Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

                Yawning, Gwen’s body reached forward before flipping over and mimicking a cat waking from a luxurious nap. Smacking her lips and blinking her eyes open and free from their nasty dried, crusty wall, she sat up and felt the blankets fall from her shoulders and down to curl around her legs that were folded underneath her and around her butt.

                Her violet eyes looked around to find there was no ginger man in front of her door. Her eyes looked over towards her clock, which if she were to be honest, was replaced from alarm duty by her ginger co-counselor.

                ‘5 in the morning?’ She thought, looking down at her pillow which had strands of her scarlet hair. She ran her chestnut skinned hand through her hair, which flowed free from its usual constraint, that being a ponytail.

                She honestly never woken up this early before. The last time she had woken up this early was when she got the job to become a counselor for hell. Gwen unfolded her legs from beneath her, using her arms to push her body up to give her legs enough space, and kicked out slowly for each legs, gingerly feeling the ache getting released. She turned and dipped her toes over towards the cold wooden floor, and noticed that in her sleep, her socks had managed to get off her, again. She wore a nostalgic shirt that David had bought her, a white shirt with black raven wings on the back, and she wore fluffy black pants.

                Gwen cringed at each squeaking of each floorboard every time her body weight fell onto it. She walked over to her door and opened it and felt the cold air swallow her.

                She slipped on her cold purple flip-flops and walked over to her mailbox to pick up her daily rejection letters. David, her ginger co-counselor, had assisted her in picking up the letters and sorting them into piles of ‘accepted’ letters and ‘rejection’ letters. The rest he took so then she could look through her own letters while he would read all of the others, such as law-suits and bills. But today was one of those rare days she woke up earlier than David.

                Opening the mailbox, Gwen saw the many white envelopes and one pink letter radiating perfume, which Gwen had learned were from David’s mother. She wrote to him every week on Friday, and the letters would come on Sunday because she lived far away. David would go to her room and make her read the letter to her like an excited boy. Gwen would speak softly like his mother would, with eyes focused on the letter, smiling a bit wider at every noise David made whenever it was appropriate.

                The young lady simply tucked all the mail under her arm and walked away, before tripping over a box that was beside her foot. She cursed loudly before feeling pain sear from her chin and from the pain coming from her chest. Guys didn’t know that getting hit right in the boob was pretty much the equivalent to a man getting hit in his crotch.

                Gwen turned her head to find the box and she reached out with her foot and slid it over towards her upper body and pushed up against the ground, feeling the pebbles dig into the palm of her hands. Now squatting with pebbles still clinging to her knees, she picked up the box and stood, hearing her bones creak and pebbles starting to fall while others dug in deeper. She read it and shrugged, walked over to her cabin, not noticing a certain ginger looking scared and scanning the area in the cabin window nearby.

                She took the mail and placed it on the ground and sat down, reading who it was meant to be sent for and pushing them into three categories. David, Gwen, and others. Sadly, three letters were for her. One for David. Five for others.

                Gwen picked up the box and rotated it so then the sticker on top could be read easily. She then realized it was meant for her. Gwen gently kicked the box so it slid under her desk and she picked up David’s letter and slipped out of her cabin and into his.

                The cheerful camp counselor was looking out of the window and then turned over towards Gwen when she entered. She gently placed down the letter onto his desk and started to walk out before hearing her co-counselor’s voice speak up, “Language, Gwen.”

                Gwen turned over to look at him, to find a stern expression on his face, before it melt into something warmer. Although it took some time to process what he said, she soon realized that he must’ve heard her curse out in pain. She looked over towards her knees to find she only scraped them and blood wasn’t gushing out, so she brushed them off and walked over to her cabin again, tired of giving excuses and ranting about how that was stupid to David every time.

                The mail meant for her was still perched on her desk, just waiting to be stuck into her filing cabinet to be added to her collection of rejection letters. Sighing, she picked one up and stuck her thumb into the corner and dragged it across the width of the envelope. Plucking the letter out, she read it and sighed, opening her drawer and placing it inside.

                She picked up the other and repeated the process, except when she read it, she read it again, and again, and to the point where she could finally believe it.

                Let’s just say that this was the ticket out of hell.

                David smiled sadly over towards Gwen, which she had noticed, but didn’t want to mention it. She kept rambling on and on about the company that just offered her a job. A cup of coffee kept her hand from grabbing his shoulders and shaking him without mercy. This company worked in the gaming industry, and she was just offered a job to write a game for them. Apparently, the stupid drabbles of writing for little short stories and fanfictions she wrote caught their attention when she had submitted her portfolio and they liked it.

                “This gaming company is huge!” Gwen gushed, taking another sip of coffee while David took a sip from his own tea, “I can’t believe that they would offer me an internship! After a few months, if I did great, they’ll allow me to work for them!”

                “I’m sure you’ll do great.” David said, the usual kick in his voice gone, making Gwen’s heart twitch painfully, but she chose to ignore it. It must be one of David’s off days, and soon after breakfast he would return to normal, as usual.

                “Thanks!” Gwen chirped uncharacteristically, but however, this was a day that happy Gwen could burst out, just like the morning where she thought they would get a cool new counselor to help with the little devils that littered their camp.

                David gave another pathetic attempt at a smile before dropping it and just focusing on taking sips of his tea. Gwen chugged down her coffee and put it down.

                “But David…” Gwen spoke, her voice starting to tremble as the part where she had dreaded to find his reaction, was coming up, “I have to tell you something. This is really important and I really need you to understand and listen.”

                The ginger man sat straighter in his chair and twisted his body towards her, giving her his undivided attention.

                Gwen inhaled and exhaled softly, furrowing her eyebrows and then speaking, “The problem is, being an intern means me being an unpaid intern. And the problem is that I will be in the program started tomorrow, and it’ll be weeks without any pay, so I’ll be working here at the same time. If you could help watch the kids for me more than usual, that’ll be great. I know I’m asking a lot from you, but please understand. After that, I’ll quit and you will get a new co-counselor and you’ll get more help!” David flinched when she said that she would quit after her internship is over. Of course, David knew that she meant if she was given a job after her internship, but still, hearing her say that made a huge drop in his stomach and even his smile fell into a weak frown.

                “I-I mean-!” She tried to correct herself, but David cut her off.

                “I know. Ever since I found out, I knew…” David laughed sadly, “… I knew you’d quit once you’re able to. But… I guess hearing it is different than thinking it.”

                Gwen was silent, as so was David, it being awkward. David exhaled before speaking again, “Although I’m going to miss you as a co-counselor, I’ll support you, through and through. So, I shall help you through this.”

                The smile Gwen wore was unlike anything she’d ever shown before.

                David had left a few minutes after, saying he was going to wake up the kids. Gwen sat down on her bed with the box from the same company in between her legs. She dug into her pocket and pulled out her pocket knife. It was a unsaturated purple with a black grip and a dead tree design that was white going along the side of it. She rubbed her thumb against the grip, feeling the ridges and the bumps before cutting through the tape that was keeping the box shut from the outside world. She pressed against the flat of the blade and pushed it back into sheath and opened the box with a restrained excitement of a growing child on Christmas.

                Once she opened the box, she found an assignment. On the letter, she did read about how the company would send her assignments to do during her internship.

                Inside it was a thick notebook that was purple with a sticker on the top right corner that had her name and the company logo on it, with her title, ‘intern’, next to her name. She picked it up and laid it down right next to her and looked back over towards the box and picked up a letter and read it over. It said:

Dear Gwen,

                Hi! I am your mentor during your internship. My name is Charles, and I’m looking forward to meeting you in person one day! But for now, I am giving you an assignment that all interns are doing. I want you to do your best, okay? Only ten of the fifty interns that we have chosen are going to be able to get a job here at Wrode! I know that this will all seem pretty crazy at first, so here is a letter that is not that formal so it won’t be that crazy! Now, if you haven’t noticed yet, we have sent you a notebook. Keep it clean and organized, for you will be submitting it at the end of your internship. The end of the internship has not be specified, but I can assure you that it will be longer than 6 months, so don’t get your hopes up! Now, your assignment will require you to create those introductions of a game or a movie! I want you to think about the concept. Remember that concept you sent to us? I want you to create an introduction, just like in Moana or in Coco! Sorry, I am a huge fan of Disney, so please excuse me if I use loads of Disney references! I will be texting you from now on, so this letter thing will be a one-time thing. If you need more information or if you have questions about this whole thing, text me! My number is-.

                Gwen closed the box and looked over towards the clock. She took out her phone and added the number to her contacts with the name of ‘Charles the Mentor’, and texted him.

 Me  [8:00 am] { Hi, it’s Gwen! I was hoping that you can tell me when it is due and how do I submit it? } 

                The screeching of David alerted her and instantly, Gwen stuck her phone into her butt pocket and came running over towards the red-head.

                Gwen found David being covered in syrup, kids abandoning their pancakes and instead deciding to waste their syrup on something they shouldn’t even eat! David was too skinny anyways.

                “What the fuck!” Gwen shouted, stomping on the ground roughly, sending pain throughout her leg, but right now she was too infuriated. How dare they waste the syrup that she had taken out of her pay to buy? Oh, also how dare they cover David in syrup?

                Immediately, the kids knew who was boss. Usually, they’d be fine picking on Gwen (of course not as extreme as they would with David), but they knew when it was best not to mess with her at all. And this was one of those times.

