Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“This can’t be legal,” Heather said, eyes wandering off the cliff from afar.

“But it is! Check your contracts,” Chris smiled.

“Can we even survive that drop?” Leshawna asked.

Chris ignored her. “Alright! We’ll have two people go at a time, one from each team. Bass, Gophers, send up your first jumpers! And remember, the winner gets a hot tub party and non Chef-made food!”

Teams had been assigned that morning. The CITs had been at camp since Sunday the 17th, their first day of summer. They spent their week babysitting twelve-year-old campers and doing nothing. Today was Friday, the day of their first counselor training challenge.

Noah wasn’t exactly sure he would count jumping off a cliff as counselor training. Or a trust exercise. Or any of the many many different explanations Chris had for making twenty-two sixteen-year-olds get themselves killed.

“I did not sign up for this,” Gwen stated, backing away from the cliff.

“Contract,” Chris winked and finger gunned. Gwen groaned in response. “This challenge is necessary for your counselor training. What if you need to save a camper who’s drowning? You will need your swimming skills.”

“And we’ll need to dive off a cliff to do that?” Noah asked.

“Yes!” Chris cheerfully responded.

“It can’t be all that bad.” Cody slung his arm around Gwen’s shoulder. “I mean, it’s not like we’re going to die from this fall.” He faced the rest of the Gophers. “Right?”

No one responded.

Chris tapped his watch and sat down in a lawn chair to watch the CITs.

“Okay guys, who’s up first?” Trent asked. The other team had already sent Bridgette to the edge of the cliff, but she was yet to jump.

Silence.

“I’m sorry, there’s no way I’m doing this,” Heather spoke.

“Why not?” Beth asked.

“Hello? I’ll get my hair wet.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder.

“You’re kidding, right?” Gwen responded.

“If she’s not doing it I’m not doing it,” Lindsay said. She and Heather smiled at each other.

“If there’s any reason not to do this, it’s that it’s literally insane. That’s why I’m not doing it.”

“Come on white girl!” Leshawna tried to motivate Gwen. “We need some jumps if we want to win this challenge! Think about the food!”

“It can’t be all that bad. Chris wouldn’t let us die,” Owen said.

“Owen,” Noah began. “You know you’ve never gone in the deep end of a pool before, right?”

“He can’t swim?” Heather gasped in shock. “We’re totally gonna lose! He was the only nutcase I could believe would actually jump this!”

“Yeah, but no big deal! I can do this!” Owen yelled, ignoring Heather’s insults.

“Gophers, you better hurry if you want a chance at winning!” Chris yelled again.

“I’m not doing it,” Heather swatted her hands around. “No way.”

“Oh you’re doing it,” Leshawna yelled.

“Says who?” Heather questioned.

“Says me. I’m not losing this challenge because you got your hair did you spoiled little daddy’s girl.”

Noah watched with nonchalance as Leshawna and Heather bickered. Some of the team was invested in the drama, but others ignored them and tried to decide on who would be their first jumper.

“You’re jumping!” Leshawna yelled.

“Make me,” Heather responded.

Leshawna picked Heather up and threw her straight off the cliff. Heather screamed all the way down. Splash.

“Harsh,” Cody crossed his arms.

Noah had to admit, he was very thankful that he wasn’t Heather right now.

“If we want anything that isn’t slop tonight, it had to be done,” Noah replied.

Bridgette looked horrified, glancing at Leshawna. It seemed she hadn’t heard the previous ordeal. She looked down to Heather, who was alive, and took a deep breath.

“Here goes nothing…”

And with that, she was gone. A moment passed before Noah heard a splash.

“She did it! Yeah, yeah, I’m next!” Tyler screamed.

Noah turned to the nearest person, about to make a comment about the other team. But the closest person was Lindsay, hands clasped together watching Tyler.

“Go Tyler!” She yelled.

“Um, he’s on the other team,” Noah informed the blonde.

“Oh,” Her smile faded.

“Cowabunga!” Tyler yelled. Immediately after, Noah heard him scream in pain.

“Gophers, tick-tock,” Chris grinned. The Gophers looked at each other.

“Alright, I’ll go,” Leshawna volunteered. “If I tossed Heather off the cliff, I might as well follow.”

She made a jump, screaming a “woo” all the way down.

“Great!” Chris clapped his hands. “It’s 2-2. Next!”

Time passed, and more CITs made the jumps. Noah hung around in the back. He was going to jump, but he wasn’t going to go until he was completely sure that his puny, frail body would survive.

Soon enough, half the teams were gone. All that was left of the Gophers were Lindsay, Gwen, Beth, Cody, Noah, and Owen.

“They make it look easy,” Beth said, biting her nails. “Who's next?” She asked, clearly hoping it wouldn’t have to be her.

The team eyed each other, none seeming like they really wanted to go on.

“Lindsay?” Beth squeaked, trying to get anyone to go.

“Okay,” Lindsay accepted, surprisingly calm.

“Wow,” Noah commented. “She’s actually doing it.”

Noah was immediately proven wrong as Lindsay stomped up to Chris, arms folded. She stomped a foot into the ground.

“Chris!” Lindsay yelled. “I’m not doing it, and you can’t make me!”

“Okay,” Chris said. “Just put on the chicken hat. The score is 5-4, Bass winning.”

Lindsay gladly took the chicken hat and walked down the cliff, eyes closed and arms still crossed.

Noah sighed.

“Yeah, we’re losing,” Gwen stated. “Bye guys.”

“What? No, Gwen, you can do it!” Cody attempted to motivate Gwen.

“No way,” Gwen responded, taking her hat and walking down the cliff.

“Yeah. She knows what she’s doing,” Noah heard DJ say from the other team. He also got a hat for himself, although not looking happy about it.

“I-I’m leaving too!” Beth declared.

Another Bass jumped, and the last three Gophers exchanged glances.

“We still have a chance,” Owen said. “If we all jump, and two more Bass quit, we’ll tie it up!”

Harold, on the opposite side of the cliff, took his own jump.

“7-5!” Chris yelled.

“There’s no way Ezekiel and Courtney are going to do that,” Owen commented.

Noah looked at the two of them himself. Ezekiel looked incredibly nervous, and Courtney looked like she was going to quit.

Noah nodded. “Good point.”

“Yeah, Courtney isn’t necessarily the type to do daredevil dives,” Cody agreed. “And Ezekiel will probably get himself killed if he tries.” Cody took a deep breath. “I’ll go.”

He walked up to the side of the cliff.

“I got this, I got this.”

“You totally have this, man,” Owen slapped Cody on the back, accidentally pushing him off the cliff.

Cody’s screech rivaled the one of the blue whale. A splash was heard as he reached the bottom and Noah snickered.

“Oops.” Owen scratched his chin.

“Great job, big guy,” Noah congratulated sarcastically.

“It’s not my fault he’s so easy to push around.”

“Hey, I don’t care. Just don’t do that to me.”

At least Noah knew now that a scrawny toothpick kid could survive the dive.

So far in his stay at camp, Noah was not too fond of Cody. He talked too much, bothered Noah a lot, and Noah was sick of him. But he knew Owen was beginning to like him, so he chose not to push his annoyance in Owen’s face.

Owen and Noah had known each other since they were kids. In fact, Owen was the only reason Noah was out here. Owen really wanted to go- there was no amount of time needed to be spent at camp before being a CIT, it was free, and Owen had always wanted to go to summer camp. Noah didn’t want to be alone all summer, so he decided to sign up too. It wasn’t like he didn’t have other friends, he had tons. But it also wasn’t like he was very close with all of them. At least not as close as he was with Owen. Hanging out with Owen was always the highlight of summer.

“It’s you or me next,” Noah looked over the cliff.

“Can you go first? I’m scared,” Owen told Noah.

“Yeah,” Noah said. He took a deep breath. “If I can do this, you can too.”

Owen nodded.

“Good. I better not see you wearing a chicken hat.”

Noah jumped with a scream as he fell in the water next to Cody. No Bass followed. One of them must have quit.

“Okay CITs, there’s only one person left on each team,” Chris exclaimed through the megaphone. “Bass, you guys need this jump for the win. Gophers, you need it for the chance of a tie. No pressure dudes.”

Silence.

“Okay there’s pressure!”

Noah heard both teams cheer on their last teammates for the final jump.

“Courtney, you better do this!” Geoff screamed. “I believe in you!”

“Jump! Jump just do it Owen jump!” Heather screamed after the rest of the cheers subdued.

Noah crossed his fingers.

Then he heard Owen scream.

“Oh no.” Noah frantically tried to swim away, but it was too late. Owen splashed everyone onto the shore, tumbling around until the water fell back into the lake.

“Yes! Yeah! Oh yeah!” Owen yelled. “Who’s the man!”

Beth cheered.

“That was awesome dude,” Trent congratulated. “What’s wrong?”

“I uh, think I lost my bathing suit.”

“Aw, sick,” Cody exclaimed. Noah rolled his eyes.

“We tied it!” Cody exclaimed, high-fiving Noah. Noah half-assedly returned it.

“Woohoo!” Noah heard. He looked up to see the worst possible thing that could happen to the Gophers.

Courtney.

With a splash, screaming all the way down, Courtney made it.

“Yes! Go Courtney!” Bridgette cried. “We won!”

“I’m suing you, Chris McLean!” Courtney screeched.

“Alright CITs! Get changed and meet back here to finish the challenge!” Chris yelled.

“You guys are so incompetent!” Heather complained, kicking her box down the path.

“You weren’t even going to jump,” Gwen retorted. “You only did it because Leshawna threw you off the cliff.”

“And if I stayed I would’ve thrown your ass down too,” Leshawna interrupted. “I really should’ve, because then we would have a chance at this challenge. Unless y’all wanna pick up the pace.”

Heather groaned and kept kicking her box.

Cody approached Noah, pushing a crate along with Izzy. “So, how have your first few days of camp been?” A pathetic attempt at small talk.

Noah thought of all of his experiences at camp thus far. He was dragged into the woods by Eva and Izzy to be their ‘map boy’, had to watch Dakota alone while Owen searched the woods for Izzy after she ran away from the RCMP, and he spent a lot of time alone on the porch reading.

“Boring. Horrifically boring,” Noah replied.

“Oh,” Cody responded stiffly, clearly not expecting a real answer.

“What about our hike?” Izzy butted into the conversation. “That was fun! We dug a lake!”

“I did not want to be out there with you.”

“But you had fun! I bet you had a great time, a little break from the Big O. Hey, where is the Big O anyways?” She looked from side to side. “There he is! I’m going to go help him carry his crate!”

She ran off, leaving Cody to carry the entire crate.

Cody sighed, readjusting the crate in his hands. “This is really heavy.”

“You think?” Noah asked. He was carrying his own crate with Lindsay, who really wasn’t all that strong. But still, she was stronger than Noah was. Their crate was fairly light compared to the others, so it worked out for them.

“Ooh! Cool!” Lindsay exclaimed, running to a shell she saw on the beach. Noah immediately dropped the crate and fell on his back. As he sat up, he saw Cody stifling a laugh.

“Great job, toothpick,” Heather scoffed, picking up one Lindsay’s side of the crate and Noah picked himself up.

“You try carrying it by yourself.”

“If Lindsay and you can do it, anyone can,” Heather walked effortlessly without Noah’s help.

“Whatever,” Noah crossed his arms. “At least I didn’t have to be thrown off a cliff to help my team.”

“At least I can help my team,” Heather retorted.

“Chill guys,” Cody said. “It’s over so it’s no big deal.”

“Not until we build the hot tub. Which, I’m not sure any of us can do.”

“I’m sorta good at building stuff,” Cody informed her. “My Einstein club at school loves engineering and mechanics and all that. I can figure this out no problem.”

“Einstein club?” Noah asked. “Even I wouldn’t sink that low.”

“It’s a lot of fun, actually.”

“What type of school do you go to?” Heather questioned.

“Upper Crust College.”

Heather laughed for a few moments before opening her eyes and realizing no one else was laughing. “Oh. Were you serious?”

Cody nodded.

“Oh.”

The three were silent for a moment.

“Noah put yourself to use and go help Cody. He’s clearly struggling.”

Noah rolled his eyes, but obliged.

“Thanks,” Cody smiled. Noah nodded and stared at the gap between Cody’s two front teeth. He wanted to reach his hand in and push the teeth into place. The kid seriously needed braces.

“Hey look! There’s the campground!” Beth yelled.

Chris stood waiting at the campground. “Alright CITs! Start opening your crates. But remember, you can only use your teeth.”

Noah sighed, watching his team as they picked up crates and sat them on the grass. He walked over to a crate and pulled at a piece of wood with his teeth. This was embarrassing. The other team was very clearly doing better—they already had gotten a few crates open and started building. However, it didn’t seem like anyone really knew how to build the hot tub. They had the time advantage (by a lot), but it didn’t seem as if they had the brains advantage.

“Hey, I think I’ve got it open!” Izzy yelled, a crate bursting open next to Noah. “Ow ow! Rope burn on my tongue!”

Izzy walked over to the crate Trent and Noah were opening and helped them out. She then opened the rest of the crates.

Everyone told each other what they had, and tried to figure out how they were going to make the hot tub. Cody and Trent established a plan as to how they would build the hot tub with the materials they had.

“Where’d you guys learn all of this stuff?” Owen asked.

“Einstein fan club,” Cody responded.

“I fix stuff all the time, and build bikes,” Trent answered.

“Building bikes? Awesome!” Owen exclaimed.

“Yeah yeah, let’s get started already,” Leshawna said. “My butt is killing me from sitting here.”

“Okay, everybody know what they’re doing?”

The group nodded.

“Let’s start then,” Trent said, standing up.

After about an hour of the Gophers building the shell and insulation, not yet the pump or any other parts, there was a terrifying call.

“It’s judgment time!” The devil himself, Chirs McLean yelled to the CITs.

“Shit!” Gwen cursed. “We’re nowhere near finished.”

“We’re done for,” Noah mumbled. “Looks like my dreams of an edible dinner won’t be coming true.”

Chris paced around the hot tubs, stopping at the Bass. “This is an awesome hot tub.”

The Bass cheered as Chris made his way to the Gophers’.

He squinted at the hurried, unfinished hot tub and tapped the side. It sprayed in his face and fell apart. “Well. I think we have our winner here. The Killer Bass! You guys get real food for dinner tonight!”

The Bass cheered some more.

“I don’t get paid enough for this,” Chef mumbled.

The Gophers sat around the campfire, chewing on Chef’s cuisine. Chris had served the opposing team steak and an assortment of sauces, fruits, and vegetables. The Bass sat on the other side of the campfire, eating peacefully and laughing with each other.

“Lucky,” Noah mumbled as he picked at his food. It wasn’t like he could actually eat most of this stuff—he was allergic to practically everything.

“Well maybe if Gwen and Beth sucked it up and jumped, we could’ve won,” Heather complained.

“Lindsay didn’t jump either,” Noah pointed out.

“Yeah, but she has her hair straightened!” She pointed her fork to Lindsay’s tidy, dry, straight hair. “No girl deserves her hair to be ruined because of a challenge. And her makeup. Look at that.”

“I would’ve gotten my makeup ruined,” Gwen snarled.

“Your makeup is horrendous anyways.” Heather crossed her arms. “The water would be doing us a favor.”

“Everyone, listen,” Leshawna began, “all we have to do is be better next time. This is one challenge. We’re strong. We have this in the bag.”

“Oh come on, it’ll be fun,” Cody said.

Cody sat next to Noah on his bed, trying to convince him to come on a hike with himself and the rest of their cabin.

“Noah, if you get tired I’ll carry you,” Owen offered.

“That’s assuming you won’t get tired,” Noah replied.

Owen giggled. “Fair point.”

“Noah please,” Trent complained.

Noah sighed, standing up. “Fine. But I’m turning back the second I get sick of it.”

“Hurry up, I have plans this afternoon,” Harold complained.

“I don’t believe that for a second,” Noah stated. Harold ignored him.

As Trent, Harold, Noah, and Owen started their trek, Cody waited for Zeke to put on his hiking boots before the two stepped out the door. Zeke looked out to the lake when they exited.

“So Zeke, are you into video games?” Cody asked as they walked out the door.

Silence.

“Zeke?”

“Huh?” Zeke asked. “What?”

Cody looked out towards the beach where Zeke had been looking. He saw Bridgette out in the water surfing.

Cody smirked. “Too busy watching Bridgette?”

Zeke just smiled in response.

“No shame in liking her. She is pretty.”

Zeke and Cody were partners for caring for their assigned camper, Dawn, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Cody’s friends for his previous years at camp, Gwen, Courtney, and Geoff, had already partnered, leaving Cody alone. Geoff partnered with his own cabinmate, DJ, so Cody followed suit and paired up with Zeke. It was on Monday of their arrival where they were assigned a camper.

“Moving on,” Chris began, “Cody and Zeke, you take Dawn.”

Dawn stood from her meditation position on the ground effortlessly. She walked over to Cody and Zeke, taking Zeke’s palm immediately and scanning it.

“Your fate is taking a turn soon,” She stated.

“Huh?”

“It reads right here, on your fate line. It’s mostly straight, but there’s a turn here just above the base. This should be your teenage years, specifically 16.”

Zeke gave her a questioning look.

“I need to go to the forest,” Dawn states. “You need to come too, Ezekiel. The aura there will bring your spirit to life.”

“Uh, okay.”

Dawn walked ahead of the two boys, who shrugged. Dawn was steady in her walking, a few paces ahead of the boys.

“How did she know that was my name? What was all that with my hand?” Zeke asked.

“Zeke is pretty much always a nickname for Ezekiel, and I think she was giving you a palm reading,” Cody responded.

“What’s that?”

“It’s like, some type of spiritual thing? I don’t know, I can’t describe it. Like the lines on your hands having meanings about your future and stuff.”

“Huh. Seems like something a girl would believe.”

Cody stopped in his tracks. “What?”

“You know. Because they’re not as smart as us guys.”

Cody hit a hand to Zeke’s chest to stop him from walking.

“What?” Cody asked, again.

“You know, us guys are just naturally smarter than girls are. And stronger too.”

Cody shook his head. “No, Zeke, that is not how it works. Girls can be smarter and stronger than guys. Like that girl up there.”

Cody pointed ahead in the path to see Eva and Izzy, with their camper Anne Maria. He pointed specifically at Eva.

“That girl could beat both of us up. So, I wouldn’t say any of that stuff, especially around her.”

Zeke gulped. “Yeah, good idea, eh.”

“Hey! Eva, right?” Cody yelled, running ahead to them. Dawn watched as he did, and followed him. Zeke stood still in shock.

“Yeah? What do you want?” Eva asked.

“We were just wondering if we could walk with you guys.”

“Ooh, yay!” Izzy smiled. “Come on guys! The more, the merrier!”

Zeke wandered over a little more hesitantly, looking up at Eva nervously.

“What?” She asked.

“Nothing,” Zeke squeaked.

“Ezekiel, I never finished your palm reading,” Dawn stated. She took his hand again. “Hm. You aren’t bound by a normal destiny. It seems you had an academic disruption in childhood, and it’s going to be resolved soon. The turn takes around the sixteenth year, so I think you’ll succeed as your life goes on. This is a big year for you.”

“But I’ve always been good in school,” Zeke argued.

“It may be in a different way than you believe. Moving on, you will have a life of physical labor. In farming. You are smart, especially in the sciences. As you said, you do well in school, right? And your heart line shows you are shy and passive in relationships.”

“Can I have a palm reading?” Anne Maria asked. “I love zodiacs and whatchamacallits. Tell me about my future!”

“Sure,” Dawn responded, walking over.

“Huh.” Zeke rubbed his hand.

Dawn told Anne Maria all about her future while the CITs walked alongside them.

“It doesn’t look like you have a fate line. You won’t have a career.”

Anne Maria cheered. “Housewife life!”

Dawn smiled close mouthed and warmly at her.

“So you guys, I was just telling Eva about my first time running away from the RCMP when I was fourteen,” Izzy smiled. Cody and Zeke exchanged looks. Eva shrugged. “I was making my way into the woods—”

“Augh!” Eva yelled, falling forward before crashing into the ground face-first. Cody looked over at her to see her fallen over a log in the middle of the path. “God, this stupid tree!”

She stood up and picked up the fallen tree, which had to be twice the thickness of Eva’s body, and forget the height. She threw it over towards the side of the path with the other trees.

“Woah,” Zeke gaped.

Eva breathed heavily looking at the tree. Anne Maria, Cody, and Zeke stared in surprise while Izzy watched with a grin and Dawn just looked undisturbed.

“That takes care of that,” She brushed her hands on her pants with a grin.

Cody looked over at Zeke, to see him in pure shock at her strength. Cody didn’t blame him, he was too. The girl had just thrown a tree.

Cody looked at Eva again to see her giving them confused glances. “What?”

Since then, Zeke and Cody actually started getting along quite well.

“She is pretty,” Zeke repeated, continuing to stare at Bridgette.

“Have you ever had a crush before?” Cody asked.

“Who would I have a crush on?” Zeke questioned honestly. “I never see kids my age.”

“I guess that’s true,” Cody responded. “Let’s go catch up with the others.”

Cody jogged forward and Zeke followed close behind him.

“What took you guys so long?” Trent asked.

“He was tying his shoes,” Cody responded. “Anyways, where are we headed?”

“Just this hike I used to do almost every morning.” Trent looked out to the water. “I should see if Bridgette and Leshawna want to come with me next time.

“Why aren’t you doing it with them now?”

“Bridgette’s busy surfing right now, and Leshawna is hanging out with that Gwen girl,” Trent responded. “Cody, you know Gwen, right?”

“Yeah!” Cody responded. “I’ve been going to camp with her, Courtney, and Geoff since we were fourteen.”

Trent nodded. “She’s pretty chill. Even if she didn’t jump off the cliff.”

“Yeah,” Cody sighed. “So, I noticed you have a guitar. Do you play?”

“Oh yeah. I write songs.”

“Really?” Cody asked. “Me too!”

“I also write music,” Harold said. “I beatbox.”

Trent chuckled. “Yeah, that’s great Harold.”

“I also covered some of the music from Dragon Assassin,” Harold continued. “It’s my favorite video game. But the final boss is really hard. I’m almost finished with level eleven, but it’s the boss that gets me.”

“I love that game!” Cody exclaimed. “But I’m stuck on level nine.”

“Maybe you could use some tips from a video game expert like me.”

“I like Dragon Assassin too,” Owen voiced. “And so does Noah. He got to the secret twelfth level.”

Noah rolled his eyes, arms folded. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Noah, dude!” Cody exclaimed. “That’s awesome! How?”

“Telling you how would ruin the fun of the game.”

“That’s still really cool,” Cody said. “Do you play Kosmic Kaos? I got to level 17 of that.”

“I maxed out the levels.”

Cody’s mouth hung open in shock.

“What are you guys talking about?” Zeke asked.

“Video games,” Harold responded.

“Those are like those movies where you play, right?”

“Well, yeah I guess that’s how to describe them,” Cody replied. “Have you never played video games before?”

“No. My parents say T.V. and video games rot your brain.”

Trent rubbed the back of his neck. “Tough luck for you. I’m not a big video game fan, but I can’t live without a bit of television.”

Zeke stayed quiet.

“It’s just an age-old trick parents use to keep their kids away from the media,” Harold added. “My parents tried it, but it didn’t stop me. I outsmarted them. Anyone who can’t probably just can’t stand up for themselves.”

“Dude,” Cody gritted through his teeth, elbowing Harold in the stomach.

“What?”

Cody gestured to Zeke, who was walking in silence still.

“Do I need to baby him? Gosh.”

Cody walked next to Zeke. “Sorry.”

Zeke kept quiet.

“So this has been a success,” Noah broke the silence. “Can I go back to camp now? I’m reading a great book and it’s most definitely going to be better than walking around with five guys who can’t even get along.”

“Not my fault he can’t take the truth,” Harold stated.

“Harold, no offense, but you’re being an ass,” Trent said.

“This is exactly why I’m a lone wolf.”

“I think that’s for the best,” Noah smiled.

“Fine. Gosh.” Harold stormed off in the opposite direction that they were walking.

“Wow. Great job guys. Can I leave now?”

“Oh come on, Noah!” Owen complained. “We just got out here.”

“I thought I could leave whenever I wanted.”

“But we barely started!”

Noah and Owen continued to bicker and Trent was focused on the path. Cody made his way over to Zeke again.

“You good man?” He asked.

Zeke nodded.

“You haven’t said anything.”

“Oh,” Zeke spoke again. “Sorry. I do that sometimes.”

“Why?”

Zeke shrugged. “I guess I just had nothing to say, eh.”

The group continued walking in silence. Trent was entranced in the moving, Noah occasionally sighing, Owen pointed out animals once in a while. Zeke looked at the birds as they flew by, and Cody took in the nostalgic summer air.

“Wow, that’s pretty,” Owen said to the group. Cody looked forward to see sunbeams falling through the trees on the path. It was a simple scene, but one Cody often forgot existed when he was in forests.

Zeke nodded.

“Yeah,” Trent said. “The best spot is gonna come up soon, maybe ten minutes. We can take a break there.”

“I need to take a break here,” Noah said, sitting down.

“We kinda have to keep moving,” Trent said. “My favorite spot is only good in the morning sky around nine. We’re in a time crunch.”

“It’s okay, I was planning on turning back soon.”

“At this point, turning back will take longer than continuing. We’re going in a loop.”

“Seriously?” Noah asked. “I can just finish by myself.”

“Okay, that works,” Trent said. “Let’s keep going.”

Zeke and Owen followed happily, but Cody looked between the group and Noah. “I’m going to stay with Noah. See you guys later.”

“Alright,” Trent smiled. “See you two.”

Cody sat down next to Noah, who let out a deep breath.

“So, how’s it been?” Cody asked.

“Pretty shitty,” Noah responded.

“Oh. Uh… why?”

“We jumped off of cliffs yesterday.”

“Fair point. But I promise you’ll really like it soon. Once you get to know people and explore, you’ll like it. That’s how it went for me when I first got here.”

“I don’t know about that. You came here willingly, I came here because Owen dragged me.”

“Gwen was forced out here by her parents after eighth grade, but she still ended up liking it and came the year after and this year too.”

“Cool.”

“I really haven’t had a chance to hang out with her yet. Or Courtney and Geoff. I guess since we were looking after the campers. I need to see when they want to get together.”

“Yeah, you should.”

“But it’s pretty cool hanging out with you and the rest of our cabin. You guys are all pretty chill. Except for Harold. He’s kind of weird.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty annoying.”

“Do you like hanging out with our cabin so far?”

“Not really.”

“Oh. Why?”

“To be completely honest, I’d rather be on my own.”

Does he not like me? Cody asked himself. Cody knew plenty of people who didn’t like him, but for some reason coming from Noah it hurt.

Maybe it was because Cody already convinced himself everyone at camp liked him. No one at camp ever didn’t like him. Kids from school didn’t like him, but kids from school were more asshole-y than your average teenager. The kids at camp were public school kids with normal lives and kids who went to summer camp were generally… nice. Even if not they didn’t go out of their way to hate anyone just for being a nerd or something.

Cody laid down. He should probably just enjoy the break and not think about anything. That’s what Noah seemed to be doing.

After some odd amount of time, Cody spoke again, “You ready to head back to camp and you can read?”

“I guess.” Noah stood up, and Cody did as well. “Do you know how to get back?”

“I think so.”

“It’s Saturday, right?” Noah asked.

“Yeah,” Cody responded.

The two made most of their way back from the hike. Noah was ready to pass out in bed, but he knew there was something he had to do on Saturdays. He just couldn’t put his finger on it. “Are we supposed to be doing something?”

“No. This is our day off.”

“I feel like I have to do something.”

“We have our phone calls today. Is that it?”

Noah’s eyes widened. Fuck. “Yeah.”

“Just call whoever you need to call later.”

“My sister’s only free until twelve on Saturdays, or really late. I need to call her before then.”

“Dude,” Cody laughed. “It’s just barely ten. There’s only six people who have phone calls today, including me and you.”

“But someone’s probably already in there and someone else already called dibs. That’s two hours right there.”

“No one spends the whole hour on their phone call.”

“How do you know?”

“Never met anyone who did.”

Noah started picking up the pace. Cody quickly matched it. Noah needed to get back to camp. Cody didn’t know shit—he’d never met any of the kids in their cabin until this year. How was he supposed to know how long they spent on their phone calls?

Noah knew Owen himself would probably take a while. That Ezekiel kid only knew his parents, he would spend a while as well. Harold was unlikeable enough to spend all of his time talking to his parents. Maybe Trent didn’t spend as long, but he still sort of seemed like he’d spend at least half an hour.

Noah glanced at Cody. While Cody said he didn’t know anyone who used the hour, he probably still used a good bit of it.

Noah looked ahead and saw the clearing. The forest was gone, and he saw the beach not too far. He was probably really close to the cabins.

He sped up a bit and Cody stopped trying to catch up. He headed for the Wolf cabin and burst inside.

“Is anyone having their phone call right now?” He asked.

Harold was missing from the room, and so was Ezekiel. Owen was taking a nap on his bed, and Trent was scribbling something in a notebook.

“Um, I don’t know. Harold or Ezekiel might be in there,” Trent said.

“Okay, well don’t go in there, I need to.”

“Wasn’t planning on it.”

Noah left the room and made his way to the call room. It wasn’t too far from the Mess Hall, and was in a tiny outhouse. It wasn’t used as an outhouse anymore, but it still was clearly an outhouse.

He walked up and knocked on the door. There was no response. Noah sighed in relief and opened the door.

There was a bench and a closed toilet seat. Noah, reluctantly, sat down, telling himself this wasn’t used as an outhouse in years. He grabbed the landline phone and dialed his sister’s number.

It rang for a few minutes, but then she picked up.

“Hello?”

“Hey Ava,” Noah greeted.

“Oh hey Noah!” Noah could practically hear Ava’s smile. “How was your first week at camp?”

“You are not going to believe this. They made us go cliff diving.”

“They WHAT?”

“I know, right? Wait, I need to start from the beginning.”

“Okay.”

“So the first day was okay whatever. Me and Owen are in the same cabin so that’s great, but some of our cabin mates are really annoying. Well, Owen likes them, but Owen likes everyone.

“Trent is okay. He’s pretty quiet. Musical dude, but he doesn’t play in the cabin. Ezekiel is the homeschooled kid who’s a little weird and has no social skills but he’s quiet too so whatever. But Harold and Cody are so talkative and annoying—they talked about pens for an entire hour. I can deal with talking the way Owen talks, he shuts up at night, but those two? Holy fuck. I need sleep. And Cody’s always trying to talk to me even though I clearly have no interest in talking with him. Plus, he has this stupidly huge gap-tooth smile that I could fit a quarter between.”

“I totally get you on the teeth. You know Casey? I beg that girl to get braces on the daily.” Ava giggled. “Okay, and what else happened?”

“Well, first Chris makes us babysit these kids for four days straight. Me and Owen get assigned Dakota, some twelve-year-old prissy little daddy’s girl. She dragged us to the beach every single day. All she did was sit and tan. Like didn’t you come to summer camp to hang out in the woods or something?”

“Yeah, that's weird. Especially for a twelve-year-old.”

Noah snorted. “Yeah. Also I was outside at the campfire reading my book, and this crazy girl, Izzy, was talking about how she was on the run from the RCMP. I didn’t really believe her, but then a literal RCMP helicopter came and she ran off into the woods. And the next morning, her cabin mate Eva comes into our cabin saying Izzy didn’t come back. So Owen goes to look for her, and I’m stuck with Dakota. So Dakota makes me come to the beach with her, Eva, Cody, and Ezekiel. And they were with their campers Anne Maria and Dawn. And I was sitting on the dock and Dawn asked me if she could palm read me.”

“Sure, I guess,” Noah responded.

Dawn pulled herself onto the dock, sitting next to Noah. She took his hand and closely examined it. She glided her finger straight across his hand, close to his thumb.

“You get tired easily. And you’re cautious about your relationships.”

Noah was a suspicious guy, not superstitious at all, but that was still impressive.

She simply nodded, bringing her finger slightly upward. She dragged it across his hand, stopping close but not at the side of his hand.  “You’re smart, but not too considerate. And you contrast Ezekiel, who is great at sciences and mathematics. You have more talent for the literary arts, despite your lack of creativity.” She dragged her finger upwards again. “You’re straightforward. You’ll be successful in your career. But, it will come with a price.” She smiled softly, tracing her finger just a tad longer. “I’ll need to see you before I leave.”

With that, she lowered herself back into the water.

Noah stared at his palm. He always believed zodiacs and palmistry and all related things were myths, but there was absolutely no way she got his personality that correct. He had never even talked to her, where did she mold that from?

She needs to see him before she leaves. Noah made a mental note.

“Her palm reading was oddly accurate.”

“You know those things are made to fit everyone, right?”

“Yeah but it was just so correct. She was mind reading me, I swear.”

Ava laughed on the other end. “Sure.”

“Then on Wednesday, Eva and that crazy girl Izzy took me on a hike. The gist of it is that they stole me to be their ‘map boy’ and forced me to hike for three hours. And when it rained, instead of turning back, Izzy suggested we dug a tiny lake. By the time she and Eva were knee deep the rain stopped and Izzy complained that she wanted to swim. So I reminded her that we’re on an island in the middle of a lake!

“After that, we just hung out by the dock. Cody and Ezekiel were there with Dawn, and they were with Leshawna, Bridgette, and their camper B. Cody was making fun of Ezekiel because he obviously has a crush on Bridgette but they think nobody else knows about it. And Thursday was just a normal day. But Friday… man that was weird.”

“What happened Friday?”

“Cliff diving! I jumped off a cliff, Ava! And it was all for nothing. Basically, the maniac who runs this camp put us on two teams. We jumped off cliffs, and whoever had the most cliff divers won an advantage. We lost, so we had to drag crates of tools for building a hot tub to the campsite. We tried building the thing but we didn’t have time because we had to open the crates with our goddamn teeth.”

Noah went on to tell the whole story to Ava. But soon enough, he realized time was running short.

“I have to go, I only have one minute left,” Noah said. “Talk to you next week. Have fun at work.”

“Bleh. Talk to you later.”

Beep.

Noah hung the phone back up. He exited the outhouse and stretched.

“Man, I missed you guys!” Geoff ran into the Arts & Crafts Center. He grabbed his three friends of previous years in a giant hug.

Cody smiled. Gwen looked like she was choking to death. Courtney’s face was straight.

“Sorry we didn’t get to hang out earlier, I’ve been so busy.” Geoff let the three go and scratched the side of his neck. “Watching Jo with DJ and hanging out with my cabinmates I just didn’t have the time. But we have it now! Woo!”

“Yeah. I’ve been with the guys in my cabin too,” Cody said.

“Yeah, yeah, we missed you too.” Gwen punched Geoff’s bicep.

Cody looked around the Arts & Crafts Center. Like always, it was filled with bike parts, Chef’s own motorcycle, and old art supplies.

The group dropped down to their corner that they used to hang out in during rainy days or when they needed some time out of the sun. It had a lot of loose floorboards, which Gwen and Courtney used to hide their junk.

Gwen lifted up a piece of wood. Underneath laid a small box of colored pencils, a couple sketchbooks, and four notebooks. Courtney smiled and took out the notebooks while Gwen grabbed her sketchbooks and pencils.

“Time for the yearly check in,” Courtney said. She opened one of the notebooks.

The first few pages were dedicated to a letter from their 14-year-old selves. Cheesy, but they did it anyway. The next year, when they were 15, they responded. For example, Gwen had asked herself if she was still goth (spoiler alert! She was). Courtney had asked if her grades were holding up as she climbed higher grades and if she was finally class president (her grades held up, but class president was out of reach). Geoff had asked himself if he was still friends with all of his middle school friends (he was! Geoff only gains friends, never loses them). Finally, Cody had asked himself what high school was like and if it was better than middle school (it sucked- Upper Crust College sucked. Not like his old schools didn’t).

Courtney had a small grin on her face, reading over their old questions and responses from their first year, silently. The other three talked about their own lives, using peeks at their old questions as prompts.

“School gotten any better, Cody?” Gwen asked.

“Never will,” Cody sighed. “I should’ve known.”

“If you went to my school, we’d party all the time!” Geoff tried to comfort him. “All of you would.”

“Thanks, Geoff.” Gwen smiled. Cody knew she wasn’t exactly fond of her classmates either. It was one of the few things he and Gwen had in common.

“The kids at your school sound so nice,” Cody commented. Geoff often described his classmates in a high light- he was friends with practically everyone. He talked about having giant parties, and how most everyone got along. Even nerdy kids like Cody and weird kids like Gwen. But then again, he was just taking Geoff’s word for it.

“Yeah. I wish everywhere was just like where I’m from.”

Courtney finished reading, and turned the pages until they got to the more recent questions for them today.

“This one’s for Cody,” Courtney began. “Do you have a girlfriend yet?” She snorted. Cody blushed in embarrassment. “If so, tell me all about her. If not, we’re being so lame and we need to get a girlfriend this summer.”

Cody smiled sourly, trying not to laugh at himself. “Tell him we’re being lame, but we’ll try.” He smirked at Gwen. She rolled her eyes.

Cody had a crush on Gwen basically since he met her. It always subdued after camp ended and during the school year when all he could do was email her, but whenever he saw her in person, it came back.

Courtney scribbled down his answer and went to the next question. “For me. Are you in the NHS yet? I know that you can get in a year early. And if you so obviously are, have you finished your service hours?”

Courtney smiled to herself and wrote a response.

“Well, are you?” Gwen asked. “Spill the beans.”

“I am,” Courtney replied, in a sing-song voice. “And I finished my service hours. Law school isn't gonna see what hit ‘em. Anyways, Geoff.”

Geoff sat up.

“Just so you know, I’m saying Geoff’s words, not mine,” Courtney clarified before she began. “Hey older me!”

“Hey little dude!” Geoff greeted back, as if his younger self could hear him.

“Just wanted to ask if you and Brody are still best buds. And if you threw him that absolutely epic graduating middle school party. I know you’ve been planning it since you graduated middle school yourself. Peace out!” Courtney had to audibly laugh after she finished talking. “So, Geoff, how do you respond?”

“Tell him we did it right before we came to camp! Brody is still my best bud and we had the greatest time of all time at that party! Besides the Saturday-Just-Because party in April and the Frozen Water party back in 2005. Those were the days.”

“You throw too many parties,” Courtney stated.

“What? I think we need to throw you an National Honors Society party when we get out of here!”

“How are we going to get party supplies? We’re on an island?” Gwen asked.

“If there’s a will, there’s a way.”

Courtney shook her head. “Anyways,” she began, “Gwen. How did that insect-convention situation actually turn out? Hopefully you didn’t get arrested.”

“What?” Cody asked. “When was this?”

“This is why I wrote my question last,” Gwen sighed. “So, uh, write that now we have a bunch of ecosystem studies because we let way too many invasive species loose in our town. And we didn’t get arrested!”

“What happened?” Geoff asked. “Sounds lit.”

“Me and my brother snuck into a bug convention and let everything free last year at the start of summer. So, well, yeah. I thought it would be a fun memory to look back on.”

“That’s a serious problem, Gwen! That was so stupid of you.”

Gwen shrugged. “It was for the greater good. Of science!” She joked.

Courtney folded her arms. “Well, anyway. How are your cabinmates?”

“The Rattlesnake cabin is lit, dudette!” Geoff exclaimed. “Tyler is totally crazy, DJ and Duncan are awesome, and Justin is pretty cool too.”

“Lucky,” Courtney started. “Heather has to be the worst roommate ever. She’s always bitching about someone or something.”

“Leshawna and Bridgette are pretty chill, though,” Gwen added. “It could be worse. Eva, Izzy, they both seem like nightmares to live with. And Katie and Sadie irk me. I’m glad I'm not in their cabin.”

“Eva and Izzy aren’t that bad,” Cody said. “Well. Actually living with them would be terrible. But they aren’t bad people.”

Gwen rolled her eyes. “You do you, Cody.”

“Okay, despite the fact, Heather’s a character,” Cody stated. “Definitely not roommate material.”

“Most certainly,” Courtney scribbled away in her notebook.

“Alrighty, CITs!” Chris’s voice echoed loudly throughout the camp. Cody covered his ears. “It’s dinner and campfire time!”

“Already?” Geoff asked. “Time flies.”

“We came here pretty late, Geoff,” Gwen responded. Geoff didn’t seem to care.

The group of them stood up and walked back to the Mess Hall.

“So, what were you up to?” Cody asked Zeke. Zeke was poking at his food, not seeming hungry.

He perked up at Cody’s voice. “I talked to Bridgette. At the basketball courts. A bunch of the CITs were there and we played basketball. I have never played before, but it’s really fun.”

“Sweet!” Cody congratulated him. “Did Bridgette like you? What did you guys talk about?”

“Just the game, eh. But she was really nice. I think we got along well.”

“Who else did you talk to there?”

“Owen. And Duncan too. He said I looked like the type of guy he could take care of.”

“And what did you say?”

“I said thanks.”

Cody snorted.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Chapter Text

“Rise and shine CITs!” Chris yelled through the loudspeaker. Noah shot his head up and banged it on the roof.

“Fuck,” He rubbed his head. “What a way to start my morning.”

“Be dressed and meet me outside in five!”

“We’re starting today with a 20 kilometer run around the island!” Chris exclaimed happily.

“Boy has us waking up at the crack of dawn and now he has us running around the whole damn island?” Leshawna questioned. “If you think I’m about to do that, you’re insane.”

“This challenge will have one winner. The winner gets an entire week of forty-five minute showers with hot water. Guaranteed no one else in the communal bathrooms at the time, either. You can pick the time.”

Heather’s eyes widened. “I need those showers.”

Sadie and Katie exchanged smiles. Gwen rolled her eyes. Courtney looked determined.

“Okay, so I will do that,” Leshawna grinned.

Noah sighed. He didn’t exactly have hope for the challenge. He was probably the slowest runner here. Him and Owen, anyways.

“Meet here in the Mess Hall once you finish your lap!” Chris yelled. “Ready, set, go!”

The CITs made a dash going clockwise around the island. Noah jogged with minimal effort, Owen next to him.

Eva, Heather, Izzy, and Tyler took the lead. Heather was set on winning this race. Eva easily coasted along, but Noah doubted she actually cared about the shower. Izzy seemed like she was just having fun, as was Tyler.

Bridgette, Geoff, Katie, and Sadie were close behind them. Bridgette and Geoff were laughing together and Katie and Sadie seemed like they had high hopes of a good shower. As if they could both have it.

Courtney, DJ, Duncan, Ezekiel, Leshawna, Lindsay, and Trent were in the middle. Courtney seemed like she was taking a ‘slow and steady’ approach, and Lindsay and Leshawna looked like they were trying her hardest to sprint like Heather, but couldn’t. The guys didn’t seem like they cared very much about winning, but they didn’t want to hang around the back.

Beth, Cody, Gwen, and Justin fell behind the pack. Beth was struggling, but Cody was coasting along next to Gwen, who Noah guessed didn’t care about the showers either. However, Justin struck him as the type to care about showers, but it seemed like he wasn’t trying at all.

Harold, Noah, and Owen were at the very back. Harold wheezed behind Noah. Scratch what he said before about himself being the slowest runner- Harold was the slowest at camp. Noah snickered at him.

“So we aren’t winning,” Owen stated.

“No shit, Sherlock,” Noah responded.

Owen laughed back. “I should have known we wouldn’t have had a chance. Not like I really have a great desire for the prize, anyways.”

“Me neither. It won’t be a hard loss. I was about to say if it were food, you’d shoot for the stars, but then I realized you’ll eat anything. Even Chef’s disgusting cuisine.”

“It’s the truth,” Owen smiled. “But having more food would be a great reward.”

Noah stuck out his tongue. The idea of eating more of Chef’s food than he had to to survive sounded horrible.

Noah looked up the path to see Cody slowing down. He dropped down to Owen and Noah’s speed.

“Hey guys,” He greeted. “What’s up?”

“Cody!” Owen exclaimed, as if they hadn’t seen each other five minutes ago. “My man. It’s going great. I assume you’re not shooting for the prize either?”

“Nah,” Cody said. “Long showers are girl stuff. Plus, even if I did want it, I probably wouldn’t want it as much as Heather or Courtney. I think I’ll let the people who want it win.”

“Honorable,” Owen responded.

Noah sneered. Long showers are girl stuff? What did that even mean? He hoped Cody knew how fucking stupid he sounded.

“I guess Gwen is an exclusion from ‘girl stuff’?” Owen suggested, in a questioning tone.

“Yeah,” Cody smiled. “I think she likes cold showers. Not for the benefits or anything, just because.”

“Wow, she’s so special,” Noah said sarcastically, adding jazz hands for special effect. “Not like other girls.”

“Shut up man.” Cody gave Noah a little shove. “I didn’t say anything like that.”

