Boot Camp Blues

by Megan Sparks

  Then Cherry pointed to Annie. “You’re up, Anne R. Key.”

  Annie stepped forward and reached towards the deck. She drew, of all things, the Queen of Hearts, and immediately recalled the newspaper ad with the nasty message taped to her locker.

  Apparently, she wasn’t the only one who remembered.

  “Way to go, Queen of Tarts,” came a nasty voice from behind her.

  Annie turned to see Dee smirking cruelly.

  “Twelve sit-ups,” Mad Donna commanded. “Everybody on the floor.”

  As the girls began counting out the dozen crunches, Annie pushed the memory of the newspaper prank out of her mind.

  She had more important things to think about.

  Like how to get through this crazy-difficult warm-up without collapsing!

  Chapter Thirteen

  At noon, Cherry blew her whistle and announced, “Lunch.”

  This was met with sighs of relief and more than a few shouts of sheer joy. The campers had been working steadily since their Deck of Death warm-up and everyone was exhausted.

  Not to mention starving!

  Mad Donna handing out the boxed lunches the dining hall had provided was one of the most welcome sights Annie had ever seen.

  The girls took their little picnics and scattered themselves around the gym in small groups. Annie and Holly and the girls who’d hung out in their dorm the night before formed a cluster towards the top of the tiered benches.

  Dee Stroyer sat with one other sullen-looking girl a few benches down. They were close enough to Annie and her friends to include in conversation, but neither looked to be in the mood for friendly chit-chat. Dee and her reticent lunch partner made Annie feel glad that she and Holly had made so many new friends.

  “Do they have roller derby in England?” Cheryl asked Annie.

  “Yes,” she answered. “But I’d honestly never heard of it until I moved here and my friend Lexie took me to see a bout.”

  “I remember going to see my first bout,” said Luna with a nostalgic smile. “I was, like, six or seven, and my dad took me. My mom was always signing me up for things like dance and piano, but since I was about as musical as a rhinoceros, Pops thought maybe I should try something a little more athletic. We went to see the Jersey Jezebels play the Paramus Princesses and I was hooked after the first jam. Got my first pair of skates the next day.”

  “My older sister plays,” Carrie Ann said, “so of course, I wanted to start as soon as I was old enough.” She laughed. “Turns out I’m just as good as she is.”

  “Don’t be so modest,” said Cheryl. “You’re not just as good as your sister, you’re better than her and just about everyone in our league.”

  Carrie blushed. “Thanks, Cher.”

  Annie took an apple out of her cardboard lunch box and bit into it. “Are you guys teammates?” she asked.

  Cheryl shook her head. “We play on rival teams, but we’ve gone to school together since first grade, so we’ve always been friends.”

  “When our teams skate against each other, we act like we’re mortal enemies,” Carrie said, giggling.

  Annie noticed that Sue had unzipped her hoodie and was sliding it off her shoulders. Annie was impressed with the vintage Metallica tank top underneath. But before Annie could comment on her new friend’s taste in music, Holly gasped.

  “Wow!” said Holly, her eyes going wide. “What happened there?”

  Annie followed Holly’s gaze to a huge splotch of purple on Sue’s shoulder.

  “It’s a beauty, isn’t it?” said Sue, beaming with pride. “I took a spill at practice two weeks ago. My coach thought I broke my collarbone, and my mother cried for days.”

  “She was probably afraid you did some real damage,” said Elle, biting into her tuna sandwich.

  “It wasn’t that,” said Sue. “She was worried the bruise wouldn’t fade in time for me to rock the off-the-shoulder dress I’m supposed to wear to my cotillion next month.”

  “A roller girl debutante!” cried Annie. “That’s brilliant.”

  The girls laughed, and Charlotte pulled down her stripey knee sock. “Check out this gash,” she said, indicating a snake-like scar on her shin. “First bout of the season! Nine stitches.”

  For the next several minutes, it was all about scraped elbows, bruised ribs, and chipped teeth. And the best part was that each injury came with an exciting story.

