Spy School: Camp, it's complicated

The official sport of the spy biz

Hey, Y'all! I had an interesting day, I had a sports injury, and today when I went to school everyone was like "Why are you limping?" and I spent the entire day being late for class and explaining my injury. One of those days right?

(Erica's POV)

I woke up, remembering what had happened the night before. I scrambled out of bed and woke Ben. After looking at the stars for a while, we decided to go back inside and go to bed.

"Ben!" I hissed. "Wake up." and shook him awake. "Listen," I told him. "We can't be together! You just got out of a breakup with Zoe, and, and..." my voice trailed away, and I didn't complete the sentence. But Ben knew what went in the blanks. "But you still have feelings for Joshua," he replied coldly and stalked out of the tent.

I facepalmed. I... I didn't really know what was going on with my feelings. Every time Ben was around, a got a little 'Doodle'y doo' in my heart, like when you would get an alert on IM. But when I was with Joshua, mind you before he turned evil, I got a similar feeling. Maybe not as strong as the 'Doodle'y doo' I had for Ben, but there nonetheless.

I sighed and slipped out of my tent, and to the main area. Ben was already there, glaring with hostility at anyone who approached him. I knew this was my fault, and felt immediately bad about what I had said, and what I had not.

"Campers!" Agent Kimberley shouted. And we still had to figure out what HORNET was. "Today we'll have a ping pong tournament. For this sport, you'll need quick reflexes, hand-eye coordination, patience, and cooperation because this will be a doubles tournament. Pretty much a perfect spy game. Although these last few tournaments you've gone by your camp tent names, you'll be able to choose your own for this one. Remember, winning isn't everything. Getting revenge when you don't is what matters." Erica thought she saw a dark smile cross his face.

She went to Ben immediately, and asked: "What do you want to name our team? And, I'm sorry, I... I did love, Josh. And a part of that will always be with me. But I also... I also like-like you." I said, blushing furiously, not able to say the last part. Ben didn't mind though. His face broke into a huge smile.

"Can we call ourselves the East High Leopards?" he asked. I grinned. "Of course. That show is actually one of my guilty pleasures." He mimed shock, saying "The great and beautiful Erica Hale watches highschool kids breaking into songs and dancing out of nowhere?" I laughed and shoved him in the shoulder. Then I noticed people were staring at us. It wasn't often someone broke through my icy exterior. I resumed my icy glare at them but turned back to Ben with a warm smile on my face.

We weren't together. Not even close. But I had told him my feelings. Sort of.

An hour later, the tournament started. We were in a large gym, and there were nine numbered ping pong tables spread throughout, numbered. Wow. I guess ping pong was the official sport of the spy biz.

Then Agent Kimberley started announcing who would be playing who, and at which table. "At the first table, we have 'The Kentucky fried paddles." and "The ping pong peeps." At table two, we have "Percabeth4ever" and "Losers." Table three: "Lala's" at "Turnips. And at table four we have..."

I zoned off until he called our team name, against "The fighting Irish." you could guess who that was, at table 8. Ben and I walked to table 8, and there stood Sean, and Mike, who had an uneasy expression on his face.

"I'll serve first," I said, serving it across the table to Mike. making it go all low so that it was hard to hit. It bounced past him, scoring us a point. Ben got the next serve, where he spiked it so that it hit right on the edge, but Sean miraculously cackhanded it, sending it flying towards me. I quickly deflected it with the back of my paddle, sending it towards Mike. He swung the paddle like it was baseball, missing by a long shot. I guess he wasn't so good at ping pong.

Ben and I were both fantastic at ping pong, and so was Sean. Mike flat out sucked. I could tell Ben was pleased he was doing better than Mike, but he didn't rub it in.

We won every single game we played and got a nice trophy to share. It was made out of cheap plastic, but I didn't care, because we had won, and had a lot of fun too. Everyone looked amazed when they saw me because I was laughing and grinning constantly. But it was because of Ben, who made me laugh, and grin.

"Go leopards!" I shouted. Ben laughed, and we raced each other back to the tent, and I almost got beat by him. We sat down in the camp chairs, gasping for breath. It was a fairly long run, and we were both full out sprinting trying to beat each other. I went to bed with a smile on my face, still thinking about one Ben Ripley.

Byeeee! See ya later!