Noah tried to subdue his grin. God forbid Cody think he actually liked him, and wasn’t just making fun of him. “You thought it, though.”

“Whatever.” Cody was grinning like he was having a laugh with a friend. Jesus Christ, Noah hoped the dude didn’t talk about his love business to Noah now.

Noah looked up the track himself, seeing Gwen running on her own. She didn’t seem to mind it.

“So…” Cody began. “You guys wanna speed up? So we don’t lose too hard.”

“Uh, Cody,” Owen replied. “We can’t speed up.”

“This is our normal running speed,” Noah deadpanned. “Sorry to disappoint.”

“Oh, that’s totally cool!” Cody smiled. “I’m going to start running ahead, though. See you in the Mess Hall?”

“Yeah!” Owen cheered.

Cody gave them a wave and ran ahead. He waved to Gwen and kept speeding up until he disappeared behind a bend.

“Don’t you see why I don’t like him?” Noah asked. While he tried his best not to interfere with Owen’s opinions of people, he thought it was pretty obvious as to why he wasn’t a fan of Cody right now.

“What? It seemed like you two were getting along,” Owen argued. “You were smiling and joking with him.”

“I was making fun of him, if that wasn’t obvious enough.”

“It seemed like you were having fun.”

Noah rolled his eyes. Like Owen knew what he was talking about.

Noah didn’t see Cody until, like-promised, he was in the Mess Hall. Well, after he was given CPR by Owen.

“And there’s our last one! Harold! Everyone’s here!”

Noah got up, throwing a coughing fit.

Harold collapsed on the floor.

“So?” Courtney asked, looking more tired than ever. “Who won?” She seemed disappointed that it (probably) wasn’t her.

“Oh,” Chris smirked. “That wasn’t the challenge.”

“We did that for nothing?” Harold groaned.

“It wasn’t?” Leshawna asked, eyes wide as ever. “Glad I didn’t make it here first now.”

Izzy shrugged.

“Well then,” Heather smiled. “What’s the challenge?”

Chris smiled, pulling back a curtain. Behind it was the biggest feast Noah had ever laid eyes on in his life, and he grew up with Owen.

“Yes!” Owen cheered.

“Good lord,” Heather gulped.

It couldn’t have been ten seconds. The food was torn limb from limb. Noah only managed to sneak a chicken wing before the rest of the food was consumed, mostly by Owen.

“Now!” Chris exclaimed. “It’s time for your challenge!”

“I thought the eating was the challenge,” Owen voiced, sitting up.

“Nope!” A sickening grin grew on Chris’s face. “Your challenge is to stay up as long as possible. Last one to fall asleep wins the showers!”

“I have this!” Heather pounded her fists together.

Chris took everyone to the campfire. Noah heard Trent, Gwen, and Cody bet on how long everyone would last.

Noah took a seat next to Owen on the ground. At least they weren’t doing anything absolutely insane like the last challenge. Noah could just read a book and then take a nap- his two favorite hobbies. Unless he outlasted enough people for him to decide that the prize was worth it. What? It’s not like he was against getting the prize.

Noah picked up his book, and opened it. He was ready to start reading, when—

“Hey,” Cody greeted, squeezing between Owen and Noah on the log. Noah let out a sigh.

He peeked up from his book to see not only Cody had joined himself and Owen, but Gwen, Trent, and Ezekiel were also sitting in the circle.

“‘Sup, Noah,” Trent gave Noah a wave. “Owen.”

“Hey guys!” Owen waved at the newcomers.

“Ready to stay up until we can’t feel our faces?” Gwen asked with a smile. Trent grinned at her.

“I thought you didn’t want to go for it,” Noah stated. “You didn’t seem like it when you were running.”

Gwen hung her hands behind her and leaned back against a tree. “I could use a longer shower, even if I like cold ones. Plus, Heather not winning would be hilarious. And staying up late is much more my cup of tea than running.”

“Man, I’m already tired.” Cody yawned. “I don’t think I’ll last. But I’m going to make the most of a long weekend, even if it started out with a 20K run.”

Ezekiel stretched. “That was horrible, eh. I can’t feel my legs.”

“Me neither,” Owen joked. “Noah even passed out.”

Noah ignored him. He was just thankful he gained consciousness before Owen started giving him mouth-to-mouth.

The group continued talking, which soon devolved into speaking solely about the fact that they were tired. Noah shortly debated asking everyone to leave, but then figured maybe their annoyance would keep him awake.

It wasn’t long until Owen fell asleep. Ezekiel followed. Then Cody, falling against Owen’s side. Gwen and Trent migrated to sit with Duncan and Courtney, who were still awake. Courtney was moving her legs, and Duncan was watching her with tired eyes. Noah found himself dozing off as well.

Sleep was nice.

Waking up was not.

“AAAHHH!” Noah screamed, scrambling away from Cody, who was screaming just as loud.

He had a horrible sight when he woke up. He was cuddling up with Cody, which was terrible enough as is, and kissing his ear. Ew! Ew ew ew!

Noah shot up to his feet and started speed walking away from everyone. He heard snickers from Duncan- how long had he been awake? Or did he just wake up? Nevermind, it didn’t matter, that was probably the most embarrassing experience of his life that he just went through.

He really should’ve just told Cody to fuck off.

Why did he have to have any hope for that challenge?

Noah eventually walked into a tree. He stopped. Then banged his head against the tree.

The gods were testing him.

It seemed they always were.

“But I want to go to the beach,” Dakota complained, shaking Noah.

A day had passed, and the challenge technically hadn’t ended. Just this morning, Justin was disqualified for cheating. The last CITs were Courtney, Heather, and Leshawna. Most everyone had fallen asleep in the night, around the time Noah did himself. The last girls in the challenge were determined.

“If Owen was here, you could go with him,” Noah responded. “But guess who isn’t here?”

Probably a little uncalled for for Noah to not go to the beach. It was a pretty easy task. But whatever. Dakota could probably not go to the beach for one day.

Owen would probably be willing to go to the beach with Dakota, but he was god knows where. Genuinely, Noah hadn’t seen him since he fell asleep during the challenge. He was sure the big guy was alright, he always was, but Noah had not a clue as to where he was.

The second reason Noah didn’t want to go to the beach was that Cody was there with Ezekiel and Dawn. Noah was trying to avoid Cody since yesterday. And he was fairly sure Cody was doing the same. The only plus out of this situation was that Cody was finally leaving him alone. The downside was that Duncan and whoever else saw the ordeal would spread it around camp and that would probably be the end of Noah’s dignity. At least it wasn’t aired on international television or anything. That would be the real end of Noah.

Also Noah wouldn’t mind just staying on the cabin porch reading all day. Except he would have to listen to Dakota’s complaining.

“Please,” She begged. “I don’t want to become old and wrinkly and pale by sneering and reading all day like you!”

Noah sighed. It was unfair of him to make her stay inside. This was her time at summer camp. He would be here all summer. She had less than two weeks left. Noah could read anytime, anyways. He could bring his book to the dock. It wasn’t like he was going to die by seeing Cody.

“Alright,” He responded, getting up from his bed.

“Yay!” She cheered, running out of the cabin.

“Wait! Wait right outside! I need to change into my swimsuit.

As if he was actually going to swim.

When Noah arrived at the dock, he immediately went to sit against a wooden pole on the dock. Dakota laid out her blanket and put on her sunglasses, basking in the late-June sun.

Noah breathed the fresh air. All he had to do was not talk to Cody. Which wouldn’t be hard, for once.

It was just him, his book, and-

“Hi, Noah,” Ezekiel waved at Noah. Noah looked up. Ezekiel sat on the dock next to him.

“Uh… hi?” Noah responded.

“What book are you reading?” Ezekiel asked.

“Christine. It’s meh.”

“What’s it about?”

Noah rubbed his forehead, not exactly in the mood to talk to Ezekiel. “Basically, it’s about this possessed car named Christine. This guy Arnie has a weird obsession with the car and it freaks the fuck out of Dennis, his best friend. It’s a horror book.”

“A horror book? Like a scary story?”

Noah nodded.

“I’ve never read a book like that before. I only read my school books and the books my parents let me read.” Ezekiel shifted and folded his arms. “They don’t like many books. Or good ones.”

“Your parents sure as hell wouldn’t like you reading this, then,” Noah smirked. “Stephen King is a weird guy. He made his main character talk about his parents having sex and his sister's boobs.”

Ezekiel looked at Noah with a look of pure horror on his face.

Noah hoped that comment would make Ezekiel go away.

It didn’t. But he did turn away to face the dock. Which was strange. At that point, just get in the water. Noah looked out, to see if there was a reason he wasn’t going in.

Over Ezekiel’s shoulder, Noah caught a glance of Bridgette. She was surfing. He saw her sometimes out on the water. She was always out there alone- like a main character in some sort of American high school movie. Ezekiel seemed entranced.

Noah pshed. Of course. It was just Bridgette. Ezekiel and his obvious crush on Bridgette that he thought no one else knew about.

What was the point of a summer romance, anyways? They would end up going home and falling apart in the end. It was destined for failure. There was really no reason to be involved in that. But what did Noah know? He was just sane and never had a crush, and never planned on it either. If he did, he’d get out of it. If there was one thing Noah was a professional at, it was getting out of things.

Cody had a… bad night.

As if being a little spoon wasn’t embarrassing enough, it just had to be in front of the kids he was spending nine more weeks at camp with. With another guy. Who was kissing his ear.

What an experience.

He decided to ignore everything by hanging out with Zeke, Izzy, Eva, and their campers Dawn and Anne Maria at the beach. Since Owen was… wherever he was (it wasn’t like he was the first disappearance at camp) Noah would never come to the beach.

Well. He was wrong.

Noah sat on the dock, reading Christine by Stephen King of all things, and Dakota sunbathed on the beach. And Zeke was talking to him while Noah looked disinterested, because of course Zeke had to make Cody acknowledge the fact that Noah was a real person and not just someone he dreamt up last night. He couldn’t go and talk to Zeke now. Great.

“What are you doing?” Eva asked. Cody turned from Zeke and Noah back to Eva and Izzy, who were in the water with him. Dawn was floating around somewhere, and Cody was fairly sure he saw Anne Maria get into a slap fight with Dakota a minute ago. No one really cared to stop it.

“Nothing,” Cody responded. “Just… tired from last night.”

Izzy shrugged. She had gone to sleep way before anyone else, not even attempting to get the prize.

“I hear you,” Eva related. “I don’t even know why I stayed up. I didn’t even really want the prize.”

“Just to say that you did it?” Cody asked. “That’s what I did.”

“I guess.”

“Dumb idea.”

“Definitely.” Eva rubbed her eyes. “But I guess you should’ve tried to stay up a little longer, huh?”

“What?”

“So you wouldn’t have woken up to Noah making out with your ear.”

“Oh.” Cody shifted. “You were up for that?”

Cody hadn’t really remembered who all was there when he woke up. Duncan was laughing, but that was all that he noticed.

“Uh, yeah. It was Gwen, Trent, Duncan, Heather, Courtney, Leshawna, Lindsay, and me.”

Izzy looked between the two. “Noah made out with you?”

“No!” Cody yelled. Anne Maria and Dakota looked over from the beach. Bridgette, who was surfing, looked over as well. Cody blushed, embarrassed about the attention he attracted. “We were just… cuddling when I woke up.”

“And Noah was kissing his ear,” Eva stated. “It was weird.”

Izzy giggled, but didn’t say anything.

“So Gwen saw?” Cody asked. “Wow. Embarrassing.”

“More than a third of the camp saw. But it doesn’t really seem like anyone cares. Except Duncan, who for some reason thinks it’s the funniest thing ever. Oh, and Lindsay probably told everyone at camp by now.”

“Aw, man.” Cody facepalmed. “That’s so embarrassing.”

“Whatever. It really isn’t a big deal. You were asleep.”

Izzy smiled.

It was starting to get late when Cody sat on the dock with Zeke. He was sure the dinner call was soon. Bridgette was out surfing with Leshawna laying on the shore. B and Dawn were swimming in the water together, Dawn telling B about his fortune.

“Bridgette is pretty strong,” Zeke stated, unprompted.

“Huh?” Cody asked. Before he said that, it had been silent besides the waves and the faint voices of Bridgette and Leshawna.

“Do you see how she balances on her surfboard?” He asked. “That has to be hard, eh. She’s gotta be strong to do that.”

“Oh, definitely,” Cody agreed. “I tried to surf once. Got absolutely murdered. I ate sand.”

“You… ate sand?”

“Like, I hit the sand face first.”

“Oh. So you didn’t eat it?”

Cody laughed and shoved Zeke to the side. “Of course not dude. It’s just an expression. Who in their right mind eats sand? Except for three-year-olds.”

Zeke smiled.

“Anyways,” Cody continued, “I have this friend from America who kept on sending me pictures of this one guy from a movie, Surf’s Up. He’s a penguin, and apparently his name is also Cody. And he sucks at surfing. My friend saw the movie and recorded a little clip of him failing to surf and kept sending it to me online. But he only got to do it for like a week, because it just came out and then I came here.”

“A movie about a penguin? Surfing?”

“Yeah, from what I know, it’s like a joke about documentaries. It’s animated and it’s about a penguin who wants to surf because he’s the ‘chosen one’ but he’s really bad at it. And the whole time it’s like a documentary about his life.”

“It’s making fun of documentaries? But documentaries are very educational and fun to watch.”

“It’s not that serious. It’s just a movie.” Cody kicked his flip flops at the water below them. “I haven’t even seen it. I don’t think it’s out in Canada yet. But maybe when it is, we should see it. What province do you live in?”

“Saskatchewan.”

“Oh.” Cody sucked in a breath through his teeth. “I live in Ontario. As in, a really long day-trip here, Ontario. I was hoping you lived in Southeast Manitoba or maybe around here. But considering you’re a farm kid, that was definitely wishful thinking.”

Zeke sighed. “Yeah, I guess.”

“But you know what?” Cody asked. “Geoff lives in Nova Scotia and we’re still friends. We talk online during the year. Maybe we can do that?”

“My parents don’t like me using the internet, eh.”

“Maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves,” Cody changed the subject. “We should talk about this at the end of summer.”

Zeke nodded.

“So… how are you doing away from your parents?”

“I miss the farm,” Zeke began. “And my cat, Peter. But I really like it here. My doctor said I needed to meet kids my age, and my dad didn’t want me to leave, but my mom said the doctor was right. So she found this camp and said I could go for the summer. My dad was upset that it was so far away but it was free, so. I like hanging out with you. I’ve never really had a friend my age before, so this is pretty cool.”

Cody smiled. When Zeke did talk, he said some pretty cool stuff.

“And I don’t think this is what I expected, but it’s good. I don’t know what I thought would happen or who I would meet, but Eva throwing a tree was definitely not what I expected.”

Cody laughed at that. “Yeah. There’s a lot of weird people who come here. But come on. It’s a free summer camp. Their parents don’t have to pay for their food all summer, and all they have to do is be a CIT. Although, Chris’s definition of a CIT is pretty weird. I think he means a ‘person to put through cruel and unusual punishments for the summer’ and not a counselor-in-training.”

Zeke nodded.

“But anyways,” Cody went on, “I bet you’re glad you got to meet Bridgette, huh?”

“Shut up,” Zeke demanded, stifling a smile. Cody guessed he picked up the use of the phrase ‘shut up’ from Cody himself. “You like Gwen.”

“And?” Cody questioned.

Zeke didn’t respond.

“Hey!” A voice shouted from behind them. It was Courtney, who seemed like she was hanging on by a thread. “The challenge is over. It’s dinner. Ugh…”

She fell on the dock facedown.

“I’m so tired,” She mumbled. “I hate Chris.”

“Did you win?” Cody asked, helping her up and swinging her arm around his shoulder.

“No. Heather did. I hate her.”

“I don’t think anyone likes her. Harold is the only one who can put up with her.”

“She stole my showers,” Courtney whined. “I deserve those showers. I’m sick of the cold! I want good showers…”

“You need to go to bed,” Cody told her. Zeke came over and gave Cody a hand in helping Courtney walk. “Do you want to go to your cabin and I can bring you food?”

“No, I can eat on my own,” She blinked her eyes rapidly, trying to stay awake.

“I’m gonna bring you food,” Cody stated, changing directions and taking her to her cabin.

“Ugh…” She groaned, dragging her legs against the dirt. She wasn’t really going to fight.

Cody and Zeke walked her to the cabin, opened the door, and sat her in the bed that she said was hers. As they closed the door, she had already fallen asleep.

When they reached the campfire, they saw Leshawna, Lindsay, and Heather asleep in the dirt. A lot of people had bags under their eyes. A good few people seemed wide awake. The campers all ate happily.

Wait. The campers. Where was Dawn?

“Dawn!” Cody exclaimed, looking around the campfire.

“Don’t worry, Cody,” Her voice was heard. Cody turned around to see her standing behind him. “I came back with B.”

Cody let out a sigh of relief. Thank god. He would be in trouble if he left her at the lake unattended and she wasn’t okay.

Dawn grabbed his and Zeke’s sleeve, dragging them to the spot she wanted to sit.

She sat down on the ground and motioned for Zeke to sit to her right, Cody to her left.

Right next to Noah.

Great.

Maybe he just shouldn’t look at him.

“So, uh, I actually have to go bring Courtney her dinner.” Cody tried to stand up.

“I can bring it to her,” Zeke offered, completely oblivious to Cody’s situation.

“You can come with me, but-”

“Ezekiel can do it by himself,” Dawn stated. “Stay here. You’re supposed to be looking after me, anyways.”

Cody sighed. “Go ahead, Zeke.”

Zeke nodded, grabbing a plate and walking away from the campfire and to the cabins. Dawn waved to him before she stood up herself and went over the B.

“Hey, Cody,” Gwen greeted, scooting up to him on a log. She yawned. “How was your day?”

“Not bad,” he replied. “Spent it by the dock swimming with Eva and Izzy. I got to hang out with Zeke for a while before dinner. I fell asleep pretty early, so I wasn’t all that tired today. How was your day off? I heard Counselor Blaineley had to look after Scott since both you and Courtney were here.”

“Great!” Gwen stretched. Then, she shifted her voice to a whisper. “Honestly? The main reason I stayed up so late was because I knew if I ended up asleep during the challenge, they couldn’t make me look after Scott. And I love fucking with Blaineley.”

Cody grinned. “Classic Gwen. Always knows how to get out of things. I like that about you.”

“Alright,” She stood up, ignoring that last comment. “I’ll leave this to you and your boyfriend, huh?”

Cody went beet red and turned to Noah, who was slowly looking up from his book. He slammed it shut and stared deep into Gwen’s soul. He didn’t say anything, but his expression had an intensity that Cody had not seen from anyone before, never mind Noah, the professional of not giving a fuck.

Gwen put her hands up. “Okay. Sorry. Thought you two were chill enough with each other to think it was funny.”

She wasn’t that far off. Cody would like to think he and Noah were decently friendly with each other. Probably not friends, but he was fairly sure Noah didn’t dislike him. He ran with him and talked a little bit with him while they were running. He sat with him during the awake-a-thon. Okay, so maybe Noah didn’t seem super fond of him, especially considering the hike on Saturday, but come on? If Noah hated Cody, he would probably tell him. He seemed like the type of guy to do that.

But they were not friends. Definitely not friendly enough for that joke to be funny. Especially mere hours after ‘the incident’ happened.

“It’s okay to be a boykisser, Noah,” Izzy comforted. “We all know it happened.”

“What happened?” Dakota asked, turning towards the group.

“Noah kissed a guy,” Izzy informed her.

“No I didn’t!” Noah defended himself, loudly. Yeah. That caught the attention of a few more campers who were having their own conversations, along with a few CITs.

“Yes you did.”

“Didn’t.”

“Did!”

“Did. not!”

“Did did did did did did did did did did did did did did did!” Izzy sang happily while Noah shot daggers into her eyes.

Trent cleared his throat from across the campfire. “Uh, I can break this tie. He totally did.”

Goddammit, Trent.

At this point, the entire campfire was looking at Noah and Cody. And practically all the CITs knew it was Cody he kissed. Wonderful.

“I have no comment,” was Noah’s final statement.

“Wait. No,” Anne Maria cut in. “What happened? Who did he kiss?”

“Cody,” Izzy grinned. “Last night. We were trying to stay up super late. That’s why Heather, Lindsay, and Leshawna are asleep, if you didn’t know.”

“It wasn’t on the lips!” Cody defended himself, trying to defy the homosexual allegations. “He kissed my ear! I had no will over this!”

“I was asleep!” Noah yelled. “I had no will over this either!”

“I think the real question is why you were huddled up cuddling with Cody in the first place,” Duncan said with a snicker. Cody wanted to die.

“What were you dreaming about?” Dakota asked in disgust.

“Why were you guys trying to stay up late?” Cameron questioned, honestly.

“CIT stuff,” Gwen sighed. “Don’t sign up to be a CIT, guys.”

“Can we move on from this subject?” Cody asked.

“Yeah!” Izzy exclaimed. “I’m bored. We should draw on Leshawna’s face.”

Gwen shook her head. “No way. Let’s draw on Heather’s face!”

“I’m in!” Zoey cheered.

“Betrayed by her own camper,” Duncan snickered. “A darn shame.”

“Sha-awesome!” Lightning lit up, holding a case of markers. “Brick has crayons!”

“Markers!” Brick corrected. “And I’m not willing to use them for such a dishonorable purpose.”

“Come on, Brick!” Jo jabbed Brick in the shoulder. “It’ll be fun. And it’s Heather we’re talking about here. She’s disnoble.”

“Dishonorable.”

“Whatever.”

Brick sighed. “Fine. But only because I saw her steal Lindsay’s makeup last week!”

Lightning opened the box of markers and tossed them around to the campers and CITs. Cody caught an orange marker, but put it on the ground. He didn’t really want to be associated with this when Heather woke up and everyone would have to face her wrath.

“What’s going on, eh?” Zeke asked from behind Cody. He must have just returned from giving Courtney her food.

“Drawing on Heather’s face,” Cody replied. He picked up the orange and handed it to Zeke. Practically all of the campers were huddled around Heather, who was in too deep sleep to hear or feel them drawing on her.

“Why?”

“Because she’s a pain in the ass.”

Zeke sat down next to Cody. They were the only two left on the log. “That’s true. I don’t want to draw, though.”

“Me neither. I don’t want to deal with her tomorrow morning. At least she has a good, long shower to wash this off.”

Zeke grinned.

Oh, tomorrow morning. They had a challenge.

“CITs, wake up!” Chris yelled through the megaphone.

Noah groggily sat up. Great. Another day he could’ve been at home, sleeping in, wasted.

Breakfast was horrible, as always. Noah traded Owen all of his food for some sort of jam-mash, which he was hoping that he wasn’t allergic to. He sat at his table on the end next to Owen, per usual. Eva and Izzy were across from him, arguing about something. Owen tried to stop them. Cody and Ezekiel were oblivious to their shenanigans, talking like they were in their own little world. Noah wished he had his own little world.

Speaking of Owen, the guy ended up coming back to camp last night. He said he had no memory of what happened, but he woke up outside of a cave. With a little bit of wandering around, he ended up back near the cabins.

“CITs.” Chris walked over to the center of the Mess Hall. “Today, we have a challenge.”

Heather didn’t look happy at that. “Come on. I just finished the last one. And he didn’t even let me sleep in today! And I had to wash that stupid marker off my face!”

“Me me me me me me me,” Gwen mocked her.

“Screw off, Gwen.”

“You all know how to play dodgeball,” Chris said. “Follow me.”

Noah (reluctantly) stood up. Didn’t look like he would be participating in this. Sports were not his strength. It would be better for his team if he sat out.

Chris took the CITs to the basketball court. There was a little bit of chatter, before Chef blew a whistle, walking down the court. He gave everyone dirty looks.

“Here is where we will play,” Chris explained. “The first rule of dodgeball is-”

“Do not talk about dodgeball?” Noah interrupted, earning a giggle from Owen.

Chris narrowed his eyebrows at Noah. “As I was saying. You get hit, you’re out. You hit someone, they’re out. You catch the ball, the thrower is out. Five on the court at a time. Oh, and we’re doing Gophers versus Bass. The winning team gets a sweet bonfire with marshmallows, hot dogs, and whatever else got delivered. No campers to bother you, no me or Chef to bother you. And the losers will go to bed early.”

“Throwing balls, jeez, another mentally challenging test,” Noah comments.

“You all have one minute until game time. Chop chop!”

“Okay, pep talk time!” Heather shouted, bringing her team together. “Last time, we lost because Gwen and Beth are C-H-I-C-K-E-N-S, but we have this challenge!”

“Says the girl who had to be thrown off the cliff,” Noah remarks to Owen. Owen chuckled.

“As long as we all participate evenly, we won’t get tired because of last night. If you suck, you’re a good distraction. If you’re good, you’re good! Now we’re going to slaughter the other team, because I need food that Chef didn’t make!”

Heather sneezed.

“And you guys stink, by the way.”

“I usually take morning showers, but you were in there,” Beth explained. “All morning.”

“Hey! I won the prize. You can shower any other time of day.”

Thank god Noah wasn’t a girl. Having to wait for Heather and her forty-five minute shower plus all of her “getting ready” time just to get a five minute cold one? No thanks.

“Okay guys!” Heather shouted. “Who wants to sit the first one out?”

“Alright, I’ll volunteer.” Noah walked to the bleachers. “Now let’s see all you keeners get out there and dodge!”

Izzy, Noah, Gwen, Trent, Beth, and Justin sat on the sidelines for the first game as well. Izzy and Gwen were on either side of Noah, Justin in between Trent and Beth. Noah picked up his book.

“You’re reading?” Izzy asked. “At a time like this? What about the action? The murder! It’s all in front of your eyes!”

“There’s enough action and murder in this book for me,” Noah deadpanned.

“Bring it on, fishies,” Heather smirked, next to Lindsay. Owen, Leshawna, and Cody also stood on the court.

“Oh, you’re going down!” Tyler yelled. Noah had a feeling the Bass would lose the first round. Just look at the court—pole-up-her-butt Courtney, tweedle-dumb Katie without her tweedle just-as-dumb Sadie, wannabe-jock Tyler, and Harold, who needs no further explanation. “We’re gonna bring the dinner to the table, and then we’re gonna eat it!”

Courtney facepalmed.

Chris clapped his hands. “Both teams ready, best of five wins, now, let’s dodge some ball!”

Chef whistled.

The other Gophers cheered from the bleachers. Noah was busy with his book.

Cody was the first to throw a ball, nearly missing Tyler. Tyler attempted to throw one back, but hit Sadie instead.

Chris said something, but Noah tuned it out. He was beginning to tune everything out. Courtney was yelling, Owen was running, Harold was screaming, Leshawna was shouting, his team was cheering. That’s all he needed to know to know that the Gophers were winning.

Eventually, Chef blew a whistle. Cody was the only one left on the court. The Bass were slaughtered. Pathetic.

“Okay, people!” Heather yelled. “For an even game, everyone has to go at least twice. “All but one of you on the bleachers, get out there!”

“I volunteer to sit out again,” Noah said. Everyone else who was originally on the bleachers with Noah got up. Heather scooted closer to Noah.

“I can go again,” Owen offered.

“Ooh! Me too!” Lindsay jumped up and down.

Justin and Gwen stayed on the bleachers as well.

“Got something against dodgeball?” Heather asked, sitting down next to Noah.

“Sports aren’t my forte,” He responded.

“Well, you better get out there at some point.”

“It’s not like we’re gonna lose. Look at the other team.”

The Bass had figured out who to put on the court next- Sadie, Katie, Tyler, Bridgette, and Geoff stood on the court. The only one who seemed competent of throwing balls on that court was Geoff, and maybe Bridgette. Why was Tyler on the court again after losing so hard the first time? They didn’t even bring in Eva yet. What were they thinking?

Something something, point Gopher, something something, Lindsay and Tyler were gone. If Beth could score points against that team, the Gophers were winning this challenge.

“Ooh, he dropped it like it was hot!” Leshawna screamed. Noah was mildly annoyed at the noise.

“I’m glad someone is trying today,” Heather glanced at Noah. Noah looked up. He didn’t even know who was trying today. But it didn’t seem like anyone was particularly happy with Noah right now. He glanced to the sides of him—Leshawna had her hands on her hips, Owen looked disappointed, and of course Heather had her brows furrowed.

“Oh, sorry,” He coughed. “Woohoo! Way to throw those murder balls, go team go!”

“Nice team spirit,” Heather remarked sarcastically.

Heather and Courtney were arguing now. Duncan and Courtney were flirting. Noah couldn’t care less. He started ignoring everything.

“Come on, a little effort out there, people!” Noah commented while Chef blew the whistle.

Izzy and Leshawna did not look happy.

“Ugh!” Heather screamed, sitting next to Noah again. “Of course they had to save the big guns for the middle of the competition. Eva and Duncan murdered us!”

“Who knew,” Noah responded, sarcastically.

“Maybe you would if you actually played, or paid any attention at the very least!”

“Honey, I said it before. Sports aren’t my thing.”

“Okay,” Heather stood up again. “Not that Noah here cares, but we are not losing another game to these guys! And where’s Lindsay?”

She stormed off and out of the court.

When she returned with Lindsay, she asked Noah how they were doing. Only to see Beth get pummeled by four balls. Again.

“Sports. Not my strong suit, remember?”

“You know, you could actually give it a shot, and pretend to care,” Heather told him.

It was the last game, Noah guessed.

“Go team, go!”

The game went on for way too long.

“Knock ‘em out, throw ‘em out, rah rah!” Noah tried to cheer. And promptly got hit in the face.

“You’re right,” Heather snickered next to him. “Sports aren’t your forte.”

Leshawna yelled something about messing with the wrong white girl. Owen was apologizing for some reason. Duncan said “goodnight Harold.”

Noah looked up to see probably the most beautiful dodging skills of all time, from Harold of all people.

“Woah.”

He returned to reading as Chef blew the whistle.

“The Killer Bass win!” Chris cheered. “Gophers, what happened?”

“What can I say?” Noah asked. “Weak effort.” He smiled at his own joke.

“Oh shut it, Noah,” Gwen told him, storming off.

“You know?” Heather began. “For once, I agree with her.”

Everyone else left too.

“Touchy,” Noah said, Owen was approaching him. “Right?”

Owen just shook his head.

Maybe Noah screwed up.

Noah sighed. “Oh come on. I would’ve gotten murdered out there. I would’ve been almost as bad as Lindsay was, and you know it.”

“At least Lindsay tried,” Owen said.

Owen was actually mad at him.

So Noah really fucked up.

Noah can take alone time. He loves alone time. Even if Owen, his best friend, isn’t talking to him, he can enjoy life. It gave him the day off, after all. Dakota was with Owen swimming with Izzy, Eva, and Anne Maria. Harold wasn’t in the cabin either, and neither was Ezekiel. He had heard something about “visiting B with Dawn” and “oh I can come too” from those two. Trent was with Duncan and their camper, most likely. And Cody was… somewhere. Actually, he was probably with Ezekiel.

Noah read the last words in his book, closing it shut. If this was how fast he was going to blow through books, he might have not brought enough.

The door opened behind Noah. He turned, shielding his eyes from the light. He hadn’t been out this morning, not even for breakfast.

In the doorway stood Cody. He threw a few things up on his bunk, parallel to Noah’s.

Cody turned to Noah, after putting all of his things down. “Noah? What are you still doing in here?”

Noah was surprised Cody even said anything. He was under the impression that they were trying to avoid each other after ‘the incident’. Especially after the campers and CITs making fun of them at the campfire a couple nights ago. And it wasn’t like they had reasons to talk. They weren’t even friends in the first place. Well, Cody tried to be friends with him for like, two non-consecutive afternoons, but those were both in groups anyways.

“Well, if you wouldn’t believe it, everyone is mad at me for yesterday,” Noah stated. “I even told them that we’d be losing if I had participated, but somehow they’re still mad. Even Eva is ‘disappointed’ in me. And Owen left with Dakota. Honestly doing me a favor. But I’m alone for the day, or maybe a few days, I don’t know yet.”

Cody had a look of sympathy on his face. Oh no. “I can hang out with you. You’re at summer camp! You shouldn’t be cooped up in here reading…” He trailed off, as if trying to remember the name of the book. Noah never told him. “What are you reading?”

“Doesn’t matter. I’m finished now.”

“Well then, you have even more reason to get out of the cabin! Do you want to hang out with me for a little while?”

“Not really.”

“It’ll be fun. I promise. I’m not going to let you be alone all day or for two days or three days or however long everyone is pissed at you. Come on.”

Noah sighed. He had a feeling Cody wouldn’t give up. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do. “Fine. I’ll come. What are we doing?”

Cody smiled. “Hiking.”

Fuck.

“After this, I’m never doing anything again,” Noah complained. “Why did you think this was a good idea?”

“Because I love hiking. And I’ve never been to this waterfall,” Cody replied.

“Can we sit down for a minute?”

“Yeah.”

Noah groaned and collapsed onto the trail. He wouldn’t really call it sitting, more like face-planting on the ground, but he was taking what he could get.

He heard Cody laugh beside him. He looked up to see Cody sit down next to him. “You need water? I also have three apples that I stole from the pantry. Don’t tell Chef.”

“Please, water,” Noah responded, sticking out a hand. Cody gave him a bottle.

Noah drank about half of it, but then realized he’d probably need more later. And he doesn’t know how much Cody brought. Probably not a lot.

Cody was eating an apple. It was loud. Noah sat up and looked at Cody’s teeth when he took another bite. The red skin of the apple was on one of his front teeth. He swallowed a piece and smiled awkwardly. That stupid gap-tooth smile.

“Noah?” Cody asked.

Wait. He was staring at Cody. Cody’s mouth, no less. That was probably really weird.

Noah stood up. “Let’s keep going.”

Cody grinned and followed Noah as he began to walk.

“I can’t believe this is your idea of fun.”

“I can’t believe you were planning on staying inside reading all day.”

“Much more fun than wearing out your limbs and being even more tired in the morning.”

Cody rolled his eyes. “You’re so dramatic.”

“You know how sports aren’t my forte? I meant to say physical activity. Physical activity isn’t my forte.”

“You’ll survive. You just have to learn to take in the scene.”

Noah groaned loudly and annoyingly. “I hate you.”

“I’m serious! Look around you.”

Noah glanced around the forest boredly. It just looked like any old forest to him. He didn’t get what Cody was going on about.

“It’s never going to be the same as it is in this moment, you know.”

What type of white woman doormat quote was that?

“And we’ll stop whenever you need to.”

“Whatever,” Noah complained. “The less breaks I take, the faster I get this over with.”

“That isn’t exactly the message here.”

Noah shrugged. “What way do we go?”

“I think…” Cody looked between the two paths, “I think we take a right here.”

“You think we take a right?”

“I did tell you I’ve never been on this hike before.”

“I hate you so much.”

“Haha.”

“I’m being serious.”

“Sure you are.”

Noah was being serious. Well, kind of. He couldn’t stand Cody. He couldn’t take his optimistic bullshit, the amount he talked, or the stupid gap between his two front teeth. But he didn’t really hate him. He was just annoying. Really annoying. Noah wouldn’t hang around the guy if he didn’t have to, but he didn’t hate him.

If only Owen wasn’t pissed at Noah.

“I think we’re here,” Cody stated. Noah looked up from the ground.

In front of him was a cliff, warmed in the midday light. Green grass stood bright among the few trees in the clearing. Water ran from a higher spot of the cliff and down off of it.

“Pretty,” Cody whispered.

“Hm.” Noah had to admit, it was a gorgeous sight. He wouldn’t tell Cody that, though.

Cody took a seat about two feet from the edge. Noah sighed and followed. He laid down beside Cody.

“Want an apple?” Cody held an apple above Noah’s head.

“Sure.”

He lazily grabbed the apple and placed it in his mouth.

“Athletic people,” Noah complained.

“You had fun.”

“I didn’t.”

Cody believed they were getting past this.

Things were moving past ‘the incident’ and weren’t awkward anymore. Noah even agreed to go on a hike with him. Even though he hated it. Maybe next time they could do a more relaxing activity. Nevertheless, Cody was pretty sure he and Noah were starting to become friends. Score!

The two of them sat together at the campfire. Gwen sat with the two as well. She must have stopped caring about what Noah did once her sleepiness wore off. Zeke was off talking to Harold. Cody wasn’t sure when the two of them actually became friends—this morning Zeke and Harold had gone together to talk with Leshawna and Bridgette. Zeke said he was lucky that B and Dawn got along so well, because it was an excuse to talk to Bridgette. He didn’t know why Harold came, but he didn’t exactly care either. And now, Dawn was still with Zeke and B, so Cody got the day off.

“Who’s your main in Kosmic Kaos?” Cody asked.

“Newton,” Noah answered, shortly.

“Really? I find it really hard to play him. I prefer Kranthor.” Cody turned to his other side to look at Gwen. “What about you?”

“I kinda alternate between the characters?” Gwen answered. “I mean, I don’t play much. The only game I regularly play is Castle Killer.”

Noah slammed the book that he had been reading on and off shut. “Shut up. I never meet anyone who plays that game.

Cody looked between Noah and Gwen. What in the everloving hell was Castle Killer?

“What’s your favorite card?” Noah asked.

“I like the Black King,” Gwen responded. “I know he’s super overpowered and everyone likes him, but he’s a classic. What about you?”

“I feel like Bloodsucker is severely underrated. Paired with a couple healers, she’s literally the most powerful card.”

“I love Bloodsucker! She was my second legend.”

“What was your first?”

“Haunted Armor.”

“No way. Me too.”

Noah and Gwen laughed a little. Cody began to feel a little left out.

“Do you think we’ve ever played each other?” Noah questioned.

“Chances are low,” Gwen answered. “But who knows? Maybe. Hey, Cody,” She directed her attention to Cody, “do you play Castle Killer?”

“Uh, I actually never heard of it.”

“Oh. I thought the CEO of video games would play it. Oh well.” Gwen shrugged, turning back to Noah. “What castle design is your favorite?”

Noah tapped his chin. “I think I liked the Mountain Peak most.”

Cody crossed his arms. So much for talking with Noah.

“Alright Gophers!” Chris paced around the Mess Hall. “Today, we have a fun challenge. A talent show!”

The CITs looked between each other. Two sane challenges in a row. Maybe it was only one and two that were really crazy.

“So, everyone, get into groups of one to as many as you’d like. The winners, or winner, get two pizzas, not made by Chef! They may share it, or keep it all to themselves. And you can keep leftovers, but don’t expect them to stay in the fridge. Haha.”

Owen raised his hand.

“Yes, Owen?”

“Is it two pizzas per person in the group or for the group as a whole?”

“Two for the whole group.”

“Looks like I’m flying solo,” Owen giggled.

Talent? Noah had no talent. At least not anything he could do on stage. He would have to suffer through Chef’s food another night…

“Okay people, get ready!” Chris yelled. “Judging time is at four. And remember, everything has to be legal!”

Duncan snapped, mildly annoyed.

“Hey, Noah.” Owen skipped over to Noah. “I heard you hung out with Cody yesterday.”

“Yeah. Because you ditched me to hang out with Izzy and Eva,” Noah snapped. “I can’t believe you were mad at me for not playing dodgeball.”

“I’m still kind of mad at you. You could’ve at least tried. You’re pretty good at dodging, even though you aren’t a great aimer. You just didn’t do your part and this is the second challenge that we, the Gophers, have lost.”

“Whatever.” Noah crossed his arms. “You know I’m not made for sports.”

“Come on Noah.”

“Okay fine. I guess I could’ve put in a little effort. Especially since I would be sharing the reward if we did win.” Noah thought about that for a minute. If they won, he was going to share the reward. After doing nothing. “Yeah. That was a little asshole-y of me.”

Owen smiled. “Glad to see you can admit when you’re wrong. Now can I have a hug?”

“You know I don’t do hugs.”

Owen swept Noah up into a hug. Noah scrunched his face as Owen almost cracked his spine. “Yeah. Thanks big guy.”

“So, what are you doing for the talent show? Gonna pair up with Cody?”

“No. He’s still just as annoying as he was before.”

“But you hung out with him. And he’s a nice guy! I don’t see why you don’t like him.”

Okay. Maybe he was being a little harsh. Cody wasn’t that bad. He was annoying, but that was it. He was nice, and it was considerate of him to hang out with Noah even though Noah didn’t want to. “Okay, he’s not the worst person here, but that doesn’t mean I like him. I don’t want to be his friend and I don’t want to hang out with him, but I don’t hate him.”

“I think you’ll warm up to him.”

“I won’t.”

“Whatever you say. Anyways, what are you doing for the talent show?”

“Nothing.”

Owen gasped dramatically. “You aren’t doing it? Why not?”

“What talent do I have?”

“Video games. You’re the master.”

“And I can totally do that.”

“Well you can also… okay I got nothing.”

“Thank you for your input, Owen.”

“Well, I’m going to burp the alphabet in one go.”

Noah looked at Owen with disgust. “What… why?”

Owen shrugged. “It’s all I’ve got right now.”

Noah rolled his eyes. Owen. What a guy. How were they friends, again?

“Hey, Gwen,” Cody greeted.

Gwen sat on a stump, writing in her journal. She raised an eyebrow at Cody, seeming slightly annoyed. “Cody.”

“What are you up to?”

“Writing.”

“Oh. Cool.” He sat down next to Gwen, taking a peek at her journal.

“I’m really not in the mood for this, Cody,” Gwen closed her book and turned to face him. “I just want to be alone right now.”

“Are you okay? If you want to talk about something, we can.”

Gwen clutched her brow. “Beat it, Cody.”

“Seriously, Gwen, is something bothering—”

“What part of ‘beat it’ do you not understand?” Gwen asked. She stood up and stormed off, leaving Cody alone on the stump.

His face felt warm. Well, shit. Maybe he should’ve just minded his own business.

Maybe he should go for a swim. That would get his mind off of it.

After changing, Cody walked down the dock. He waved as he saw two of his cabinmates.

“Owen!” He yelled, running down the dock. “Noah!”

Noah sighed. He muttered something that Cody couldn’t hear.

“Cody!” Owen exclaimed. “What’s up, man? How’s your talent show going?”

“Good. I’m taking an hour break right now. After that I have another two and a half hours to prepare, so I’m taking a swim. What are you doing for the talent show?”

“Like I’d tell you my secrets. It’s going to be a surprise.”

“I look forward to it!”

“No, you don’t,” Noah butted in.

“Well, anyways,” Cody continued. “You guys swimming too?”

“No.” Noah stated. Cody looked at him confused—Noah was wearing swim shorts. Who in the world wore a bathing suit and then didn’t go swimming?

“Totally!” Owen shouted. “Let’s go! Last one in owes the other a muffin!”

Cody grinned and he and Owen sprinted down the dock and jumped into the water. Noah didn’t follow them.

“Cannonball!” Owen shrieked as he jumped in alongside Cody.

Water splashed onto the dock. Cody laughed with Owen. He was about to say that Owen owed him a muffin, but then he was interrupted.

“Ugh!” Gwen yelled, abruptly standing up. “I hate this place!”

Cody went pale as he looked up. In his excitement, he didn’t even notice Gwen and Trent on the dock. Gwen was soaking wet as she stormed off the dock.

“Nice going guys,” Trent said, anger in his tone.

“Yeah,” Owen turned to Cody. “Nice goin’.”

Trent stood up and followed after Gwen.

“I thought she said she wanted to be alone,” Cody whispered.

“What?” Owen asked.

“I was trying to talk with her earlier and she told me to go away and that she wanted to be alone.” Cody glanced at Trent tapping on Gwen’s shoulder. “I guess that message was just for me.”

“Oh. Dude, that sucks. Why’d she tell you to go away?”

“I don’t know. She was just in a bad mood, I guess.”

“Sorry about that man. Let’s just swim.”

Cody gave a half-hearted smile. “Sure.”

Owen dove into the water and Cody followed after.

Noah watched as Gwen walked out of her cabin, and he could practically see the steam coming out of her ears. He didn’t blame her. Owen told Noah that Cody was bothering her and she didn’t want to hang out with him. Well, Owen phrased it as if Cody was a victim, but Noah knew better. Gwen didn’t seem like the type to just lash out at people. Cody probably did something and either was sugarcoating it when he told Owen, or just couldn’t tell that he did anything wrong. Probably the latter. After almost two weeks spent with Cody at camp, Noah could tell that the kid was incredibly socially dense.

Noah gave her a wave as she passed his reading spot. She glanced at him and held up her palm as a half-assed wave.

About ten minutes passed when Gwen came walking back. She had changed from her bathing suit into her regular clothes, and her hair remained wet. She probably took a shower. Noah looked up and she stopped.

“Mind if I sit here for a minute?” She asked.

“Nah.” Noah turned a page. Gwen sat cross-legged across from him.

