Chapter Text
Max will never, ever, under any circumstances admit to enjoying camp. He will also never, under any circumstance, ever admit to stealing a bus in an attempt to escape, crash it, and get fined forty dollars, despite David’s many protests of “He’s only ten!”
“I’m getting real tired of coming up here David.” The gruff sheriff had said, handing David the ticket. David deflated, seeing that the officer wouldn’t let them off again.
“I know Sal.” He says dully. Max resists the temptation to laugh.
“Does this happen often?” Neil asks him, horrified. Max grins at him. Neil shrinks back. Max’s grin widens. He’s been told he has an unsettling smile. Too toothy, too sharp and acerbic. Like he’s laughing at you.
“Every week on Wednesday and Saturday.” Max tells him. “Nurf has gotten the sheriff to come up five times so far, and we’re barely even two weeks in. He’s the record holder right now.” Neil’s look of utter horror only increases. Max can feel the sweet, sweet rush of dopamine, Neil’s thoughts itching underneath his curly scalp, like millions of little jolts of electricity. Don’t do it Max, he tells himself. It’s not good to jump into people’s minds, like he’s an olympic diver, and their minds are his swimming pool. God, David must be rubbing off on him. Just one quick peek. He tells himself. He’s lying, and he knows it.
Oh, god, what’s wrong with this kid, why is he staring at me, these people are crazy, what the fuck is going on here. I never should have harassed that stupid teacher, now I’m here, ohgodohgodohgodoh-
“You did what to a teacher?” Max asks, pulling himself out of Neil’s thoughts.
“What?” Neil sounds relatively freaked out now.
“What’s happening?” Nikki asks, dropping out of a tree.
“What the fuck?!” Neil screeches, startled by her sudden appearance.
“Max, stop harassing the new campers.” Gwen tells them dully, as she tries to talk the sheriff out of the hefty fine.
“What just happened?” Neil presses again, something dark and terrifying flashing in his eyes. Max knows that look. He knows what it means.
“Max!” Gwen calls again.
“I’m still confused. What’s going on?” Nikki asks, looking back and forth between the two boys, like she’s expecting to see the answer to her questions drawn in their features.
“Max!” Gwen is screaming at him now, her face drawn so tight it looks like she’ll crack, her pretty brown face, oddly reminiscent of Max’s mother’s, shattering into a million pieces.
“I didn’t do anything!” Max yells at her. Why is he always the culprit? Gwen heaves a great sigh.
“You know what? Just go back to your tents, I’m not dealing with this shit right now.” She trudges off towards the main cabin.
“Wait, Gwen!” David calls after her. Max gives a dark little chuckle.
“But we don’t have tents yet?” Nikki says, still slightly befuddled. Max rolls his eyes.
“Just come with me. You need to meet the other campers anyways.” He starts heading
“But we already met the other campers?” Nikki asks, hesitantly.
“No, you need to actually meet them. The Mess hall was a fluke.” He tells her, already heading towards the small circle of tents. Nikki skips alongside him. “I’ll explain shit too, einstein.” He calls back at Neil, who stands awkwardly alone, like he’s unsure whether to follow, or to make a mad dash for the woods and hope for the best. Neil follows grudgingly, shuffling awkwardly behind them. Max is glad he decided not to run towards The Woods. No one goes into The Woods and comes back out unscathed, except for maybe David and The Quartermaster.
The other campers are already at the tents by the time Max manages to get Neil and Nikki down there. Nikki had gotten side tracked by something- what, Max still wasn’t sure. One minute she was next to him, the next she was making a mad dash for The Woods saying something about a king. Luckily, Max managed to stop her. He doesn’t know what this kid can do, or if she could somehow come out of The Woods unscathed, but either way he isn’t letting her end up like Chucky.
“Hey Max.” Ered nods towards him as she repairs her skateboard. Her arm hangs limply by her side, still twisted and contorted.
