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It shouldn't be a surprise for Max to wake up and feel like shit. That's just how waking up goes, really. There's no way to avoid it. It's simply impossible to not want to die while blinking your eyes open at 8 AM after passing out from exhaustion at 6.
But this is… Different. He feels bad, as usual, but not in the right way. Worse, somehow. Usually, Max would wake up and feel bone tired, somewhat aggravated and all-around miserable. This time, it's all that times ten, plus a killer stomachache and an urge to claw off his skin and rip the bones straight from their flesh prison. The worst part is, he's not even sure why.
He turns his head to see Neil's mattress empty. Good, he's allowed to cry if the pain gets worse. He prays it doesn't, but with his luck, he doubts the universe will be kind. Best to save the tears then, too, just in case someone ends up walking in mid sob session. There's one way he knows how to avoid that, though. The only problem is it involves actually getting up.
Max groans at the thought, his eyes squinting shut for a moment as he harshly drops his head against his pillow. He stays still for a while, preparing himself for what he can already tell is going to be a long day, until eventually, he finds just enough energy to sit up and push his blanket off.
“WHAT THE FUCK?!”
His screech is unexpected to his own ears, but he really can't help it. How else is he supposed to react to an enormous amount of blood staining his air mattress and pajama pants? He feels like this is a pretty valid reaction.
Before he can start panicking (any more than he is already, at least), the entrance to the tent is being unzipped and a concerned looking David pokes his head inside. “Max? What happened?” He asks, looking at the boy with furrowed brows.
“I'm bleeding! Why the fuck am I bleeding, David?!” He stresses, standing up and pointing at the dark red stain on the mattress. Honestly, this all feels a little embarrassing, but there's a lot of blood there and he'd be lying if he said he wasn't a little worried.
David's expression shifts to one of recognition and soon enough, relief. Why, Max has no idea. His adoptive son could be dying and he's sighing in relief. What a way to tell him he's fucked.
“Oh, thank god,” David steps into the tent fully, giving Max a small smile in response to his baffled and pissed off expression. “I thought you were in serious danger! Really, that was probably louder than any scream I've heard from Nikki.”
“I'm sorry, you mean the fact that I could die of blood loss doesn't sound dangerous at all to you?!” Max yells, throwing his arms out wide and dropping them just as quickly. “What the fuck are you on about? What is happening?!”
“Max, just calm down. This is normal, I promise.” The man responds calmly, and god damn it, screw this guy and his magical ability to make Max actually wanna listen to him. Occasionally. “Huh, I guess I never did talk to you about periods… Surely someone else would’ve by now, though…” He thinks out loud, putting a hand to his chin briefly before snapping his fingers and giving Max a smile once more. “Tell you what, I'll clean up this blood and get you a change of clothes. Then I'll tell you all about what's going on, alright?”
“I mean, sure, but why can't you just tell me what's going on?” Max crosses his arms over his chest, raising an eyebrow at the counselor.
“Because.” David replies simply, not giving any further explanation before he's stepping out the tent again, stopping just before he leaves to look at Max once more. “Don't go anywhere, I'll be right back!” And then he's gone.
Max huffs and sits back down on the part of his mattress that isn't stained red, resting his cheek in his palm. “Like I'm gonna go out there right now.” He grumbles, rolling his eyes.
☆
When David returns, Max has resorted to lying on his side on the floor, curled up in a ball with his arms wrapped around his midsection in an attempt to relieve the horrific pain he currently feels. David sighs at the sight and zips the flap closed behind him, sitting next to the boy and placing all the items he brought with him on the floor.
Max cracks an eye open to look at him, then at the collection of things beside him, then back up at David. “What's all this for?” He asks, grabbing a square pack of… Something. He reads off the label. “What are pads?”
“Has… Has no one seriously ever told you about puberty before?” David questions, his head tilted to the side. Max isn't sure what's got him so confused. If anything, he should be the one staring at the other like he's speaking a different language.
“No?.. I mean, I know it exists, I'm not an idiot, but no one told me fucking bleeding was a part of it.” He says, wrapping his arms tighter around himself.