“Everyone is driving me insane today. This morning, Heather picked a fight with me about whose space is whose. She has an entire empty bunk below her to put her stuff! The floor is my territory. God, I can’t stand her.”

“Me neither. I haven’t really talked with her much, but she’s the absolute worst.”

“Genuinely! Anyways, I took my journal and went to spend some time alone but then Cody had to come talk with me. I don’t mind Cody, but then he was looking at what I was writing and when I told him I wanted to be alone he kept on pushing for me to talk with him so I told him to beat it and when he didn’t I kinda just left. I don’t know, maybe I was a bit harsh but I just didn’t want to deal with him!”

“I knew he was sugarcoating it.”

“What?”

“He told Owen that you said you wanted alone time but then he saw you with Trent. He didn’t say that he tried to read your journal or kept pushing to keep talking with him.”

Gwen didn’t even looked shocked. She looked more tired than anything. “Of course he did. What an idiot.”

“He’s so dense, right?” Noah grinned. “The worst.”

Gwen chuckled. “Yeah. He is. Would you mind talking to him for me?”

Noah looked a little confused. “Me? Talk to him for you? Why?”

“Because you two are friends and I really don’t want to do it.”

“We are not friends.”

“What?” Gwen looked confused. “You guys talk all the time. Didn’t you two go on a hike together yesterday? What do you mean you’re not friends?”

“I don’t know what he told you, but I don’t like him. He’s so annoying, so talkative, and so nerdy. I really cannot stand him. He dragged me on that hike against my will.”

“Oh.”

“CITs!” A piercing voice was heard through the loudspeakers. “Head to the amphitheater! It’s judging time!”

Noah sighed and stood up. Gwen followed.

“So what are you doing?” Noah asked.

“Nothing,” Gwen replied. “You?”

“Nothing.”

She grinned. The two began their trek to the amphitheater.

When they got there, Noah took his seat on the edge of the bleachers, Gwen next to him. Most everyone took their seats among the bleachers.

“For our first performance, we have Owen!” Chris announced. With that, he left the stage.

Noah clapped in a half-assed manner as the curtains opened.

“For my performance, I sing the alphabet!”

Gwen looked confused, and then Owen started chugging water. Realization hit her straight in the face, and fast.

“I know, right?” Noah deadpanned.

“He’s burping the alphabet?” She questioned.

“Yup.” Noah popped the p.

“I hate this place.”

Owen began his… music. A few guys looked impressed, notably Geoff and Cody, but the girls and a couple guys were more disgusted than anything.

When he finished, Chris walked onto the stage. “Well. Chef, Blaineley, what are your scores?”

Noah hadn’t seen Chef and Blaineley before. He looked around, but still couldn’t find them. Now he was just confused. He looked at Gwen, who was equally bewildered.

“Chef gives the performance a six! Blaineley gives you one. And I give a seven! Awesome performance, man.” Chris gave Owen a fist-bump. “You get fourteen points out of thirty! Good, but probably not a high enough score to win. We’ll just have to see how sucky everyone else is.” He laughed.

Owen exited the stage, soon coming to sit on the bleachers next to Cody and Ezekiel. Typical.

From then on, all the performances were a blur. Katie and Sadie danced. Geoff skateboarded on ramps that Duncan moved around. Leshawna danced. Bridgette stood on her hands and collapsed hard. Courtney played the violin while DJ did some ribbon dance, and failed to do so. Tyler moved targets around while Ezekiel shot at them, but he had a couple of misses. Izzy did the “dance of the rattlesnake”. For god’s sake, what was with all of the dancing? And why was it all so bad? Except Izzy’s, that was kind of entrancing.

After Izzy’s performance, Cody, Harold, Justin, and Trent came to the stage. They were the biggest group of people thus far.

And they started singing the most dumbass song Noah had ever heard. When I cry, my eye is wet? What the fuck. The next line was even worse. Noah was prepared to jump off a cliff again from the second hand embarrassment.

“What are they doing?” Gwen asked, in a whispery tone.

“I have no clue,” Noah responded. “Whatever it is, it’s making me want to kill myself.”

“Me too.”

Noah thought arguably, the worst part of the performance, was that the instrumentals were actually good. It was just the absolutely grotesque lyrics that held it back. Trent was obviously very skilled with guitar, and Cody wasn’t half bad at the keyboard. He didn’t really know what Justin was doing- he was kind of just standing there looking pretty. He still captured half of the audience with that.

Noah thought it was Harold’s beatbox solo that did him in. It was just… so… ugh. He couldn’t even tell if it was a good ugh or a bad ugh.

And for some reason, the four of them scored tens from Chef and Blaineley. Chris gave them an eight. It was the highest score in the show yet. What in the world was happening. Noah thought he traveled to some alternate universe where bad was good and good was bad.

After the scores for them were announced, Noah had to turn to Gwen just to know if what he saw was real. When she returned his glance with a wide-open mouth and raised eyebrows, he figured it wasn’t just his imagination.

Next, Heather came up to the stage. She wore a pink tutu and had her hair braided. Gwen let out a noise of disgust.

“Originally, I was going to dance for you,” She began. Noah raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t going to do this, but after the last performance, what have I got to lose? I call my performance ‘sweet revenge’.”

Heather cleared her throat, and pulled out a diary. Noah shot Gwen a glance, and Gwen’s eyes widened.

“She wouldn’t,” Gwen said.

“So, with words by Gwen, performance by me, enjoy.” Heather opened the diary. “Okay, so I was trying to ignore him at first, but he’s just so cute! I had to talk to him. If they had custom ordered a guy to be a distraction for me, it would be McHottie.” She breaked to snicker. “Thank god this is at camp, and not at school or something. We just totally connect, he’s pretty much the only person I can relate to here, and I love guys with dark hair.”

Gwen buried her face in her hands. Noah, not knowing what to do, gave her a reassuring pat on the back.

“Thank you!” Heather grinned, and exited the stage.

It didn’t seem like anyone really cared for the performance. Blaineley gave her a nine, but Chef and Chris gave her ones. People whispered on the bleachers, and Noah didn’t bother to listen to what they had to say.

A few heads turned to look at Gwen. Noah took his hand off of her back as she stood up and quickly walked away from the bleachers, trying not to make a spectacle of herself.

“Finally, Beth and Lindsay!”

Beth and Lindsay came to the stage. They both held batons, fire on each end. Noah had a feeling that this wasn’t going to end well.

He was right. The next thing he knew, the amphitheater was on fire. He and the CITs made a run for it and he heard a fire extinguisher putting out the fire.

What a day.

At the campfire, Noah sat down on his usual log. Owen was talking with Ezekiel a little ways away.

“Hey,” Cody greeted, sitting next to Noah. He had four slices of pizza on his plate.

“Looks like you lucked out,” Noah said. “Good job.”

Cody smiled. “Take one.”

“A slice?”

“Yeah. Justin didn’t end up eating much so I gave one of his slices to Zeke and I can’t leave you out. Plus, I tried to give some to Gwen but if she wasn’t pissed at me before she sure is now. I think she was about to slap it out of my hands. Works out for you, though.”

Noah took a piece. “Thanks, I guess. I can’t even eat half the stuff Chef serves.”

“Tell me about it.”

“No, seriously. I’m allergic to everything.”

“Oh. Yeah.” Cody crossed his legs, picking up one of his slices. “Well, you’re welcome.”

Noah bit into his pizza. It was really good. Way better than anything he had in a while.

Cody was still annoying, but at least he was nice too.

“So, you tried to talk to Gwen?” Noah asked.

“Yeah.”

“Well, I was talking with her earlier. She asked me to tell you that the problem was that you were trying to read her journal and when she asked you to go away you just kept talking.”

“Oh.” It was like a lightbulb just turned on in Cody’ head. “Ohhh. I guess I was being pretty nosy. When you put it like that I guess I was being a little annoying.”

Noah gave Cody a blank stare.

“I really should talk to her. Especially now that I realize what I actually need to apologize for.” He rubbed one of his temples. “I’m such an idiot.”

“Just give her time right now, talk to her another day. She likes her space and I get her.”

“Cody!” Heather yelled, running down the dock.

Cody looked up from his spot sitting on the dock with Zeke. Heather looked angry. Very angry.

“Where is Harold?”

“I don’t know. I left pretty early in the morning, he was asleep when I left.”

“Well, if you find him before I do, tell him he’s dead! I woke up being bitten by stupid red ants! And guess who the only person here with a red ant farm is? When I get to him, I’m going to wring his nerdy little neck!”

“I’ll tell him that. But a heads up—he probably won’t be back ‘til dinner. He likes to be alone in the woods. He’s a ‘lone wolf’ or something.”

“Great! He can die in those woods. If I don’t get to him, I hope the wolves do. Thanks Cody!”

Cody waved as she walked away.

“She scares me,” Zeke stated when Heather was out of earshot.

“Me too. I’m just going to stay on her good side,” Cody replied. “But she totally deserves that red ant farm attack after what she did to Gwen. That was such an asshole move.”

Zeke nodded.

There was silence for a moment.

“So, I guess you know that Gwen likes someone else now, eh?” Zeke said.

Cody sighed. “Yeah. It’s not like she was ever going to like me though. This is year three of flirting with her. Probably my sign to give it up. I think I need to start really considering her feelings about me flirting with her.”

“Um, speaking of,” Zeke tapped his fingers together. “I don’t like Bridgette anymore. I’ve been talking to her a little bit more than I did before and I like talking to her, but I kind of stopped… wanting to kiss her. I like her but in a more friend way. Which… I never thought I’d want to be friends with a girl before because I thought they were all this one way but now I don’t know. It’s different. I thought crushes lasted for longer than a couple of weeks but… I don’t know.”

Cody put an arm around Zeke’s shoulder. Zeke looked at him, slightly confused. “Zeke, you don’t have to want to kiss a girl to like her. You can still like her company. Girls aren’t just there for guys to like, just like guys aren’t just there for girls to like. And guys and girls can be friends.”

Cody looked Zeke in the eyes.

“And if you wanted a longer crush, you might have another one. Maybe. And maybe it will actually last a while. I mean, I’ve had crushes that lasted a week but I’ve also had ones that lasted months. I think it’s fun to have crushes. Gives you something to think about, you know?”

Zeke smiled. “It was kind of fun to like Bridgette. I liked to talk about it with you.”

“Talking about it is the best part. I know a lot of guys don’t do it, but then what’s the point?” Cody took his arm off of Zeke’s shoulder. “Anyways, I’m going to get in the water. It’s getting hot.”

Zeke nodded, and Cody was just about to jump in when he was interrupted.

“Cody!” Geoff yelled, jogging down the dock. Cody turned to Geoff, who walked behind him.

“What’s up?” Cody greeted his friends, standing up.

“We were looking for Gwen,” Courtney stated. “After what happened yesterday we wanted to cheer her up. It was so unnecessary of Heather to do that. We were wondering if you knew where she was or if you wanted to come?”

“I don’t know where she is, sorry,” Cody apologized. “And she’s super mad at me, so I don’t think I should come with. I should wait until she’s in a better mood to talk with her.”

Courtney nodded. “Well, thanks anyways. If we find her, we’ll mention you. If she isn’t angry by the sound of your name, I’ll tell you. It’ll probably be safe enough for you to apologize about whatever you did at that point.”

Cody nodded. “Well, good luck.”

Courtney smiled and waved before turning and walking away with Geoff.

When they left, Cody finally got in the water. He remained by the dock so he could continue talking with Zeke. Zeke laid on his stomach now, so he could be closer to Cody.

“Why’s Gwen mad at you?” Zeke asked.

Cody looked to the side. “I totally invaded her personal space the other day without realizing. Noah told me, he talked with her and that’s how I found out. I feel super bad but she won’t even let me talk to her. I feel so shitty about it because I didn’t even realize how I was acting but… looking back I see why she’s mad.”

“Oh. I’m sure she’ll let you talk to her soon.”

“Thanks, dude.”

Cody looked up to see Noah walking down the path.

“Hey! Noah!” He shouted.

Zeke looked up to see Noah as well. Cody gave Noah a wave, and Noah returned it.

Noah sat in the old outhouse. After last Saturday, he figured out the calling Ava really late compared to early would work better. He had already listened to Ava talk about what was going on in her life, so now he was telling her about everything that happened with him.

“But after the awake-a-thon, the challenges were pretty chill. We did dodgeball and a talent show.”

“Dodgeball? You did dodgeball?”

“Well, no, but it was easy for everyone else. Actually, my team was mad at me after I didn’t participate in dodgeball.”

“Uh, yeah! If I were on your team, I would be mad too! If you’re on the team you have to participate.”

“I know, I know now. Owen being mad at me was enough for me to realize. Also, when Owen was mad at me I spent a morning reading. Then Cody—I mentioned Cody to you, right?”

“Uh… I think so. Is he one of the ones you said talked too much?”

“Yeah. He dragged me out on a hike.”

“You? On a hike? How did he manage that?”

“I have no idea. It was a pretty long hike too. I guess I was just so bored that I didn’t even care anymore. Anyways, horrible decision that hike sucked and Cody is so annoying. I mean, he isn’t the worst person in the world, but he’s annoying. Oh, and the talent show!”

“What did you do for the talent show? Read at 425 words per minute?”

Noah rolled his eyes at her comment, even though she couldn’t see it. Actually, after his entire life of knowing her, she probably knew he was doing it. “No. I didn’t participate. But anyways, the point here is that there’s this girl Gwen who’s friends with Cody. She’s some goth girl but very not like someone you would assume Cody hangs out with. She was in a bad mood because she got in a fight with some bitchy girl in her cabin. And later I saw her and she talked to me about how Cody was annoying her and she also assumed that me and him were friends but whatever. She asked me to talk to him for her. I wasn’t going to, but then when we were watching the talent show that same bitchy girl read her diary and she was even more mad. So I talked to Cody for her and said when she was feeling better he should apologize.”

“What—who read her diary? Dude, that is such an ass move.”

“Seriously. It was so uncalled for, I felt so bad but what can I do? On my way over here I heard a couple of kids talking about how they couldn’t find her. Oh well. I hope she’s okay, because she is actually one of the most chill people at this camp. She didn’t deserve that. Even if it was just talking about her crush or something.”

“Oh, poor girl.”

“Yeah. It was super cheesy though, I will say. She called him ‘McHottie’. If I didn’t feel so bad for her I probably would’ve laughed.”

“That’s even worse. I can’t imagine someone knowing that I would ever refer to someone as ‘McHottie’. That’s criminal right there.”

Noah laughed to himself. “Yeah.”

The conversation continued for a little, talking about Noah’s week for a while before Noah realized they were running out of time.

“Ava it’s almost been an hour. Talk to you next week.”

“Alright, bye!”

Noah hung up, and exited the outhouse.

Yesterday, Noah had a great day of doing nothing. He was almost done with his most recent book, and he planned on finishing it this morning.

Cody ruined his plans.

Before he knew it, Noah was being dragged out to the dock by Cody Anderson. He was talking about Ezekiel ditching him or something.

The dock was pretty much as it always was. Noah read while pretending to pay attention to whoever he was with. Well, he usually pretended, but when he was with Owen he at least half paid attention. Noah could not bring himself to give a fuck about anything Cody said.

Cody was blabbing about his Saturday before he was interrupted by the ear-piercing voice of someone who read someone else’s diary.

“Cody! I don’t know what you told Harold, but I can’t find him and I have a twelve o’clock beating to get to!”

“I didn’t tell Harold anything!” Cody responded, hands in the air. Noah looked up from his book. “I didn’t even see him until late last night when he was asleep. I think he skipped dinner.”

“Figures. He knows he fucked up. Where is he?”

“I don’t know! Uh, Noah?”

“Don’t look at me. I like to keep that freak at a six foot distance.”

“Me too!” Heather threw her hands up. “But guess who had to deal with an ant farm in her bed!”

Noah grinned. Yesterday, he woke up to her screaming. “Well deserved.”

“What do you mean ‘well deserved’? What did I do to have red ants attack me?”

“I don’t know, maybe reading Gwen’s diary to everyone had a little something to do with it.”

Heather flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Whatever. She totally had it coming. I’m just waiting for you to get your butt bit for not helping us in the dodgeball challenge.”

“Like I could’ve actually helped you. I think having me participate would be a downgrade.”

Heather narrowed her eyes. “You still look like a great human shield!” She chirped. “I hope next time Ezekiel’s practicing archery, you’re around for me to use as one.”

That was one of the worst comebacks Noah had ever heard.

“Anyways, I’m going to find Harold, and he’s coming back dead.”

She walked off.

“I hate her,” Noah stated. “She’s such a bitch.”

“Yeah…” Cody agreed. “What she did to Gwen was so… bad. For no reason.”

“Have you seen Gwen?” Noah asked. “I heard Courtney and Geoff were looking for her.”

“Well, I think they ended up talking with her and I saw her when I headed over to grab breakfast. She was walking with Courtney. I think she isn’t exactly happy but she’s showing up again, and on talking terms with her friends.”

“You should probably apologize.”

“I should. Cody rested his head and looked out towards the cabins. “Speak of the devil…”

Noah followed his gaze to see Gwen walking down the path.

Cody stood up wordlessly and ran over to where Gwen stood. Noah followed, although kept his distance. He stood right where the dock ended and the land began. He looked back to his book, but also remotely listened to Cody.

“Hey, Gwen,” He greeted, a little hesitantly.

“Cody,” She responded, turning around, arms folded.

“I’m really sorry about the other day. I didn’t even notice that I was intruding in your space, I won’t do it again. If you tell me to leave, I will.”

Gwen sighed. “Yeah, it’s fine. I just like my time alone.”

“I’ll think about that next time, I swear. And uh, are you okay? If you’re okay with talking about Friday.”

Gwen smiled. “I’m trying to get over it. Heather just ticks me off. But I have to go. See you later, Cody.”

Gwen waved to Noah, who looked up from his book and waved back with a smile.

We just totally connect, he’s pretty much the only person I can relate to here, and I love guys with dark hair.

Cody glanced between Gwen and Noah. Holy shit.

That made so much sense.

Noah was a pretty desirable guy. He was smart and relaxed. Not to mention he was good looking. He had well kept decently long brown hair, a cute preppy style, and very deep eyes. Girls went on and on about eyes.

Plus, he and Gwen had so much in common. They liked to read, they limited their interactions with other people, and they liked the dark. And didn’t like swimming. She could totally relate to him!

Gwen had a crush on Noah.

The rest of Cody’s day passed like it was nothing. But what he had realized did not leave his mind. As he sat at the campfire eating some of Chef’s disgusting food, he kept his eyes on Noah. Noah was distracted, in an argument with Duncan about something. Eva argued alongside him.

Now what was Cody supposed to do? He felt kind of weird. Obviously he was kind of sad that there was no chance that Gwen liked him back. He had a fluttery pit in his stomach. But he also wanted Gwen and Noah to get together because, well come on. Now that he knew Gwen liked him, he noticed that Noah was nicer to her than he was to any other girl on the island. He liked Izzy and Eva, but in more of a sibling way. Gwen was just casually talking to him about her problems with Cody (which wow, thanks) and he was smiling at her when she waved? He liked her back. He totally liked her back. It was Cody’s duty to wingman for them!

He should probably go to bed before thinking about this.

Chapter Text

“Okay, CITs,” Chris smiled at the CITs. “Today, we will be going camping!”

“Are we not already camping?” Noah asked, slapping a mosquito.

“No! Cabin camping isn’t real camping. You all will go on a hike carrying your supplies with one of five maps I give you, set up camp, find your own food, stay the night, and hike back in the morning! The first group back between dawn and noon with all of their supplies, or most of their supplies, intact win the challenge! The winners get to back out of any challenge in the future. So! Get into groups of four or five, come get a map and supplies, and head out! Oh, and be careful,” Chris grinned, “there’s bears out there.”

Noah was about to go talk to Owen, when Cody tapped on his shoulder.

“Hey, Noah,” He smiled. Noah turned to look at him, mildly annoyed. “I was wondering if you wanted to team up with me and Gwen and one of her friends?”

“No thanks, I was going to go with Owen—” Noah watched Owen talk with Justin, Katie, and Sadie. There was absolutely no way Noah was going to camp with Justin, Katie, and Sadie. “—and he’s gone. Fine. Let’s go get—”

“Hey guys!” Izzy greeted, slinging each of her arms around the shoulders of Cody and Noah. “Camping trip, huh? I love camping! Last time I went camping was with my brother in the Yukon and it was freezing. Like, freezing! So we were all bundled up in the tent when a yeti creeped up next to our tent and my brother almost died! Long story short, do not bring steak on camping trips.”

“Izzy, tell the story when we’re actually in the woods. We have to start heading out,” Eva advised.

“Hi.” Ezekiel walked up next to Cody. “Can I be in this group?”

“Uh, sure,” Cody agreed. “Well. That’s five. I guess Gwen won’t come with us.”

Noah raised an eyebrow at Cody. He looked out to where Gwen was, talking to Leshawna and Trent.

Izzy and Eva grabbed their team’s supplies. Eva shoved the map into Noah’s hands.

“Map boy.”

Noah rolled his eyes and looked at the map. They were going to hike what Noah assumed would be four or five hours East. He checked the hypsometry key- they were going uphill all the way there, but heading back was going to be completely downhill. After hiking two kilometers, the rest of their hike would be along a river. At the end of their hike, they would reach a cave. There was a note at the bottom of the map reading: Do NOT enter the cave, no matter what.

“I’m not a map boy,” Noah responded.

“Where do we go?” Eva asked, ignoring his last statement.

Noah sighed. “Southeast. This way.”

Noah pointed in the direction, and Izzy was already bouncing her way down. She held what Noah assumed was the entire tent in a bag. Eva held another bag filled with wooden poles that would hold the tent together. Ezekiel held some miscellaneous tools, like fishing rods, bags, and tape. Lucky him, the three of them had everything they needed covered.

Ezekiel ran up to where Eva was hiking behind Izzy. Eva was stone-faced, and likely a lot less excited about the challenge. Ezekiel didn’t seem upset, but he wasn’t smiling either.

“Have you ever been tent camping?” Cody asked Noah. Typical.

“Once,” Noah replied. “I was eleven. It was not fun. It was with my sisters Amber, Vivian, and Ava and my brother Brett.”

“Woah.” Cody’s eyes widened. “You have four siblings?”

“Eight, actually. I’m the youngest. The rest of my siblings all had work during the camping trip, except Alice, who just refused to come. Amber wanted to go camping with all of her little siblings because it was her last summer before college or whatever. Sibling bonding.” Noah did jazz hands.

“Wow. I don’t have any siblings.” Cody hung a hand on his neck. “As a kid I always wanted a little brother, but my parents are too busy to take care of kids, so I would have to look after him. Being an only child is both a blessing and a curse.”

Noah blew out some air. It was definitely more of a curse than a blessing, but he didn’t care enough to tell Cody that.

“I mean, I was always pretty lonely, but if I had to deal with someone all the time, I don’t know. I feel like that wouldn’t be fun. What is it like having all those siblings?”

“Annoying. Ava’s always pestering me and messing with my stuff. When I was little, Brett threw a baseball at me trying to teach me how to play and it broke my left arm. Fun times. But you know, they’re my siblings so I’m pretty much obligated to love them.”

Cody sucked in a breath, probably to the baseball comment. “I see why sports aren’t your forte.”

A small smile crept onto Noah’s face. “I did get to sit out of gym for two months, so that was a plus. But then again, I always found a way to avoid gym class. Except for in ninth grade, my teacher scared me.”

“It’s always ninth grade gym teachers that are the worst. Mine didn’t let anyone bring their water outside, and didn’t allow bathroom breaks either.”

“Mine would yell at you if you came out of the changing room after the bell. Like hello, the bell is to get to class, not to change into an entire different outfit. Not to mention, the gym is in the corner of my school. Some kids had to run there just to make it for the bell.”

“My school is pretty small, so everyone always made it to class by the bell.”

“How many kids go to your school?”

“I think about 120? Across all grades. It’s a private school.”

Noah grinned. “Private school?”

“Yeah. My parents wanted me to have a good education. Really, it’s just a bunch of rich kids and broke teachers and an hour-long carpool with Francis to get there.”

“Francis? Where do you live, 1912 London?”

“Nah. West Ontario.”

“How long did it take you to get here? Like, to camp.”

“16 hours.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“Hey, Geoff is from Nova Scotia. He has to fly here.”

“Fly? For fucking what?”

Cody shrugged. “His family comes down here to visit family during summer, and they just drop him off here. Plus, it’s like, super cheap to drop your kid here for the summer. No matter the cost to get here, you’re saving a ton of money by being just here for ten weeks. Anyways, how far of a drive are you?”

“Two hours. I live near Toronto.”

“Lucky! I live near nothing. The nearest city is a couple hours away from me.”

“Map boy!” Izzy screamed, running over to where Noah and Cody were talking. “Do we take a left or a right?”

Noah took the map out of his pocket, scanning the paper to figure out where he was. “Uh, right.”

“Stop talking to your boyfriend and start paying attention,” Eva demanded in a monotone voice. “You have one job.”

Ezekiel looked at Eva with a confused expression.

Noah flushed. “Eva, I thought you said that was dumb.”

“Come on Noah!” Izzy grabbed Noah’s arm, running forward onto the path they were taking. “You guys are so slow, you would never last a day in my cousin Richard’s place in the Yukon. You can’t afford to ever not run there.”

“Izzy, we can’t run, we need to conserve our energy if we even want to make it to camp by sunset,” Eva said. “Remember, we’ll need food too.”

“Oh don’t even worry about it! I can always hunt down a bite, thanks to those seven weeks I spent in the woods last summer trying to escape the RCMP. By the way, do not EVER eat yellow berries you find in the woods. It won’t end well.”

Noah sighed. So. This was his life.

Hiking was one thing. Hiking with Eva and Izzy was another thing. Eva was talking to Izzy about something, and Izzy was dragging Noah by the arm around the trail with a speed that Noah wasn’t happy with. He would much rather be behind the two of them, at least for the hike, and with Cody. At least Cody wasn’t trying to sprint for six miles straight.

“So what were you and loverboy talking about?” Izzy asked.

“What the fuck.”

“What were you talking about? What was up? What was so interesting that it captured your attention the way Vincent Van Gogh captured the attention of my Uncle Abraham, who attempted to cut his ear off to honor him, and succeeded unsuccessfully?”

“Again, what the fuck.”

“Just spit it out, Noah!” Izzy screamed, surprisingly violent.

“Just school. And siblings.”

“Boring! If you ever want to be able to kiss that boy again, you need to get your act together! Engage in conversation that will leave him wanting more! You can not be your boring old self, Noah!”

Noah stole a glance back at Cody and Ezekiel, who were fairly far behind them, and (hopefully) hadn’t heard.

“I don’t want to kiss him!” Noah hissed. “You need to chill out!”

“I know you want to Noah! I have a sense for love.”

“Calm down.”

“Izzy, it has been two weeks,” Eva reasoned. “Noah is not in love with Cody. That’s just not possible.”

“Exactly.” Noah was glad at least one of them was half-sane.

“I can feel it in your bones, Noah!” Izzy pinched his cheek.

“You can’t feel my bones.”

“Yes I can!” Izzy grabbed his arm.

 Eva shoved the two away from each other. “You guys are the worst. Let’s just stop messing around and get to the darn campsite.”

“With speed, my darlings!” Izzy cheered, scooping Noah into her arms and darting off.

Ezekiel and Cody hung behind the other three by a longshot. Noah’s legs ached, even though Izzy carried him for half the hike.

They had been hiking for at least five hours at this point. They had begun their challenge later than usual today, at 1:30, but this was probably the challenge they needed the most time for.

“Is that the cave on the map?” Eva questioned.

“I think so,” Noah responded, and heard some footsteps running up behind him.

“Are we here?” Cody asked, peering over Noah and Eva’s shoulders.

“Looks like it.”

“Let’s build the tent in the cave!” Izzy suggested.

“No! We’re not supposed to go in the cave.”

“That’s exactly why we should. If you always follow the rules, you never learn anything. That’s what my long lost cousin Alisa told me, and guess what? I learned that she existed by not following the rules. That’s also how I got banished from Scotland.”

“I don’t even want to know.”

“We’re staying outside,” Eva stated, already beginning to stake some of the poles into the ground. “Hand me that tent, Izzy.”

Izzy walked over to Eva and assisted her in setting up the tent. Noah sat on the ground, letting out a long sigh.

“I know, right?” Cody sat down next to him. “My feet are killing me.”

Zeke nodded. “Me too. But we have to get food before night.”

“Let Eva do it,” Noah said. “Or anyone but me.”

“I’m pretty good at hunting, and I brought my bow and some arrows. I think I can get us something.”

Noah grimanced. “What, do you want to eat squirrels?”

“I was thinking of a deer.”

“Isn’t that, like a lot of meat?” Cody asked.

“I was going to go for a smaller one. Or a baby. Babies taste good. And it’s okay to have just a little leftover, we can eat some for breakfast and leave the rest for other animals.”

“What! You can’t kill a baby deer.” Cody had a horrified expression on his face. “What did it do to you?”

“It’s food, we eat meat all the time.”

“I am not eating a baby deer.”

Ezekiel sighed. “Fine. I’ll get a rabbit instead.”

Cody looked like he was going to say something, but then didn’t. He probably didn’t want to eat a rabbit either, but at least they would be able to eat all of it.

Noah was fine with that. At least it was food people actually ate.

“You three!” Eva shouted from where she was setting up. “Make yourselves useful and get us some food.”

Ezekiel jumped to his feet with a nod, taking his bow and arrows.

Cody followed in suit of Ezekiel. By the time he was on his feet, Ezekiel was already out of the area and on his own.

“Noah, wanna look for something that isn’t meat?”

Noah shrugged. “Less effort. I’m in.”

So the two started wandering around aimlessly in the forest.

“As if we’re actually going to find something edible in this forest,” Noah said. “What are we going to find? Baneberries?”

“What in the world is a baneberry?” Cody asked.

“They’re those poisonous berries that you see everywhere.”

“Oh. Yeah. So…” Cody kicked the dirt as they walked, “you talk to Gwen often?”

Noah snorted. “Don’t worry. I’m not stealing your woman, or whatever,” he waved his hands around to dramatize his words.

“Oh, I’m not worried about that! Wait, no, I mean I’m not saying that because of that! I know she doesn’t like me, it’s okay.”

Noah raised an eyebrow at the shorter boy.

“Like, she can date someone else and I won’t be upset. If someone asked her out, I wouldn’t care. No matter who it was.”

“What in the world are you talking about?”

Cody sighed. “Nevermind.”

The rest of their walk was pretty quiet which surprised Noah considering they had so much to talk about earlier. He thought about bringing up their earlier conversation, but ultimately decided against it. Noah wasn’t even sure he had the energy to talk more than he had to at this point.

“Hey!” Cody said about 30 minutes into their walk, squinting in the distance.

“What?” Noah questioned, not seeing what Cody was looking at.

Cody didn’t answer. Instead, he ran forward and skidded to a stop in front of a bush up ahead. Noah did not follow, or at least not as quickly. He strolled slowly to the bush where Cody stood, and saw that it was covered in blueberries. Beside the bush there were splotches of blu-ish purple juice. That was questionable.

“Blueberries!” Cody chirped. “Thank god. I don’t want to eat a rabbit.”

Noah shrugged. “I could do both. I just hope Ezekiel can cook it. Or at least someone can.”

Cody took out the bag that Ezekiel had given him and plucked some berries off of the bush. Noah did the same. The bag wasn’t able to be filled, but Noah figured it was enough for Cody to eat and everyone else to have along with their rabbit.

“Now,” Noah looked around. “Getting back.”

“When we get back I’m crash-landing on the ground and nothing is going to stop me,” Cody stated.

“Where is Izzy.”

It wasn’t a question. It was a statement of disappointment uttered by Noah, who had just arrived back from his long journey of getting blueberries. Cody slouched beside him and dropped the bag of berries.

“If I have to look for her—” He began.

“I have no idea,” Eva interrupted. “I left for a minute and she was gone. I have no clue where she is. But, we do have food on the fire, so that’s a plus.”

Ezekiel sat by the fire, watching the rabbit.

“So he actually caught something,” Noah said.

Noah dropped to the ground next to the tent, which was by now set up.

“I am not looking for her, by the way.”

“You can say that again.” Cody followed his actions and took a seat next to Noah and Eva.

“You know what?” Eva asked. “Me neither. Give me some of whatever you got in that sack.”

“It’s berries,” Noah said, passing Eva the bag. Cody scooted next to her and took handfuls at a time and shoved them into his mouth.

“Leave some for the rest of us!” Eva demanded.

“He’s not having the rabbit,” Noah explained.

“Oh. Good. You better not slow us down in the morning, though. Not having any protein and all.”

Cody nodded.

“Why aren’t you having the rabbit?” Ezekiel asked. “I didn’t know you were vegetarian.”

“I’m not. I just don’t want to eat the rabbit you killed. It feels weird.”

“It’s more for us,” Noah said. “Enjoy it.”

“Let’s eat then,” Eva said. “Rabbit looks done.”

Ezekiel nodded and took the rabbit off of the fire and put it on a piece of cloth that Eva had out. Eva used their knife to cut the rabbit into smaller portions.

“This has been a pretty chill challenge,” Eva said. “Just camp in the woods. The only problem is we have Izzy in our group and she’s Izzy. Other than that, we would have this challenge in the bag.”

“Yeah. Spending the night in the woods. So scary.” Noah did jazz hands.

There was a loud growl in the distance. Cody slowly turned to Ezekiel, who paled.

“Okay, so maybe we should get in the tent.”

Cody nodded while Eva and Ezekiel slowly slid into the tent.

“Do you think Izzy’s okay?” Cody asked.

“She’s Izzy, she can do anything,” Eva responded. “Hopefully.”

“She’s been gone for a while now…” Ezekiel stated.

Noah tapped his leg.

Nightfall was upon the four, and Izzy still hadn’t returned. Noah read his book in the corner- Coraline. A children’s book, yes, but it didn’t stop Noah from enjoying it. It was short and only took him a little over an hour to read. The last time he read it he was probably eleven. He remembers enjoying it, and he was enjoying it now, but he kept on yawning and interrupting himself.

Eva yawned after Noah let one out. “Could you quit it?” She asked. “Your yawning is making me yawn. If you’re so tired, just go to bed already!”

“Shush!” Cody was heard. “Zeke is asleep.”

“Well, someone has to stay up and look out for Izzy,” Noah reasoned. “What are we going to do if she doesn’t come back? Let her wander around the woods aimlessly for two days? Again?”

“She’ll come back.”

Shadows crossed the tent.

“Um.” Noah looked back and forth.

“It was probably just a tree branch,” Eva brushed off the sudden passing darkness.

“I didn’t hear any wind.”

A branch breaking was heard. Cody scooted back and curled into a ball. “What was that?”

Footsteps were heard. Approaching faster, and faster, and faster.

Screaming.

“Justin!” The high-pitched voice of a pigtail-wearing girl screeched, diving into the tent alongside her friend. Well well well, if it wasn’t Katie and Sadie.

“Wait.” Sadie looked up. “You aren’t Owen and Justin.”

Cody let out a sigh of relief. “Holy, you two scared the crap out of me.”

“Oh my gosh, Sadie, what do we do?” Katie asked.

“Oh my gosh, Katie, I don’t know!”

“Wha?” Ezekiel propped himself up on his elbows from his position on the ground. “Who?” He rubbed his eyes and scanned the tent. “What are they doing here?”

“You would not believe it!” Sadie sat up. “We saw some blueberries so we ate them but then we realized that Justin and Owen went off without us! So we went into this cave and got chased out by a million bats AND a bear! We wandered around the woods for a while and got in a massive fight. But then, we saw the bear again and got chased through the cave and got here!”

Katie sat up as well. “Oh Sadie, I’m so sorry I said I was prettier than you.”

“And I’m so sorry I brought up the Snack Shack.”

“And I’m sorry I said your butt was too big to fit in the bus seats.”

“You did?”

“Um. Well not to your face.”

Katie and Sadie stared at each other.

“Oh who cares! We’re safe! And you’re my best friend and I love you!” Sadie cried, hugging her best friend.

“Oh I love you too!”

Eva coughed to get everyone’s attention. “Sorry to break up your little lovefest over here, but did you say that the bear chased you through the cave?”

“Yeah?”

There was a roar from outside the tent.

“AAAHHH!” The two girls screeched, darting out of the tent. When a shadow covered the tent, everyone else followed.

“What do you do when a grizzly bear hunts you down, again?” Cody asked.

“Um,” Sadie began. “If it’s black fight back, if it’s brown lie down, if it’s white goodnight.”

Cody darted around a corner, dragging Noah and Ezekiel with him. He laid on the ground and Noah and Ezekiel followed, trying to imitate dead bodies. Noah kept one eye slightly open. The bear turned the corner and… scratched its forehead? Was Noah dreaming? Then, the bear growled and made a jump for Cody.

Noah got up quickly and pulled Cody’s arm. The bear chased after the two of them. Looks like Ezekiel had some brains and diverged from the other two.

This was the most exercise Noah had done in years. Cody was a lot faster than him and pulled on Noah’s sleeve trying to get him to catch up.

The bear was catching up. Was this how Noah was going to die? This was not when or how he wanted to go.

Then he tripped.

“Ah!” Noah fell to the ground, holding his left ankle. His knees hurt like hell from the impact and his ankle hurt from falling flat on it.

“Noah! Noah, get up!” Cody pulled Noah to his feet, but Noah struggled. “Dude, I am not getting mauled by a bear again! Get up! Get up!”

“Oh my god I’m gonna die,” Noah scrambled around, too panicked to get to his feet.

“Hey, are you okay?” The bear asked.

The bear asked.

What the fuck.

“Did that bear just ask you a question?” Cody asked.

The bear took off its head to reveal Izzy. It was a costume. A really good one.

“Izzy, are you serious?” Noah asked.

“Sorry guys, but that was seriously tempting! Your screams were so funny! You guys should listen to yourselves next time. But I don’t think you guys could beat the way Sadie and Katie scream, no way.”

Noah and Cody exchanged glances.

“I’m going back to camp,” Noah stated, standing up slowly this time. He tried to take a step, but winced as soon as he placed his left foot on the ground.

Cody took Noah’s arm and hung it around his own shoulder.

“Well, see you two lovebirds later,” Izzy said. “I’m going to go find the others.”

“Lovebirds?” Cody asked.

Noah rolled his eyes. “Ignore her. She’s weird.”

“I guessed that much.”

The two of them began their walk back to camp. Noah awkwardly walked in a way where he placed his entire right foot when he walked, but did a little hop where only his left toes touched the ground when he needed to take another step. Their walk was pretty silent aside from Noah’s sharp inhales when he stepped on his foot wrong.

“Stop even trying to step with your left foot, you’re hurting yourself worse,” Cody said, holding Noah’s arm over his shoulder tighter. “I have you, just hop.”

When they arrived at the tent, Noah took in and let out a deep breath. After today, he was sure he would never go camping again.

“I am going to bed,” He told Cody.

“Good idea,” Cody replied, laying down as well.

That night, Noah was out like a light.

Cody woke up feeling warm, which would make sense because it was summer. But instead of feeling the regular way he felt warm in summer, he felt contact warm.

He opened his eyes to see a sleeping Noah. He wanted to dart away, but he didn’t. Noah’s eyes were shut and his eyelashes were fluttering. He had really long eyelashes. They were pretty. He breathed soft and slowly and snored just a tiny bit. It was kind of satisfying.

Cody was about to try and wriggle out when someone screamed.

It was Izzy.

Noah’s eyes shot open and he sat up, quickly yanking his arms and legs back from Cody. Cody sat up and rubbed his eyes slower, looking around.

“Good! You’re up,” Izzy said.

“Ugh, my legs are killing me,” Noah said. “I’m never moving again.”

“It’s called a lack of muscle, look into it,” Eva told him.

“We have to get moving, everyone! We have all of our supplies so we have to be the first ones there! And it’s dawn! We have to get moving.”

“It’s dawn?” Noah asked. “I’m sleeping in.”

“No you aren’t! I’ll carry you!” Izzy picked up Noah and ran out of the tent.

Cody looked at Zeke, who looked equally as tired as Cody felt. Eva was exiting the tent, and Cody and Zeke followed and began taking it down. Eva did most of the work and carried the poles while Cody and Zeke folded up the tent. Zeke carried the rest of the tools and Cody took the tent, and with that they followed Noah and Izzy down the path.

Eva ran up to Noah and Izzy while Cody and Zeke hung back.

“Hey, dude. I feel like I haven’t really talked with you much these past few days,” Cody stated. Really, he was sure they hadn’t talked one-on-one since Saturday. Well, it wasn’t that long ago, today was only Tuesday, but it felt like a while. They usually talked multiple times over the day every day, but Cody hadn’t really gotten the chance to see Zeke lately. On Sunday, Zeke ditched him to hang out with Harold, Monday was yesterday and they didn’t really talk, even when they were hiking together they were too tired to actually engage in conversation.

“Yeah,” Zeke said. “I’ve been busy.”

“With what, what have you been up to? I’ve noticed you talk to Harold a good amount.”

“He’s friends with Leshawna so we hang out with Leshawna and Bridgette when we have the campers. I haven’t really done much other than that.”

“We should hang out just us again sometime.”

“Yeah, uh, do we have to talk right now? I’m super tired from Izzy hunting me down last night.”

Oh. “Oh, yeah, we don’t have to talk.” Cody let out a breath, and looked away.

It felt awkward.

Cody decided to think about other things. Like… what had he done yesterday? It was mostly just walking and being tired. And running away from Izzy. Where did Izzy get that costume, anyways? Whatever, it didn’t matter.

That was horrifying. And when Noah fell and hurt himself? Cody thought they were going to die. But the walk back to camp after was nice. They were relieved to have survived. And Noah had his arm over Cody’s shoulder, which Cody admitted was pretty great. He didn’t really have enough physical contact with people, which was embarrassing, but this was his mind, not like his thoughts were being broadcasted to the world. And when he woke up to Noah cuddling him? Heck, that was pretty awesome, especially since Noah wasn’t kissing his ear this time. Now that he thought about it, this was the second time anyone had cuddled with Cody in years. Even if it was unintentional both times, Cody was glad Noah was such a sleep-cuddler.

Noah’s arrival at camp was like an injection of Jesus into his soul.

His leg felt a lot better since he got sleep, he just landed on it kind of funky the previous day and it only hurt for a little bit. His bruises still hurt like crazy. They were enormous and grayish-purple, a little bit red in the center. This was why he didn’t run.

“Chris, some of them are back.” Chef nudged Chris, who was laying on a lawn chair relaxing.

“Aw, already? Oh well. Blaineley’s getting out of work earlier than she thought.” Chris stood up to see Noah, Izzy, Eva, and closely behind them, Cody and Zeke. “Well, congratulations CITs. You’re the first ones back. As long as you have all of your supplies, you win.”

“We have the supplies,” Eva assured, handing Chris everything she had brought back herself. Cody and Zeke handed over their own bags of supplies.

“Looks like everything’s in order,” Chris nodded. “Surprised that this went so well. Oh well. You guys win a pass out of any challenge with teams or punishment!”

“Why not out of any challenge?”

“You can already back out of challenges with no punishment or teams.” Chris rolled his eyes.

Noah walked back to his cabin. He didn’t care about whatever Chris was talking about, he just wanted to leave. And lie down in his bed and read Coraline.

Which is exactly what he did. He blew through almost the entire book without once wondering where the hell Dakota was. She would probably be fine.

“Hey,” A familiar voice greeted Noah. Noah took a deep breath and looked over to Cody, who stood in the cabin. “I have Dawn and Dakota outside. Wanna sit with us?”

“Do I have to?” Noah asked.

“Yeah. Dakota is your camper.”

Noah groaned and stood up, taking his book with him.

“So where are we going?”

“Nowhere. Just outside on the porch. Dawn is playing four square with Eva, Izzy, and Anne Maria. Dakota is sitting on the porch.”

“That’s fine.”

Noah wasn’t against fresh air. It was pretty nice outside, so sitting on the porch would probably be okay.

He sat down on a stair, Cody next to him. Dakota sat on the corner of the porch reading a magazine with earbuds in.

Cody leaned against the railing. He was probably as tired as Noah was. Noah lazily flipped through the pages. He was kept awake by Anne Maria and Eva’s shouting while they played. Leave it to Eva and Izzy to be alive and energetic after a goddamn camping trip.

He had finished the book and was reading the summary again when Cody spoke.

“What are you reading?” Cody asked.

“Coraline,” Noah responded. “It’s a kids book.”

“You didn’t strike me as the type to read children’s books.” Cody smirked. “Never heard of the book though.”

“It’s pretty good. I first and last read it when I was eleven, but it was super good. And it isn’t failing me now.”

“What’s it about?”