                She avoided the syrup puddles with ease and sent her usual glare over towards Max, who had the biggest syrup bottle in his hand, smirking happily. Her eyes went down towards his feet to smile even more. Baffled, the young boy raised an eyebrow at her as she went over towards David and lifted him up by the undersides of his arms and followed her steps that she had deemed the safe zones and dropped David away from the syrup. He smiled gratefully, closing his green eyes as his cheeks forced them to.

                “Quartermaster?” Gwen called, all of the kids’ faces filling with horror, “You’re in charge now!” Ever since Quartermaster appreciation day, the kids have been terrified of him more than they used to, after seeing what was inside of his cabin and then seeing him make out with his own sister. Oddly enough, David managed to make one of his ideas work a little. All of the kids obeyed him more often and pranked him less than they usually did.

                “Oh,” Gwen spoke with mock innocence and batted her eyes as she opened the door, but her head turned over towards Max, “and Max? You might be stuck there for a while.” She closed the door and heard him curse rather loudly as he realized that the syrup was layers over his shoes.

                She laughed and turned over towards David, seeing him looking at her with wide eyes… or at least how wide he could with syrup starting to invade that area.

                “Okay, let’s get you cleaned up.” Gwen said, her laughter dying off and she went off to lead David to the showers, even though she knew that he knew where they were.

                The showers were not at all welcoming. They were just wooden slabs that Mr. Campbell had nailed together and made pipes that could shoot out water from the lake that went through a filter that David had installed himself. Gwen always said that she would get this camp a heater one day, but that day would need to wait, because she was going to need to save up her money for now. The wood was a dark spruce color, and she could’ve sworn that she saw some mold in one.

                The ginger-haired man seemed small as he slouched and kept his body parts away from each other. The syrup made his ginger hair into an almost blonde look and his skin was golden. Gwen tilted her head over towards the shower, but David shook his head and spoke, “Towel.”

                Mentally slapping her forehead, she went off to get one and when she came back, she stopped cold. Her co-counselor had shredded grass on him now, a miserable look on his face, but once he saw her, he gave a smile, one that was practiced. Not a genuine one.

                It hurt to see him like this, and instantly anger flooded her veins. Someone had done this to him. “Who the hell did this to you?” Gwen ordered for an answer, her eyes narrowing. David visibly gulped and shook his head. Gwen barked again, “Who?”

                “N-Nikki…” David whispered, “B-But don’t worry! I think she thought that it would help get the syrup off! I mean, I did mention once that some plants could help get bugs off of you, so I thought that maybe she thought that instead of bugs it could get syrup off too!”

                “Lies.” Gwen hissed, but instead dropped the conversation and placed the towel that was on a bench made of birch that was barley standing next to the showers.

                “Get cleaned up, I’ll finish up breakfast and leave some for you in your cabin.” Gwen spoke, “I’ll see if I can get the kids to do an activity.”

                She walked off, hearing a voice say ‘thank you’, giving her another ray of sunshine and motivation to get through the day.

                After she forced the kids to clean up their mess, she had actually managed to get them to (with the help of Preston and Dolph) do a shadow puppet theater. Somehow, the kids managed to make this into a full out company with a leader, supervisors, and the workers. Preston was the leader and acting supervisor and Dolph was the art supervisor. Gwen couldn’t really tell what the kids were working on, but they were in groups, satisfying her duty.

                The strong scent of pine hit her and she immediately knew it was David and his shampoo scent. She looked over to her side to find her co-counselor, his ginger hair slightly moist and drooping a bit more than usual because of it, but he looked happy as he saw what the campers were doing.

                “You got them to work together?” David asked in awe, his green eyes sparkling as he smiled over towards her, making Gwen smile proudly at her handiwork.

                “Yep!” She spoke with pride, “They’re doing a shadow puppet theater. Dolph and Preston seem to be the leaders here though. So… they helped.”

                “They always did work well with each other.” David commented, looking back over towards the kids and then walking over to each one, seeing if they needed any help. Gwen watched him crouch down to meet each of their heights and laughing and smiling at each one, even at Max. Although, Gwen had to admit, Max was slightly growing on her. Ever since Parent’s Day, she knew not to push Max so far and decided that she was not going to be as harsh as she was and to avoid making fun of him about his family anymore, because honestly, she was not that cruel as they might think she was.

                She felt something tug at her shirt and she looked down to see Dolph, a stern and focused expression on his cute round face. Gwen looked right at him to acknowledge that she has seen him. She wasn’t like David, she didn’t usually crouch down. But, she didn’t dislike Dolph at all. Sometimes she would argue with David that he was just misunderstood. So, she did for him. Bending her legs, she squatted down for him to match his height.

                “I need zome patty paper!” He spoke with his German accent, his eyebrows angled so he looked somewhat intimidating. When Gwen tilted her head to the side, Dolph sighed and explained, “Because it’s transparent, it would be nice to layer ze shadows!” Gwen’s mouth formed an ‘o’ and she busied herself with going on her search for some. She knew she had some because when she first joined camp, she was still in college and only joined for a summer job, and she brought some tracing paper for math practice.

                She returned from her cabin with some patty paper, or tracing paper, and gave them to the small boy and found herself lonely, standing and watching children. David was helping the children out with punching in holes on the joints of the characters to tie them loosely with string so they could move freely.

                Space Kid waddled over towards her and whined, “Gwen! It’s so hot! Can we please just go inside?”

                Gwen shook her head. “Nope. Quartermaster isn’t going to let you inside for the rest of the day. Something about the fact that you didn’t eat his pancakes or something like that.” She rolled her eyes at the thought of the grouchy, old man, mumbling and half screeching about those kids when Gwen wanted to bring them in earlier.

She thought for a while before going to leave.

                A hand went onto her shoulder.

                “Gwen?”

                The young woman turned over towards the source of the voice to find the familiar red-head. “Where are you going?” He asked.

                “It’s a surprise.” Gwen said, “And I think for once my ideas will make these kids happy!”

                David looked surprised, but before he could talk about how she was finally becoming a better person, Gwen cut him off, “I think we’ll like it too! Look, I have a heart and outside is really hot, so I might as well make it less like a hell that it already is.”

                Her co-counselor thought about this before letting go of her shoulder and nodding his head before returning to the campers, helping Max out with the paper dog he was making.

                Gwen walked away and opened the mess hall. She stepped in to be hit with a blast of the scent of cleaning materials, suddenly aware that David had been bombarded by syrup not long ago and she had forced the kids to clean it up.

                She turned to her right and entered the kitchen. She went over to the sink and cleaned her hands and looking out the small window to slightly see the kids and David still not dying. That was good.

                David and the Quartermaster usually cooked in the kitchen, although the Quartermaster was in here more often than David. Gwen could tell that David had begun to make himself feel at home here.

                ‘Now where are the oranges?’ She thought to herself, looking around to see if there were some fresh ones. She opened the fridge to find bowls after bowls of leftovers, just waiting to be eaten. Gwen tried to find orange within the sea of white and blue bowls and wrap. She looked to the sides of the fridge and found actual ingredients. Eggs, butter, milk, lettuce, cilantro, onions… aha! Oranges! Gwen picked up the bag with picked oranges, no doubt that David had added them to the collection, and put them on the counter. She opened the bag and counted the amount that were in there and frowned. There weren’t enough.

                She turned over towards the rumbling of the walk-in fridge and gulped, remembering her first day here. She had been given a tour of the place by David, mentally taking notes. Back then, she was a bit more proactive than she was now. She even offered to help the Quartermaster with cooking the dinner for the night! She remembered when she went in early to surprise them with her cooking skills and went into the walk-in fridge to find lemongrass to only hear the sound of a door closing behind her. And like that, she was trapped in the cold darkness that was the walk-in fridge. David had tried to lighten the mood after she was taken out and she remembered being thankful for not being trapped in the freezer.

                Cautiously, Gwen opened up the door leading to the walk-in fridge and shivered at the cold air. She slide a little brick at the foot of the door and stepped inside, shaking from either fear or the cold. The sides of the room were all shelves and huge tubs of whatever were lining the walls. But the fresh produce that they don’t have much of were in the way back, taking over an entire wall. Each step towards that wall was leading her further and further away from the door. She prayed to whatever man was in the sky that she wouldn’t be trapped in here again.

                A box near the middle were full off citrus of all kind, and Gwen picked it up with a grunt. She turned over towards the door to find that it was just open, making her give a sigh of relief. She stepped out of the walk-in fridge and dropped the box onto the counter, feeling something hit her funny bone and she yelped and turned over towards whatever had set off that numb, shuddering in her arm with such an accusing glare. But it was just a small radio. Gwen looked at it and turned it on, feeling the dust cling onto her finger and thumb. She stuck out her tongue in annoyance, but it started to play popular music, and Gwen decided that it had to be the Quartermaster’s radio, because David loved country music. Right?

                She plucked the oranges out of the box and took a lemon and an apple just to spice things up. She turned to the right and reached forward to open a cabinet and opened it up to find exactly what she needed and set it down on the counter.

                Gwen came out back towards David after a few minutes and he smiled over at her, calling out excitedly, “Gwen!”

                The red-head got up from helping the campers and joined her, looking over towards the campers for a second before looking back at her, “The campers are doing great! I didn’t expect that they would be doing this fine!”

                Gwen hummed in approval and said, “Well, the special treat I was making needs an hour at least to finish, so for now, the kids are going to have to stay out here in the hot sun. The Quartermaster will not let them in.”

                David said thoughtfully, “Well, I mean, they did disrespect his pancakes that he loves so much.”

