Chapter Text
Eleven-year-old Max sat in the grass, soaking in the warm sun on his last day of camp. Neil and Nikki sat beside him talking, but Max was only half-listening; the other half of his mind was lost in his own thoughts. All day he couldn't help but think back to exactly a year ago, when Nikki and Neil had their first last day at camp. He felt a sense of nostalgia, and sitting there on the grass with his two friends, maybe even a little peaceful. Or at least, he tried to feel peaceful now, since he knew he’d experience the same sense of dread he felt last year returning to his home life again.
“Yeah, I know, but I’m still gonna miss you guys,” Nikki said, and Max started fully listening to the conversation again.
“Hey, we should try actually hanging out in-person this year. My mom got a new house and it’s relatively close to where Nikki lives, so it might actually work out. Oh wait, you live about… two hours away from Nikki, don’t you, Max?” Neil asked.
“Yeah, but we could probably figure something out,” Max replied. He doubted his parents would care much if he was around two hours away at a friend's house, anyways.
“Ugh, what I’m honestly gonna miss most is the bus ride! Riding in the car with just my mom is so much boring-er,” Nikki said.
“That’s not a word, Nikki. But I honestly agree with you; and I hate riding the school bus,” Neil replied, shivering at the thought of having to ride the noisy school busses every day again.
Right , Max thought. They accidentally blew up the camp bus, and didn’t have the time or the budget to rent a new one. Which meant all campers had to be picked up by their parents this year. So now, everyone was hanging out in the field in front of the camp, waiting for the cars to start arriving at picking up kids one by one. Some campers were playing, like Nerris and Harrison. Ered and Nurf were making bets on how many skateboard tricks Ered could do. Dolph and Preston were having some sort of heated conversation, probably about arts or something stupid, Max assumed. And Space Kid was doing… Space Kid things.
Max looked back to see David and Gwen walking towards him, Nikki and Neil.
“How’s everything going? Are you three excited to go back home?” David asked.
“Ugh, not really,” Nikki groaned. “I’m gonna miss the forest! And our adventures! And all my favorite mud piles!”
“Well, I’m sure you can make plenty of new mud piles at home,” David replied with a smile on his face.
“Yeah, but they won’t be the same…”
“Wait- Gwen, what are you still doing here?” Max interrupted. “Don’t you have, like, important reporter lady stuff to get back to?”
“Well, since CJ had to already leave, I decided I’d stay to help David clean up the camp and make sure all the kids get home,” Gwen replied.
“Wow. You decided to stay at camp longer than you have to? Your life must be really boring,” Neil said.
“Oh shut up. You’d all be dead by now if it weren't for me.”
“Admit it, you're gonna miss us little shits, aren’t you?” Max teased.
Gwen smiled. “Maybe everyone else, sure, but definitely not you,” she teased back.
Nurf ended up sneaking into the counselor’s cabin to get his pocket knife back and was now running around with it, so David and Gwen quickly left to deal with that whole situation, and Nurf’s parents arrived to pick him up not long after. Max and Neil couldn’t stop laughing at David running around trying to catch Nurf without getting stabbed in the hand again.
“Jeez, my life outside of camp really is ten times more uneventful. That’s kinda sad,” Neil said. Once Max had finally stopped laughing, he looked to the empty spot beside Neil.
“Wait, where the hell did Nikki go? I swear she was just here-”
Max was cut off by Nikki jumping from a tree, laughing and somehow unharmed.
“Jesus, Nikki, you are so weird.” Max said with a smile.
“And oddly invincible,” Neil added.
The three eventually left their spot in the grass after this to explore the camp one last time and see the shenanigans that were happening with the other campers before they got picked up, too. Ered was second to be picked up. Then Nerris, then Dolph, Preston, Space Kid, and Harrison. Max was thankful that he, Nikki and Neil were ironically the last ones left; they helped Max distract himself from the anxiety that was growing in him with every kid who got picked up. Neil was picked up not long after Harrison, however, and Max and Nikki were left for about 20 more minutes before she was gone, too.
Max watched Nikki drive away as David waved to her.
“Well, it’s just the three of us now, isn’t it?” David said as he looked down at Max.
