’t use that ‘I’m sick trick’, it doesn’t work on Buffy or anyone, they wouldn’t even bother if you had cramps all over."

I groaned loudly and turned over burying my face into the pillow. “Someone call the damn cops because I’m about to set this place on fire.” Lifting the covers,  I let my p*****t little eyes peek through the slight slit I made.

“You’re the biggest drama queen I’ve ever met.” He chuckled as I watched him throw his towel over his shoulder as he made his way to the bathroom. Oh ho ho, that back muscles though.

“Again, stop checking me out, I can see you through that mirror.”

“No I wasn’t. It’s too dark to see anything in here.” I denied, hiding myself under the duvet once again, wincing. He smirked before shutting the door behind him.

“f**k. Me.” I cussed, groaning in embarrassment.

**

      "I'm having a real bad case of indigestion, you know, where I kind of need to take a dump every 10 minutes or so?" I bit my bottom lip, a hand holding onto my stomach emphasizing on the ‘pains’ I was having. “I mean, I don’t think you’d like it very much if I’d litter the ground with my poop now, right?” Okay Allie, you’re so disgusting on so many levels right now but hey! Your girl’s gotta do what she gotta do to escape physical torture today.

I gave my best 'have-some-mercy-on-me’ look that I could muster. Caleb had his arms folded, standing at the corner of the field with my friends, smirking at me while he spoke to them probably hoping that Buffy wouldn't buy my crap about having indigestion clearly I could walk across the large track field just to tell Buffy I'm pretty much BFF’s with the toilet bowl for the rest of the day.

"Okay, go lie down or something, I don't need any dung littering my field, now, scram." Buffy brushed me away with one swoop of her sausage fingers and I was grinning, giving a subtle thumbs up to Demi. She had both her hands raised in question, mouthing ‘what-the-hell’ to me. Danny looked pretty impressed, returning my thumbs up.

Well, according to Caleb, that excuse didn't work for them the last time, but somehow today, it did for me—really gotta thank my lucky charms and the marshmallow fairy. Was Buffy finally coming around? Now that’s real sweet of her. Maybe I’d consider having Buffy’s trainer evaluation form all ticked with a 5 stars—that is if we were ever given one.

Shutting the cabin door with one leg, I crawled into my bed and laid my head on the pillow thinking of all the fun things I could do when I was finally alone. I grabbed my phone from the bedside drawer realizing my phone was already long dead, so I plugged that in for a charge and searched around for my iPod, plugging my earphones in and scrolled through the list of songs I had.

‘Batman, Wolfman, Frankenstein or Dracula by The Diamonds’ came on first and I nodded my head to the tune, humming to myself and I got up from the bed, bouncing around, turning around and did some little jazz hands moves and my leg kicking out one after another. “It takes the Batman, Wolfman, Frankenstein or Dracula, to put her in the mood for love, It takes the Cat Girl , Dog Boy, creature from the Black Lagoon, to make her feel like making love..” I belt out and suddenly, the door to my cabin opened. I screamed, dropping iPod surprise as I watched the culprit who scared the s**t out of me.

“Don’t you look all better now?” Caleb said, shaking his head. “What are doing here?” I hissed, picking up my iPod, hoping I hadn’t c***k the screen or something. “I forgot my water bottle, and I thought I’d check in on you, see if you needed meds. Pretty sick moves by the way? Where’d you learn how to dance like that?”

“I..” I stuttered. “I thought you were one of those instructors or something. And I was bored okay,  what am I supposed to do on a Boot Camp with limited wifi connections and no TV?”

“Hey, not judging here. You could always read that book I gave you.”

“I don’t read when I have a fever.”

“You never run out of reasons, don’t you?” He laughs, standing at the door way, clearly enjoy my discomfort with my mismatched pair of shorts and t-shirt.

“Fine, I’ll get to it. And by the way, where is that water bottle of yours anyway? Get it and get the hell out of here!” I hissed.

“Why would I leave my water bottle in your room?” he winked as he left. I stood there, dumbfounded. Had he just lied to me just so he could come check up on me or.. was he watching me from outside making a complete fool out of myself.

I groaned in frustration as I let the music play, blasting them through my earphones and I finally picked up the book to read.

And about 20 minutes later, I had my arms and legs spread out wide on the sheets, the book pages spread open on my face as I breathed in the smell of the pages. I was bored out of my mind and I was never usually like this. Back at home, if I was bored, I’d call Amanda and we’d.. well.. I always called my friends if that was ever the case. Instant regret filled me with the fact that I indeed bullshitted my way through with Buffy that I was having a romantic afternoon date with the toilet.

I walked over to the large window and pulled open the curtains slightly and peeked through it. The view of the large football field wasn’t too far away from the girl’s cabin. So they were doing laps on the large space, I bit my lip, watching some of the boys—shirtless and doing push-ups under the hot sun. I scanned my eyes further, looking for one person in particular. Where is..ah ha, found him.

What was he doing? Is this some energy drink commercial that he was doing? What’s with that whole stunt of pouring water down his head, drenching his half-naked torso and shaking the water out of his hair after? It’s like he knew I was watching that he’s doing this on purpose!

Ugh!

Gotta wipe that drool of your face Allie Stone.

You know what? Screw calling in sick, I'm going out there to do some laps—with the boys or at least, with a particular one that mama has her eyes on just seconds ago.