                She nodded and looked over towards the campers to supervise them. The only trouble that had happen was when Space Kid almost cut off Nikki’s hair and she went all wolf on him, but luckily David had diffused the situation before it could grow into a riot. She wondered why the campers were doing so well. Max was sending glares over towards Dolph and Preston whenever they walked past, but they didn’t really give him the satisfaction. Gwen hoped that it would stay this way, she really did.

                But that was just wishful thinking.

                After an hour, Nerris was picking up scissors to put them away, since they were done with the paper puppet making. She used her ‘levitation spell’ to put them into her blue tray, which was string with a magnet on the end of it.

                Her string was dangling over each of their heads, her mumbling something in elf, and before Gwen’s eyes, an argument was blossoming in front of her eyes. Everything was in slow motion for Gwen, her heart pounding in her chest.

                She went to pick up Max’s scissors, the magnet clicking indicate she had successfully gotten it to complete her levitation spell. She lifted the scissors up and little did Nerris notice, she was pulling the scissors back too soon and the blade hit Max’s eyebrow, Max’s eye twitching as it felt danger nearby. Nerris put it away and went off to put away the next scissors, but Max was not going to let the elf girl get away with it. He turned towards her, his black hair swaying with the movement.

                “You bitch!” Max screeched, “You could’ve stabbed my eye!” Nerris turned over towards him in surprise, worry tainting her eyes.

                “I-I didn’t mean to, Max!” Nerris apologized, spit flying. Max growled and his fingers curled like claws in anger.

                Max gave a warrior screech and pounced to attack, his finger digging into her neck and shaking her aggressively. Gwen was frozen for a second, her violet eyes scanning the situation, before she forced her body to move. She leapt over the table and landed… messily. She stumbled and fell on her side, ripping a painful grunt from her lips, and she turned over towards the scene and grabbed Max. With Max tucked under one arm, she used her free hand to try to pry Max’s hands away from Nerris’s neck. Her fingers dug into the soft skin to dip into the small space between neck and fingers and she pulled, and when that didn’t work, she pulled again. Out of the blue, she felt warm hands pull her hand away and being replaced by someone else. Gwen looked up to find David focused on trying to pry Max’s hands away before any serious damage could be done. For some weird reason, her hands tingled from the areas his hands made contact with her own.

                David managed to pull Max’s hands away from Nerris’s neck and Gwen kept Max tucked under her arm. He was struggling and cursing out Nerris while the poor elf girl rubbed her throat, apparently giving it the ‘healing’ spell.

                Finally, Max stopped struggling and he went limp under her arm. Gwen let Max land on his feet, although there was still a fire in his eyes.

                He sat down with a huff, letting Nerris go to resume her job of collecting scissors. Gwen noticed how Nerris lifted the scissors higher than before to avoid hitting someone else again.

                Gwen rubbed her rib where she had landed, biting her bottom lip in pain. She decided that when she was going to sleep, she would not sleep on that side for a while.

                “You okay?” A familiar warm voice asked. Gwen peered over towards the source to find a concerned red-head. His green eyes were lined with worry, as was his voice. Gwen nodded, looking away.

                “Just landed awkwardly, that’s all.” Gwen replied simply, no longer rubbing her side and instead folding her arms. There was a silence from the male, but Gwen could feel his gaze strongly on her.

                Gwen couldn’t take it any longer and she turned over towards David to find him observing her with his green eyes. He looked away once she noticed, focusing his attention on the campers.

                “I’m going to go very quickly,” Gwen said, “I’m just going to get something.”

                And so, she left towards the mess hall. Her mind was flooded with concern at why her hand was tingling and spreading. She opened the freezer and stuck her hand in it, but it still tingled. She frowned.

                She lifted a tray from the freezer, spinning and let the song finish, and when it died down, she stopped swaying. She turned off the radio and carried the tray outside, all of the campers looking at her.

                Gwen had made little popsicles, all of them orange flavored with a hint of lemon and apple, just the right thing to help cool down on a hot summer day.

                “Well c’mon!” Gwen snapped, “Are you just going to stare at them until they melt or what? I did not wait an hour and a half for them to freeze for nothing!”

                The campers stumbled over each other for the cold snack, picking the popsicles up and digging in. She just hoped the campers wouldn’t get all sticky and disgusting from the popsicles, the mere thought of it making her feel sticky.

                David came over and plucked one out from the tray. “You were right, Gwen.” David complimented, taking the popsicle out from him mouth, “These ice lollies were a good idea!”

                “I’m sorry…” Gwen murmured, “Did you just say ice lollies? Did you turn British on me all of a sudden?”

                David laughed a bit, “Nope! I just heard it from my niece’s tv show. It had these pigs.”

                “Peppa Pig?” Gwen groaned, knowing the show from her younger cousin.

                “Yep!” David chirped, taking a small bite out from the popsicle before his face changed to show he regretted doing that.

                “You’re an idiot.” Gwen said half-heartedly, pointing her popsicle at him.

                David mocked offence and he puckered his lower lip into a pout. “I am offended!” He cried, closing his eyes for effect. Gwen rolled her eyes and sucked on her popsicle, not being able to look at David at the same time. She didn’t know a single person who could eat a banana or suck a popsicle while looking at someone straight in the eyes.

                “I can’t believe it’s only 1.” David remarked, trying to have a conversation with his co-counselor.

                Gwen hummed in acknowledgment. Finishing her popsicle with a bite, her face contorting by the strong citrus and the bitter cold. She placed the remaining popsicle stick on the tray, like the rest of the kids were doing.

                The day started to end, the kids setting up in the theater.

                “I’m going to go.” Gwen told David, the red-head looking a bit sad.

                “But, you helped this happen!” David insisted, “The least you can do is watch what you’ve created!”

                Gwen shook her head, “I’m sorry, David. I have to go work on my assignment.”

                “But you said it wasn’t due until next week!” David whined, acting like a child.

                Gwen groaned.

                “I’ll make popcorn!” David bribed.

                Gwen thought.

                “Fine!” She said, defeated, the urge to taste buttery popcorn overcoming the need to get the assignment done. She threw her arms up. “But, it’s only for the popcorn!”

                David smiled like an excited child. “Of course, Gwen!” He bounced away, the setting sun giving him a glow.

                Gwen shook her head. She then turned over towards the stage, seeing Nerris, Dolph, and Preston setting up another stage on Harrison working on the lights behind their puppet stage. The rest were organizing the puppets. Gwen felt a surge of pride. Despite the little fight between Nerris and Max, everything was turning out better than expected. She actually thought that Nurf would’ve stabbed someone’s eyes out already.

                When the sun had set all the way, the kids declared that they were ready. And when she said they declared that they were ready, she actually meant Preston yelling at the others to get ready.

                Luckily, David made it on time, a tub of popcorn in his arms as he practically slid into his seat. The red plastic chairs were falling apart, but they still managed to be good enough. He sat beside her, balancing the tub of popcorn on the armrest that they shared. Gwen smiled gratefully and took a handful of the buttery popcorn and shoved it into her mouth, already looking like a chipmunk, making David laugh in amusement.

                The play was being organized, the only kids up on stage being Max (the dog), Nikki (the main female), Neil (the main male), Nerris (the extras), Dolph (background and foreground), and Preston (supervisor). The rest of the campers sat in the seats, mumbling to each other.

                “So, are you excited?” David asked, trying to start a conversation before the play could begin.

                Gwen swallowed the popcorn she was chewing in her mouth and replied, “More or less. I am kind of? But, not really.”

                “Well, I am excited!” David said, green eyes sparkling like leaves of an oak tree when the sun shined through them, “I wonder what the play will be about!”

                “I think it’s about a war.” Gwen said, remembering the fake paper blood that Dolph made and the dead soldiers that Nerris had made, “And love?”

                “So romantic.” David sighed, completely ignoring the war part.

                Gwen rolled her eyes. “I bet I can find more romance in a book. I good book.”

                “Book worm.” David teased, throwing popcorn into his mouth.

                Gwen blushed, embarrassed. “Books are good!” Gwen defended, “They manage to take you to another world or tell amazing stories just by words! No images are needed when the author can describe it to you! It’s a great art!”

                David laughed a bit and complimented, “It’s great to see you so passionate about something.”

                She frowned a little before shoving some more popcorn into her mouth while David talked about romantic stories he has read before.

                “You read a lot of romance.” Gwen commented when David paused to eat some popcorn. David’s eyes widened and he choked a bit before coughing.

                He rubbed the back of his neck and gave a weak smile. “I kind of do.” He whispered, just loud enough for Gwen to hear, “I mean, they’re great! It makes you want to be the character and makes you love the characters even more.”

                Gwen giggled a bit, imagining David under his covers with his lamp on, reading romance and blushing madly. She didn’t really take David to be that kind of type. She honestly loved romance stories, but also science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

                “SILENCE!”

                Gwen and David looked up towards Preston, his sharp yellow eyes demanding their attention. He bowed in his ridiculous suit and announced, “I am Preston! The director of this play! I present to you our play, Love Shot!” He shuffled back into the covers of the curtains, still bowed. Gwen rolled her eyes. That title was so cheesy.

                But she still paid attention. It kind of reminded her of Romeo and Juliet. The two main characters were from different countries, but they visited each other every month. Gwen honestly loved how Dolph made an airplane sound when the male character named Tristan, flew to Japan. She couldn’t help but giggle a bit at that part, making David look at her with a soft look. She guessed that her terrible taste in romance made her stay. But then, the story got twisted. The two countries got into a war because apparently one of the countries accused the other of stealing their tradable goods and then other countries joined sides and then began World War III. The couple offered to help in the war, but little did they know that they were going to go against each other. It was getting cheesier and cheesier by the second.