“Lucky me,” Max said sarcastically as he sat down in the grass. “Maybe if I’m lucky, my parents won’t show up and I’ll get to spend more time at my favorite camp in the whole wide world!” Max said in a sarcastic, high pitched voice.
“Now, why do I get the feeling you're mocking me?”
“That’s because I am, idiot.”
David simply laughed, and was about to sit down next to Max when Gwen called him over from the counselor's cabin.
“Oh- I’m gonna go help Gwen real quick. Come get us before you leave if your parents get here!” David ran off, and Max was left alone with his thoughts again.
It felt weird being the only camper left at camp; however, it was nice to have quiet alone time for the first time all summer. Now that everyone had left, he couldn’t help but dread seeing his parents car in the driveway, whenever that would be. The people at camp may be annoying sometimes, but after the shit year he had, going through another one without them felt… almost unbearable, for some reason. And the fact that he knew next summer would be so different didn’t help. Nikki and Neil might already be 12 by the next time Max saw them. There was a good chance they could both change a lot over the school year. But what bothered Max the most was how much he had changed. Even if he’d changed “for the better”, he just wanted everything to stay the same. He really didn’t want the summer to end.
Max had been sitting in that same spot, picking at grass for who knows how long, when David came by after helping Gwen. David wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but watching Max sit by himself for so long made him feel a little sad.
“Hey, Max. Me and Gwen are about to go clean up the mess hall. Do you wanna come help?” David asked.
Max sighed, but realized he looked (and felt) a little pathetic sitting on the ground all by himself, picking at the grass and waiting on his parents.
“I guess I have nothing better to do…”
- - -
Max looked at the sun starting to set as he held half of the banner they had hung outside the mess hall that read ‘ See you next summer!’ .
“So, do you think you made meaningful camp memories again?” David asked Max from the ladder he stood on to take the rest of the banner down.
“Unfortunately, I think your annoying campfire songs will always be engraved in my memory,” Max responded.
“Aw, well that means they had an impact!”
“Yeah. A negative one.”
“Well, you had to have had some fun this year.”
Max hesitated. He had been going to this god forsaken camp for too long to lie.
“Yeah, I actually kind of did. A little bit.”
David let out a small laugh. “It’s funny- at the beginning of the summer, you were so worried about everyone changing. You didn’t want to admit it, but you had so much fun at camp last year, you wanted everything to be the same again. But when you let go and accepted that change, you had just as much fun as you did last year.”
It took Max a second to process everything that David had said.
David climbed down from the ladder, holding the rest of the banner, and looked at Max. He realized he hadn’t yet gotten a sarcastic remark in response.
“Damn,” was all Max could say. “I… guess you're not wrong.”
David ruffled Max’s hair with his free hand. Max scowled at the gesture, like usual, but didn’t bother swatting him away. He was used to it at this point, so it didn’t annoy him much anymore.
Max took one last look at the still-empty driveway before following David inside the mess hall.
- - -
Max chatted with Gwen and David while they cleaned up- mainly about Gwen’s new job and her plans for the school year, but also just about camp and the upcoming year in general. It was actually kind of nice, Max thought. He hated cleaning and chores, but he got to tease David and Gwen for a little longer, and even though he kept looking out the window for a car in the driveway, he frankly was in no rush to get back to his parents, school, and his life outside of camp. Ugh . He never wanted to admit how much he missed camp last year out loud.
Max looked at the sun getting lower in the sky with every passing minute.
“Uh, I think I’ll… go check and make sure all my stuff is packed,” Max said.
“Good idea. And thanks for the help, Max. This mess hall is looking better than it did before we got here!” David said as he put away a few more lunch trays.
“Yeah, whatever,” Max replied with a small smile, closing the door behind him.
“Huh. That little asshole was actually a big help. He’s grown a lot these past two summers, hasn’t he?” Gwen said, staring at the door Max exited out of.
“He really has.”
- - -
Max already knew he had everything packed. One backpack and one suitcase. He just wanted to get some time to himself outside. He grew a little more anxious the later it got, but he wasn’t sure why, so he thought maybe this would help. It didn’t, but he sat on the grass anyway to wait for his parents once more. It was getting late, so he had a feeling that if they were gonna show up, it’d be sometime soon.
The sky grew dark and the sun was no longer visible, and Max could make out a few tiny stars. Eventually, he got tired of sitting in one spot, and tired of staring at an empty driveway. He got up and started walking.
