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Luke taught the girls about serving like at the diner. “Ask them what to drink first,” he said. “And make sure they have napkins and forks before they get pancakes.”
Lake, Carla, and I monitored and helped, directing the girls, staying at their elbows.
We all took turns giving them thumbs ups and saying, “Good job.”
While I’d never focused on the other girls before, right now, they were beaming with delight and I could tell they loved helping out and being useful.
They smiled. They talked to the little girls. They opened up a discussion about the Academy and what they hoped to do.
When the young group was almost done eating, a group of boys showed up. They were about the same age as their servers—around fourteen.
This time, the girls were nervous but the rest of us encouraged and helped where we were needed.
Soon there was a line, with people standing around with paper plates, making room for any younger kids at the table.
By the time we’d fed all the teams the boys had invited over, it was almost ten.
We offered to help clean up, but the boys shooed us away.
“Time for round two,” Kota said.
I nodded and took the lead. I’d gotten permission from Mrs. Rose, thanks to Kota talking to her and explaining the purpose.
I waved my arms and got the fourteen-year-old girls to pay attention.
“Are we ready for crafts?” I asked.
The girls looked at each other and then back to me.
“There’s a trick,” I said. “You can’t make anything for yourself now. We’re all going to make bracelets for someone else. You see, those younger girls and boys are new, and we want to let them know, they’re welcome.”
The girls nodded, smiling. “Yeah,” one of them said. “We’ll do that.”
Lake gathered them together, getting them organized for a quick change of clothes, a latrine break until they were ready to go.
I paused by the Jeep, where North was cleaning off a griddle.
“Thank you,” I said quietly.
“anytime, Baby,” he said.
I waved and said thank you to the other guys, too, who were busy cleaning up and moving tables back. I hated to leave them to the mess but was grateful they had been so willing to participate.
Taylor, April, and Emma wandered off on their own. It was just Carla, Lake, and me now to guide the girls for the rest of the day.
???
Once we got to the arts and crafts area, Gabriel was there, waiting beside a cheery Dr. Green.
“Good morning, ladies,” Dr. Green said. “Are we healthy and full of good food this morning?”
The girls nodded. A few of them giggled nervously, looking at the two of them with wide eyes.
Dr. Green wore khakis and a lime green polo shirt. Gabriel was dressed in a button up blue shirt and newer jeans. Had they dressed a little more nicely just for the girls?
The five girls were seated, Dr. Green and Gabriel explained they would help pick through beads and assist with the clasps.
Working together with the five girls, and Lake, Carla and I participating, within an hour, we had over forty different bracelets, each with unique charms. Each one different.
When we were finished, we collected the bracelets in boxes.
“Are we going to give these to the others now?” one of them asked.
“Tonight we will,” I said with a smile.
Lake elbowed me in the gut, gently. “Don’t give away spoilers.”
I winked at the younger girl.
She whispered to the others. “There’s more. There’s a secret.”
I shared looks with Carla and Lake, unable to help grinning. It was fun to get them excited about the day.
Carla had gone over the girls’ interests with us the night before. She’d told the boys, and they had spent all night setting up for the morning. All we had to do was walk them to the different stations at the right times.
The girls followed us to the beach after bracelet-making. First on our list was dancing. One of the girls wanted to be a ballet dancer but liked any sort of dancing.
Gabriel had followed us to where Luke and Nathan met us on the beach. There were other groups there, both younger girls, and another group of guys, including Ian and his team.
We took up a section of a flat area of the beach.
Gabriel led the class. I was nervous about the guys making the girls shy about dancing with them. Luke and Nathan were enthusiastic and joined in, which made it easier for the girls to get into it and not be embarrassed. It was the younger boys who hesitated but Ian’s team participated and encouraged them, they all joined in.
Lake, Carla and I mixed in with all the kids, not just our group, making sure everyone was part of the conversation.
Gabriel taught the steps to Beat It. I pretended I didn’t know the steps and purposely fumbled a lot. I laughed at my own mistakes. The girls laughed with me and I shared secret winks with Gabriel when they did.
After going through the song many times, we were exhausted and sat down on the beach.
We’d spent the entire morning together and this was the time we’d been waiting for.
Lake, Carla and I had gone over what to say the night before. But now it was time, I was nervous. I felt like I was suddenly on stage, and with the other teams around, it was like revealing a piece of my soul to them all. I was rattling on the inside, not just with stage fright but because I’d be exposing part of myself.
Lake seemed to sense I was nervous and started for me. “Whew,” she said. “This reminds me of the time when I was in on a team, and they took me to help out a bunch of Mexican kids.”
Lake borrowed the story I’d told her. I didn’t mind as it got the conversation going. She embellished a little, too. Luke laughed when she said he’d done crazy parkour back flips to get on top of the roof.
We wanted to show fun experiences with other teams, and open them up to the idea that you wouldn’t be on the same team every time, but it was still fun. So we mixed up a few stories, mostly true, just to share with them between activities.
When she finished, I nodded and found the courage to join in. “That’s nothing,” I said. “There was this one time...”
“Speak up,” one of the girls said. “We can’t hear you.”
My throat was dry from talking a lot over the last few days and my voice had never been very loud to begin with, so I was going to need help to be heard. I started looking toward Lake when I then focused on one of the fourteen-year-olds sitting close to me.
“Will you be my voice?” I asked her.
She nodded.
I spoke, and she repeated my words, shouting at first, but calming after a while. I told the story about Thanksgiving, the families we’d helped, about Academy neighborhoods, and what the one we had visited was like.
“I wish I lived there,” the girl who had been my voice said to me after I’d finished.
I winced, wondering about her background. I suspected a lot of them had hard times at home.
The boys left after a while, leaving the girls to chat with each other, asking questions about their experiences at the camp so far.
Lake, Carla and I stood back, listening and smiling at each other. It seemed to be working. The girls were taking responsibility for the younger girls, becoming little leaders themselves.
Taylor appeared beside us as we were headed to the beach picnic area for lunch, watching as the girls continued excitedly talking among themselves.
“This was the best idea,” she told us quietly.
“Getting them to talk to other girls?” Lake asked.
“Showing them others needed help, just like they needed you,” she said. She winked at us. “When you stop thinking of yourself and focus on helping other people, suddenly your whole outlook changes. You’re more positive and confident. You have to be when you’re being looked at as a leader.”
Taylor’s team joined us
and we all ate lunch together, listening to their stories about their history, their jobs, even how they’d picked their team.
After lunch, we headed out to a field where we met with Silas, who had brought his Wiffle ball set, as had a few others. We didn’t play actual games, though; Silas pitched to whoever had the bat and other people tried to catch balls that got hit out into the field.
“This is almost better than softball,” one of the girls from our camp said, smiling and obviously having fun. This opened her up, and she talked animatedly about her own softball team at home.
We were still playing around when Taylor’s team showed up again and we were handed white T-shirts and were told to put them on over our clothes.
April handed out condiment squeeze bottles filled with different colors.
“Paint your friends,” Taylor said.
“This is one of my favorites,” April said as she stood back, shaking one of the bottles.
