Chapter Text
There was essentially only reason to look forward to the end of summer break.
The Hawkins Public Library hosted a five-day weekend long camp each summer, scheduled just before the school year began to help pump kids up for classes again and to hopefully teach them something new.
As dutiful attenders every year since they could remember, the party had decided it was high time that they were finally camp counselors there.
Lucas had to admit that he had been the one to push them the most into doing it. He probably had the most memories there, and it was scary to imagine that they were almost done being able to attend. But he also had a feeling that this was going to be one hell of a five-day weekend, maybe even better than previous years.
And that was mainly because of one person.
Max Mayfield.
Not that he had been able to see her very much yet, just flashes of her hair amongst the kids as everyone unloaded their cars into the parking lot. But it wasn’t even the first full day and he convinced himself that he was sure there would be plenty of time to see her. Maybe even talk with her, but he wasn’t going to push his luck. She’d shown up at the beginning of his junior year and it had felt like an instant connection. Mainly on his end though. He supposed they more than just classmates, definitely at least friends. They just didn’t hang out outside of school. But they had plenty of classes together and she was his favorite person to debate with in class. But beyond that? They hadn’t really spent a lot time together. That hadn’t stopped him from developing a bit of a crush on her though.
Only a bit of one.
At least that’s what he insisted to the guys on the ride up to the cabins, bumping along in Mike’s van and trying to not blush too much.
He didn’t know why he insisted on playing it so cool with them. It wasn’t like they hadn’t all at some point confided in each other about crushes. Will with the cute boy in his art class (who was adorably, and suspiciously, bad at drawing and always needed Will’s help). Mike with El (okay, that was more extreme pining only for them to finally get together). Dustin with a handful of different girls until he swore of girls entirely (they weren’t convinced yet).
But something about Max felt different. He wasn’t even sure if he had any intention of saying anything, content to just hover in the warm fuzzy feeling that came with seeing her in class rather than bring on the fear of voicing his feelings.
Those were the thoughts clouding his mind as he transitioned from dumping his duffle bag under the bunk bed he and Mike were going to share.
He was however able to push them aside just long enough to have a heated debate about the choices they’d made in their last campaign with Dustin while they made their way to the mess hall. It was late in the evening, the first night much more focused on the kids getting to know each other, as well as passing out the schedule of activities. They’d be there for the next five days and Lucas was thrilled to be able to work as a counselor this year.
He and the other guys had gone to the initial meeting at the library a couple weeks ago to over details. Some of it was generic rules and things they’d have to know. Luckily they didn’t have to worry about chaperoning the actual cabins the kids would sleep in. Instead they’d just have to chaperone the classes and help lead the activities. From there, they had signed up for the ones they wanted to help teach in and set up their room assignments.
It was also where they had learned that sadly, Troy would be there due to needing to complete some extra community service hours.
And more positively, that Max was going to be a counselor as well.
They’d had their usual “Hey Stalker” and “Whatever Mad Max” interaction when they had greeted each other. Though she had sat near him since El was there too and the two of them had become unlikely best friends over the past school year. Which meant that he’d been able to somewhat steal glances at her when he didn’t think she was looking.
It had one earned him one elbow to the gut from Mike as a signal to get back to paying attention.
Fast forward to today and he was getting another hit in the gut.
This time it was from Dustin, sightlessly thrusting Lucas’ duffle bag at him from the back of the mini van.
“Okay then all that’s left is the cooler with all of the snacks my mom made!” Dustin announced, hoisting his bag onto his shoulder so he could pull out the small blue cooler.
“Please tell me she made her peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies,” Will said almost in a whine, Lucas nodding enthusiastically next to him.
Dustin looked at them slyly.
“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see,” he responded with his usual twinkle in his eye.
With their banter in full swing, the party then made their way towards the campground.
The area was a sprawling collection of cabins, a large one for dining and gathering, and then a dock that lead towards the lake nearby. It was overall much bigger than they needed for this particular camp — not many kids wanted to do an education-based camp right before school. But to Lucas, it was filled with memories. And when he and the guys were younger, it had felt even bigger. Making it into a whole world for them to explore.
And they’d only gotten lost once too.
Check-in was quick this year since they were counselors. And they’d been coming here for so long, they didn’t have to have that moment of panic where they went to three wrong cabins before finding the right tone. They got to stay in one of the smaller ones too, so it was just a quick check-in with Marissa at a plastic folding table before heading over to drop their stuff off.
