The Storm, Before the Calm

Six years ago The sun was barely out when the screams of the camp master rang across the entire camp. As was the usual routine, Mrs. Harder could be heard from miles away as she did her best to resurrect campers who had missed the earlier wake-up call alarms. Martha found her antics amusing at first but now she would rather avoid the shouting. "Get up power girls! Morning is right in our faces! Time to clean up and get ready! We move in forty minutes!" She screamed from cabin to cabin. Martha and her roommates were already up by the time Mrs. Harder reached their cabin. "Hey bible thumper, seems we're gonna be making handcrafts today and later musical rehearsal. Please do well to pinch me whenever I get sleepy."It was Agnes, the oldest of the roommates, talking to Martha."If only I were awake by then." replied Martha to a burst of arousing laughter from the other girls. Each of the girls quickly made their beds before heading out for their bath. Outside their cabin, girls of ages ten to fifteen could be seen scurrying away to the bathroom site with their bath cases. The early mornings were typically the most chaotic part of the day. Martha too was in a hurry to get ready in time for the morning assembly. As she hastened her footsteps, she wondered how much worse the situation would be in the boys' section. No doubt, the boys' bathing routines would be more noisy, chaotic, and FUN. "Boys always find a way to make even the casual things fun." She admitted.  The morning assembly would last for about thirty minutes before everybody headed back to their cabins for the daily clean-up. Thereafter breakfast was served before the first of the day's activities began. The boys had joined in by now. "We are gonna be making handbags, necklaces, bangles, and a lot more fun stuff together!" announced the craft master as the children took to their sits. The kneading and knitting were beginning to bore Martha so she decided to sneak away from the group. A few boys were among the handcraft activity group while the majority had followed the hiking group. Martha wished she had picked hiking but it was already too late to switch now, all thanks to the stupid roommates' pact. Taking an excuse for the bathroom, she succeeded in escaping the boredom group.  She decided to wander eastward of the campsite. All alone with no one in sight, she finally found the pond after messing around for a while. Martha was a lover of the sea from her years in California so swimming was a favorite hobby of hers. She took off her clothes leaving only her bra and undies as she made a dive into the pond. The feeling of the cool water brought shivers to her at first. She was having all the fun in the world as she swam back and forth in the pond. After a while, she was exhausted from her ordeal. She decided to lie on the moist ground of the pond banks while facing up towards the sky. The feeling of the sunlight hitting her wet skin made her reminisce about her California days.  "Snake! Hey, run! A snake is behind you! Run!!!" Someone not too far off yelled at Martha. Immediately she took to heels, fleeing for her dear life. She was still running at full speed when an echo of laughter burst out within the woods. It was a stupid prank that brought enough laughs from the whole group. Martha was still catching her breath when she realized that she was in the full gaze of the entire hiking boys. While she was used to swimming in her undies and bra in front of the public, today felt different. She could feel the eyes of over thirty boys piercing through her soul while they laughed at her. She was embarrassed.  "Enough boys! She's had enough humiliation for today. Come here child and ignore them, lousy lads." The instructor of the hiking group motioned to Martha as he drew closer to her. One of the few girls in the group helped bring her clothes. Martha was almost completely dried by now so she had little problem putting on her clothes back. Thereafter she joined the rest of the hiking group as requested by the instructor. While in their midst, she finally had the name of her earlier tormentor.  "Oh, the prankster? He's Jonathan 'The Pranklord'. He's a devil and I heard he isn't from around here." One of the girls had told Martha when she asked about the lanky, brown-haired boy who pranked her.  "Jonathan 'The Pranklord'?" "Yeah, He'd pulled a prank on me too on our first-day hiking. He's bad bad." "You said he ain't from here right?"reaffirmed Martha hoping to get more information about him. "Yeah, heard he is from a state nearby. Maybe Ohio or Michigan but not Indiana." "Nah, he was probably sent from hell to torment us. After all, he's a devil." Martha managed to get a laugh from the girl. They enjoyed each other's company for the rest of the day's stroll and became closer thereafter. All through that summer camp, Martha would carry a deep hatred for Jonathan 'The Pranklord' she never had any other encounter with. From afar, she would curse under her breath at the sight of him. He would make an entry into her list of baddies by the time she got back home.