                Space Kid waddled out of his seat and went up onto stage and crawled behind the covers of the curtains and played some music from the recording device he had in his hands. David stood a bit straighter as the guitar music played a dramatic song, using a lot of sounds from the A and G string. Gwen looked over towards David, knowing that this was his handiwork. David was full of pride as his guitar played when the couple went off to a battle, Tristan bringing his dog named Max… who was actually Max. Max barked whenever Neil… Tristan… talked to him.

                When they encountered each other, David grasped the armrest tightly, his eyes wide. Gwen looked at his white knuckles and back at him, knowing that his heart was racing from suspense. She looked back at the play and before she could think twice, she placed her hand on top of his and with her thumb, rubbed against his knuckles reassuringly. The play continued with Harrison screaming dramatically when Tristan shot, aiming at his lover. Luckily, it missed, letting the audience sigh. Gwen had to admit, for once these plays were pretty good. She guessed that when Dolph and Preston put their minds together, they could come up with the best ideas.

                “Abby?” Neil-Tristan said, the shadow puppet bringing its arms to its face, making Gwen believe that it was covering its mouth from shock. Nikki swung her shadow character around like as if it was having a seizure.

                “Tristan!” Nikki gasped dramatically, her character bouncing over towards him.

                But then in came Nerris with her extra, being a captain based on his broad shoulders. “What are you doing?” Nerris spoke, not bothering to change her voice to become lower to fit the character, the spit infested nasally voice spoke, “Kill her!”

                “B-But, I love her!” Neil spoke, his grunts audible and Nikki and himself muttering to each other as they tried to make their characters hug each other.

                “Oh no you don’t!” A sassy voice yowled. Neil and Nikki stood up from their position and looked over to find a blonde girl with an eyepatch over one eye, giving Nikki the hairy eyeball.

                Gwen leaned forward, a smile growing on her face. Oh! What a dramatic turn of events!

                “Tab-?” Neil was cut off by a scream when Nikki was tackled by this girl and then they both fought like animals. Nikki bit down onto the girl’s shoulder and the girl swung around and rolled to try and squash Nikki.

                Preston was yelling about how the show was ruined and Dolph fainted from shock. Nerris was throwing her dice at the mystery girl, casting attack spells. Max was still in character and growled at the girl, before realizing what he was doing, and instead started to curse out the girl and tugging her off. David was already rushing over, but Gwen could only watch, fascinated.

                Boy how pathetic she was.

                David managed to diffuse the situation and sent the girl out of Camp Campbell, her two friends apologizing for their friend’s sake. David had his hands on his hips as he watched them leave before turning over towards Nikki and making sure she was okay. Gwen decided to help calm the campers down and send them off to bed while David made sure that Nikki wasn’t seriously hurt.

                Gwen picked up Dolph and turned over towards David, feeling helpless as she watched him speak to the green-haired child softly. Gwen sighed and started to carry Dolph to his tent as the rest of the children, now washed and ready for bed, followed her like she was a mother duck.

                When they got to the tents, the kids got into their tents respectively, and Gwen followed Space Kid to Dolph’s tent and placed Dolph carefully into his sleeping bag, making sure not to bump into any of his paintings he had in his tent.

                A motherly feeling kicked her in the gut. She shook her head, but her heart wanted to. She sat there for a while, thinking if she should do it or not. Her motherly side got the best of her this time, and so she looked around to see if there was anybody watching her and she bent down to kiss Dolph’s forehead. She went out of the tent and stretched her arms, bending her right one so he hand was on her shoulder blade and her other hand reached back to touch its partner.

                She walked past David holding Nikki’s hand in his huge one and went over to the theater chairs to sit down and relax under the stars a little bit.

                When she wasn’t in the city, the stars twinkled brightly, scattered across the sky, just begging to be admired. She named the constellations she could see, proud of herself for finding the little and big dipper. She usually didn’t care for the stars, but tonight was different. She had gotten good news and she did something good for once. For once, her day did not totally suck. But then an invisible source kicked her in the gut, making a weight drop in her belly. She didn’t do anything to help the situation earlier, when that Flower Scout girl attacked Nikki, she just watched. She was a counselor, she was supposed to jump in and stop anything before it got out of hand! But she failed. She failed miserably. And now she was paying the price for it. With this guilty feeling hanging over her sunny day.

                And so, she thought about her assignment instead, pushing her guilt to the side for now. She could dwell on it later. She already had a game concept in mind, she had sent it over towards the company to get them to be convinced that she could come up with great ideas. It was a game of murder, where the character was a murderer and they had to cover up everything they do and convince the AI that they were not doing anything wrong. She needed an introduction though… but then the shadow puppet play went into her head, and so she had an idea. Introducing the character’s motives by making a flowing shadow puppet-like style. It could also be used to get the player familiar with the controls, just like how in the beginning of some games, the style is different than the style of the game itself.

                Feeling content with her idea, she made herself comfortable in her chair.

                She felt a presence beside her and she turned her head to find David, looking up at the stars. “Hey!” He chirped, “Look! It’s the Little Dipper!”

                Gwen was silent, and so he turned over towards her, concern lacing his eyes.

                “What’s wrong?” David asked, his voice deprived of its happy kick.

                Guilt kicked her again.

                “Nothing.” Gwen responded a bit too sharply then she intended. She got up and walked away towards her cabin, guilt kicking her over and over again until her happy moments of the day were clouded with guilt. She looked back once to see David cradling a pink envelope in his hands, his face downcast.

Chapter Text

                “It got denied.”

                With chestnut skinned hands tangled in scarlet hair, Gwen threw her head back while dramatically throwing her arm too, her hands slipping out from her locks and shaking in the air.

                “Why?” David asked, his hands behind his back and his head tilted to the side adorably like a little puppy. His frame was glowing with yellow, the sun rising causing the trees’ shadows to also fall upon such a perfect display. He had just walked in, and Gwen, who was supposed to be asleep, woke up at midnight to find that email on her phone and couldn’t fall back asleep since.

                “Apparently I misread the letter.” Gwen said, eyes a bit downcast, kicking the trashcan full of crushed paper over.

                David walked over towards her while dropping a pink envelope on the desk and wrapped his big goofy arms around her. “You’ll get another job.” David promised, “I’m sure of it.”

                Gwen looked up at him and started to laugh. She felt his weight being lifted off of her, and when she managed to crack her eyes open a little bit, she saw him looking like a confused little puppy again, but this time with arms folded. “Did I say something funny?” He asked.

                “No, no, no.” Gwen croaked after stopping her laughter, “I didn’t mean to laugh, honestly! If anything it was my fault for not thinking for a while there. But what I meant was that I misread the assignment letter.”

                David’s lips formed an ‘o’, his eyes wide as he was hit with the realization and a faint blush of embarrassment filled his cheeks. Gwen eyed the pink envelope, and before she could open her mouth to mention it, David spoke.

                “What happened?”

                “Apparently I was supposed to wait for teams to be announced before submitting.” Gwen sighed, “I will have to work with that team until the interns will be selected to get jobs there. It is kind of hard though. Out of thousands of job applicants, only one hundred were chosen, and out of those one hundred only ten will be picked. Give or take a few.”

                Gwen watched David stiffen and a look on his face that showed her that he was thinking. He went onto her bed and sat down on the edge, while Gwen sat cow-gal style on her chair with the back of it between her thighs and now her arms resting against the top of it, while her chin was perched on top of it all. The cherry on top.

                “Gwen…” He spoke with his voice not in it’s usual tune, “What happens if you don’t get the job?” He looked away from her as if he was embarrassed when he continued, “Will you stay here at Camp Campbell with me?”

                Gwen studied him. He finally looked a bit up, but his head still facing away, some of his red hair falling over his eyes like a curtain, hiding her from reading them. His chin was against his palm, while his elbow pressed hard into his knee, which was sure to leave a white mark against red skin when he moved his elbow. She looked at his posture. She learned a few things at school with students that speak different languages. The two main things that stay the same throughout the world was math and body language. Although she was good at math, she wasn’t that great with body posture. David’s shoulders were a bit too high, as if he was sheltering himself off from her gaze. His other arm that wasn’t holding up his head was resting on his other leg with his hand dangling in the space between his thighs. His head was dipped low so that his hair was droop a bit. An embarrassed smile was on his face, his eyebrows furrowed.

                “I-.” Gwen spoke, her eyes darting around as she started to think about it for a while, before settling down on her answer, “Of course I would.” David perked up, his head lifting a bit off his hand with her head turning upward to face her again with a smile on, before she said, “I need to get money somehow.” Something inside him broke, because once Gwen’s words left her lips, David deflated a bit and he sunk back down, his smile becoming a bit more crooked.

                “Of course.” He said, clearing his throat as he tugged at his bandanna absentmindedly. Gwen gulped, feeling as if she did something wrong, like she should've chosen her words better. He stood up from the bed, and slipped over next to her on the desk, leaning over it so the folds of his shirt wrapped around the edges. Gwen looked up at him, twisting her body a bit to face him, to find his face highlighted with the sunrise glow. “I’ll support you.” His voice kind of croaked as he spoke, looking away a bit before looking back at her again, “You know that… right?” His eyes had a faint glaze over, and Gwen quickly picked up that the question was either for her or for himself. She opened her mouth to comfort him, but instead shut it and nodded. He gave another crooked smile before his hand sliding behind him and picking up the pink envelope and his other hand went through his hair to bring it back up.