The aching in my body had subsided pretty much after lazing around and I was feeling a whole lot better, well technically, in all honesty, the view earlier made it even better.

"Hey princess, see you’re finally out and about." Caleb's raised his brow as he watched me walking towards him, wiping his sweat with the back of his hand “I told you it would work.” Danny smirked, “Oh god, there’s no way Allie could tell it was you who was..” Demi rolled her eyes.

“Hush now baby, no need to drown out my genius idea.” Danny put a finger to her lips and she swatted it away. “Danny, you disgusting prick! You did not even wash your hands did you?”

“I can’t believe you just used me as a lab rat experiment.”

“Well, at least you’ve got your hypothesis proven, experiment pass.” Danny now turned to Caleb, holding out his palm and Caleb slapped a 10 dollar note on it. “Rip off.” Caleb muttered but turned to me, smirking.

"Okay somebody please explain what the hell is going on?" I asked and Demi sighed, turning her attention towards me now.

"It's the oldest trick in their book, do the whole water bottle commercial and that can get any sick camper running out of their cabin instantly.”

“God damn, that is so not true.” I denied. “I only came out because I was bored out of my mind. Also, those other guys who were doing push-ups got me real good.”

“Hey Allie!” one of them winked as they jogged past me. Oh god, did he hear me?

"Sure you were.” Danny waggled his brows at me. “Anyways, now that you’re here, come run with us.” Demi hooked her arms around mine and I fell into sync with ease, wow all that training really does pay off in some weird way. “We’re having a bonfire tonight.” She added.

"Really?" My ears perked up at the mention of some casual activity rather than another round of training. "A Boot Camp with an actual bonfire, marshmallows and s'mores?"

"Yeap, all the good stuff in one night. Also,i t's about time—Tthe last bonfire we had was 2 months ago. Seems like your arrival here could be our lucky charm for a good time." Danny piped in.

“You’re flattering me.”

"And you wonder why we haven’t have a bonfire recently. Right after you pulled that ‘I'm-on-fire’ trick, pretty sure the instructors were so done with your bullshit.”

"Okay you guys really should tell me all the cool things you’ve done here, I'm starting to feel  a little left out." I panted as we came to a slow jog.

"So Danny boy here wore some fire proof suit but he pretended to get lit on fire on his ass. Buffy put it out with one large smack on his butt with some wooden baton she had and right after, he ran a mile screaming 'this b***h is on fire'.’" Caleb recalled and chuckled quietly.

"Admit it Danny, you only want Buffy's hand up your ass." I snickered.  

"I gues—but she slapped me so hard, she made my ancestors all dizzy." he massaged his ass absent-mindedly, probably recalling that ass hit.

 "Well well, Buffy's watching you with a smile on her face from across the field." Demi said to me as we were mid-running. “I don’t think that’s a smile guys, I can see her fangs for here.” I winced. “Hide me.” I hissed and they did, making me run in between the two boys.

"After all that trouble you took to lie.." Caleb trailed, turning to me.

 After we complete those laps, we began to warm down with some simple stretching guided by the instructor in charge. Rubbing my sore thighs I rested my temple against my knees. Demi jogged towards us, water bottles in hand.

"You amaze me Allie, gotta admit I thought you were weak back then during the first obstacle course, but you proved me wrong." Danny commented.

"Well, someone told me I needed to keep going, after all, I am in Boot Camp." I used my hand to shield my eyes from the scorching sun rays, watching Caleb’s brief smile on his face before it disappeared again.

"You're not gonna believe what's for lunch today" Demi said excitedly when she joined us on the ground.

"What?"

"Freaking taco’s with all you can eat Nacho cheese platters.”

“Yum, I’ve not had taco’s in almost three weeks.” I licked my lips, drinking from the bottle.

 An instructor announced the bonfire was taking place tonight at the Pavilion and everyone was invited. Those who could play an instrument were more than welcome to play.

Just then, the sound of bell went off and everyone got up, rushing towards the cafeteria. Guess I wasn’t the only one starving.

 "Hey, skinny bones." Buffy pointed at me from across the field. Even from a distance, she WAS loud.

"Come here."

 Demi squeezed my arm in support. "She probably wants to swallow you. Goodbye friend." Danny whispered.

"Knock it off." I waved him off and jogged across the field. 

 "Yes ma'am?" I said politely, my eyes squinting under the sun.

"You proved me wrong today, Nelly. Despite that indigestion you were having, you still did your laps."

"It’s Allie but uh, thanks, I guess?"

 From across the field, I could see Danny pretended to slice his neck with his thumb and sticking his tongue out, earning a hard smack on the back from Caleb. 

"Don’t smart mouth me Nelly, but good job." She cleared her throat. aa

 My oh my, did Buffy like me already? Were tears threatening to spill?

"But that doesn't mean I'm going easy on you, anchovie."

 And just like that, moment over. It didn’t even last a minute

"Yes ma'am, I won't let you down." I saluted her and she gestured toward the dining hall. "Run along, and tell your friend Danielle not to light himself on fire again or this time I'll hang him out to dry."

Pretty sure his name was Daniel but eh, Danielle did sound better on him.

"Yes ma'am, good talk." I trailed as she dismissed me by walking away first and I shrugged to my friends, sending them a wink from afar and they waved at me to come over.