“It’s about this girl named Coraline who moves across the country to some dingy old apartment. She finds a key and it goes to this door that’s boarded up during the day, but at night leads to some perfect parallel universe with the perfect parents and neighbors and everything but it isn’t all that perfect.”

“And?”

Noah gave Cody a questioning look.

“What else?”

Noah closed his book and set it aside. “Can I start from the beginning?”

“Yeah, of course.”

So Noah told Cody basically all of his thoughts about the story. He told him about his favorite character being Mr. Bobinsky, the descriptions of the tunnel changing texture and size being a nice detail he liked, and the way he liked how the lighting on the cover could show and hide the hands. But he didn’t tell Cody how the story ended.

“What happens next?”

Noah smiled. “You just have to read and find out.”

Cody was never the type to read.

But here he was. At the campfire. Sitting against a log, silent, more quiet than he had ever been at the campfire, reading.

Coraline took a deep breath and stepped into the darkness, where strange voices whispered and distant winds howled. She became certain that there was something in the dark behind her: something very old and very slow. Her heart beat so hard and so loudly she was scared it would burst out of her chest. She closed her eyes against the dark.

Noah had said he liked the descriptions of the tunnel. He said they symbolized the change in Coraline’s view of the other world, or something along those lines. Cody had always been more of a math person than a literature one.

“So, what’s your worst fear?” Trent asked, poking Cody’s shoulder with his elbow.

“Huh?” Cody asked, looking up. “Oh. Definitely defusing a time bomb under pressure.” He turned to his other side. “Um, Noah?”

Noah sighed. “Do I have to?”

“We all did, even Jo,” Trent said.

Jo grumbled.

“Fine. Being burnt alive.”

“Similar one here,” Gwen said. “Mine is getting buried alive.”

Noah smiled. “You have sense.”

Cody felt a small pain in his chest. He knew he had to stop liking Gwen, but he really didn’t know how. And yeah, it was small, but watching her get along so well with Noah hurt because Cody knew she liked him. Him and his stupid pretty eyes and pretty hair and cool sarcastic personality. Cody liked the guy, but he liked Gwen and he still had the right to be annoyed at Noah for being Gwen’s crush. As long as he didn’t act like a baby about it.

Cody fiddled with the corners of the pages, which were wrinkled from Noah supposedly creasing the corners as a bookmark. Who would’ve thought Noah, a guy who absolutely loved books, would treat them so carelessly? Even Cody didn’t fold the corners of his books, and he didn’t give a shit about them.

Noah. Cody didn’t even know how he was supposed to feel about him anymore.

Noah was dreaming. He had to be. Because there was no way that if he were awake, that he would be standing next to a live bomb.

Why was he doing this, again? Didn’t he not like Cody?

Noah wasn’t sure when he got turned around. Maybe he stopped minding when Cody talked endlessly when they went on a hike on Monday. They had a pretty normal conversation, and Noah could deal with some normal in his life. And then the next day when Noah was reading Coraline and Cody asked about it. The last time someone asked about what he was reading, it was Ezekiel, who ended up talking more about himself than the book. Cody wanted to know about it. He wanted to listen. And at the campfire that night, Noah caught him reading it. At the time he always spent talking away, he was reading a book that Noah told him he should read.

And now he was here, standing next to Cody trying to defuse a bomb.

That morning, Noah had watched Izzy and Owen fly on a plane, but defusing a bomb was another story. Here, Noah was actually in imminent danger. But he was still here on his own accord. By choice. Because he was showing Cody support. Well, not outwardly, but if Cody knew him enough he would know that this is how Noah showed support.

Chris told him he wasn’t allowed to help Cody, and that he’d know if he did. Noah didn’t see the need too, because if it really got close to exploding, they could just flee the scene. Plus, Noah wasn’t even sure it was an actual bomb.

They wouldn’t let that actually happen.

Right?

Either way, it didn’t matter. Cody could definitely defuse a bomb. He was a gosh-darn genius, even if he didn’t act like it. Because he was also a gosh-darn idiot.

“Maybe I should’ve backed out of the challenge.” Cody laughed to himself, but there was obvious worry in his tone.

“Cody. Stop worrying. You have time. You have thirty minutes.”

Cody took in and let out a deep breath. “I have this, I have this.”

Chris had the CITs facing their worst fears. He assigned them teams and told them the team with the most people facing their fears won. Noah, Eva, and Ezekiel had all backed out. Noah was slightly annoyed that he used his back-out pass so quickly, but he also didn’t want Heather or whoever else would end up being on his team on his butt for another week. And there was no way Noah was going to let Chris burn him alive, no matter how ‘safe’ he made it.

Lindsay complained about Chris eavesdropping, and Courtney was pissed that one team had one more person than the others, which meant that one team had a higher chance of winning. Lucky for Owen, it was him. Although, he and Izzy ended up being a package deal since they were all or nothing due to having the same fear.

Anyways, the point was that the winners got to go to those sweet cabins on the other side of the island that Chris rented out to rich stiffs. Three of them were free for the night, so Chris figured he’d use them as a reward. They supposedly had queen-sized, comfortable beds which were god-like compared to what the CITs had in their own cabins. Plus, personal bedrooms and suite bathrooms. A promise of an actual refreshing sleep, for once.

All Cody had to do was defuse a time bomb and pray that the rest of his team would face their fears.

“I can’t do it.”

Noah closed his most recent book, Of Mice and Men, another short one that he would likely finish in a day, and looked over at Cody’s bomb.

“Do you have any idea what this stuff means?”

“Nope,” Noah responded. It was the truth. “Besides, I’m not allowed to help you.”

“I’m not doing it.”

“Just give it a few more minutes.”

“We could explode.”

“Chris wouldn’t actually explode us.”

“Are you positive?”

“No, I’m negative. I thought you knew that.”

Cody folded his arms and furrowed his eyebrows. Noah thought he looked ridiculous. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Good for you.”

“You really aren’t helping.”

“I know.”

Cody let out a long sigh. He had fifteen minutes on the clock. “You know I’m not gonna finish this, right?” He rubbed his arms. “I might start freaking out.”

Noah turned to Cody and away from the bomb. To be frank, he had been fully convinced that Cody would be showing some serious signs of fear during this challenge. Cody was the type of guy to take hardships to heart, and being in charge of defusing a bomb was scary enough, even if you could run away. “You’re facing your greatest fear, and you aren’t freaking out already?”

Cody ran a hand through his hair. Noah’s chest tightened. He lost his breath for a moment. Darn bomb, actually getting to him. “Um. Well I am a little. I just…”

Noah took a moment to actually look at Cody. His teal eyes were wider than usual, staring at the timer. There was sweat running down the sides of his face. His chest rose up and down more quickly than he had noticed previously. “You don’t have to do it. Heather might be a dick to you for a while, but this is seriously a fucked up challenge.”

Cody wiped the sweat from his brow. “Yeah. Let’s- let’s get out of here.”

Noah shoved the tiny book into his giant pant pocket and started walking down the hill. Cody rubbed his arms as if it was cold, walking a little faster than Noah. Noah tried to keep up, but was reluctant to do more exercise than he had to.

By the time they made it down the hill, everyone looked incredibly tired. Noah guessed most of them had done their challenges.

“Cody! I don’t see an explosion! Did you defuse it?” Chris asked, voice enthusiastic.

Heather stared down Cody, tapping the elbows of her crossed arms. She sat down on a log like a cartoon parent when their kid came home late, as if she were waiting for Cody. Her eyebrows were narrow. Cody looked at the ground nervously upon noticing her. Noah furrowed his own eyebrows at her judgemental stare.

Other than her, Gwen and Leshawna sat against a pole, Gwen looking pretty upset. Tyler was in a chicken pen not too far off, with Lindsay standing next to him.

“No, I chickened out,” Cody replied.

“Cody!” Heather exclaimed, storming over to Cody. “We needed you to get this! Katie also backed out!”

“So?” Noah questioned. “You still have five people, then. Unless you forgot to list someone.”

“Well I didn’t face my fear, but that’s because it’s ridiculous! I’m not going to fight a literal sumo wrestler. Where did Chris even find a sumo wrestler?”

“Of course. You didn’t even do your own challenge. You’re a hypocrite and a freeloader.”

“And you’re one to talk.”

“Whatever. At least I’m honest about it.”

“You’re the worst. Ugh. I don’t need those cabins anyways.” Heather stormed off. Noah looked over to Cody.

“What an asshole.”

“She isn’t that bad,” Cody said. “Okay. She read Gwen’s diary to everyone and might have beat up Harold, but other than all that, she really isn’t that bad.”

“Yeah. Other than Heather, Heather isn’t that bad.”

“Oh come on, those aren’t her only personality traits.”

“They kind of are.”

Cody and Noah heard an explosion in the distance.

“Huh. It was a real bomb.”

Cody sat at the campfire, eyes glazing over the words on the paper. He heard Duncan and Courtney fighting over whether or not they should allow Courtney to come with them to the cabins. Bridgette, Courtney, Duncan, Geoff, Gwen, and Trent had won the challenge, but Courtney was the only one who didn’t face her fear. Cody wasn’t sure how Chris figured out considering Courtney was the only one who didn’t share her fear.

Duncan argued that they should invite someone else, yada yada, Cody wasn’t really paying attention.

Today, although stressful and seemingly uneventful besides the fact that Cody had to defuse a bomb, was pretty good.

Noah was coming around. That was the main thing. Cody, since day one, wanted to be friends with Noah. Who could blame him? The guy was cool. Who wouldn’t want to be friends with a sarcastic, mysterious guy who didn’t care about what other people thought?

During his challenge, Cody was pretty freaked. He was quite literally facing his worst fear.

Noah was there. It was a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it helped keep him sane. He didn’t know what he would’ve done if there was no one else to agree or disagree with himself quitting. Maybe he would’ve pushed himself to his limits, blew himself up, or quit after two minutes. He was glad he had the odd support of someone just being there. On the other hand, he was really scared he was going to embarrass himself. Which just added to the fear. He was scared that if he started breathing too hard or if he sat down holding his head for a minute that Noah would start laughing at him.

When Noah had come over to get a closer look at the bomb, Cody’s heart was beating at a million miles per hour. He was covered in sweat, wide-eyed, and breathing fast. Not to mention nervously running his hands through his hair and rubbing his arms. He was sure Noah was going to notice and poke fun at him. But he didn’t. Cody wasn’t sure if that was because he didn’t notice, or if he didn’t care. The probability of Noah noticing but not caring was higher, but Cody didn’t want to assume. Cody didn’t even know which situation was better or worse. Both were pretty bad.

Noah sat next to him at this very moment, deep in his own book. Of Mice and Men. Cody was pretty sure he read that for English once. Noah originally struck Cody as someone to read classics, but when he caught him reading Christine, Cody believed he was into more older books. Then he read Coraline, a children’s horror book, and Cody took him for a horror-of-any-kind reader. Now he was reading what Cody would’ve assumed he did. Noah just did it all. It made sense, at the rate he read he was bound to blow through everything the world had to offer by the time he was twenty, he couldn’t be picky.

Cody looked back to his own book that wasn’t really his book. Right. Reading.

Hiking. Noah swore he’d never do it again.

But here he was. In the woods. With a whole lot of people.

This Thursday was the last day the CITs had with their campers, as the campers were leaving in two days.

Noah hadn’t really ever formed a real bond with Dakota. Owen had done most of the work of looking after her. Noah just sat around and read and went on that hike with Cody. Maybe someone like Cody would have more of a bond with their camper.

Speaking of, Dawn was walking around with her eyes closed, somehow knowing where every turn is. Didn’t she say something about speaking to Noah before she left? Noah thought it would be awkward to go up to her right now. Plus, he was supposed to be having a conversation with Eva and Izzy. Despite the fact that he had no idea what Izzy was talking about.

“So I learned my lesson. Never, ever go out to dinner with an animatronic monster. Nuh uh. Never again. It’s only real monsters and animatronic animals from now on. Animatronic animals. That’s alliteration! Man, I am on a poetic roll today. That reminds me, did I ever tell you about the Insightful Iguana Incident?”

“Yes, I know, I know,” Eva responded. “The Iguana’s brain quadrupled in size and tried to sue your Uncle Jerry.”

“But did you know about the ice cream?”

“Yes!” Eva and Noah chorused.

“Iguana shmauna,” Anne Maria said. “I think we should go down and see Katie and Sadie. They’re at the beach.”

“We always go to the beach,” Owen stated.

“Anne Maria has a strong desire to see Vito,” Dawn began. “She only has two more days to see him, so it’s logical of her to want this. And where Katie and Sadie go, Vito is.”

“Anne Maria is right, we should go to the beach!” Dakota said. “Wow. Never thought I’d say Anne Maria is right.”

“This hike is only ten more minutes,” Cody told the group, walking backwards. Then he tripped over a root.

Noah strolled over and was about to help him up, when he saw someone else already helping him up. Gwen.

“Hey, guys,” Gwen greeted.

“Gwen!” Cody squeaked, and then winced at his voice crack. “Yeah, hey.”

“Well well well, if it isn’t Dawn.” Scott blew a raspberry at her. Dawn stuck out her tongue in return. “Freak!”

“Calling people names reflects deeply on your rough childhood, in which your older siblings all bullied you, Scott.” She paused before continuing. “Loser.”

“Hey!” Courtney pushed Scott and Dawn away from each other. “No fighting!”

“So, where are you headed?” Cody asked Gwen. She had come from the opposing path, not the one they were on nor the one to the beach.

“The beach,” Gwen responded. “You?”

“Oh, cool! We’re also going to the beach.”

Cody wore this stupid-ass grin. His eyebrows were curved upwards and his smile dented his eyes. He was nervous. And happy. A.K.A., still into Gwen, staring at her with some weird fucking gap-tooth smile.

Noah found it stupid. Gwen wasn’t into him, and he knew it. He knew she liked some dark-haired ‘McHottie’ who she related to, yet he still liked her. Even if he cooled it on the flirting. Noah didn’t get it. If he were in Cody’s shoes, he would avoid Gwen at all costs in pursuit of losing feelings for her the second he knew she didn’t like him. But Noah couldn’t talk. It wasn’t like he ever had a crush. He hated romance. He barely even read romance books, and often found romance subplots to be pointless and self-serving. Authors of teen novels were always trying to live out the high school love stories they never had through their books. He avoided those types. Sometimes he was able to find okay romance subplots, but if he wanted to read romance, he would’ve picked out a romance book.

“So, uh,” Cody started. “Wanna walk together?”

And Gwen wasn’t stupid. She knew Cody still liked her. So why wasn’t she avoiding him? It has to feel weird to know that someone likes you and bothers you and you don’t like them back but they still talk to you. That must be the worst.

“Sure,” Gwen replied.

“What? Do we have to?” Scott asked.

“Yes! You know Scott, your experience here would be so much better if you didn’t fight with everyone all the time,” Courtney explained to him.

Noah walked beside Cody. Cody flashed his eyes between Noah and Gwen before backing out of the middle and walking to Noah’s other side, making him stand in the middle.

“Courtney is right,” Dawn said. “You would be much happier if you let people in your life without pushing them away.”

“Can someone get her away from me?” Scott asked, ducking behind Anne Maria. “She’s a creep.”

“And you’re a creep!” Anne Maria yelled, pushing Scott into a bush.

Noah smiled. If he couldn’t be reading, he definitely could enjoy watching twelve-year-olds pummel each other to death.

“Kids are idiots,” Gwen grinned, looking at Scott and Anne Maria tussle over Anne Maria’s hairspray. “I love them.”

“I didn’t take you as the type to like kids,” Noah stated.

“Well, I do. I babysit a lot. If you look past how gross they are, they become really funny. I actually plan on working for a daycare center part-time this year.”

“You could never catch me looking after kids willingly.”

“You’re here right now.”

“I blame that on Owen.” Noah turned to Cody. Except, Cody wasn’t there. He was over with Owen, way ahead. Wow, he and Gwen had really fallen behind everybody. He quickly looked back to Gwen, not wanting to seem stupid for not realizing Cody had left. “I only came here because he did. I wasn’t going to sulk in my room alone all summer, I had planned to sulk in my room all summer with Owen.”

Gwen laughed. “Yeah, I get that. It’s a lot more fun to rot inside when you have friends with you. When I would be at camp for only three weeks per summer, I would spend the other seven listening to music and getting headaches every time I saw sunlight with my friends Marilyn, Pixie Corpse, and Reaper.”

“During the school year, me, Owen, and my friend Joey watch and make fun of Disney show reruns for hours every Sunday. But he goes up North during summer with his Uncle Mary to chop lumber every summer.”

“His Uncle Mary?”

“Don’t ask.”

Gwen let it go pretty quick, letting a small smile on her face. “Why don’t we hang out more often? I swear, you’re one of the two people here that I haven’t had a bad experience with yet that I’ve talked to. Well, aside from dodgeball.”

“Yeah, I probably could’ve let Owen use me as a human shield or something. But, being a freeloader is kind of my brand, so…” Noah trailed off with a smile. “And the other person you haven’t had a bad experience with yet is Trent, right?”

Gwen frowned. “No. Did you not hear about how he left me buried alive on the beach yesterday?”

Noah’s smile dropped from his face. “No. What? What happened, how did that happen?”

“The idiot literally forgot about me in favor of messing with Geoff after getting chased by a mime. Seriously, I know he was preoccupied with his challenge, but then he forgot about me? And got Chris to chuck ice at Geoff harder? I couldn’t even contact anyone! I actually thought I was going to die, and he was messing around.”

Noah put a hand on Gwen’s shoulder. “Oh my god… I’m so sorry, that’s insane.”

Gwen let out a sigh. “Yeah. But it’s whatever. So, you and Cody are friends now? I saw you yell at Heather the other day while standing with him. And you don’t seem annoyed by him anymore.”

“Well, I guess we are friends now, sort of. When we went camping, we talked a bit during the hike over. And later, I thought we were going to die because a bear chased us through the forest. I hurt my ankle and Cody was trying to get me to get up so I wouldn’t die. Anyways, we found out it was just Izzy in a costume and Cody helped me back and then I guess we’ve been chill from then on. I might’ve been quick to judge him when I first got here.”

“I think you were. He’s a socially dense idiot, but he’s really not that bad. Also, it was super awkward when I was talking to you and making fun of Cody and then realizing that you genuinely didn’t like him. And you kept shit talking him.”

Noah sucked in a breath. “Yeah, that was probably super weird for you, looking back. I didn’t even know that you two were close like that. I don’t really see how you can tolerate him liking you. I mean, you don’t like him back so that must be weird. I don’t know. Not something I’ve ever had to deal with.”

“Yeah, but we’re friends. I wouldn’t want to end our friendship over his crush that he can’t help. And he’s kind of weird about it, but he’s getting better. He’s just… an experience.”

“An experience alright. I feel sorry for you.”

“Says the guy who made out with his ear.”

“That was one time, and I was unconscious!”

“Maybe you should try cuddling without kissing his ear, it’ll make it better.”

“I actually did,” Noah said. Immediately, he regretted it.

“What? When?”

“The camping challenge.” Noah adjusted his sleeves sheepishly. “I don’t know, Izzy screamed to wake us up and I was looking at Cody. Not fun.”

Gwen chuckled. “If you keep this up, I’m going to start thinking you’re into him.”

“Izzy is already convinced that I’m into him, I don’t need you to come after me too.”

“Izzy thinks you like him?”

“Yeah, I think since the awake-a-thon. She’s just really weird. And Eva likes to joke about it, but I don’t think she actually believes it. But you know, Izzy’s crazy.”

“Gwen!” Courtney yelled from ahead of them, now on the dock. “Come help me keep Scott from killing Dawn!”

“Shoot,” Gwen cursed. “See you later, Noah.”

Noah waved with a tiny hint of a smile on his face, and went off to talk with Owen.

“What in the world are you doing?” Heather asked. Cody turned to her. Behind her, Zoey and Anne Maria were fighting.

“What are you doing?” Cody questioned in return. “Neglecting your camper?”

Heather rolled her eyes. “What-ever. Our nerd partners have that covered. Now answer the question.”

She was right. Zeke and Harold were trying to interject into Zoey and Anne Maria’s little slap-fight. “Standing here.”

“And why are you standing here alone? Your friends are here.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve just been thinking.” Cody sat down, feet dangling over the water. Heather followed.

“About what? How you lost us the last challenge? I’m not forgetting about that.”

“No, you’re stupid if you think I was about to defuse that bomb with only five minutes left. And why the heck should I tell you about what I’m thinking about?”

“Because what am I going to do? Your nerd problems are none of my concern.”

“Then why do you want to know?”

Heather shrugged. “Just because they’re none of my concern doesn’t mean I don’t care.”

“That makes no sense. You make no sense.”

“Just spit it out, Cody.”

Cody sighed. He was sitting on the far part of the dock, away from his friends. With Heather, of all people. While he didn’t think she was the worst person ever, he still didn’t trust her with his feelings. Look at what happened to Gwen. But then, he didn’t have anyone else to talk to. “Zeke’s avoiding me.”

“Why? That kid has like, two friends, tops, and one of them is you.”

“I have no idea. I don’t think I did anything wrong. But he does seem to like hanging out with Harold… a lot.”

“So you’re telling me you think Zeke ditched you for an equally annoying, possibly more annoying, geek? For no reason?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s a dumb theory. Something happened. Are you sure you did nothing wrong?”

“Well… I have spent a lot of time with him. Maybe I said something stupid that slipped my mind. I am pretty bad with things like that, I guess.”

“Zeke is pretty dense too, from what I know. I saw Geoff ask him what was up once, and he responded ‘I see a bird’, so I don’t exactly know if it was that. I’ll see if Harold has any intel if you need me to. Talk to you later.”

Heather stood up and walked over to Harold. Cody assumed she wasn’t going to talk to him at this moment, because really she was just standing there with her arms crossed, pretending that she was going to help with the Zoey and Anne Maria situation.

Cody hoped she would find something out.

Noah sat at the campfire, reading. A lot of the campers, notably Brick and Sam, were a little emotional saying goodbye to their CITs. Some other campers didn’t care. The CITs laughed with each other per usual, and Cody was talking to Owen about something, and Noah had tuned out the world.

“Noah.” Dawn sat down next to Noah. “I asked to see you before I left.”

“You did,” Noah affirmed.

Dawn gently took Noah’s palm and placed her own beneath it. “I need to give you a final palm reading.”

Noah raised an eyebrow, but nodded, folding the corner of his book and putting it down on the log.

Dawn scanned his hand, tracing a few lines. “As I suspected, more of a dent in your heart line compared to when I first met you. Noah, have you developed any romantic feelings for a fellow CIT?”

Noah’s eyes darted from side to side, but no one was paying attention to them, all too deep in their own conversations. “No. I don’t do romance. Or feelings.”

“Be true to yourself, Noah. While I know you are a logical thinker, and an avid reader, the price of your knowledge is you are oblivious to your own life in the real world, where you don’t have the comfort of theory, fiction, or logic. You are an expert in analyzing others, their actions and language, but cannot analyze yourself. You knew of Ezekiel’s feelings for Bridgette, and of Cody’s mistakes before he did. Now is the time to look at yourself. Ask yourself questions you never have. Take in your surroundings. Oh, and by the way, Monday will be an important day for you. It reads so on your life line.”

This was bullshit. Ava was right, palm-readers were total scams who just said things to fit anyone. This reading didn’t fit Noah! Noah could analyze himself, he knew everything about himself.

Although, how did she know about Ezekiel and Cody?

“Remember what I said,” Dawn instructed. “Notice things on Monday.”

What a joke.

“So pick your partners and get on the canoe! And remember—the winners get to go on a weekend boat trip with two other pairs of their choice!”

Chris was doing his little instructions as he always did, and always gave Noah a headache. And also supposedly going to spend money on them. Noah didn’t exactly understand how anything he did benefitted the camp, but he also assumed that Chris was very rich and found happiness in torturing teenagers. Noah stood next to Gwen, occasionally poking fun at Chris’s statements. Noah’s other friends stood on his other side, actually listening to the rules.

Noah turned to his friends. He had a certain brunette in his mind when Chris said they had to pick a partner. The rest of the CITs began picking partners, and Noah tapped on Cody’s shoulder.

“Oh, hey Noah!” Cody greeted.

Noah was about to speak when Gwen ducked into the twos’ conversation.

“You know, Noah, you should go with Gwen.”

Oh.

“Yeah, sounds great, let’s go Noah,” Gwen said, panic in her voice. She dragged Noah by the arm down to the beach with a quick pace, one a little too quick for Noah.

Once they were away from Cody, Noah wrestled his arm from Gwen’s. “Are you good? What’s with the rush?”

“Trent,” Gwen hissed, beginning to push the canoe into the water. “I saw him walking over and I needed a partner fast. I would’ve gone with Leshawna, but you were closer and I was desperate. Sorry, I know you were going to go with Cody.”

“It’s cool.” Noah gave her a hand in pushing the canoe.

Noah looked up and around to everyone elses’ partners. Beth and Lindsay were together, obviously. Katie and Sadie. Duncan was with Tyler, which was pretty surprising. Heather was with Owen- wait, Heather was with Owen? What was she doing with him?

Well, Eva was probably with Izzy, Ezekiel with Harold. That left Owen and Cody as the last friends of the group. Where was Cody? Why was Cody not with Owen?

Wait. Why was Noah trying to be partners with Cody instead of Owen in the first place? Owen was his best friend of two years, Noah had only started being friend-ish with Cody four days ago. What the hell? Something was wrong with him recently. Maybe it’s just that he hadn’t made a new friend in a long time, and now that he had one, he wanted to spend time with him more? Noah had to think about this later, when he wasn’t in the middle of a challenge.

“Shoot,” Trent said, just as Gwen and Noah were walking away.

“Hm?” Cody asked.

“I wanted to go with Gwen. I haven’t really gotten a chance to hang out with her in a while.” Trent scratched the back of his head.

“I’ll go with you if you need a partner,” Cody offered.

“Thanks man, that works. But, uh, wouldn’t you rather go with Zeke or something? I don’t think he has a partner yet.”

“No. I haven’t really had a chance to talk with him in a little while either. I think it would be awkward.”

Trent smiled. “Okay, then. Let’s hit that water!”

The canoe trip was pretty uneventful. Obviously, since Cody and Trent weren’t the closest people in the world. But it wasn’t awkward. They made small talk about what they did when Chris wasn’t annoying them, and shared a couple tales about their previous camp experiences.

The arrival at the island was better. Cody eyed Heather, who was walking with Owen, and made his way over. He kept an eye on Trent- he didn’t want to lose a boat trip, it sounded pretty fun. Cody offered to take the canoe off of his hands for a minute, and Trent looked a little confused, but agreed

“Hey, Heather,” Cody said. “You wanna come walk with me and Trent and whoever else is taking the same path?”

Heather gave Cody an unimpressed look. “You just want to know if I talked to Harold, don’t you?”

“Kind of. Also, could you help me carry this? Just for a minute or two.”

Heather let out a sigh. “Well, I guess I have nothing better to do.” She turned around. “Owen! Get over here!”

“Yes, ma’am!” Owen exclaimed, jogging over. He was carrying Heather and his canoe by himself. “Who are we with?”

“Cody, Trent, and whoever’s up there,” Heather pointed ahead of them before picking up her half of the canoe. “Why don’t you run up and see who else we’re walking with?”

Owen nodded and headed over to Trent and… Beth and Lindsay, apparently.

“So. I talked with Harold.”

“And?” Cody questioned.

“I kind of asked him inexplicably, just to keep you safe. You’re welcome, by the way. I asked him if he’d hung out with both of you at the same time, and he said no. I asked if he knew who Zeke hung out with if not him, and Harold said usually you but he hadn’t seen you two hang out in a while. Then he went on this whole tangent about how he, the ‘lone wolf’, had gained a ‘respectable fellow lone wolf’. So basically, he has no information, he’s just aware.”

Cody frowned. “If he doesn’t know anything, I doubt anyone does.” Cody stood up a little straighter and eyed Heather. “Wait. You aren’t hiding anything from me, are you?”

“What do I gain by hiding anything from you?”

“What do you gain by helping me?”

“Well you basically already owe me for the fear challenge—”

“No I don’t.”

“—And now for talking with Harold, you basically have to help me out at some point.”

“That’s not how that works. I never agreed to that.”

“What about your integrity? I helped you, it would be honorable of you to help me.”

“Heather, I’m not Harold. That isn’t going to convince me.”

“Friendship works two ways.”

“We’re friends?” Cody asked. “Since when?”

“Since I helped you out? Hello, isn’t that how friendships work?”

Cody couldn’t argue with that. “Fine, I’ll help you out with something.”

“Great! Anyways, get Trent back here because you can start by not making me carry this canoe.” She dropped it and walked away.

“Uh, Trent!” Cody called. Trent ran over and picked up his end of the canoe.

“Cody! Now that we’re back together, wanna go see if we can find Gwen and Noah?”

Cody was inclined to answer yes, but he was also inclined to know why Gwen had run off so quickly earlier. And why she and Noah had darted off so fast when they arrived at the shore.

“Yeah, but what’s with her running off? Are you sure we’ll be able to catch up?”

“Oh, you noticed?” Trent sucked in a breath. “Yeah, I think she’s kind of been avoiding me.”

“Do you know why?” Cody asked.

“I kind of left her buried alive on the beach the other day.”

Oh, there was no coming back from that. “What?”

“For the fear challenge. I was going to dig her up but then I got chased by a mime and I forgot about her. I feel so bad, I can’t believe I actually forgot about her being buried alive. And right when I thought we were starting to have a connection, I fucked it all up.”

Cody cocked an eyebrow. He was talking about Gwen like he… liked her. Ohhh.

Cody internally facepalmed, not externally because he would drop the canoe on his head. Gwen probably liked Trent, not Noah. She didn’t really spend much time with Noah in comparison to Trent, at least not before the whole diary situation. Dark hair, relatability, ohhh.

Cody tried to set up Gwen and Noah for an entire week, not even considering the possibility that Gwen could’ve liked Trent. Or… actually, Trent and Noah were the only possibilities.

Although, he still couldn’t be 100% sure. There was always a chance that Gwen did like Noah, and even if she didn’t, Cody still believed that Noah liked Gwen.

But, it was more likely that Gwen liked Trent. And from how it sounded, Trent liked her too. And Cody had to help them. He would make sure they talked over the whole buried alive situation, and when they were completely okay with each other, Cody would help them get together. And hopefully Noah didn’t like Gwen, and if he did, he would get over her quick.

“Dude, sorry about that,” Cody apologized. “We can go find her. I’m sure you can talk things out.”

“You think so?” Trent asked.

“Totally! I doubt she hates you, you guys just have to talk it out!”

“Yeah. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”

“Well, when we start up our fire, I can go look for her and talk to her.”

“Thanks, Cody.” Cody heard the smile in Trent’s voice. “That’s really cool of you.”

It was a long walk from one shore to another, and it was certainly eventful. Heather stopped Beth from picking up a cursed idol, Lindsay and Trent got stuck in quicksand and Cody embarrassed himself trying to save them, and Owen was being Owen. Making his and Trent’s campfire was a lot easier than the hike.

Most everyone arrived at the opposing shore at the same time, which was stressful for trying to bag the win, but made it easier to find Gwen.

Cody spotted Gwen on her way to collect firewood, and looked at Trent, giving him a thumbs up before darting off.

“Gwen! Hey.” Cody tapped on her shoulder. “Hey, can I talk with you for a minute?”

Gwen turned to face him. “Sure, wanna collect wood with me?” She offered with a smile, albeit with a hint of confusion.

“Yeah, uh,” Cody matched her pace as he walked beside her. “I partnered up with Trent.”

“Oh, yeah, I noticed,” She said. “What about it?”

“Well, I was just wondering, do you like him?”

She sighed. “Cat’s out of the bag, I guess. It was just a matter of time.”

Cody gave himself a much needed facepalm. “Oh my god. I’m so stupid.”

“What?”

“I thought you liked Noah!”

Gwen snorted. “Seriously? Noah’s like, the gayest guy on this island next to Owen.”

Cody felt something a little deep in his chest, but thought nothing of it. “Don’t say that.”

“What? It’s not an insult. He just looks gay. Nothing wrong with that. Seriously, Cody, the first thing I thought when I saw Heather was ‘damn, she’s fine’.”

“Wait. You like girls?”

Gwen nodded. “Girls and guys.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that.”

Gwen shrugged.

Cody shook his head. “Okay. I came here to talk with you. About Trent.”

“Oh. Of course you did.”

“I mean, since you like him, maybe you’d like to canoe back with him? As long as you’re okay with that. He said he felt really bad about what happened and he wants to talk with you about it.”

“Figures. Look, Cody, not only is it against the rules for us to switch partners, but I also just really don’t want to be around him right now. I don’t hate him, and it’s not like I’m never going to speak with him again, but I just want to talk to him on my own accord. You can tell him what I said.”

“Okay, I will.” Cody smiled. “And I won’t tell him that you like him.”

“You better not!”

Cody and Gwen continued to converse as they picked up sticks, both eventually heading back to their partners and keeping the fire going.

People began to get their fires going, and paces were picking up. Trent and Cody got their fires going and ran to their canoes.

“So?” Trent asked.

“She doesn’t want to go back with you,” Cody responded. “She’s mad at you. But she won’t be mad at you forever. She says she’ll talk to you, but she’ll only when she’s ready.”

“So she doesn’t hate me?”

“She doesn’t hate you.”

Trent let out a sigh of relief. “That’s all I need for now.”

Cody and Trent started rowing, but doubted they would make it to be the winners. Soon enough, DJ and Geoff crossed the finish line. By the time everyone made it back, they selected their pairs to go on the boat with them. Duncan and Tyler, and Eva and Izzy (Eva threatened them).

The rest of the day Cody spent finishing Coraline, before tossing it to Noah, whose bed was directly across from him.

“You done?” Noah asked, picking up the book.

“Yeah,” Cody responded. “Good book. You were right about the tunnels. Pretty cool.”

Noah kept his eyes on Cody for a moment longer than Cody would consider normal, before averting them to look at the cover of Coraline. He snorted. “When have I ever been wrong about anything?”

“Where are we headed, anyways?” Noah asked Cody and Courtney.

They were on a hike. Courtney had invited Cody, who subsequently invited Noah. Cody was pretty happy because he was hanging out with his old friend Courtney and his new friend Noah. What a deal!

“We’re on a hike, there’s no destination,” Courtney responded in an annoyed tone.

Well, maybe it would be if Courtney didn’t sound so pissed.

He didn’t know why she was. If she was in a bad mood, Cody didn’t know why Courtney would invite him in the first place.

“If there’s no destination, what’s that?” Cody asked, pointing at an old wooden building down the path. He saw a few broken boards and a worn porch along the shore, but not the shore they usually were. It was… sort of creepy?

“Some abandoned shed or something,” Noah replied. “Let’s check it out.”

“Wait!” Courtney yelled, but Noah was already on his way over. Cody was about to follow, but Courtney grabbed his arm.

Cody stopped walking and looked over to Courtney.

“Can I talk with you?”

“Uh, sure?” Cody responded.

Courtney pulled Cody aside, as if Noah was still with them and had not entered the building, and whispered as if anyone would be able to hear. “This hike was supposed to just be you and me.”

Cody looked to the boathouse and back to Courtney. “Why?”

“Because I haven’t spent time with you. I hang out with Gwen and Geoff all the time, but you kind of migrated from us. And when I go to invite you to come on a hike with me to catch up, you invite your stupid sarcastic new friend.”

“Oh.” Cody was surprised. He thought Courtney and Noah would get along- two honors students with a cold exterior that loved to show off. “I’m sorry I haven’t spent time with you guys but I’ve just been finally getting along with Noah and I really like hanging out with him and I like hanging out with you guys too, but I guess I’ve been busy? I didn’t think you’d mind if Noah came.”

“I mean, I don’t, but also… do you have to bring him everywhere?”

“I don’t! Since when did I?”

“Camping trip, saw you guys together on Tuesday, when you were defusing a bomb, when I saw you on that hike with the campers, seriously.”

“Okay. That… kind of sounds bad.”

Courtney folded her arms.

“Okay, but is it a crime to hang out with him? You guys can hang out with us too! When Gwen was hanging out with us I was really happy, but I also kind of forced her into it because I thought she liked Noah. Well, it doesn’t matter because now I’m trying to set up Gwen with her actual crush. Okay, I’m getting off topic—”

“With Trent?”

“Yeah…?”

Courtney nodded. “Speaking of… is there something going on between you and Noah?”

Cody’s face burned up. “No! What? We’re just friends.”

“Look, I don’t know the guy all that well, but he kind of acts differently around you. I only ever see him make fun of people, he talks to you like a normal person. And you dropped Gwen pretty quickly. And you don’t spend a minute away from him.”

“Okay, first of all, that last statement is not true. I spend time away from him! And I didn’t drop Gwen, I still like her, I’m just respecting her boundaries. And Noah acts the same way around Owen, Eva, and Izzy. Trust me.”

“Sure.”

“Is that sarcasm?”

Courtney brushed him off. “Let’s just get inside before Noah starts wondering what’s taking us so long.”

Cody nodded and followed Courtney inside.

Noah was sitting on the floor when they entered, reading something. Cody scanned the room, seeing nets, fishing rods and a few toys.

“What took you guys so long?” Noah asked. “Did Courtney start telling you about how she used to be a CIT at another camp? Because we all know she loves to ramble on about that.”

“No!” Courtney yelled. She blew hot air out, clearly bothered. “What’s in here, anyways?”

“Fishing stuff, hunting stuff, a box of toys, this bookshelf.”

Cody glanced at the bookshelf Noah was sitting by. It was covered in dust and was clearly unorganized, some books that couldn’t fit on the shelf sitting on top of other books, one shelf had fallen down along with the books that sat on it.

“What are you reading?”

Noah held up the book. Come Fly With Us. “I’ve never heard of it. And these books have CDs inside of them.”

“Well. That’s new.”

Cody looked at some other books on the shelf. Shear the Sheep, Stuck to a Pole. Some weird names. But there were also nice-sounding ones, like Before We Die and Paris in the Springtime.

“I also found We Built Gwen’s Face and Oh My Izzy. You think they’d enjoy?”

“Weird. What type of title is We Built Gwen’s Face? Oh, and I found Her Real Name Isn’t Blaineley, you think that’s a prophecy?”

Noah snorted. “Totally. I’m probably going to take some back. What are the chances Blainley shares a name with this book character?”

Courtney gasped audibly from across the room. “You mean… steal?”

“I don’t think these books have seen the light of day, ever. I’ll be doing them favors.”

Courtney scowled at him, but said nothing. “Do you think they ever use this old boathouse for anything?”

“Maybe for punishing kids,” Cody suggested. “This place is freaky and these toys and books suck.”

Courtney came over to the books, picking one up. “Greek Mix.” She opened it up and skimmed over the first page. “Sounds interesting. I wonder what it’s about. Maybe it’s an assortment of Greek myths.”

Noah picked up another book. “Sounds better than whatever Changing Guard Mix is.”

“Ava, you were right, palm readers are total scams.”

Noah didn’t even bother with the greeting. He had an hour, and he was going to talk.

“Now what makes you say that?” Noah heard the grin in Ava’s voice. She knew she was right and he was wrong and she was ready to rub it in his face.

“She thinks I have a crush on someone. I obviously don’t. She was all like ‘you can analyze others but not yourself’ and ‘Monday will be an important day’ and I’m all like… you’re twelve. Well, I didn’t say that, but seriously, what a joke. And to think I actually believed her first reading… those are made to fit everyone. I can’t believe I doubted it.”

“I TOLD you, Noah! You need to know what it’s like to have a baby brother who doesn’t listen to you, it’s so painful.”

Noah blew a raspberry. “I can’t imagine being any of our other siblings and having to deal with a younger sister like you. Oh, but I have it worse, because you rub in the fact that you’re a year older than me every chance you get.”

“Me me me me me me me, it’s always all about you.”

Noah made a face as if she could see it. “Okay, whatever. This week they made us go camping. And face our greatest fears? I didn’t do that one, I got a free pass. Then they made us canoe or whatever.”

“Aren’t you already camping?”

“That’s what I said. But apparently we have to rough it in tents for it to be ‘real camping’, according to Chris. It sucked. Izzy dressed up as a bear and me and Cody thought we were going to die. I fell and hurt my ankle and couldn’t get up. Cody tried to help me but then Izzy took off her costume, which by the way, I have no idea where she got. The girl is insane, I could’ve gotten injured way worse. Anyways I was pissed but Cody helped me back to our tent.”

“Didn’t you say you didn’t like Cody?”

“I did. But honestly? I might have been a little quick to judge him. He’s not that bad. Actually, he’s pretty chill. He listened to me talk about Coraline and read it. And he remembered what I said about the tunnels. I know he listened. He’s nice now that I’ve gotten to know him. His friend Gwen is also really cool, you know the diary girl? Her. I’ve been spending more time with both of them.”

“So you’re warming up to him. Maybe that palm reading girl was right about you and feelings, loverboy.”

“Don’t ever call me that again. And I don’t like him.”

Why did everyone think that he liked Cody? Izzy, Gwen, now Ava. He didn’t. They were friends. He just met the guy, and he didn’t have the classic signs. No butterflies, no daydreams, no nothing.

“I’m kidding. I would never trust a palm reader.”

“After this? Me neither.”

Noah and Ava went on to converse about their weeks, taking turns talking. After an hour, Noah hung up and walked out of the outhouse.

Cody was right outside, walking up to the outhouse. “You done?” He asked.

“Yeah,” Noah responded. “What’s the time?”

“9:47.”

“Oh, dang. Are you sure your parents will be awake?”

“Yeah. Until ten.”

Noah shrugged and walked away.

Cody twirled the phone cord around and around, waiting for someone to pick up the phone. With every beat of the phone, he tapped his foot faster.

Until finally, there was a click. He heard the familiar, gravelly voice of his mother. But he knew his mother had not picked up the phone.

“If you called before 8PM, it is business hours. If you called after 10PM, you called at night. If you called between these times and we did not pick up the phone, we do not care. Please do not waste our time as we are busy people. If this is urgent, leave a message after the tone.”

Cody sighed as the tone went off. “Hey mom, dad. I miss you. If I was a camper this year, I’d be coming home today. But I’m not.” He laughed dryly. “It’d be nice next week if you picked up the phone. Promise I won’t take too long. Love you.”

He hung up.

Cody returned to the campfire to see Noah talking with Owen, Ezekiel with Harold. A few other CITs were gone, Cody assumed they had gone to bed. He turned to Gwen, who sat alone, doodling.

“Hey, Gwen,” Cody greeted.

Gwen turned to Cody and closed her sketchbook. “Hey Cody. I was just about to turn in for the night, want to walk with me?”

“Yeah.” Gwen stood up and the two began the walk back to their ways back to the cabins. “Sorry again for trying to set you up with the wrong guy. I swear, that was so stupid.”

Gwen smiled. “Definitely. I can’t believe you thought I was into him. That’s more your thing.”

“I am not into him.”

“I heard about the cuddling on Monday.”

“Aw man, seriously? Who told you? Was it Izzy?”

“It was Noah himself, in the flesh.”

“What? When? Why?”

“I told him if he cuddled you without kissing you he would probably like it. He said he did cuddle with you and then he told me about it or whatever. Seriously, Izzy might be right about you guys.”

“She is not.”

But Cody kind of liked the idea of Noah talking about him. Even if it was about cuddling, which was kind of embarrassing. It made him feel cared for, which was amazing coming from Noah.

“Okay, whatever. Anyways I was planning on talking with Trent tomorrow.”

“Oh, I can help!”

“I was hoping you’d say that.”

“Yeah, I can go to the beach under the cliff with you and Trent in the morning. If you want me to, I can stay for maybe an hour or something before I head back. Just like shoo me when you’re ready. Then it’ll just be you two.”

“That sounds pretty good. See you at 9:30 tomorrow?”

“Yeah.”

“Project get Gwen and Trent to make up was a success! So far,” Cody told Noah as he walked up to the porch.

“And what’s that?” Noah asked. He had been sitting on the porch playing Jubilinsky with Owen. He was winning 3-0, two more wins and Owen owed him 29 cents… okay, so the game was definitely more fun with more people and actual opportunities to bet on things. 29 cents was kind of lame.

“You know, the whole buried alive thing.”

“Mm. Heard about that. But what’s the operation?”

“I just had to bring Trent and Gwen together and get them talking normally so Gwen could actually talk to him.”

“Because you’re just so involved.” Noah knocked on the floor.

“Aw man!” Owen exclaimed, drawing a card with one eye closed. “Darn.” He dropped a three of clubs into the discard pile.

“28,” Noah stated, dropping his cards. He held an eight of spades, as well as a jack and king of the same suit.

“15.” Owen presented a nine and six of diamonds, as well as a ten of clubs. He flicked a penny to the side. “I’m officially on welfare.”

“Hey, you’ve still got a shot.”

