Boot Camp for Bad Boys

Chapter 4

All throughout dinner, I felt really tired and I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. I was usually a night owl. I’d stay up to read, and if I ever felt like doing my homework, I would, not forgetting al the times where I pulled an all-nighter when I had to study for tests and finals. 

Caleb wasn’t saying much at dinner, instead, he had his nose buried deep in his book, barely touching his food. Demi was reading a piece of news over her phone about some weird science project that had gone wrong.

I poked around my mashed potatoes, rolling the green peas that were on my plate. “Hey tell us a little about your high school.” Daniel leaned across the table and Caleb peeked up from his book reading. 

I thought about it for a bit. “What would you like to know?” I asked. “Ooh tell us about the boys.” Demi said, putting her phone away and Caleb rolled his eyes. “I bet that’s the only interesting thing she has in school Demi.” Caleb said sarcastically.

“Well, if you really do want to know, the boys on the football team are really good looking.” I turned to Demi and Caleb shook his head. “Our football team has won several interschool championships, we also do have a cheerleading squad that cheers for the annual football game that takes place every end of the year, we have proms, school trips, field trips, a really cool vending machine outside each class that serve pizzas..”

“Pizzas? They have vending machines for that?” Danny asked and I nodded. “Sure why not? And then we do have an indoor pool for the swim team and charity fund raisers where we set up booths every year to attract people from other schools to join..”

“You sure that’s a school and not some millionaire’s property you’re on?” Caleb asked. Why was he being so sarcastic now?

“You’d have to see it yourself then.” I said plainly, not that I really meant it either. It wasn’t like we were still gonna see each other once I get out of here.

After dinner, a new instructor had other things planned in mind and had the lot of us sit down for a two hour lecture s***h presentation of the different types of plant species that exist in nature and what we should do to preserve them.

I’d like to think I was pretty much allergic to anything in regards to nature. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I do love flowers but I don’t necessarily go round sniffing them either. I was always in the city and the closest things I had to nature in the concrete jungle was the trees and grass in Central Park. 

All the boot campers were all seated in a multi-purpose hall. The place was so large it could fit probably a whole platoon of army. I took a seat nearby a window and I pushed open the glass screen, wanting some evening fresh air so bad. My mind zoned out to the sound of the crickets singing outside, listening to the sound of the stream waters gushing nearby although I was pretty sure there were no such streams nearby.

Demi and Danny were all seated towards my left and Caleb sat himself right next to me since he came in last. I managed to smuggle a medium sized packet of marshmallow in my hoodie’s front pocket and was chewing on it to kill time. Demi was already nodding off, her right elbow propped against her right knee with her hand covering over her eye whereas. Danny was flirting with a blonde haired girl sitting on his left. I like how Caleb was completely oblivious and unbothered to his whole surrounding despite the fact that nobody was paying any the instructor any attention and everyone was just talking to each other, he was nose deep in his book.

I plugged in my earphones that I had slid in and under my sweater, covering my ear with the sleeves and looked over casually to what he was reading but I couldn’t really make out the words. Then, my attention was now diverted to a vibration that came from my hoodie pocket.

Diving my hand into my hoodie pocket, I fumbled around between my snack, earphone wires and felt the smooth aluminium body of my phone until I found the on/off button. I pulled out the phone ever so subtly, not wanting anyone to peek over my shoulder and a smile crept to my face when I saw Amanda’s caller ID written on the screen. "Secret admirer?" Caleb asked, his focus never diverting from his book—oh so he did indeed notice that I was sitting right next to him. 

“Why’d you even care?" I asked, reading through the text message. He gave me a small smile formed on his handsome face. "I don’t." he said.

“Then why’d you ask?”

“You answered me anyway.”

Ugh, what is wrong with this kid and his mood swings?

I tapped on the middle button of the device to view the message she sent me.

'Hey Al!! How is it there? Are you having fun? Are the boys good looking? I miss you already :) :(' 

I smiled at her usage of the plain old school emoji whenever she was upset about something. I typed a quick reply as quickly as I could, looking up for a quick second at the instructor but he will still yammering on. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you.” Caleb said.