Max wasn’t sure where he wanted to go, his feet just started taking him somewhere and he listened. He walked in the forest right behind the camp, and ended up on a mini hike. He stopped when he spotted a familiar bench, and realized this was the same place David took him on the last day of camp last year, when he realized Max was feeling a little… not like himself.
Max was never an emotional person, and he hated dealing with or expressing his emotions. So he was confused as to why he had been feeling like this at the end of camp since last year, when everyone else seemed happy to plan the summer send-off, or their plans for the next year, or to just return back home. And he didn’t know how to feel when the stars in the sky suddenly became a little blurry and he felt a tear run down his cheek. That is, until he heard a faint voice calling his name.
- - -
“Uh, Gwen?” David called back into the open door of the mess hall.
“What is it?”
“Max was just sitting here while we were cleaning up, I was watching from the window. And… now he’s not.”
“Jesus christ, where did he run off to this time? Did you check in the counselor’s cabin?”
David felt a little dumb for immediately panicking and turning to Gwen instead of going with the obvious solution.
“Oh- no, I didn’t. Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you there,” David said.
“I’m not the one who’s scared,” Gwen muttered with a smirk as David walked towards the cabin.
“Max?” David called from outside the cabin. “Are you in there, Max?”
He got no response.
“Okay, I’m coming in.”
David’s eyes widened when he opened the door to find no one inside.
“Gwen, he’s not here. Do you think his parents already picked him up? But I don’t think he’d leave without saying goodbye… a- and I told him to come get us before he left, that way what’s happening right now wouldn’t happen and we’d know he’s safe! ”
Gwen put a hand on David’s shoulder. “David, calm down. Look- his luggage is still over there, so he couldn’t have left,” she said.
David let out a sigh of relief. “Okay. That’s good. Why don’t you take an extra look around here and I’ll go check the doc?”
Gwen nodded, and went off to check around the camp again.
She checked behind the mess hall, inside the counselor’s cabin, in the attic, and everywhere outside. She knew that by an ‘extra look around camp’, David meant an extremely thorough look where absolutely no spot is left unchecked. She was tired of looking, but continued anyway.
David eventually returned with no Max, and that was when she started to get a little worried. But David was far more emotional than the both of them and was already a panicking mess, so she tried to be the rational one.
“You know he runs off like this all the time. Besides, we’ve dealt with much worse. You know him well; where do you think he would be right now?”
David thought for a moment, before coming to a realization.
“Follow me. We’re going on a hike.”
“Oh, great. That’s literally the last thing I wanted to do today.”
- - -
David and Gwen ventured into the forest behind the camp, David calling out Max’s name every few minutes.
“Where exactly are we going?” Gwen asked David.
“The only other place I could think of where Max might go,” David responded.
“Okay, that’s not helpful.”
“Sorry. I think we’re almost there.”
After a few minutes, David spotted a familiar bench, and a head of dark hair at the top of it.
“There you are!” David called out in relief.
Max looked to see David and Gwen walking towards him, and quickly wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie.
“Max, what the hell were you thinking? That it was a good idea to run off in the middle of the night without telling us?” Gwen asked. David noticed how Max didn’t look at her, and kept his eyes on his shoes instead, or how he didn’t have a sassy remark to Gwen’s scolding. “I mean, seriously, we-” David put a hand on Gwen’s shoulder, cutting her off. She sighed and stepped back, crossing her arms and letting David deal with Max.
David came beside Max and looked down at him, as if silently asking if he could sit next to Max. Max scooted over, and David sat down- but he still wouldn’t look him in the eye.
“Max, are you okay?” David asked.
Max sniffled. “I think they forgot about me,” he said quietly, staring at the ground. Max sounded so small, so different from how he usually said things, David was a little shocked.
“Forgot to pick me up, I mean.” Max added. “But it’s fine- they probably just thought they were supposed to pick me up tomorrow or something like that. It- It’s not a big deal.”
“You don’t know that,” David said softly.
“Yes, I do,” Max said, a little more aggressively. “It’s pitch black, and the other kids were picked up by their parents hours ago. If they were gonna pick me up today, they would’ve already.”