“What are you guys playing?” Cody asked, sitting on the floor next to the two.

“Jubilinsky.” Noah picked up the cards and shuffled them shortly before passing out cards between himself and Owen.

“Never heard of it. How do you play?”

“Get 31 points of the same suit. Jacks, queens, and kings are all ten. Ace is eleven.”

“Wait, but you got 28.”

“That’s because I knocked.”

“What?”

“You wanna play?” Owen asked. He then smirked to Noah and knocked on the floor.

“Game’s already over, I was dealt a win,” Noah said, laying his cards. The ace of hearts, as well as the queen and king.

“No way. You cheated. That is too perfect.”

Noah shrugged. “Give me your quarter.”

Owen grumbled and handed over his quarter, as well as his four pennies.

“I think I’m good,” Cody replied to Owen’s question. “I was actually planning on going on a walk, you two want to come?”

Usually, Noah would say no to such proposals that included exercise. But he could make an exception for once. And Owen was already standing up, leaving Noah to clean up the cards.

“Sure,” Noah responded, stuffing the cards into the box.

When the trio got outside, Cody immediately started talking. “So I was talking with Gwen and Trent about our campers, Gwen said Scott was a little gremlin in a good way, Trent said Sam was pretty funny. I think I’m going to miss Dawn. She was so eccentric. And smart for a zodiac girl.”

Noah pshed. Smart. Noah would have agreed if it wasn’t for her parting words. Monday would be an important day? Anything could happen on Monday. Challenge days were always weird. Noah was not looking forward to the fact that it was tomorrow. And Noah did not have a crush. Dawn would probably grow up to be some fake psychic- not that he was judging, it was a pretty good way to make money. And her first reading of him had him convinced that she truly knew something. Being twelve and that accurate could probably set her to have a solid career. She just had to keep making people feel special, and not messing up like she did before she left.

“Dakota was an experience,” Noah said.

“She wasn’t bad,” Owen defended. “She liked the beach, which worked out for us.”

“Not for me.”

“No one goes to summer camp to stay inside,” Cody told Noah. “That’s your fault. Also, you don’t have to be alone in the cabin or on the porch to read. You can be at the beach.”

“Noah just avoids the sun. And water. Actually, that reminds me of this time when we were eight and at a pool party, Noah was reading and made fun of some clumsy girl for tripping right before he fell in the water.”

Cody chuckled. “I can totally see that happening. You’re all talk.”

Noah felt like he was burning. Which was weird. Noah actually felt stupid. He was never bothered when Owen told weird stories about him embarrassing himself. What was going on?

He sort of wished that right now it was just him and Cody. Which, what the heck? Hello, Earth to Noah, Owen is your best friend? But it wasn’t that he didn’t want to hang out with Owen. It was just that he wanted to hang out with them both separately. Which was also weird, because Noah liked to cram all of his get-togethers with his friends at once so he could have more time to himself later. He felt like he was going crazy. He just wasn’t himself.

As he listened to Cody and Owen start telling tales to each other, he just wished he could sit with Cody and talk to him about Coraline for a little while. He knew Cody had listened when he talked about it before, because he mentioned the tunnels when he gave Noah the book back. Noah had been a little shocked because he didn’t really expect Cody to care enough to remember what he had said days later.

“Yeah, and he was stuck there for an hour before Joey came out with the spatula!” Owen finished his most recent tale about Noah.

“Well, it doesn’t compare to the time you got your head stuck between the wooden bars on my playground,” Noah interjected. “And you insisted on not getting my mom.”

“Hey, I got out!”

Cody grinned at the two. “You guys know everything about each other.”

“Kinda, yeah.”

Owen nodded as a response.

Cody smiled at them, rubbing his arm.

Chapter Text

The Gophers and Bass lined up, half and half. When Chris had announced the teams were back to being Gophers and Bass, Heather was very annoyed. Noah knew she hated probably the whole team. He didn’t blame her. A lot of them were idiots. And, in her defense, Noah did not help.

“So, the hunters for the Gophers are Beth, Leshawna, Lindsay, Noah, and Owen.”

Chris tossed the hunters goggles and paintball guns. Great. Responsibility.

“And for the Bass are Bridgette, Eva, Geoff, Harold, and Zeke.” Chris tossed the Bass their materials. “The rest of you are deer! So put on your fluffy tails and red noses.”

“Seriously?” Duncan asked.

At least Noah didn’t have to wear the stupid deer getup.

“Sweet!” Cody cheered as he walked back to Noah after getting his ‘costume’. “I’m pumped! Dude, I’m like, deer material.”

“You’re pumped?” Noah asked. “About wearing that?”

“Well, not about the costume, but I’m gonna be great at this challenge. I’m fast, I’m flexible, all that stuff you need to run away from people. I have plenty of practice from… whatever, doesn’t matter.”

“Deer! It’s your headstart! Get going!” Chris yelled.

“See you, Noah.” Cody waved him off as he ran over to Gwen and Trent to walk with them. The sun filtered through the trees and onto Cody’s skin, and even from a distance Noah could see the freckles on his face.

Weird thing to notice.

When Chris allowed the hunters to go, Owen immediately ditched Noah to hunt down DJ, and Noah would rather die than hang out with any of the other hunters. Well, maybe except Leshawna but he was pretty sure she didn’t like him. It wasn’t exactly like Leshawna was his favorite person anyways, so Noah decided to stick to being alone.

He walked aimlessly around the forest, seeing nothing. Nada. Not a soul. When he heard a rustle and would turn, there would just be a squirrel or something. But that did make sense, Noah wasn’t busting his back for this challenge. He could appreciate edible food for three nights or whatever, but he also hated running. So he hoped Leshawna was decent, because he doubted the skills of anyone else.

‘Monday will be an important day for you’ my ass, Noah thought to himself. Seriously. Nothing happened. The most eventful thing he had seen yet was a bear putting on glasses. Which, by the way, what the fuck? Maybe Izzy’s impression of bears on this island wasn’t too far off. Or maybe that was Izzy again. That was honestly a good tactic, hiding in a bear costume so no one would hit her. He actually would have to talk to her later and compliment her about that—

Nevermind, that wasn’t her. He just saw her swinging from a vine in front of his face. Bears on this island were just weird. Honestly, not even just the bears, animals in general.

“Noah!”

Noah looked over his shoulder to see a certain freckle-faced deer smiling and running towards him. Noah felt a grin coming over him, but then placed a hand over his mouth. What the heck? Since when did Noah smile at people? Nevermind a grin.

“Hey.” Cody stopped beside him, slowing to a walk.

“Hi.” Noah kept looking forward, pretending to search for an enemy deer.

“Dude, you would not believe what just happened. Eva is horrifying,” Cody began.

“What happened?”

“I was just minding my business when I saw this really weird looking beaver…”

Noah couldn’t recall every detail of the story, which made him feel kind of guilty, since Cody seemed to be able to pay attention to the details when Noah ranted. Noah was just distracted. The sun was in his eyes through the visors, he was sweating because god was it hot, his shirt was tucked into his shorts weird and he couldn’t fix it without it looking weird, and Cody’s voice melded into his mind even though Noah couldn’t comprehend what he was saying because of everything else going on. The only thing he really picked up was beavers, some sort of trap, and how consistently nice Cody’s voice sounded. It was a lot more soothing than Noah had noticed when he first met him. Noah’s mind was running so fast, which was obviously the opposite of how he usually operated.

“...I managed to escape with my life, but just barely! She wasn’t able to chase after me. I think she skips leg day.”

Noah let out a breath, trying his best to pretend that he understood all of that. “Sounds like you had a wild day.”

Cody giggled. “You can say that again.”

Noah smiled, before turning to examine his surroundings.

“Shit!” Noah hissed. “Geoff!”

Cody didn’t say a word, he ducked behind a bush. Geoff looked over, and Noah gave an awkward wave. Geoff waved back happily and continued on his way.

Noah looked back down to Cody to see him crawling his way into a cave. Noah looked back and forth before following.

“Good hiding spot,” Noah whispered.

Cody smiled. “Can’t see a thing though.”

Noah nodded, but then remembered that Cody wouldn’t be able to see. He settled on not responding.

“What the heck is that?”

“What?”

Cody screamed and jumped to his feet. Noah followed.

They heard a roar somewhere deep in the cave.

Cody darted out of the cave, Noah close behind. The ground shook as something chased them.

“Is that Izzy?” Cody asked between pants. They were sprinting across the grass, and there was what sounded like and looked like a bear behind them.

“No,” Noah said, breathless. “I saw her… earlier. I think… I think that’s a real bear.”

Cody paled, picking up his pace. Noah followed, barely catching up. This was probably the most exercise he had done in his life, even more than the last time they were chased by a bear. His heart beat harder than it ever had. He was going to die. He was, in fact, going to die. For real this time.

After running in a circle for a bit, they came upon the spot Cody had ducked earlier. Noah had an idea. He grabbed Cody by the collar and violently dragged him behind a bush. Cody toppled over him and they fell onto Noah’s back.

Cody let out a sound of pain, but kept quiet in fear. He rolled off of Noah and laid next to him.

Suddenly, Noah was aware of everything. He was aware of Cody’s hand on his chest, which Noah was too afraid to touch. He was aware of the sweat on his face that Cody shared. He was aware of the hot breath leaving Cody’s mouth and landing on his neck.

He was aware of the beating of his heart. Scratch what he said before about his heart beating harder than it ever had, now was that moment. He knew Cody could feel it in his chest.

Noah felt warm. Very warm. But cold at the same time. He was terrified for his life. He was nervous. He was euphoric.

He was aware of why he felt all of those emotions.

His heart beat faster and faster and faster and faster. His mind kept running and running and running and running. He was breathing quicker and quicker and quicker and quicker.

His eyes darted to Cody’s face. It was scrunched, his eyes shut tight. His hair was messy and covered in sweat. His freckles were dark compared to his pale skin.

As his heart felt like exploding, he was aware of how he felt for Cody.

Fuck…

He felt those emotions that teenagers in romance novels felt, butterflies in his stomach and an ache in his heart. The classic signs.

Dawn was right. And she hit him with a two-for-one. Noah fucking liked Cody. Cody. Why Cody?

Monday was an important day.

Monday, July 9th, 2007. The woods of Camp Wawanakwa. The end of Noah’s life as a superior being, above feelings and his siblings and stupid palm readers.

“You-” Noah cleared his throat. “You okay?”

The bear was gone. Cody and Noah had sat up, but Cody’s shin wasn’t able to move at all without him shedding a couple of tears.

He ghosted his fingers over his shin. He felt a dim buzzing pain. “No, I don’t think I can walk on this.”

“Let’s get you a cast.”

Cody nodded. He slung his arm around Noah’s shoulder. Noah stood up, lifting Cody with him, looking at the ground. It was his turn to help Cody walk after a bear attack. Wow. He’d have two dimes.

“Are you okay?” Cody asked Noah.

“I’m fine.” Noah kept looking straight forward.

“...Freaked out?”

“Obviously.”

Cody nodded. So Noah was being pretty short with his answers. He was probably just shocked or something- in his defense, Cody himself could barely process that this happened.

“At least this time I didn’t get mangled.” Cody laughed lightly to himself, trying to find any humor as he hopped along on his right foot.

Noah quirked an eyebrow. “What… what?”

Cody returned the expression. “You didn’t know?”

“Did you get mauled by a bear?”

“Yeah, I think I mentioned it a couple of times when you were around.”

Noah’s mouth hung open.

“I think I mentioned it when we first got here and I was talking with Trent and Harold about old camp stories. And when we were getting chased by Izzy.”

“I… wow… how…?”

“Last year I was alone in the woods eating a bag of chips and the bear followed the crumbs. It wasn’t fun.”

“I’m- I’m so sorry Cody that’s horrible.”

“It’s fine. I mean, it’s over now. I’m okay.”

Noah didn’t seem so sure, but let it go.

At the medical tent, Chef gave Cody a cast and told him to stay off of his left leg for three days. He did not have crutches. Cody would have to make do.

“Noah!” Cody finger-gunned with a toothy smile. “Looks like you have to be my crutch!” He smiled widely. Noah gave him a blank stare, but not at his eyes. At his mouth.

Cody closed it, and pressed his tongue against the gap in his teeth.

Noah snapped back to Cody’s eyes. He didn’t say a word.

Cody couldn’t help but feel like something was wrong.

Noah’s eyes flicked back and forth from Cody to the fire to his food he was poking at. Cody was telling his whole story about his shin to everyone.

The Bass had won, so that sucked for the Gophers. They were yet to win a game.

Ezekiel sat next to Cody. Cody looked oddly happy for a guy who almost got attacked by a bear for the second time in his life. Noah didn’t know why.

When Ezekiel spoke to Cody, he spoke quietly. Cody would respond with a grin. His idiotic gap-tooth smile, that somewhere along the way, Noah started thinking was cute.

“...But Noah helped me get around after that.”

Ezekiel cast Noah a look. Noah looked up from his food he was pretending to stare at and turned to Ezekiel. As soon as he did, Ezekiel looked away again.

What was up with that kid?

Noah went back to poking at his food. His mind kept him in check- don’t stare, don’t stare, don’t stare, don’t stare.

The night passed, so did the morning. Before he knew it, Noah was standing next to Owen outside and Chris was assigning them campers. Again.

Cody hung his arm over Ezekiel’s shoulder, laughing with him about something. Ezekiel kept his gaze forward and chuckled to himself while Cody was smiling so hard that his eyes were closed.

Noah narrowed his eyebrows. Then he realized he was being weird.

This was ridiculous. Now that he knew he liked Cody, he couldn’t mind his own business. He found himself sneaking glances at Cody during breakfast. He purposely bumped into him on their way outside because Ezekiel already stole the job of helping him walk. Now he was annoyed that Cody was laughing with someone who wasn’t him.

“Are you a zombie?” The kid Cody and Ezekiel got assigned was already freaking out. “Were you bitten on the ankle?”

Cody chuckled. “I just sprained it or something.”

“You can’t sprain a shin!”

“Noah, Owen, you guys can take Jasmine.”

Chris pointed the girl over, and she rushed to where they stood. “Can we go on a hike? I just sat on a really long flight, I need to stretch my legs.”

“Yeah!” Owen sounded excited. Noah sighed. Great. Another outdoorsy kid, except this one was athletic. Ugh. Oh well.

“Sweet! Let’s go!”

She started jogging over on a path leading to the woods. Noah and Owen followed.

When they arrived under the trees, Jasmine stood there waiting.

“Okay, you guys are kind of slow,” She told them. “I’ll just meet you at the top of this hill.”

“Go for it,” Noah responded.

“Noah!” Owen folded his arms.

It was too late. Jasmine was already rushing out into the woods, Noah strolling slowly.

“It’s fine,” Noah said. “I actually wanted to ask you something.”

“What?” Owen questioned.

Noah could not believe he was about to do this. He trusted Owen, but then again, he knew the guy was an idiot. “So when you have a crush, how do you stop it?”

Before Noah actually had a crush, he thought getting rid of it would probably be pretty easy. Then, he realized he actually had no idea how to stop it. He thought he would just avoid his crush if he ever had one, but that was before he ended up at a summer camp where you can’t avoid anyone, especially not your annoying friends. How the heck could he work his way around this?

Owen perked up. “Noah! You have a-”

Noah slapped a hand over Owen’s mouth. “Shush!”

Owen changed his tone to a whisper. “Crush!”

“I do not. I’m just asking for… research purposes.” Noah knew Owen wouldn’t believe his lie.

“Who is it?” Owen was ignoring him. “Wait! Let me guess. It’s Cody, isn’t it?”

“Wha- how did you know?”

“You were totally staring daggers at Ezekiel earlier when he was laughing with Cody. I was wondering what was up with that.”

“Shoot, if you can tell, he probably can.”

Owen shook his head. “No. Cody’s pretty dense. But anyways, I’m so proud of you!”

“Owen! I want to get rid of it! How do I do that?”

“Why would you want to get rid of it?”

“It’s stupid, annoying, and inconvenient. And it’s Cody! Are you kidding me? This is so embarrassing. If it was on some pretty girl who was out of my league, at least I wouldn’t feel this ashamed. Cody is weird!”

Owen ignored the insults to Cody. “How long have you had it?”

“Well I noticed it yesterday.”

“That’s way too early to decide whether or not you want to keep it. Come on, you’ll grow to like it.”

“Don’t talk about it like it’s a pet! Just tell me how to get rid of it, Owen!”

“You can’t!”

Noah grumbled. “This is stupid. I’m gonna get rid of it whether I know how to or not.”

“Why do you want to get rid of it so bad?”

“Because it’s stupid, dumb, and useless. And it’s on Cody! Seriously. Making me repeat myself.”

“I told you you’d warm up to him.”

Noah narrowed his brows.

“But you two would be so cute together!”

Noah remained angry. “You better not tell anyone about this.”

Owen mimicked zipping his lips.

Noah let out a long sigh. “Let’s just find this girl before she gets herself killed.”

Score!

So, Cody didn’t really know why Zeke had been avoiding him in the first place, but he wasn’t anymore. And that’s all that mattered.

Their camper was a little weird. He talked about zombie safety tactics with Cody and Zeke while they walked around. Shawn brought them to his cabin to… set up traps? Whatever.

Cody spent a lot of time sitting down. It wasn’t like he could do much else. He couldn’t walk. But who needs a working leg when you have a Zeke?

Cody didn’t ask why Zeke had been avoiding him. Zeke didn’t mention it. Who knows? Maybe it was all in Cody’s head, or he was overthinking things.

He had a fun day of hanging out with his friend and camper before everyone was called in for dinner and Cody sat by the fire holding a tray of slop.

Cody waved at Noah as he sat down. He turned back to Zeke, who shrugged Cody’s arm off of his shoulders. Fair, Cody’s arm had been on him plenty already. The dude was probably sweaty.

He actually was. Cody looked at him in the face and watched a bulb of sweat run down his temples. It was a hot day.

Shawn hovered behind Cody.

“What’s up with him?” Noah asked, blatantly ignoring the fact that Shawn wasn’t deaf.

“He’s worried about zombies,” Cody explained.

“They could be anywhere!” Shawn exclaimed. “You better watch your back- an island breakout is a classic story that screws everyone over! You need to know your know-how.”

“Yeah, zombies are a sure-fire way for an entire island to die,” Jasmine said. She sounded like she was joking. Shawn clearly was not.

“What’s up?” Eva asked.

“Meet Sammy!” Izzy yelled.

“Do you mind?” Noah asked.

Sammy waved shyly to the group.

“Did you give her a zombie check?” Shawn asked.

“What?” Sammy asked.

“She’s not a zombie,” Cody said.

“So Eva almost beat up Heather,” Izzy began.

“And I would’ve actually done it if Noah didn’t stop me.” Eva folded her arms.

“We went on a hike,” Noah explained.

“Eventful day?” Cody asked.

Noah nodded.

“Can’t wait to join you guys on hikes again when my leg gets better.” He kicked his leg out. “I’m wearing out Zeke’s shoulders. And my right leg. I’ve been hopping everywhere. I’m glad you’re actually willingly hiking now.”

“Not really.”

Cody grinned. He missed dragging Noah on hikes he hated, and it had only been a day. Bothering him was amazing. “Okay. Well, can someone walk me to the cabin and then to the bathrooms? I need to take a shower. And I need a plastic bag.”

“Yeah, sure,” Noah offered.

Owen smiled. Huh.

“Thanks.” Cody put his arm around Noah’s shoulders. “Let’s beat it!”

When Cody made it to the showers, plastic bag in hand, Noah waved him off and Cody told him to come back in fifteen minutes to help him out. As annoying as it was, he could not shower without putting a bag over his cast.

Just as he finished getting dressed and was completing drying his hair, Noah came back and helped Cody back to camp.

If there was one thing he liked about having a cast on his leg, it was leaning on Noah to hop back to camp. Noah didn’t strike him as a physical contact person, except for when he was unconscious. But he was really good at it. Cody was going to milk this injury for all it was worth. He was touch starved, for God’s sake!

In the morning, Chris called everyone to the Mess Hall, assigned teams, and shoved them all into the kitchen.

Cody wasn’t sure if Chris knew what he was signing up for, but before he knew it, he was standing next to a stove and making flambé.

Gwen sat there, staring at the ingredients. Cody did the same. He was not a baker. He wished Heather put him on skewers. Even ribs would be better.

Heather was kind of on a power trip, and Cody didn’t think she knew the first two things about anyone on their team. She put Courtney and Trent, the only two people Cody guessed could cook, on skewers. Skewers. They were being wasted. Then Katie and Sadie were making ribs, which Cody did not trust them with. And Heather was walking around yelling at people.

Lucky for them, however, it didn’t seem like the other teams were doing much better. Justin was freaking out over touching stuff and making his teammates do everything, which Noah seemed annoyed at. And Cody actually couldn’t see the last team, but he wasn’t guessing that Harold or Zeke were geniuses when it came to cooking.

“So…” Cody started, for the thousandth time. “Do we mix the butter and the sugar? I think that’s how you start baking.”

Gwen shrugged. “Works for me.”

Cody poured the butter and sugar into a bowl and stirred. The butter was very tough, which wasn’t exactly best for his admittedly weak arms. Gwen tried, but wasn’t much better. Eventually they decided it was good enough and dumped in the bananas (???) that Heather had given them and told them to slice, as well as some chopped oranges and a vanilla bean (???), which Cody had never actually seen one of in his life.

“Are we doing this right?” He eventually asked. He didn’t think they were. Nothing was mixing.

“What are you doing?” Heather asked, suddenly.

Cody jumped, not realizing she had been behind them. “Um. Baking?”

“You have to put the ingredients in the skillet, idiots! God, why do I even try?” Heather picked up the bowl and dumped everything into a pan on the stove, that Cody had not even noticed. “And you put oranges in here instead of zesting them. Great.”

“You didn’t tell us what to do!” Gwen shouted, catching the attention of the team next to them. Cody looked over to them to see Noah staring at Gwen and Heather.

Noah didn’t look happy.

“This is common sense, Gwen, this is a flambé! It needs to be hot!”

“I don’t know the first two things about flambés! What even is a flambé?”

“There are three steps! Make the flambé, pour the alcohol, and light the damn thing!”

“Screw off, Heather!” Noah yelled from his kitchen. Gwen and Heather turned towards him. “You’re being an asshole.”

“Mind your own business, Noah.”

“Karma’s gonna bite your butt.”

Heather rolled her eyes, and looked over to Cody with a sweet smile. “Cody, we’re friends,” she began, and let her smile drop. “Tell your little shit of a boyfriend to shut the fuck up.”

“You’re friends?” Gwen questioned Heather’s first statement.

“Boyfriend?” Cody questioned the second.

“Whatever.” Heather added the rum, and lit a match. She tilted the pan towards herself roughly.

Oh no.

The next thing Cody knew, Heather was screaming and running around with fire in her hair. Courtney was holding a fire extinguisher and everything was white.

When Heather patted out all of the flames, she checked herself out in a pan. It was then she realized that her eyebrows burnt off.

Cody didn’t think he ever heard someone scream so loud.

“Cody! Get me my makeup bag! It’s out in the Mess Hall!”

He didn’t need to be asked twice.

As he hopped on one foot towards the door, he saw Noah walking over to Gwen and patting out a tiny spark on her shoulder.

Noah was not a baker. Not in a million years. But Izzy wanted to make Italian cookies.

Thankfully, he had a distraction at the moment. He leaned against the counter talking to Gwen, complaining. He could definitely appreciate the other complainers in his life.

Heather was walking around fretting, so her team had found a moment of peace. Courtney took over and put everyone on jobs they could actually be trusted with. Katie and Sadie had insisted on making ice cream, so that was being done. Trent and Gwen were on ribs, and Gwen lazily basted them. Courtney finished up on skewers and started making dip since she had extra time and wanted to salvage their chances of winning.

“Seriously. Heather is demented,” Gwen stated.

“You can say that again,” Noah agreed.

“She’s on a power trip,” Trent added.

“So remind me why we’re still trying?” Gwen asked. “I think we already lost the competition. The other teams are way ahead.”

Noah looked over to his team, where he saw Owen fumbling over his words with Justin. A classic. Izzy was at the oven, that probably wouldn’t end well. Yup, she was sticking her head inside. Eva threw a knife at a wall. Duncan wasn’t doing anything. Tyler was in the kitchen. “Don’t worry. There’ll be disaster at our station any minute now.”

“Team three will win, then. They’re overpowered. They have DJ and Leshawna.”

Trent glimpsed across the kitchen. “But they have Ezekiel, the guys probably never touched a cutting board in his life. Not to mention Lindsay.”

The door opened, and Noah turned to look. It was Cody, with Heather’s makeup bag.

“Thank you, Cody.” Heather snatched the bag from his bag, and went to walk to a bench. Fortunately, she tripped and dropped the bag, which went across the floor and landed at Katie’s feet.

“Cute bag!” Katie said, examining the material. “Sadie, we should get one like this!”

“Yes!” Sadie jumped up and down. “We can add matching keychains!”

“EEE!” The girls squealed. Katie shot her hands up, throwing the bag behind her.

Courtney turned and caught the bag before it fell into the sauce she was making. “Be careful!”

Courtney herself aimed to toss the bag back to Heather, who was now standing by Noah. But she missed, and Gwen caught the bag instead.

Gwen took a few steps back and away from the ribs. “Yo Noah! Catch!”

The bag soared through the air and Noah (somehow) caught it.

“Ugh, just give it Noah.” Heather held her arms out. “I have expensive stuff in there, stop playing hot potato.”

Noah took a look at the bag, then Gwen, then Heather.

“Whoops,” He said as he threw the bag into the fridge.

Heather frowned. “Thanks.”

She walked over into the fridge, and Gwen shut and locked it.

“Good riddance,” She said, wiping her hands off.

“Gwen!” Courtney began, definitely about to scold her. Noah decided to tune her out while he was still living.

He turned to Cody. “So…”

“Noah, get over here!” Justin yelled. Noah rolled his eyes and looked over. “Izzy’s trying to cook herself!”

“See you later, then?”

Cody grinned. “Yeah.”

The rest of Noah’s afternoon consisted of him lazily icing Italian cookies, getting annoyed at Justin, and sneaking glances at Cody.

“Noah!” Izzy’s shout brought him back to attention. “These cookies aren’t gonna glaze themselves!”

Noah grumbled and picked up a cookie, swirling it around in the bowl of white icing and placing it back on the cooling rack where Izzy was decorating fine details of the cookies, such as little red stars made of colored icing.

“I understand that you are madly in love, but you can’t let that get in the way of your greatness. I know that there is a cooking spirit in you! I see it deep in your soul. While Cody is a great young man, he is a greater cook, and he is the enemy!”

“Cody is semi-responsible for burning Heather’s eyebrows off. And I’m not madly in love,” Noah replied, although he found her statement a little more accurate than before. Despite still being nowhere near the truth, Noah knew the guy for three weeks and a few days, he was not in love. She wasn’t right about Noah being into Cody a while before, but she had predicted it, which he had to give her credit for. But he wasn’t letting her know, obviously, that would get him into so much Izzy he didn’t want to deal with. “And this is one cooking competition. It’s not that serious. Plus, we’re already doomed.”

Izzy turned to Eva, and pointed. “My foolish child! We never give up! Eva here perseveres, even when the spaghetti is tougher than the knots in the soul when judges eliminate you from competition.”

“You might be the weirdest girl I know.”

“Touché , mon compagagnon .”

“Ton français est nul.”

“I have no idea what you just said.”

“Exactly.”

“No matter! Get your head in the game. Glory is greater than love!”

“There’s no love.” Noah leaned back against the counter and looked at Cody before rocking back to ice the cookies.

“One minute warning!” Chef called through the door.

“Hurry, mon compagaggeranon!” Izzy shrieked. Noah practically threw the rest of the cookies into the icing bowl, Izzy and himself frantically taking them back out and decorating them. Noah didn’t even bother to correct her horrible French.

They waved the earlier-iced cookies around in order to dry the icing before stacking the cookies up on the plate. Tyler and Duncan had their unevenly-garnished garlic bread thrown on a plate. Eva and Owen topped the spaghetti with cheese, and Justin sat there looking pretty. With records of the past challenges, doing just that would get them 10 points. Look at the talent contest. It was kind of annoying.

All of the CITs exited the kitchen and stood with their plates in the Mess Hall.

Noah stood on the edge of the group, Cody on his. Cody grinned at him, hanging on Trent’s shoulder.

“Fancy meeting you here,” He said.

“I see Heather is alive and well,” Noah stated, taking note of her appearing in the lineup.

“We almost forgot she was in the fridge, but then I realized there wasn’t anyone yelling at us, so I opened her up. She spent five minutes lecturing Gwen alone.”

“Everyone, shush!” Chris pointed at Ezekiel’s team. “First, I’ll take team… what do you call yourselves?” He asked, motioning at their group.

“Victory!” Leshawna yelled.

“Yeah, I’ll take your pretzels.”

Leshawna took a deep breath and presented the pretzels, Geoff by her side.

Chris took a bite. “Good, but not great. I rate it 6/10.”

Leshawna sighed. “I told you to add more lemon pepper.”

“I thought it would tingle his tongue too much! Sorry dudette.”

“Oh well. You win some, you lose some.”

“Next, uh,” Chris began. “Team name?” He asked, pointed at Noah’s team.

“Um,” Noah looked between his teammates, who all shrugged.

“No name?” Chris asked. “That’s alright. You can be Team Chris is Really Really Really Really hot! Now hand me that garlic bread!”

Duncan sighed and walked forward with Tyler to give Chris the bread.

It got old quick.

Chris tasted bits of everyone’s food, and Noah was practically falling asleep by how slowly Chris would chew and how he would throw around scores in a boring judge-esque voice. Team Victory, Team Chris, Team Amazon.

Noah didn’t really pay attention to the last six dishes, besides the Amazons. He knew that he lost to Victory, because Duncan was grumbling about how much Noah and Justin sucked for not helping. As if they were actually going to win. Duncan cooked like a white caveman.

“So, the score for Team Victory is 24. Chris is 16. As of now, Amazon is 15. They still have a chance.”

Katie and Sadie handed Chris an ice cream sundae, which Noah admitted looked amazing. He was pretty sure the ice cream was strawberry and banana, and it was topped with a sort of vanilla sauce, whipped cream, and a cherry. Maybe Katie and Sadie could be trusted in the kitchen.

“The looks do not disappoint,” Chris said, taking a spoonful. He placed it in his mouth, taking his time to taste.

Katie and Sadie grinned at him. Cody bit his fingernails, which were pretty short to begin with. Noah hadn’t really noticed before, but he probably bit his nails a lot. Noah barely had nails to bite, they were so weak that they broke off the second they grew past his skin.

“Hm. I give it an eight. Team Victory wins!”

Katie and Sadie’s smiles dropped, Sadie giving Katie a pat on the back.

“That was the best recipe we ever sold!” Katie exclaimed, walking back to Team Amazon. “Why didn’t he like it? It’s a fan favorite.”

“Hey, an eight is still incredible,” Cody reasoned.

“How can I listen to you? You don’t even know how to make a flambé!”

Cody gave her a straight face.

Noah rolled his eyes. God, he couldn’t stand those two.

“Hey Cody.” Noah bumped into Cody’s shoulder, sliding Cody’s arm onto his own shoulder. He was totally being smooth.

“Hey,” Cody responded.

“Wanna go hang out on the duck- dick-, shit.” Noah sighed and rubbed his hand on his forehead. Yeah Noah. Great job being smooth. “Dock. For fuck’s sake.”

Cody smiled at him, thankfully not caring. “Sure.”

Noah would take that.

So he spent that night on the dock with Cody. And the next morning, Cody round up him and all of their friends and campers and decided they were going to the dock again.

Cody spent a while whining about how he couldn’t swim for a while, talking about how he would get his cast off tomorrow morning, which just reminded Noah he was running out of ‘have an excuse to have Cody’s arm over his shoulder’ time. Then Cody and Ezekiel got in a weird conversation about squirrels and Harold so Noah tuned them out in favor of reading. When it got to the point that he couldn’t pay attention because Cody and Ezekiel were screaming about nerd stuff, he took a moment to look out at the water.

Jasmine and Shawn could be seen shoving water towards each other. Shawn was freaking out a bit. Izzy and Eva were having a whole fist fight in the water, Izzy also having a water fight with Owen.

“Hide me!” Sammy hissed, crawling behind Noah.

“Samey!” Cody heard Amy call from the paths. “Where are you! I need someone to do my laundry!”

“Laundry?” Cody asked. “You’ve only been here for what, four days?”

“Amy does her laundry twice a week,” Sammy explained.

“Samey! Spare-amy!”

Sammy slid back and under the dock.

Amy stormed down the dock, right in front of Noah.

“Where is my sister?” She asked, although it was more of a demand for her location. “I know one of you has her.”

Noah shrugged. “She isn’t my camper.”

Amy’s eyes darted to Cody and Ezekiel. “Is she yours?”

Cody shook his head, and Ezekiel looked plain freaked out.

She grunted. “Is she those two lunatics?” Amy pointed out to Izzy and Eva in the water.

Noah shrugged again.

“Whatever. Mom is so going to hear about how my bratty sister is abandoning me to do god-knows-what.” She turned on her heel and stormed back off the dock.

“And she called Eva and Izzy lunatics,” Noah said as soon as she was out of earshot. “The girl’s a menace.”

Sammy crawled back onto the dock. “I came to camp to get away from Amy. But when my mom and her heard about it, of course my sister had to come. Because we can’t do anything apart. And Amy has to one-up me on all the activities here.” Sammy folded her arms over her knees. “Thanks for keeping my cover.”

“Your sister sounds like evil in the flesh. It is no problem.”

Sammy smiled

Cody and Ezekiel looked between each other, not sure what to say or do. Noah didn’t blame them. It would probably be weird to give some random twelve-year-old girl a talk about how her family was fucked up after knowing her for one day maximum. But they also shouldn’t be letting that go. Sammy seemed in distress.

“Well, anyways,” Noah broke the silence. “You two gonna keep talking about how Harold said he wanted to pitch a squirrel like a baseball?”

“Harold didn’t say that!” Cody seemed downright offended. “I did!”

Noah nodded. “Seems like more of a you thing. That makes sense.”

“Thank you.”

“Senseless, ridiculous,” Noah let a smile creep onto his face.

“Hey!”

“It’s just part of your lovable idiot brand.”

What.

The fuck.

Why did he say that.

Ezekiel was looking at him weird.

Noah buried his face back in his book, not actually reading, but avoiding everyone’s reactions.

Over the top of his book, he saw Cody’s face fall into an enormous smile. “Dude! What the heck, that was so out-of-character for you!”

Noah scanned the faces of everyone once more. Cody wasn’t weirded out, so that was a plus. Ezekiel looked more confused than anything. Noah bet no one ever told him about gay people. But then again, after all this time at camp, he’s probably discovered that they’re a thing. And Sammy was giving him this huge cat-like grin. She definitely knew. What was it with twelve-year-old blondes and figuring him out?

Noah shrugged. Again. Looks like that was his new official way of getting out of conversations.

With that, Cody and Ezekiel delved into a new conversation, this time including Sammy, about their school experiences. Or something. Noah didn’t care. He especially didn’t care to listen to a homeschooled and private school kid gape at the events of public school. Or a public school kid scrunch her nose upon hearing what private school and homeschooled kids are like.

God, he envied how good of a listener Cody was. Noah couldn’t pay attention to anything for his life. He wished he was the type of guy to remember tiny details of people. Well, he never wished that before, but Cody remembering stuff about him made him pretty impressed. He wanted to impress Cody too.

And he was thinking about this instead of paying attention to the conversation. If he wanted to improve, he should actually put effort into it instead of thinking about putting in the effort.

Nevermind, they were talking about school bathrooms. Noah could not give less fucks.

Cody had a great morning! When Chris woke them up, the first thing Cody did was unwrap his cast. Then, he started walking normally, and it wasn’t painful! Then he (carefully) made his way to the cliff where Chris told them to meet.

His explaining kind of went in one ear and out the other. Trust, teamwork, blah blah blah. At least this seemed like actual training for being a CIT. Well, the last one was also kind of teamwork based but this one was more so. And the last one ended with Heather stuck in a fridge. So.

“Gwen, Heather, you’re up for the Gophers. Eva, Duncan, you’re up for the Bass.”

Neither team seemed very happy.

“If Heather pulls anything, you got to sue the fuck out of her,” Gwen told Cody and Trent. “Actually, I should probably be telling this to Courtney.”

“I heard it, you got it!” Courtney yelled.

“Good luck out there,” Noah said.

Gwen sighed. “Thanks.”

“I’m not going to throw a challenge just to kill you,” Heather reasoned. “Yet.”

Gwen narrowed her eyebrows.

Soon enough, Gwen and Eva were scaling the cliff. Chris was throwing stuff at Heather and Duncan, which threw off only Heather. It seemed like Eva and Duncan were far ahead.

Heather and Duncan started bickering, which accidentally caused Eva to fall down a few feet, giving Gwen a lead.

Cody looked over to Heather, who had a huge grin on her face.

“Um…” Cody looked over to Noah and nudged him, gesturing at Heather. Noah gave him a confused look in return.

“This is for locking me in a fridge!” Heather yelled, pulling a rope.

“Oh, shit,” Noah said, noticing what Heather had done. He immediately turned, as well as Cody and everyone else with respect.

“You don’t see that every day,” Cody heard Duncan. What a creep.

“AAAH!” Cody turned back when he heard Eva scream. It wasn’t long until she and Duncan were tangled in their ropes, hanging upside down.

Gwen made her way to the top, hopelessly holding her skirt behind her. She made it to the top, immediately untying her ropes and sliding her skirt back on.

“Woohoo!” Cody cheered.

Heather put her hands on her hips, a smile on her face.

“What are you grinning about?” Noah asked.

“We won. Eva wouldn’t have fallen if I didn’t conduct my plan.”

“You’re weird as fuck.”

“It’s called strategy.”

“Next challenge!” Chris yelled. “Lindsay, Bridgette, Trent, Zeke! Meet me in the Mess Hall!”

Noah sent a final grimace to Heather before bumping into Cody’s arm. “Let’s go. At least I know I’m not going to be paired with her for my challenge.”

Cody and Noah sat by their cabins, leaning against trees. They had been informed of events every once in a while by passerbys- Trent fumbled for the Gophers by refusing to eat Lindsay’s cooking, which Cody found reasonable. Sadie fucked up archery with the Bass. Very recently, Cody and Noah had been informed that Justin dropped Beth into a pit of mud.

Right now, Noah was reading his book, Cody twiddling his thumbs and thinking.

Yeah, he was pretty sure Noah still liked Gwen.

First, there was that thing where Noah immediately went to check on Gwen when the flambé caught fire. And he was super pissed at Heather a minute ago. And he had no reason to stop liking her, Cody had previously suspected that he was interested in her. But then again, he didn’t seem bothered by Gwen’s interest in Trent. But maybe that was just a facade.

Cody let his eyes fall on Noah. He was focused on the pages of his most recent book- Fahrenheit 451. An English book classic. Very Noah.

He wondered if Noah wrote. Cody had never seen him write, but someone so smart when it came to literature had to be a writer.

Noah. Cody stood by the fact that he seemed like a pretty likable guy. Maybe if Gwen didn’t think he was gay, she’d be into him.

He looked up to Noah’s eyes.

Yeah, a pretty likable guy.

Noah turned towards him, and Cody realized he had been staring.

“Um… hi?” Noah said.

“Sorry,” Cody backed off. “I was just thinking.”

A grin overtook Noah’s face. “About what? Me?”

“Well, kind of.”

Noah had a surprised look on his face, which he quickly subdued. Which was strange because what else would Cody be thinking about while looking at Noah? Gwen?

Noah coughed. “So…”

He was cut off by a loudspeaker, Chris’s voice echoing. “For our tiebreaker, I need Noah, Cody, DJ, and Geoff!”

“But Chris! Me and Katie didn’t get to go,” Izzy was complaining when Cody and Noah arrived at the hill they were called to.

“You switched teams, and are therefore traitors, so including you in this game would be unfair,” Chris explained. “Anyways. Cody, Noah, Geoff, DJ. Your task is to use the toboggans and sled down the hill. One of you will be blindfolded and steering, the other will be guiding. First ones down the hill to cross the finish line win!”

“Toboggans?” Cody asked. “It’s not even winter, it’s like thirty degrees out here.”

“Don’t worry, Chef made sure this would work.”

The four competing in the final challenge exchanged glances.

Once they made it up the hill, Cody looked down to see practically everyone watching.

Chef threw Cody and DJ toboggans along with blindfolds. “Put these on.”

Cody did as he was told, boarding the toboggan (which was quite slippery) and tying his blindfold.

“Um, how do I…” Cody heard Noah from behind him. “How are we going to do this?”

Cody slipped his blindfold up, motioning Noah to sit down. Noah awkwardly sat behind Cody, trying to keep space on the toboggan.

“You’re gonna fall off, dude,” Cody said. “Scoot up.”

Noah looked over to DJ and Geoff, and Cody followed his gaze. Geoff was hugging DJ tightly, head over his shoulder.

“Do what they’re doing,” Cody told him.

Noah cautiously put his arms around Cody’s waist, peeking over his shoulder. Cody slouched a little extra so he would be able to see, sliding his blindfold back down.

“Ready?” Chef asked.

“No!” DJ yelled. “I need Bunny!”

What had Cody missed?

“Set, go!” Chef finished, giving each of the toboggans a starting push.

Noah let out a scream and his arms tightened around Cody as they started off. “Uhh, left!”

Cody followed the directions. Noah let out more and more, but eventually started panicking.

“Ugh, they’re gonna win! Right! They’re so ahead.”

“We have this!” Cody yelled. “Lean forward.”

Noah did as he was told. Okay, so maybe this was terrifying, but Cody did get hugs out of it, so that’s awesome. Cody didn’t know what it was, but Noah was good at hugs.

“Watch out!” Noah screamed.

Before he knew it, Cody and Noah were flying. In the air.

They hit the ground, tumbling over, rolling in the grass, and crossed finish after DJ and Geoff.

“Ugh…” Cody let out eventually, deflating against the grass. “If I have to go to the infirmary again I might lose it.”

Noah placed a hand on Cody’s chest. “You good?”

Cody placed his hand atop of Noah’s. “...I think so.”

Heather walked over to the duo. “Stop your little gay lovefest, we just lost! Thanks, guys.”

Noah gave Heather his usual blank stare.

“So thanks, Noah, maybe next time give Cody directions he can use.”

“It wasn’t all his fault,” Cody defended.

“Actually, it kind of was. I swear, Noah is single-handedly holding our team back.”

“He is not-”

“Now, I would announce the Bass as the winners,” Chris cut them off, per usual. “But, they broke the one rule. DJ peeked through his blindfold. Meaning, the Gophers win! Get together and choose a restaurant within twenty miles and we’ll get delivery for you.”

Heather’s face lit up. “Oh, yes! Anything that isn’t Chef’s will soothe my soul.”

Heather ran off to the team. Cody let out a long breath, sitting up next to Noah. “Honestly?” He began. “I’ll take anything that isn’t Chef’s as well.”

Noah leaned into his palm, elbow on his knee. “Truth.”

Noah, despite a reader, was not a writer. At least, not in the self-indulgent sense. He could fake emotions for poems required for school. All of his creative writing assignments in seventh grade were factually accurate retellings of historical events from the perspectives of commoners. And he had essays that won awards in competitions due to their appealing nature to the rich stiffs who read them.

However, he had never considered himself a writer. Because he really didn’t find much enjoyment on those faked poems, historical retellings, or expository essays. He preferred to read the tales of people much more experienced in the emotional world, that had more accurate stories to tell. If he didn’t read them, how would he fake them, anyways?

He didn’t know exactly how he landed here, pen in hand, scribbling in a notebook. He wrote it in the code he and Joey had used to pass notes in class in eighth grade. He wanted no chances of Owen, or even worse, Cody to find what he wrote.

This was embarrassing.

Cody was busy bothering Courtney and Gwen and whoever else without him. Ezekiel and Harold had gone off to see Heather, for some odd reason. Owen, Izzy, and Eva were on a hike. And Noah didn’t know or care where Trent was. All that mattered was that he was alone.

He smacked himself in the face with his notebook. This was so cheesy. It had not even been a week of knowing he liked Cody, probably not much more that he actually liked Cody. Noah suspected it started a little after the Monday they went camping, but couldn’t be sure. But he was showing textbook symptoms of crushing the Wednesday after while Cody was defusing the bomb, so he knew it was around there. He just hadn’t noticed it yet. He was surprised he didn’t pick up on it earlier. He’s read romances, willingly and unwillingly, so he knew what it was supposed to be like. All he knew was that he was thankful he never went through denial, or oblivion for too long, like every other character in a queer romance he had ever read. God, those were annoying. Especially when they didn’t know they were gay before they fell for the love interest. Spoiler alert- most people figured out their sexuality long before they started crushing.

