It all started when the campers went swimming.
It was a beautiful summer day out, and the lake smelt only slightly of sewage; which in turn made David grin gleefully and tell them to get their bathing suits. The campers didn't groan as loud as they usually did, and ran off to their tents to change before running to the lake.
"C'mon, guys! I can't catch all these fish by myself!" Nikki grinned, her turquoise hair plastered to her face from jumping in. She sat in shallow water now, playing with the wet sand and trying to catch little fish. Meanwhile, Neil stood on the dock, frowning.
"I'll pass. Unlike you, I don't want to grow extra limbs and other various body parts." Neil scoffed, causing Nikki to cock her head.
"What do you mean? Growing extra arms would be awesome! That way, I could climb up trees in like, half the time!"
"Have you seen the chemicals they dump into Lake Lilac, Nikki? It's disgusting."
Max rolled his eyes from where he stood on shore. He had taken his shoes and socks off so he could stand in the water, but hasn't bothered to roll his jeans up; the surface of the water dangerously close to the cuffs.
"If you weren't planning on swimming, why did you change?" Max questioned, gesturing to Neil's slightly too small swim trunks.
"B-because I changed my mind when I saw the water! It smells like shit down here!"
Nikki giggled, although she was actually quite sad about neither of her friends joining her in swimming. She looked up at Neil on the deck, a frown making her way to her face.
"Puppy dog eyes won't work on me. I'm not falling for it again." Neil glared back down at her, causing the the turquoise haired girl to huff.
Max watched the staring contest with a wrinkled nose, a sigh escaping his lips. An idea was already starting to form in his mind, one that neither benefited Max, or made someone he disliked go through something uncomfortable. When he came up with schemes that did none of those two things, he usually shot it down. Something was different about this though, and Max chalked it up to David's optimism finally beginning to affect him. When he looked at Nikki's melancholy face, he actually…felt something It was new, and he didn't like it. Max closed his eyes, knowing the battle with himself was already lost. ..She's owes me a week's worth of pudding for doing this. He stepped out of the water, neither of his friends noticing as Max slid off his sweater and threw it under a tree. Only Nikki saw what he was doing when he was positioned behind Neil, and a giggle escaped her pursed lips.
"What are you laughing about? I'm staying on this dock no matter what you do. I might even get a nice tan." Neil snickered at the thought, while Nikki continued to hold back her giggles.
"Y-you sure about that, Neil?" She grinned widely, causing the pale boy on the dock to frown.
"Absolut- AHH!" Neil let out a high-pitched girl like shriek as Max pushed him. The lanky boy tripped over his own legs and fell ungracefully into the water, barely missing Nikki. The splash from the fall doused Max's legs, but he didn't seem to notice, as he was fully occupied with trying to find his breath as he laughed. Neil resurfaced, spitting out dirty lake water, his curly brown hair deflated. He looked very unimpressed about the situation, but his gaze lightened when he saw Nikki and Max's grinning faces.
"You guys fucking suck." Neil snarled, a hint of playfulness in his voice. He splashed Nikki, and she inhaled some of the water, now coughing and laughing at the same time. To Max, this made this whole situation even more hilarious, and his cackling continued.
Nikki brushed her hair out of her eyes, looking at Neil and then to Max on the dock. I've never heard him laugh this hard before. Well, other than that time with Bonquisha. The short boy was holding his stomach as shudders racked his body, a large boyish grin on his face as he giggled.
This made Nikki felt weird. It felt like bugs were crawling in her stomach, almost like the pains from when she was having The Period, but...nicer. Way nicer. She felt her face warm up, even though the water around her was cool. Am I dying?
Suddenly, Max opened his teary eyes and met her stare, his laughing starting to die down into soft chuckles. They both didn't say anything, and it seemed to last hours even though it couldn't be more than a few seconds.
A piercing whistle suddenly sounded and the moment was broken. The kids winced and turned to the source, Max groaning at the sight of David walking onto the deck; Gwen not too far behind him.
"Now now, kiddos! Pushing is a big no no!" David frowned, wearing the Lifeguard whistle proudly, as well as red swimming trunks. Gwen was behind him, wearing her usual getup as she wasn't planning on jumping into the water and saving anybody.
"Yeah Max, look at what you did to Neil's jewfro." Gwen glanced at Neil's hair, that of which was deflated, before looking back at Max.
"Hey!-" Neil squeaked, before being interrupted by the disappointed David.
"You could've hurt Neil." David continued, causing Max to roll his eyes.
"But I didn't."
"But you could have!"
Gwen stepped up onto the deck, a devious smile suddenly on her lips. Her violet eyes fell to Max, and he instinctively stepped back. The boy frowned, "What're you-"
"Hey David?"
"Yes Co-counselor Gwen?" He grinned, looking at her.
"Don't you think Max should, oh I don't know… get punished for what he did?"
David's smile fell slightly, before returning in full force, "Why… yes we should! What he did was very dangerous!"
"It's not that big of a deal, David-" Neil started, glancing at Max. The raven haired boy was silently seething, glaring at his counselors.
"No dessert tonight should do it, don't you think?" David looked at Gwen.
"Actually… I have a better idea." She snickered, taking another step towards Max, before suddenly pushing the boy into the water. His grunt wasn't as funny as Neil's but it still brought a grin to Nikki's face.