“Hm. Well, luckily, I've done my research in my time as a camp counselor. Gwen isn't always around to talk about this stuff, after all.” He says with a shrug. Then, he grabs Max's hoodie off the floor and pulls the boy into a sitting position, tying the item of clothing around his waist, effectively hiding the bloodstains. “There. Now, come on. The counselor cabin has an actual bathroom as opposed to an outhouse, we'll go there instead.” He says, taking the pack of pads from Max and shoving them under his arm before leaving the tent, not even waiting to see if Max is following.
Max stares at the empty space before him for a moment before exiting the tent, glaring at David when he gets out. “What do you mean you've had a proper bathroom this whole time?! You've been subjecting us to that literal shithole for years, and you only tell me now that there's a bathroom. What the fuck, David?!”
David just laughs awkwardly, looking around for a moment before kneeling to Max's height to cover his mouth and whisper. “Don't tell the other campers! This is one of the only things keeping Gwen from quitting and/or burning this place to the ground, we can not have it be destroyed by you guys. You get free access from here on out but you can't tell anyone. Got it?”
Max stares at David for a second before he shrugs and peels his hand away. “Good enough for me.”
“Thank you.” David sighs, then they begin walking again. After a moment of silence, he speaks up again. “I think this may be favouritism.”
Max just snickers. “You think?”
☆
After being instructed on what to do with a pad by Gwen on the other side of the door and finding out how uncomfortable it is to wear one, Max drags himself to the mess hall, about 30 minutes late. David said they'd talk later because he was busy with getting things set up for the day, so for now, he finds Nikki and Neil at one of the tables and sits down, poking at his breakfast with a fork.
The two campers turn to look at Max when he arrives. He doesn't notice them staring until he glances up and catches their eye, getting an eyebrow raise from Neil and a curious look from Nikki. He furrows his brows. “What? What is it?”
“You're late.” Neil states, his eyes narrowing at Max, who rolls his own. “What happened? And why are you wearing sweatpants? You'd think you'd already be overheating in the jeans and hoodie.”
“Christ, you ask a lot of questions.” Max complains, looking back down at his food. “I'm always late, nothing happened and does it really fucking matter? They're pants. You're reading way too into this.”
Out of nowhere, Nikki starts making the most high-pitched, loud, obnoxious impression of a siren Max has ever heard. He has to cover his ears at the sound. When she stops, she gasps and looks at Neil. “My bullshit detector is going off! Max is… Hiding something!” She says dramatically, standing up on the table and pointing at the boy in question.
Max groans and drops his head in his hands. “Nikki, I swear to god-”
“No, no, I think my bullshit detector is going off, too.” Neil interrupts, getting himself a glare from Max. He carries on, completely undeterred. “Seriously, what happened? You somehow seem grumpier than usual. That's a pretty impressive feat.”
“Yeah, you're basically a world record holder! And right now, you're beating that world record into the ground and using its blood to paint your new record on the brick wall you smashed its head open on!” Nikki says as she climbs back down into her seat, making wide gestures with her hands. “There's a lot of blood. A lot. Like, I don't think you understand just how much blood there is-”
“We get it, Nikki.” Max deadpans, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his palms. “Look, I have no idea what caused you guys to come to the conclusion that something's wrong, but trust me when I say this: nothing is wrong. Literally nothing. So just drop it, okay? No point in wasting your time searching for a problem that doesn't exist.” And then he goes right back to eating as if nothing happened.
Nikki and Neil are silent, just watching on for a while until they both look at each other, a silent understanding between them:
We need to investigate.
☆
After breakfast, the campers’ morning activity begins. A simple game of volleyball, hopefully long and entertaining enough to stop the other campers from realizing that Max isn't participating, but Neil and Nikki looked like they were conspiring already at breakfast, so they'll probably be coming up with crazy theories as to why he's not with them.
