"I think we've been making a lot of progress," Dr. Helms said, a sincere smile of encouragement playing on her lips.
Cami did an internal eye roll. We haven't been making progress, I've been the one doing all the work, she thought.
It was the end of their second week of meetings, their sixth time meeting. In her previous sessions, she had already started to suss out the beginnings of when she first started to feel depressed, what factors might have made things worse, her relationship with Daniel. She hadn't yet told the doctor about the night at the country club, only mentioning it briefly when she said that she had quit her job very abruptly. Cami wasn't ready to go into the details of what happened that night, the reasons why she'd quit, what happened with Klaus Mikaelson. Somehow, she sensed that the doctor knew this but was waiting until Cami was ready to talk about it.
"If you're feeling up to it, I think we could scale our appointments down to twice a week?" the doctor proposed.
Even though it had only been two weeks, Cami had to admit that she did feel the tiniest bit better. Overall, she still felt very gloom-and-doom and not much different than when she had been semi-catatonic. But she did notice that she didn't always need a two-hour exhaustion nap after every session anymore, and that on a sunny day the week before, she had taken a short walk around Katherine and Margaret's neighborhood. When she had been outside, she had taken a moment to notice the warmth of the sun on her skin, and how even though everything still felt rather awful in general, she could still feel a tiny twinge of happiness creeping in.
"I think that would be alright with me," Cami told the doctor.
"Excellent," Dr. Helms said. "However, I do have one condition. If you do not accept these terms— and that is an option you can totally pick if you want to, by the way—- we will remain with having three sessions a week. Like I said, totally a valid option if you'd rather stay with three sessions."
"Name your terms, Dr. Sheila," Cami said somewhat impatiently.
"I want you to get a hobby. It can be anything you want. But it must get you out of Margaret's house for at least one hour of the day, and I'd like you to participate in whatever it is at least twice a week. Activity classes for the local park district are starting up in a couple weeks, so you'll have plenty of time to fill out registration forms for a class if you would be interested. In fact, I have the booklet with all the classes right here if you'd like to look through it." Dr. Helms took a rather thickly bound book off her table and handed it to Cami, who began to look through it with halfhearted interest.
"I want you to get involved with something. Learn a new skill, play a sport, get active, whatever it is that you think might hold your attention," Dr. Helms said as Cami continued to look through the booklet. "What do you think?"
Inside, Cami felt like she wanted to throw up. The thought of taking up a hobby or a sport now seemed utterly exhausting. Especially something involving physical exertion. Nevertheless, she maintained a strong poker face.
She knew why the doctor wanted her to do this: with no job, no boyfriend, no hobbies, no friends, Cami didn't exactly have many things to do or places to go. And she knew that often times one aspect of treating depression is to try to get the person involved in an activity to occupy their time, help them establish a routine, and help get them out of the house to do something constructive in the hopes of getting the person back on track to having a healthy life. Still, she was terribly afraid that she would not have the energy, or want to put in the effort into getting and maintaining a hobby.
Dr. Helms was looking at her earnestly, waiting for the answer she was hoping to hear. So Cami granted it to her: "I think that's a good idea. May I take this booklet home so I can think about which class I want to take?"
"Of course!" Dr. Helms said, delighted. "I'll have you come back on Monday and let me know, okay?"
Cami nodded as she stood, exiting the doctor's office.
In the car, her sister asked how the session went. "Dr. Helms wants me to get a hobby," Cami said in a flat tone. She really wasn't enthused with the idea, but seeing Dr. Helms' face so filled with hope and sincerity had convinced her that she should at least consider it. She really hated disappointing people.
"Well, that's not a bad idea," Margaret said. "Do you have any particular hobby that you'd want to try?"
An answer immediately came to Cami's mind, and she blurted it out before she had really thought about what she was saying. "I've always wanted to learn martial arts."
Margaret glanced away from the road for a brief moment to study Cami's face. "You're serious?"
"Apparently," Cami deadpanned.
"Well if you'd rather do something else…."
"Just let me sign up for the godd*mn class, Margaret," Cami said with a heavy sigh.
"Alright, alright, sheesh. Don't have to bite my head off or anything about it. Well we're a few streets over from the park district office if you want to go sign up right now."
"Might as well," Cami said, almost adding Before I chicken out, but thankfully keeping her mouth shut.
They pulled up in front of the park district office. "Do you want me to go in with you?" Margaret said.
"I'm a big girl, I can do it myself."
"Okay," her sister said. "I'll be out here."
Fifteen minutes later, Cami emerged from the office feeling simultaneously exhilarated and terrified.
"Did you sign up for something?" Margaret said.
"Yep." And for the briefest moment, Cami cracked a smile.
On Monday night, they pulled up in front of the elementary school. "You sure you don't want me to come in there with you? I can watch your class? Or I'll just sit there and read, you won't even know I'm there," Katherine said.