And he was nice again.

'It’s too early to tell, although I am in a middle of a freaking seminar’

Well I wasn’t lying about the boys, my ignorance has got the best of me, and the only two boys that were decent looking enough were Danny and Caleb and the both of them were sitting right next to me. 

'Well, what did you do today? Nothing much has happened except that people are beginning to realize that you’re not on school grounds and rumour has it that Cassie Evans had contracted herpes from your ex’

I chewed on my lip as I thought about it. With all due respect, Principal Walters (that is if you can hear the thoughts in my head, just for this once, because that’ll be just weird if you were able to do so every time), Cassie Evans should be here not me. What she needed was an attitude correctional camp with lots of carbs induced food sine she always claims that she needs to go on a diet and thrown in Maya, they’d be able to get along well since they were basically the same kind.

'I made a couple of friends today! Also, I s**t you not I ran 10 laps today after I pissed my first instructor off. Food’s great.’

‘I’m glad you’re fitting in fine Al.’

“Who’s decision it was that got you here?” Caleb asked after I went silent for some time, holding onto my phone as I stared into space.

“Excuse me?” I asked.

“Did you come here because you wanted a free gym membership or what?” He repeated.

I made a face before answering him. “I’d say it was my Principal that talked my dad into sending me here. Also, if you think I’m some spoiled brat rich kid with daddy issues, you’re wrong.”

“I did but then I didn’t after I watched you gave that long lecture to Maya after you threw up on her.” he grinned as he closed his book, turning towards me. ‘The Napoleon War’, hm, history nerd.

“I know Danny has asked you this earlier, but I want to hear it myself. How’s school like for you?” he asks. I raised a brow, completely taken aback because I hadn’t expect him to be the least bit interested at all. “You sure you wanna hear my boring story?”

“Do I look like I’m doing anything interesting right now?”

Well now that his book was closed..

“Okay, well for one, I’m not exactly popular junkie but I’m pretty much friends with everyone.” I kept my voice lower.

“Go on.” He pressed. 

“School’s a fifty-fifty for me. Sometimes I dread going to school, but there’s good days too. It’s like every other high school with different types of people with different personalies. Somtimtes the classes were interesting, sometimes PE can be pretty stressful, sometimes after school activities was thrilling and there are field trips you’d remember because of that one embarrassing mistake you made.”

“Sound dope to me, what else?”

“I have a childhood best friend back home, Amanda but I mostly called her Mandy. I think you’d like her if you met her.” 

“What’s your favorite thing to do?”

What’s this? 101 questions on the Tonight’s show with Caleb Hawthorne?

“Binge watch tv series like every other teenager would. I like to read (whoops! hope he doesn’t think I said that to impress him), paint here and there occasionally, I do bake occasionally but I’m not really good at it, you should come over some time to..

And I should stop talking. Oh god did I just invite you to..

“I would love to, someday.” he said, acting all oblivious to what I had just said. “I haven’t had any baked goods for some time now.”

Okay, maybe that wasn’t so bad like I’d thought it’d be. I was still looking at his book and he realised my staring. “I could lend it to you if you want to, I have tonnes of other books I can read next.”

I instantly regretted I had not bring along a single book with me because that’ll just add on to the weight of my luggage. “Really? You don’t mind?”

He handed me the book. “It’s just a book, don’t act like I’m giving you the keys to my Porsche.”

“Aaaannddd we’re back.” I said quietly to which he had a brow raised. “Thank you.” I raised the book, shaking it a little before looking at the hard cover.

The instructor finally allowed us to leave the hall around forty-five minutes later after realising literally no one was listening to him. Daniel nudged Demi to wake up and she looked around her surroundings drowsily. "Good, time for bed." she mumbled and Danny helped her on her feet. I got up from my seat and stretched. "Today’s his new record, there are nights where he can’t even hold a crowd for 10 minutes." Danny yawned.