While they're talking about the possibility of him being abducted by aliens or some other ridiculous scenario, Max is actually in the counselor cabin with David, sitting in one of the armchairs in front of the TV. The redhead sits in the chair next to him and hands over a hot water bottle, 2 paracetamol tablets and a glass of water. He instantly curls himself around the hot water bottle, feeling just the tiniest bit better the second the heat gets through his hoodie and shirt, slowly relieving the agonizing pain in his abdomen. He waits a while to take the paracetamol, mainly because any time he's taken it before it hasn't really worked, so he doesn't really care about taking it right away. It makes no difference.
“Now, I've made sure that Gwen has everything covered for today, so we hopefully won't have to worry about this taking too long. That means you can ask as many questions as you want. Sound good?” He asks gently, crossing one leg over the other. Max would call him gay for the action, but he doesn't feel like testing his luck and getting forced to participate right now, so he keeps his mouth shut.
Instead, he shrugs, grabbing the remote off the side table and turning on the TV. “Yeah, whatever.” He says blandly, flicking through channels absentmindedly. He honestly didn’t think the talking part was gonna happen. He just wants to rest until whatever this is goes away.
“Well, let's start with the basics.” David says, picking up a book off the floor that Max did not see there five seconds ago. “You remember a few years ago when you all thought Nikki was dying?”
“You're gonna have to be more specific.” The boy replies, resting his cheek against his fist. “Nikki's batshit crazy; she dances with death on the regular. The brushes with death she's had this summer alone so far are well over 20 by now.”
“Ah, right.” The counselor fidgets with the bandana around his neck, keeping quiet as he thinks. “Around three years ago, I think. You guys were gonna give her a viking funeral but Gwen came and stopped you from actually killing her? That can't have happened much, right?”
Max laughs quietly. “You'd be surprised.” He shakes his head, finally settling on a somewhat decent channel to watch. Or at least something more of interest than listening to David talking for an unforeseeable amount of time.
“Er, right. Nevermind then.” He clears his throat, flipping to a page seemingly at random before snatching the remote from Max's hand.
“Hey! What the hell, man?!”
“Now, Max, this is important! We can't have you distracted by-” He looks up at the screen and pauses, his eyes flicking between Max and the program. “A nature documentary. Oh, God. I'm so happy that you're finally showing interest in something somewhat related to camping, Max, but unfortunately, this… Takes priority.” He sighs, turning off the TV.
Max groans, opting to stare at the ceiling instead. “Does it really matter? Just tell me the important parts and I can just chill here for the rest of the day.”
“It does matter. And they're all important parts, Max.” He says with a smile, patting the boy on the head. “Now, let's begin. Because you seem to have zero recollection of Nikki's experience with this, I'll just tell you what you need to know. Like I said earlier, what's going on is completely normal! It means you're growing up and you have nothing to worry about.”
“When do we get to the part where you actually tell me what's happening?” Max interrupts, his eyes tracing invisible patterns in the ceiling. Huh, the cluster of black mould in the corner kinda looks like Neil. He'd probably be offended by that if Max told him that. He's definitely gonna tell him that later.
“Simply put, you're starting your period. It's a part of puberty that happens to people with uteruses around your age. It's when-”
“Okay, I'm gonna stop you right there,” Max points at the man, who gives him a wide-eyed look in response. “That's all I need to know. It's part of puberty and it happens to girls. Whatever explanation you're about to spew, it's bound to be horrifying and I don't wanna hear it.”
David stares at Max, his eyes narrowing after a second and giving the boy a small frown. “Is this… What's the word? Is it to do with dysphoria? Because I promise you, Max, just because you were assigned as a girl when you were born does not mean you are one. If you don't feel comfortable with anything others have labeled you as, gender or otherwise, you don't have to stick with it. As long as you're being yourself.”
Max gives David a blank look, his words seemingly having gone through one ear and out the other. “Cool. Anyway, I'm uncomfortable with you labeling me as okay with talking about this, so I'm gonna go.” He climbs down from the chair and finally pops the two tablets into his mouth, taking a gulp of water right after. “See ya, David.” And then he waves, and then he's gone, leaving David alone in the cabin with only the hot water bottle for company.
