Camp Kumoni By Anistasia Allread Edited once again by Nick B

Erika stood with the rest of Columbine cabin in front of the rest of the camp. Their cabin had finished in second place amongst all of the other cabins. They only missed taking the gold by five measly points. Oak cabin had taken first. The good news was that Daisy cabin with Ashley and her cronies had only got fifth.

* * *

As predicted, Columbine won the majority of the kick ball games and soccer matches. A lot of that had to do with Rachel’s athletic ability as well as Krystal’s ‘golden leg’.

Erika’s rope course time ended up being unbeatable. Their team’s rope course time had also won. Skyler mentioned that cabin Columbine was the only team to skip the creek obstacle; taking the twenty second penalty. It ended up being a winning strategy.

They won half of their volleyball games. They didn’t even have to dress in their augmented T-shirts and tease the guys to do so.

Swimming was almost no contest. They had more excellent swimmers in their cabin than most cabins. Even with Krystal sitting those events out, they won most of the swimming competitions.

The final event was the strangest relay race the camp could come up with. The event began with Rachel in a rowboat. She pulled on the oars as hard and as fast as she could but by the time, she reached Dani and Tricia in the canoe she was in fourth place. She handed the lavender flag to Dani. The two smaller girls of the cabin paddled hard across the lake, but like Rachel they lacked upper body strength and could not catch up with the boy cabins in front of them. Daisy cabin actually gained on them.

Dani handed the lavender flag up to Samantha on the dock, who then dove into the water and swam hard and fast to shore, making up the time lost by Tricia and Dani. Slipping her tennis shoes on, she ran across the beach, through the camp and to the archery range where she handed the flag off to Krystal.

Krystal had the honor of showing off her archery skills. There were six targets set up at different distances. She had to hit each target before moving on and only had to shoot once at each. By the time she was on the fourth target, she had passed two of the boys who were still struggling.

At the end of the range she handed the flag off to Victoria who jumped up into the saddle of her horse and took off on a course that wound around the camp and over to the rope course.

Erika took the flag from the still mounted Victoria and tucked it into her harness. Running over to the first obstacle and clipping in, she was off like a monkey through a jungle forest canopy. Only one person was ahead of them now, he was from Oak cabin and he had a minute head start on her.

Crossing a rope span between two trees, she almost slipped, but caught her balance and took a deep breath. She needed to settle down. Hurrying at this stage could cost Katie precious seconds she needed in her leg of the race. Erika made it across the span, through a web of other ropes, and flew down a zip line. She unclipped her harness, shed her helmet and gloves and ran back towards camp.

Katie was waiting along with the other contestants at the dining hall. She handed the flag off to Katie, who with her long legs took off to catch the trail that led around the lake.

“I’m so sorry,” Rachel apologized as she met up with her cabin mates. “I thought I could row better than that.”

“We didn’t do much better,” Tricia flushed. “In fact, I think we lost any lead that you gave us over Daisy.”

“Samantha made up for some of it though,” Dani smiled. “Did you see her cut through that water?”

“I’m just glad I had my sneakers ready.” Samantha smiled. “You should have seen the one guy from Fir who was trying to run barefooted over the rocks and sticks. The one we need to congratulate is Krystal. She passed two of the guys on the range and made up a lot of time.”

“Sorry, I couldn’t get my horse to run any faster, I’m afraid I couldn’t help make up much ground.” Victoria apologized.

“The important thing is that you didn’t lose any ground either.” Rachel encouraged.

“You should have seen Erika.” Victoria shrugged, “You thought she was fast during the individual rope course? She shattered that time. It was like watching a spider in its own web.”

Erika flushed. She didn’t bother telling them how close she was to blowing it by falling.

“Now it’s up to Katie.” Dani sighed.

“She can do it.” Rachel smiled. “She’s been running around the lake every morning for the past month, she knows every turn, tree, and rock on the course.”

Let’s head over to the kickball field,” Phoenix said as she joined them. “Katie is probably half way around the lake by now. It wouldn’t be very good of us to allow her to beat us to the finish line.”

“What’s that?” Rachel asked.

Phoenix held up a bottle of cold water. “I thought Katie might be a bit thirsty when she finished.”

“The other hand.” Rachel pointed.

Phoenix held up a dark green bottle. “Sparkling cider for the celebration of Columbine cabin’s victory.”

“We haven’t won yet.” Victoria pointed out. “Katie still has to catch up and pass that Oak cabin guy.”

“Even if she doesn’t catch him up, which I think is very unlikely, you are all still winners.” Phoenix smiled.

“You can be so corny.” Rachel smiled.

Dani gave Rachel a shove. “I think it’s sweet.”

When they reached the field, they saw that someone had set cones out to direct the runners on a certain path. At the end of that path, Director Hobbs and Grizzly Adams stood each holding the end of a tape marking the finish line.

Ice chests of chilled bottled water had been brought out. Each of the Lavender Ladies grabbed a bottle.