Max was often angry like this. But it was seeing him so sad as well as angry that threatened to bring a tear to David’s eye. But he couldn't let his emotions get the best of him; this was about Max.
“Why don’t we go back to camp and figure this out, okay?”
Max nodded.
David almost forgot Gwen was there until he turned around to see her looking a little sad as well. David patted his pockets. “I, uh, think I forgot to bring flashlights. Gwen?”
“I don’t have any either,” Gwen said.
“Okay. We’ll just have to be extra careful going back down.”
No one talked on the way back to the camp. Max tripped two or three times, and David had to catch him. Max didn’t realize how difficult the steep forest could be to navigate when you can barely see and your mind is too scattered to really pay attention to your surroundings.
When they arrived at camp, they entered the mess hall. Max sat down on one of the benches, Gwen leaned against a table, and David stood typing something into his phone. Max was the first one to talk.
“What are you doing?” He asked David.
“Calling your parents,” he replied simply.
“If they forgot to pick up their own kid, I doubt they’re gonna pick up the phone,” Max said.
David didn’t respond- he was too busy listening to the repeating sounds of his call waiting to be answered. After what seemed like an eternity, David’s phone went silent.
“Told you.” Max muttered under his breath.
David immediately hit the call button again and walked to the other side of the mess hall.
Max let out a sigh.
“You know how annoyingly persistent he is,” Gwen said. “He’s gonna keep calling till he gets a response.”
“Then it looks like he’ll be here all night,” Max said.
A few more seconds of silence went by before Max asked his next question.
“I couldn't just… stay here for the night, could I?”
“Sorry, I don't think so. We already put up all the tents, and there's not really anywhere else you could sleep.”
Max nodded. He knew that would probably be the answer, but there was no harm in asking.
David walked back over after all his calls went unanswered. “Max, have you tried contacting them from your phone?” David asked.
“Yeah. I already texted them a couple times a few hours ago. No response.”
“Gwen, are you sure they got the email about the bus explosion? Maybe we left them off the list.”
“You checked that email list, like, three different times before we sent it to make sure something like this didn’t happen. We definitely got everyone.”
So there really was no excuse, Max thought. For some reason, he had hoped that maybe they weren’t contacted about needing to pick them up. Maybe they didn’t know the right date or time. But there was no excuse, other than the fact that they just didn’t care.
David just stood there for a second, watching Max stare at the ground. He didn't think he had ever seen Max look this genuinely sad before. The boy quickly wiped at his eyes and sniffed.
David sat down next to Max and put a hand on his shoulder. Max almost instinctively shrugged him off and told him to go away; but he didn’t, because deep down, he knew he didn’t want him to.
“Hey, we’ll figure this out. Trust me, we’re not just gonna leave you here at your least favorite place in the whole world another night,” he said with a small smile. “It’ll be okay. I just… need a second to think.”
Seeing Max show any emotion always had Gwen a little shocked. He wasn't crying, but seeing him so hurt reminded her of the one time she had ever seen Max cry; the trainwreck of a parent’s day last year.
The only times I’ve ever seen him this sad have been because of his parents, she thought in the back of her mind. This made her livid. She’d already had a grudge against his parents ever since parent’s day, but now? She was furious with them. And it bothered her that at this moment, there was seemingly nothing she could do to help. She was only okay at comforting kids, but it was something that came so naturally to David. She especially didn’t know how to comfort Max. She didn’t want David to worry about too many things at once, but she couldn’t think of any other solution for where Max could stay if his parents never showed up.
“Max, you live in Farmington, don’t you?” David asked.
“Yeah, on Northridge. Why?”
David thought for a moment.
“That town is actually about 30 or 40 minutes away from where I live, if I’m not mistaken. I could always drive you to your house. If you’re okay with it, that is. But we could wait for your parents a little longer if you want.”
Max hesitated before responding.
“I mean, I don’t think I have many other options, so… sure.”
“However, it would make me feel a lot better if you could text your parents and let them know I’m taking you home. That way even if they don’t respond, they’ll at least know who you're with if they look at their phones.”
Max nodded and took his phone out to text his parents. David ended up seeing Max’s other texts to his parents from earlier that day:
Max: U know ur supposed to pick me up today right? I’m the last one here at camp
Max: R u on the way?
