“Are you wearing lipstick?” Mike asked.

I nodded.

“Melissa, is he your personal make-up model?”

“Would you like to be my next artistic marvel?” Melissa asked with a subtle flirty hint to her voice.

“I could use a little hair work, maybe.”

“Oh, I can do a lot more.”

“We noticed,” Chad replied as we stepped into the building.

The hallway was crowded with cheerleaders, advisors, coaches and administrators.

Two guys, each wearing a shirt that read ‘WCC’ came over and motioned to Mike and Chad. “What school are you from?”

“Jefferson.”

“Awesome. Great to see you here!” The first one said.

“Once you are checked in, we need all of the guys to meet on the far side of the gymnasium.” The second guy said.

“Just two from your school?”

Melissa grabbed my arm and hustled me forward. “Let’s see if we have our room assignments, Lin.”

“You guys ready for this week?”

“It’s going to be…interesting,” Chad replied.

I looked back for a second but then turned to face Melissa.

“Don’t worry, I have a plan,” she replied as she patted my shoulder.

“I’m worried about whatever your plan is.”

“My plan is for you to realize who you are.”

“I know who I am, Melissa,” I replied.

Melissa dragged me over away from the crowd.

“You sure about that?”

“Am I sure about what?”

“About whom you really are.”

“I…” I paused for a moment. “I don’t really want to have this discussion right now,” I whispered. I felt afraid and vulnerable of everyone on the squad. I should have gone with Mike and Chad, but instead I was about to be surrounded by girls.

“Okay,” Melissa responded with solemnness and then plastered a Joker-style smile on her face. “You’re still a cheerleader. So, let’s be happy, okay? We’ll touchback on it later.”

We walked into the sprawling gymnasium, and I had to squint to see the other side. It was more like a stadium than a simple gym. We could all take the field and there would be room for a band, football team, perhaps a full game or Lacrosse, and a doubles tennis match.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“You will learn, young Padawan.”

“You can’t say that unless—”

“It’s from Star Wars. So, ha!”

“I think I’ll go with the guys.”

“And explain all of this?” Melissa asked as she raised one of my hands up.

“Yeah, I’ll blame you for it.”

“Just hang out here for a bit. At least until Mrs. Humphrey says something.”

“Or Andrea, Nola, Nikki,” I sighed as I looked around.

“If you can do anything at all that will get us high marks at the end of the week, then none of them will care.”

“Wait a minute, what do you mean high marks?”

“It’s a cheer camp, there will always be some kind of competition. You know that.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Ladies and Gentlemen!” A voice boomed over the PA system.

Everyone turned to a young man, maybe in his early twenties, who stood on top of a platform in the middle of the gym. “My name is Zachary and welcome to the WCC—World Cheerleader Council—cheer camp!”

There was an eruption of applause and giggles from most of the crowd of girls. I sighed as I should have standing with Mike and Chad; but if I was, then I would have been thinking I wanted to stand with Melissa and the other girls.

“Each school will be given a name tag and a colored lanyard to identify your school. Now, let me introduce you my fellow staff members!”

“He does cute, in a small guy kind of way. What do you think, Lin?” Melissa asked me with a jab to my side.

“I don’t have any opinion about him.”

“Is Joey better looking?’

‘I’m not answering that either.”

“I think the guy on the right looks good. Muscular legs and arms…probably a few other areas, am I right?”

“Melissa,” I whispered through gritted teeth.

“Does Joey have a lot of muscles?”

“I wasn’t looking at his body.”

“Oh, but you were looking at him, right?”

I could feel the blood rush to my face for the eighth time that day as I tried to ignore Melissa’s commentary about each staff member who walked, jumped, ran and yelled at the podium to get a reaction from the crowd. There were eight women and four men, counting Zachary, and each of them riled the crowd to a crescendoed frenzy one would think we were at a NIN concert.

Ten minutes later, Mrs Humphrey gathered us together and handed out lanyards and badges. The badges had our room assignments and appeared to be the key to gain entry to our dorm rooms.

“Let’s unload the bus!”

Our group followed the crowd out the door once again.

Mike and Chad met up with us before we arrived at the front door.

Mike made a gesture of “after you” to Melissa and she grabbed onto both of our hands.

“I think this is going to be a great week!”

“I’m sure it will be,” Mike replied with a smile.

I wanted to let go of Melissa’s hand and just blend into the crowd, but she held onto my hand like she was ready to crush it.

I didn’t reply but Mike smiled at her as we walked to the bus.

A lot of the squad ran ahead to be the first to grab their things, so all of the bays were open. Chad threw two large duffel bags out and onto the ground.

“What if I had something breakable in there?” Mike asked.

Chad shrugged as he picked up one of the tossed large bags.

