Patrick wracked his brain as he caught up to Cameron, wondering what the camp could possibly be trying to teach him? Don’t smoke? Too simple. Be nicer to people? Too vague. Don’t mess with the big bear? Lesson already learned, so it wasn’t that. He felt his ears twitching in annoyance as the big secret he was supposed to be learning continued to evade him.
In his other life, he would have called himself a hard-ass, though others might have just called him an ass. He’d belittled his players, thinking it would motivate them but all it did was make them resent him. If a player fell behind, he’d bench them with no intention of letting them play again, tossing them aside until they gave up and quit. He’d pitted players against each other, giving attention to whoever lived up to his expectations and ignoring the ones who didn’t. The camp let him remember all these things with perfect clarity, even as the other details of his old life were murky and harder to hold on to.
He thought back to the tee-ball game he’d helped run with Cameron. It had made Patrick feel… happy, just knowing that all the little critters had left the game feeling like winners, how he’d been able to keep them moving and active the whole time with just his words, not any sort of physical strength. He had the ability to do good and make people feel good, but had he really just chosen not to do it while he was human? But what did turning him into a wimpy little mouse have to do with that?
“…Words have power, use them wisely?” Patrick muttered to himself, not believing that something so simple and trite could really be all he had to learn. It sort of made sense, however; his first mistake at camp had been to try to intimidate Soren for no reason other than to feel like a big man. Now, he was the farthest thing from ‘big’, but he was still able to make an impact on people, hopefully for the better.
“…What is this, a kids’ movie? What a lame moral,” Patrick said, not sure if he even believed it. For all he knew, Soren was just screwing with him, and he was going to be stuck as a weak, cowardly little mouse for the rest of his life no matter what he did.
At least I’ve got the hot guys at camp to drool over while I’m stuck here, he thought to himself as he finally caught up to Cameron, who smiled when he saw his little buddy catching up.
============
While walking down toward the arts-and-crafts building for their next activity together, Cameron and Patrick noticed a lonely-looking camper sitting at a picnic bench, staring off into the distance and sighing like the world was ending. They stopped and looked at each other, wondering if they should get involved.
“Come on, we’ll be late if we don’t get going…” Cameron said, feeling like he shouldn’t get involved with that particular camper for some reason.
Patrick rolled his eyes, then shot back with. "Oh, grow a pair. He’s just a kid, I’m sure it won’t be hard to cheer him up."
Patrick walked over and sat down on the bench with the younger camper, with Cameron hanging back a little bit and watching for the time being.
“Something the matter? You should be out having fun on a day like this,” Patrick said gently, and the camper gave the short mouse an annoyed look before realizing that Patrick was a counselor and not another young teen like him.
“S-sorry! I was going to go along with some friends to play basketball, but…” the camper looked nervous for a moment. “Umm, this is going to sound stupid, but I backed out. There’s someone I’ve got a crush on going too, and I didn’t want to make an idiot of myself in front of them.”
“Oh, I see…” Patrick could really empathize with the kid, who was a little on the scrawny side, but nowhere near as little as Patrick was. The man that Patrick used to be would have just told the kid to just man up and do it, but his new perspective as small, weak little mouse made let him put a little more thought into his response. “Umm… Well, if I were you, I’d go along and try to have fun anyway! The person you like… I bet they just want to have fun, too, and if they see that you like the same things that they do, they might be more interested in hanging out with you. Who knows, maybe they’ll even want to help you get better!”
The camper gave Patrick a funny look, then let out a boyish giggle. “That’s the dorkiest thing I’ve heard all day,” he said, but he hopped up from the picnic bench with a grin on his face. “But, you might be right! Only one way to find out! Thanks a lot!”
Elliot ran off toward the basketball court, the teenage tabby's fluffy tail swinging happily behind him as he waved back to Patrick and Cameron. He’d at least learn the name of the cute skunk he’d been pining over all day, he promised himself. His big brother Jared had always told him stories about how he’d met his boyfriend Rick at this camp, and ever since hearing about it Elliot wanted the same for himself. But he needed to take the first step, and the nerdy little mouse counselor had definitely given him the push he needed.
Patrick walked back to Cameron and saw the big tanuki grinning at him. “Oh, wipe the smirk off your face. I was just doing what you didn’t have the balls to do,” he said, feeling a sudden rush of confidence that had eluded him all day. “Come on, we’ve got a job to do. Race you there!”