David sighs, standing from his seat and picking the thing up. “That could've gone better.”
☆
When Max gets up from his seat and begins moving towards the door, Nikki and Neil run behind the counselor's cabin to avoid being seen.
Nikki peers around the corner of the wall to watch as Max heads back towards the tents, presumably to sleep for the rest of the day. She turns back to Neil, who seems to be doing some mental calculation of his own.
“So, what do we think that was about?” Nikki asks, rocking back and forth on the heels of her feet.
“I don't know…” Neil responds, putting a hand to his chin and flicking his eyes up to the sky. “My current theory is that he's sick. It explains the tablets, the hot water bottle and the fact that he's clearly got David's permission to sit out on today's activity, but something feels… Off. He didn't seem sick earlier. And it still doesn't explain the sweatpants. I mean, I understand it's camp and people start running out of clean clothes, but I have never seen him wear sweatpants. Where did they come from? Why is he wearing them? If they are his, why did he bring them to a summer camp where the temperature will be around 73.4 degrees Fahrenheit, if not even hotter?! I get that he wears a hoodie all the time already, but the hoodie and the sweatpants must surely be too much!”
Nikki holds up a finger to stop him from talking. “I think you may be focusing on the wrong thing here, Neil.”
“It just doesn't make any sense, Nikki!” He yells, pulling the sides of his hair down and letting go. He takes a deep breath before starting up again. “Things line up, sure, but not perfectly. It's gonna bug me if I don't figure out exactly what's going on.”
“And you wonder why people think you're autistic.”
“Wha- hey! How is that even- ugh!” Neil sighs and slumps forward, grabbing Nikki by the wrist and dragging her behind him as he walks. “Forget it, let's just go interrogate David.”
“Ooh, I like that idea! Dibs on bad cop!” Nikki perks up, skipping along next to Neil when he lets her go.
In just a few seconds, the two are bursting through the door to the counselor's cabin and scaring the life out of David, who had apparently just been staring at the hot water bottle the whole time Neil and Nikki were talking.
Nikki is the first to speak, pointing an accusatory finger at the counselor. “Where were you on the night of October 27th?!” She yells, getting herself a confused look from Neil that makes her falter. She drops her hand and counts on her hands for a moment before making a sound of realization, slapping her hand to her forehead. “Oh, sorry! I was thinking of the date my neighbor’s dad went missing!” She laughs, her hand closing into a fist as she whispers to herself. “I still think it was Amy, that sneaky bitch.”
“Um, do you mean dog? Your neighbor’s dog went missing?” David asks, a hint of panic in his voice.
“Nope!” And the green haired girl leaves it at that, skipping further into the room and jumping up to sit on Gwen’s desk.
“Right… Anyway,” Neil says, clearing his throat and straightening his posture. “We’d just like to ask you a few questions if you don’t mind.”
David seems to brighten up a bit at that. “Oh, certainly! Is this part of today’s activity?”
“No, we’ve just got a mystery on our hands.” Neil responds calmly, folding his hands behind his back.
“Yeah!” Nikki adds, swinging her legs back and forth. “A mystery we pretty much already have the answer to but Neil has a weird obsession with being exactly right about everything! Gwen has a degree in psychology, right? Maybe she can diagnose him!”
“Would you stop going on about that?” Neil snaps at the girl, getting a snicker in response. He quickly regains his composure and looks at David once more. “It’s about Max. We think something’s going on with him and considering he was just in here talking to you, we have to assume you know something.” He snaps his fingers and all of a sudden, the lights go out. David gets pushed back into the armchair and Nikki climbs up onto the armrest, shining a bright lamp in his face.
“What were you guys talking about?!” She questions, pushing the lamp closer to his face. “Is he dying? Are you dying? I want answers, god damn it!” She grabs the front of the counselor’s shirt and shakes him around, having to be peeled off by Neil.
“Okay, let’s reel it back a bit, Nikki.” He says, pinching the bridge of his nose. “But we do want answers, so start talking, camp man.”
