“Since we are admitting secrets, I have something eating at me that I need to get off my chest.” Krystal announced, looking at Rachel. Rachel shook her head pleading with the book worm. ‘No’ she mouthed. “Yes, Rachel, we need to tell them. I can’t go on living like this anymore.” Camp Kumoni By Anistasia Allread Edited by Nick B an

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Camp Kumoni 54

As promised, Mrs. Martin went down to Director Hobbs’ office.

Erika, although relieved that her mother was going to allow her to stay in camp, didn’t know if her mother was going to allow Director Hobbs to be the bad guy and kick her out of the best summer of her life. She decided to sit on an old stump within sight of the parking lot and Hobbs’ office.

“Mom, I’d like you to meet the person who helped us meet.” A familiar voice said nearby.

Waking from her deep thoughts, Erika looked up to see Derek, holding hands with Dani, and speaking to a red-haired dwarf woman of middle years. Erika smiled at her smitten friends then to Derek’s mother.

“Hello Erika.” Derek’s mother greeted with a warm smile that was so like Derek’s.

Erika smiled. “Nice to meet you.”

“So, can you walk on water too?”

“Sure can.” Erika smirked. “When it’s frozen.”

Derek’s mother smiled at that. “I’m glad my Derek has friends like you.” She patted Erika’s hand.

Erika saw her mother exiting from Hobbs’ office. “Please excuse me, my mother is about to leave. It was nice meeting you.”

“You too, Erika.” Derek’s mother was guided away by her son.

Dani held back for a moment. “How is it going?” she inquired. “Will she let you stay?”

“She said that I can stay on two conditions.”

“What conditions?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Erika hissed, dismissing her short friend and went over to meet her mother.

“What happened in there?” Erika begged.

“You’ve made quite an impact on this place.” Mrs. Martin shook her head. “Director Hobbs thinks that you are quite a brave and outgoing young lady.”

“You didn’t tell her that I wasn’t, did you?”

“I came close a few times.” Mrs. Martin admitted. “I’m not sure if she knows your little secret or not. If she does, she’s not letting on, but if she doesn’t know, she thinks something ‘fishy’ is going on.”

Crap! I wonder if Phoenix told her, Erika thought.

“Anyway, I straightened out the contact information. She only has my cell phone number now. I told her that your father’s number was my old one so that she didn’t call him and tell him anything until I have a chance to speak with him.”

“Please don’t tell him.” Erika begged. “He’ll have a cow.”

“I told you, I won’t lie to him.”

“I know. I’m not asking you to; just don’t give him the whole truth.”

She smiled. “We’ll see. I have a lot to think about on the trip home. I think I might stop in town and see your stylist. I like what he did with your hair.”

Erika sighed.

Mrs. Martin looked directly at her ‘son’. “You have a lot of thinking to do here, too.”

Erika sighed even heavier, as the two of them walked towards the silver car hand in hand.

Mrs. Martin turned to Erika and pulled her into a tight embrace. “I love you Eric. Just know that. I love you.”

“I love you too mom.” Erika closed her eyes, to hold back her tears. The two held one another for a long tight hug.

Mrs. Martin pulled back and looked her daughter up and down. “I just can’t get over how much you look like me.”

Erika felt a thrill hearing those words. She had always thought that her mother was pretty and to have her say that she looked like her was strange yet wonderful.

“Here, take this. It’s all I have at the moment, but I’m sure you’ll need it.” Erika’s mother pushed some folded bills into Erika’s hand.

“Need it for what?” Erika asked bewildered.

“Perhaps pay back your friends for their generosity.”

“Thanks mom.”

“Remember,” Mrs. Martin stated. “Erika stays here, and you see a counselor when you get home.”

“Yes, mom.”

Erika waved as her mother’s silver car drove out of sight.

Mrs. Martin pulled onto the main road and thought about what Mr. Patton had said about being closer to his daughter than he was with his son. Then she thought back to the walk around the lake. She tried to think back to the last time that Eric had ever spoken with her like that and couldn’t come up with one. Even before Eric’s friend Summer had died, he didn’t talk to her in more than monosyllables and grunts. She learned more about her son in that walk than in almost three years. She did feel closer to him. Was the difference in Eric? Or was it this… this new person, Erika?

* * *

She did it! She could stay! She confronted her mother, showed her Erika, told her about Erika, and her mother let her stay. Erika was elated. She felt like she was on cloud nine. No make that cloud ten. Just to prove how good she felt, she did a very un-Eric like thing and skipped down the path back to the cabin.

As she approached Columbine, Erika spied Tricia followed by her parents and Leeza entering the cabin.

“We’re going to see if Todd will let us take a boat out into the lake, want to come?” Tricia inquired.

“Nah.” Erika shook her dark hair, finally enjoying the feel of her long bangs brushing over her eye lashes. “I’m going to unpack.”

“You mean you packed?”

“Yes. I figured my parents would have pulled me out of here so fast that I wouldn’t have had time to get everything.”

“I’m so glad you are staying.” Tricia threw her arms around Erika’s neck and held her tight. ‘This place would be boring without you.”