Anyways, he was getting off track. Maybe he should think about his deep hatred for cliche romances another day.

Speaking of…

Maybe Noah was doing what he hated most. Maybe he was being cliche, and romantic. At the same time. Ugh.

He was writing down how he felt.

Disgusting.

For Cody.

Even worse.

It was a pretty messy spur of emotion, from admiration, to annoyance, or maybe both at the same time, to whatever else came next. Noah was sure he’d never written something so unorganized before. Not even when he first began writing. There was no way he had ever written something chaotic in his lifetime. Whenever he thought of writing his thoughts, he at least insisted on them being coherent.

But here it was. In his hand. A spew of muck. Translated out of code, it read:

Cody. What the fuck? I love the way his stupid little freckles dot his face. I swear, it’s like looking at star constellations to me. That’s so corny, hold up. Okay, nevermind, I can’t fix that. I am corny. For now, at least. Okay, time to write about my feelings like I planned. I’m gonna kill myself. No, not actually, I just feel like that because I like Cody. That sounds bad. But it’s true. Kind of. Not really. Moving on. His tooth gap makes me want to punch his teeth out in a good way, if that makes sense. I really like it. And I really like his eyes. Not just because I like him, just in general. They’re a nice color. But he dresses like he’s supposed to be wearing glasses with tape around them, so that docks him points. Wait. He would look so adorable with glasses. Oh shit this doesn’t have paragraph breaks does it. Whatever, it fits the vibe. If Joey found this piece of paper he would never let me live it down. Joey, if you’re reading somehow, kill yourself, respectively.

And that’s all he got so far. Yeah, it was mostly talking about how stupid he sounded, but that was feelings nonetheless. And coming from someone who thought diaries were stupid, this was impressive. In secret, he actually kind of envied people who had the motivation to write about their days every day, or week, or any time at all. That took time. Especially on paper, Noah hated writing on paper. Even though he was doing it. Why did he even bring a notebook, anyways? He wasn’t really a notebook guy. But he brought one here, for some reason.

A creak was heard in the door. Noah slammed his notebook shut, shoving his pencil into the spiral and stuffing it under his pillow. Yeah, it was written in code, but it was still embarrassing as fuck.

“Hey, Noah.” Cody jumped onto Owen’s bed to raise his head to peek over Noah’s bunk. “We’re headed to the campfire.”

“What’s the time?”

“Half past eight.”

Noah nodded. “I’m gonna give my sister a call. See you guys in an hour.”

So, per usual, Noah went to the bathroom and dialed his sister’s number. His legs sat against the wall. He had something to admit to her, and only her.

“Noah!” The cheerful sound of his sister greeted him.

“Hey,” Noah whispered back over the phone.

“What are you whispering for?”

“The palm reader was right.”

“Huh?”

“I do like someone. Do not tell a soul.”

“Oh my god.” Ava paused. “No way a palm reader was right. But also, my baby brother is having his first crush!” She squealed, a little too loudly for comfort. Noah pressed his palm against the speaker to lower the volume. “It is your first, right? You would always tell me, right?”

“Of course I would just quiet down!”

“Okay. So… who is it? Is it the guitar guy? Or diary girl. Wait, no, it’s the bitch who read her diary.”

“It is none of those.”

“If I knew the people there I would guess right. Okay, now tell me!”

Noah groaned. “It’s Cody, you know, the kid I hated at first but then didn’t mind later.”

“Aw man, I should’ve known that! Okay, tell me the story!”

Noah didn’t want to fulfill that request, but he was also dying to talk. About his feelings. Who was he? Who killed Noah and replaced him with a sentimental freak? “Fine. It starts with us almost getting mauled by a bear. For real this time.”

“What?”

So he told her pretty much the gist of it, excluding the writing and most of the gooey feeling gunk. With that came most of the week’s events. Ava said his little romance was adorable, which made Noah want to kill himself.

Eventually, she sent him off with an ‘I wish I could hug you for being stupid right now’ before signing off.

Noah hung up and exited the outhouse. There was no one in sight, thank the lord.

Cody and Trent probably weren’t the closest guys in the cabin, but they were the two people willing to hike together. Sometimes they went on morning hikes without anyone else. Sometimes they would take evening walks by the beach. A lot of the time, Cody would help Trent with his plans of things to do with Gwen, because Cody knew a lot about her interests. He tried his best not to sound like he liked her. He thought he was making progress with not weirding her out, and not seeming like he liked her. Hopefully, he could start not liking her. They also talked about music a lot, as they had similar tastes. Cody didn’t know why, but he was kind of surprised when he figured out Trent was an Elton John fan.

Right now it was mid-afternoon, and Cody and Trent were taking a hike up a path Cody had never gone up. Trent said it was one of his favorites.

“She said something about the book Fahrenheit 451,” Trent said. Trent was talking about the day he spent with Gwen previously. “I was supposed to read that for English last year, but I never did. Now I kind of regret it because it would be a good talking point. Oh well.”

Cody perked up. “Noah’s reading that book right now. When he’s done, you could borrow it.”

“Seriously? Oh, that’s nice. You sure he’d let me?”

“He let me borrow Coraline, and to be completely honest, you’re way more trustworthy with holding onto peoples’ stuff than I am.”

“Nice! I’ll ask him later. I’m lucky that he’s such a big reader.”

“Yeah. I wish I had academic hobbies like that. You know, ones that actually mean something. I mean, he has nerd hobbies and is still cool, how does he manage that?”

Trent quirked an eyebrow. “Yeah, what about it?”

“I mean, he’s super smart. I think next year he’s doing AP Calculus BC. Not because he’s skipping AB, but because he did geometry as a seventh grader! I’m doing BC as well, and I’m one of the smartest people I know when it comes to math. And he’s not even a math guy, he’s more of an English guy, but is still so good at math.”

“That is pretty impressive. I’m doing standard Pre-Calc next year, you’re both pretty smart.”

“And that’s not even it! The other day he told me about all of his writing competitions and his biggest hobby is reading. And he’s also super good at video games and we have Owen to certify it.”

“Dude, don’t be jealous. You have different hobbies, it’s okay if he’s better at stuff than you. I bet you’re better at music than him by a longshot.”

“I’m not jealous, I just think it’s cool. He’s really cool. He had his whole mysterious sarcasm thing going on. And his voice is so nice, you know? Even though he isn’t exactly the most talkative guy. I guess that just makes it more worth it when he does talk. Don’t you just want to know more about him? When I first got here, I just wanted to be friends with him and know more about him.”

Trent stared at Cody blankly. “Are you… are you sure that’s completely platonic?”

Cody chuckled. “Yeah! Of course, I don’t like him like that.”

“You sure?”

“I’d know if I liked him. I don’t really think he’s my type.”

“If you say so. I was always under the assumption that you were into mysterious loners who were always reading or drawing.”

“Well, um…” Cody pulled on his sleeve. He didn’t like Noah like that, did he? He still liked Gwen. Even if he was trying to stop it. Plus, it would kind of be weird to be friends with Noah and like him without Noah knowing about it. If he was going to be close with his crushes, he had to have them know that he was into them. Because it would suck if they found out and weren’t cool with it.

But now that he was giving it a second thought…

“Shoot. Oh no.”

Trent smiled. “Do you like him?”

“Please do not tell him or anyone.”

Trent stopped walking. “I won’t, I promise.”

Cody stopped as well, pressing a palm to his forehead. “Oh no.”

Trent’s smile faded. “Are you okay?”

“Do you think he’ll still want to be friends with me if he finds out?”

“Yeah, I’m sure, you two are pretty close. And he’s not the kind to freak out when someone likes him.”

Cody sat on the grass. “Oh no. What the heck am I supposed to do now?”

Trent stood there, awkwardly. “Uh, I think it’ll be okay dude.”

Cody let out a groan. So Trent kind of sucked at this, but Cody didn’t blame him. They weren’t all that close and this was probably super awkward. “Okay. You know what? I’m just gonna head back to camp. You can come, or go on, I don’t care but I just need to lay in bed for a while.”

“Oh, sure, that’s cool. I’ll just keep walking.”

Cody nodded before darting back down the path.

Chapter Text

When Noah heard that Chef was in charge of the challenge, he knew he was in for a horrible night. Night because it was about seven o’clock when the challenge was actually announced. Next to that, they had not been fed the entire day. Which Noah was not sure was legal, but whatever.

He knew he was in for an even more horrible night when Chef told him his partner was Harold.

God, he hated his life.

Lucky for Cody and Izzy, they still had their back-out passes, and quit. It was about now that Noah wished he had saved his, because Harold didn’t look like he wanted Noah to give up. Chef said something about how only one pair would be fed dinner tonight. That was fucked up. But Chris wasn’t anywhere in sight so no one could complain. Except Courtney, who threatened to sue. But Chef did promise a snack, once someone dropped out of the first challenge.

Well, it didn’t take long for Lindsay to quit, taking Gwen with her, in only about thirty minutes. Which surprised Noah, he was sure he would end up giving up before that, but he wasn’t willing to put up with the lifetime of lectures from Harold. His arms ached when he let them rest.

On their way to the Mess Hall, Cody walked up to Noah, not any of his usual physical contact. Not even a fist bump. Maybe Noah had gotten used to having Cody’s arm over his shoulder for three days.

“‘Sup, dude,” Cody greeted.

“Hey,” Noah responded, not even answering his question. At this point in time, ‘sup’ was more of a greeting than a question. “Bet you’re glad you saved that pass, huh?”

Cody nodded, a smile on his face. “Definitely. And I think Chef was purposely trying to make these teams hate each other. Like seriously. Beth and Courtney? Eva and Katie? Bridgette and Duncan?”

“Yeah. He stuck me with Harold.” Noah made a face.

“Well, Harold isn’t the worst guy you could’ve been paired with.”

“Every time I talk to him, he calls himself a lone wolf and lectures me on whatever book I’m reading.”

“Fair point.”

“Soldier!” Chef yelled, and Noah froze, turning around. “No socializing with the enemy!”

Cody coughed. “Actually, Chef, I’m not participating.”

Chef narrowed his eyebrows. “You better shut your trap if you don’t want to go to the boathouse.”

Cody looked at Noah, who was equally confused. They’d been to the boathouse “...The boathouse?”

“Yeah! I’ll put you in there all night, alone.” Chef laughed to himself, walking off and inside the Mess Hall.

“Weird.” Noah stated.

“Hey!” Izzy exclaimed, grabbing both Noah and Cody’s necks from behind. Cody screamed, which attracted the attention of everyone not yet inside the Mess Hall.

“Izzy!” Cody seethed through his teeth. “You scared me!”

“Yeah, I was aiming for that,” She let her arms down. “Heard Noah was aiding and abetting some criminals.”

Noah quirked an eyebrow.

“Heard you were conversing with the enemy.”

“No, just Cody?” Now they were entering the Mess Hall.

“Whatever you say.” Izzy shrugged and winked at Noah, which just confused him more. She leaned in next to his ear, and began to whisper; “Everyone is your enemy in the Wild West.”

“Huh?”

“Soldiers! Stop lollygagging!” Chef screamed. Izzy shot up straight and jumped onto a table and climbed on top of a ceiling light. Cody awkwardly shuffled away.

“You have ten minutes to eat before your next challenge!” Chef told everyone, dropping two bags of garbage on the table. It smelt so bad that Noah physically recoiled and coughed out the air he had breathed. “Enjoy.”

Noah walked away from the bags in favor of sitting on a bench away from the crowd. He observed Duncan spraying kitchen grease in a cup, hopefully to mess with Harold. Beth picked up a rotten banana peel and looked crazy enough to eat it. Izzy licked her lips at the trash buffet below her stop in the ceiling. A little while passed before he heard a voice.

“Can you believe this?” It was Courtney, sitting next to Noah.

Noah gave Courtney a look of confusion. He had talked to the girl a total of maybe twice. And he was pretty sure she didn’t like him. “Yeah. Chef’s crazy.”

“Everyone here is crazy. I swear, I feel like the only sane person here besides Gwen and you I guess. Like, Harold is actually drinking that.”

Noah looked over to where Courtney was gesturing to see Harold drinking from the cup he had seen Duncan pouring kitchen grease into earlier. Huh. God is good.

“That’s so disgusting.”

“Yep,” Noah popped the p. “I wonder how all the wackos ended up at one camp.”

“Interesting choice of words, but you’re right.”

“Hey Court!” Duncan shouted across the room. “Gonna get in on this?”

“As if. I actually have a future, you neanderthal. At least you can afford to die.”

Duncan shrugged and chugged something that Noah was thankful he couldn’t see.

“I hate him.”

“Same.”

Courtney looked in Noah’s direction, and Noah momentarily matched her gaze. “You really are sane.”

“Uh, thanks?”

“Soldiers!” Chef called. “Outside. It’s dancing time.”

Noah did not expect that he would be dancing to Michael Jackson at such a time of night, but now he only really kept going out of spite. Against Harold, he guessed. Ezekiel dropped out, probably not wanting to look like an idiot. He went to sit with Cody in the grass. Noah wished that was him for a moment before realizing he literally had that option. Oh well. Hate was stronger than love.

Beth asked to go to the bathroom and was gone for a suspiciously long amount of time. Courtney, her partner, remained in the game though. Fun.

“My legs are tired!” Katie complained from the other side of Eva, who grunted. She and Katie were partners, unfortunately for Eva.

“Mine too!” Sadie agreed.

“Don’t make me stop now,” Justin said to Sadie. “I look great. These poses should be on magazine covers, as long as I’m the one doing them.”

“Oh, you’re so right!”

“Totally!”

“Whatever keeps her going,” Eva stated. “What’s keeping you going, anyways?” She questioned Noah.

“I want Harold to be the first to drop,” Noah answered. Harold didn’t say anything, so Noah assumed he was too into whatever he was doing.

Eva nodded. “I refuse to quit until the only teams left are Heather and Leshawna and Bridgette and Duncan. I can’t let anyone else here beat me. And I can’t let them beat me either, but it would be less embarrassing.”

“Good luck taking Katie through the round.”

“Soldier!” Noah heard Chef’s voice directed right at his face. “Stop fraternizing with the enemy! Do you want to be chased by the hounds?”

“Wow, I talked to my friend for thirty seconds. Better let out the imaginary hounds.”

“Don’t get smart with me!”

“What are you gonna do, send out Ol’ Red?”

Chef growled.

So, that’s how Noah got sent to the boathouse.

“I think we should go check on them,” Courtney told Cody.

Courtney had lost when she was partnered with Harold after Noah was sent to the boathouse and Beth was on cleaning duty. Harold blew chunks, which meant he and Courtney were out. Courtney seemed pretty salty at first, but eventually she became thankful that she wasn’t doing the challenge all night. Instead, she sat with Gwen, Geoff, and Cody in the Mess Hall, trying to get them to go check on Noah and Duncan with her.

“You like Duncan,” Geoff teased.

“Do not! Not only do I not like him, I can’t stand him. He’s rude, he’s rebellious, and he’s totally annoying.” She stood up. “I’m gonna go check on him.”

She walked out the door, flashlight in hand.

“She likes him,” Geoff said.

“I’m gonna go with her,” Cody stood up. “I don’t want her walking around in the woods alone.”

“Okay, Cody, whatever you say,” Gwen said. “You totally don’t just want to visit your boyfriend.”

Cody felt hot. “He’s not my boyfriend! I don’t like him.”

“Yeah,” Trent butted in. “They’re just friends.”

Gwen eyed Trent suspiciously, then directed her attention to Geoff, who shrugged. Man, Trent was terrible at acting natural.

Cody bid everyone goodbye and decided to leave before Trent made it even more obvious that Cody had a crush on Noah. The last thing he heard before leaving the Mess Hall was Geoff asking Trent and Gwen if Cody liked Noah. Great. He just had to hope Trent wouldn’t crack.

“Courtney!” Cody yelled, running after her down the path. “Wait up!”

Courtney stopped in her tracks and turned to Cody, who slowed as he approached her.

“I’m coming with you. I’m kind of worried about Noah.”

“And Geoff says I’m into Duncan. You are so clearly into Noah.”

“Am not!”

Courtney rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Let’s just go.”

It was about ten minutes of Cody and Courtney walking in the dark to the boathouse, mostly in silence because they were wiped out and it was about midnight at this point.

Eventually they arrived, and Courtney knocked on the door to the boathouse, which pushed the door open. “Duncan? Noah?”

“Well well well, if it isn’t Princess,” Duncan teased, walking to the door. “Look who finally came around.”

Cody looked past Duncan to Noah, who had peeked up from his book in the corner. Cody’s eyes met his.

Why did he come here, again?

Noah gave him a little wave before returning to his book. Cody had one mission- act normal.

After realizing he liked Noah, Cody practically forgot how he normally acted. Did he put his arm over Noah’s shoulder or was that just Zeke? Would going over out of his way to talk to Noah or be with him weird him out? Was he supposed to walk over to where Noah was sitting or stand awkwardly next to Duncan and Courtney?

He made up his mind soon enough.

He made his way through the boathouse and over to the boathouse where Noah sat. He sat cross-legged next to Noah, who did not look up from his book, leaving Cody staring awkwardly at the tools in the shed and avoiding looking at Noah.

Noah bumped his shoulder with his own, and Cody felt it in his soul. Did Noah always do that? He hadn’t really noticed it before.

“You can talk, you know,” Noah told Cody.

Cody coughed. “Right.” He looked over to Noah, who still wasn’t returning eye contact. New question: Was Noah always the worst? “So, what’cha been up to?”

“Lame question.”

“What do you want me to say?”

Noah smiled. “I said it was lame, not that I wouldn’t answer. I’ve just been stuck here with Duncan for the past forever.”

“You know you enjoyed it, sweetheart!” Duncan called from across the boathouse.

“Keep dreaming, honey,” Noah retorted. He looked towards Cody and closed his books, giving Cody his full attention. “Anyways. The guy doesn’t shut his trap and he smells horrendous, so…” Noah shrugged. “What’s new with you?”

“Well, the last people in the game are Eva and Katie and Owen and Tyler,” Cody informed Noah. “They’re finishing up the challenges right now.”

“Really? They’re the last ones I expected to make it to the finals. Well, specifically Katie and Tyler, but you get what I’m saying. Katie pisses Eva off and sucks at physical activity, and don’t even get me started on Tyler.”

“I was expecting Bridgette and Duncan to make it, actually.”

“Well, Bridgette is kind of prissy in a not obvious way, she subtly is grossed out by half the stuff we do. And she’s a vegetarian. I expected for her to wipe out before Duncan could even get sent to the boathouse, and he was practically begging for it.”

Cody grinned. “I have no idea how she’s surviving. I swear, you never know what you’re eating around here.”

“I don’t know how I’m surviving, I’m counting down the days until I have an allergic reaction.”

“I’m gonna get hypoglycemic here at least once, I’m counting on it.”

“Are you guys talking about food?” Duncan asked, being nosy, of course.

“No, we’re talking about unicorns delivering gasoline,” Noah responded, sarcastically. “What do you think we’re talking about?”

“Ugh, I’d kill for some good old PB&J,” Duncan told the two, scooting his bucked over to where Noah and Cody sat on the floor, Courtney following. “I don’t even know how it’s possible for Chef to fuck up this much.”

“God, me too,” Courtney sighed, wistfully. “Never thought I’d agree with Duncan.”

“We should get some grub.”

“Chef will never let us.”

“Who said anything about Chef?”

“Are you implying we steal the food?”

Duncan shrugged.

“Oh, seriously. We can’t do that. Noah?”

“What are you looking at me for?” Noah asked. “I’m with him.”

Cody rubbed his arm. “Yeah, me too, honestly.”

Courtney gasped. “You guys would steal? From adults?”

“Technically, we’re gonna eat the food anyways,” Noah said. “We might as well prepare it. If you think about it, we’re saving Chef the trouble, and us our lives.”

Duncan looked between Courtney and Noah. “Yeah, what he said.”

Courtney let out a breath. “Well, when you put it like that…”

“Let’s go!” Duncan yelled, jumping up and running out of the boathouse.

Noah never took Cody as one to steal. He saw him more as a Courtney-type of guy when it came to that topic. Cody was a chronic rule follower. However, it seemed only one look at the food in that fridge and freezer had Cody forgetting all about possible consequences and stuffing ice cream bars into his pant pockets.

Noah was a little more cautious. He remembered Chef saying something about checking the fridge for fingerprints, so he pulled his sleeves over his hands when touching anything. He scanned the fridge for things that weren’t nuts, strawberries, fish, or anything else he was allergic to.

He managed to swipe some grapes and cheese from the fridge, and some crackers and a butterknife from the counters. He also picked up a small bag of cereal that Noah didn’t recognize with Owen in mind.

Right as he was getting ready to leave, he spotted Courtney and Duncan sticking a fish in the fridge. Well, he wasn’t eating for a week. Where the fuck did they get that? The boathouse? How old was that fish?

Soon enough, the four were jumping out the window and running away from the Mess Hall. Noah hadn’t planned on running, but Courtney was throwing a giggling fit bound to get them caught. Baby’s first crime, he assumed.

Courtney ran into her cabin and told him to round everyone up for their meal. Noah saluted and ran to the Bobcat cabin.

Noah knocked and asked to come in, Eva giving him permission. He entered the cabin to see Katie and Sadie eating bowls of rice and some foreign meat that Noah couldn’t tell what was. Katie and Sadie were giggling to each other and both had wide smiles on their faces, ignoring the world around them.

“Since when were they paired up?” Noah questioned. “Were you disqualified? Wait, how did they win?”

“Katie and me won,” Eva stated. “I let Sadie have my food.”

“Katie and I,” Noah corrected, and then regretted it. He used to correct peoples’ grammar, but now he figured he sounded like Harold. “And why would you do that?”

Eva shrugged. “They have to share everything. And I wasn’t all that hungry, anyways. I just wanted to win.”

Noah smiled. “Sounds like you. But don’t even worry about it. Go to the Tarantula cabin.”

Eva raised an eyebrow, but did as he was told.

“Guys,” Noah announced to the cabin. He even managed to get Katie and Sadie looking at him. “Go to the Tarantula cabin.” With that, he left and went to recruit everyone else.

Upon his return, Wolf Cabin in tow, all of the campers sat around on whatever bunks they felt like, chewing on their snacks. Courtney was giggling like mad while Bridgette tried to stop her from eating everything under the sun, Owen practically inhaled the cereal and cheese, and Katie and Sadie didn’t eat the snacks in favor of giggling with each other over their rice.

Noah ate his grapes with a bit of brie, suspicious of the real contents, but not questioning because at least it didn’t taste as bad as whatever Chef cooked.

Cody was shoveling anything sweet he could find down his throat. Gross, but endearing. It also made him too busy to pay any mind to Noah, so Noah sat with Eva.

Eva was pretty silent, which wasn’t the most unusual thing in the world, but the girl liked to talk when she was around her friends.

“What’s up with you?” Noah asked.

“Nothing,” Eva responded, shortly.

It was then that Noah noticed she had not been looking at Noah, nor had she been looking straight forward. She had been peering over at Katie and Sadie.

A small smile grew on Noah’s face. “Sure.”

Wordlessly, Eva stood up. She picked up a couple ice cream bars and walked Katie and Sadie’s way.

“Hey,” She greeted the two. Noah watched her, carefully. “Want some ice cream bars? Katie wouldn’t shut up about how you make ice cream every summer.”

Sadie took the ice cream bar with thanks and Katie wordlessly accepted her own. Eva shuffled back to her spot next to Noah against an empty bunk and didn’t say a word.

Sadie was quick to go back to gossiping with Katie, about Eva this time, which mostly consisted of blatant insults and backhanded compliments. Katie quietly agreed with her words and nibbled on her melting ice cream sandwich.

Noah nudged Eva’s shoulder with a knowing smirk. She gave a sheepish smile in return.

The next morning, he was greeted by her dragging him to the basketball courts, a.k.a. the dodgeball courts but with some old basketball nets hanging from the sides that Izzy had found at the Arts & Crafts center the other day.

Owen was already there with Jasmine, sitting down and eating his lunch. Jasmine was on the court with Rodney and Sky. Rodney was giving Jasmine gaga eyes with the most lovesick face Noah had ever seen on the face of a twelve-year-old. Sky was talking trash with Duncan, who stood on his side of the court with DJ and Tyler.

“Let me in the game!” Eva yelled, shoving Noah to the side and almost sending him toppling into Amy and Sammy, who were doing synchronized cartwheels.

“Watch it!” Amy yelled, Noah narrowly avoiding him bumping into her. “God.”

Noah sneered at the girl and went to sit down with Cody, who was tapping with his pencil onto a pad of grid paper next to Gwen, Leshawna, and Trent.

Whatever he was doing on that paper was being ignored in favor of talking with the people he was sitting around.

“What’s going on?” Noah asked, as if it wasn’t incredibly obvious that they were playing campers vs. CITs basketball.

“Tyler wanted to play the campers,” Gwen explained. “Said it would be a ‘fun bonding experience’. I think he watched a lot of summer camp movies as a kid.”

“I think he had a lonely childhood.”

Gwen nodded solemnly.

“What?” Sky asked, pointing at Eva. “This isn’t fair, we only have three players and they get Eva?”

“Hey, Sammy!” Jasmine called to the girl standing on the side with her sister. “Come play with us!”

Sammy looked nervously at her sister who had her arms folded. “Um, no, Jasmine,” Amy refused as if she was disgusted. “We’re cheerleaders, we don’t do that whole ‘run around aimlessly and sweat’ deal.”

“We need her though!” Sky argued, running out to the two of them and taking Sammy by the arm. “Come on, let’s go.”

Sammy smiled slightly as she ran onto the court with Sky.

Amy folded her arms and pouted. “Sammy! Get back here!”

Noah rolled his eyes. “Serves her right. That girl is downright evil.”

“There’s something up with some of these campers,” Leshawna stated. “Have you seen the three Blaineley has to look after? Max, Beardo, Leonard. And I thought that zombie kid was weird.”

“Shawn’s eccentric, yeah,” Cody agreed. “He’s fun though.”

“I’m just glad Rodney isn’t the worst one,” Leshawna said. “I don’t know what I would do if I was stuck with Amy.”

Gwen sighed. “God forbid.”

Cody went back to scratching his pencil at his graph paper, while Leshawna and Gwen fell into their own conversation. Noah peeked at the paper to see Cody sketching out a diagram.

“What’s that for?” He asked.

Cody jumped a little in response, and stopped drawing. “Uh, hot air balloon?”

“For…?”

“Fun.”

Strange hobby, but okay.

Didn’t seem like Cody was in for much of a conversation.

So, Noah focused on the game.

Noah hated a boring Tuesday, because it just set him up for a horrible Wednesday. Today was Wednesday.

It was Gophers versus Bass yet again. There were to be nine rounds, and whoever got five would win the game.

“First, skydiving!”

Noah shot Cody a glance. Cody shrugged. Maybe Chris wasn’t joking when he called the challenges ‘x-treme’.

“Well, actually that’s not legal.”

Oh. Nevermind.

“So we’re just going to have you jump off of cliffs onto pull out couches!”

So Chris was batshit.

“So teams, get to dragging those couches!”

Noah found himself pulling a couch around with the rest of the Gophers to give Trent a soft landing. He tried his best to ignore the bickering from everyone, but it was kind of hard when Cody wasn’t even distracting him.

Heather was picking a fight with Gwen over some bullshit that Noah hadn’t been paying attention to. Heather was trying to get Cody to take her side, but Cody seemed conflicted from choosing between Heather or Gwen. To Noah, the answer seemed obvious, but what did he know? It wasn’t like Heather hadn’t been tormenting everyone at camp since day one or something.

“Man, I will never understand chicks,” Owen said to Noah. Noah quirked an eyebrow in response. “Oh, you know,” Owen began to respond, “all of their cat fights over dumb stuff. I feel like they just need to get along like us guys.”

Noah didn’t feel the need to dignify that with a response.

Then, he heard the screaming.

Quickly, the Gophers and Bass got to work scrambling around, trying to catch their teammates on the disgusting old fold-out couches.

At least Chris had the sanity to give the campers parachutes, Noah noticed as DJ gently flew to the ground and landed safely on his couch.

Just as he turned back to his own team, Noah witnesses Trent crash-landing into their own couch, parachute unopened.

“Ooh,” Cody winced at the sight. “That had to hurt. Is he okay?”

Trent moaned and turned over. “All limbs intact,” he groaned before passing out.

“That white boy does not look good,” Leshawna said.

“We better get him to the infirmary,” Beth added.

“Well,” Chris strolled onto the spot of the beach where everyone was standing, “I think it’s needless to say the Bass won that.”

The Bass jumped up and high fived each other.

“Next challenge!” Chris announced. “The Rodeo. Leshawna, Geoff, prepare to get stinky!”

Leshawna did not look happy.

For most of the challenges, Noah had the privilege of sitting on his cabin porch and reading. The rodeo, treasure diving, parkour, bridge race, helicopter game, and ax-throwing challenge had no need for teamwork. Concluding the seventh challenge, the score was 4-3, Gophers winning. The remaining players who hadn’t done their challenges were Cody, Duncan, Ezekiel, Harold, Heather, Lindsay, Noah, and Sadie.

“For the eighth challenge, I need Cody and Noah for the Gophers, and Zeke and Sadie for the Bass.”

Oh, god.

“Do you and Noah have any plans for tomorrow?” Heather questioned.

“Why did you accentuate Noah like that?” Cody replied.

“I was just wondering if you two were going on a date or something, so if I needed you I wouldn’t be interrupting anything.”

“Um, we’re not dating, and since when have you cared when you interrupted something?”

“Cody, who are you fooling?” Heather ignored the second statement. “I think everyone on the island knows you like him. You go out of your way to spend every moment with him and put your arm around his shoulder or whatever gay shit you two do.”

Cody flushed. “I don’t like him.”

“Keep telling yourself that, or do something about it.”

Cody sighed, but didn’t say anything.

“I’m just saying, I’m kind of tired of watching this.”

Cody sat on the ground. “Look, he doesn’t like me, so it doesn’t matter.”

“So you admit you like him?”

Cody nodded solemnly. “I don’t know what I’m gonna do. At first I tried acting natural, but then I realized that it was so much harder to try and act normal to a crush than what I normally do, which is to be super obvious. So I’m trying to just back off a little bit in case he figures it out.”

Heather shrugged. “It’s a start.” She sat next to him. “I know when you have a crush you’re like, blind to be able to tell if they like you back, or something, but like it’s so obvious that Noah likes you. I catch him staring at you sometimes.”

“You do?”

Heather nodded. “And you know I’m only telling you this because I know you two like each other. I wouldn’t tell you about this if he didn’t like you. I’m not that evil.”

“You read Gwen’s diary to the entire camp.”

“Well I hate her.”

Cody shook his head, and then froze. “Wait. You’re not gonna tell Noah I like him, right?”

“Of course not. I actually kind of despise the guy and hate being in his vicinity, so I would never talk to him willingly.”

“So why do you want me to get with him?”

“I despise the fact that you two haven’t kissed already even more.”

“It doesn’t matter. He likes Gwen.” Cody folded his arms.

Heather went silent for a moment as Cody stared forward. Then he heard her giggle. Then laugh. Really loudly.

Cody shot her a look.

“You, you—” Heather let out between laughs, “you think he likes Gwen? You think the second biggest man-kisser on this island likes Gwen? Oh…”

Her laughter subdued as Cody shot daggers at her. “I’m serious.”

“Well, you shouldn’t be. He likes you. Plus, from what I see of him and Gwen, they just relate over the fact that they’re weird and lonely.”

“For the eighth challenge, I need Cody and Noah for the Gophers, and Zeke and Sadie for the Bass.”

“Well, here I go,” Cody said, standing up.

“Go do something about him.” Heather waved him off as she walked away.

Noah didn’t know how he ended up standing on ice with hockey skates on outside in the midst of July. Well, he did, but he didn’t believe it.

Tons of cooling units sat around the lake, keeping the temperature of the water freezing in the specific spot where they were playing.

Noah was actually very bad at ice skating. He had only gone probably twice in his life, one time at the ripe age of eight, the second as a pre-teen with some friends at the mall, where he fell three times and then decided to never go ice skating again.

He guessed Cody had a similar experience, as he stood on the ice with fake confidence and loose skates. And of course, Ezekiel looked like he was fearing his life.

Sadie was the only one who looked like she knew what she was doing, skates tightened and hockey stick held properly.

“Three!” Chris yelled as Chef scooted on his skates towards the middle of the ice.

“Two!” Chef dropped the puck onto the ice.

“One!”

Crack!

Noah paled.

Cracks grew in the ice, and Noah dropped his stick. Cody followed, skating towards the shore and tripping over an uneven patch that was born from the cracks.

Sadie quickly moved and hit the puck just once into the goal before hitting the deck herself.

Noah tried to pull the skates off of his feet while he was on the shore. Cody followed suit as he scrambled off of the ice.

Noah glanced up to see Ezekiel still on the ice, panicked. He was taking off his skates in the middle of the ice.

Crack!

He plummeted under the water.

“Zeke!” Cody screamed, kicking off his second skate violently. He ran to the water.

“Woah, Cody!” Noah yelled. “He can get out of there himself, don’t go in that freezing water!”

“He can’t get out of there himself, Noah, he can’t swim!”

Oh.

Cody ran into the water and splashed the water to the side, as if that would help him get to Ezekiel quicker.

Noah went up to the end of the shore, unsure of what to do. Was he supposed to help them? How? Or was he just going to stand here awkwardly? Great idea Noah. Seemed to help a whole lot.

After what could have been 30 seconds or five minutes, Cody came back out of the water holding Ezekiel. Once they reached the shore, Cody dropped Ezekiel onto the sand.

Ezekiel sat still.

Cody checked his pulse. “I knew this wasn’t enough for him to drown, but still. Um, do we have to give him CPR or…?”

As if on cue, Ezekiel coughed and tried to rise to a sitting position. “Oh, that’s disgusting,” he stated as the lake water leaked from his mouth. He wiped his chin with his soaked sleeve.

Cody hugged Ezekiel tightly. “Okay, you’re okay.”

Ezekiel nodded in silence, eyes glazing over the water and shore with a blank expression, hands hovering instead of hugging Cody back. The guy was probably a little shaken up.

“You should go to the infirmary,” Cody said, climbing off of Ezekiel.

Noah nodded in agreement, and held a hand out for Ezekiel. Ezekiel took it, rising to his feet. He leaned onto Cody’s shoulder a bit, but walked mostly fine.

After dropping Ezekiel off at the infirmary, it was declared that Sadie, being the only one who scored a point, won the mini-challenge for the Bass, setting the score 4-4. It was all up to the final challenge.

Mud-skiing.

Well, Noah didn’t actually care enough to watch it avidly, but he sat around the track and read while listening on-and-off to screams.

Heather was very happy upon Lindsay’s crossing of the finish line, as she carried tons of flags with her. The Gophers had won the nice showers for the week.

Sitting around the campfire, Noah read a book, as he always did. Cody sat next to him, silent. Ezekiel sat next to Cody.

Chatter arose from some of the other CITs, but Noah knew that he, Cody, and Ezekiel were wiped out.

Noah spent the next day on the porch while Owen took Jasmine on a hike with some of the other campers and CITs. He had a relaxing day to himself, and was quite happy with it. He read, wrote a little bit about his feelings (which still weirded himself out), went for a walk at some point. Occasionally, he went back in the cabin, but it was getting too hot to sit in there for more than thirty minutes at a time. It was mid-July now, and camp was halfway over.

Camp was halfway over.

That was fast.

So what, he only had five more weeks? Five more weeks to pester Owen on their hikes? Five more weeks to go on wacky adventures with Eva and Izzy? Five more weeks of torment from Chris?

Five more weeks with Cody?

Noah’s heart beat a little faster, but it hurt deep in his chest? What was all of this about? He only started liking Cody a few weeks ago, why did he feel like this? Was he falling too fast? What was he going to do?

Noah missed the internet. What he would give to look up ways to make a crush go away. Or a timeline of what it would look like. Or a way to make it hurt less. Or a way to ignore it.

So he couldn’t spend any time alone now? Not a single second without Cody?

He was losing it.

At dinner, Noah sat with Cody and Gwen by the fire.

“So Geoff and I just ran away with Trent still tied up,” Gwen said. “But Trent was a good sport about it. It was kind of concerning though, because he said he was ‘used to it’, but I do not know the guy enough to ask him what that meant.”

“So, you and Trent are getting along really well now?” Cody asked.

“Yeah.” Gwen had a smile on her face.

“Great!”

Cody wore a smile on his face as well, but Noah knew that Cody was a little upset. He could see it in the way Cody’s eyes crinkled. Of course, he was still happy for Gwen, he had been trying to set her up with Trent for a couple of weeks now.

But Cody still liked Gwen. He tried to play it cool and back off because that’s what she wanted, but he still liked her. Why?

Noah felt really bad for Cody, actually. He was trying his best but he couldn’t get over Gwen.

But how? How could Cody still like her through all of this? How could he like her, knowing that she liked some other guy a lot more? How could he sit there and ask her how it’s going with her crush knowing that it wasn’t him? How could he even be friends with her, knowing they would never be anything more? How could he stand it?

And Gwen knew that he liked her. She knew that Cody still liked her, but she didn’t do anything. And Cody had to know that she knew. That kind of sucked.

Noah’s thoughts plagued him as he sat by the dock that night. He had gotten ready for bed, all but changed into pajamas, but wasn’t tired enough to sleep. He believed everyone else in his cabin was wiped out.

“Hi, Noah.”

He did say he believed.

Noah turned towards the voice to see Ezekiel standing right behind him.

“Hi.” Noah turned back to the dock.

Ezekiel sat down next to him. “What are you thinking about?”

Noah raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

Ezekiel shrugged. “Why not?”

Noah laid down and looked at the stars. “Why does Cody still like Gwen?”

Ezekiel followed suit. “Why are you thinking about that?”

“I don’t know, it’s just like… how? How does he like her even though she’s so uninterested? How has he been friends with her and probably liked her for years, even though she never looked at him the same way? She’s obviously special to him but to her he’s just like Geoff. Just some guy she’s friends with, but not that close with. I don’t understand why he puts up with it.”

Why was Noah ranting to Ezekiel his thoughts about Cody and Gwen right now? This was weird. Maybe he was more tired than he thought.

“I mean, she clearly likes him as a friend but he looks at her with these sparkles in his eyes and this smile on his face like no other. You know, the gap-tooth smile that looks so stupid on him? Ugh…”

“Sparkles in his eyes?” Ezekiel responded finally.

Noah nodded. “You know what I’m talking about, those little stars when he talks about something or someone he’s passionate about.”

“Noah… do you… like Cody?”

Noah shot up.

Ezekiel sat up as well. “The way you describe him you just sound so… you know?”

Noah crashed back down, pressing the bottoms of his palms into his eyes. “I’m not fooling anyone am I?” He chuckled to himself. What was he doing? This was so anti-Noah. All of this talking about his thoughts was so weird for him… especially to Ezekiel of all people. He let his hands fall from his face. “Yeah I… I like him.”

“Like you want to kiss him?”

“Is that not what you were implying?”

“But… you’re both boys?”

Holy shit.

Nobody told Ezekiel about gay people.

Noah sat back up. Again. “Ezekiel, you can be a guy and like guys, it’s called being gay.”

Ezekiel let out a sigh. “Oh good, I thought there was something wrong with me.”

What.

What.

What.

“What?” Noah asked.

Ezekiel went pale. “Um.”

“Ezekiel?”

“I like Cody too,” he managed to utter.

Noah had no words.

It seemed Ezekiel didn’t either.

Noah stared into Ezekiel’s eyes in silence. Because what the fuck? It was so crazy that it was actually hilarious.

Noah felt a laugh bubble up in his throat.

Before he knew it, Noah’s forehead dropped into the palm of his hand and he laughed the hardest that he had in a long while. God, tonight was crazy, Noah really didn’t feel like himself. He was acting so weirdly, but maybe that was part of the fact that tonight was just outrageous.

“Uhh… haha,” Ezekiel uttered.

“Ezekiel this situation is actually insane what are the fucking chances.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“So, what do you like about him?” He might as well give in to being extremely unlike himself.

“His eyes are really pretty, I really like it when people have colorful eyes,” Ezekiel said, seeming a little more comfortable with the conversation. “And the way he talks so much about nothing, he always has something to say no matter the situation. What about you?”

“I like his smile, I don’t know, the gap in his teeth used to annoy me but now I kind of find it endearing. And I like how dense he is when people don’t like him. I don’t know why but it’s kind of cute that he doesn’t realize when people don’t like him. I think by not realizing it, he accidentally makes people like him because how can you dislike someone so stupid?”

“Noah, you don’t sound like you.”

“I know. I think I need to go to bed.”

Ezekiel smiled. “You’re actually kind of fun like this.”

“Yeah, but I’m totally gonna regret acting like this in the morning.”

Ezekiel sighed. “I’m so relieved that liking boys is a normal thing.”

“Well…” Noah began. “Just don’t go around telling everyone. There’s some real assholes out there about it. Why they care, I don’t know, but you know. Just be careful.”

Ezekiel nodded. “Okay.”

Noah smiled. “Okay, I’m going to bed. Night, Zeke.”

“Wait.”

Noah raised an eyebrow.

“So, when you were talking about Cody and you were saying ‘why does he like Gwen even though she’d never like him back’, were you really talking about Cody?”

Noah brought his eyebrows together in confusion.

“‘He’s just a camp friend to her but she’s so special to him’, I mean, it just sounds like you.”

“What?”

“As in, Cody is special to you, but he only sees you as one of his friends. Someone he might never speak to again once summer is over.”

“Oh.”

Oh, yeah.

Cody didn’t think he would ever be able to look at pizza the same again.

Or meatballs.

Or anything really.

However, he did think he was pretty normal to Noah! All he had to do was think about how he treated Geoff and Owen. So he sat a few seats away from Noah with Zeke, and only talked to him when the group was talking. It was a group activity, after all. He didn’t have to go out of his way to communicate with him.

This was going great!

And! Thanks to Bridgette being a vegetarian, and Leshawna not being able to drink cockroach juice shots as fast as Owen, and Chef and Chris surprisingly not targeting Noah’s allergies, the guys were going on a weekend cruise!

Seriously, how did they afford this stuff?

“Cody!”

Cody turned around to see Heather storming over to him.

Oh, he was about to get an earful.

“First of all, your win was so rigged. It’s not our fault Bridgette was holding us back.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder and leaned on one leg with a hand on her hip. The other pointed at him as if she was accusing him of a crime. “Secondly, your plan to ignore Noah is stupid. You’ll never be happy that way. Frankly, he’s your closest friend. Which is kind of pathetic since you aren’t his, but anyways, you should act like it. Don’t fuck everything up with him by pushing him away.”

“I’m not pushing him away,” Cody replied. “I’m just being more normal to him.”

“Are you really going to maintain your friendship by treating him like a lower-level friend?”

“Calling all dudes to the dock!”

“I’m not. I’m treating him like a friend instead of someone I want to be with. I gotta go.”

Cody walked away from Heather. As he cast her a final glance, he could see her eyebrows drawn up in the center of her face.

“Karaoke!” Geoff yelled.

“Aaaaand I’m out,” Noah stated, getting up from his lounge chair on the deck of the ship where he had been reading and began walking towards the room he was sharing with Cody, Owen, and Ezekiel. It was Saturday night, which meant he was supposed to be in bed reading. It was his bad for not going inside earlier.

“Oh come on Noah, it’ll be fun!” Owen insisted.

“Nope.”

“Who wants to go with me?” Geoff asked.

“I’ll go,” Trent volunteered, running up to the stage. He and Geoff went through the songs. At the top, the screen read Karaoke: Year 2K Top Hits. The middle of the screen flicked through titles as Trent clicked fast forward- Breathe by Faith Hill, Try Again by Aaliyah, and more before eventually stopping on Bye Bye Bye by NSYNC. No sound came out, and Geoff started looking at the speakers.

“Hey Owen, Noah,” Cody greeted the two.

Noah turned around and folded his arms. “Hey.” Owen waved at Cody with a smile.

“You guys wanna do a song with me after those two?”

Since when did Cody sing? Especially willingly?

“I will!” Owen said.

“Cool!” Cody smiled. “Noah?”

“Oh, Noah would never want to do karaoke. In fact, he was just about to go to the room.”

“Dude! You’re no fun.”

Noah opened and closed his mouth without saying words for a moment. “Uhh, I can stay. I’m not singing though.”

Cody blew a raspberry. “Okay. Fine.”

Eventually, the speaker started playing the beat to Bye Bye Bye. Noah sat back down with Cody and Owen standing next to his chair.

As the song began, Noah came to the realization that Geoff could actually sing. He expected Trent to be able to, obviously, but Geoff???