                “Well…” He sighed, his chest puffed out, before it lowered as he exhaled, the crookedness to his smile gone and now replaced by that practiced one, the one he always used for the kids, “I better go and get those kids up and at ‘em!” He swung his arm and walked away, closing the door firmly behind him.

                Gwen stared at the spot beside her, wondering what she was doing wrong that made those guilty punches hit her hard again.

                Lunch time was by far the best time.

                Gwen sat down and picked up her fork and stabbed the poor excuse of spam and shoved it into her mouth. The campers chatted and some focused on Nikki and Nerris as they set up a small play or their own, mainly for fun and games, where Nerris was the brave elf mage she was while Nikki was a mighty wolf creature, but Gwen wasn’t worried they’d hurt each other since they somehow made their fingers into little wands and had fun yelling out incoherent words and Nikki making sound effects. David sat next to her, and Gwen looked over towards him to find a small smile on his face. He always did.

                “I should’ve told you this earlier…” Gwen said after a few seconds of silence between the both of them, “…but I was wondering if it would be fine if my teammate come over to camp. I asked the quartermaster if he could take over, but he yelled something about this being his ‘fun night’ and everything.” Gwen shuddered, deciding to leave out how he ranted about letting him have sex with other old people.

                “Of course it’ll be fine!” David chirped, shoving some macaroni into his mouth and swallowing as quick as it came in, “I can’t wait to meet all of them!”

                She smiled a bit and finished her tray minutes after, replying to David whenever he talked, her mind trained on her own thoughts, which if she was going to admit, were pretty strange sometimes.

                “Anyway, so when Mr. Campbell came up to me I was so happy!” David finished, Gwen picking up his tray and her own tray to put away, “I almost thought that I would have to become part of the pack!”

                “I can imagine you as a little wolf boy.” Gwen laughed a bit at the thought of David, but with wolf ears and little fangs that howled at the moon like in her werewolf fanfictions. She slid the trays over to the quartermaster, the old man picking them up and disappearing into the depths of the kitchen.

                Playfully, David growled, and Gwen faked being scared, trembling over dramatically. David laughed and stood up from his spot, squatting on his seat with ha...-paws raised with fingers curled to form little claws. Gwen shot out her hands to form little finger-guns and made gun sounds. David the wolf yelped while holding back laughter and swung around and pounced, his hands landing onto her shoulders and making Gwen stagger backwards into a wall, while David wiggled his fingers to get the spot on her neck, making her laugh. Her eyes closed and she felt the burn in her cheeks, and her shoulder shot up to her chin, trapping David's hands, but he kept wiggling. 

                “I believe I have just lost my appetite.” A grouchy voice gagged, Gwen cracking open her eyes to see Max sticking out his tongue in disgust, his last spoonful of macaroni left there in his bowl. Before she knew it, a spoonful of macaroni hit the back of David’s neck, some of the cheesy sauce redue resting on her cheeks.

                David’s breath hitched, his faint Adam’s apple bobbing a bit, Gwen holding her breath as her brain was trying to process everything. David gave a lopsided smile, before pulling Gwen off the wall by her waist and turned over towards Max, Gwen being spun around to face the kitchen. She turned her head to peer over towards Max, a fire igniting within those pretty amethysts of hers.

                “Oh… you little mother f-“ Gwen started before David cut her off.

                “Okay kids!” David pitched in, his voice a bit higher with a faint pink on his neck where the macaroni hit him, “How about we go outside now!”

                He turned over towards Gwen, then pointing over towards the clock, “Go get ready for your teammate to come over here!” He said, “Don’t want to make a bad first impression, now do we?”

                Gwen shook her head a little bit. She walked out of the Mess Hall, listening to David’s voice become muffled as the doors shut behind her.

                “The guy was super cute!” Gwen gushed, fanning herself as David sat next to her on her bed, his body a bit more tense once those words left her lips.

                “Is that so?” He asked, tilting his head towards her suspiciously, “What’s he like?”

                “His name’s Ryder! Green eyes! Super fluffy dark brown hair!” Gwen sighed, “He came out straight from a fanfiction! I couldn’t have gotten luckier! We both had an idea of our concepts and mashed them together and talked about it, painting images in our minds! He has a way with words and the way he described everything made it seem as if the world we created was real. I really believe that we can win this thing! He can code and he can draw!”

                “Wow…” David murmured, probably from amazement, Gwen thought, “You sure did get lucky.”

                Gwen hummed, knowing David would like to feel it while he was leaning against her.

                Her violet eyes glances over towards the red-head, the ginger hair lower than her because she was sitting against the headrest while he was more comfortable in her pillow and mattress. His eyebrows were scrunched up together while his thinking frown laid on his face, his cheeks kind of sticking out. He looked adorable like this, and before Gwen knew it, her hand was resting on top of his head, and she scratched it a bit, making him freeze. He glanced up, making Gwen’s heart stop, thoughts racing across her head. For example, ‘Oh shit, why did I do that?’ and ‘Are you crazy?’.

                But, he didn’t seem to mind, and went back to staring at his hands, a small smile on his face.

                “So…” David asked, twisting his hands, “What is the story for this game you guys are going to make?”

                Gwen smiled.

                “Well… I am going to make it short and simple for you.” Gwen started, eyes looking out of the window of her cabin as she got carried away, “It is going to be about a bad guy that the person can choose the gender of, and they will have to avoid being caught doing murders. They are currently going to be in a hotel, and he… or she… will murder one person, in the span of a two days… or three, depending on the difficulty of the victim for that period of time, and they will have to avoid getting caught. They are locked inside… of course. We thought of reason how come and we thought because of a hurricane. The reason why the character will be killing everyone is because they are part of a cult, similar to the cultist Daniel, if you can remember him, or Jen. I think we might be taking inspiration from them as our character designs. I had described them to Ryder and drew little terrible sketches of them in his sketchbook and he said that they look pretty decent. The people within the hotel are terrible rich people, since the hotel is of top quality that the poor only can wish to enter. The cult believes in that every one must go back to simple days… kind of like communism, but more twisted and there is a big puppet master that is amazing at controlling minds to do his bidding.”

                David was silent, until after a few seconds, and he spoke, “Daniel isn’t a cultist.”

                Gwen laughed a bit, remembering Max rant about how David couldn’t get it through his thick head that Daniel was a cultist, no matter how much evidence was thrown in his face, reminding her more and more of how he is a big dummy.

                “Yeah…” Gwen hummed, “Sure…”

                “And…” David continued, shifting against her before pulling out a pink envelope, waving it in front of her face. Gwen inhaled the faint smell of perfume, entranced by the smell. The little cute hearts that decorated the corners of the envelope were all curvy… maybe even too curly. Gwen instantly recognized it as the ones that David’s mom always wrote to him, “I also want you to read this… you didn’t quite get to it two days ago… and it wouldn’t be the same if I were to read it without someone talking to me.”

                Gwen took the envelope and opened it carefully, sliding her thumb into the hole between the seal and the fold and moved her thumb with it to open it with ease, trying to get her mind off the fact that someone’s tongue had been on it to close it shut in the first place. She took out the letter and saw the messy handwriting that she understood.

                Clearing her throat, Gwen looked down at David and spoke softly to somewhat resemble the kindness of David’s mother’s voice.

                “Dear, David. I am so sorry I haven’t answered your letters for a while, and that this one is a short one, but there is not much to say, and your grandma is still in the hospital, waiting for the lung transplant. It’s been over two years now, and doctors say she should be getting a lung within this year! Sadly, she is steadily growing closer to struggling even more and more to breathe. I hope the lung will come faster. On a much more happier note, I am planning on visiting that camp of yours! Tell Gwen and all of your campers that I am so excited to meet all of them! Love, Mom.”

                David plucked the letter from her hands and placed it neatly into the envelope and folded it up and slipped it into his pocket.

                He always did that. It was their little routine.

                Gwen thought about what his mother had wrote. Both of them had been well aware that while David was miles away from home, his family was staying with the ill grandmother, so that if she died, she died being surrounded by love, and yet David, who was full of affection from head to toe, was once again, miles away, never knowing if his grandmother is dead or not until a day or two after. Her heart throbbed thinking of David crying against her, as she read with great sorrow if that day was to happen during summer.

                Her thoughts were broken as movements came from her side.

                Snuggling closer, David clung to her arm and after a few minutes, he fell asleep, his chest rising and falling in rhythm, Gwen humming a song she had created after observing the young man after years and years of this practice they did. She turned off her lights and stared up at the ceiling.

                Soon, her humming dimmed down, and she slipped into the arms of sleep with David.

Chapter Text

                Gwen was never fond of hiking, but David always insisted, and so she was dragged into it, whether she liked it or not.

                Blades of grass cut at her knee-high socks, and branches of beautiful birch trees hit her from time-to-time. Up ahead of her, was David, talking away about nature. The kids were acting like a sea between both her and David, making her frown a bit. She couldn’t talk at all, in fact, she barely knew anything about nature. Yes, she knew the little trivia about this place’s geography, but she didn’t study which trees were which trees and she wasn't a huge enthusiast on the types of moss. She longed to finally talk about something she was passionate about, yet all of the things she liked were more interesting to Space Kid, Dolph, Nurf, Ered, Nikki, and Preston it seemed. Everyone else didn’t really care.

                She remembered when she had woken up today, with the bright lights making her eyes sting. David had just woken up too and when they finally got both of their brains functioning, had slowly slipped into their routine of getting ready. David was already in counselor mode when Gwen stepped out of the shower, David already ready for the world. Gwen felt a smile slip on her lips at the memory of her face in the mirror being a mix of shock and disgust. But, she had been tired, so her brain wasn’t functioning when David had asked her if she wanted to hike more often than they already did, and she had said yes.