“Wow, cool!” Nikki exclaims, immediately rushing towards Ered’s majorly fucked up arm, and examining it closely. Neil looks ill.
“Max, have you not told them yet?” She asks, frowning at him disapprovingly. Max rolls his eyes.
“Well I figured you could explain better.” Max tells her nonchalantly.
“Tell them what?” Harrison pops out of nowhere, brandishing a twig.
“Holy fucking shit dude, don’t point that at me.” Max leaps back, stumbling over Ered’s toolkit and falling on his ass, his hair flopping to cover his eyes, Ered’s various tools that she’d probably stolen from The Quartermaster scattering all around them.
“I’m confused.” Nikki says tiredly, sitting down next to Ered “So what’s happening?”
Ered sighs heavily, setting aside her board and the screwdriver she’d been using. She sets them aside delicately, like they’re something fragile. Max’s eyes follow her pale, calloused hands as the gently pick up all of the scattered equipment.
“Make sure there aren’t any more nails on the ground you two.” She says cooly to Max and Harrison. She looks at Neil, patting the ground next to her. He sits quietly. Max and Harrison exchange glances.
“Look, I just needed a set of dice.” Harrison says dully.
“Why didn’t you just ask Nerris?” Max asks, rolling his eyes. Harrison’s face contorts into a grimace.
“She hasn’t spoken to me since I burned down her first tower.” He tells Max.
Max groans, “I didn’t ask to hear about your shitty nerd romance, Harrison!” He shouts “We’ve got Space Kid for that shit!”
Ered coughs, glowering at Max and Harrison. “Pick up the damn nails you two.” She says gruffly.
“Sorry Ered.” Harrison says meekly. Max rolls his eyes. He hates how she thinks she can tell him what to do, just because she’s the oldest.
Silently, Max and Harrison search for the nails, scattered all over the leaf-covered ground. “So you know the X-men?” He can hear Ered start.
“Yeah.” Neil mutters,
“No.” Nikki replies at the same time, as they gaze at Ered with awe.
“Okay, so in the X-men there are like… these people, who are born with special powers, and they’re like… superheroes and stuff.” Ered stumbles awkwardly.
Max almost steps on a nail. Why did she even have nails? She was repairing her skateboard, she shouldn’t need nails for that.
“Highly simplified, but alright.” Neil says in that stupid, bratty voice of his. God, Max can’t even decide whether he likes or hates the new kids. Neil alternates wildly between okay, and totally idiotic. He’s been inside his mind- it’s organized, and the thoughts are perfectly streamlined. It’s not often that Max finds someone with thoughts like that. He wonders what Nikki’s mind would be like- probably crazy and noisy enough to give him a panic attack. That’s happened, once or twice- he’s gone into the wrong person’s mind, and their thoughts are just too much for him to handle. Like when he tried going into The Quartermaster’s mind that one day and Nurf wound up having to carry him to Dolph, their unofficial nurse.
Max finds another three nails, rusted and old, nearly fused together, right by Preston and Harrison’s tent. He can hear Preston inside, muttering something about alternate plotlines under his breath as he types rapidly on the ancient typewriter. Where he even got a typewriter in the first place, Max isn’t sure. David has repeatedly offered to let Preston borrow his computer too, but Preston always refuses for some reason.
“WHAT THE FUCK!” Neil screeches. Max winces. Looks like Ered finally got to the superpowers thing.
“Neil, I understand how you must be feeling, but you need to calm down-” Ered is saying, her hands raised- it looks like her arm is better already.
“No!” He screams. “No! Nonononono! Fuck this shit! I’m calling my parents and I’m getting the hell out of dodge because you’re all insane-”
“Space Kid!” Ered bellows at the top of her lungs. “Space Kid get out here right now, we need your help!”
“What?” Space kid appears, tumbling out of a particularly high tree. He must have been watching the whole thing, the little creep.
