When Max woke up, he woke up annoyed. Nothing that wasn't unusual for him, but he woke up in a worse mood than what he was used to. The ten year old sighed softly and curled in on himself for a moment, reaching around to grab Mr. Honeynuts and silently snuggling the bear to his chest as he ran over last night's events, cringing every step of the way. Man, man, man, I fucked up. He thought, tugging on the bear's ears. I freaked out. In front of David… Fuck. Fuck. The kid buried his face into the little bear's small head, grimacing faintly to himself. He hadn't meant to. That night was supposed to be an all nighter as he usually pulled. He thought he'd get a week straight without sleeping - So much for that, but whatever, the kid was exhausted beyond belief anyway. It was no surprise he passed out, especially after the freakout last night. Max winced again before pulling himself out of his bed, carefully setting Mr. Honeynuts aside and standing up.

"Morning," Neil mumbled from beside his own bed, absently pouring himself a cup of coffee. He looked just as exhausted, but he lacked the dark circles under his eyes that came from the six-days worth of no sleep Max had pulled himself through. The other boy glanced at him briefly for just a split second. "Coffee?" Max just grunted, not exactly in a talkative mood as he slid out of bed and headed over.

"Mmg." The kid reached out and grabbed his cup off of the small log they used to balance the coffee maker on, and Neil handed him the pot without hesitation, allowing him to pour himself a cup. He gulped it down instantly, deciding to worry about the burns, that would undoubtedly be on his tongue after chugging the steaming liquid, later. "Thanks." Max mumbled after he'd taken a few sips, rubbing his eyes.

"You needed it." Neil muttered back, turning back to his chalkboard. Max studied it for a moment before seemingly deciding he didn't care, turning away toward his bed with a frown. He'd slept in his hoodie, unfortunately, meaning he'd sweated through it throughout the night. The kid sighed and headed over, pulling out another hoodie from under his bed and shrugging out of the one he'd been wearing, easily shrugging the new one on. It felt odd, not broken in, but he'd just have to suck it up and deal with it for now.

Man, he wasn't going to be able to look David in the eyes after last night, not at all. Not after breaking down into tears in front of the man. Max was honestly disgusted with himself for throwing such a fit, showing such weakness to the camp counselor. But he tried not to dwell on it too much. Maybe he could just pretend it didn't happen.

"You're up early." Max mumbled, checking the watch he kind of just had sitting on his bed but never really wore. Neil let out a hum of acknowledgement, obviously kind of busy and only half paying attention to the other. With annoyed Max to an extent, but he couldn't particularly say he wasn't used to it by now.

"I'm always up this early." Neil commented dryly, writing something down on the board. "You're just too busy chugging coffee or smoking in the morning to notice." He glanced at Max, who shot him an extremely annoyed look. So Neil had noticed his methods of staying up. Smoking cigarettes and chugging as much coffee as he possibly could. The cigarettes were mostly a way of dealing with the stress of hallucinations. Yep, hallucinations. Come on, you can't stay up five days and not hallucinate. Luckily, though, Max's only came in the form of voices. Something easily blocked out..

He noticed today though, they were surprisingly absent. Without him even having smoked a single cigarette yet. The little bit of sleep he'd had must have done some good.

But speaking of cigarettes…

"Whatever," Max knelt down and picked his hoodie back up, shoving his hands into the pockets. He blinked, falling silent for a second before throwing the hoodie down and glancing around. "Where the fuck are my cigarettes?" He grumbled to Neil, checking under his bed before looking around on top of it, under his pillows, anywhere he might have hidden them but forgot about it.

"David came in this morning to check on you." Neil paused and turned to him, eyebrows raising. "He found the cigs and took them. Hey, why did David wanna check up on you, anyway? He only told me you weren't feeling too good last night."

Max had conflicting emotions.