                Blowing hair out of her face, she frowned at that part of the memory.

                Her backpack on her back was packed by David ('Wow, try saying that ten times fast' Gwen thought bitterly), which would explain why it was heavier than before and fatter. For sure, she knew was a first-aid kit, rations, and water. She knew there were more than that, for such things couldn’t possibly be this heavy, but she knew that when David over packed it was always relevant, whether it be for stupid reasons or pretty smart reasons.

                “This mountain lion obviously is tired by the depth of how the paws sink into the mud, and you can also tell by how the paws drag on the ground.” David finished explaining to the kids, pointing at the tracks in the mud to the kids, excitement in his voice with that little bounce that was always there.

                “David, I’m hungry!” Nikki pouted, her cheeks puffing out, totally ignoring whatever David had said.

                “Don’t worry, kiddo.” David said, grabbing his backpack straps and tugging them to correct the placement of his backpack, “We’re almost there!”

                “David,” Max groaned, “Where the fuck are we even going?!?”

                David turned from marching up the trail once more, “You’ll find out!” The fingers on his right hand turned it an 'L' shape and he jerked it upwards in a friendly manner.

                Max groaned again, rolling his eyes and marching along with slumped shoulders and terrible posture.

                Gwen couldn’t see much if she was going to be honest, only being able to see the skinny frame of a man pushing the nature to the side and pointing things out, while his words were lost to her ears when the wind blew from behind her.

                She could identify most of the nature they came across, because she had been with David for many years, his lessons on each plant and each animal pretty much in her head now.

                “Hey! Gwen!”

                Snapping out of staring at David, she looked back down to see Max, one of his eyebrows raised.

                “Why are you staring at David?” Max sneered, and devil-like smirk on his face, “You got a crush or something? Ew... mom and dad are crushing on each other!”

                “N-No!” Gwen hissed, baring her teeth before hiding them back in her frown, “I just… don’t know what else to look at. Every plant is the same, every rock is the same, the pranks you guys pull is the same, it’s the same boring old shit every single fucking day.” She emphasized the last part, looking back at David for a few seconds before looking back down at Max.

                “SO you know where he’s taking us?” Max asked, looking ahead at what she believed to be Nikki and Neil, “I am getting hungry.”

                “It has only been like… oh shit.” Gwen cursed, looking at her phone, seeing that it had been 6 hours since they’ve eaten a proper meal.

                “David!” Gwen hollered over towards the red-head, seeing him turn from underneath the leaves, “We should really start hurrying up!”

                He tilted his head to the side and Gwen angrily pointing at her clock on her phone, then pointed at his watch. She saw his head turn, and then his shoulders shooting up a bit in surprise.

                He said something to the kids and started to march faster. They were pretty much 5/6 of the way there, so when she was the grassy clearing, she let a sigh slip from her lips. David pulled a thin wool picnic blanket over the soft growing grass and motioned towards the kids to sit with him. They all sat down, their mouths watering when David pulled out a whole bag full of sandwiches and cookies from his backpack. Gwen raised an eyebrow, wondering how David somehow managed to stuff everything else into his backpack. But that man was a man of mystery sometimes. She was convinced that Harrison taught him something.

                When everyone settled down to eat, Gwen tried to squeeze herself in, but found that every time she tried to sit down, her big legs wouldn’t cooperate and constantly knee the kids, making some of the kids barked at her.

                Gwen went off to the side, picked up a sandwich, and kneeled onto the grass, internally wincing when the blades of grass pressed against her shins, the dirt entering the lines of her knees, and bugs sometimes crawling past her calves.

                She stuck out her tongue a bit in disgust and flopped her sandwich a bit to watch the processed turkey slices flop around like a dog's tongue. She lifted it up and proceeded to chew on her sandwich. Trying to take her mind off of how pathetic the taste was, Gwen watched the kids chat.

                Max glared at Neil while he seemed to rant about science, and Nikki sitting with excited eyes. Nerris and Harrison were warming up with each other, Gwen had noticed, ever since they played pretend, both of them trying to create a game between magic and Dungeons & Dragons. Space Kid chatted with the others, huge eyes and gasping every now and then.

                Her eyes went over towards David, to see him looking at her. She quickly looked away, eyes glued to her sandwich, chewing a bit quicker now. Oh God.

                Tempted, Gwen looked back up again to see David waving at her, then motioning at her to come over towards him. Gwen pushed off the ground with her feet and saw a few ants and blades of grass clinging onto her legs, and she brushed them off quickly, slightly disgusted. 

                She walked over towards David, the red-head shifted over a little bit, letting her slide in next to him, but in order to make that work, her left leg overlapped with his right one, his warmth warming her cold leg from the dew of the grass. She peered from behind the strands of hair loose from her ponytail over at the red-head, always being haloed by the light of the sun. He was always so bright, with that dumb smile on his face that he practices, his green eyes always so wide and full of excitement, and his hair always flowing and somehow flawless.

                Hastily, she finished her sandwich, stuffing the last corner in her mouth and taking more time to chew than her other bites, but she finished well before the kids, despite having had a late start. David was watching the kids still, looking them over and making sure nobody was getting invaded by insects.

                “So…” David said, without looking away from the kids for a while, but after his first word he turned to look at her, “…why haven’t you told me you played the ukulele?”

                Gwen froze, stiffening with narrowed violet eyes, and mumbled, “How did you know?”

                David tilted his head towards her, clearly not have heard her, so Gwen grabbed him by his shoulders and shook him and repeated again more clearly, ”How did you find out?!?”

                “Packing your stuff… found it under your bed.” He explained, smiling, “You might want to check your backpack for a clue of what we are going to be doing next.” He gave a little wink.

                “Oh no you fucking didn’t.” Gwen hissed.

                He smiled innocently again, and Gwen boiled. He slyly took out his guitar from his backpack, his innocent smiling seeming more of a Cheshire cat grin. It made a shiver run up her spine, something she wasn’t going to admit to David for a long time.

                “I’m sure you’re going to love the song.” He said with a bit of a sing-song twist to it, winking again, making Gwen burn with embarrassment.

                “Just spit it out, David!” Gwen said, impatiently.

                He didn’t respond, aligning his fingers.

                Strumming the guitar to make sure it was in tune, he started to play a song. Gwen recognized some of the notes. Sharp A, B-string C, Sharp B on the B-string. Those notes were played in a pattern and after a few seconds, he threw in some chords and extra notes, the song starting off calm, but now it turned to him strumming strings repeatedly to make it strong, and then returning to soft again, the process repeating to give the listener a bit of a rollercoaster. Gwen dug out her ukulele from her bag, brushing it off and noticed how the strings seemed tighter than she last glanced at it. No doubt that David had tuned it beforehand. Gwen had heard the red-head play it enough to join in for the duet, adding a bit of an upbeat tune.

                Gwen quickly realized that this was the song that she had introduced to David, it being ‘Believer’ by Imagine Dragons. They had done one of their rare singing days with it. She remembered pretending to play it on an air guitar when it got aggressive, and she remembered saying she loved the song, and that it was a mainstream song, something David had tilted his head at with an innocent smile on his face. David had that twinkle in his eyes when they sang, and how he couldn’t stop laughing when Gwen screeched out, “Pain!” And did an aggressive strum on her poor invisible guitar.

                David seemed happy, watching Gwen playing with her instrument. And she couldn’t help but smile back. David gently mouthed the words, but not singing. He looked into her eyes meaningfully, nudging her to sing. If Gwen had not been lost, she wouldn’t have sang, but now she was trapped in the maze and the aura of David, and then she began to sing, without screeching for the laughs, without voice-cracking on purpose to make David laugh, without not having her instrument to preoccupy her.

                She had to admit that the song sounded beautiful without her screeching and David’s mumbling when it got too fast for him, and when they were done, she suddenly felt the gazes of a dozen kids staring at both her and David, and immediately she shoved her ukulele into her bag and pretended that those two minutes she had joined in didn’t happen.

David couldn’t help but smile softly the whole time when the kids started to bombard Gwen, making Gwen constantly stick her tongue out at him or send him death glares.

                “Gwen?”

                Gwen’s eyes widened as she was shocked back to reality, staring off into her laptop earlier. Ryder tilted his head to the side, his eyebrows raising a bit. “You okay there?”

                Quickly, she nodded. “Of course! I was just thinking about something that happened earlier today!” Brushing a few strands of hair out of her face, she bit her lip nervously, a habit she had picked up from David over the week before summer began when they were getting ready for hell to start, but of course David had been nervously biting his lip not because of the pain and stress he'd have to endure during the summer, it was more like worrying about the activities and why Mr. Cameron Campbell wasn't there.

                Ryder looked over at the clock on the wall to read it and smiled, “Wonder what happened before 3:00 that’s on your mind.” His pearly whites were straight and perfect with his green eyes aglow and his dark brown hair turning into a dirty blonde wherever the light touched it. He seemed to be asking the question seriously, though, his eyebrows in a neutral position, but one of them lifted up just ever-so-slightly.

                “Hiking with the campers.” Gwen responded simply, going back to her work, typing into her laptop, watching the words appear on her screen. She had two laptops. One for gaming and other recreational things, while this one was her work one that her dad had given her.

