Chapter Text
Standing under the front archway of the camp, Max stared at the scene before him, backpack firm on his back. The totem pole was burning, kids were running around and screaming, Gwen was yelling at kids to just back up and wait for her partner to get back. It was overall chaos and Max knew he’d fit in just fine.
Max has not been back since he was thirteen and three years later, he was back again but not as a camper. No, Max had a summer job as a counselor. His parents made him stop going, he had to focus more on academics and they didn’t think it was appropriate for Max to keep going to a kid summer camp, especially since it was for kids and not teenagers.
Max saw that the camp had put out an ad online for a summer position and Max couldn’t stop himself from applying. Life had been so hectic and crazy, so he decided he’d push that all aside for a whole new chaos.
When he called, it was Gwen who answered. It was obvious she didn’t recognize his voice because she didn’t make the connection that it was Max calling until the teen mentioned that his experience with camp was that he was a former camper. He almost immediately got the position and she instructed him to come as soon as possible.
Back to the burning totem pole, Max watched as David ran over with a hose and sprayed the damn thing down till the fire was extinguished. Max took the opportunity to walk over, looking up at the charred remains.
Gwen saw Max first, surprised by his appearance but then she turned to David, “David, he’s our new counselor, can you handle the paperwork while I deal with these little shits?” Gwen asked.
David turned off the hose and he was confused before he saw the teen standing there. He didn’t know they had filled the position yet, and he definitely did not recognize the young adult.
“Uh, ok! Come with me!” David exclaimed as he started to walk to the counselor cabin. He wanted to conduct his own little interview, maybe teach the kid a few things before they got into the actual job.
Max stood there for a second, staring at the totem pole before tearing his eyes away to look at the red head as he walked away. Max followed, looking around to see if anything had changed but.. It hadn’t. Max didn’t know what he had expected, it was only three years since he had seen it last.
Max pushed open the door to the counselor's cabin, smelling the mildew. It was alway old in here, no matter how much David had claimed to clean it. It was a natural scent. Max walked to the desk, following David.
“So, what’s your name?” David finally asked, searching through the filing cabinet for the work papers.
“Max Jones,” The teen answered, putting his hands in his jean pockets. He was wearing a gray shirt with his favorite band on it and a pair of blue jeans.
David froze for a second, turning to look at Max before his mouth shot open as he finally seemed to realize who Max was. Unfortunately, it only took a split second for the older man to wrap his arms around the teen, hugging him tight.
“It’s been so long! Max, how’s school? How’ve you been?” David asked and he finally took in Max’s appearance.
“School is.. Good. It’s good, I’ve been good,” Max replied, wanting to halt this conversation for another time. “So that paper work..?” He asked and then David nodded, setting it on the desk.
It took awhile for them to fill out the paperwork and Max was growing concerned over all the wavers he had to sign in order to prevent him from suing. Things like falling off a cliff, getting bit by a platypus, and potentially blowing up were thing Max hadn’t even considered. How was this camp even running?
By the time they had finished the paperwork, it was mid afternoon.
“Gwen must have started the afternoon activity.. I’ll show you to our room,” David said and walked to his room in the cabin.
Max raised his eyebrow, “I’m sorry, /our/?” Max asked as he followed, looking in the small bedroom to realize instead of one twin sized bed, there were now two. One side had some posters of forests and shit but the other side was blank as can be, the bed freshly made and it looked so neat.
“Yes, ours. Since there are only two rooms and we’re both men, we are sharing a room,” David explained. Max stared before nodded, setting his backpack onto the bed. “Now, Max, since your first day isn’t technically till tomorrow, you don’t have to help around just yet but I figured you may have fun setting up the campfire with me after dinner?” David asked.
Max looked at David, questioning everything in that moment. Did he want to get to work now? Not really but.. Something in the genuine expression on David’s face made Max want to actually help. His lips settled into a thin line and he let out a huff of air.
“Fine, I guess, but only if you stop fucking looking at me like that,” Max stated, crossing his arms.
“I’ll try my best Max! But remember to watch that language of yours,” David responded, “Oh! One other thing!” David exclaimed before opening a drawer and pulling out those god damn green counselor t-shirts. “Every counselor needs their uniform!”
Max frowned, snatching the shirt and he stared at it. He hated these shirts when he was younger, just the way they screamed authority was enough to make his blood boil… But now he was the one wearing it, and some part of him was prideful that finally he was going to be some sort of authority figure here. Max had gotten lost in his thoughts that he didn’t realize David was watching him so closely.
“Well?” David asked.
“Well what?” Max asked in response before he realized David wanted him to put it on right now. “Get the fuck out, camp man! I’ll be out in a second,” Max ordered, shoving the man out the door before slamming it.
Max wasn’t insecure about his body, not in the slightest, but that didn’t mean he was going to take his shirt off in front of David who was now technically his boss. Max changed shirts, looking at the forest green t-shirt, taking in the fact it smelled a lot like pine. Max sighed, walking out the door to see David putting the freshly signed paperwork into the filing cabinet.
“So? What do you think?” Max asked, placing his hands on his hips as David looked up from the cabinet, a smile coming back to his lips.
“You look like a natural counselor, Max, now come on so we can introduce you to the kids!” David exclaimed and he quickly walked to the activity field. Max stood there for a second, his hands slowly falling from his hips to hang at his sides. That was it? He looked like a counselor?
No shit he looked like a counselor.
Max didn’t even know what he expected, but being told that? It was irritating enough. Max forced his legs to move as he walked over to the activity field, stopping next to David and Gwen, who were standing in front of the campers.
There were eleven, and they looked just as diverse as Max remembered his original group was. Max crossed his arms and then he looked up at David as the man spoke up.