  When it was Annie’s turn to show and tell, she didn’t hold back at all. “I sprained my ankle right before Halloween,” she said, rolling down her sock and showing her friends her ankle brace. “It swelled up like a pumpkin and I had to hobble around on crutches. I couldn’t skate for two weeks!”

  As she spoke, Annie shifted a purposeful glance at Dee, and was glad to see the bully flinch.

  “Ouch,” said Luna. “Crutches suck.”

  “How’d it happen?” asked Eve, popping a piece of a granola bar into her mouth.

  “Well, let’s just say it was a trick that didn’t come with a treat,” said Annie in a cool voice.

  At that, Dee turned and scowled at her; Annie met her eyes without blinking.

  “An opponent decided to play dirty,” she went on. “I guess she thought she had no chance of out-skating me if she didn’t take drastic measures.”

  “That’s pathetic,” said Carrie Ann. “I hate it when girls play dirty.”

  “Me too,” said Sue. “I mean, sure ... sometimes you have to get aggressive, but there’s no excuse for poor sportsmanship.”

  “I couldn’t agree with you more,” said Annie, her eyes boring into Dee’s.

  Dee just sneered, not showing so much as a shadow of remorse.

  Annie wasn’t surprised. She’d expected that. Still, it felt good to be able to look Dee in the eye and tell her what she thought.

  Maybe she was going to learn a lot more than just derby skills here at camp.

  Maybe she was finally going to develop some real guts!

  * * *

  Annie was glad she’d eaten every last morsel of her boxed lunch, because the afternoon session required a lot of hard work and energy. It was all about agility and moves.

  “Fancy footwork” was what Mad Donna called it.

  She and Cherry Bomb set up an obstacle course and got the girls to run through as fast as they could ... on their toe stops. This filled the gym with a thundering sound as the hard rubber stops stomped on the wooden floor.

  “I know this camp is supposed to keep us on our toes,” Annie giggled, “but this is ridiculous.”

  “We sound like a stampede of elephants,” Charlotte remarked.

  When they’d run the course six times, Cherry told them to relax. As the girls panted and wiped the sweat from their faces, Cherry explained the importance of “speed checks”.

  “This is so jammers don’t crash into a slower-moving wall of blockers,” she said. Then she went speeding around the track, her purple hair flying out from beneath her helmet.

  “She’s going to demonstrate a hockey stop,” Mad Donna explained. “Watch carefully.”

  Cherry zoomed towards them, then twisted at the waist, swinging her knees and shins around while pushing her skate heels forward so that they were perpendicular to the direction she’d been heading. She stopped cold – arms out, knees bent. Annie imagined that if she’d been on an ice rink, her skate blades would have kicked up a shower of snow.

  “Your turn, ladies!” said Mad Donna.

  Cherry talked them through it. “Use your heels, and keep those knees soft. It’s a smooth motion, not a jerk, but it’s fast and hard. Concentrate on balance.”

  “Start skating,” said Mad Donna. “When I blow the whistle, everyone try a hockey stop.”

  The girls set off around the track. When they’d built up sufficient speed, the coach let out a shrill blast.

  Knees ... heels ... twist ... stop ... Annie let her waist swivel and her skates slam forward.

  The next thing she knew she was flat on her bac
k, dodging other first-time hockey stoppers, who were falling around her like snowflakes. At least a third of the campers hit the floor – some sprawled on their bellies, others landed backside first. A chorus of grunts and groans filled the gym.

  Holly, of course, executed the stop flawlessly. Sue wobbled a bit, but managed to stay on her feet. Annie took some satisfaction in seeing Dee Stroyer go belly-up, but then felt angry with herself for being so spiteful. She hated that Dee brought out those feelings in her.

  Sue glided over and offered Annie a hand.

  “I think you’re going to have bruise as bad as mine,” said Sue, pulling Annie to her feet.

  “I think you’re right,” said Annie, gingerly massaging her shoulder. “Lucky for me, I don’t have any strapless dresses in my immediate future.”

  Mad Donna got them to try the hockey stop several more times. Each time, there were less casualties littering the track, and by the fourth attempt, Annie had nailed it.