Cody mouthed the lyrics to Owen, who did the same back. Eventually, they got really into it, and before Noah knew it, the two were dancing.

Weirdos.

“Yo, Zeke!” Cody yelled in Ezekiel’s direction. “Get over here!”

Ezekiel looked up, but didn’t move. So Cody went over there, picked him up by the arms, and danced to the beat with him.

Noah felt a stab of jealousy.

Owen went off to Tyler and probably started dancing with him, but Noah didn’t care about that.

As Bye Bye Bye ended, Cody ran up to the T.V. with Ezekiel in tow. Owen also came up with Tyler. Cody fumbled with the remote and finally settled on Maria Maria by Santana.

Noah really liked that song.

Cody and Owen sang the lyrics, terribly but still kind of good somehow? Their words barely made it to the microphone as they danced.

Geoff started dancing with a reluctant Duncan as well. Trent bobbed his head and tapped his foot.

Noah knew it was kind of irrational, but he was jealous. Really jealous. Jealous that Ezekiel got to stand up there with Cody and dance. And yeah, it made sense, Cody probably thought Noah wouldn’t like dancing or anything like that. He was right. But Noah still wanted to dance with him.

Cody fumbled over the Spanish words, and Ezekiel butted in to pronounce them perfectly. Cody smiled at him.

“Maria, you know you’re my lover,” The smile on Cody’s face as he looked at Ezekiel hit Noah straight in the soul.

“When the wind blows, I can feel you,

“Through the weather,

“And even when we are apart,

“Still feels like we’re together, Maria, yeah…”

Noah didn’t know what was worse- the smile on Cody’s face, or the gleam in Ezekiel’s eye.

A few more songs played- Oops! I Did It Again, Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely, Cowboy Take Me Away, and Noah was ready to crash. He should’ve done that so much earlier. Why did he say he would stay?

He laid in bed for a while. Ezekiel really was right. Noah wasn’t anything special to Cody. He was just a summer fling, a friend fling. The past few days, Noah barely even talked to Cody.

Why did he like him, again?

It was Saturday. And guess what day Saturday was? The Wolf Cabin phone call day. But Noah wasn’t at camp, and couldn’t call his sister.

He really wanted to talk to her right now. Embarrassingly, Noah’s sister was probably one of the two people he could talk to about anything. The other was Owen, but Owen was different. Owen was annoyingly positive at the wrong times, and Noah just wanted to be negative for a while.

The door to the room opened, and in walked Cody, Owen, and Ezekiel.

“Hey,” Noah greeted. Cody gave him an exhausted wave before dropping onto the bed across from his.

Looks like they weren’t talking.

No one else spoke either, so Noah decided to go to bed. Maybe he’d feel better in the morning.

And he did. That morning, Noah felt a little less bitter. His jealousy faded a twinge.

When Owen and Zeke went to get breakfast, Cody stayed in the room drawing on his graph paper while Noah read.

Eventually Cody looked up. “Noah, wanna get breakfast?”

Noah shook his head. “Nah. Tired.”

“Well, what were you up to yesterday in the room?”

“Just thinking. They ripped me off of calling my sister yesterday, so I was bitter about that.”

“Oh. Oh yeah, yesterday was Saturday.”

“Yeah, did you just realize you can’t call your parents this week?”

“I mean, I usually don’t call them. And they don’t pick up when I do, so.”

“Oh. Who do you usually call then? A friend?” Noah knew Cody was an only child, so he couldn’t really think of an explanation. Wouldn’t Cody’s parents want to know how he was doing?

“No. I don’t really call anyone. I don’t think my friends would pick up if I called, either.”

Noah didn’t know what to say. So he decided to play dumb. “Why not?”

“‘Cause they’re just school friends.” Cody leaned against the wall. “We don’t talk in summer at all.”

“Oh.” Noah thought for a moment, but he still didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” Cody said. “Besides. I have Gwen, Geoff, and Courtney. I talk to them during the year. I hang out with them pretty much all the time when I’m not with you or Zeke.”

“But you can’t see them in person, and you used to only see them for what, three weeks? That really sucks, why don’t you have friends?” Noah realized after he said it that it was a very bad question to ask.

Cody rested his head in his arms on top of his knees. “I don’t know.”

People were crazy. Cody was probably one of the most friendly and outgoing people Noah knew.

“Hey, dude,” Cody began. Noah looked towards him. “I don’t mean to be pushy or annoying or anything and I want you to answer this honestly but, are we going to talk when summer’s over? I’d really like to call or text you sometimes.”

“Yes, I mean…” Noah scratched his arm, “I was worried that you wouldn’t care about being friends with me when summer was over.”

“Of course I would, you’re like, my closest friend. And I know that’s pathetic because I know I’m not yours but…”

Wow. Noah, yet again, had no words. But… “We haven’t really talked the past few days, though. And I feel like you’ve been kind of different to me this past week.”

Cody slapped himself in the face. “You’re right, I was being stupid.”

Noah gave him a confused expression.

“I thought I was being too much so I was trying to back off. But I guess I just made it seem like you didn’t matter to me that much. I’m sorry for making it seem otherwise, I really care about you dude.”

Noah smiled. “Okay, I know this isn’t like me, but,” Noah stood up and dove onto Cody’s bed, straight into a hug.

As soon as he began, he let go.

“Can’t let anyone know that that happened.”

Cody grinned. “Okay, Noah. Now let’s go get breakfast!”

Chapter Text

Eva was not happy to lose her trailer to Leshawna. No, not at all.

Everyone was disappointed, everyone who actually put in decent effort, at least. Noah threw in the towel to nails on a chalkboard. He really didn’t have much hope.

He didn’t blame Cody for his folly either. Being roasted on a stick like a hot dog is insane, especially considering that it was over an open flame that is uncontrollable. That was horrifying to Noah. He was surprised that Cody even gave it a thought.

Like they always were, Cody and Ezekiel were on the dock together after the challenge. Noah liked to listen to them talk as he read on the other side of the dock, but knowing about Ezekiel’s feelings was beginning to ruin it for him. He felt so jealous every time Cody put his arm over Ezekiel’s shoulder, or when Ezekiel made Cody laugh. Noah knew that Ezekiel probably felt the same way whenever Noah was with Cody, but that didn’t cancel out the way Noah felt.

“Come in the water.”

That caught Noah’s attention.

Cody was lowering himself from the dock into the water. He shifted from the deeper area to the shallow shore.

Ezekiel rubbed his arm. “I don’t know, I might get hurt.”

“Don’t worry, I got you. It’s time someone teaches you how to swim.”

Noah’s heart panged in his chest. He didn’t pay attention.

“Just jump in, I’ll catch you.”

Don’t pay attention.

There was a splash, and a laugh from Cody.

“You’re safe, look.”

Don’t pay attention.

“Your feet are still on the ground. Just walk. Hold yourself steady against the current.”

Why was Noah only good at ignoring people when he was supposed to be paying attention? Now that he wanted to tune people out, he couldn’t.

“And you’re wading already. Swimming isn’t that much harder.”

Noah buried his face in his book.

He peered over the cover to watch Cody and Ezekiel. Cody was walking alongside him in the water as Ezekiel waded around.

Cody nudged Ezekiel’s shoulder. “Now let’s get you treading water.”

Cody led Ezekiel into deeper water, until Ezekiel could barely keep his head up.

“Start flapping your arms, pull yourself upwards.”

Noah tried to look back at the words on the page, but his eyes were failing him. Cody was supporting Ezekiel by holding his sides as he flailed his arms.

“It’s kind of working!” Ezekiel exclaimed.

“Now do it with your legs too. Just try not to hit me. I’ll hold you steady.”

Cody shifted to Ezekiel’s side to avoid being kicked, still holding him gently.

“Well, someone’s green,” A familiar voice came from behind him.

“Rub it in my face, why don’t you?”

Noah decided to give in. If Ezekiel figured out his crush, there was nothing stopping Gwen from doing the same. He just couldn’t let Izzy know, or else he’d never hear the end of it. He already never heard the end of it.

Gwen sat next to him. “So, when did you realize?”

Noah sighed. He was glad Gwen wasn’t as loud a talker as Cody. “Deer hunter challenge.”

“Lines up.”

“He angers me.”

“Get used to it.”

He smiled. “I can’t stand him. I went from hating him, to tolerating him, to liking him, right back to hating him. He’s the worst. I can’t believe I like him.”

“I understand you completely.”

Noah turned his head curiously. “There’s nothing wrong with Trent. Everything is wrong with Cody.”

“Trent left me buried alive on the beach in favor of pelting one of my closest friends with hail.”

“Fair point.”

Noah watched enviously as Cody clapped and Ezekiel treaded water on his own. Cody demonstrated how to paddle in a direction before urging Ezekiel to do the same. At least he wasn’t holding his waist anymore.

Gwen read over his shoulder. He was reading For One More Day by Mitch Alborn.

He sighed and went back to reading as best he could.

As depressing as his Monday was, Tuesday was even more boring. He and his friends went on a hike with their campers. Eva was ticked off as expected, but Izzy bothered her nonetheless. Their camper, Sammy, hung back with Jasmine and Shawn where the rest of the CITs were.

“I’m getting a little tired, can we take a break?” Sammy asked.

“Finally, someone I can relate to,” Noah joked.

“I want to keep walking before I take a break,” Cody said. “We’re not too far from the top.”

“Yeah, I want to keep going until I reach the top so I can rest with the view,” Jasmine agreed.

“Don’t worry, I’ll stay with Sammy and meet you there.” Noah shooed off the rest of the campers and CITs.

Cody lingered a moment longer before smiling his classic gap-tooth smile and running off with the rest.

Noah waved to him with a smile and sat on the ground with Sammy.

“When are you going to start dating him?” Sammy asked.

“Never, probably,” Noah replied. “I don’t like him like that.”

“You know I was there when you called him a lovable idiot.”

If Noah kept on letting people in on his little secret, it was going to make its way back around to Cody eventually. Especially if he was telling random twelve-year-olds, and not people he actually trusted. “Yeah, well, he is one. Doesn’t mean I’m in love with him or anything. Like I said then, it’s just his brand.”

Sammy smiled. “You were embarrassed after, trying to hide your face and everything. I noticed that.”

“Whatever.”

That was the most eventful of his happenings. But Wednesday? Wednesday was another story.

“You got your key already?” Cody asked. “I can’t even find this cellar.”

“Sounds like you need some help,” Noah said.

Cody rolled his eyes. “Dude, Zeke offered to help me find my key before he even got his own. I told him to worry about himself first. I think Eva’s helping him right now, his key is in the old boathouse.”

“I didn’t ask for your little story, but I’ll take that as a yes.”

Cody was actually kind of glad Noah finished his key so early, because he didn’t want to go into a cellar alone. And he wanted to spend some time with Noah. And as much as he loved Zeke, Cody wanted some time with Noah to himself.

He was just a little selfish, that was all.

“I actually think I know where the cellar is,” Noah stated. “Come on.”

Noah led Cody around the Mess Hall to a little hatch in the back. He opened it with a creeeeeak before stepping onto the first stair.

“Hey, you’re a convenient guy to have around.” Cody grinned at Noah. Noah smiled at his teeth.

“Nice gap, I bet you whistle when water goes through your teeth.”

Cody covered his mouth, feeling ever so slightly insecure. His gap-tooth didn’t bother him all too much, but it still made him feel bad about himself on his lowest days. “Shut it dude, I just never had braces. I need to get some.”

“Aren’t you an only child? What’s stopping your parents from getting you some? They aren’t expensive if you’re just getting one set.”

Cody and Noah began to walk down the steps, Cody holding a flashlight. “They don’t have the time to take me to the appointments and junk.”

“Well,” Noah moved on, “don’t worry about it. Your teeth look fine. I’m just going to make fun of you for them anyways.”

“Don’t say that just to make me feel better, I know my teeth look dumb.”

“They don’t,” Noah assured him. “Seriously. If they did, I would say something about it. You know me.”

Cody smiled. “Thanks, then.”

Cody and Noah approached the bottom of the stairs. From above them, they heard the cellar door slam shut.

Cody spun around, now only having the light from his flashlight. “What was that?”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s probably just windy,” Noah reasoned. “Let’s get your key.”

Cody walked around the cellar. It was built like a very long, but still wide, hallway. Cody searched on the shelves that lined the walls and Noah double-checked him, as he didn’t have his own flashlight.

A patting sound came from behind them.

“Who’s there?” Cody shot around, flashing his light behind them.

“Dude, are you good?” Noah asked. “You seem kind of paranoid.”

“Didn’t you hear the footsteps?”

Noah shook his head. They continued through the cellar.

“I feel like something’s in here with us,” Cody stated as he explored the shelves. The hall eventually came to an end and Cody and Noah turned left.

“Probably just mice,” Noah replied. “I doubt anyone has been here in years. Except for maybe some CITs like us last year.”

“There’s nothing here.” Cody scanned the shelves. There were jars of food, but they all looked really old. Some hunting tools here and there, some hammers and nails.

Cody and Noah came to another turn. Noah sighed. “This place is like a labyrinth. We’re never gonna search the whole place.”

The two turned right this time. Cody kept searching the shelves and Noah checked.

“Here it is!” Cody exclaimed, grabbing the key off the shelf.

Cody heard a pitter patter from behind them again.

He swung around with his flashlight again, but didn’t see anything. “You heard that, right?” He asked.

He aimed his flashlight at Noah, who nodded. “That was kind of loud for a mouse…”

Cody inched closer to Noah and turned back to the way they came. “Which way did we come from, again?”

He moved the flashlight from the left hall, to the center, to the right. Just as he was approaching the right corridor, his flashlight was snatched right from his hand and turned off.

Cody fell to Noah’s side. “What was that? Was that you?”

“No…?”

“Don’t mess with me, dude.”

From behind them, they heard a sound of glass shattering. Cody was glad Noah couldn’t see his terrified expression.

Cody’s heart started racing. “Someone’s in here with us, we have to get out of here!”

Cody couldn’t see a thing. He grabbed Noah by the arm and raced through the cellar, a hand out in front of him. Noah stumbled behind him, tripping on the back of Cody’s shoes. Cody’s arm hit a wall, and he staggered backwards and turned down another corridor.

“Who’s there?” He shouted into the darkness. He could hear fast movements behind him, getting louder as they approached. Cody couldn’t outrun this person, especially not with Noah running next to him.

Is this how I’m going to die? Cody asked himself. In a creepy cellar because I decided to participate in a CIT challenge? Totally not worth it.

He tightened his grip around Noah’s arm.

At least I’m not alone.

Cody had to use his quick thinking skills. If he couldn’t outrun the murderer chasing them down a hallway, he had to outsmart them. He clamped a hand over Noah’s mouth and quietly shifted to the side. If he couldn’t see, he doubted whoever was behind them could see either. They were following the sound of Cody and Noah’s footsteps.

Cody and Noah stood flat against a wall as the footsteps got quieter. Then suddenly, they stopped.

They know they’re not behind us anymore.

Cody slowly crept with Noah by his side back down the way they came, keeping close to the wall.

They heard the footsteps coming back, this time at a walking pace. But there was also a dragging of fingernails against the wall.

Cody tugged on Noah’s shirt, pulling him down into a crouch. But then…

Crack.

Cody’s face fell as the footsteps stopped. Then, they got much, much louder.

“Run!” Cody shouted, pulling Noah back up again.

“Fuck, I hate my joints,” Noah responded. That must’ve been the cracking sound. “Stupid knees!”

Cody would cry if he wasn’t so panicked. He was going to die. There was no doubt about it. He was lost in a cellar, couldn’t see a thing, and had no idea what was left for him to do.

“Ow!” Cody cried. He banged his head into a shelf.

Wait, the shelves! Maybe they had something Cody could use.

Cody felt the shelves with both hands. Eventually he grabbed something heavy.

A shovel. It was the best he could do.

“You better stay back!” He cried. “I have a weapon.”

Noah pulled him back to running. “What makes you think they don’t have a weapon?”

“At least I can fight ba—”

Cody was interrupted as he tripped on a stair.

A stair! They were at the door!

Cody raced up the steps, Noah close to his side. They forced the door open and were greeted warmly by the broad daylight.

Cody was about to shut the door and slide the shovel through the door handles, but then he recognized a certain someone on the steps.

Noah tapped his fingers against his folded arms. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

The girl on the steps giggled heartily. “It was just so tempting, okay?”

“Izzy!” Cody shook his head. “You scared the crap out of me!”

“Yeah,” Noah snorted. “Dude was about to piss his pants.”

Cody shot Noah a glare. “As if you weren’t scared too.”

Noah nodded, admitting to the statement. “That was horrifying. I should’ve known it was Izzy, though. What other psycho on this island would chase us around a cellar?”

“Maybe Chef,” Izzy suggested. “So, wanna help me scare Zeke and Eva in the boathouse next?”

“No!” Cody and Noah yelled, synchronized.

She sighed. “Oh, fine, I won’t scare them today.”

She continued up the steps and skipped happily away from the cellar. Cody rolled his eyes and shut the hatch.

“I hope you still have your key,” Noah said.

Cody patted his pocket. “Right here.”

“Good. If we did that for nothing, I would be very upset with you. Izzy has scared the shit out of me on this island one too many times.”

Cody nodded in agreement. “I’m glad you were there, at least. It would’ve been way scarier alone.”

Noah smiled shyly. “Well, I guess I’m glad I was there too. I can’t sit around on this island being bored for the rest of the summer.”

Cody grinned. “I’m glad I took you for that hike at the start of summer. And I went on the camping trip with you.” Okay, this was getting a little heartfelt. “You’re a great friend.”

Noah was speechless. Cody giggled.

“Okay, let’s go chill on the porch or something. I’m too out of it to swim, and I know that’s more your style.”

This writing thing.

This writing thing was starting to be fun.

Noah couldn’t believe it, but another three weeks had passed. The campers and CITs were out on the beach, swimming and playing volleyball.

As per usual, Noah was on his own against the dock. But instead of reading, he was writing. In code, of course. He couldn’t risk prying eyes, especially not out in public.

I have to confess, I like him more and more, He wrote. I guess this crush thing isn’t going away anytime soon.

Noah watched Cody in the water, having a splash fight with Ezekiel against Owen. They were losing badly.

He told me I’m his closest friend on Sunday. I think I could’ve cried. I didn’t, though. Had to keep my cool. He snickered at his own writing. Have to keep up my cool and mysterious image. Who knows, maybe it’s drawing him in.

Noah sketched himself laughing in the margins.

I wish. But speaking of, Cody’s a little mysterious himself. Definitely not in a cool way. In a kind of sad way.

You see, when he told me that I’m his closest friend, he said some other stuff too. About his parents not picking up the phone when he called. I really don’t know what his family situation is like, nor do I know what it’s like to have your parents neglect you, but I’m kind of worried that that’s the case. He said his parents don’t have the time. To give him braces, to pick up his phone calls. I don’t want to ask him about it or anything, And I still remember when we were talking about siblings, he said he kind of wished he had one. But his parents would be too busy to care for them.

Did he know that because they were too busy to care for him?

And I know he isn’t poor, he goes to private school. A really prissy one too. Cody has pretty good quality clothes and spent his summers at camps (even though they weren’t incredibly expensive).

I don’t know, maybe I’m reading too deep into it. But he opened up to me about how he doesn’t have any close friends and I just… I feel so bad for him. I have no clue what he could’ve done to deserve that. Yes, he’s socially dense and annoying sometimes but there’s plenty of people in the world who like those people. I’m one of them.

And he has friends here at camp. He has Gwen, Geoff, and Courtney from years ago, and then he has Owen, Eva, Izzy, and Trent that he knows decently. And even though he only recently met Ezekiel, they’re great friends. And he has me. I’m judgmental. I know who does and does not deserve to have friends.

Noah looked up to Cody. He was smiling, squinting his big teal eyes. His freckles shined in the afternoon sun under his water-glazed cheeks. His hair was wet and messily pushed back. He was happy, just spending time with his friends.

“Marco Polo dudes! Cody’s it!” Geoff messed up Cody’s hair.

Cody deserves them more than anyone else.

“Get in here, Noah!” Gwen called.

The other CITs and campers jumped up and down as well, urging him to come swimming.

Noah placed his notebook down on the dock. “Swimming really isn’t my thing,” he shouted back.

“Come on, Noah, just once!” Cody yelled. “You haven’t come in all summer!”

Well, that had Noah’s attention.

Noah stood up and walked to the side of the dock Cody was standing near.

“Just one game?” He asked.

Noah took a long, deep sigh. “Fine. One game.”

He jumped from the dock into the water.

“Yes!” Cody held his hand up. Noah high fived him. “This is going to be so fun. Okay, I’m going to count to ten.”

Cody closed his eyes and counted to ten before shouting ‘Marco’ to the campers and CITs. Everyone returned the ‘Polo’ as they swam around.

Noah remained close to the dock, unmoving for most of the game as Cody wandered around.

“Marco!” He yelled.

“Polo!” Everyone else returned.

Cody turned to walk back towards the dock, where Noah was. He took turns here and there trying to find the others, but he was surprisingly bad at the game. Noah didn’t blame him, he had no coordination with closed eyes either.

“Marco!”

“Polo!”

Cody was getting uncomfortably close to Noah’s area, but Noah decided against moving. But unlike himself, all the others by the dock began to migrate away.

“Marco!”

“Polo!”

Cody smiled as he waded towards Noah. There was no way. Did Cody not hear literally every other voice having moved away from the dock.

Noah pulled himself up with the dock slightly, still facing the water. He kept himself as flat as possible as Cody approached the area.

But his plan failed as Cody stood right in front of him. He could feel Cody’s breath on his skin.

“Marco.” He smiled.

Noah sighed. “Polo.”

Cody placed a hand against Noah’s shoulder before opening his eyes and grinning widely. “Uh oh, you’re it. I guess you have to play another round.”

Oh, so that was his game.

“Fuck you, Cody,” Noah said. “Okay.” He closed his eyes. “Ten… nine…”

Noah did have fun swimming.

The entire camp ended up playing Marco Polo for quite some time, and Noah continued to play after he tagged Courtney. Although he did consider quitting after the tantrum she threw, he figured if it made Cody happy, it was worth staying.

That was something Noah didn’t know he was capable of doing.

The campers and CITs sat down at the campfire together. The campers said goodbyes to their CITs, and they all roasted marshmallows over the fire that Topher stole from the pantry.

Jasmine said goodbye to Noah and Owen before sitting down with her friends. Sammy took a quick stop by Noah.

“You should tell him you like him,” She whispered. “Before summer ends.”

Noah shook his head. “Not happening. You’re not the first little blonde camper to bother me about my love life.”

Sammy laughed. “Who else?”

“Cody and Ezekiel’s last camper. I should write her an apology letter,” He chuckled to himself. “Long story.”

Sammy shrugged. “Still, think about it.” She walked away and back to her friends.

“The last four people found get to stay at the nice cabins on the opposing side of the island,” Chris told the campers. He was explaining the rules to his sick and twisted version of hide-and-seek. “And each winner is allowed to bring one friend. You get the cabins for the whole weekend.”

Noah had to admit, he sure liked the idea of sleeping in a bedroom of his own. And it just being him and Cody in a cabin together. They could talk all night alone with no interruptions and actually have some restful sleep. Plus, their own bathrooms. And he could daydream about laying in bed next to Cody, alone together, but it was just a daydream. Either way, even if he did win, he would feel a little like a traitor if he took Cody to the cabins instead of Owen.

His chances of winning were 18%, slightly slim, but possible. He wouldn’t keep his hopes up, unless he found a really good hiding spot.

Well, he did end up thinking of a good hiding spot.

He had to grab a flashlight on the way, but back in the cellar was his best bet. Yes, he was slightly horrified after what happened with Izzy, but he told himself that his fear was irrational and that he was perfectly safe. Although this time, he made sure to stay closer to the door.

He turned the first corner in the maze of a cellar and sat down, keeping his flashlight on. He didn’t want mice or Izzys sneaking up on him. Then… he waited. He wasn’t supid of course, he brought a book, but he still expected his time to be boring.

He wondered how he would know when the game was over. But he figured he’d be found eventually.

Cody never said he was a good hider. In fact, he was caught pretty early.

Courtney was mad, of course. She was found directly before Cody. They both hid in the boathouse, not knowing that they had the same plan.

Courtney kicked the dirt. “Now all I can do is hope Bridgette or Gwen wins. They might pick me.” She sighed. “Cody, you don’t even know, those cabins are heavenly.”

“Yeah. I wish I could know, but this was probably our last chance to stay in them.”

“What about your friends? They might invite you.”

Cody shook his head. “Nah. I’m not close enough to any of them for them to pick me first.”

“What about Noah?”

Cody thought back to their conversation the first time he went to the boathouse with her. Ever since then, her statement about them always being together grew more true.

But Cody was still only second best.

“He’d pick Owen first. They’re best friends.”

“I guess I understand that,” Courtney said. “Ezekiel, then?”

Cody thought about that for a moment. “Well, I used to see him hanging out with Harold a lot, but he has been spending more time with me now.” Cody tapped his chin. “I guess Zeke might invite me if he wins. We are really good friends.”

“Well, anyways, I’m not doing anything for the rest of today. You?”

Cody shook his head.

“Let’s go for a swim.”

Cody nodded in agreement. The two went to their respective cabins and changed into swimwear. They met back at the dock before wading into the water and talking.

At one point, Cody looked to the dock. He saw Leshawna underneath, holding a finger to her mouth to signal for him not to tell. He gave her a thumbs up.

After some hours, 16 of the 22 campers were found. All that were left hiding were Gwen, Noah, Zeke, Geoff, Duncan, and Leshawna. Well, a lot of the CITs knew of Leshawna’s whereabouts but Chef was yet to have seen her.

“Two more, and the rest will be the winners,” Cody told Courtney, Bridgette, and Trent. The four of them were tossing a beach ball around aimlessly.

“Who do you guys want to win?” Cody asked. “I’m saying Noah, Zeke, Gwen, and Geoff.”

“No offense, but not Zeke and not Noah,” Courtney replied.

“Just went after my two best friends. Wow.”

“I’m rooting for Geoff, Gwen, Leshawna, and Zeke I guess,” Bridgette shared.

“Gwen, obviously,” Trent began. “Then Leshawna, Noah, and Zeke.”

“Uh oh,” Cody said. “Look who’s here.”

The other three turned around. Gwen was standing on the shore in a swimsuit.

“Hey, Gwen!” Bridgette called. “Sorry about the loss!”

“Aw, man,” Trent said. “I wanted to stay in those cabins.”

“That was the biggest waste of time of my life.” Gwen sighed, wading into the water. “Whatever, at least I was the second to last loser. Being the last loser must stink the most. Being so close and then losing it all.”

“Rub it in, why don’t you?” A familiar voice came from the dock.

“Noah!” Cody cheered.

Noah groaned. He was standing above the water, arms folded. “I was so close! I guess I should just kiss those clean, queen sized beds goodbye.”

“Aw, man that sucks.”

“I sat in that dingy old cellar for like five hours and for what?”

“Ew,” Courtney grimaced.

Cody’s jaw hung open. “You had the guts to go back in there again?”

“Again?” Gwen questioned.

Noah shook his head in shame. “So stupid, I can’t believe I sat in that gross cellar for no reason.”

“Izzy chased us through the cellar during the last challenge,” Cody explained to Gwen. “She stole my flashlight and broke it for her little ‘prank’.”

“She’s loco,” Noah added, sitting down. “So, who are the winners? Do you guys know?”

“Well, if you and Gwen were found,” Bridgette started, “that means Zeke, Duncan, Geoff, and Leshawna won.”

“I won?” Leshawna exclaimed from under the dock. Noah turned around confused, wondering where the voice was coming from. Leshawna pulled herself up from the water on top of the dock. “I got game, baby!”

After about thirty more minutes, Chef and the discovered CITs were able to find the remaining three winners. Chris gave the winners keys to the cabins, and told them to take a friend of their choice.

Cody stayed back with Noah and Owen as the winning CITs picked up their keys.

The three of them were deep in conversation about their mains in Kosmic Kaos when Zeke shyly approached the group.

“Hi, guys.”

“Zeke!” Cody smiled. “Congrats to the big winner! Who are you taking?”

“I was actually just about to come ask you if you wanted to come.”

Cody smiled. “Of course dude, that would be awesome! I have some comic books if you want to read them together.”

Zeke smiled. “I’ve never read a comic book.”

“Then we’ll start you today! I’ll go get them from the cabin and we can head over.”

Cody gave a quick wave to Noah and Owen before walking off with Zeke. He caught a glimpse of Noah’s expression. He didn’t seem happy for Zeke, he looked almost upset.

Cody spent the night in the nice cabins with Zeke by his side. They were reading comic books on their own, but sitting together. Their shoulders were huddled up together as they flipped through the pages.

Cody himself was currently reading through the Green Lantern series as Zeke read through the Spiderman series out of order. Cody pointed out his favorite issues, scenes, and blabbed about his favorite parts.

As the day faded into the night, Cody began to get tired. At 10:30, he recommended they hit the hay.

Zeke seemed disappointed at the suggestion.

“You can keep reading the comic books, if you want,” Cody told him. “I’m just too out of it to continue.”

Zeke looked between Cody and the comic books before smiling. “Thanks.” He picked up all the Amazing Spider-Man comics he could find before dropping them off in his own room.

Cody yawned, ready to close the door so he could change into pajamas. But Zeke came rushing back in.

“Thanks, Cody,” he whispered, wrapping his arms around Cody’s upper body.

Cody smiled at the gesture and hugged him back. “Of course, dude. You’re one of my best friends.”

Zeke gave him one final smile before returning to his own room. “You’re my best friend, too.”

Cody closed the door and changed his clothes before laying in bed, snug with the sheets. He could sure appreciate the air conditioning in this place.

It was easy for him to drift off into a dreamless sleep.

Noah’s experience was not the same.

Back in their own dingy cabin, Noah was tossing and turning all night. He couldn’t sleep in this heat.

He fell asleep only for an hour at a time, on and off. By the time morning came, Noah wasn’t rested at all. But he had no chance of falling asleep now, so he got up and out of bed.

He went to the Mess Hall for breakfast, where all his friends already were. Izzy and Eva were bickering, Owen was laughing, and Ezekiel and Cody were deep in a conversation unknown to the others.

Noah frowned at the sight and grabbed breakfast.

Well, everything he thought was edible from the breakfast selection.

He sat down next to Owen on the bench.

“Morning,” Owen greeted happily.

Noah didn’t respond in favor of picking at his food.

He glanced over to Cody and Ezekiel. He caught a few words of their conversation, and came to the conclusion that they were discussing the Spiderman comics that Cody brought to the nice cabins last night. If only the top five people won. Noah wouldn’t be so tired, therefore he wouldn’t be so jealous.

He turned his attention back to Owen, Eva, and Izzy. The three of them were talking about one of Izzy’s crazy pre-teen experiences. Noah listened, but didn’t comment.

Izzy’s story didn’t finish, even when they were out of the Mess Hall and on a hike. Yet again. Noah really wasn’t in the mood for this business, but he came anyway. He didn’t have anything better to do, and he was over sulking in his room.

Cody and Ezekiel were still talking to each other and only each other. He tried his best not to let them, or anyone else for that matter, see how annoyed he was. He wouldn’t ever hear the end of it from Owen and Izzy if he did.

As he returned from dinner that evening, he went to call his sister as he always did.

“Noah!” She screeched the moment she picked up the phone. “Where were you last week? Mom got so scared that she called the camp, who said that you were alive and well. What were you thinking not checking with us?”

“Calm down Ava,” Noah said. “The dudes won a challenge and we all went on a weekend-long cruise. I wasn’t able to call, which means I should cut to the chase about my last two weeks.”

And he did. He explained the torture that it was sitting in the boathouse with Duncan after Chef’s ‘boot camp’, how Ezekiel almost died because he couldn’t swim, even how it turned out that Ezekiel also had a crush on Cody. Ava was pretty surprised about that one.

“And he’s Cody’s other best friend, right?” She asked. “Are you jealous?”

Noah decided not to tell her the truth about that. “No, I just thought it was a crazy coincidence.”

He went on to explain the eating challenge and how he was incredibly lucky that he wasn’t served anything he was allergic to. He avoided telling Ava about the emotional moment that he and Cody shared on Sunday morning. He told Ava about how Izzy chased him and Cody through the cellar while they were blinded, to which Ava gave an ‘aww’.

“That’s so romantic!” Noah could hear her smile over the phone from 123 miles away.

“Yeah, so romantic that I can’t even remember how it felt. Because I thought that I was going to die.”

Then he confessed to Ava that Cody actually convinced him to go swimming for the first time that summer, and that playing Marco Polo with practically the entire camp was actually kind of fun. And finally, he told her about his horrible hide-and-seek in which he returned to the cellar only to lose the game. By one person. He was still so pissed about that.

“And of course, Ezekiel won and took Cody with him to the cabins. All day long they’ve been tied at the hip talking about Spiderman. I don’t think I can take another day of it.” Noah groaned. It had already been almost an hour. “So anyways, I have to go. Talk to you next week, Ava.”

“Okay Noah. Remember to call me next week.”

“Not my fault that I wasn’t here!”

Ava hung up before he even finished his sentence. Classic.

Noah hung the phone back up and left the outhouse.

Cody’s Sunday was long, strange, and boring. Heather dragged him to the boathouse with Harold to rummage through old activities and whatnot, before ultimately deciding there was nothing left to do at this camp.

Cody was kind of friendly with Heather, she tried her best to help in that old Zeke situation a few weeks ago and was, in a strange way, encouraging of Cody’s crush on Noah.

Harold was weird in a whole other manner, but Cody was friendly with him as well. They did perform together in the talent show in the third week of camp, exchanged hellos (usually one-sided from Cody, but he tried), and they shared a cabin so they talked here and there.

Heather and Harold must have gotten over their differences that angered the both of them so much in their early weeks of camp. Cody remembered Heather’s complaints about Harold vividly, but he also remembered that they talked to each other without steam coming out of their ears in the Boney Island challenge. And somewhere along the way, they must’ve willingly spent time together, because there they were; in an abandoned boathouse with Cody, searching for something to do.

Cody stayed with them for the rest of the day after that, gossiping about the others at camp as Heather gave herself a manicure. Heather, for such an outcast, knew tons about the others at camp. Especially Lindsay’s crew and Gwen’s close circle of friends. Harold also knew a lot, which was concerning considering the fact that Harold wasn’t even seen at camp 75% of the time. What, was he hiding in the trees collecting intel or something?

Cody himself didn’t have much to share, just weird Izzy stories. After every other tale, Harold butted in to give his opinion or a random fact that was only vaguely relevant to the story.

But at night, Cody found himself alone on the dock.

Not for long, though.

“Hey,” Zeke greeted. Cody smiled at the voice behind him.

“Zeke, my man!” Cody responded. Zeke sat next to him on the edge of the dock. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.”

Cody didn’t always realize it, but Zeke had changed a lot since he came to camp. He was recognizing teenager slang more and more and giving generic responses to common questions. He became a lot less literal. He understood a lot more social cues.

“You?”

“Nothing here either. I hung out with Harold and Heather all day, which was kind of weird. And I saw Gwen and Trent hanging out together. I talked to them for a bit, but they were having a date or something so I left them to it.”

Zeke scratched the back of his ear. “How’s that Gwen stuff going for you?”

“Okay, actually.” Cody smiled. “I think I’m over her.”

“Really?”

“Really. I barely even think about her when I’m not with her anymore. And I’m happy for her and Trent. I think now that I finally see her with someone else, my brain told me to stop.” Cody didn’t mention the fact that he had a new crush. Telling Zeke about that… well… might backfire. He was learning what the real world was like, but he was still a homeschooled farm boy. Hey, come to think of it, Cody hadn’t heard any news about Zeke getting a new crush or anything. Not since Bridgette. “Speaking of… have you had any other crushes while you were here? You know I’m always curious.”

Zeke laughed nervously. He had a very slight pink tint to his face, so faint that it might not even be seen from a few feet away, but Cody noticed. “No…”

“You’re a bad liar, you know that? Tell me, who is it?”

Zeke swallowed, his face burning brighter. He looked away. “Um…”

Cody began to grow concerned. Why was Zeke so nervous? “Hey, Zeke, are you okay?” He asked, placing a hand on Zeke’s shoulder.

“I like a boy,” Zeke whispered.

Well, that changed a lot.

“Are you weirded out by that because I’m also a guy? I kind of just found out what gay is, and Noah told me some people aren’t going to like it… so—”

“Zeke.” Cody cut the boy off and hugged him across the shoulders. “I don’t care if you like dudes. I’m sorry that you even had to worry about that.” He gave Zeke a small smile.

Zeke smiled shyly back.

Cody held him in a hug for a moment before backing up. “Wait.” He turned to Zeke. “You told Noah, but not me?”

“Uhh…” Zeke was sweating bullets.

“Oh come on dude, you and Noah aren’t even close like that!” Cody was offended at this point. “I know it’s your business, and I shouldn’t pry, but who is it man?”

Zeke took a deep breath. “So, you know when I kind of avoided you for a week or so?”

Cody nodded. So it wasn’t in his head. It was kind of nice for Zeke to admit that it happened.

“That was because… I realized that… I think you can figure it out from there.”

Cody squinted for a moment before it all came together. “Oh.”

Zeke liked him. He avoided Cody because he was afraid that the way he was feeling wasn’t normal.

Zeke could barely even meet Cody’s eyes. “Is that a dealbreaker for you?”

Cody shook his head violently. The answer to that question was obvious. “No… of course not, you’re so important to me. I wouldn’t just ditch you because of feelings you can’t help.” Cody certainly knew that he wouldn’t want to be treated that way. “I don’t feel the same way, but we’re still friends. I wouldn’t want… I mean… I love spending time with you Zeke. You know, that time when you were avoiding me, I really missed you.” Cody wanted to put an arm around his shoulder like he usually did, but refrained. “We’ll still hang out. You’re still, you know, my best friend and all.”

Zeke smiled.

Cody smiled back.

Chapter Text

Cody was excited about this week’s challenge. He always loved bike riding! Although, they apparently weren’t going to ride their bikes.

Chris told them that the challenge was just to build the bikes, not race them. The best three bikes would win a spa day, the worst three sentenced to clean the communal washrooms. Not. Cool. Chris.

Cody sat around with Gwen, Courtney, and Bridgette. The four of them were huddled around the manual, trying to figure out how in the world they were meant to build a bike.

“I’m so getting cleaning duty,” Courtney complained. “This is never going to work!”

Gwen and Bridgette weren’t as hopeless as Courtney. They were also pretty hopeless, but not as hopeless.

Cody was doing quite well, he had to say. He understood most of the instructions and simplified them for the girls. Now that his own bike was finished, he was going to try and help Courtney finish hers.

Cody’s bike was simple. He noticed that a lot of the other CITs were adding extra things to their bikes to make them more personalized, for example the wings Gwen was adding to hers and the way Bridgette was painting her bike to an ocean theme. That wasn’t for Cody. He made sure all of his paint was a matching burnt orange, but that was only because most of the bike was burnt orange before he began. He just wasn’t artsy that way.

Plus, he’d much rather give a friend a hand than waste time making his bike look pretty.

“Where’s Trent when you need him?” Courtney asked. “Isn’t building bikes, I don’t know, his whole thing?”

“He wants to do it for a living,” Gwen confirmed.

“Well…” Cody glanced over to Trent. He and Owen were gazing at a posing Justin, building Justin’s bike for him. “He’s preoccupied.”

Gwen smacked a hand on her forehead.

Trent wasn’t the only one in an odd group today. Cody was with Gwen, Courtney, and Bridgette in favor of Noah or Zeke.

Well.

After yesterday, things with Zeke got a little… awkward.

Cody was going to stick to his word, yes, Zeke was still his friend. Cory forgot how he usually treated Zeke (apparently this was a recurring problem) and he didn’t know if Zeke needed space to help him get over Cody or something. So, Cody decided he would give him a few days to sizzle out, and they would go back to talking daily.

Except, he didn’t actually tell Zeke about this plan.

Zeke seemed a little distant as well. Cody expected that, he was probably just embarrassed. If he didn’t want to talk to Cody at the moment, that was fine. Cody didn’t think he needed to voice his plan.

Or maybe he was just not going to tell Zeke about this plan because he wanted to avoid him for a little while.

Noah noticed something going on between Ezekiel and Cody.

Cody was handed an opportunity on a silver platter to hang out with Ezekiel and Noah together, and he didn’t take it.

Eva, Noah, and Ezekiel were building their bikes together. They all had a semblance of knowledge on how to build a bike, so they shared their information with each other. Eva knew how to fix the gears of her bike since they often broke while she was riding, so she knew how to set the gears up. Ezekiel lived in the country and went bike riding a lot with his dad, but with no mechanics around and getting new bikes being a complete hassle, Ezekiel learned how to repair and connect broken parts. Noah read his sister Vivian’s bike manual twice over in the sixth grade trying to fix her breaks after she snuck out to bike to her boyfriend’s house without permission. The three of them actually worked quite well together as a team. They finished their bikes pretty early and got to paint them in their spare time. Noah simply painted his a dark purple and added a basket he found at the bottom of the parts pile to the front. If he were to bike anywhere (unlikely) he would need somewhere to carry a book and a water bottle. Eva matched his shade of purple, and wasn’t going to do anything else until she got bored again and started drawing little demons. Then, she got bored again and added spikes to the side. They looked as if they’d cut a biker’s legs, but oh well. Ezekiel began painting his bike dark green, but then changed his mind on the second half, making it bright red. On the green side, he drew little arrows. On the red side, he drew spiderwebs. Noah now realized he probably never interacted with any ‘fun’ media and was now fixated on Spiderman.

“Amazing work, CITs!” Chris walked around, looking at all the bikes.

“So?” Courtney asked. “Who won?”

“Nobody!” Chris responded, cheerfully. Some of the CITs were surprised, while others simply groaned. “We’re going to race these! First three to cross the finish line win the spa day, last three clean the communal washrooms.”

“Are you kidding me?” Eva asked.

Noah rolled his eyes. “I saw this coming a mile away. I just hoped it wasn’t true.” He mounted his bike with a sigh. “Looks like I’m going to clean those bathrooms after all.”

“Wait wait wait, not so fast,” Chris stopped the CITs. “We’re actually going to switch bikes!”

Noah’s face fell. “I didn’t see that part coming.”

Chris told all the campers who to give their bikes to. Noah handed his bike over to Owen.

“This bike is looking mighty fine, Noah!” Owen smiled. He swung his leg over the opposing side and sat down. “It’s—”

Owen was interrupted by his fall to the ground as Noah’s bike was broken into smithereens. Oh well. At least he didn’t plan on ever riding it outside of a challenge.

“Oops.”

Noah watched as Ezekiel handed his bike over to Cody very quickly, avoiding eye contact the whole way. He then looked around the camp. He knew his bike was supposed to be coming from Izzy, but the thing was, he didn’t really know where Izzy was.

“Chris, how am I supposed to participate if I don’t even have a bike?” He asked.

“Same here! Does this mean we can’t win or lose?” Sadie questioned as well.

“You wish!” Chris exclaimed. “Noah, take Katie’s bike. It was supposed to be Izzy’s. Sadie, take Lindsay’s. It was supposed to be Leshawna’s.” He tapped his chin. “I guess the absence of those two means they can’t win or lose, though.”

Wow. So if Noah just hadn’t showed up, he could skip this challenge with no risk of cleaning the bathroom. But because he appeared, it was basically guaranteed. Great logic.

Noah took Katie’s frilly, hot pink bike from her. She looked ready to combust as she said goodbye. He sneered at its eye-burning design.

“Now, to the starting line!”

Chris took the campers from the Arts & Crafts Center to the beach. Noah noted that the track was not only on the sandy beach, but also covered with obstacles.

The CITs were ordered to mount their bikes and get ready to ride. Owen stood awkwardly next to Noah, bikeless. Noah snorted. At least he was guaranteed bathroom duty with Owen.

“Go!”

As expected, Noah fell behind the pack quite quickly. After a quarter of the race and half the participants already crossing, Noah gave up hope. He biked slowly next to Owen, who was jogging alongside Noah.

“At least I have you, little buddy!” Owen grinned.

“Yeah. It’s just you, me, and those disgusting bathrooms from now on.”

Owen and Noah were the last to cross the finish line, just after Lindsay. Well, Heather, Geoff, and DJ never actually crossed, but they were broken down in a heap around the middle of the track. If Noah was a more optimistic person, he would assume that that meant he was safe from bathroom duty. However, he was a realist and he knew that Chris was pure evil. He did say the last three people to cross the finish line, after all. Noah was prepared for the worst, is all.

But actually, that was far from the truth of the situation.

“Surprise! Get ready for another race!” Chris grinned evilly to the CITs. “If your bike survived, you’re riding in this one. That means Bridgette, Geoff, Noah, and Tyler are disqualified. You can’t win, but you can’t lose either!”