“Good afternoon campers! I am excited today to introduce you to our new camp counselor! This is Max and he used to be a camper here too!” David explained. One of the kids, a child with bright blonde hair, scoffed and crossed her arms.
“Why should we give a shit? He’s just another adult to tell us to behave,” The girl stated, her blue eyes looking at Max with a mixture of irritation and disinterest. Max smirked, he knew going into this that the campers would probably hate him. David was in the middle of explaining that the kids had to treat Max with respect and what not.
Max crossed his arms, rolling his eyes. David’s nagging was still annoying even if it wasn’t directed at him. Max nudged the man before asking him to introduce the campers, to which David lit up again.
The blond girl was Charity, her parents signed her up for nature camp. The girl had absolutely no wish to be in nature, however, given the fact she had her phone in her hand. Overall, the girl just seemed disinterested.
There was Michael, he was a short, red head who had signed up for music camp. He had a harmonica in his hand and he looked like he genuinely wanted to be there.
Demetry was a next to him, he was holding a notebook and seemed to be taking notes about everything. David said the boy was there for journalism camp, which made Max wonder what was being written in that notebook.
Samantha was next, a quiet girl who signed up for culinary camp. Max took note that the little girl seemed extremely shy, staying at the back of the group.
Next were Teddy and Aaron, they were both there for video game camp. Teddy was a taller, lankier boy where as Aaron was shorter with freckles. Max asked them what their favorite game was, finding out that Fortnite was the answer made Max want to cut off all connections with these kids.
Nelson had long black hair, it was currently being braided by a young girl named Francis. They were siblings and both were there for gymnastics camp, which Max was not too excited for despite his experience in gymnastics.
Andris had his foot on a soccer ball and before David could even say his camp, the young boy loudly declared he was in sports camp, though he was the greatest soccer player in the world.
Justin walked over to Max without prompting and took Max’s hand, bowing at him then kissing the teen on the hand. Max had his eyebrow raised, watching this go on before David said that Justin was part of the ever famous theatre camp. Max nodded before pulling his hand away and stepping back from the kid who was watching him a little too intently.
Last but not least, there was Merida. She was there for psychic camp. The young girl looked up at Max with deep purple eyes before she said, “You will find love this summer,” and that was it.
With all the introductions out of the way, it was time for dinner. Everyone filed into the mess hall to get their food. Max was lost for a second before remembering he was allowed to sit at the counselor table with Gwen and David. As soon as he sat down, Gwen launched into a conversation.
“So, Max, what made you want to come back to Camp Campbell?” Gwen asked, looking over her poorly made cheese burger. David looked up from his as well, looking over at the teen as well since he was also interested in the answer.
“I don’t know, I saw the ad and decided why the fuck not? I had nothing better to do this summer and I needed a job,” Max explained. David seemed to frown at the answer but Gwen laughed.
“That’s how they get you, next thing you know you’ve been here for eight years with no end in sight,” Gwen explained before shrugging. “What are you planning on doing after highschool anyways?”
Max was surprised by her questioning, but it was Gwen. She wanted to know details because who knew how much drama would be mixed in.
“I was thinking about going into education or something.. I don’t know..” Max responded, he was getting defensive. Max’s slight aggression towards her question made Gwen back off, but it left David with almost a concerned look on his face.
Max decided to finish his food quickly, tossing his tray on the rack before he told the two adults he was going to collect some wood from the wood pile and start a fire, just like David said he’d help with. In reality, Max just wanted some alone time because everything just felt like it was going way too fast.
In the silence of the outdoors, Max walked to the wood pile. There was a slight breeze against Max’s body and it only forced the boy to think. He was here because he needed the money and he knew the place, that was it, but then why was he so relieved to be back?
It was as if nothing could go wrong here, even if everything went wrong here. Max felt safe here, he felt safe with Gwen, he felt safe with David. Max felt a lot of things now, and a lot of them were unfamiliar. Max didn’t know how long he spent thinking, all he knew was he had been standing next to the pile for a good few minutes before snapping back to reality.
The teen picked up a good amount of firewood and strolled over to the fire pit, building a good starter fire. He remembered how to do it, he had seen David do it more times than he could count.
“Looks like camp really did stick with you,”
Speak of the devil.
Max turned to see the redhead standing behind one of the log benches. David was different too. The man was still tall and thin but he appeared to have gained muscle on his bones. His eyes seemed more mature, still bright and bubbly but he also seemed deeper. The older counselor moved to sit on the log, pulling out a match box to hand to Max.
The teen knocked himself out of his thoughts in order to take the matches. He didn’t know why he thought of David in these ways, the man was nothing special.. Max pulled out a match, lit it, and then tossed it into the fire place.
“Some things just get ingrained in your head,” Max finally responded, moving to sit next to David on the log. He stared as the fire slowly started to burn, engulfing the wood in bright flame.
David shrugged, “At least you learned something,” The man said, settling into a calming silence. Together, they stared at the fire, hypnotized by the burning until suddenly they heard yelling. Max turned his head and looked to see the campers walking over, finally showing who was close with who as they sat in their own little clumps. Gwen sat on the other side of the fire so supervision was on all sides and things settled into pleasant joking and conversations.
Things were nice, peaceful even, and Max couldn’t help but smile. This is what he was missing, the feeling of family in a group of people who otherwise didn’t care about one another. It was special.
It was special.
Then David pulled out his guitar. Max glared, frowning at the infamous instrument that still haunted his childhood but the campers looked confused. Maybe David hadn’t sang for them yet, but that was all about to change now.
“Want to join me, Max?” David asked as he tuned the guitar.
“I’d rather die,” Max answered, crossing his arms but a part of him was aching to hear David’s song.
David nodded and then he smiled at the campers before starting to strum.
“There’s a place I know that’s tucked away…”