On one hand, he was pissed as all hell that David had taken his cigarettes. His. Something David had no right to touch, much less confiscate. Max was going to chew him out for that later and demand the cigarettes back as soon as possible. The kid was pissed off. Pissed off beyond belief by that.

On the other hand? He was hella glad David hadn't told Neil what had happened last night. That would've just given Max more of a reason to scream at the camp counselor. Which he was going to do anyway, but at least David had kept the list of reasons short. Max didn't say anything to Neil, shoving the hoodie back under his bed and grabbing his cup of coffee before marching out of the tent, pissed.

"Max.." Neil warned slowly, following after him at a much, much slower pace. Max didn't heed the warning at all though, not stopping his fast pace as he headed for the counselor's cabin, his rage clearly etched across his face.

"DAVID!"

The counselor poked his head out of the half opened door instantly, his green eyes focusing on Max. For a second he seemed concerned, but he must have registered the anger on the ten year old's face, because his face paled considerably. If that was possible, at least. A nervous chuckle escaped the adult, clearing his throat and slowly pushing the door open a little more. "Yes Max?" He asked innocently, offering a bright grin. Max shoved out his free hand.

"Cigarettes. Now."

David's grin faltered considerably. "Max… I can't let you have the cigarettes," he started softly. "They're bad and dangerous and could cause long-lasting consequences for you, especially since you're so young. So.. I'm going to have to confiscate them and ask that you try not to do such things like smoking, okay?"

Max dropped his hand for a second, staring at him in disbelief, annoyance and confusion. He gritted his teeth, grimacing silently for a moment. Dangerous. Pfft. He'd been smoking since he was, what? Nine? Not that he ever had much of a choice. It started with his mother shoving a cigarette in his mouth one day and forcing him to smoke. After that… It became somewhat of a habit for the ten year old.

"Fuck you."

"Language," David chided, exiting the cabin and shutting the door gently behind him. "Well, if you two are awake, why not wake the other campers and start today's super fun activity?!"

You two. Max glanced over at Neil, who had, unsurprisingly, followed him and was staring at David blankly. Max glanced at the adult in front of him, considering for a second. He could always get more cigarettes. He had a… Source. Or he could fight the camp counselor for them, but he doubted sincerely that that would get him very far. The kid groaned, rubbing the back of his neck. "David, it's too early for that shit."

"Language," David sighed again. "And it's never too early to start a fun day!" He chirped, bouncing along toward the tents. "Do you guys wanna help me wake them up?" He asked over his shoulder as Neil turned to follow, Max trudging along reluctantly.

"You got a megaphone?" Max said dryly, smirking faintly in satisfaction when Neil snickered, lightly elbowing him in the side and raising his fist for a fist bump, and Max happily obliged. He never thought he'd make friends in this complete hellhole of a camp, but Neil and Nikki weren't so bad. At least, Neil wasn't. Nikki could get on his nerves sometimes. Sometimes.

"That's a wonderful idea, Max!" David exclaimed, and much to the kid's displeasure, he pulled out a megaphone. From where the fuck he had it before. Max stared in disbelief and pure annoyance as the camp counselor turned and handed it to him, that same annoying, bright smile on his face. Max met his gaze blankly for a moment. He saw nothing but concern in those green eyes staring back at him, making him grimace. Can we just pretend it never happened?

"Would you like to do the honors, kiddo?" David prompted, still holding out the megaphone. Max just rolled his eyes, then reached out and snatched it away easily, pressing down on the button and lifting the megaphone to his mouth, taking a deep breath. Beside him, Neil covered his ears and took a few steps away.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING VIETNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!"

Max felt an odd sense of satisfaction at the complaining groans from the other campers as they were startled from their sleep by the young ten year old, who could do nothing more than start laughing. Okay, he could definitely see why David liked that part of the day. It was fun to wake people up. Especially in such a rude manner. Max simply dropped the megaphone and took a sip of his coffee. "Done."

