𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐒𝐀𝐃𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒 - 𝐡𝐬𝐦𝐭𝐦𝐭𝐬 (𝐢𝐢𝐢) | ✔

eighteen

     Miss Jenn put a hand on Juliette's shoulder, both of them getting up. Before they could even take a step, however, Juliette hugged the woman in front of her, repeating how thankful she was for having someone like her in her life. 

     By the time they arrived to the wall, Kourtney and Gina were preparing to go up. As Ashlyn informed them, they were to do a series of sprints, one after the other. This was the last game of the day before the grand finale and both teams were actually quite tied.

     As Miss Jenn talked with the rest of the Wildcats, who all seemed to have questions for the woman, Juliette's eyes looked for Ricky's in the sea of yellow and blue that were the campers. By the time she found him, he was already looking at her. She tried to look for that love and admiration that Miss Jenn had claimed the boy had whenever she looked at her, but she could find none whatsoever. He looked at her as he had always done, so she just threw him a wide smile and muttered that they were going to crush them. As both of them broke eye contact, Juliette also spotted Ben, who was near Ricky. The boy also smiled at her, but Juliette could only respond with a thight-lipped smile and a small wave.

     "I just remembered that Idina Menzel mentioned on a podcast that Elsa's actually afraid of heights," Kourtney chuckled, the sound of the cheers muffling her voice. It was obvious this was a desperate attempt to get out of climbing, taking into account how scared the girl was, but Val did not seem to buy it.

     "Three, two, one..." the girl blowed the whistle and Gina began climbing like it was second nature. Kourtney, on the other hand, stood paralyzed on the ground, tightly grabbing the rope of the harness.

     "Come on, Kourt, you can do this!" all of them cheered for her, but it was no use. As soon as Gina took the blue flag from the top of the wall, Kourtney smiled and remove her harness.

     "Look," she explained, "you're all amazing at these games without even trying. If I were to try now, in front of all of you, I wouldn't be able to control what happens."

     "That's why we have to push through. Even when it's hard," Val claimed, as she began chanting Kourtney's name. Miss Jenn, however, interrupted them and approached Kourtney to talk to her, which seemed to calm her down considerably.

     In the meantime, Juliette and Ricky were putting their harnesses on, ready to go against each other.

     "Having flashbacks?" the redhead asked the boy. "You and harnesses are meant to be."

     "Just like you and defeat, baby," he winked at her, making Juliette feel hot inside. As Miss Jenn said goodbye to all of them and threw Ricky his birthday present from his dad, Juliette followed him with her eyes.

     "Okay guys, are you ready?" Val asked them, taking Juliette out of her trance.

     Both of them positioned themselved in front of the wall, throwing each other one last look before a deadly fight for victory. As soon as the whistle blew, the two teens flew to the wall and began climbing it as if they had done so all their lives, all while yelling snarky remarks at each other as an attempt to distract their opponent.

     "I never knew you liked to be on top," he joked, considering they had never had that conversation before.

     "Richard Bowen!" Juliette exclaimed, stopping a brief second look at him, which he took as an opportunity to get at her level. Both of them were tied but, in the last moment, Ricky lost balance and Juliette managed to get the flag before he did, waving it while her team cheered on her. Both of them got down and, as soon as their harnesses were off, they approach each other.

     "You did good up there," he congratulated her, sweat trickling down his forehead.

     "You should see what other things I'm good at," she joked, making both of them laugh. The boy put his arm over her shoulders, making her squirm. "Ew, you're sweaty."

     "I'm sorry I'm not a princess that does not sweat, Miss Duchamp."

     And both of them walked to the ampitheatre for what Val and E.J. claimed was "the grand finale" for that amazing day.

     "Okay, hi!" Val got on stage. "It's a tie game so the outcome of this cheer-off determines the fate of Colour War. Okay. So, this year, I have picked It's On from Camp Rock 2. And I printed out lyric sheets, but if you don't know the words, that means something went deeply wrong in your childhood and you didn't watch this iconic sequel. Oh, and as a reminder, when I stop singing, somebody has to take over. Here we go."

     She began singing and, one by one, all of them had a chance to take over the mic, the blue team going first but being soon overtaken by the yellow one, of course getting together for the verse. Both teams put one in front of the other as Jett rapped the fast verse of the song, his voice hitting every single note and even sharing the mic with Juliette so that both of their voices were heard. 

     Panting after that last dance, both teams were left with wide smiles on their face, something that Corbin Bleu shared with them, Juliette observed. The man seemed to have liked the competition as he announced that Jett had caused the Yellow Team to win Colour War.

     Some of the yellow campers picked him up and sat him on their shoulders, celebrating their victory as he received the victory paddle and everybody cheered on them. 

     "Told you I would win," Juliette told Ricky, who could not take the eyes off the girl. 

     "You definitely cheated, you have no business having that voice of yours."

     "Are you kidding me? Have you heard yours? We just won fair and square," she stuck her tongue out as the boy hugged her. Or so she thought, because he picked her up and put her of his shoulder, just like they had done to Jett, making the girl laugh.

     "I know you had always wanted to do this," he smiled as she lowered her and put her in front of her."

     "How can you even remember?"

     "I remember a lot of things, Jul," he half-whispered. Neither of them spoke for some seconds before they were interrupted by Ben, who also wanted to congratulate the girl. 

     "Thanks," she answered. "I didn't know you could sing."

     "You need to be multitalented to come to Shallow Lake. I swim, sing and prank."

     "Oh, what they call a triple-threat," Juliette laughed. "Hey, sorry, I think Maddox is calling me. But, see you around?"

     "Are you going to prom tomorrow?"

     "Yeah, sure," she replied with a smile.

     "Save me a dance then."