Emma, Kelly, and I have a week of cheer camp we signed up for before school let out. It’s a great camp since the counselors are all pro coaches or current college cheerleaders.

  This gives us girls a chance to meet and train with people who know what they’re doing. Emma and Kelly told me that the camp is for girls from 6 to 18. Mom was more than happy to pay for my 1,500 fee to go, too. The cheer camp helps the younger kids learn the basic skills they’ll need to know to join a squad, and they also offer more advanced cheerleading csses that incorporate gymnastics along with throwing and catching. There are also dance lessons for all of us. Of course, we also have some free time.

  The time for us to go to cheer camp almost seems to fly by faster than you can even blink an eye. Almost every night, I’m either staying the night at Emma’s or Kelly’s house, or they’re staying the night at my house.

  The three of us have been working on our skills almost every day to try not to embarrass ourselves in front of the counselors. Thankfully, Emma and Kelly have been to camp before, so they know what to expect. Me? I’m a little worried since I haven’t been cheering for long, and the dances and cheers we do are rather basic.

  I don’t know if Emma and Kelly are being nice or just trying to encourage me, but they’ve told me many times that I’m a natural at this. Either way, they’re the best friends that anyone could ever hope for.

  A week before camp actually begins, we receive letters telling us what we should bring. There’s the standard list of things like washcloths, towels, special pillows, toiletries, etc. As Mom and I scanned through the list, it said to have a nice dress and shoes for the final night’s banquet.

  We immediately head up to my room and delve through my closet. I have several nice dresses, and picking out one of them isn't the easiest thing in the world to do. Especially when you’re me, who loves to dress nice. It took a while and more than a little back-and-forth discussion, but we finally agreed on a sunflower yellow skater dress, bck ce-pattern stockings, and bright yellow pumps with 2-inch heels. After that, packing didn’t take long at all.

  Soon enough, it’s time for us to leave. Mom wanted to be the one to drive us, even though Emma’s mom had said weeks ago that she would be going and staying with some friends that she hadn’t had a chance to see for a long time while we were at camp. Needless to say, Emma, Kelly, and especially me are far too excited to nap on the 5-hour drive to the university where it’s being held.

  When we get to the university, we follow signs on the campus that lead us to a registration table in the lobby of a building.

  “Welcome, I’m Becca. I assume the three of you are here for the camp.” We nod while smiling broadly. “Great! Then, can I get your names?”

  We tell her, and she looks up our information. “Alright, it seems we have you three sharing a room. You’ll be in the Melton Building, room 402, which is on the fourth floor.” She looks at Emma’s mom and points. “If you take the next right, it’s the brick building with a white portico 2 blocks down. There’s a parking lot behind it where you can drop them off.

  “You’ll need to be at the Harbin Dining Hall at 5; it’s the single-story building in the middle of the quad. After dinner, you’ll be assigned to your squad for the week. They’ll also go over rules, too. Until then, get settled in.” She points to a pce behind us. “Now, if you’ll go to room 102, they’ll give you your uniforms, which you’ll need to wear to dinner. Any questions?”

  We shake our heads and murmur, “No.”

  She smiles brightly at us. “Alright. You three have fun!”

  “Thank you,” the three of us say before we walk away with a packet of stuff over to the room she pointed out.

  There are a few girls in there who say, “Welcome. What are your names?”

  We tell them, and they hand us each a box. Though there’s another table with stacks of t-shirts. The girl who gave me my box asks, “What size are you, Rei?”

  I tell her my size, and she hands me a couple of t-shirts from one of the stacks, a couple more from another, and several pairs of shorts.

  I murmur, "Thanks."

  After we’re given everything, the tall redhead says, “The three of you will need to wear the blue shorts and white camp t-shirt that's in there for dinner tonight. Do you all have white sports shoes and socks like the letter said?”

  We all say, “Yes.”

  “Good. You’d be surprised how many had to run back into town to get some even after we sent out the letters. Anyway, you’re all set. Go get unpacked. You know where to go for dinner?” We nod. “Then, I’m sure we’ll see you three around.”

  “Okay, thanks,” I say brightly with a smile. She smiles right back at me. The girls look to be college-age and have on counselor badges with their names.

  We head back out to the van, and Emma’s mom takes us over to the building and parks. Then she follows us inside. I dunno how we got so lucky to get roomed together, but I’m sure Emma and Kelly are just as happy about it as I am. We take the elevator up to the fourth floor and find our room a short walk past a lounge and to the right. Emma unlocks the door with one of the keys we were given, and we step inside.

  It’s far from being the Regency, but for a college dorm room, it’s fairly spacious, from what Emma’s mom says. There are two sets of bunk beds inside the room. Each corner of the room has a desk with a wardrobe and dresser beside it. Right beside the entrance, there’s a door that leads into a decent-sized bathroom that’s just big enough for two of us to get ready at a time. I think we’ll be able to deal with this for the week. It takes us a couple of trips to get everything from the van to our room.

  After everything is hung up or put away in our dressers and our beds are made, I gnce at my watch to see that we still have a few hours before dinner. With that done, I finally opened the box they gave us to see several more sets of shorts and t-shirts.

  I murmur, “Why’d we even bring clothes?”