"Er.. Good job, Max!" David said cheerfully, ruffling his hair and picking up the megaphone. Max did nothing more than smack his hand away, focusing him with an annoyed look before turning away. He started to take another sip of the coffee, only to actually yell out in surprise when a certain someone tackled him. Max managed to get the coffee away from him before it could spill all over his clean hoodie, though.

"NIKKI!" The ten year old shouted, shrugging the girl off of him and pushing her back a bit with his foot. "The fuck?!"

"WHAT ARE WE DOING TODAY?!" Nikki exclaimed, barely giving him time to stand before she latched onto him again. The kid staggered, taking a deep breath and trying to push her away to no avail. Fuck, she was so annoying sometimes. "MOUNTAIN CLIMBING?! BEAR HUNTING?! HIKING?! SWIMMING IN THE LAKE?! ADVENTURE?! I'M READY!"

"Nikki I don't know what the fuck we're doing today but if you don't get off of me right now I swear to god-" Max seethed, his rage only growing. Luckily, Neil peeled Nikki off of him before any real damage could be done, steering her toward David.

"Ask David, he's the camp counselor, Nik,"

"RIGHT!" Nikki latched onto David instead, and Max's annoyance faltered at the very girlish scream the camp counselor gave, almost falling back. "WHAT'S THE ACTIVITY TODAY DAVID?!"

"We- Well," David cleared his throat, letting out a nervous sounding laugh that made Max smirk faintly. God, he was so fucking pitiful. "We're going canoeing!"

"AWESOME!" Nikki squealed and promptly threw herself to the ground, rolling in the dirt. Neil sighed, shaking his head and glancing at Max, who shrugged faintly, seeming just as annoyed. The kid backed off a bit as David was surrounded by the other campers, who were voicing their own excitement and/or complaints. Max just gestured for Neil to follow, and the other camper happily did just that, the two of them easily slipping away from all of the commotion.

"Okay, I love Nikki and all, but she's too fucking hyper." Neil complained when they reached a good distance from the camp. Max hummed in agreement, leading him down some twisting path through the forest. "I've never been down here before." Neil mumbled, falling into step with him. "Are you leading me into the woods to kill me?" He smirked, glancing toward Max for a second.

"Figure it out genius," Max snorted. "I'm not gonna lead you away to kill you without a weapon. Well, I guess I could choke you with a tree branch. Or repeatedly bash your skull in with a rock…"

"More morbid than usual," Neil noted. "So what happened to create the painfully obvious tension between you and David?" He questioned. Max scoffed a little. There was always tension with him and David. He loathed the guy, and David was… Well, hopefully on his way to hating him. Max just needed some reassurance.

Weird, how he needed reassurance that someone hated him. But it was all he knew, so, could anyone really blame the poor kid?

"I don't know." Max gave a one-shouldered shrug. "We talked a bit last night, but I told him to fuck off and went to sleep." Not exactly a lie. Neil didn't seem very convinced, but he gave a short hum of acknowledgement and stopped when they reached a small clearing.

"Dude, where are we?" The older boy prompted, glancing around and squinting slightly. He didn't seem to like being so far out into the forest, his posture stiff and slightly hunched over, like a rabbit ready to bolt at the first sign of danger. Max liked that, honestly. He was right to be wary, especially out here.

Especially with who he was about to reveal.

"Knock knock." Max called, turning to the small shed at the far edge of the clearing. It didn't take long for familiar blue eyes to peer out at him, a bright grin etching across very pale features and a skinny arm lifting to wave. Beside him, a more burly looking man peered out, fixing his gray mustache and narrowing his eyes suspiciously at the kid. Then both pairs of eyes turned to Neil.

"Campbell, Kool-Aid man." Max tilted his head toward Neil, who looked more shocked than anything, staring at the two men. "You remember Neil, right?"

The three were engaged in a staring contest for a long time, the two men looking pissed and Neil looking confused and slightly afraid. Then, fists clenched, Neil turned to Max, eyes blazing.

The three spoke at once.

"What the hell?"