That worked for Noah. He turned to Owen and grinned. “Thank you for absolutely destroying my bike!”

Owen laughed. “I’m a blessing, aren’t I?”

He walked up the hill and sat in the ‘stands’ smugly to watch the rest of the CITs battle it out yet again to avoid washing the bathrooms.

Noah first paid attention to those in the lead at the beginning of the race. Eva and Heather were off to a good start, Duncan close behind. Then, he glanced to the back. Lindsay, Harold, and Owen were falling behind the pack.

Noah kept his eyes on Owen for a few moments. Surprisingly, the big guy was moving ahead. He made his way to the central area, lagging behind ever so slightly, but not at risk of having to fix the septic system. Noah was surprised, the guy was actually a decent biker. Then, he moved his attention to Cody. Cody was a little ahead of Owen alongside Ezekiel. Despite his lack of strength, Noah realized, Cody was actually a fast runner. Noah assumed that applied to biking too.

Halfway through the race, Duncan slipped in an oil slick. Cody narrowly avoided colliding with him, but Ezekiel was not so lucky. Owen was soon to join, tumbling into the other two.

Beth’s side wheel hit the three boys as well, and she fell into the oil. However, unlike the others, she was quick back on the bike and continued on the track.

Eva was the first to cross the finish line, Heather close behind her. And Noah was very surprised to see Harold come in behind them. He made quite the comeback, but that wasn’t hard to believe since most of the other CITs had the crash ahead of them. Cody managed to cross the finish line before it was too late, but wasn’t awarded a spa day. The last CITs that Noah noted passing the finish line were Beth, Gwen, and Lindsay. Duncan, Owen, and Ezekiel still laid in the crash, unmoving. They were probably all injured to some degree. Noah could only hope it wasn’t serious.

Lindsay let out a sigh of relief, seeing the three boys hadn’t crossed the finish line. “I’m safe!”

Chris smirked. “Not quite, Lindsay.”

As Noah predicted, Chris went on to explain that the boys technically never crossed the finish line, thus making Beth, Gwen, and Lindsay the losers. They were sentenced to the most cruel and unusual punishment of them all.

After about five minutes of Lindsay and Gwen cussing out Chris and Beth writing her will in the sand, the CITs were sent back to camp. The girls were to begin cleaning the washrooms the next morning. But for everyone else, tomorrow would be when they received new campers.

The campfire was a little emptier than usual that night. Gwen, Lindsay, and Beth were all too pissed to even think about sitting around a hot fire in the late July night. Others were showering after getting covered in sand, oil, and other substances.

Thankfully, Owen and Ezekiel were okay. The two of them showered immediately after dinner. Owen was quick to return to the campfire and sit alongside Noah and Cody.

Ezekiel came back later and joined the group, farthest away from Cody as he could possibly be. But only a couple minutes after he sat down, Cody retreated to the cabin, claiming he was tired.

Noah wasn’t dumb, he knew what happened. Cody knew how Ezekiel felt. And he didn’t like it.

Noah could see the devastation in Ezekiel’s eyes. He decided not to say anything.

That is, until Ezekiel said something to him.

It was late at night and almost everyone had turned in for the night. As Noah and Ezekiel were walking back to their own cabin, Ezekiel asked if they could talk. Noah knew what about, and he agreed.

The two sat on the dock together just as they had before when Ezekiel and Noah shared their feelings. What an odd occurrence that was. Noah rarely knew the boy, but here they were, sitting and talking about their feelings. Again.

“He found out.”

Noah nodded, not surprised in the slightest. “I figured.”

Ezekiel let his head fall into his knees, which were brought close against his chest. “I feel so stupid. He was asking me if I liked anyone… and I just couldn’t lie. The way he talked made me feel like I had to tell him. At first I said it was a boy, and he was okay with that, and then I told him that it was him, and he was… well. He seemed okay with that too. He told me that we would still be friends. But we aren’t. We’re like this.”

Noah felt a pang of sympathy for the guy. And the way Ezekiel told it, Cody kind of sounded like a jerk. Why would he tell Ezekiel that they would still be friends instead of just being honest? Yeah, it would hurt more in the moment, but a lot less in the long term.

“I should’ve kept my mouth shut.”

Noah reached over and patted him on the shoulder. “I’m sorry, Ezekiel. That really sucks. I really have no idea what’s going on in the dude’s head, he shouldn’t treat you like that.”

“It’s not his fault. I weirded him out.”

“Well, it’s his fault that he lied and said that you two are cool. If he’s going to avoid you like this, he should’ve been up front about it.”

Ezekiel sighed. “The worst part is that I still like him. I feel like this feeling is never going to go away. I’m just going to keep feeling sad forever.”

Noah nodded.

“Why does my dumb heart have to care about how he thinks of me?” Ezekiel looked away. “I wish I could forget about all my feelings for him right now, even the normal friends ones. Because even just as a friend, I miss him so much. He’s… he’s my only friend, really. I never cared about how anyone felt about me before, but once I met Cody, everything changed. I wanted him to be my friend and I didn’t want to lose him once summer ended.”

Noah was surprised at how open Ezekiel was. He assumed it came from the fact that Cody was his only friend, and Cody was open like this himself. He set an example.

“It kind of makes me wish I never came here in the first place.”

Noah shook his head. “Isn’t it more important that you came out here and made a friend in the first place? Even if it hurts in the end, isn’t feeling something better than nothing at all? Aren’t you happy that you had a friend, even if it was only for six weeks?”

Ezekiel shrugged. “Can’t miss what you never had. It’s only four more weeks, then my life will get back to the way it always was.”

Noah didn’t exactly know a lot about Ezekiel’s home life, but from what he did, he couldn’t imagine that Ezekiel was eager to go back at all. He couldn’t watch television or play video games. The books he read had to be approved by his parents (and he stated himself that they had bad taste). He had no friends, just his parents and a cat. It didn’t seem like something any kid would want. The way he felt right now had to be really bad if he was counting down the days until he left camp.

Noah pondered. “But come on, wasn’t the time you spent with Cody worth it? You read Spiderman, and now you’re into that, right? You guys used to talk about your crush on Bridgette.”

“You knew about that?” Ezekiel asked, surprised.

Noah ignored him. “You talk a lot more than when I first met you. You learned how to swim! Doesn’t that stuff mean anything to you? If you didn’t come here and never met Cody, none of that stuff would’ve happened.”

“I guess he did teach me some stuff. Stuff about girls and friends.”

Noah decided not to voice his thoughts about how Cody wasn’t quite qualified to teach anyone about either of those topics.

“Then all the stuff you said. And I did get to see what normal life is like. I have to someday, I guess.”

Ezekiel paused.

“I don’t know whether or not I should’ve come here.”

Noah rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t matter what you should’ve done, what matters is what you did do. And you came here, met Cody, and got your heart broken. But you also learned things you wouldn’t have known otherwise. I guess what you have to do is see the good side of things and be thankful for that.”

Ezekiel was quiet, but Noah noticed his smile.

Noah smiled back weakly. He and Ezekiel stood up and walked back to the cabin.

If there was one takeaway from this, it would be that Noah could never confess to Cody.

Since there were more campers during the third camp period, groups were going to start being in groups of three and each group would be assigned two ten-year-old campers. Chris called it their advancement, Noah called it cutting funds for proper counselors.

The way Noah saw it, splitting into groups of three would be cake. There were six people in the group that he already kind of had going on, so they just had to divide themselves in half. For example, Cody, Noah, and Owen together, then Ezekiel, Izzy, and Eva in the other group.

His friends didn’t exactly see it that way.

At least he managed to get his trio together, even if it wasn’t the ideal trio. He was with Izzy and Eva, who he didn’t mind at all (they could take the campers for hikes by themselves). But the thing was, that would force Cody and Ezekiel into the same group when they weren’t really on speaking terms.

So, the other half of the group was split up. Cody retreated to Heather and Harold, which was a huge surprise to Noah. Subsequently, Zeke joined Bridgette and Courtney since they were missing a member and Zeke vaguely knew Bridgette, though they hadn’t spoken in a while. That left Owen and Tyler the last two CITs with no group, so they had to pair up without a third member.

Chris divvied up the campers between the CITs as he always did. Noah, Eva, and Izzy were assigned a hardcore-looking girl named Axel and a well-dressed boy named Caleb. Noah noted the kids his friends got too. Owen and Tyler had a boy with long hair and a purple-haired girl holding an axe. Zeke’s group had two girls, one excited and athletic-looking while the other was scribbling away in a journal. Cody’s group held a pouting blonde girl and short, smirking black-haired girl next to her.

It wasn’t long before, per usual, Noah was being dragged on a hike. Even though Eva was at her spa day, Izzy and Noah had to watch Axel anyways. Axel was just like Jasmine, Noah assumed, wanting to exercise all day with no rest. It was times like these that he missed Dakota and the beach, and he never thought he’d say that.

She rushed ahead, Izzy having to jog ahead to keep an eye on her. Noah hung back with Caleb, walking peacefully. They didn’t speak.

Eventually, Noah heard a call from behind him.

“Noah, dude!” Cody rushed up to him. Noah realized that both of Cody’s partners were having the spa day reward, so he had to watch his own campers alone. “These are Julia and MK. Could we join you guys?”

“Sure,” Noah replied.

Noah debated bringing up the Ezekiel situation right then and there, but refrained. He didn’t want a bunch of ten-year-olds knowing all of the CITs’ business. So instead, he engaged in more casual conversation. Soon enough, the CITs and campers found Axel and Izzy in the woods once more.

But their escapade together was short lived as MK stole Julia’s back-up phone and Caleb’s ring and raced off into the forest once more. Axel followed with Izzy, and Noah told himself that Izzy had it covered.

He turned to Cody.

“So. Ezekiel.”

Cody’s expression dropped. “You… know?”

“It was so obvious, Cody.” Noah crossed his arms. “I noticed you were avoiding him when you sat on the opposite side of the table yesterday morning. You’re not slick, even sitting at a whole different table would be more subtle.”

Cody hung his head. “I know, it’s bad.”

“And Ezekiel told me about everything that happened. I’m going to be honest Cody, those were some jerk moves. Why in the world would you tell Ezekiel that you’re still friends if you didn’t really mean it?”

Cody avoided eye contact. “I did mean it. I still want to be friends.”

“Then why don’t you act like it?”

“I don’t know! I thought I could be cool but I have no idea what I’m doing. I want to give it a little space and let the embarrassment die down before we go back to being friends.”

“Why don’t you tell him that, then?” Noah asked. “You’re making him feel way worse than he needs to be feeling right now. The way you’re avoiding him after telling him that you were cool is no doubt making him more embarrassed, and it’s going to be way more awkward once you start talking to him again.”

Cody didn’t answer, but he had shame written all over his face.

Noah imagined himself in Ezekiel’s place. He would want to go home too, probably even more than Ezekiel considering he didn’t want to be here in the first place. He’d probably spend the rest of camp rotting in the cabin’s humidity, avoiding the embarrassment of seeing anybody’s face.

He just had to help Cody see that vision. Problem was, Noah didn’t exactly have a way with words. Certainly not around Cody.

“Okay.” Noah let out a breath. “Imagine you liked me, or something, and I pressured you into telling me who you liked.” He paused, trying to monitor Cody’s response. Cody was holding his breath, face slightly red. “And you told me about your feelings for me. Then I said everything was happy dandy before ignoring your entire existence the next day.” The way he avoiding eye contact told Noah everything. “How would that make you feel?”

Cody sighed, hand fiddling in the front of his hair so that Noah couldn’t see his face. “That would… that would suck. Really bad.”

“Because it would get your hopes up.”

Cody nodded.

“Dude, imagine how stupid Ezekiel feels for even opening up to you. I don’t want to tell you all his business, but the guy is pretty upset. Can’t you just talk to him again?”

Cody nodded again.

“And don’t make it awkward, don’t try to ignore what happened. Apologize. Seriously.”

“Okay,” Cody responded, finally. “I will.”

Cody didn’t really get to that immediately. By the time Cody and the campers returned to camp, it was dinner. Zeke didn’t even bother to sit with Cody and the gang, he hung out with Courtney and Bridgette instead. Cody thought about pulling him away from the girls, but figured that might be embarrassing for Zeke. This continued through the campfire where Zeke was avoiding Cody right back, hanging out with his own campers, Bridgette, and Courtney.

The campers were sent off to bed, but most of the CITs were still sitting around the campfire. They were quite lively for the time of night. It was nearing 11 o’clock.

“Campers, please report to the Mess Hall. We have a little surprise for you all out back.”

Cody knew this couldn’t be good news. He, Noah, and Owen walked while glancing at each other suspiciously.

Behind the Mess Hall was a projector, aimed at the Mess Hall’s wall.

Chris and Chef smiled at the campers. “As a reward for your hard work over the past six weeks, we prepared a movie night for you!”

“What type of sick joke is this?” Cody asked.

“Is it someone’s birthday?” Izzy asked excitedly.

Chris ignored their comments. “So sit down, snuggle up, and enjoy! Be warned, this is a scary one!”

Cody didn’t like the sound of that.

Many of the other campers also seemed suspicious of whatever Chris was up to, but eventually everyone sat down with their respective friend groups and watched the film.

Courtney and Bridgette went to their own friends, leaving Zeke by himself in another spot of the grass. Cody nervously approached him and sat down.

He wasn’t going to apologize right then and there in front of everyone. He simply turned to his friend with a smile. “Hey.”

Zeke, eyebrows raised slightly in surprise, turned back towards Cody. “Hey.”

Noah, Owen, Izzy, and Eva sat down with the duo as well.

Cody didn’t like horror movies. Every time he watched something even vaguely scary, he had to watch cartoons or read comic books to calm himself down. The only times he engaged with the horror genre were alone, in the safety of his home, the lights on, with nobody to judge his fear.

As the movie went on, the real terror began. Izzy moved into Owen’s lap, Eva remained unbothered, and Cody moved a little closer to Noah in fear.

Zeke seemed terrified as well, very close to Cody but without daring to touch him.

When the movie began to pick up the pace, Cody clutched at the grass in particularly suspenseful scenes. He shielded his eyes and winced at the gore.

He looked up to Noah for a moment. Noah’s face was straight, the same as Eva’s, not scared of the movie but not really enjoying it either. It was actually impressive.

Cody returned his attention to the movie, only to see something he wished he could unsee. Not only was it disgusting, it was horrifying.

At that same moment, Zeke grabbed Cody’s hand. His eyes were squeezed shut and lips were zipped tight, curled up in a ball as if he were bracing himself. Cody sat stiff.

After a moment, Zeke opened one eye and peered up. He caught a glimpse of how tense Cody was at the physical contact before letting go and looking away.

“Sorry,” Zeke muttered. Cody didn’t respond.

Cody refrained from doing the same to Noah as Zeke did to him. He certainly didn’t want to make things awkward between both of his best friends.

When the movie finally came to a close, Cody was successfully scared out of his wits, as was Zeke.

Gwen and Duncan were sharing their thoughts on the movie. Cody caught her saying that it was pretty tame, which meant she was pretty hardcore when it came to the stuff. He wouldn’t ever go to her house for horror movie night.

“I hate horror movies,” Eva stated. “They’re just boring and gross.”

“Izzy loves horror movies!” Izzy exclaimed.

“So does Owen!” Owen agreed. Cody was confused as to why they were speaking in the third person, but ignored it.

Heather groaned. “This stuff is just mindless guts and gore.”

The sound of a boat engine starting interrupted the CITs’ thoughts.

Curious, the CITs rushed to the dock. Chris and Chef were boarding quickly, dropping a magazine before they drove off into the night.

Beth picked up the magazine. “Escaped psycho killer on the loose…”

That was all Cody needed to hear. He was terrified already. Beth continued to read the paper, mentioning how he had a hook, and showed the dimly-lit photograph to all of the CITs on the island.

“Is Chris running away from the killer?” DJ asked. “And he left us here. To die?”

“Oh, don’t be stupid.” Heather folded her arms. “What time is it?”

Cody looked into the sky, the moon directly above them. “It has to be about midnight.”

“Exactly. It’s Wednesday morning. A.K.A., challenge day.” Heather rolled her eyes. “Seriously, you guys are so gullible.” Heather flipped her hair. “I’m going to the showers.”

“And the bossy mean girl seals her fate!” Izzy dragged a finger across her neck as Heather walked away from the dock.”

Gwen ignored her. “Okay, it doesn’t matter whether this is real or a challenge.” She punched her fist into her opposing hand. “We need a game plan. Let’s go back to camp.”

The campfire was still crackling and letting out a dim light. The campers were huddled together, watching Gwen as she laid out the rules pacing in a circle.

“Rule number one. Never go off on your own. Rule number two. If you do go off alone, never go in the woods. Rule number three. If you do go off in the woods, never ever make out in the woods or you will die in the woods. Understand?”

The CITs nodded.

Gwen did a head count of the CITs sitting around the fire. “Nineteen? Only nineteen?” She glanced around to see who was missing. “Where’s Izzy and Owen?”

“Breaking rules one through three,” Duncan replied with a smirk.

Noah had read just about every horror book there was to read, and he could confidently say that most of the CITs weren’t making it out alive.

While he did strongly believe that Heather was right and that this was a challenge, that didn’t mean that people should go running off into the woods all willy nilly. They should try and win, for God’s sake. But, Noah could appreciate the lack of competition.

If there was, by some stretch of the imagination, a real psycho killer with a chainsaw and a hook in this secluded island in Muskoka, Noah might be dead. He didn’t have much muscle, all he had was his wits. It was really up to the toss of his coin whether he’d live or die. He would have to know his exact situation to even make a prediction. But he severely doubted that this was the case, so what he had to do was think like Chris.

Izzy, Owen, and Heather were all probably caught already. Katie, Sadie, Lindsay, and Beth left together ages ago, Noah didn’t know why but he knew that it was definitely for a dumb reason. DJ and Geoff just recently went to the communal bathrooms, which Noah couldn’t blame them for, but they might be dead. They did have the fact that they were both muscular going for them, but DJ was a top-tier coward and Geoff wasn’t the brightest bulb in the bunch.

Gwen sat next to him, hunching over a notebook. She had a quick sketch of everyone at camp’s face. She was drawing big, red X’s over everyone who left so far. Beth, DJ, Geoff, Heather, Izzy, Katie, Lindsay, Owen, and Sadie.

Thirteen campers remained. All was quiet, nobody really wanted to attract attention to themselves. At least at this point, Noah could say if the killer came to the campfire, Noah would be able to make it out. Duncan and some of the others were dumb enough to try and fight back, so he could make a clean escape while the killer was distracted.

Cody and Eva sat with Noah against a log, all silent. Another thing Noah had going for him was Eva, who could without a doubt escape any killer while holding three hundred pounds. Noah would volunteer to be a third of that.

Justin stood up without warning. “I need moisturizer.”

Gwen’s expression dropped. “Are you kidding me?”

“I don’t get this face by sitting around a dry campfire all night.”

“You’re dead,” Noah told him.

“I’d be hotter dead than any of you freaks are alive.” He started walking towards the communal bathrooms. “I’ll come back if I find Heather’s dead body!”

Noah snorted as he walked away. “Dead body or no dead body, he’s not coming back.”

Gwen drew an X over his picture.

“I don’t know about y’all, but I’m getting hungry,” Leshawna told the group. “While the killer is distracted with pretty boy, I say we hit the Mess Hall.”

Bridgette nodded. “If we all go together, we’d be just as safe as we are out here.”

“I’m down,” Duncan agreed.

“I don’t know guys,” Cody voiced his doubt. “If we all walk together, I feel like the killer’s gonna pick us off one by one without us realizing. We don’t have any flashlights or anything.”

Eva nodded. “Just like a game of roll call.”

And with that, the CITs broke into an argument. Bridgette, Duncan, Harold, Leshawna, and Tyler insisted that they hit the Mess Hall, while Cody, Courtney, Eva, Gwen, and Trent wanted to stay at the campfire where they could see. Ezekiel didn’t say anything, and neither did Noah.

“You know what?” Leshawna asked. “Me and the sane people here are going to the place where we got food and shelter. You all can stay here and get slashed by a chainsaw.”

The five of them stood up and took their leave. Ezekiel looked between them and those who were staying, before running off to join the Mess Hall group.

Gwen slashed over all of their pictures, but she didn’t create an entire X. “Can’t say if they’ll live or die,” she explained.

The six crowded closer together. “Do you guys think the killer is real?” Cody asked.

“Nah,” Noah replied. “If I were a psycho, I wouldn’t come to Muskoka. Nobody to kill.”

“But no one is there to catch you. That’s what the appeal is.”

Noah shrugged. “Either way, how would the killer get to the island? They’d have to find a boat of their own. And anyways, I’d go for the tourists. The rich ones, not the broke teenagers who can’t afford real summer camp.”

“I severely doubt that a real psycho is on the loose and the picture they used in the newspaper was as blurry as that.” Courtney sat with her arms and legs crossed. “Plus, Chris wouldn’t just leave without us. Imagine the 22 lawsuits from all of our parents. He loves money too much to risk it.”

Trent nodded in agreement. “I do think it’s kind of fishy. It’s all too convenient. Chris and Chef show us a horror movie out of nowhere before dropping a newspaper that mentions the psycho killer while they escape.”

“I don’t know, I don’t care,” Eva responded. “I will survive, and I will win.”

“I’m with Eva,” Gwen agreed. “I prefer to think it’s a challenge, but you never know. Either way, I want to be alive by the end of it.”

There was a rustling in the bushes.

Cody jolted and grabbed on to Noah’s leg. “What was that?”

Courtney stood up and stepped back. She nervously eyed the woods behind them.

Gwen and Trent followed, Eva soon after. Noah began to back up himself, Cody clutching his arm with a death grip.

However, the group relaxed when a bunny jumped out of the bushes.

“Oh, thank God.” Courtney sighed in relief. “Just a rabbit.”

Gwen was about to say something, but was interrupted by the revving of a chainsaw.

The six gave a final look at each other.

“Run!” Gwen screeched. Cody grabbed Noah by the arm and the two of them sprinted into the woods.

“I should’ve gone to the stupid cafeteria!” Cody cried.

“Shut up!” Noah gritted through his teeth.

“What does it matter? We’re going to be dead and buried by morning! And if he’s behind us, he can already hear the leaves crunching.”

Soon enough, Cody and Noah ran out of energy. But with about fifty glances behind his back, Noah deemed that the killer had chased someone else. They stopped, crouching behind a tree.

“Where are we?” Noah asked.

Cody shrugged. “I have no idea.”

Noah smacked himself in the face. “Of course. We’re lost in the woods. The killer is going to come find us any minute now.” He whipped his head around to Cody. “Haven’t you gone to this camp for years? Shouldn’t you know where we are?”

“It’s the middle of the night!” Cody exclaimed. “And where exactly do you suggest we go, Einstein? Anywhere at camp is probably going to be searched thoroughly. If we go to the cabins, we’re going to get found. The mess hall? Found. The bathrooms? Found. The cellar? That’s a death wish!”

Noah sighed heavily. He hated to admit it, but Cody was right. He also hated to admit it, but he was terrified to everloving hell.

He reached his hand out and interlocked his fingers with Cody’s. Cody made him feel safe. No, he wasn’t Eva, and no, he couldn’t protect him from a murderer. But him just being there with him, the fact that Noah wasn’t alone. That made him feel safe.

“I just…” Noah trailed off. “I just don’t want us to lose each other.”

He couldn’t see very well, but he knew Cody was smiling.

Cody was very tempted to break rule number three.

He and Noah stopped running minutes ago. Now, they sat in the woods huddling close together behind the trees. It was silent.

Cody avoided fantasizing about what they could be doing, if Cody had his way. But he really couldn’t stop himself. Noah was just right there, the only thing he could see. He was glancing around the forest making sure that there were no shadowy figures in the woods alongside them.

Cody couldn’t help staring. His fingers were tightly woven between Noah’s own, and his breath was hitting Noah’s shoulder. He didn’t just want to breathe on Noah though, he wanted much more than that. He wanted to inch closer to Noah’s cheek and brush his lips softly against it. And if he were so bold, he would love to turn Noah’s face towards him and press their lips together for more than just a moment.

But alas, he was not that bold. So, he settled for resting his head on Noah’s shoulder, looking around the woods as Noah did.

“No one’s here.” Noah settled, letting his back hit the tree.

Cody nodded. He knew Noah would feel it on his shoulder.

Noah turned towards Cody. Cody lifted his eyes to Noah.

They were very close.

Cody’s face was warm. He desperately hoped it was too dark for Noah to see the bright red blush on his face.

Noah backed away as soon as their eyes met, looking back out towards the forest. Cody followed suit.

“This is still just a challenge, right?” Cody asked.

“Yes. Are you nervous?”

Cody faked a laugh. “As if. We’re totally safe out here. Alone… in the woods.”

“Real convincing.”

Cody was about to respond, when he heard something behind them.

“What’s that?” He whispered.

“Probably a squirrel,” Noah responded, with his full voice. “There’s no way the killer found out where we are.”

Noah was proven wrong by the revving of a chainsaw.

Cody’s heart dropped.

Wordlessly, he took Noah by the hand. They ran further into the woods. Cody tried his best to see the woods in front of them, but his eyes had barely adjusted to the darkness. They made it decently far, but the killer was gaining on them. He had the advantage of following in footsteps, unafraid of what was ahead.

Noah was slowing down, but Cody’s adrenaline ran high. In a moment, he scooped Noah up and continued running. Noah really didn’t weigh much, but Cody was not as strong as some of the other CITs. He was slowed down, but not stopped.

Noah clutched him tight, warning him where trees were ahead or logs on the ground. Cody’s fear kept him running. He even began to believe he was outrunning the killer.

Until his luck ran out.

Cody accidentally rammed the lower half of Noah’s legs into a tree. Doing so, he spun himself backwards and promptly fell onto his ass. Noah’s skinned calf didn’t allow him to stand quickly enough, and Cody’s fall made him too dizzy to move.

The chainsaw was raised above Noah and Cody. Cody braced for impact.

Then, the chainsaw stopped.

“You lose, kids.” Chef’s voice came from under the mask. He lowered the chainsaw.

“Holy shit,” were the only words that came to Noah’s mouth. “I knew it was a challenge, but even I thought that was the end.”

“You scared me half to death!” Cody exclaimed. He turned to Noah. “I didn’t have the time to think anything.”

“I don’t need to hear your life story. Anyways, it’s my job to escort you so that the other CITs don’t realize that this is just a challenge.”

Cody and Noah stood up, following Chef back to camp.

They were silent for the walk there. Inside was a tent, containing almost all of the campers. The only ones missing were Gwen and Duncan.

Noah giggled at the security cameras set up around the camp. “Classic. The horror movie lovers are the ones to survive.”

Cody raised an eyebrow. “Do you think these cameras are always here, or just for the challenge? I don’t like the idea that Chris can just spy on us like that.”

Cody felt something grab his shoulder from behind. Still sleep-deprived and scared, he jolted. He turned quickly, but it was only Izzy.

“My theory is that Chris and Chef are secretly recording a television show about us. They call it… Camp T.V.!”

Cody gave Noah a confused look. Noah simply shrugged.

“So, I saw you two run off together on the cameras. Holding hands like the young lovers you are! Ah… I remember what love was like.” She glared daggers at Owen.

Cody felt hot. Again. He hoped he didn’t look like a tomato in front of 19 other CITs.

“I know you guys broke rule number two, but did you guys break rule number three?”

Well, Cody was certainly a tomato now. He tried to hide his blush behind his hand. He shot a quick glance at Noah, who, thankfully, didn’t seem to know what Izzy was talking about.

“Okay Izzy great conversation but I’m going to leave now,” Cody said. He scanned the room for his friends.

Zeke.

He should go talk to him.

Cody took a deep breath, and readied himself to go over to where he and Eva sat…

…but he chickened out. He couldn’t say something right now, in front of everyone. He didn’t want some surprise homophobe tormenting Zeke all summer. What would he even say to Zeke right now, anyways? That he’s sorry for being a hypocritical jerk and avoiding him all week? That when he said they could be normal again he was lying? Yeah, Zeke probably hated him by now.

Cody felt incredibly guilty. He ruined his own friendship with Zeke, and it was all his fault.

He let out his breath and hunched over, walking to Courtney and Geoff.

Gwen ended up winning the challenge. Duncan thought he could battle Chef on the dock, and Gwen was the last one standing. She was awarded an immediate prize to any of the future challenges, no participation necessary.

Noah spent the rest of his Wednesday taking scattered naps from the day into the night. He wasn’t completely refreshed by Thursday, but he was conscious enough to lazily watch Axel and Caleb play capture the flag with Eva and Izzy on the playground.

Owen, Ezekiel, and their partners and campers were on the playground as well. Priya, Scary Girl, Owen, and Tyler played opposite of Izzy’s team. Zee cheered from the sidelines, although Noah didn’t know who he was cheering for, and Millie was writing in her notebook on the playground.

Bridgette and Courtney, who were also responsible for Millie and Priya, sat on a bench together watching the game. Noah intended on sitting alone with a book, but of course, Ezekiel sat next to him.

“I messed up again.”

Noah looked at him briefly, before looking back to the pages.

“During the horror movie, I accidentally kind of held Cody’s hand because I was scared.” He rubbed his forehead. “Right after he started to talk to me again. I’m so stupid.”

“Don’t blame that on yourself,” Noah stated.

“Why not?”

“That’s a dumb reason not to talk to you. Simple as that.”

Ezekiel didn’t respond.

“The way he’s acting is not cool.” Noah closed his book. “I’m going to talk to him again.”

“You talked to him?” Ezekiel squeaked. “About what I said?”

“No, of course not.” Noah made sure Ezekiel knew that Noah didn’t betray his trust. “I just told him that he’s dumb and he needs to talk to you.” He looked at Ezekiel, just to make sure that he knew that he was serious. “And he definitely looked like he was ashamed of what he was doing. Just saying.”

“Really?”

Noah nodded. “But he sure is taking his time. I think he’s avoiding confrontation. I can’t imagine he’d just let your friendship die, though. He spent so much time with you, and it’s not like the guy has friends to spare.”

Ezekiel kicked the gravel. “It’s probably much easier for him to talk to his other friends, though. Not like I can text him or anything. I can’t even visit him.”

“That’s not going to stop him.”

“But the way I felt stopped him.”

Noah, in Ezekiel fashion, didn’t say anything in response to the statement. It was true. But Cody wouldn’t just ditch Ezekiel like that, he knew it. He was going to talk to him. He had to.

“He hasn't stopped,” Noah said. Or hoped. “He’s just paused.”

If this could happen to Ezekiel, it could no doubt happen to him.

“I think I accidentally reversed roles with the whole Zeke and avoiding situation,” Cody told Heather.

He and Heather were on the dock with their campers Julia and MK. Harold was nowhere to be found, Cody suspected he did something to tick Heather off again, and was hiding from her, but Cody didn’t ask.

Their campers, Julia sunbathed while MK ran around pickpocketing everyone on the beach.

They could take care of themselves.

Heather groaned. “What happened this time?”

Cody debated on whether or not to tell Heather about Zeke’s feelings. He settled on trying to avoid the subject, but he was sure Heather would figure out what he was talking about.

“Well, he told me about something and it didn’t weird me out, but then I got weird about it. I was afraid it would be awkward and that he needed space so I avoided him, but now it’s even more awkward and weird and I don’t know how to approach him or apologize.”

“So, this nerd likes you?”

Cody sighed. He knew it. “Yep.”

Heather nodded. “Yeah, that is pretty weird. Didn’t see it coming.” She lowered her sunglasses. “Just go up to him, say sorry, and move on with your life. No need to complicate it.”

“But how? What do I say?”

“...Sorry? What else would you say?”

“I can’t just say sorry, I have to tell him what I’m sorry for so he knows that this won’t happen again.”

“Well, what did you do?”

“Avoid him, after I told him we were still friends. Was completely hypocritical considering the way I’ve talked to Gwen the past few years. I want to do it right, so he doesn’t hate me, but the longer I wait, the worse his response is going to be.”

“Just say all of that. Say what you feel. Really not that hard.”

“But then it’ll be messy and he’s—”

“Ah, shush.” Heather pressed a finger against Cody’s lips to stop him from talking. “You should be as honest with him as you are with yourself. If he sees your whole perspective, messy and all, he’ll forgive you much easier than if you were to read off of a script.”

She had a point.

“So just do it. Next time you see him.”

“What if I never see him alone again?”

“Just pull him from a group, talk to him at night when no one’s around to bother you guys, seriously. It can’t be that hard.”

Cody sat up straight. Okay, Cody Anderson. You’ve got this.

Cody Anderson’s plans were foiled by the challenge.

They had to capture an animal, one picked from a hat. Cody got stuck with an owl. It didn’t seem impossible, but capturing any animal had to be difficult.

He managed to get a net from the boathouse before the challenge began, but that was it. Right as he left the boathouse, he searched for Zeke. He was going to apologize up and down and offer to help Zeke capture his animal. Then, everything would be normal again.

But unfortunately for him, Zeke was already gone searching for his own animal with Eva. Cody’s heart fell. His apology would have to wait.

“There’s no way I’m rooting through these woods to find a wolf,” Noah’s voice came from behind Cody. Cody turned to face him. “I’ll take the punishment.”

Cody laughed. “Fair point. Cooking and cleaning for one weekend can’t be that bad, right?”

Noah nodded. “So, I heard you got an owl.” He lifted up what looked like a dead rat.

Cody jolted back. “Ew, don’t touch that thing!”

“Relax, it’s fake. Just put it on your net and we’ll lure the owl in. Capture him with the net.”

“That’s… actually a good idea.”

Noah smiled, but only for a brief moment. Cody grinned back.

The two walked off into the woods, without much to say to each other.

“How come you’re not with Owen?” Cody asked, finally. “I haven’t seen you two work together in a challenge for a while.”

Noah shrugged. “Right now he’s trying to patch things up with Izzy. He told me he sacrificed her to Chef during the horror challenge. Besides, he’s more competent than you.”

Cody was offended. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“It’s more fun to watch you fail.”

Cody didn’t think that statement was supposed to give him butterflies, but it did. He smiled. “At least I’m trying in this challenge. You’re just taking the hit.”

“I’m not going to suffer just to lose. Might as well try and help you win. Then at least it’ll only be one of us.”

Cody stopped. “Hey, look. An owl.”

Noah raised his eyes to look high in a tree, An owl sat on a branch above, staring down at the two.

Cody laid out the net, tying some string at the corners. Noah dropped the fake rat in the center.

Cody took two strings opposite of him and walked back as far as he could without pulling the net. “You grab those corners, I grab these. Then, we wait. When it comes, pull hard and the net will capture it.”

Noah nodded. The boys got in position.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

It was really boring. If they talked, they might scare the owl away. But Cody was also beginning to fear that he wasn’t making the winners cut.

He was about to motion for Noah to stand up and they’d move to a better location, when he was surprised by feathers flying their way.

The owl! It dove onto the rat. Cody pulled as hard as he could, as did Noah. They bundled up the string as they walked closer to the owl.

“How are we going to get this thing back to camp without getting scratched?” Noah asked.

Cody awkwardly held the owl from the excess net. The owl clawed at him. Cody almost dropped the net, but Noah grabbed his hand to keep his grip.

“Pray?” Cody responded.

Slowly but surely, the duo made it back to camp. But just as Cody arrived, Chef stopped him at the door of the cage.

“No entry for you.”

“What?” Cody asked.

“You’re the first of our losers.”

Cody threw the net to the ground, the owl wrestling its way out and flying away.

“At least that thing didn’t attack you,” Noah stated as the owl flew away.

“So good luck on my duty.” Chef started cackling evilly, and after an awkward couple of moments Noah and Cody just walked away.

The punishment for the CITs who either didn’t capture an animal or captured it after eleven others already captured one was cooking for the camp and cleaning the Mess Hall over the weekend.

“Hey, at least you have me,” Noah nudged Cody. “We’ll suffer together.”

Cody smiled.

He raised his eyes ahead of him, where he saw Eva and Zeke sitting together on the stairs of Eva’s cabin. Cody took a deep breath, straightened his spine, and marched over to Zeke.

Noah didn’t follow at the same pace, slowing down a bit. He must’ve known what Cody was going to do.

“Hey, Zeke,” Cody greeted. Zeke looked up from his conversation with Eva. “Can we talk?”

“Sure…” Zeke responded, nervously. Eva took the hint and went over to where Noah was standing.

Cody sat down on the steps next to Zeke. “Is this a good place?”

“Actually, could we go somewhere else? I’d rather talk somewhere less… populated.”

Cody nodded and started walking, Zeke at his side.

“So…?” Zeke began. “Is this a good talk, or a bad talk?”

Cody shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess it depends on what you want from me at this point.”

The two arrived at the dock and Cody stopped. No one else was around, probably either still looking for an animal or wiped out from doing so. He looked at Zeke and grabbed his arm. Zeke looked back at him.

“I’m really sorry.” Cody was looking into Zeke’s eyes. Zeke’s eyebrows were raised slightly. “I shouldn’t have acted the way I did. I was a jerk and a dumbass, and I wish I could’ve just been normal in the first place. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad, but I know I must have.”

Zeke nodded solemnly.

“And you can hold this over my head forever but… the thing is… I don’t want to lose you Zeke. You’ve been such a good friend all summer and I don’t want that to go away when we go home. Seriously.”

Zeke smiled.

“But back to the jerk part. I was… well I treated you in a way that I would hate to be treated. If Gwen did this to me years ago, I would’ve been upset. But probably not as upset as you right now. I was a hypocrite and an idiot for acting weird around you for your feelings for me. And I’m really flattered, by the way.

“And I meant everything I said, I promise I wasn’t lying when I said we were still going to be friends. I know I kind of ditched you and it was an ass move, I guess I just wanted space or something. I’m not uncomfortable with you but I was afraid it would be awkward, which was dumb, and made it more awkward.

“You are still as important to me as you ever were. And I still love hanging out with you, and I still miss you. But this time it was me avoiding you, and I was wrong for it. I’m really, really sorry.”

Zeke avoided eye contact for a moment before looking back at Cody. “Thanks,” he mumbled. Cody was blessed to see the small smile that graced Zeke’s lips.

“Really dude, you’re my best friend. And I want it to stay that way.”

Zeke smiled wider.

Cody grinned right back. Without a moment’s hesitation, he dove into a hug. He squeezed Zeke hard and lifted him off the ground for a moment.

Why was this so hard for him, again?

Once both of them were back on the ground, Cody spoke again.

“So, see you tomorrow in the Mess Hall? I’d ask to sit with you, but I’m on cooking duty.”

“Yeah.” Zeke’s smile faded a bit. “Hey, Cody? Can I ask you something?”

“Hm?”

“How are you going to keep in contact with me over the year?”

Cody tapped his foot on the ground. “I thought of this before. I really don’t know what we can do besides write each other letters. I can give you my phone number, and you could give me your home phone, but the calls would be long distance so we couldn’t do them often. Maybe you could convince your parents to let you use an online chatroom so we could talk, but that might be wishful thinking. But whatever it is, I’m willing to do it. Promise.”

Cody held out a pinky finger.

Zeke awkwardly hooked his own pinky around Cody’s, before pulling him forward into another hug.

Cody was surprised. He wrapped his arms around his friend’s back, but wasn’t sure what triggered the response.

When Zeke pulled away, he wiped his eyes. They were welling up just a bit. Did the idea of them staying friends forever get him this emotional?

“Come on dude, don’t cry,” Cody rested his hand on Zeke’s shoulder. He was starting to get sentimental too.

“I’m not crying,” Zeke lied. “Let’s just… go back to camp.”

“How about we go swimming?” Cody offered.

Zeke couldn’t suppress his smile. “Sure, that’s okay too.”

Noah was not exactly happy with his situation, but it certainly wasn’t the worst punishment that summer camp from hell had to offer.

First, there was the good. If he had to be stuck here, at least he was stuck here with Cody and Owen. He wasn’t cleaning bathrooms, that was a plus. And there was even a sliver of a chance that the food this weekend would be edible, considering Chef wasn’t cooking it.

But then, there was the bad. Though he was with his two best friends, he unfortunately also had to share the kitchen with Heather. Noah really didn’t know what was worse: her, or the rats. Then, of course, there was the fact that he had to keep the Mess Hall clean to Chef’s own standards. And he had to cook for 41 people. That sucked too.

The losers were woken up bright and early, sent to the kitchen straight away to start on a premium breakfast. Chris assured the campers that he splurged on food, and he didn’t expect the mass-produced garbage that Chef served. Noah believed he should lower his expectations.

As they entered the kitchen, Heather, of course, tried to take a lead role. However, Lindsay and Courtney shut her down before she could even divvy out assignments. Courtney instead nominated DJ to lead them according to what ingredients they had in store. She suggested that DJ was the most experienced chef, knowing how to make the most of what they had and being able to suggest recipes. It was an almost unanimous agreement.

But before they could really get started, the Mess Hall had to be cleaned from last night. Noah, Owen, and a couple of others offered to clean the dining area while the others began preparing breakfast.

Noah and Owen scrubbed tables together, side by side. They worked across the rows so they could talk.

“This isn’t really a bad punishment at all,” Owen stated, ever the optimist.

“It certainly isn’t the worst,” Noah agreed, well, halfway at least.

“I’m excited for the food! DJ is a great cook, I mean, I tasted some of his food in the cooking challenge. Yu-um!”

Noah chuckled at his friend’s statement. “Too bad we’ll have to rush so that we can get started on lunch.”

Owen sprang up. “Lunch! Oh my goodness, I didn’t even think about lunch yet! Oh, now you have me worked up!”

Noah grinned.

The boys eventually made it to the end of the tables, wiping the sweat off of their foreheads. Those tables were sparkling now. Or maybe that was Noah’s brain trying to convince him to lay off of the physical labor.

It seemed that Tyler and Geoff were finishing up on the floor, both sat on benches talking to one another.

Noah picked up his rag and bottle of anti-bacterial wipes. Those things had seen better days. “Let’s go help in the kitchen.”

Owen grinned. “Eager to get back to loverboy, are you?”

Noah slapped a hand against Owen’s mouth. “Not so loud. And as if you aren’t losing your head over brushing elbows with Justin once you get back in the kitchen.”

Noah disposed of the wipes. He was tempted to do the same with the rag, but he knew Chris would complain if they lost a penny of his fortune. He placed the rag on an unused counter and walked over to Cody.

“We’re almost done here,” Cody stated. He and Justin were cutting up strawberries. “But I think DJ and Courtney could use some help plating the pancakes.”

Noah nodded and grabbed a stack of trays that stood near Courtney. DJ was flipping pancakes over multiple skillets, Courtney running back and forth from the stove to the counter with trays of pancakes.

When Courtney returned from her last trip to the counter, she sighed in relief. “Okay, Noah, thanks. You plate, I’ll take them to the counter.”

Noah nodded.

DJ perked up. He looked to his side opposite of Noah. “Oh, Owen! I could use your—”

“No!” Noah cut in. “Owen, away from the food. Go get Geoff to help out.”

Owen saluted and walked out to the Mess Hall to recruit Geoff.

“This isn’t as hard as I thought at first,” DJ told Noah. “I was worried about the amount of food I had to make, but it’s easier than I thought. Two large pancakes is plenty for everyone at camp. I just had to sextuple the recipe.”

DJ was crazy.

“With Courtney helping, it really wasn’t that hard. Then Lindsay and Sadie are over there making yogurt drinks and Cody and Justin have fruit covered. Heather’s buttering pancakes. With the rest of you here, lunch will be a cinch.”

Noah was going to bring up that Owen would probably undo most of their progress, but refrained. He should have a little faith.

“I was thinking sandwiches. We’ll have PB&Js and BLTs, so there’s a choice. Then, carrots and apples for fruits and vegetables. It’ll be easy.”

As he finished his sentence, the doors to the Mess Hall opened. Campers lined up with Blainely behind them, taking the trays that were prepared already. Cody and Justin were scooping cut strawberries onto the trays, Lindsay and Sadie scattering chocolate, strawberry, and regular milk onto different trays.

The remaining CITs who won the last challenge followed. Friends teased each other over the counter, mocking the losers’ punishment.

Once everyone took their plates, the losing CITs took their own plates. They ate in the kitchen, going over the plans of who would do what for lunch.

“Hey! You losers!” Chris called from the dining area.

The losing CITs turned their heads to the serving window, where Chris was coming towards them.

“This was okay, but I want to see more. If lunch doesn’t impress, dinner and dessert better be spectacular, or else you’re doing this again next weekend!”

He walked away, returning to Chef.

Courtney folded her arms. “What does that psycho want from us? He’s working us for free here. We’re minors! We could sue, and we’d probably win.”

Noah snorted. “This is probably covered in our contracts. With his money, he could turn the lawsuit around on us.”