Chapter Text
Max blankly stared down at his phone as he sleepily scrolled through its contents. It was almost three in the morning and he was absentmindedly messing with some apps, as he usually did at that time of night. It was rare that he attempted to get any sleep, and instead just slept through the daytime if he actually felt the need to.
But tonight was different. He was kept awake for a reason.
He jumped in reaction to his phone suddenly ringing, since he didn't expect anyone to call him. Everyone he talked to was usually asleep by now, anyway, so who could it possibly be? Squinting to check the name on the Caller ID, Max raised an eyebrow as he read "Neil" on the screen of the phone, confused as to what was even going on. Neil had never called this late before, so it must have been important.
Well, this is going to be just fantastic.
"Hello...?" Max's voice was groggier than he expected as soon as he had answered the call and held the device up to his ear.
"Max?" Came an awkward voice on the other end of the phone. He sounded unsure of himself, mainly because he thought he accidentally dialed the wrong number, as usual. Classic Neil.
"Yeah?" Max answered unenthusiastically. He usually would have had something witty to say in return, but he was honestly too exhausted for that shit.
"Hey, you awake?"
"—What do you fuckin' think?!" There it was.
"Uh, sorry. I was just making sure."
Max let out an annoyed sigh. He was about to say something, but Neil had spoken up once more.
"...So, have you... talked to Nikki recently?"
What the fuck? What kind of question was that? Good thing he was already awake, or else he would have bitch-slapped Neil the next time he saw him. But he pondered the question for a moment and realized Nikki hadn't tried to contact him recently, now that he thought about it. How peculiar.
"No, why?"
"I... have something to tell you."
He raised an eyebrow as if Neil was there and could see his reaction, not daring to utter a single word in response as confusion swelled up inside him.
"Max? Are you still there?" Neil interrupted the silence after a long pause of waiting for Max to reply.
This has seemed to snap Max out of his apparent trance. "Uh, yeah?" He began to grip the phone tightly in slight anticipation. "What, what is it?"
"I'm worried she..." His voice stirred as he spoke. "She just suddenly texted me that she was moving schools overnight. I asked what was going on, a-and she never responded. I... I’m sorry, j-just… so much happened while you were gone, and… I… I feel like it’s all my fault."
Max frowned as his hand slightly trembled. A very concerned, "What?" was all he could say as he tried to grasp what was going on.
"Max, Neil! Hurry up you slow pokes!"
The girl lightheartedly teased as she ran ahead of the two, heading to turn around and jog backwards right in front of them which resulted in an unimpressed Max rolling his eyes and Neil just shaking his head, trying to make it appear like he wasn't actually smiling.
Nikki actually appeared to change the most since the four years that they all met at Camp Campbell. She now wore a red baseball cap on her head backwards, her curly bangs pouring out from the end while the rest of her now super long hair dangled from a ponytail tied from beneath her hat. Everyone at the school had to wear a dark blue buttoned up shirt as a uniform, but she still wore a light brown vest over it, and even though she wasn’t allowed to wear anything over it, she still persisted on doing so since that was where she stuck all the souvenirs she found on her every day adventures. The girls also usually had the option of wearing a skirt, but obviously Nikki refused, wearing black jeans instead.
Max appeared pretty much the same, however, he let his poofy hair grow to medium length and wearing a similar blue hoodie to the one he had when he was younger. He keeps getting in trouble since it doesn’t fit school dress code, but he never cared and kept wearing it so eventually the school officials gave up.
Neil actually got his eyes checked two years ago, and was prescribed glasses to wear, however he felt that they didn’t exactly suit him. Most likely because of the fact that Max and Nikki would mess with him about that, but he still ended up deciding to wear contacts to keep his vision in check instead. He wore the school uniform like he was supposed to, which kind of made him look even more like a nerd than Max thought was originally possible.
Nikki, seeing Max's expression, thought that he was just pretending like he didn't care just like how he always did as she shot a determined smirk his way. "Pretty neat, huh?" She announced with a stop in pace as she hopped back between two. "I can do backwards dancing too, ya know!"
"Yeah, right." Neil raised his head to face the green haired teen right next to him, arms crossed.
"Yeah, I can! How much are you willing to bet?"
"I'm willing to bet you can't go a whole day without saying something ridiculous." Max cut in, tone pointing to the fact that he wasn't saying it harshly, but more as a playful taunt.
"You can bet your dumb 'ol hoodie you always wear that I can!"
"Okay, I will."
Nikki was going to say something in remark, at least until she accidentally bumped into Nerris, as she wasn't really paying all too much mind to her surroundings. The impact caused them both to tumble to the ground, Nerris dropping a bunch of random props that she was holding and Max and Neil proceeding to halt so they could help the two up.
“Sorry.” Nerris spoke up as soon as she dusted off her clothing. Even though she was older now, she still appeared the same, wearing her elf ears and glasses and having a long cape draped onto her school uniform. However, she no longer wore her hat and actually had gotten her braces removed not too long ago.
“Oh! Hey Nerris! Sorry ‘bout that!” Nikki chimed in as soon as she was face to face with her.
“Sheesh. Get a room you two.” Max muttered sarcastically, low enough so that only Neil could really hear.
“Hi Nikki! I was just carrying some supplies for the early morning LARPing club if you wanna join! Today we’re taking the sacred ring of avanyárima to the mountain to get rid of it once and for all.”
“Oooh, sweet! Can I help? I wanna be a ranger!”
“Sure thing!” Nerris chorused as she reached down to pick up some of the supplies she dropped, Nikki lowering to do so as well in an effort to help her out.
“Nerris? Yeah, that sounds cool and all, but your ‘roleplaying’?” Max made air quotations as he said the word. “-Literally just sounds like a rip-off of Lord of the Rings.”
“Well, yeah, it’s inspired by it but-“
“Maaax.” Nikki grunted in disappointment.
“-Sorry.”
“Hey, uh-“ Nerris began as she stood up, grasping the supplies in her possession, beaming at an idea that came to mind. “You and Neil and join in too if you want! There’s always room for more people. So far we’ve only got me, Harrison, and Pres-”
Max immediately cut her off. “Preston?”
“Yeah, he-”
“I’ll see you there, dweebs.” He declared as he took off hurriedly, heading quickly in the direction of the school.
“What’s his deal?” Nikki wondered out loud, head tilted to the side like a puppy as she raised a brow.
“I’m not sure,” Nerris commented, starting to walk in the direction where Max went. “He actually doesn’t know where the club is, does he?”
Neil shrugged. “He’s Max. He’ll figure it out.”