Erika, conscious of Ashley’s eyes, made an effort to sip the water rather than gulp it down.

“We should be by the finish line,” Tricia stated, “To welcome and celebrate Katie’s win.”

“Her hopeful win.” Krystal clarified.

“You’re lopsided, Erika.” Ashley taunted as they passed the Daisy cabin girls.

Erika’s face flushed. It took everything she could muster not to look down at her breast forms.

“Did your daddy actually pay for your nose job?” Rachel snapped back. “He should sue the doctor for damages.”

“Whatever, Dyke.” Ashley sneered.

“At least I’m not the camp ho.”

“No, you let Samantha take that title,” Ashley spat.

“Leave it alone, Rachel.” Victoria stepped in to face Rachel. She leaned forward and whispered softly. “We have other ways of making her look like the bitch that she is.”

“Yea, well she’s not worth it anyway.” Rachel glared at Ashley who looked all smug as her cabin mates giggled next to her.

“You have better have something good.” Rachel told Victoria once they were in place to watch and cheer on Katie.

“I can think of several things.” Victoria smiled. “Can we get a bucket of innards from Sheila?”

“If not openly, I’m sure we can find something. Sounds gross, what do you have planned?”

“We’ll talk later.” Victoria pointed to the trees.

A cheer went up from the campers near the trees. All of the girls of Columbine cabin focused on the opening in the trees.

Erika’s heart leapt as she saw Katie’s tall figure racing out into the open field. Her heart almost stopped a moment later when she spotted the boy from Oak cabin right behind her.

“Run! Katie, Run!” Phoenix screamed jumping up and down with excitement. A second behind her, the rest of Columbine cabin followed her example, waving and cheering Katie as she sprinted towards the finish line.

The boy from oak cabin stumbled and fell to the ground, but scrambled back up to his feet and pushed on behind the tall girl.

Two steps past the finish line, Columbine cabin surrounded Katie in screams, cheers and hugs. Phoenix nearly forgot about her sparkling cider. She shook it vigorously, popped it open and sprayed the girls of columbine down.

“Water.” Katie begged. “I need water.”

A cold bottle was thrust into her hands. She finished it in four large gulps and looked for another.

“Here.” Erika handed over her own bottle. Katie took two more gulps and then poured the rest over her face and down her back.

“You did it!” Rachel exclaimed. “I knew you could. If anyone could race around that lake and make up ground, it was you.”

“We did it.” Katie stressed the ‘we’. “I didn’t have to make up too much time thanks to the rest of you.”

To feel like she was part of a team — a contributing member of a great team, to Erika felt alien and very good. She savored the feeling of being liked and liking those who have come to know her, come to accept her, as Erika.

After a mini celebration in the field, Columbine cabin joined the other campers at the lake where they didn’t even bother changing into their swim suits, but plunged into the cooling waters.

Tired, and elated, the girls left the lake, retrieved their shower bags and cleaned off the sweat and lake water before going to the dining hall for dinner.

Sheila, wanting to celebrate the final day of the Olympics had pizza ordered and brought up to the camp. The hungry campers devoured every last scrap of pizza and bread stick that lay in the multitude of boxes.

Hobbs announced that after they were all done eating that they were to go to the amphitheater for the awards ceremony.

* * *

Erika looked up and down the line of girls in Lavender as they stood in front of all of the other cabins in the bonfire amphitheater. They had won the relay, which was twenty points, but they were still shy five points of winning the summer’s best cabin title.

Rachel was disappointed in her cabin not getting first yet again, but She was quite pleased with how well her cabin had meshed.

And to think that this whole experience started out as a dare in an email.

It then dawned on her that in two days, Erika was to cease to be and Eric was to return to his parents. Two weeks later, he would have to return to school, and ‘the plague’.

“What’s wrong?” Samantha said through smiling teeth.

“I just realized that there are only two more days of camp.”

“Yes, so?”

“Eric has to go home to his parents.”

“We’ll just have to talk to your mom and dad.” Samantha kept her smile. “Come on, you need to enjoy these last two days. Don’t deflate on me now.”

“You’re right.” Erika forced a smile. “I have two more days to fill with wonderful memories.”

Columbine cabin was released to take their seats again as Hobbs went on awarding different cabins and people for different things.

Tricia, sitting to the other side of Erika took her hand and gave it a familiar squeeze. Erika looked over at the blonde and smiled.

Just a handful of weeks ago, Eric had left his parents to come to a summer camp on a dare issued from the girl he had fallen in love with. Who could have guessed that in a few weeks of camp, he could have gained her love and decided that it wasn’t what he had always thought it would be, only to find another girl who could show him as much love as he had craved?

Erika’s only hope was that Tricia could love Eric as much as Erika; that she could accept Eric as easily as she had accepted Erika. Erika’s heart skipped a beat as the unthinkable entered her head — thoughts of Tricia realizing that she had been wrong about her feelings and backing out of the relationship.

Just two days left of being someone special; two whole days of being with others even more special.