Camp Campbell seemed to not have shut down yet, surprisingly. There were even some new campers enrolled, along with new camps made. It was July 15, 2013. Everyone was just doing their own thing. Nothing seemed out of the norm. Just another regular day at Camp Campbell. Or, at least, it was.
Nikki was having lady sickness. It immediately started to hurt when she woke up, so she decided to spend her morning exploring the forest to get her mind off the awful pain in her stomach. Maybe look for the Jersey Devil, which she was pretty sure she saw last night flying around. She still wore the same yellow shirt, white and green boots, and red overalls, but her hair wasn't in pigtails anymore. In fact, she wore a red hat backward while her bun poked from underneath.
Morning turned into noon before she returned to the camp. Poking her head out of a tree while upside down, Neil's science camp is seen from the corner of her eye, but not Neil. Why wasn't he there? He's probably in his tent being weird with his computer again. She thinks to herself.
Well, if he wasn't there, it probably wouldn't hurt to snoop around in his stuff. Though it'd be funnier if he was. She jumped out of the tree, rolling and landing flawlessly in some sort of pose. She walks towards the camp and saw a button on the wooden table. She grew a couple of inches over the years, so she was taller than before.
"Ooooh! What does this button do?" She dragged her voice in a naive tone as she pressed the button with a giggle. Her voice has gotten a tiny bit deeper-as she and the rest of the campers aged into teenhood-but she had the same shrill, bubbly squeak in her voice that she'll probably be cursed with forever. As she continued to snoop, she noticed some of the tonics Neil has made. They still had a tacky sea green color-except for one, which most definitely stood out from the others and caught Nikki's attention immediately. It was a bright red substance held in a beaker.
She wanted to drink it.
For whatever reason, Neil's tonics looked appetizing to Nikki, and the red one looked the best. And since it was so unique, that was the one she drank.
Just from taking the first few sips, she already detected the warm temperature, which was a change of pace considering the other tonics would usually be cold, and fancied all its sweet tastes; Blue cotton candy, cherry pie, Neapolitan ice cream, and chocolate of all kinds! The taste changed in that order the more she drank. What a weird tonic-yet so delicious at the same time! Gulping the liquid down, she burps up a light red cloud after, humming in delight.
"Snooping around in Neil's stuff again?"
Nikki looks where she heard the familiar voice as she puts the beaker down, smiling immediately. She also got a weird butterfly feeling inside her stomach when seeing him, but that's just how she usually feels around him. She's come to assume it's because she admires him as her best friend. Though, it seemed to give her a... stronger feeling. It's probably just my mood swings going off again. She thought. I did just drink the most awesome thing I've ever tasted.
"Hi, Max!" She waves at the hooded boy eagerly. "Yeah. I'm on my period again, so I'm doing stuff to ignore the agony. Gwen gave me a cotton stick to help with the bleeding. At first, I thought it was cotton candy and tried to eat it, but Gwen told me not to."
"...Yeah, okay." Max just shrugs, attempting not to laugh. He looked the exact same, but he and Nikki we're the same height now. "Anyway, I don't wanna deal with David's shitty activities today. Wanna steal something from the Quartermaster store?"
"Oooh, yeah!" Nikki exclaimed happily and jumped to Max from the other side of Neil's table. "I wanna see what kind of games he has. And maybe some stuff to cause some general mayhem. One time I found nails in there and used them to poke holes into the Camp Mobile's tires for no reason."
He chuckled at that and walked over, putting his hand on Nikki's shoulder, flaunting a rather rare smile. "See, that's what I like about you, Nikki. You always think up some great idea to start shit." The boy starts walking away from the Science Camp, and Nikki follows with a hint of blush on her cheeks. Is my face getting warmer?
As the two walked towards the Quartermaster store, Nikki turned to Max, even though he wasn't looking at her, and began to notice certain things about him that she never noticed before.
...Has his hair always been that soft and curly looking? She thinks to herself. It's kind of cute-wait, why did I think that?
Despite her confusion, she felt an urge come over her as she reached her hand over to the boy's hair-which is returned with his own hand harshly slapping hers away immediately when it is in contact with his hair.
Nikki gasped when her hand was smacked, taking a small step back from the hooded boy and holding her hand. "-Max?"
He sharply turns his head to Nikki with a glare of pure hatred, maybe even a tiny hint of fear. This expression, however, is melted away-in fact, there's a twinge of guilt pulling at his heartstrings-as he looks at his mint-haired friend, her usual look of joy and enthusiasm replaced with terror and confusion.