"Oh my god, no," Cami said, her cheeks going red with mortification. "I'm not ten, I don't need you to be my mom." She said it lightheartedly, but still felt like she'd hurt her sister-in-law's feelings. "Let me feel out these first few classes and see how badly I'll be embarrassing myself. If the embarrassment level is lower than expected, I'll let you come later, okay?"
Katherine nodded as she pulled Cami in for a quick hug. "I'm proud of you for doing this, you know. Now go kick the other kids' butts!"
Cami exited the car, slinging a gym bag containing her new sparring gear over her shoulder.
Beginner karate, the blurb in the class booklet had said, All ages, 7:30-9:00pm Monday nights at Peterson Elementary Gymnasium. Cami nervously tugged at her uniform, straightening the white fabric belt tied at her waist. As she stepped in to the carpeted gym, she noticed the previous class finishing up. It looked like a group of mostly tweens and teens, all wearing purple, brown, and black belts. They moved in almost complete synchrony as an instructor barked at them, stopping occasionally to make minor adjustments on one person or another. Cami was mesmerized as she watched them move, making crisp, sharp motions, and she wondered how long it would take her to get that good.
Within a few minutes, the class of purple, brown, and black belts were dismissed. Cami set her gym bag down on the edge of the gym floor along the wall, by where others had set down their own bags. She noticed that all the students, and the instructor were barefoot, and so she instinctively removed her shoes.
"Next class, please come in," the instructor called loudly. He was an older man, ex-military looking, with a shaved head and white eyebrows that strongly reminded Cami of Mr. Clean. "When you're ready, please sit down in a row in front of me."
Cami and a few other students were the first ones there, and did as the instructor had asked. Within a few minutes, about ten others had joined, making the class about fifteen people. She glanced around at the other students, a few seeming to be around her age, several in their mid- to late- teens, a few ambiguous thirty- or forty-somethings, and two people who looked well into their sixties.
"My name is Sensei DiMarco. You are all here to learn the ancient form of martial arts called Shotokan Karate. It is a form of self defense that originates from the island of Okinawa, which is in Japan. Its aim is to be used in self defense only, you should never use the things you learn here unless it is absolutely necessary in a situation in which you need to defend yourself. Is that understood?"
Everyone sitting in the line in front of Sensei DiMarco nodded their heads vigorously. "Okay good. Now I'm going to cover some ground rules. Every time I ask you a question, you should respond with 'Yes, Sensei,' is that understood?"
"Yes, Sensei," they all said in unison.
"Good," Sensei DiMarco said, his lips cracking into a smile. "A smart bunch. Okay, stand up please."
Sensei DiMarco then proceeded to teach the class the rules of etiquette, such as waiting for the previous class to be dismissed before entering the gym, bowing at the entrance of the gym before coming in, lining up to wait for roll call and then bowing to the sensei. He taught them the proper way to bow (heels together, toes slightly apart, hands straight down at your sides, eyes down, bending forward at the waist), and how to do "Ready Stance," (feet shoulder width apart, arms down and in front of you with fists clenched, showing you are ready to do a technique).
Cami had no idea their was so much to learn before they even got started on doing any techniques like punches or kicks. Sensei had taught her the proper way to stand, how to make a proper fist, how to have intense focus with her eyes as if she were staring through an invisible opponent.
When the first forty-five minutes were up, she felt almost unbearably exhausted already. Sensei had dismissed them to go take a five minute rest- and water-break, and Cami had half a mind to make up some excuse that she wasn't feeling well, and just go home. But she had already surprised herself by making it this far, and she didn't want to give up now.
"Alright, people," Sensei said. "Let's partner up. Pick anybody, introduce yourself, then go get a focus mitt from over there." Sensei pointed to the far wall of the gym, where small circular foam pads sat on the floor. Cami ran over and grabbed one, finding it was hollow through the middle so that she could easily slide it onto her hand and hold it.
When she returned to the other side of the floor, she noticed almost everyone had already partnered up except for her. Sensei looked around the room, then back at her. "What's your name?" he said.
"Cami."
"Cami," he repeated. "Why don't you partner up with this pair on the end here."
She trotted over to the last pair on the end, noticing it consisted of one of the over-sixty people, and one of the young teens.
Sensei instructed one person in the pair to put on a focus mitt, and for the other person to practice punching it with their right hand, remembering to keep their wrist straight and to work on the proper way to make a fist that they'd learned about earlier in the night.
"I'm Cami," she said, putting on a big smile in the hopes that she didn't look as exhausted as she felt. "What are your names?"
The older man in his sixties smiled back at her. "I'm Max," he said.
Both she and Max turned to look at the young teen girl. She had pristine skin, braces, and her light brown hair was piled in a ballerina bun on top of her head. "My name's Hope," she said.
[A/N: No, I'm not giving up on this story! I'm sorry it takes me so long to update, I know I suck haha. But stick around and keep reading it if you want cuz I'm going to try to keep it going. Besides, things are about to get very interesting now that Cami is unknowingly taking a class with Klaus Mikaelson's daughter. How will Cami react when she finds out? Will taking this class bring her once again face to face with Klaus? Like and subscribe and stay tuned...]