Blood, Sweat, and Tears (Camren)

Chapter 1

Lauren sat in her chair at the restaurant, picking at the salad in front of her, eating a lettuce leaf every once in a while. She rocked back in her chair, unable to fake the necessary amount of enthusiasm to join the conversation going on around her. Her agent was sitting with her sister and some of her other teammates, and they were chatting excitedly about the training camp starting soon. It was kind of Lauren's thing during the off-season. College coaches from all over the country, and neighboring countries would send in training videos and extensive stats on their best players in hopes that they would be accepted into the Lauren Jauregui Basketball Training Camp. Lauren had many connections and friends in the professional basketball world, and she would work with the young players to get them ready to play at the pro level. She would have professional coaches and trainers come to see the players and almost all of them would be drafted by the end of the summer. She took pride in her ability to make the dreams of so many come true, and it was what motivated her to go through all of the hard work she did every summer. Unless of course it was an Olympic year, when the camp would be pushed back to the fall.

She'd taken a break from playing pro, and only played for the national team at the moment. There was no real reason behind it, she just wanted to have some more time to herself, to travel and whatnot. If she was being completely honest with herself, she considered more often lately, not going back to playing in the WNBA at all, and maybe travelling abroad. One of the Spanish teams in the European league had shown interest in her for several months and she was tempted to go play there multiple times. She didn't really have too many ties here in the states. She wasn't in a relationship, well not anymore. She wasn't very close with her family (except for her sister, who she considered her best friend), and she wasn't under any type of long term contract that grounded her to U.S. soil. As for her camp, she could just travel back every season and then go back once it was over. Eventually, she gave up sulking and decided to join in on the conversation, letting her slight excitement for the next three months fill her up.

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Camila went through everything one last time. She checked all of her suitcases and duffle bags. She made sure she had packed enough underwear, and basketball shorts, and sports bras. She already owned over thirty, but still dragged her father to the Nike store to buy more when she received her letter. A week ago to the date, she absentmindedly checked the mail, and almost disregarded the white packet with the LJTC logo in the corner as another one of her father's case packets. When she did notice it, she opened it so vigorously, she was terrified that she had accidently torn the pieces of paper in half. There it was, the sentence that would change her life. Dear Miss Karla C. Cabello, we are pleased to extend an invitation to the 2015 season of the Lauren Jauregui Basketball Training Camp. Everything after that, she couldn't read as her eyes became clouded with tears of joy. She remembered jumping up and down and shrieking. Her father had come barreling into the kitchen, concerned by the loud noises and expecting to find his daughter caught in some kind of danger. He almost cried with her when he saw why she was in hysterics. She almost cried a second time when he held her in his arms and whispered, "Your mother would've been so proud of you, mija."

She'd lost her mother to cancer four years before, just after graduating from high school. At the time, she was completely destroyed and dejected herself from the world. With the help of her father's support, her older sister, her best friend Dinah, and basketball, she picked herself up and got back on track to reaching her goals of graduating college and playing pro.

She had accomplished the first one, only a few weeks before, and then she was on her way to the second because of that glorious letter. She had even more reason to be ecstatic when she found out that her best friend and former teammate, Dinah, was going to be joining her at camp. She'd feel a lot less intimidated if she had her on her right side. She packed everything she thought she might even think about, including a variety of books, some read and some not, her Go-Pro camera, her iPod and phone, and all necessary chargers. The last thing she packed in her backpack was her silver MacBook, a graduation gift from her dad. Her dad helped her pack all of her things into the back of his car, leaving enough room for Dinah's things as well, since the two would be flying from Miami to Charlotte, North Carolina together. The duo were headed back to the state, after a three week break back home. They were excited to leave Duke after graduation, but Camila missed the place she called home for the past four years.