"..." He remains silent for a while as he stares at Nikki, before turning around and proceeding to walk. "...Keep going."
There was an uncomfortable silence between the two as they walked. Nikki takes a glance at Max again. He had his hands tucked into the pockets of his hoodie, and he was sort of staring at the ground. He looked angry. More than usual.
What... What happened? Nikki thought to herself. Did I do something wrong? ...Wait, that's a stupid question, I always do something wrong. She wanted to ask Max about it, but it didn't seem like he wanted to talk at all. Still, Nikki wanted to get some sort of small talk. This whole experience would just end up really awkward otherwise.
Once they got to the Quartermaster store, Max immediately began to look around. Nikki followed Max, still somewhat creeped out by the building. Maybe she could get him to rant about the Quartermaster, or maybe anything that won't make this whole thing go downhill.
"Man, this place is still really creepy. It's surprising that the Quartermaster is still alive. Do you think he'll have any new stuff in here?" Nikki turns to Max with a kinda forced smile-though it's hard to tell if it's forced or not-as an attempt to engage him in conversation.
"...First of all, it's not surprising, Nikki. Quartermaster is fucking immortal or some shit. And even if he did have some new weird shit, it's not gonna be as terrifying as what he has on Spooky Island."
"Hah, can't argue with that." She shrugs, feeling satisfied with herself that she got Max to talk to her a little. "I still remember how you screamed like a girl."
"Yeah, whatever." He scoffs. "That was when I discovered one of my true fears."
"Real life?" Nikki asked. "Specifically old people having sex? Weird, kinky sex in a dungeon?"
"..Yeah." Max replies. "That was some dark shit."
As they continue to search, Max found a switchblade and knife sharpener, which he managed to store away in the pocket of his hoodie. He already had a pocket knife, but he needed a sharpener so it doesn't go dull. And the switchblade looked cool, if not a little rusty and dull.
"Did you find anything, Nikki?"
"I found some weird-looking balloons." Nikki takes a few of the balloons to show Max, who immediately had a horrified look when seeing them. They were a white color, though some red or yellow and in an individual small package. "...Where the fuck did you find those?"
"In an old drawer. I think my dad said something about these balloons to my mom-something about how he wished he used one."
"...Yeah, okay. You should... Probably not hold onto those."
"Eh, I'll still keep them in case I wanna use them."
"Oh my God, Nikki.." Max is facepalms, trying not to laugh while cringing. He walks away from Nikki to look for more things to steal.
There was that awkward silence again. Nikki felt uncomfortable again. She looked at Max, who was looking at some expensive looking alcohol bottles-and maybe sneaking a few of 'em in his pocket.
Maybe I could ask about earlier, She thinks to herself. Max seems okay now...
"Hey, Max?" She approaches Max, already feeling anxious as she does so.
"Yeah, Nikki?" Max turns to her, completely face-to-face with the green-haired girl.
As this happens, Nikki could feel her heart beating like a drum when looking at Max, and felt butterflies in her stomach again. Her face began to heat up in a red hue, almost left speechless.
"-Nikki?" He waved his hand in front of Nikki's face. "Hello, Earth to Nikki?" He snapped his fingers in front of her, which worked and got her to respond.
"Huh, what?" She blinked, snapping out of... whatever she was in.
"You were gonna say something?"
"Oh! Um..." She began to feel anxious again, almost hesitating to ask, "...I-I kinda wanna know what happened earlier when you slapped my hand?" Her voice began to drag in a sort of high pitch at the end of her sentence.
Max stares at Nikki with a slight glare, squinting at her. "What I wanna know is why you were trying to touch me in the first place."
Nikki immediately felt large waves of anxiety come over her fast like a tsunami as her shoulders tensed, lightly hunkering her head down like a child who was scolded by her parent.
"W-Well, I, u-uh..." She takes a small step back. Why was it so hard to talk to him now?! It wasn't difficult for her to do it before. Whenever someone questioned her actions she would be able to answer them no problem! What was different here?
She gulped and took a deep breath, trying to pull herself together. "...I wanted to touch your hair." Nikki wanted to cringe at that moment, expecting Max to get upset with her.
Oh, God, he's gonna get so upset and yell at me, he's not gonna be my friend anymore-
"-Why?" Instead of the expected glare of hatred, Max gave Nikki a look of confusion, a hint of suspicion in his tone. This left Nikki kinda confused too. Mostly because of how much she expected Max to yell and get mad at her.
"I...I-I dunno.." She blushed and rubbed her arm with her hand. "...I never noticed how fluffy and cute your hair was, I guess."