I followed Melissa onto the bus where I picked up my backpack and Melissa grabbed her bag. There were buses all over the parking lot, each swarming with girls with their letter jackets. They were all cute. Who was Melissa to assume I could or would be like them.

We got off the bus in a hurry to grab out bags from the luggage compartment.

There were three bags remaining.

Melissa reached in, pulled the bags out, handing hers to me before handing mine over.

“This one’s yours,” she replied as she looked in and then zipped it up.

“It looks more like yours.”

“No, mine has a broken zipper. Take it. Mrs. Humphery, we’re missing a bag.”

“What?” Mrs. Humphery barked as she took off her sunglasses and investigated the now entry bay. “Who’s missing a bag?”

“Mine,” Melissa replied and raised her hand.

“I’ll need to call the school, and we’ll need to see what we need to do.”

“I’m sure it will all come together,” Melissa said with a shrug. “I’ll check with the other girls maybe one of them has it.”

“You’re rather calm about this,” I replied.

“That’s why my important stuff’s in these bags,” Melissa replied as she lifted her arms.

I stared at her with my jaw hanging open. Melissa, the one who always wanted to have just the right outfit, right down to the underwear, available if she needed it. Melissa, the one who would pack a curling iron and a regular iron with her, just in case.

“I mean if I gotta wear this and wear it again, then I’ll be okay.”

“Did you forget it on the bus?” Mrs. Hunphery asked.

“No, I just took my backpack onto the bus,” Melissa replied as she hoisted said backpack onto her shoulders.

“Everyone’s supposed to get a t-shirt and a pair of shorts for the week. We’ll have to see about getting you a few extra ones.’

‘That will work, Mrs. H.”

I still looked at her, dumb founded.

“I’m good. I’m fine. It will be like getting to wear a new uniform each day.”

“But all of your stuff?” I asked.

“Pssh, I’m good.”

“Alright, you guys are in Richards Hall, which is down this path and to the right. Melissa, come with me.”

I picked up my bag and walked next to Chad and Mike.

“Your friend is a character,” Chad said with a whistle.

“She sure is,” I replied,

“Tell me about it,” Mike said with a grin.

“Dude, there is almost a 1:100 ratio here.” Chad raised his hands and pointed around as we walked into the quad area. There were multiple buildings with six of them marked with WCC banners,

“Yeah, but I’m kind of liking her. She’s growing on me.”

“Careful, or you may turn into one her projects, like Lin.”

“Did you let her do that to you?”

“I was asleep,” I replied as he we walked up to the door to Richards Hall.

Two guys with black lanyards stood next to the door.

“Dudes, welcome to the dorm. I’m Rick and this is Bryan.” Rick then turned his attention to me and pointed to his left. ‘Your dorm is over there with the girls.”

“I’m Chad, this is Mike and Lin.’

"Seriously? You’re a guy?” Bryan asked.

“Ever have your girlfriend try to give you a makeover?” Chad asked Bryan. “And you know you can’t tell her no, right?”

“Especially his,” Mike replied.

“No one can say no to her,” I said as I threw my hair back, which was probably the least ‘manly’ thing I could have done at that moment as it made me look as I was doing some sort of make-up shoot.

Bryan and Rick slowly nodded and then motioned us to follow them.

“You got the door marked in red. Showers and restroom are down the hall. We have to be on the far end of the gym in about thirty minutes.

We’ll see you guys there.”

“Catch you later then, Bry,” Chad shouted as he opened the dorm room and took a step in. “My God, it’s worse than a Motel 6 and there’s no minibar.”

“If my portable refrigerator still works…”

“Oh, that’s you had.”

“Yeah, that’s what I had, doofus,” Mike answered as the door clicked closed.

It was barren: there were beds, three desk like surfaces, dressers and something that could pass as a rug. The sheets and pillows looked ‘hostel-issue’, but I wasn’t going to complain as long as the AC worked.

I laid my backpack on the desk and lifted the duffel onto the bed. I felt bad about Melissa’s bag and shook my head on how we were almost late for bus neither of us bothered to make sure our stuff was loaded up. Perhaps Melissa could borrow some items or maybe Mrs. Humphrey would have Melissa call her dad and then drive back three hundred miles to retrieve the bag.

I unzipped the tip of the bag, and a large black cord poked out.

“What is that? I asked to absolutely nobody as I reached into the bag and my hand touched up against a plastic bag. “What is this?”

I pulled the bag out and saw it was an unopened pack of underwear. Girls’ underwear to be specific.

I dropped that bag on the floor like it was on fire.

“Are those yours?” Chad asked as he saw me jump back.

“Definitely not mine,” I replied as I felt my heart race. “This has to be Melissa’s bag.”

I yanked at the cord and a curling iron flew out of and landed on the bed.

Mike came over and picked up the bag of underwear.

“Are they any used ones in there?” Chad asked as he looked back at the duffel bag.