Present day times The lecture hall was almost filled by the time Martha got in. "The fear of the upcoming spring semester exams suddenly made them remember lectures." She grumbled. Professor Tate was yet to come which was unusual for him. Martha's favorite seats were already taken so she had to settle for one at the left wing of the hall. "Hey, I was saving this seat for someone else."The guy beside her protested as she made herself comfortable in one of the few seats available. "Oh, sorry, didn't see any item on the seat." "Sure, you can have the seat. Better to seat with a pretty damsel than some sweaty guy after all. Collins can go fuck himself." Now Martha had taken full notice of him. He was a tall, muscular guy with outrageously styled hair. His beards were yet to fully grow and they looked rather scanty at a second glance. He was probably of her age or at most a few years older. "So that's your line? Not bad but you can still do much better." She had figured that his earlier claim was a set-up all along. Now nineteen, Martha had grown to become a very attractive young woman. Yet her beauty came with a price. Not a day would go by before some random guy attempted to woo her with obviously their repetitive lines. Today was no different. She had also noticed his use of the F-word. "Yeah, I am sorry. You got me! How about a normal Hi?" "Sounds better." Martha smiled. At least he was an honest man, unlike the others. "I am Jonathan Barrington from Political Science major. You can call me Jon for short. You are?" "...Martha Daniels of Economics major." She finally got out of her brief blackout. There was something awkward about the way he shook her hands. His name also sounded familiar though she could have sworn that she had never seen his face before.  "You might know me if you follow our basketball team." Jon was beginning to sound a bit cocky now.  "You play for the spartans?" "Yeah. Came off the bench a couple of times this season." "So you ain't a starter? Just bench appearances here and there?” She tried her best not to sound sarcastic. Martha had always been an advocate of humility so bringing people from their high horses was her thing.  "laughs...Relax It's only freshman year. Coming seasons would a lot better. Who knows, I might even make the NBA." Now they both smiled at each other. He was charming enough to make Martha interested in continuing their conversation.  "Oh, the big NBA league? I bet they would force you to cut your girly hair before allowing step into their courts." "What girly hair?" frowned Jon. She had struck a nerve of his and she loved it. Finally, Prof. Tate came into the hall looking a tad bit uneasy. With his presence, the whole class ended the chatters including theirs. Soon afterward the ECN192 class began.  Throughout the class, Jon was an unwelcome distraction to Martha. He never said another word to her yet his nonchalant attitude to whatever the professor had to say intrigued her. He was probably only in the class to mark attendance. As an aspiring athlete, it was obvious that he had more concerning matters than his academics. Martha had seen him making a carton sketch at first, and then he was scribbling some notes. Now he was beating the desk with his pen, albeit silently as he rocked his head back and forth. Whatever song Jon had in his head would have been a nice one for he was lost in it. Mr. Tate ended his two hours lecture with an assignment to the whole class to be submitted in a week.  "Oh, he's done?" Jon asked no one in particular as he snapped out of his world.  "Yeah, he is. You do know that Econs ain't an easy course to pass, right?" replied Martha as she packed her things to leave. "You're repeating the course?" "No! Why would you think so?" Martha seemed mortified at the thought of failing a course. While she wasn't the brightest of all, she had never had any issue passing academic exams.  "laughs...Just wanted to confirm your freshman status. No offense intended Martha." He was now staring right into her eyes. His dark brown eyes matched the color of his hair.  "Yeah, clever. Yes, I am also a freshman." She muttered under her breath. "He gave us some assignments again. Do you mind both of us going through the assignment over the weekend? Say Friday or Saturday evening?" Martha wasn't sure of what to make of Jon's proposal. The innocence in his words made her accept that he probably just wanted some academic help and nothing really serious. "Friday evening would work for me. My Saturdays aren't predictable." "Parties?" "Not really...I guess something like that."Martha decided to follow the flow on the second attempt. There was no need to explain her evangelical exploits to some stranger on their first meeting. By the time they were leaving, the hall was already empty. They chatted with each other as they walked out of the faculty building. Just as they were about to part ways at the faculty entrance, they exchanged mobile numbers. "See you Martha on Friday!" Jon shouted some yards away while waving his final byes.  Later that day, Martha would get back to her hostel room exhausted from the day's activity. Three lectures and some meetings at the campus church fellowship meant she returned all hungry and burnt out. Naomi, her roommate, was yet to arrive, giving Martha all the privacy she needed. She poured herself a mountain of cereal and cocoa pops mix. She made use of the biggest bowl she could find, leveling it all with cold milk up to the brim. Thankfully there was no Naomi to make fun of her eating habit or make embarrassing videos of her. As Martha ate, she reminisced about the day's events. Most of her classes had gone well. The same could be said of the sisters' fellowship and choir practice. She also met Jonathan, the cheeky bench warmer. For all her evangelical exploits, Martha was yet to bring in a new person to her church on her own. She was effective in group missions but bad as a soloist. Well who knows, Jonathan might just be her first catch!