  The next skill involved 180-degree turns. The coaches got the girls to sit in a semicircle and watch while they took turns demonstrating the many different ways of accomplishing an effective “about face”. The turning options included hopping, dragging skates around, kicking up heels, and digging toe stops into the floor.

  As the girls practised the various techniques, Annie focused on perfecting the sassy little hop turn. She repeated it again and again, making a complete 180 every time.

  “That was awesome, Annie,” Mad Donna called from across the gym. “You really nailed it.”

  Annie felt her cheeks flush with pride at the coach’s praise.

  Then Cherry blew her whistle to dismiss them for the day.

  * * *

  After a quick shower and a change of clothes, Annie gave Dad a quick call.

  “Beanie!” Dad said when he picked up his phone. “How’s my favourite roller girl in the world?”

  “Boot camp is amazing!” Annie gushed. After filling Dad in on camp and her new friends, Annie noticed the time. “Dad, I’ve got to go – the dining room is closing soon and I don’t want to miss dinner.”

  “Glad to hear you’ve got your priorities straight,” Dad joked. “I’ve got to run too; there are some gingerbread men in the oven who are in danger of being cremated.”

  After dinner, Annie and Holly met up with Cheryl, Eve, and Luna. Their other new friends had opted for an early night after the gruelling practice, but Annie was eager to get a better look at the campus and the surrounding area.

  “Minus Fraternity Row,” she reminded Holly pointedly.

  Holly pouted but didn’t argue.

  They spent some time wandering around the quad, but as it was still snowy and cold, only a few students were out taking advantage of the broad stretch of lawn centred in the middle of classroom buildings and dormitories. Annie loved the gorgeous old buildings, and even suggested a quick tour of the enormous library, but Luna just laughed.

  “I see enough books during school. This is vacation.”

  Annie decided she couldn’t argue with that, and after a brief visit to the vast arts centre, where they watched a bit of a choral group’s rehearsal and admired some of the student artwork displayed in the gallery, the girls headed off campus to see what the Main Street had to offer.

  In a word: everything!

  There were second-hand bookshops, clothing boutiques, cool restaurants, even an art-house movie theatre. Eve wanted to stop in the yogurt shop for a smoothie, but Holly had a better idea.

  “Check it out,” she said, pointing across the street to a place called Ziggy’s. “That place looks like fun.”

  Every time the door opened for someone to enter or exit, the girls could hear the sound of cheers and loud music coming from within.

  “Perfect!” said Luna. “The sign says ‘Battle of the Bands’.”

  They all hurried across the street and stepped inside, where there were candlelit tables and the smell of strong coffee.

  “A coffee shop with live music,” said Cheryl. “This is so cool.”

  “Right?” said Holly, guiding them towards an empty table, close to the small, raised platform that served as a stage. Five girls in matching gold lamé miniskirts and high heels were clamouring off the stage after their performance.

  A guy in a Great Lakes University T-shirt bounded onto the platform. “Give it up for The Stilettos!” he cried, his voice booming through the microphone.

  The room rippled with half-hearted applause.

  “Looks like they aren’t going to win this battle,” Holly observed. “But I give them major props for gold lamé. Maybe when they realize they have no future in music, they can try roller derby.”

  “Five espressos,” Luna told the waitress, who appeared the minute they were seated. “With a lemon twist.”

  When Annie eyed her curiously, Luna shrugged and giggled. “That’s how my grandfather takes his espresso,” she confessed. “I have no idea if it tastes good or not.”

  It didn’t, Annie concluded, the moment the steaming black liquid touched her lips. It was strong and bitter and the lemon rind straddling the rim of the tiny cup did nothing to improve the flavour of the beverage. At Rosie Lee’s they served plenty of coffee – but never with lemon! She noticed the other girls wincing as they tasted theirs as well, but no one wanted to seem immature by admitting they didn’t like it.

  Annie looked around. The place was crowded for a Sunday evening, and the rest of the clientele was made up of college students. She guessed they had come here to support their friends, battling for the title of Coolest College Band.

  The next contestants were four extremely hot guys, who called themselves Dirt.