Mike was shuffling through the folder that he had been handed with the information for the week, rattling off the different assignments. They’d been able to have almost first dibs on the activities they’d get to help with. Dustin let out a cheer that he had nailed the biology one, getting to work with Mr. Clarke at the lake to study the water. Will of course had been immediately nabbed for the art classes by the young, new art teacher Ms. Richards. Lucas was surprised but excited that he was going to get to help with one of the astronomy nights. Helping show kids how to chart the constellations and if they were lucky, use them to get back to the campgrounds on the last night without a map.
Eventually they reached their cabin. It was covered in dark wood slates and a single light hung above the door, cobwebs laced on the edges and a moth flitting in and out.
Lucas pushed forward first, opening up the screen door that was in front of the entrance and then pushing open the door into the one-room cabin.
It had two sets of bunk beds, with familiar, lumpy green mattresses on them. Tucked on one of the folding chairs was the pile of blankets for them to throw on them as well. A long chain hung down from the ceiling light and Mike clicked it on, a warm light spilling into the room and casting long harsh shadows. With the smell of pine needles being tracked in and the wood around them, it smelled like nostalgia and the wilderness.
While unpacking, they excitedly recounted stories from previous years. The time Dustin had gotten gum in his curls. Mike accidentally panicking on a canoe ride and tipping him and Lucas over. Most of the memories were good, with only one or two of Troy and his buddies knocking them off the pier (but only in the years they had been forced to come by their parents).
They finally wrapped up though, the place feeling a little more homey. And then they stood awkwardly in a circle, looking between each other.
“Soooo. What now?” Dustin asked, each of them looking at each other.
“I guess we could stay in here for a bit?” Will asked, unconvinced.
“I have another campaign idea?”
“Mike, we’re barely into this one. Let’s wait it out. I gotta stay focused on my bard right now. Can’t get distracted.”
“What you need is new dice, you’ve had the worst rolls ever this campaign,” Mike retorted, sadly putting the binder back into his duffle bag. Luckily he’d be able to talk about story-telling tactics in the writing class he was leading tomorrow, so he wasn’t too bummed out.
“How about we just head out to the fire?” Lucas offered.
It seemed like the best idea. Most of the kids who stayed in their cabins for the majority of the night before emerging, were the ones who were staying with a lot of other students. Or kids who didn’t hang out outside of school and used it to gossip and catch up.
So with that, they each finished tucking their things away and prepped to head out for the evening.
With sweatshirts on, the party gave each other a quick once over to make sure they were ready. Satisfied they’d be warm, they clicked off the dusty light hanging in the middle of the room and returned to the outside.
The arrival of dusk had brought the buzz of the forest alive, but a stillness as well. The sky was a dusty purple and they could barely make out the first twinkle of stars. Up ahead, not far from their cabin, they could see the beginning of the bonfire. The main fanfare was going to be the s’mores, but there was a healthy amount of hot dogs available in case some kids hadn’t eaten dinner. But the smell of roasted marshmallows and the gooeyness of the melted chocolate was enough to satisfy any cravings. And was absolutely an appropriate meal when up in the mountains.
They were nearly halfway to the bonfire spot, when they became distracted by a noise.
The sound of Troy’s braying laughter in the parking lot was too obnoxious to ignore. The party mumbled to themselves about how ridiculous it was that this was how he’d been assigned community service. Certainly it was more of a detriment to everyone, a thought voiced by Dustin but agreed upon by all four of them.
But it was when Lucas instinctually looked over at the loud sound, that he felt his mouth go dry.
Rather than laughing with his fellow dumbass friends, who thankfully seemed to not be here this weekend, he was laughing with a certain girl that hadn’t left Lucas’ mind. Since essentially he had met her.
Max must have been grabbing something from her car and been cornered by him. Which was about one of the worst scenarios Lucas could think of.
“Hey, uh, I need to go check something in your car Mike,” Lucas stammered out.
Mike shot him a confused look, only for Will to interject with a smile. “You should just go save Max from that conversation. I’m sure whatever’s in the car can wait.”
His expression clearing, Mike let out a laugh.
“Dude you’re totally fine. Go get her, we’ll meet you for s’mores.”
Lucas cleared his throat, trying to not feel too nervous as he then made his way into the parking lot towards the two of them. He could see Max’s arms crossed and her foot tapping against the ground impatiently.
Lucas walked as casually as possible over, almost even strolling, just to try to hide the sense of urgency rushing through him. He recognized that cross look on Max’s face. Hell, she’d get it in class when the teacher was being an idiot. So talking to Troy? It was definitely there. If there was one thing that he really appreciated about her, it was that you always knew what she was thinking.
As he got closer, he was able to hear exactly why she looked so angry.
“Come on Maxine, you know I’ve been working out for football. I’ve seen you checking me out before,” Troy gloated, giving a his shoulders a slight flex.
Max’s eyes nearly rolled into the back of her head.