“Talking? There’s nothing to talk about!” He laughs, his eyes darting from side to side. “Max is just… Feeling a little under the weather, that’s all! I’m sure he’ll be better soon!”
“Is that so?” Neil raises an eyebrow, crossing his arms over his chest as Nikki snarls at the man. “He sure didn’t seem to be feeling ‘under the weather’ at breakfast. He was later than usual, sure, but aside from that — and the fact that he was wearing sweatpants for some godforsaken reason — he was relatively normal! His voice wasn’t any different, he didn’t look pale or completely red, he wasn’t sweating or shivering, he didn’t even have darker bags under his eyes than usual! Something’s going on here, David, and we intend to find out!”
“Yeah! And don’t even try to lie to us! We have methods to get the truth out of you!” Nikki chirps, looking strangely delighted at the implications behind her words.
Neil gives Nikki a questioning look. “We do?”
Nikki looks back with one of her own. “Uh, yeah? Of course we do!”
“Like what?”
“I mean I was gonna say waterboarding, but-”
“Alright, that’s enough.” David grabs the back of Nikki’s shirt and lifts her off the chair, standing up and dusting himself off a moment later. “No one is waterboarding anyone and you two should get back to today’s activity! I’m sure Gwen is looking for you right now!” He crosses the room and flicks the light back on, opening the door for the campers and gesturing outside.
Nikki willingly leaps through and goes back to her usual outdoor activity of rolling around in dirt, while Neil stays back, narrowing his eyes at David.
“I’m onto you, David. You can’t keep up this lie of yours forever!” He says, slowly making his way outside, staring at David all the while until he closes the door behind him.
David sighs and leans against the door, watching outside the window as he waits for the kids to pass. When he confirms that they’ve returned to Gwen, He exits the cabin and marches over himself.
☆
“Gwen,”
“David,”
“You’ve been keeping an eye on the campers, right?”
“Somewhat. Dia mainly has it covered.” She gestures to the campers all at the volleyball net, the girl in question snapping demands at her team like a military officer. “I have had to stop her from strangling people for messing up the serve a few times, but nothing too crazy.”
“So you’ve noticed the fact that Neil and Nikki have only just arrived?” David asks through grit teeth, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“They what?” Her eyes drift around the makeshift court and land on the pair in question, silently taking their places at the back of their team. “Huh. I’ll be honest, I didn’t realize they were gone.” She shrugs.
David sighs and shakes his head. “Can you just… Make sure they don’t sneak off again? I just got interrogated on why I was talking to Max earlier and I think he’d kill me if I told them the truth.”
“Ohh…” Gwen says with a nod of her head, turning back to David. “Yeah, don’t worry about it. The kid’s a little shit, but I’m not gonna let that get out unless he wants it to.”
David smiles at his co-counselor, giving her a quick hug. “Thanks, Gwen.”
“No prob, Bob.”
He lets go and looks behind him, pointing a thumb in the direction of the tents. “I’m gonna go check on Max. I’ll be right back!” He promises, already running off with a wave of his hand.
Gwen just smiles as she watches him leave. ‘He’s a good dad.’ She thinks.
☆
Of course, when David approaches Gwen, Neil and Nikki watch the interaction carefully. At least, Neil does. Nikki seems more focused on the beetle crawling around her hand. He can’t hear what they’re saying, but he notices the quick glances in their direction.
Nikki looks up when David leaves and locks eyes with Gwen, staring directly at the two of them from the other side of the court. She stares back for a moment until her eyes start drifting around the court again. Nikki smiles proudly at her own display of dominance. “Neil, did you see that?”
“Yeah, I did.” He taps a finger against his chin, narrowing his eyes at the counselor. “Looks like Gwen’s keeping watch now. Something is definitely afoot.”
“What?” The girl tilts her head as the beetle flies from her hand. “I’m talking about the way I just intimidated Gwen into submission! I really am part wolf!” She inhales deeply, her eyes shining with joy before Neil slaps a hand over her mouth.