"G-gwen!" David yelped, about to dive into the water to grab Max. Suddenly, the boy resurfaced, his face completely hidden by his wet black hair.
"GWEN, YOU ASSHOLE! I DON'T HAVE A BATHING SUIT ON!" Max snarled, facing the place where he thought Gwen was standing. The water wasn't deep enough for her to worry about him, so she snickered instead.
"Well now you know how Neil feels."
"I feel alot better after that, to be honest." Neil grinned, causing Max to brush his hair out of his eyes and splash him. He spluttered, trying to spit out the contaminated water.
Nikki giggled at the exchange, "Well, now that you're both in here… wanna play a game?"
Max opened his mouth to say his usual excuse, but closed it at the sight of Nikki now aiming her puppy dog eyes at him.
"Well… I'm already contaminated, so what the hell." Neil replied,glancing at Max for his response.
"...fine. But I'm not going to be happy about it."
"I wouldn't expect you to be, Max." Gwen snorts from the dock. He tried to splash her but he only got her boots.
Roughly an hour goes by of the campers playing in the lake and on the beach. Ered laid on the deck, listening to music on her earpods, her skin sunburned instead of tanned. Dolph made sandcastles on the beach, while Nurf stood a few feet back and waited till he was finished to stomp his work to pieces. Nerris, Harrison, and Preston continued to play Marco Polo in the water, while Spacekid watched them with stars in his eyes; he wasn't allowed to play, as he couldn't swim that well with his costume, but he had fun nonetheless.
Max, Nikki, and Neil climbed out of the water; the skin on their hands and feet wrinkled from over an hour of chasing and splashing each other. Max groaned at the feeling of the heavy wet fabric on his jeans and campshirt.
"Hey Max?" David asked, standing at the top of the beach, his eyes that were once overlooking the campers were now on him.
"What is it."
"Where's your hoodie? You didn't lose it in the water, did you?"
Max looked down at himself, his eyes widening slightly at the soaked bright yellow camp shirt he wore. "Oh, uh, no. I took it off." I forgot about it, to be honest. "It's under that tree over there."
"Well, you should put it on. It's going to get chilly tonight, and I'd hate for you to catch a cold."
"Yeah yeah, suck a dick David, I'll get it…" Max mumbled, moving to put his hands in his sweater pockets, only to find they weren't there. He sighed, and began to walk over to the tree, hands awkwardly crossed over his chest. Before he got there however, Nikki suddenly ran in front of him.
"It's okay, Max! I'll get it!" She grins, giving him a thumbs up, before running off. Max paused in confusion, before shrugging and walking back to Neil.
Nikki ran up to the tree, only to come to a stop with a soft gasp, "Platypus! Get off, that's Max's!" She tried to push the mascot off of Max's hoodie, where she currently was sleeping, but to no avail.
"C'mon, I'll, uh… give you some of my mashed potatoes that I get at dinner! But only if you get off of that hoodie."
The platypus' eyes opened, and with a soft mwak, it stood up and waddled off into the bushes. A deal's a deal! Nikki grinned, only to grimace at the mysterious stains now covering Max's hoodie.
"Oh, uh… nothing that a little saliva can't fix!" She began to spit on the hoodie, rubbing the liquid into the stains, "Oh, that only made it worse!"
"Made what worse?" A voice spoke up from behind her, causing Nikki to squeak in alarm and turn to the source. Max stood in front of her, shivering slightly from the cold.
"Did you find it? I just threw it on the ground there, it's not rocket science."
"Uh, well…" She took the hoodie out from behind her back, "...David and Gwen can fix it, right?"
Max's eyes widened and his lips parted in shock. Suddenly, he snatched the hoodie from her hands, inspecting the stains.
"What the hell did you do to it?!"
"It wasn't me! It was the-"
"Did you spit on this?!" He gawked at her, wrinkling his nose.
"No, I….uh… maybe a little."
Max groaned, "Figures."
By the time Max finally got his hoodie back, it was dinnertime. He felt naked without it, and hadn't realized how much he relied on it till it was gone. Where am I supposed to put my hands if I don't have pockets? Not to mention the awful yellow colour annoyed him to no end. Without his sweater overtop of the shirt, it made it seem like Max had given up his rebellious spirit.
Max ripped the hoodie from David's hands, inspecting it for stains.
"All cleaned up!" David grinned.
"It better be…" He mumbled, before finally sighing and nodding. It passed his inspection. Max grunted as he slid his hoodie back on, his head getting stuck in the head hole for a few seconds, before finally sliding on. That's better.
"...I'm sorry about spitting on your sweater, Max. I was just trying to help..." Nikki said softly as David walked away, looking down at her food. Max turned towards her, ready to spit out a scathing remark, but the words died in his throat at her expression. She looked… sad. Really sad. Max immediately looked back to his food, pursing his lips angrily, before letting out a soft breath. Let it go…
"...it's fine."
Nikki's eyes immediately lit up and she turned to him, "Really? You aren't mad?"
"Of course I'm mad, like seriously, who does something like that?" Max stopped himself from continuing when he saw her flinch. "...but, you were trying to help, so I guess it evens out. Kinda. Not really."
She grins, "So what you're saying is you're still up for sasquatch hunting tonight?"
He snorts, rolling his eyes, "I'll think about it if you get me a cup of coffee."
"Deal!"