“Guess I’ll see you in the morning.” Caleb said and I nodded, bidding him a goodnight before Demi took my arm in hers. This certainly do feel  a little weird, I mean, why was I so nervous when I was talking to him? I mean, I talk to boys all the time, I did have a boyfriend or two from before. 

Once Demi and I got back to the cabin, we said our goodnights and she flicked the switch off after we snuggled into our own beds. Stretching my entire body against the cold sheet covers, I relaxed into the duvet and my eyelid shut on their own accord.

After all, it has been a long day.

* *

"Wake up Allie!" I felt someone calling my name and shaking my arm repeatedly. "5 more minutes Demi." I groaned, turning to the other side thinking it was already dawn. 

"No you really have to wake up! There's a fire drill going on now!" Demi spoke in such hurry.

My eyes opened lazily, "A whaa...?"

I didn't have time to finish my sentence when I felt another strong arm that dug behid my back and got me standing on my own two feet. "Come on princess, you don't want to be doing push-ups in the cold night do you?" Caleb questioned, pulling my hand with his as we began jogging down the dirt path. What the hell was going on? 

Was it some sort of sick prank that someone’s pulling on me?

“Will someone tell me what’s going on?” I said, exasperated.

Together, the three of us made our way through the darkness. I was still not acutely aware of what was going to happen but my 17 year old brain deficiency knew what a fire drill was. But there was one thing that I know for sure, and that was FIRE DRILLS DIDN’T REQUIRE YOU TO WAKE UP AT 3:30 IN THE MORNING!

We, well they jogged towards the crowd of campers that was falling into a straight line of 6 people in each row at the basketball court. I was just simply tailing behind because I was still groggy from my sleep. Ah s**t, there goes a muscle cramp in my thighs and suddenly my arms started hurting too.

Murmurs spread around the campers as they spoke to one another awaiting the dumb-doe who called for this fire drill. If this was a prank, somebody better own up to it now so help me god I will hurt somebody real bad.

A string of cusses left my mouth as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

"3 in the morning." Danny answered as he raked his fingers through his hair. ”Why are they always doing this to us?”

"Recruits!" a voice boomed in the darkness.

"Please don't tell me it's Buffy again.” I pleaded.

"Nope" Caleb answered. "Take another guess.”

"Huh?" I asked absent-mindedly, trying to look through the bunch of really tall people that stood right i front of me. Well , I guess now I’m pretty much a midget at camp among all these tall people, god what sort of food were they fed with as kids? Growth steroids gummies or something?

"That's Buffy's boyfriend, Saunders." Demi's voice quavered. "He’s really brutal, one time; he made Maya do 300 push-ups for flipping her hair during a warm up.”

I snickered. 

"Apparently, someone has died tonight." Saunders announced. Gasps circled around the court. I’m calling dad right after this and I’m most certainly giving Principal Walters a piece of my mind when I see him at his office again.

"Because one of you overslept, that person has been burnt to death.”

"Oh what the hell, this isn't a real fire.” I whispered as it finally dawned on me. “I’m glad that your brain cells are back to work.” Caleb chuckled lowly next to me. “Shut up Hawthorne.” I hissed. 

"Bring that person outt!"

An instructor dragged a boy out, apparently this dude over slept and was burnt but miraculously he came back to life. Cool story, maybe X-men might actually recruit him this time. 

"What-the-hell-man's' circled around the teenagers. The poor boy winced from all the glaring he got from the campers.

"Due to his actions, all of you are required to go down on 200 push-ups tonight, with no rests in between!" Saunders yelled.

A series of groans chorused around the court. "Oh my god, I can’t believe this." I laughed humourless as we all lay on the ground with arms on the ground, and for the ladies, knees down so we don’t break out fragile back after this—well at least I think that’s what the little leniency is for, right?

"A little endurance is what you need, you'll get through newbie." Caleb whispered as he did his push-ups, his bicep muscles flexed every single time he went down. Here I was, shaking like an old Motorola phone with every push up I went. Well I’ll be damned, I guess I’ll see my friends and family at the other side.