"You liar! It's all made up Tommy! Never believe this liar, the numbers are his parents and grandma. I can bet you ten bucks!" cried out Jefferson. "Why would I lie about getting some girls' numbers? You told me to get five numbers at the end of the day. There they are in my phonebook." Jon needed to put Tommy and the gang in their place. "Sarah, Temi, Lizzy, Martha, Felicia. They'll sound made up to me though. Why don't you call them in our midst?" suggested Tommy. The rest of spartans freshman players were all present in the locker room. Tommy served as the de facto leader of the gang as the only starting freshman. All eyes were on Jon as he dialed the first number. It was Temi's. He talked with her for a bit before ending the call. He moved to another, then another. Four down now, with the last one to go. Jon stared at his phone screen; it was Martha's turn now. Sneakily, he faked a call by dialing his own number. "Looks like her line ain't going through. At least I manage to get four out of five on call. You'll believe me now?" He lied. None of them suspected a thing though. With a nod from Tommy as a sign of approval, the others proceeded to chant his name aloud. "Jon the slayer! Go slay them, boy! Go slay them Jonnyboy!" Laughter filled up the room. It was a typical day in the men's basketball team locker room. They were done with the morning practice so as a tradition, the freshman among them hung out for a while before calling it a day. Yesterday's session saw Jon dared by Williamson to get five ladies' digits which he expertly passed. The task was no big deal for him since he was already accustomed to picking up interests in the opposite sex from his childhood days. There wasn't an actual prize for acing the dare rather than typical bragging rights among the gang. At least Jon was happy he finally got one over Darry Williamson. Friday came rather quickly. It had been three days since Jon proposed a study meeting with Martha. Among all the ladies he engaged that day, she was the only one he was interested in. Maybe it was because he really needed help with the Econs assignment after all exams were only three weeks away. With the NCAA college basketball season over, Jon had nothing much to do for the day. He only had a non-compulsory two hours shooting practice with the rest of the spartans team later that afternoon.The time was already past ten o'clock. Jon decided it was an appropriate time to ring Martha's line as a reminder of their pending evening encounter. "...Oh you finally called."She picked up on a second attempt. "Have you been expecting my call all this while?" "Not really. But it would have been nice if you called earlier."Her voice sounded sweet on the phone. She would be great as a telecommunication customer support agent, he thought to himself. "Oh, my bad. Anyway, just wanted to call to remind you of our study later today. You still up for it?" "Sure. By when though?" "Seven?" "Wouldn't that be too late? How about 5p.m?" suggested Martha. "Five works just fine for me too." "So where are we meeting?" asked Martha. Jon wouldn't know the most appropriate place for a study session so he called out the first thought he had. "How about Papa Joe's cafe? So we can get dinner while at it?" "Cafe? This ain't a date mister girly hair. We meet at the faculty library." Her laughter could be heard over the phone as she struggled to contain it. "Oh, library it is then. See ya by five then. Bye." "Bye." With that, Martha hung up the line. Coach Izzo was in the mood for fun today so the session was a light one with free throw techniques being the main focus. While Jon still had a lot to learn from his college coach, he was more interested in heading back to his apartment on time today. The session was over by 4p.m so Jon had just one hour to freshen up and head for the library. He had taken an excuse from his Spartan freshman gang to avoid their hanging out with them that evening. "My sister is coming over to my place in an hour, gotta go meet her before she trashes up my room." He had lied to the gang. "Hey, girly hair! Over here!" Someone called out from his behind. Jon had been scanning through the library in search of Martha for the past few minutes to no avail. There she stood in her long purple gowns flowing way below her ankles. She was wearing a little make-up today unlike the other day when she had none. She was definitely prettier than Temi, he admitted. "You're late. I thought you bookworms were always on time." One could sense a hint of frustration in Jon's body language. Who could blame him though? He had just spent his first minutes in the faculty library walking around like a lost cause. "Yeah, I am almost...twenty minutes late..." admitted Martha while looking at her wristwatch."…I had an online meeting with my pastor and a few other members of the church. Never knew it would take that long. I even had to leave them for you..."She had taken a pause and never finished her statement. "Oh, church activities? You must be some active Christian then?" He asked. She nodded in reply. "What about you?" "Me? I’ve never been to church since my grandma died. I guess I qualify as an atheist." Jon could see that Martha felt uneasy with his revelation. "My folks were never big on the whole religion thing. So I guess my parents and the whole family aren't religious people. Not that I have anything against religion." He explained further. He tried to read her demeanor but he got nothing tangible. They settled to use a corner double seat at the back of the library. Despite exams being some weeks away, there were only a handful of people around. The focus of their subsequent discussion was strictly academics as they attempted to tackle Prof. Tate's Asset Valuation questions. Solutions to most of the questions came easy to them courtesy of Martha's super brain. Only a