“Don’t howl, Nikki. That’ll just attract more attention.” He explains, looking around the court. “We need to make Gwen focus on something else…” The boy hums in thought as he continues scouting for an escape route.
“What if we set off a bunch of fireworks?” Nikki practically buzzes with excitement, hopping from one foot to the other. “Surely that would make her look away, right?”
“I mean, yeah, but there aren’t any fireworks around. How are we gonna get to them if she won’t take her eyes off us?”
The girl deflates at Neil’s response. “Oh. Right.” She laughs sheepishly.
“It’s alright, Nik, we’ll find some fireworks to set off later.” He promises, patting her shoulder and smiling as the joy returns to her body.
“Are you fucking kidding me?!” A yell comes from the other side of the net. Neil and Nikki look over to see Dia grabbing the front of Preston’s shirt.
“I-I didn’t mean to, I swear! I’m made to pretend to play sports on stage! Not actually engage in them! Please, I have an audition next week, I can’t have a black eye for it!” He pleads, holding his arms up in front of his face.
A lightbulb goes off in Neil’s mind as he watches Gwen stand between the two campers, pushing Dia away. He gives Nikki a devious smile, one she matches gladly. “Hey, Nikki? We might not have any fireworks, but we’ve got a camper with a frighteningly short fuse. Care to do the honours?”
Nikki rubs her hands together, a quiet laugh escaping her. “Time to light ‘em up.”
☆
Max sits on his freshly cleaned air mattress, staring with disdain at the pack of pads in his hands, all pretty and pink like it were practically screaming ‘hey, this is for girls!’ He tosses it to the side and grabs Mr. Honeynuts, clutching the bear close to his chest. He’s told himself that it’s a stupid reason to be upset, like he does with everything he feels like crying over, but it doesn’t seem to be working. He still feels like he’s suffocating with the held back tears in his eyes. With no other options left, he curls up and hides his face in his knees, finally allowing silent tears to slip out.
Of course, he should’ve known this was a bad idea. He hears a voice from outside.
“Max? Are you alright?” It’s David, because of course it fucking is. Max grits his teeth.
“Go away.” He calls back, refusing to raise his head at all.
A few seconds of silence pass and just when Max thinks he’s gone, he speaks again. “I’m gonna come in, okay?”
“That is the exact opposite of what I told you to do.” Max groans, wiping his eyes with his hoodie sleeves and praying that the man won’t suspect a thing.
David enters anyway, crouching down beside Max. Max refuses to turn his head, instead staring intently at the wall of the tent beside him. He’s sure David is only here to have the talk Max refused to engage in earlier. If he is, the only thing he’ll be getting from Max is protests and insults until he gives up and leaves.
“I’m sorry, Max.” What? The words he had been preparing die on Max’s tongue. His eyes flick to the side, but he still doesn’t look at David. “We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, but we will have to eventually. I know this must be pretty painful for you, physically and mentally speaking, but I was serious before. This doesn’t make you any less of a boy. Biology isn’t connected to gender, no matter what other people might say. You’re still my son, you’re still Max.”
He’s not sure why he’s finding it so hard to control his emotions now, but that’s apparently enough to make him break. Max sniffs and slowly leans against David, his eyes welling with tears that he reluctantly lets go. He knows David won’t judge him. It took a while to get over that fear. David wraps an arm around Max, rubbing his thumb against his shoulder comfortingly.
“It’s not fair.” Max whines, shoving his face into the man’s side.
“I know, buddy.”
The tent suddenly zips open again and Max’s heart pounds. He pulls himself away from David in an instant, staring at the entrance to see Nikki and Neil. The girl starts off looking proud and hyper, but the second she sees Max wiping his tears and David inside the tent, her eyes widen. Neil has a similar look on his face, standing behind her and looking between his friend and the counselor.
“What are you two doing here?” David asks sternly, his brows furrowing at the intruders. “I told you to get back to your activity! Max isn’t feeling well right now.”
“Max?..” Neil steps into the tent, fidgeting with his hands. “What happened?”