  “This is so cool!” Annie breathed.

  “Yeah,” Holly agreed, as Dirt launched into a funky fusion of jazz and rock. “Don’t see much of this back in Liberty Heights.”

  That was the truth. Annie began taking mental notes, determined to get the details exactly right when she told Jesse about it at home next week.

  Jesse. The thought of him sent a pleasant shudder up her spine. How amazing would it be to be sitting here sipping coffee with him, listening to the music and...

  “Hi.”

  Annie was jarred out of her daydream by a deep voice over her shoulder. She turned to see four cute college boys seating themselves at the table behind theirs.

  “Oh,” said Annie. “Hi.”

  The boy who had spoken to her was tall, with wavy blond hair and clear blue eyes. He had broad shoulders beneath a navy blue crew neck sweater.

  “Have you heard these guys?” he asked, motioning to the quartet. “They’re incredible. They’ve got a really unique sound.”

  “I’ll have to take your word for it,” said Annie, smiling. “I don’t really know much about jazz.”

  “Well, you’ve come to the right place if you want to learn.” The boy smiled warmly. Very warmly. “I’m Todd, and I’ll be happy to answer any musical questions you may have. That is, if you answer a question of mine first.”

  Annie gulped. Was this college boy flirting with her? “OK,” she squeaked.

  “Aren’t you in my World History seminar?”

  “Um...” Annie shook her head. “No. I’m definitely not.”

  “Too bad.” He smiled. “Are you a sophomore?”

  “That’s two questions,” said Annie, smiling back. “But no, I’m just a freshman.” She was about to add in high school, when Holly piped up.

  “She doesn’t take World History,” said Holly. “She’s an Econ major. And so am I.”

  Annie whirled to stare at Holly with wide eyes. Since when? she wanted to ask.

  But Cheryl, Eve, and Luna seemed more than willing to go along with Holly’s charade. As Annie listened in shock, Cheryl informed the boy that she was pre-med. Eve claimed to be a double major in Spanish and Psychology, and Luna, it turned out, was still undeclared.

  Whatever that meant.

  “I’m pre-law,” said the boy next to Tod
d, whose soccer jacket had the name “CHAD” embroidered on it. He was a little stockier than Todd. “But I switched majors three times.” He couldn’t seem to take his deep, dark eyes off Holly. “I guess I just couldn’t make up my mind, so I tried a little of everything.”

  “Well, they say variety is the spice of life,” Holly purred, with a flutter of her eyelashes.

  One of the other boys chuckled and said something to Eve in flawless Spanish. Eve didn’t appear to have any idea what he’d said, but she smiled so sweetly the boy didn’t seem to notice his comment had been lost in translation.

  Luna laughed and ordered another round of coffees – lattes this time, thankfully.

  Annie was beginning to feel a nervous knot forming in her gut. Lying about their age to college boys seemed like a really bad idea.

  But then the music started up again, and the café was filled with the rhythmic thump of a bass and the rasp of a snare drum, and she decided not to worry. It was just a harmless flirtation.

  Seriously ... what harm could come from that?

  Chapter Fourteen

  The next morning, when Annie’s phone alarm pierced the silence of the dorm room, the last thing she wanted to do was get out of bed.

  “Five more minutes,” she groaned to Holly.

  “Five?” Holly echoed. “I was gonna ask for fifteen.”

  They settled on ten, which became twenty, and when they finally rolled out from under the covers (no easy feat, considering every muscle in Annie’s body was stiff and sore from yesterday’s workout) they found themselves in a major rush.

  Annie grabbed her shower kit, then made her way painfully to the shared bathroom to brush her teeth and splash water on her face. As she bent over the sink, she cringed at the dull ache in her quadriceps and calves. Her shoulder was tender where she’d landed on it yesterday and her abdominal muscles throbbed. But she wasn’t going to complain; she knew that pain in the present would result in strength in the future. This was exactly what she’d come here for.

  When she got back to her room, she found Holly – wide awake now – tearing the place apart. Annie gaped at her room-mate, who was digging through drawers and duffle bags, manically flinging clothing around the room.