“New kid is freaking out again.” Max tells him, almost bored by the proceedings. They’re always the same. Nikki seems significantly less bothered than Neil.
“Is that why I can do weird stuff?” Nikki asks. Space kid advances upon Neil.
“You need to calm down.” He says gently. Space Kid is probably the only ‘gentle’ person in the whole camp. Everyone else here is deranged. Max can’t stand it.
“No!” Neil shouts.
“If you don’t calm down-” Space Kid tries to reason with him.
“I already said no!” Neil shouts again.
“Weird stuff?” Ered asks Nikki, looking down at the smaller girl curiously. “What sort of weird stuff?”
“Animals talk to me.” Nikki says bluntly.
“No showmanship.” Harrison mutters, as they watch. Max rolls his eyes. Harrison and Preston- those two share a tent for a reason, always trying to turn everything into some big, show.
Space Kid gets even closer to Neil, pulling off a glove. “You need to chill.” He tells Neil. New Kid is still struggling, trying to get away. Eventually he goes slack, falling over and landing on the ground with a thud. Nikki and Ered look down at his prone body.
“Is he okay?” Nikki asks.
“He should be.” Space Kid tells her.
“We just needed him to sleep. You understand that people can’t know about this, right?” Ered asks, Nikki, her long golden hair falling down her back. The sun is setting.
“Shit.” Max mutters under his breath. They’ll have to get Nurf and have him collect firewood soon, otherwise it’ll be dark, and they won’t have any barrier of light between them and the all-consuming darkness of the night.
“About how you all have a bunch of magical powers and essentially live in the woods?” Nikki asks. Ered nods.
“I understand.” Nikki replies.
“Do you want me to show her around the camp?” Harrison hisses to Max. He nods.
“Great!” Ered slaps Nikki on the back. “Let’s get you set up with a tent. You can probably sleep with me and Nerris for tonight- it’s better than sleeping with Max.”
“Why’s that?” Nikki asks.
“Because Max is an edgelord who never sleeps and lives off of coffee.” Harrison tells her, sauntering up to them.
“I’m Harisson, the resident magician.” He grins.
“Nice to meet you Harrison.” Nikki says politely, holding out her hand.
“We need to get firewood.” Max tells Ered, as Harrison leads Nikki off. With any luck, he won’t get sidetracked and start showing her the stupid rabbit trick.
“Okay.” She replies. “I need to put the tools I borrowed away before The Quartermaster notices that they’re missing. Can you get Nurf to move this kid?” She kicks at Neil’s skinny, pale, limp arm.
“His name is Neil.” Max huffs. “And yeah, I can get Nurf. Where should we put him?”
“Does anyone other than you have an empty space in their tent?” She asks.
“Not that I know of.” Max says. “We really need to start bothering Gwen about those extra tents.” He mutters.
“Can you take him for the night?” Ered asks.
“No.” Max says shortly. “I already told you, I have nightmares.”
“You don’t even sleep.” Ered points out. Max rolls his eyes. “Plus you’ve got the whole ‘freaky mind-reading thing.’ Who else would be better to watch him? You know, make sure he doesn’t run away?”
“Fine.” Max grumbles. It’s only for one night, he tells himself. The funny thing about having the ability to target and analyze people’s thoughts is that you can’t lie to yourself. With his luck it will probably wind up being the whole summer.
“Oh, I almost forgot- how was mission ‘distract the counselors?’” She asks.
“It went well.” He says. “Did you get to Campbell’s office?” He asks. She nods.
“Yup. We erased all of the files on us.” She says. God, he hopes that she didn’t see the thing about the Sharon and Suzie thing back when he didn’t even know about the camp. Of course, leave it to creepy campbell to collect literally everything about their personal lives- even their gifts. Of course they had to shut that down.
“So should I just ask any of the people doing nothing to collect firewood?” Max asks. Ered nods.
“Remember to be back before dark.” She reminds him. He nods. They both know what happens to you if you’re alone outside after dark.