“Thank you. . . I think.”

Tricia pulled away. “We just came back for some sun-screen. I don’t want to get skin cancer.”

“You guys go ahead.” Leeza spoke up. “I’d like to rest here for a bit.”

“Are you feeling alright, Leeza?” Mr. Patton asked concerned.

“Yes, Daddy. I’m just a bit tired. I think it’s all of this fresh air.” Leeza waved as she slunk down on Tricia’s cot.

“We’ll check in with you in a little bit.” Mrs. Patton blew her daughter a kiss as she followed Tricia out the door.

Erika neatly folded and put her things away in the drawers. A few blouses she hung up in the closet.

“So how do you like it?” Leeza broke the silence.

“Like what?”

“Being a girl.”

“Other than being more emotional, I like it.”

“Tricia really likes you a lot,” Leeza commented.

“I like her too.”

“I mean she really likes you,” Leeza stressed the ‘really’.

Erika was beginning to really like Tricia a lot too. She was very pretty, almost as pretty as Samantha, and she was one of the kindest people Erika had met including Summer. She tucked her suitcase away again and hopped up in her own bed. “Leeza?” she asked. “When did you decide that you wanted to be a girl?”

“Well, it wasn’t really a decision,” Leeza began. “Even as a little kid, I knew I was a girl. My mother kept making me wear pants, when all I wanted was to wear pretty dresses. She kept my hair short when all I really wanted was to wear ponytails and braids with ribbons.”

“You always knew?”

“Yep, well, I knew that I didn’t fit in with the other kids, I knew I was different. It wasn’t until later that I realized that I was… well… wrong.”

“Wrong?”

“At the time that is what I felt. I didn’t know any other way to put it. Later I realized that it was that I had the body of a boy and the heart and mind of a girl.”

“How old were you when you realized that?” Erika wondered aloud.

“I was about thirteen or fourteen. At least I was when I put all of the pieces together. How about you? When did you figure out that you wanted to be a girl?”

“A couple of weeks ago, “Erika admitted.

“Did you have feelings of wanting to be like other girls before then?” Leeza probed.

“No.” Erika shook her dark hair. “I never even thought about it until after I got here at camp.”

“Hmm.” Leeza sounded puzzled. “Are you attracted to boys or girls?”

“Most definitely girls,” Erika stated. “Didn’t Tricia tell you about my crush on Samantha?”

Leeza nodded. She thought for a moment. “How did it feel when you first put on girls’ clothing?” she asked. “Did it get you… you know, excited, aroused?”

“No. It felt quite strange. I was terrified at first. It wasn’t until a week later that I began to get comfortable in them.

“So what do you like about being a girl?” Leeza asked.

“Lots of things.” Erika lay her head back against the wall behind her. “I like the friends that I’ve made, I like being treated special. As a boy I was treated horribly. It took a few weeks but now I enjoy seeing who I have become in the mirror.” Erika admitted. “I no longer see a boy in girl’s clothes, but a pretty girl when I see myself.”

“That is a good start,” Leeza agreed. “How do you feel, as a girl?”

Erika looked blankly at her. “I tend to be more emotional, or at least I tend to show my emotions more as a girl. As a boy, I’d just get teased and beat up.”

Leeza nodded understanding.

“Hey! You’re still here!” Rachel greeted entering the cabin, Krystal a step behind her. “So I take it your mom is letting you stay?”

Erika smiled. “Yes.”

“You girls have a fun summer.” Leeza got up from the cot. “Enjoy it while you can.” She aimed the last part at Erika.

Leeza walked out the door leaving it open for Victoria as she entered.

She greeted them. “Are all of the Parents gone?”

“I haven’t seen Samantha or her parents yet.” Erika admitted, “Tricia and her parents are trying to row about the lake.”

“Dani is with Derek saying goodbye to his mother,” Victoria informed them. “That is a strange but cute couple.”

Katie and Samantha entered the cabin with Phoenix.

“How are the Columbine girls doing?” Phoenix greeted.

“Glad that is over,” Erika admitted with a heavy sigh. “How did it go with your parental units, Samantha?”

“Smoothed everything over. The camp is pressing charges against Josh. I’ll have some cops driving out to take a statement and I’ll have to go to court next month.”

“Don’t you dare back down.” Rachel cautioned. “If you need me, I’ll fly out and be there for support. I want to see that jerk off get his due.”

“Whoa, Rachel, I know you’re upset, but rein in the hostility a little bit please,” Phoenix asked sitting on her bed.

“You know, I’ll be there for you, Samantha.” Erika reached down and patted the cheerleader on the shoulder.

Dani entered the cabin. “Wow, everyone is here.”

“Everyone but Tricia,” Katie pointed out.

“Phoenix, did you really know about Erika all of this time?” Rachel asked.

“Well, not all of the time.” Phoenix admitted. “But I did figure it out a while ago.”

Victoria was incredulous. “And you didn’t say anything or do anything?”