                With a hum, Ryder returned to his work too. Gwen felt a little twist in her heart when she remembered when both her and David had returned from the hike and were play-wrestling because Gwen was still angry at him for tricking her into singing in front of the campers again. She remembered dirt on his cheeks that she had grabbed with her hands and rubbed against them, she remembered his red hair messy with chunks of nature littering it, she remembered his laugh that sounded as smooth as honey, she remembered gaining dominance and pushing against his chest with a laugh while he growled, making it rumble beneath her palms. And then out of the blue, Ryder was beside her, patiently waiting for them with a frown on his face. She hadn’t seen such a twisted expression on his face ever before.

                Looking up to see the young man again, he seemed to be focused on his work, so she didn’t say anything to him and typed once more. He was working on the story-board for the cut-scenes while Gwen fleshed out the dialogue for the characters.

                She let a little sigh slip from her lips, alerting Ryder and now his piercing green eyes trained onto her. Their almost neon-like glow contrasting his cream-colored skin and that dark spruce wood color of his hair.

                “I think we deserve a break.” He huffed, lifting an arm and stretching it, tugging at it to hear a satisfying pop of the shoulder, “We’ve been on our ass since three!” Gwen peered at him from behind her bangs and looked over towards the clock on the bottom right corner of the laptop to see that it was 7:00.

                “What do you propose?” She sighed, closing her eyes for a long time as if it was some mini-sleep. “We have to finish this up and then we have to write that assignment! It’s due tomorrow!” She flung her arms up in defeat and then threw her head back, screeching while purposely putting in voice-cracks.

                The other intern hummed a bit in thought, humming a soft little tune that Gwen could only guess was something his mother used to hum when he was a child. She found it quite relaxing actually.

                Gwen nibbled on the edge of her pencil, the eraser part in-between her teeth, staring at her laptop and the notes on the side of it all, waiting for his response. She chewed until she felt a sharp pain on her tongue. Instantly, she hissed, spitting out her eraser and feeling her tongue begin to numb, the pain screeching from biting her own tongue.

                When she calmed down, she looked up at Ryder.

                “Well…” He proposed, snapping his fingers when his idea hit him, “We could go snake hunting.”

                “Snake… hunting?” Gwen said slowly, her eyebrows shooting up.

                “I used to do it back when my father was a big game hunter down in South America and Australia!” Ryder said matter-of-factly, a smug grin on his face, “He let me get all of the snakes and sell them. I saw some snakes earlier, so why not? We can bring the campers too!”

                “I don’t know…” Gwen mumbled before clearing her voice, “Wouldn’t they get hurt?”

                “We will be picking up the snakes!” He explained, motioning with his hands of his going as fast as a python around the thin body of a snake and plucking it up. “We will just use their eyes to find some. C’mon, it’ll be fun!”

                Entranced by his eyes, his little smile, his hands raised in a begging motion, Gwen couldn’t turn down his puppy eyes.

                With a sigh, Gwen couldn’t say no. “Fine.” She agreed, “David would appreciate the break.”

                “David?” Ryder questioned, “I thought the old guy was QM?”

                Gwen let out a wheezing laugh, covering her mouth in the process, oblivious to the fond smile that went on Ryder’s face when she did. “N-N-No! David is my co-counselor!”

                Ryder’s lips made an ‘o’, his green eyes widening before he himself started to laugh.

                Gwen stood up from the table and made her way towards the doors, the rough woods brushing against her fingertips when she pressed her left hand against one of the doors. She turned towards Ryder, and jerked her head towards the door to signal for him to follow her. Ryder got the message and stood from his spot.

                David was swarmed by kids, and Ryder quickly realized that this man was the co-counselor for Gwen. He had a full head of red-hair, with green eyes, but darker than his own, and that smile that seemed so perfect. Gwen had been deep in thought the whole time they had walked over there, and Ryder desperately wanted to know what was probing her mind. He had tried to learn the ways she worked, like as if she was some puzzle, trying to piece them together. But, he had to admit that deep within his heart, he was getting too attached. All he needed to focus on right now is passing the internship with Gwen, and then he’ll let things grow.

                But even as he repeated that over and over in his head, there was always something in the back of his mind telling him that he shouldn’t block his heart from its desires.

                Shaking his head, when he saw David, Gwen seemed to lighten up, a smile on her face right when she saw him, igniting something deep inside his own heart that burned and was full of something dark that even himself was afraid of. He wanted to hurt. Not himself, but somebody. He wanted to feel flesh connect with fist, or to feel a feral growl crawl up his throat, but he pushed it all away, waving at the red-head instead.

                “Oh!” David chirped, his eyes widening when he saw Ryder, and instantly going over to Gwen, “I’m guessing this is… Ryder, right?” He looked over towards the other, eyebrows raised and smile, less strong, but more friendly.

                “Yep!” Gwen confirmed, the two camp counselor’s eyes meeting again, making Ryder feel as if he was discriminated from the conversation, just the third wheel. “So… Ryder and I are going to take a break and he suggested that we can take the kids away from you for a little bit so you can take a break!”

                David tilted his head to the side, shaking off a green-haired little girl from his leg, the kids around him playing with a Daddy Long Leg and the girl herself pretending to be one. Ryder walked over towards the kids and crouched down, his thighs and calves meeting each other as he tugged at the edge of his green flannel’s collar. He noticed that David cast him a little glance, before looking back at Gwen. Ryder was content to listening to the conversation while getting to know a little bit more about the kids, like the ways they behaved and such.

                “That’s… sweet of you Gwen!” Ryder noted that David sounded a bit weary in the beginning and then changed to a more enthusiastic tone, “… and Ryder.”

                The brown haired young man turned to face the red-head, frowning a bit.

                “What are you guys planning on doing with the kids?” David asked, picking up the green-haired girl and placing her down right next to two boys, who were poking one of the Daddy Long Legs with a stick.

                “Snake hunting.” Ryder answered, standing up, wincing a bit when he heard the faint cracks of his knees, and walked over to stand next to Gwen with a  smile on his face, “Thought it’d be fun.”

                “S-Snake h-hunting?” David spluttered, his green eyes darting everywhere before looking back towards both of them, “A-Are you crazy?!? Gwen!”

                “Ryder said that we will be picking up the snakes and that the kids will just be the eyes for it.” Gwen explained, her hands on her hips with a straighter posture than she usually had.

                Before David could protest, Ryder added on, “And, it’ll be educational. We can bring the snakes back to camp and I can teach them about the snake and how to properly cut them apart and cook them! They can learn so much, David.” His eyebrows rose, staring at the red-head, “I’m sure you want your campers to be more educated on nature. Don’t you?”

                “O-Of course I do!” David said with a crooked smile, “B-But don’t get hurt.”

                “We won’t David.” Gwen sighed, chuckling a bit, “I find it ironic coming from the guy I’ve patched up multiple times.” David rubbed the backs of his hands with a pout, then let out a playful tongue out.

                More coal for the fire for Ryder... hey that rhymed... no wait, stay on track.

                Gwen and David rounded up the kids, and Ryder helped with the three kids poking the poor spider with a stick. But when he ushered them towards the rest of the herd, he eyed the spider that was mere inches away from his foot. He felt an unnatural twitch in his eye and he lifted his foot and slammed it against the poor creature, ending its misery.

                He grabbed the collar of his flannel and puffed it out again from habit, and walked over to the front of the kids, while Gwen offered to stay in the back just in case some of the kids ran away, which he chose not to question. David pulled Gwen aside, seeming to talk to her about something, and he walked away, leaving the girl with a little reassured smile, then he went up to Ryder, his smile lessening in power.

                “Be careful out there!” David strained, squeezing Ryder’s bicep a little bit too hard. Ryder nodded with a weak smile, before David let go and smoothed out the green flannel and tugged at the hem of Ryder’s black t-shirt, and he walked away, whistling a tune as he walked into his cabin.

                Man, that guy was weird.

                Feeling the muscle underneath the skin of the snake, Gwen quickly became fascinated. Her grip was tight on both behind the head of the snake and the tail, feeling it struggle. Ryder’s words became blurred as all she focused on was making sure that the creature wouldn’t escape.

                When Ryder was done explaining, she let go of the snake and all of them watched it retreat into the shadows of the forest. They’ve been doing this for about an hour and a half by now, and Nikki was by far the one that was most fascinated by the snake catching and participated the most to point out the ‘noodle monsters’ as quoted by Ryder to make the children laugh.

                The kids learned that in the forest, they should stay in packs, and so they did. They went off, but within vision of the two adults, of course with Nikki, Neil, and Max straying off too far, but the yelling of Gwen bringing them back.

                “The kids are having a better time than I thought they would.” Gwen admitted, watching as Space Kid searched under a small pebble, “You did good.”

                Ryder couldn’t help but puff out his chest proudly with a smirk on his face, “Told you.”

                Gwen rolled her eyes, folding her arms, but couldn’t help but smile a bit.

                “Why’d we let go of that snake?” Gwen asked, peering over towards Ryder, watching him pause.

                “Wasn’t poisonous.” Ryder explained simply. Gwen could only guess that he wanted to get more poisonous snakes out of this ecosystem.

                “Ever considered being a camp counselor?” Gwen asked, walking over to Nerris when her clothes got trapped on a branch, Ryder following, “You seem pretty good with kids.”

                Ryder hummed thoughtfully. “Well… maybe.”

                “We still need another co-counselor.” Gwen said, “We had two of them, but they ended up to be cult leaders.” Ryder froze, his eyes looking over towards Gwen, “But, you aren’t a cult leader, so I guess we could hire you.”

                Ryder laughed, “I can’t believe two of the people who tried to join are cult leaders!”