I laughed to myself when I thought of the headlines I’ll be making. ‘Death by excessive push-ups at the early hours of dawn’

“How are you finding this funny?” Danny looked over to me and I shook my head. “She probably processes pain quite differently.”

“And right now, you talking while doing your push up effortlessly is beginning to be a pain in my ass.”

“What a spot to be!” Caleb teased. 

**

We returned to our cabins at 4:30 in the morning. My friends were dragging me back to the cabin since my muscles were all sore, heck I only did 20 and I was tired, but the fear of Saunders—Buffy’s boyfriend, I persevered, like hell I peservered so somebody go get me an award for that.

And before I knew it, the sun came up shinning straight in my face.

“Oh, for crying out loud!" I cussed and got out of bed, I couldn't sleep any longer anyway without the constant thought of having to do 200 push-ups for sleeping in. My body was aching all over, my arms and legs were sore, even my toes, man this is beyond depressing.

I know I was complaining way too much but really, you wouldn't wanna get down and dirty at 3 in the morning and on your first night here! Demi was nowhere in sight so I headed for the bathroom to take ac cold shower, hoping it’d wake me up real good.

I allowed the cold water to rinse against my body to sooth my probably already torn ligaments. After doing my usual morning routine, I flung my wet towel over the towel rail to dry. Sauntering out of the bathroom, I was surprised to see Caleb sprawled all over on my bed with arms behind his head, his eyes closed with my ear phones plugged into his ear.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, watching him. Thank god I was fully clothed or else I really wouldn’t know how to react, with a boy in my room when I was not appropriately dress. I sat on my bed and jiggled my earphones at his ear. He smiled as he got up, taking them off completely. “You’ve got a really good playlist in here.”

“I try.” I said, “But what are you doing here?” I asked finally, noticing the album that was still playing, Frank Sinatra’s That’s Life. “One of my favourite albums too.”

“I didn’t quite peg you for the oldies.”

“There’s still so much you’re yet to find out about me Allie.” He stretched himself and I watched his shirt ride up a little and I averted my eyes and looked back on the screen of my phone.

7:50am.

"Are you even allowed in the girl’s cabin?" I asked.

"Nope, but no one saw me getting in here." he got up from my bed, noticing the book he had given me last night sitting snuggly on my bedside table.

“You still having those muscle cramps?

“I had cold water run all over them; it wasn’t as bad as the night before.” I answered, putting on some clean socks, balancing one foot after another.

“Well, those cramps are only temporary, you’ll feel better in no time, once you’re used to all that workout.”

“I hope so.”

I felt a tiny bit nervous to even move around my own cabin. I’ve not been alone in a room with a boy that I didn’t know and I felt my nervousness began spiking with each step I took. “Why do you look so nervous?” He asked, standing at a safe distance.

“No I’m not.” I denied.

“Your face is pretty red.”

“Think it’s the heat from outside.”

“It’s drizzling heavily outside.” 

“It is?”

“I think I can tell the difference between drizzles and shine.”

“Smart ass.”

“”Glad to be one.”

The both us left the cabin shortly after I got my hair blown semi-dry and waited for the drizzling to finally stop. We walked towards the cafeteria holding a random conversation about my favourite item to bake , he had asked me if I knew how to make blueberry muffins and he looked like he was trying to memorize them. He then, opened the doors to the cafeteria so we could continue our little chat.

"I got you guys your breakfast, what took you two so long?adm" Demi chimed as she sat down with two trays and Danny holding another two.

"Sorry, we were waiting for the drizzles to stop.” I said.

My appetite increased the moment I saw bacon strips, scrambled eggs and ham on the plate, along with toast and jelly on the side. Yummy. “I had the kitchen to make you extra bacon with some melted mozzarella cheese to congratulate you on surviving you first day of boot camp.” Danny said as Caleb took a seat next to me. 

"Right now, this could be heaven on earth, thank you." I breathed as I took a bite of the bacon crisp.