"...'Fluffy and cute'?"
Oh no. "W-Well, no, not cute-not that your hair isn't cute or fluffy-!" She begins to back away from Max. "I-I just-u-ummm-"
Now he was just confused. He's not even suspicious anymore, he's just confused. "You... almost never give me compliments like that."
"O-Oh, I don't?-" Oh God, what are you doing!? Get it together, Nikki! "W-Well, I thought I should! C-Compliments are nice, don't you think? I should do it more often, you're really beautiful-" What? "-I mean handsome-I MEAN HO-"
She put her hands on her mouth to prevent herself from saying anything else for a long moment. Her face was as beet red at this point, and her body was shaking. Nikki, you had one job.
"-I am so, SO sorry."
Max was almost left speechless, his cheeks flushed with red. What-What is going on with Nikki? Why was she so red, and showering him with compliments out of nowhere? Though he'll never admit it, he did like the sudden praise, but he never expected it from Nikki, and not any compliments like that. He didn't expect it from anyone, really.
"Are you... okay?" He took a few steps towards her, and she backed away reflectively. oh God oh God oh God oh God oh God oh God-
At that moment, Nikki's foot tilts to the side, making Nikki yelp sharply in pain and fall over.
"Oh fuck!" Max runs over to her as she stumbles down and holds onto her foot, hissing loudly. "Shit, hold on-" Max tried to lift her up, but she immediately freaks out when he does and she tries to stand up-though still in pain-and stumbles more trying to walk away.
As she does so, Nikki ends up bumping into a tall, old shelf. Not only did dust fly off of it but a knife from the very top tipped over the edge and fell down right by Nikki, slicing open a wound in her forearm.
"OW!" She yelped, clutching her arm, which was oozing of blood.
"OH MY GOD, NIKKI!" Max quickly ran to Nikki now.
Nikki felt overwhelmed with everything and immediately panicked as she backed away from the shelf and Max. Making a loud noise of distress, she began to run and look for bandages, when she slipped on a puddle on the floor and fell down. She yelped, before hitting her head hard on the ground.
"NIKKI!" He finally caught up to her, bending down to pick up his friend. Oh fuck. He quickly put his head to her chest to make sure she had a pulse, and relaxed when she did.
"Oh thank fuck, I didn't kill you." He picked her up in a bridal manner and quickly but carefully ran out of the Quartermaster store.
Meanwhile, in the Mess Hall, David was looking for the two campers who had seemed to disappear.
"Has anyone seen Max and Nikki?" David asks as the campers were eating breakfast. Which, of course, consisted of poorly made pancakes and bacon.
"Yeah, I haven't seen them at all morning," Neil remarks. His hair was cut a little shorter, but he grew sideburns. "has anyone at least seen them?"
"Maybe they have... vanished!" Harrison says, confetti shooting from his hands. He had a little scruffy beard on his chin. "Or they're on an epic quest!" Nerris adds, who had grown taller and wore a starry wizards hat to match her cape and boots. Her hair grew a bit, but it was still shaved to the side.
"Or on a romantic date!" Preston claims in his dramatic voice. He didn't see to change one bit in appearance. "Ah, I can just see the two stargazing together on the hill of Sleepy Peek! They would have so much to say.. while saying so little." Preston gasps dramatically as another thought pops up in his head. "I bet they're holding hands as we speak!"
"Oh, yeah, Preston?" Harrison turns to the thespian. "Well, I bet they had a freak accident in the Quartermaster store!"
"Oh, we'll see about that!"
"Excuse me?" Neil turns to Preston. "What the hell makes you think that?"
"Oh, Neil," Preston says, still speaking in a theatrical tone. "Do you not notice how much time they spend together? The way they gaze so passionately and lovingly at each other? They are practically made for each other. Alas," He rests a hand on Neil's shoulder. "it must be hard for you to understand, as you are introverted and with no interest in romance."
"Please, Preston," Neil picks up Preston's hand, lifting it off his shoulder. "I know Nikki and Max more than any of you. I know for a fact that while it's possible for them to get into an accident, they're not the type to do something like that. The most that could've happened is they're on some sort of adventure to avoid David's activities. I'm sure they're gonna be back soon and perfectly fine."
Just at that moment, the door bursts open, and Max walks in with Nikki in his arms, who still had an astonished expression and a red face, even though she had been losing blood. Which was staining Max's clothes and hands.
"SOMEONE GET ME A FUCKING MEDIC RIGHT FUCKING NOW."