Cindy at Music Camp By Teek © 2019 Chapter 03 Play For Power

Summary: Cindy spends some time with other Little girls. The Littles start plotting with Samantha over what to do next. Cindy starts to realize the magnitude of what she is about to do and questions her actions. Who is right? Samantha, Jessica, or Mom? Who will have the final say in Cindy's future at camp?

Dinner went without a hitch. With it free seating, everyone was sitting with their friends and Miss Greenburge didn’t even try to learn the names of the kids at the table. Cindy, being nine-almost ten, was the oldest at the table, but the other kids didn’t know that. They were all six to eight year old girls, and they accepted Cindy like she was one of them. She didn’t act or behave any different from the other girls. No one questioned where she had been the first week or why she wasn’t staying on the dorm floor with them.

After dinner Samantha took Cindy up to her room. With a few of the other girls Samantha introduced Cindy to at dinner, they talked about a clothes swap tomorrow after dinner. The four girls in the room, in addition to Cindy, thought the clothes swap could come up with five complete size seven outfits: socks, underwear, and dress (or pants and blouse). Socks and underwear would be the hardest, but most of the moms had sent extra clothes ‘just in case’. Samantha was willing to give Cindy the princess sneakers, but Cindy explained that they were too small for her. Two of the other girls in the room wore shoes a size bigger. One was willing to trade Crocks with Cindy. She had these bright pink Crocks and thought she would like the dark blue ones Cindy brought to camp. She wouldn’t commit until she saw the shoes tomorrow night.

The other girl was not willing to trade, but would lend Cindy an outfit for tomorrows performance for Mr. Elks. She wanted to make sure some of the little kids were in the final performance of the concert. Usually the only performance with kids under ten was the group Junior performance. The idea of two Littles in the final song of the concert, and three out of the four kids doing the song wouldn’t even be teenagers, that was worth almost anything. The big kids always looked so down on the Littles, repeatedly telling them that they were just babies learning how to play. Showing up the teenagers would be wonderful.

The girl’s mom packed two dress up outfits. She didn’t care which one she wore to the concert on Saturday, so Cindy could have her pick between the two outfits. Samantha felt the best would be a black sleeveless dress with a white belt. Wearing white tights and some black mary jane shoes, along with a white headband with a pink bow, it would be a perfect concert outfit, dressed up all prim and proper.

“Samantha,” Cindy inquired. “I thought I was supposed to look like a little girl. Puffy sleeves and frills would give me that look. This outfit does not even have sleeves.”

“Jessica did feel that having you look like a six year old would help us convince Mr. Elks, but we are trying to put on a proper orchestra concert for him, right? In this outfit you will look the part. Trust me on this, nothing says little girl like a dress with white tights. Yes, you would look like a little girl in a frilly puffy sleeved dress, but you would just be a little girl. This way you are a little girl and a professional flute player. We need to show Mr. Elks that even though we are little kids, we can still be the best players here at camp. You know the two of us are better than any of the teenagers.”

“Yeah, I know.” Cindy said grabbing Samantha’s dolly on her bed and cuddling up with it. “I am not sure I can do this. Yeah, I can play better than Jessica and George. You can too, but we are seven and nine years old. What can we do? I want to be me, but I am scared. Being good isn’t enough. Being cute isn’t enough. Mommy doesn’t want Cindy around, and Mr. Elks isn’t going to want me here either. What is the point. Thanks for your help, all of you. I can’t do this. I am not strong like you Samantha.”

Samantha went up to Cindy and hugged her. “Cindy, I am not going to let you back out of this. Your Mommy was mean by cutting your hair the way she did. Jessica told me that she wouldn’t even let Cindy out of your bedroom. She did all of this just because you went to your best friend’s birthday party. In school one of my friends got taken away from her Mommy because the Mommy would hurt her. My teacher says that is something called Child Abuse. Grown-ups can get into big trouble for hurting little kids. Your Mommy hurt you. We will not hurt you. I promise.”

All the other girls in the room all promised to help Cindy no matter what.

“You are holding Molly,” Samantha said looking at the dolly in Cindy’s embrace. “She helps me through tough times. I want you to have her. You need her more than me at the moment. She will make you feel stronger and better. She’s good at that.”

Cindy really looked at Molly for the first time. She looked familiar. She had brown braided hair, red glasses, blue sweater, plaid skirt, and red sneakers. It took Cindy a little bit to figure out where she had seen the doll before. Finally, she figured it out, it was on the cover of the American Girl book Molly. Her sister had several of the Molly books, and Cindy secretly read them all.

Samantha gave Cindy another big hug.

“That’s it,” Olivia practically shouted. “The solution to looking professional and little girl at the same time is simple, just carry Molly around with you.”

Cindy looked at Olivia like she had two heads, and Samantha looked at Cindy and Molly before turning to look at Olivia.

“That may work,” Samantha said while still in thought. “My music teacher back home complains all the time about the stickers on my violin, but when someone reminds him that I am only seven, he lets the stickers stay. Molly is dressed up nice, so even at a concert she would be dressed okay. The teenager girls don’t bring dollies to camp, but most still have at least one in their bedrooms back home. They never say anything about one of us Littles carrying around a dolly here at camp.

It was decided, tomorrow at rehearsal, Cindy would wear the black dress and carry Molly. She could even sit in Cindy’s lap while playing. The other girls left, leaving just Cindy and Samantha.

“I don’t think this is going to work.”

“George said it best Cindy. If we do not try, the only time you get to be Cindy is during practice all week, but Mr. Elks just might say yes. They only way to find out is to try.”

“I’m really scared.”

“I know, but together we can do this. All three of us together,” Samantha said looking at the Molly doll.