  I ask that because it looks like we might be wearing the clothes we brought with us for maybe 2 days, and that’s a big maybe. When I reach the bottom of the box, I’m astounded by what I find. “We get a real cheerleading uniform for this week?”

  “Apparently,” Emma replies, seemingly surprised as well.

  “They damn well should with what this costs,” her mom says.

  Emma snorts and says, “As if we can’t afford it. Plus, it was your idea that we’d come, remember?”

  She barks out a short ugh, then says, “Oh, I remember, but I also remember three girls who didn’t put up any fight when it was mentioned.”

  Emma sticks her tongue out at her, smiles, and says, “Of course not. We might have some tough competition next year to make the squad.”

  By the time we settled into our room and changed into the clothes we were supposed to wear, we only had a little over 90 minutes until dinner. Emma’s mom took several photos of us like that before she left to go see her friends. We walked her to the van and watched her drive off before heading off to explore the campus.

  We’re more than a little excited and having fun checking things out when we hear “Ladies, where are you going?”

  We stop and turn around. One of the girls that checked us in earlier is standing there smiling at us.

  “We’re just looking around. We’ve never been to a college before,” I reply.

  She nods. “Well, dies, it’s almost time for dinner, and tables are assigned, so you’ll need to find them.” She pauses and looks at our name tags. “Oh, well, that’s easy, then; you’re in my group, so just follow me," she says. “I’m Ava, your counselor.”

  “I’m Rei,” I say, holding my hand out for a gentle handshake. She shakes my hand, then Emma’s and Kelly’s as they introduce themselves. She leads us to the dining hall as she tells us a bit about herself. She’s in her third year of college and has been a cheerleader since she was in grade school. Currently, she’s working on her degree in psychology.

  Inside, the four of us sit down at a table that already has two other girls sitting at it. Their names are Olivia and Mia.

  We go around sharing a little about ourselves. Mia’s hoping to become the captain of her squad this year, and tryouts are coming up soon. Olivia will be starting eighth grade and seems to be really nice.

  The next morning, Emma, as usual, is the first one awake. After she cleans up, she wakes the two of us to get ready before she gets into the shower. As soon as she’s done, she lets me in to take a shower. As we’re putting our hair up into ponytails, Ava knocks on the door, and Kelly answers it. She’s just making sure that we’re up and then moves on to the next room.

  At 7, we walk over to the dining hall for breakfast. Of course, we’re wearing the requisite uniform. The blue shorts, t-shirt, no-see white socks, and sports shoes. Hair in ponytails, and no makeup.

  We fill our trays and then go to our table. Olivia, Sophia, Mia, and Ava are already sitting there. We sit down and begin nibbling on our food. As we all start waking up, everyone starts looking at the schedules that are in the binder they gave us.

  “So, the next thing for us is stunts? What are we going to be doing, Ava?” I asked.

  “We’ll be working on basic lifts in groups of three, and some of the easier tosses, depending on how well you girls do,” she replies.

  “Are you ready to be tossed today?" Mia asks with a smirk.

  I look at her questioningly. “Me? Why me?”

  “Why not you? You and Emma are the smallest girls on our squad,” Olivia answers for her.

  “You’ve never done them before?” Mia asks.

  “No, our coach said we were too young to do them, so she never taught us any.”

  “That’s just stupid. I’ve seen 8-year-olds that are good at catching and throwing. It’s a lot of fun, Rei,” Ava states.

  I look at Emma. “I’m game if you are,” I state challengingly.

  Of course, they’re right. Emma isn’t much bigger than I am, though I have gained a bit of muscle mass. I still don’t weigh much, but I’m healthy, and it isn’t as if I starve myself either. One, Mom wouldn’t allow me to do that, and two, with everything I do, I couldn’t get away with not eating and still have the energy to do it.

  The conversation continues until Ava stands and says, “Alright, dies. Let’s drop off our trays and go meet your coach. She’s tough but fair.” We drop off our trays and walk over to a gym. Ava looks around for a moment, heads over to a tall brunette, then introduces her to us. “Ladies, this is Coach Adams.”

  She doesn’t even smile at us and tells us, “Take a seat. We’ll be starting in a few moments,” then simply walks out onto the mats.

  As in, a lot of them. Well, at least this means I won’t get hurt too badly if I’m dropped or fall.

  Coach Adams has Ava and some other counselors come out and join several others. They demonstrate how to do lifts with two girls throwing and one as a ‘flier,’ how to get that girl back down safely and catch her, some basic tosses, and all while I’m thinking, ‘How many times am I going to fall or be dropped before we get this right?’

  When they finish the demonstration, she takes our squad and divides us into groups of three. I ended up with Sophia and Olivia as my two partners. At least, I feel like I can trust them. After stretching, Ava and the other demonstrators start coming around while we practice. They first work on making sure that the throwers are using the proper technique. After that, they focus on teaching me how to hold myself correctly so that I don’t cause any problems and fall.

  That is, of course, much harder than it sounds. They dropped me a couple of times because they weren’t quite doing the right things. Then they drop me many more times because I break my stance. Eventually, after about a half hour, we’re able to get me up without me being introduced to the ground yet again. I’m rather happy about that since the ground and I are a little too well acquainted.