few posed serious problems requiring a load of minutes’ worth of research. Jon played his part too albeit in a secondary role. He was no slouch academically although his lack of effort made him a C-student. "How about we go grab a few drinks before talking the final part?" suggested Jon. "We're almost done though. Just twenty more minutes and we'll be over." she protested. "You said the same thing like thirty minutes ago! Don't worry, we won't take that long." She had put up more resistance before she finally agreed. There was an open cafe just outside the library. They headed over there while leaving their backpacks back at the library. "One Sloppy Joe for this guy and a tuna sandwich for the lady!" Jon tabled their order at the front desk. Martha had gone to the vending machine to get their drinks. "Or make that two Sloppy Joes for me." He requested a new order on second thought. Martha came back to their table with a can of diet coke and regular coke. "Here is your diet coke grandpa!" She announced, making fun of his choice. "You do know sugar ain't any good. Guess you gonna know why when you get old." "Yeah, that's the point grandpa! You're already old!" She was now laughing aloud at her own jokes. Jon was in the mood to be playful so he played along. "I guess I can have a regular coke then. But don't feel disappointed when little Jon fails to perform when you need him the most." He had a smirk on his face anticipating her reply. "Regular coke affects you athletes, despite your weightlifting? So much for strength building." "Nah, it does help athletic performance but not so much for little Jon. I mean sugar ain't any good for the little captain." Jon could see that she had no idea of what he was implying so he had to switch topics. "So where are you from Martha?"He had always wanted to get more personal with Martha so this direction of talks would help a bit. "Indianapolis close by." "Well, I guess my home is much closer than yours. I am from here, Michigan." "You always wanted MSU rather than somewhere else farther from home?" queried Martha. Jon would have loved to share his honest opinion but he wouldn't want to bore her with his fake-love story for college basketball. "It was always the plan for me to play college basketball here at MSU. Already had contact with their scouts since sophomore year in high school." "So we can say your plan went perfectly?" She quipped in. "Yeah. It did."The tone of his words didn't match their meaning. He was obviously hiding something but Martha wasn't someone who fancied forcing people to spill their beans. "Indiana was great the few times I visited." "You do visit Indiana? How many times have you?" Jon could pick increasing excitement in her now. "Most times I visited there cos of my grandparents. They live there though not in the capital city. I have visited Indianapolis too for some campus activity." "Indianapolis summer camps? Which of them?"Her excitement grew further. "Just some boys' summer camp for science, programming, and kinds of stuff." "Oh, I thought it was the Triple As Summer camps. It was the most popular children's holiday camp back then in Indianapolis."The excitement in her had now waned off. "Nah, mine was a boys-only summer camp. It was fun though." Jon now regretted why he had lied earlier for he did attend Triple As summer camp. His reason for lying was to avoid coming off uncool for attending a performing & creative art-themed camp. If only he had known that Martha was also a fellow attendee. "How has your MSU freshman experience been thus far?" Just before Martha could say anything in reply, her phone rang out loud. Jon had watched her like a hawk preying for food as she conversed with whoever was on the other line in a low voice. It took him a short time to figure out that the caller was a male. Probably her boyfriend from the look of things. It made sense because the male caller seemed to be berating her about the dangers of staying out late. They talked forever till the point Jon wished for superpowers to take away the network service. He was done with his second sandwich by the time Martha finished her call. "Was that your guy?" Jon was quick to ask immediately she dropped her phone. "My guy? He's a friend from church. I don't have any guy."Martha's words brought a strange relief to Jon. "But he's also from MSU right?" He queried further. "Yeah, a master's student in the faculty. We both attend the same campus fellowship and he is a senior member too." For some unknown reason, Jon wasn't contented with her answers. He was starting to like Martha. Yet he wasn't ready to go for her if someone else was already in the picture. "Sounds like y'all are pretty close?" "Yeah, kinda I guess."There was a brief silence before Martha took to her leave. "I have to go now, Jon. It's already later than I expected. Maybe we can finish the rest Sunday evening. See you on Sunday?" "Nah, Sunday evening won't work for me, Martha. I have other plans with the gang." He explained. While Jon would love to see her again, he knew he couldn't pull off back-to-back absences from his Spartan gang. "Okay." "Maybe we can just finish the rest on our own. No biggie" suggested Jon. "Yeah, no biggie." Another moment of silence broke out. "…Thanks for helping out Martha. See ya in a class by Tuesday."Jon reached out to give her a causal hug before escorting her back to the library at first to get their things. Thereafter they headed for where she had parked her bike. It was on getting to her bike stand that Jon realized they had locked hands together all through their walk from the cafe. He enjoyed caressing her soft palms as they walked down the campus streets. His right hand would've been jealous of the sweet feelings his left hand savored. At last, their day together was over. He watched as she rode off on her bike till she was out of sight.