When Samantha saw that it was 7:15 pm and all little kids needed to be back on their dorm floors by 7:30pm, she quickly got the bag with Frank’s clothes and ran with Cindy to the Livingroom. Cindy went into the bathroom to change clothes. When she came back out, she handed the back with the dress back to Samantha.

“Thanks Samantha,” Cindy said giving Samantha a hug. “It is a lovely dress your grandma made you. I enjoyed wearing it.”

“I really like it too. When I heard you needed a special dress, I just knew that was the most special dress I owned. One thing before you go Frank. You will want to take out that hair clip before going back to your dorm.”

“Thanks Samantha, it would not have been good for me to go back to the boy’s dorm floor still wearing a Sofia the First hair clip.”

Before they could say anymore, the Librarian came through and told all the little kids that they needed to go back to their dorms.

Back at the dorm, kids commented about Frank’s new haircut, but none of them saw Cindy. They still viewed Frank as a boy.

At breakfast Jessica told George everything was set for the afternoon practice session. “I’ll get Mr. Elks to excuse the littles from the one and two o'clock activities. You get him to come sometime between one and three.”

“Okay,” George replied. “I wish we had one more day to practice before Mr. Elks heard us, but I understand why Cindy needs this to happen today. I hope you did something about that hair, it made her look like a boy in a dress.”

“Don’t worry. Mr. Elks will have a hard time seeing anyone other than Cindy,” Jessica tried to assure him. “See you at one o'clock.”

Morning lessons went as usual. Frank’s favorite time was his class with all the other woodwind instruments. Back home in his Elementary Band there was a sixth grader who played the clarinet, but he was just learning it. There were no other kids who played woodwind instruments. There were a lot of string and brass instruments. Having a class of 20 kids all playing different woodwind instruments was exciting and fun. Here at camp there were other kids that could challenge him and push him to do better. He found it strange though, that he appeared to be the best woodwind player when there were sixteen and seventeen year olds in the group.

As everyone was filing into the dining room for lunch, Samantha went up to Frank, “Jessica just told me she got us out of our one and two o'clock activities. Meet me in the livingroom after lunch. You can get changed in the private bathroom before we go to practice. I have everything for Cindy in my backpack which I hid in the livingroom under the TV.”

“Oh Melinda, wait up,” Samantha said as she ran off to catch up with Melinda.

Cindy wished she could go running off with Samantha, but Frank’s shoulders slumped as he slowly walked off to his table with a bunch of boys his age at it.

After lunch, Frank made his way to the Livingroom. He got there before Samantha and tried to find her backpack. There was no backpack in sight. First, he looked around the TV like she said, but then he looked around the whole room. He even picked up the bean bag chairs looking under them. There was nothing, just the furniture that was supposed to be there.

When Samantha walked into the room, he immediately ran up to her, “Samantha it was stolen. It’s not here. Cindy’s outfit has been stolen.”

“Stolen? What are you talking about?” Samantha walked over to the TV and opened up the bottom drawer under it. She pulled out a pink Disney Princess backpack. “It’s not stolen. It’s just where I left it.”

“I thought all those drawers had DVDs in them.”

“They do. All but that bottom drawer,” Samantha handed the backpack to Frank. “Go get changed. We are supposed to meet Jessica and George in ten minutes.”

Five minutes later, Cindy walked out of the bathroom carrying the backpack on her back, her flute case in one hand, and Molly hugged with the other arm.

“Okay, now you wait here,” Samantha said as she darted for the bathroom still carrying her violin case.

A few minutes later Samantha walked out wearing a black dress with white tights, looking a lot like Cindy. She had her previous outfit in her hands. Taking her backpack from Cindy, she put the outfit in it. “Okay. Let's go.”

When they arrived at the practice room, George was getting out his instrument. Jessica walked in just as Samantha and Cindy started warming up.

Jessica didn’t go to the piano, instead she walked over to Cindy and stood in front of her. “What in the world are you wearing. That is not what we agreed to have you wear. And the doll? Why do you have a doll on your lap? I did not say you should have a doll.”

“No, YOU didn’t,” blurted Samantha. “It was decided last night in my room with some other LITTLES. We felt a professional little girl look would be best to represent us today.”

“But I . . .”

“Yes Jessica,” Samantha interrupted. “You are trying to be in charge, but this isn’t about you. It is about Cindy. Did you even know that she is really scared about showing Cindy to Mr. Elks? What have you done to help her get through this fear? Molly will be with her when she is scared, worried, and just wants to be herself. Can you do all of that? NO! And come on Jessica, she still looks like a little girl with the dress, white tights, and Molly. Now stop complaining about what Cindy is wearing, and get over to the piano. We are ready to start practicing. Are you?”

George raised his eyebrows at Samantha’s declaration, “Jessica, she has a point. If Cindy having a doll with her makes her feel better, then let her. When I was her age, I slept with my teddy bear and carried him with me whenever we traveled anywhere. He made me feel better. Mr. Elks will be here at 2:30. We need to be working as a team by the time he shows up. At the moment we are still all learning our parts. Let's get to practicing.”

“But . . .” Jessica started and stopped as she looked around at the three others in the room. Cindy really caught her attention. Cindy was sitting in her chair, knees up to her chin with her arms wrapped around her legs. The Molly doll was held tight. The look on her face worried Jessica.

“Cindy?” Jessica said leaning down to eye level. “Cindy?”

In a soft voice Jessica could hear Cindy mumbling, “I can’t do this. I can’t do this. Not again.”

“Cindy?” Jessica said for the third time. She waved her hand in front of Cindy’s face. Cindy showed no reaction or awareness of Jessica.

“Great,” George came over to Cindy. “We broke her. Samantha, quickly, go get Mr. Elks.”