                “I know right?” Gwen giggled, but when a child screeched about there being a snake, they hurried over, to find Space Kid on the ground, his head turning wildly.

                “Where’d it go, kiddo?” Ryder asked, crouching down to be eye-to-eye with the space enthusiast.

                “It disappeared…” Space Kid murmured, looking around still.

                “Great job, Space Kid.” Max groaned, his green eyes narrowed, “You got all of our fucking hopes up for nothing!”

                Ryder looked around with Space Kid, eyes scanning until he got to Gwen’s legs, and then he looked away like the gentleman he was.

                Wait.

                “Gwen… don’t move a muscle.” Ryder warned, stepping forward slowly and going onto the left side of her. Gwen held her breath, sucking it In through clenched teeth.

                “When I say go, you walk slowly away.” Ryder whispered, going a bit behind her, “I got your back, you just don’t need to alarm it.”

                Her heart was freaking out. It was running laps around in her chest and her brain throbbed from the lack of oxygen and her muscles were screaming and trying to run, but her shoulders and hips were locked. Her brain screeched, trying to stay slow. With the speed of a slug, she moved slowly away, and she soon heard the faint hiss of a snake, making her pause, holding her breath once more, before stepping again. A louder hiss. Another pause, and one more step, and then she heard an alarming hiss and then Ryder cursing loudly and the sound of muscle meeting bone and then a snap.

                Gwen twisted around to find the snake’s body jutting around in odd places and Ryder holding it by its neck, but with his pinkie in the snake’s mouth, prying it open and the jaw so extended and crooked, no doubt had he broke it. The life seeped from the snake’s eyes, and Gwen quickly realized that Ryder had killed a snake in front of the campers. She whipped around to find some of them in horror or awe. Nikki… she was destroyed. She loved animals, and seeing something die in front of her was probably the worst thing she has seen this summer. And Gwen knew about their travel to Spooky Island.

                Max was in slight horror, his eyebrows twitching and a disgusted look on his nose and mouth.

                “Well…” Ryder spoke in the silence, “That’s dinner.” He winked.

                Gwen. She didn’t know how to feel. She knew what Ryder was capable of, and she knew he didn’t have to kill it. He could’ve easily gripped it by its neck and place another hand lower down and pin it down. But he chose to kill it in front of the campers. Yes, she was grateful for him saving her from a bite, but was it worth those potential lawsuits that those parents might slip in or the children being paranoid? Never had she seen an animal’s body so… twisted, unnatural, or a better word than all of her feelings right now. She felt… sick.

                “Come on kids!” She managed to speak, but it didn’t sound like her. It was a bit high in pitch. “Let’s get back to camp! David probably misses you all!”

                Ryder glanced right at Gwen, noticing the slight shift in her, but chose not to push it.

                Gwen groaned as they finally finished their assignment, Ryder submitting it and when he finished, letting out a satisfied sigh. That 2 hour break really did help them out to relax their brains, and Gwen was sure if David was here, he would be so happy that the kids were learning so much about the snakes, and that QM would be happy to cook up snake for dinner.

                The sun had just began to set, casting a hazy orange glow through the windows of her cabin, making everything a warm color, even the green of her shirt and the green on Ryder.

                David didn’t need to know about what Ryder did. She wanted the both of her beloved friends to just get along, and she knew how David got about exposing the kids to such gore. She looked up at Ryder, remembering him gutting the snake and taking out the poisonous parts, putting them into a pouch and separating the snake in front of the kids, showing them everything. Nerris, Harrison, Preston, Neil, and Space Kid had walked away, claiming they couldn’t handle it. Nerf tried to look tough, but Gwen could see a little part of him slightly uneased by this.

                Oh wait, the poisonous parts! “Ryder,” Gwen yawned, stretching a bit and exposing a thin strip of her chestnut colored belly as she did, “you can throw those snake bits away.”

                Ryder looked up and shook his head, “I’m keeping it. For people I live with.”

                Gwen tilted her head to the side, to which Ryder quickly waved his hand once, dismissing her, or just ignoring whatever she had to say about the topic from then on out.

                Her lips forming a thin line, she stared at him, and he stared back, violet meeting a vicious green.

                Wham!

                Spinning around, she saw David with a smile on his face, before it faltered as he realized that he was interrupting something.

                “S-Sorry.” He spluttered, looking flustered and quickly turning around to leave, but Gwen called out his name to stop him.

                David turned, the moonlight that was beginning to come behind him filled his red hair with cool colors.

                “What’s up?” Gwen asked, her eyebrows raised.

                “Well…” David glanced over towards Ryder before looking back at Gwen, “Nothing.”

                Gwen hummed and glanced over at Ryder when the man’s voice appeared, “What’s wrong David?”

                “Nothing is.” David replied simply, glancing over at the other man in the room.

                “Then why were to glancing at me when you wanted to ask Gwen something?” Ryder accused, Gwen sensing something was about to come down.

                “I just prefer it if whatever I say only go to her ears.” David defended, “Not yours.”

                Ryder huffed and folded his arms, narrowing his green eyes. Gwen frowned a bit. Yes, David was the right one in this little argument they had, but she still felt the need to be neutral.

                “Gwen, go speak with David,” Ryder sighed, picking up his pencil and stroking roughly into his sketchbook, and when Gwen stood still, Ryder motioned with his head, an odd smile on his face contradicting the mood in the cabin.

                And so, Gwen walked outside with David, letting the man hold her wrist and drag her to the opposite side of camp. And when they hid in the shadows, David frowned and stared into Gwen’s eyes.

                After a few minutes of silence, David finally spoke, “I don’t… I don’t like this guy.”

                Shock. That was what hit Gwen. David always seemed to like everyone. But… why Ryder?

                “Why?”

                David clenched his fists and released it, breathing and choosing his words carefully. But Gwen was tapping her foot impatiently. She felt the sweat from today cling onto her and despite the cold wind cooling her down, she felt heat radiating everywhere, whether that be from the close proximity with David or her slight anger.

                “Don’t get me wrong… I should’ve chosen my words more carefully. I don’t dislike him… I just don’t trust him? I get this weird vibe that I don’t like.” David explained, eyebrows squished together, “I know what the kids saw. I won’t snitch on who said it, but a few of the campers were not comfortable and it took me some time to get them settled down and sleeping. Let’s just say they’re all in my room right now, sleeping on my bed. Snake catching isn’t your thing, so I’m guessing that it was Ryder’s idea. I still can’t believe you agreed to do it in the first place. Gwen, can’t you realize that what he is doing here is wrong? I don’t trust him around the campers! I want these kids to have the best time, not the most traumatic time here! And the fact that they saw the life seep from that snake’s eyes and then they ate it just… oh God, Gwen! I appreciate that he is a hard working person that is helping you out with your project, but please for the love of the forest, don’t do something like that again. I know you know the difference between right and wrong, and when Ryder tries to drag you to do something wrong, you need to know that you shouldn’t do that.”

                Gwen frowned, anger blossoming in her heart. She had bonded with Ryder a bit, but yes she knew that what happened today was terrible, but David didn’t know this man. Only she did. It was like watching the worst clip of the best movie and judging it from then on out. “Ryder is not bad.” Gwen defended, “You don’t even know him! Sure, today was not his brightest moment, I understand that and I hope you do too, but that doesn’t make him a terrible person.”

                David huffed, folding his arms. He was silent, his eyes darting around towards the stars up above them. He tended to do this whenever he needed to clear his mind and really focus on something. Finally he let out a breath and responded, “Fine. I’ll give him more chances.” He kept his mouth open as if he was going to say more, but instead decided that he shouldn’t and shut his trap.

                The two looked at each other, in both of their eyes full of confusion and a spark of anger, and the air around them seem to thicken. It got to the point where Gwen couldn’t handle it anymore and walked away, leaving David behind until she heard leaves crunch behind her to find the red-head following her, with a confused expression on his face and nervously playing with his thumbs. Gwen felt her heart throb a little at the weak and exhausted expression on his face, but she knew she shouldn’t right now. She opened the door, she slid into her seat, surprising Ryder, his green eyes widened at her sudden appearance.

                Gwen looked up to see David with that practiced smile, straightening his bandana and avoiding looking at Gwen for the mean while. It shouldn’t have dampened her mood, but it kind of did if she wasn’t going to lie.

                “So…” David hummed and proposed, eyes closed, “Gwen and I have been talking and we thought a good bonding thing could be a little walk!” His eyes opened as he said ‘a little walk’, a huge smile on his face, once again practiced. Gwen frowned at this, her heart aching a bit. Whenever he did those practiced, fragile smiles, it hurt, knowing that underneath that stupid mask he always wants to wear, is all of his negative emotions.

                “A walk?” Ryder frowned a bit, looking outside and coughing, “But, it’s so dark.”

                “There’s light.” David assured, “just a walk around the camp. Help clear our heads and to just… talk.”

                Ryder seemed to be thinking, tapping his fingers again his ear, and waiting. It seemed as if minutes went by, and finally he sighed and smiled, “Yeah. I could go for a walk.”

                David smiled once more and turned over towards Gwen, dropping the fake smile for a second before walking out to presumably wait for them.

                Judgement hour. That was what this was. Whether David would put more faith into Ryder, or to throw away any hope of them getting along together.

                The need to warn Ryder rose in her throat, but David would hear, and she knew he was listening from how the door was still open, someone holding it open.

                Gwen stood from her seat she had just slid into and so followed Ryder, all of them walking out and Gwen could only stare at her feet.

                She could only hope that whatever Ryder said, that David would like.