“Nothing, Neil. I’m fine.” Max snaps, curling further in on himself.
Nikki, in an uncharacteristic moment of observance, points at the pack on the floor. “Are you on your period?”
Max’s stomach drops and he shoots to his feet, ushering the two out of the tent. “I said I’m fine! Get out!”
“Wait, Max-” Neil tries, but the tent is being zipped closed once more after David had been shoved out with them. Neil sighs. “Damn it…”
David puts his hands on his hips and looks down at the campers before him, a disapproving frown on his face. “Well, I hope you’re proud of yourselves. Was it worth it?”
“I think not, actually.” Nikki rubs one arm, looking guiltily at the tent.
“Yeah, that’s my bad.” Neil sighs, looking David in the eyes. “Sorry, David. We’ll find a way to fix this.”
“It’s not me you need to apologise to.” The counselor says, not even giving a small wave before he walks off.
Nikki and Neil stand outside in silence, Neil looking at the ground and Nikki continuing to stare at the tent, like she’s thinking of what they could’ve done better.
“We should probably go, Nikki.” Neil puts a hand on her shoulder, pulling her away from the tent.
Nikki follows for a moment before she abruptly stops, looking back at Max’s tent, then at Neil again. “No.” She grabs his arm and starts dragging him towards the mess hall, Neil not saying a word in protest. He figures she has a plan. Hopefully.
When they make it to the mess hall, Nikki lets go and shoots off to find where they keep the arts and crafts supplies. She eventually finds what she’s looking for in a small closet and pulls out a box of loom bands, picking the colours pink, white and blue for whatever she’s suddenly decided to start making.
Neil sits down next to her, not even having to ask before the girl answers his question. “I’m fixing it. Just wait, I know what I’m doing.”
“Okay…” Neil says suspiciously, eyeing her hands as she loops one band over the other, creating a chain as she continues. “Um… How, exactly, do you know this will work?”
“I don’t. But I’m fairly certain.” She says, not helping Neil’s anxiety over the situation at all. “Jusr trust me.” Soon enough, she finishes her chain, connecting the two end pieces with a tiny piece of plastic in the shape of an S. “Now come on, we gotta apologise!”
She grabs Neil by the arm again and rushes out of the mess hall, not bothering to put away the bands or box or anything, too laser-focused on wanting to show her friend that they’re sorry. The two bolt towards the tents, slowing down as they approach Max and Neil’s. Nikki quietly unzips a part of the entrance, positioning the bracelet in front of the opening and slingshots it inside, pumping a fist when it hits the back of the tent and grabs Max’s attention.
The boy jumps slightly at the sound it makes upon impact, looking beside him to see the bracelet sitting there. He slowly picks it up and pulls his sleeve up, wearing the bracelet around his wrist. Nikki watches with anticipation, her fingers crossed as she waits for some kind of response. And she gets one. Max looks directly at her through the unzipped part of the entrance, eyes wet with unshed tears, and he gives her a barely noticeable smile. She smiles back, then zips the entrance completely closed again.
“Alright, let’s get back to volleyball. I wanna make Dia mad again!” She skips off without Neil, leaving him questioning what just happened. He decides not to stick around for too long, though, instead following his friend without a second thought. He really hopes she got it right.
☆
When dinner rolls around, Max is right on time. He sits down next to his friends, his usual blue hoodie nowhere to be seen, but the bracelet Nikki made him still around his wrist. No one questions it.
“Heard you guys pissed Dia off to hell and back while playing volleyball. Man the one time I’m not there. What’d you do?” Max asks when he sits down, messing with the food on his tray.
“Oh, I’m so glad you asked!” Nikki cheers, launching into a passionate explanation of all the ways she scored on the athlete and blatantly cheated and lied about it. The fact that they’re acting as if nothing happened lets them all know that everything is fine.
David watches them with a smile on his face, completely forgetting about his own food in front of him until Gwen snaps her fingers and points at it, reminding him of his own need to eat. He can’t help but smile at the group one last time before returning to his dinner, completely sure that his good mood will last a long time.