A/N: One of my favourite prompts I filled on tumblr.
Stargazers
Your hands are warm and my body is wide
To hold all the promise of blue-velvet dark and stars
All it takes is a little faith and a lot of heart
Sweetheart
Maya never signed up for the Stargazer Club. That was Tristan, and that's how she's gotten roped into being the intel for said best friend for a boy she could care less about.
Campbell Saunders must be the worst. That how she's started her notes of her findings of him in a little purple notebook: he's a hockey prodigy, mostly likely thinking he's better than most; he's quiet, and it's the quiet ones Tristan should be wary about; and he's got a staring problem, and it's hard to pay attention to learning about the constellations when the target's boring his eyes into you.
Tristan isn't happy about the intel from the intel, and he pleads her to talk to him, to find a commonality.
"He goes to Degrassi High," Maya rolls her eyes at him.
Tristan just groans and offers to do her French homework for two weeks, and Maya just scoffs to remind him that she's the one with the 93 and him, 63.
It's Mrs. Milligan's pecan pie that sweetens the deal.
She's paired up with Larry Stein for the field trip/stargazing assignment, but he's afraid of the dark.
"Who signs up for Stargazer Club when you're scared shitless to be in the dark?" She groans as she steps off the bus, a few people snickering at her remark.
Peche Island looks different at night, and the memory of Katie telling her ghost stories of the light house in the distance aren't helping. It's not pitch black surrounding her, because everyone has a flashlight or lamp, but she's starting to see the appeal of dropping the club altogether a la Larry.
But, at present, since the ferry is already docked and everyone has started their work, she's resolved to finish labeling her constellation scavenger worksheet, and then she'll call it a day once and for all. Easy peasy…if only she had a single clue what she's supposed to be looking at on her constellation map.
"You're holding it upside down," Campbell Saunders sneaks up from behind to tell her.
Maya looks up from the frustrated squinting she's been doing for a solid twenty mintues to face him, and up close, in the glow of the moonlight and her lamp, she can appreciate what Tristan sees in him. He's got a dimple from his smile that she knows better not to note in her purple notebook.
"I knew that," she chuckles.
Maya looks around, the swaying glow of everyone's lamp or flashlight surrounding them.
"Where's your partner?" Maya asks.
"Brittany didn't join the club for stargazing. She left when I told her I was here for actual stargazing."
"Ah," Maya plays with the lamp handle because she's suddenly interested in its twisting capabilities.
Campbell clears his throat, "I'm Cam—"
"I know who you are. Do you know who I am?" Maya's surprised with her own biting response.
"I-I-" She bites away a smirk to see him stammer, but she does feel guilty. "Maya, right?"
She's genuinely surprised, but she persists, "So, being an NHL prospect hasn't let you forget about the rest of us. Or have the Hounds been instructing you otherwise?" She decides to scold Katie later, because she's definitely rubbing off on her. "Sorry," she adds quickly, sheepishly.
He gives a nervous laugh at this. "They are kind of jerks, aren't they?"
"You seem okay though." Maya shrugs her shoulders, smirking. "You are okay, aren't you?"
He nods a little jittery, grinning, and all she sees is the endearing squint of his eyes and the same dimple. And there's a distinct flip in her stomach that she tries to quell with a sharp pinch to her skin.
"C-Can," she clears her throat. "Can you help me with this?"
He doesn't bother to hide his excitement at this request and he's shoulder to shoulder with her now, going off on a long tangent about the stars patterns above them.
She starts on her actual work again, because the thought of Tristan comes without her trying. However, as she starts with the holier-than-thou hockey status she assumes he would exploit, he's talking about his family back home in some middle-of-nowhere town instead. She wants to make mental notes on all the annoying ticks he might have, but she's distracted with the way his hand inches closer and closer to where she points at what constellations they need to spot next. Then there's the fact that she's starting to believe he's actually stealing glances at her, and the confession that he finds her 'extremely distracting' has her stomach doing a number of annoyingly unwarranted things.
"So, what's with the notebook?" Cam takes her away from a hazy daydream she's having of just the two of them.
"I, uh," She starts, panicked. "Nothing."
"C'mon," he pleads.
"Lyric book…" she tells him finally, and then pauses before admitting, "I thought I figured it out, but I've been writing about something I had no idea about."
He considers her carefully. "Those are the best songs though, songs about confusion, sadness, songs about real life. Are you gonna keep working on it?"
She nods, beaming, and let's him go on excitedly about the next cluster of stars they have to find.
It's after finding Gemini that he tells her the beauty in studying the stars is never truly recognizing how stunning they are until you take a closer look.