“Those were looks of disdain you halfwitted—”
“Hey!” Lucas took that moment to interrupt.
While Troy looked absolutely annoyed by Lucas’ arrival, Max’s face brightened up immediately. Giving Lucas that vote of confidence to take a couple steps closer so he was even with Max.
“What’s going on?”
Troy grunted.
“Waiting on a reason from Mayfield here as to why she won’t go out with me.”
Lucas felt his stomach roll at the very idea of Troy even being remotely near her. Not even in a protective way. More out of respect for her general well-being.
“That’s not going to happen.” The words flowed out of his mouth before he realized what he was saying.
Both Troy and Max looked at him, startled by the calm way he had shut the idea down.
“Oh is that right Sinclair? And what makes you so sure about that?” Troy snarled, turning his body away from Max and approaching Lucas.
Lucas took a steadying breath as he leveled his gaze at Troy.
He wasn’t going to be threatened by him, those days were long gone.
Looking frantically between the two, Max bit her lip before plastering a huge smile on her face. She then slipped her hand around Lucas’ bicep before pulling him in tightly towards her. He stumbled with the sideways movement and nearly collided into her.
Her grip was tight on his arm and just when he was going to ask her what was going on —
“Because Lucas and I are dating!”
Max’s words rang in Lucas’ ears.
Troy’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, his eyes darting between the two of them. Lucas quickly rearranged his expression into what he hoped was a happy one. One that wasn’t completely shocked looking.
“Yep! Dating. That’s us,” he managed to say.
“I didn’t realize…” Troy replied, his voice laced with confusion but just a hint of defeat.
“Well,” Max jumped in, “we weren’t trying to be in people’s faces about it. Give us a chance to have something all to ourselves. You know how high school is.”
Troy in fact, did not know how high school was.
However Max kept her voice neutral and slipped her hand into Lucas’. Immediately speeding through Lucas’ mind was all of the times he had imagined doing this. Waiting in line at the movies. On the bleachers at games. In the hall in between classes.
Not exactly in front of Troy though.
However, he seemed to have lost interest in the situation and with a grunt and nod of his head, stalked away from the two teens.
Max dropped her hand from Lucas’ and gestured a middle finger towards his retreating back.
“I can’t believe it takes saying I have a boyfriend to get him to leave me alone. It’s disgusting, a guy will respect a male partner more than he will just being rejected I mean—”
“Max.”
“—it’s so sexist. No one waits for a guy to get a girlfriend before—”
“MAX.”
She stopped her tangent mid sentence to look over at Lucas curiously.
“So we’re dating now?” Lucas asked as calmly as he could.
Max shrugged.
“If you don’t mind. At least for the weekend so that Troy leaves me alone.”
I’ve wanted to ask you out for a year.
“It’s cool, I don’t mind. He’s a mouth breather anyway.”
Max crossed her arms and leaned up against one of the cars. “We should probably figure out some rules or whatever? Now that he knows, we’ll have to play it up some.”
“I didn’t realize relationships had rules,” Lucas added on.
“Well real relationships maybe, but this isn’t one.”
“Riiiggghhhtt. Okay so where do we start?”
Max blew some hair out of her eyes and looked around, contemplating the situation. Lucas fidgeting with the hem of his t-shirt.
“That’s fair. They’ll mainly be guidelines then,” she finally said. “We just have to mainly hang out with each other. Hold hands. Nicknames are fine, nothing too cutesy. Cheek kisses are fine, I doubt we’ll have to make out in front of everyone.”
Lucas choked at that but didn’t interrupt.
“I figure as long as stay close and act like we can’t get enough of each other, it should work out great! It’ll be all about selling the little things. What could go wrong?”
“What could go wrong?” Lucas echoed, still trying to process the whole situation.
Shoving her hands into her back pockets, Max scuffed at the ground before glancing back at Lucas. For appearing so confident a minute before, she seemed to be slightly nervous now. As if checking to make sure that he was on board with this. Lucas gave her the natural, reassuring smile he could.
It seemed to help and she relaxed a little bit more into her usual, casual slouch.
“Cool cool, Sinclair. I’ll see you at the bonfire for s’mores tonight?”
He nodded and she flashed a thumbs up before beginning to walk away.
Letting out a long exhale, Lucas was just about to pace when he heard the crunch of gravel behind him.
He turned just in time for Max to appear in front of him, her white camp shirt glowing just barely in the darkness around them. She leaned in and placed a quick kiss to his cheek.
“For practice,” she mumbled almost teasingly, before turning back and jogging towards the campground area.
Lucas slowly lifted a hand to his cheek, the spot where her lips had touched tingling. Max’s words ran through his mind.
What could go wrong?