“I almost did at first, when you all were still trying to figure out what and how you felt about it,” Phoenix explained. “But you all found a quick solution to the situation.” She looked around the cabin at each of the girls. “You all have such a great chemistry here. It really is amazing to watch.”

“What has that to do with Erika?” Rachel steered the conversation.

“Well, you all know that I’m about to enter my senior year in University majoring in psychology.”

The girls all nodded.

“Your acceptance and Erika’s growth as a Transgender has been fascinating. I am going to write my senior thesis on you all and this summer.”

“So we are just a social experiment?” Victoria asked.

“No. not really,” Phoenix admitted. “If things had gotten more serious or out of hand, I would have stepped in and helped remove Erika from the situation.” She looked at Erika. “As painlessly as I could. But you all have shown yourselves to be very generous and caring girls, and Erika has shown courage, caring, honesty and trustworthiness. I think she is doing a wonderful job in becoming a beautiful young lady.” Phoenix paused and scanned the room. “As are all of you.”

Silence fell around them.

“Since we are admitting secrets, I have something eating at me that I need to get off my chest.” Krystal announced, looking sidelong at Rachel.

Rachel shook her head pleading with the book worm. ‘No’ she mouthed.

“Yes, Rachel, we need to tell them. I can’t go on living like this anymore.”

“What is it?” Phoenix encouraged Krystal.

Rachel stared hard at Krystal. The large girl took a deep breath. “Erika I need to apologize to you.”

“What for?” Erika looked bewildered.

“That flour bomb that hit you in the head. That was planted by Rachel and me. We didn’t mean for you to walk into the prank, especially after getting back from the hospital with stitches in your head. We actually had meant for me to walk into it with a few of you as witnesses.”

“Why ever would you prank your own cabin?” Samantha demanded.

Victoria put it all together. “To frame Oak for it so that we’d have an excuse to retaliate.”

“It was never meant for you. I’m so sorry.” Krystal was almost in tears.

“It didn’t hurt me, Krystal.” Erika swung down off her bed. “It was difficult to get out, but no harm; no foul.” Erika hugged the now crying girl.

“You’ve been so good to me, and I go and do something dumb like that. I’m so sorry.” Krystal cried into Erika’s shoulder.

“You’re forgiven.” Erika insisted.

Krystal hugged her back. “I don’t know how you can be so forgiving; especially after hearing about ‘the plague’.”

“I know it wasn’t intentional,” Erika told her. “Everything done to ‘the plague’ was.”

Phoenix looked hard at Rachel. “You and I are going to have a talk tonight.”

“You aren’t going to tell Hobbs are you?” Rachel begged.

“I don’t know yet,” Phoenix threatened.

The door to the cabin opened and Tricia entered. “Whoa, what did I miss?”

“We’re a social experiment and Rachel and Krystal are the flour bombers,” Dani explained quickly.

“Huh?”

“I’ll tell you on the way to dinner,” Samantha promised. As if on cue, the dinner bell rang.

“Victoria, what’s going on after dinner? If I remember right, we do the bonfire.” Rachel tried to take command again.

Victoria turned her back on Rachel and directed her attention to the other girls. “After dinner, we do have a bonfire.”

“Shall we go as the Lavender Ladies?” Katie clapped her hands eagerly.

“Yes.” Dani smiled up at her tall friend. “I think we should. I think I need to alter my shirt to be a little more revealing though.”

“For Derek?” Phoenix teased her.

The girls of the cabin were in shock. Phoenix had never teased any of them. She always kept herself aloof.

Dani smiled big. “For Derek.”

“Rachel can you alter my shirt too?” Phoenix asked.

“Sure, but we’re going to be late.”

“Fashionably late,” Phoenix agreed with a grin.

The cabin erupted as clothes were flung out of drawers as the girls looked to quickly change into their sexy outfits. Erika slipped back into her denim mini-skirt and slipped the wedge sandals back on, then carefully slid her altered Lavender shirt on over her head.

Dani and Phoenix ran around the cabin in only their bras and skirts as Rachel worked as fast as she could to alter the two T-shirts.

“Tricia, could you touch up my makeup, Please?” Erika asked.

“You look fine,” Samantha promised.

“Come here.” Tricia pulled Erika down on her cot and rummaged through her containers.

“This is like the Keystone Cops,” Victoria commented, laughing. “I wonder what this place will look like before the dance.”

“Dance?” Erika’s heart skipped a beat. “What dance?”

“The end of the summer dance, Silly,” Samantha said shaking her head. “I told you there would be one. That is one of the reasons why we have you practicing wearing heals.”

Tricia looked into Erika’s eyes. “You did bring a dress for the dance, didn’t you?”

“No.” She gulped. “I didn’t think I’d be here that long. Besides I don’t dance.”

“Oh, no you don’t,” Tricia refocused. “You aren’t going to get out of it that easily. Every girl has to know how to dance. Right Krystal?”

“If I can lose weight, you can learn to dance,” Krystal agreed.

“Crap,” Erika swore.

“Ladies don’t swear either,” Tricia scolded.

Erika sighed heavily and gave in to the current that was forever dragging her down its course.