Max: Why aren’t you responding it’s been like a couple hours I’m still here
Max: Okay the counselor David is gonna drive me home if that’s fine cause I can’t stay at camp any later
Now, David really felt like crying. But he didn’t- instead, he took a deep breath.
“Do you want to wait for your parents a little longer?” David asked Max.
“I don’t really care. I mean, it’s already past 10:00, so we can go now.”
“Why don’t you go get your luggage and make sure you have everything packed, and then we can decide?”
“Okay.” Max replied simply. David let out a tired sigh once he left.
“You okay, David?”
“I’m worried if he’s okay. I mean, if the dots didn’t connect at parent’s day, they definitely are now. All of Max’s behavioral issues, his acting out, his rudeness; it all likely stems from not getting the attention and care he needs growing up.”
Gwen knew he was unfortunately right; and she didn’t need her psychology degree to piece that together.
“He’s a good kid; but a lot of people probably don’t take the time to realize that. No kid should have to worry about whether or not their parents actually care about them. That’s just… not right,” David said.
“I know it isn’t. But at least he doesn’t have to worry about whether or not you care about him; you’ve made that plenty clear in the years you’ve known him. And that’s all you can do for now.”
David gave Gwen a smile. He needed to hear that.
Right then, Max opened the door, with a backpack on his back and clutching a suitcase handle in his hand.
“Are you ready to go? We can wait here a little longer, if you want-”
“No. We should probably get going,” Max said.
“Alright then. Gwen, we got everything packed up, right? Nothing else we need to do?”
“Nope. I think I’m ready to leave, too.”
“Thanks again for everything,” David said. “I don’t think I could’ve done it without you.”
“Oh, it was nothing. Hopefully I won’t be seeing you two next summer, but you never know,” Gwen replied as the three walked out of the mess hall and towards their cars. David noticed it was lightly raining, but didn’t think it was anything that would make the car ride back too difficult.
“Safe travels!” David called to Gwen as he put him and Max’s luggage into the trunk of his car.
“You too,” Gwen called back.
- - -
The beginning of the car ride was silent, except for the light rain against the windshield and the very quiet music on the radio. For some reason, keeping his eyes fixed on the window seemed plenty entertaining to Max. Eventually, though, he and David did talk. Max found out David worked at a plant shop during the year, which didn’t come as a surprise to him, but still took the opportunity to make fun of David over it. Max even talked a little about the summer, and things he did that he actually found fun. Real, meaningful memories he made. David wasn’t sure if Max was aware that this was what he was talking about, but it still made him feel like the proudest camp counselor alive. Eventually, Max fell asleep. He looks so peaceful when he’s asleep , David thought. He didn’t have the permanent scowl usually stuck on his face when he was awake. Max didn’t wake up until David parked into the parking spot of a gas station.
“Are we there yet?” He asked groggily, wiping drool from his mouth. David gave a small laugh. “No, I had to stop for gas. We’re almost there, though.”
And before he knew it, Max started to recognize the scenery outside his window. He couldn’t help but feel a little sad when the car pulled into his neighborhood. Max helped David find his house, and at around 11:40 at night, they were in the driveway of Max’s house.
“Well, here we are,” David said as he got out of the car with Max. “Are you sure you got everything? Suitcase? Backpack?”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Max said. “Uh, thanks for driving me all this way.”
“Anytime,” David responded. Max’s feet felt like they didn’t want to move.
“Oh, one more thing,” David said suddenly. He reached in his back pocket and kneeled on one knee to hand max a slip of paper. “Here’s my email. In case… maybe your parents are giving you a hard time, or if you want to just…”
Max stared at the slip of paper, trying not to tear up again. He couldn’t explain it, but he felt like this was one of the first moments where someone truly cared about him. To prevent himself from looking like a pathetic little kid again, he instead hugged David.
“...talk,” David finished. David hugged him back, surprised he hadn’t already stopped hugging him after two seconds.
Max pulled away, now clutching his luggage and the slip of paper, and David stood back up, looking down at him.
“See you next summer, okay?”
Afraid he’d start crying if he said anything, Max simply nodded, then turned to enter his house. David stood watching to make sure Max safely made it in, then got in his car. He couldn’t help but tear up as he drove away, the rain continuing to fall the whole car ride back to his house.