A Makki-centered chapter for my lovely fans!
Also, a big thank-you to the followers of this story: LeleB123, RandomwriterJ, Tjking117, and naomislike. Another big thank-you to those who have added the story to their favorites list: LeleB123, Stargazer3356, Tjking117, and naomislike. And an extra-special thank-you to RandomwriterJ, who is my sole reviewer so far and has taken the time to comment on almost every chapter. To all my readers, thank you.
On with the story!
It was late at night. Max had already finished his night check and had gone to bed. Once he was asleep, Neil and Tabii snuck out of the counselors' cabin and woke up the campers, bringing them into the mess hall. Tabii lit a few lanterns and put them on the tables so everyone could see.
"Okay," Neil told the campers. "Do you all know why we're here?" Nerris raised her hand.
"For a late-night run of Dungeons and Dragons?" she asked.
"No, Nerris, although that would be fun."
"NERD!" Nurf called.
"We're here because we're going to do a little match-making."
"Ooh," the campers breathed.
"Now, who here has noticed how Max and Nikki act around each other?" Everyone raised their hands except David.
"They're good friends!" he protested.
"No. Max likes Nikki. As in, like likes her. He told me that."
"But Nikki's only been here for a few weeks!" Harrison pointed out.
"He's liked her longer than that. He liked her when we were Campbell campers… fourteen years ago." The campers gasped. "Now, does anyone besides Gwen have any ideas on how to get them together?"
"Flowers and chocolate, to Nikki," suggested Jaspar.
"A puppy!" Harrison pulled a kitten out of his hat. "Or… a kitten."
"A true romantic would recite a poem," Nerris scoffed.
"Or a song!" Preston butted in.
"Max should get in super-good shape," Ered stated.
"Or the opposite," Gwen mused. "Terminal illness seems to bring people together in the movies."
"My mom got pregnant," Nurf added.
"We might need some female help," Tabii sighed. "Besides the ones here."
"You're not suggesting—" Neil gasped.
"I can have the backup here tomorrow. Keep Max and Nikki from noticing I'm gone and we'll meet in town tomorrow afternoon."
"How are we going to keep them from noticing the campers are gone?"
"Simple: we tell them we're taking the kids on a field trip. That way, we can borrow the bus."
"Good idea!" Gwen cheered.
"Everyone got it?" Neil asked the campers. Everyone nodded. "Good! Operation Makki is a go!"
"Makki?" Space Kid inquired, tilting his head.
"Max and Nikki."
"I like Maxxi," Nerris suggested.
"Nax," Jaspar argued.
"We're going with Makki," Neil declared.
The next day, Neil met with Tabii at the location. She had Rosemary, Daisy, and Lily—three of the Flower Scouts—with her. He had brought David, Jaspar, and Gwen, since the other campers insisted on staying behind to avoid suspicion.
"So, what's the plan?" David asked Rosemary.
"We sent messages to Nikki and Max to meet us at The Only Bar," she explained. "We're going to seat them at different tables and make sure they don't see each other."
"How is that going to get them together?" Gwen asked as they entered the restaurant. The kids and counselors sat at a booth and watched as Max and Nikki were ushered in and seated at different tables.
"We asked a beautiful woman to meet with Max so that Nikki will notice, get mad jelly, and demand he go out with her instead!"
"Wait, what?" Tabii yelped.
"Yeah, who did you ask?" Neil wondered.
"We asked Miss Sasha," Lily replied. Neil and Tabii looked at each other in a panic.
"Girls, you do know Sasha is totally obsessed with Max, right?" Tabii told them cautiously. The Flower Scouts suddenly looked very nervous.
"Maybe we should've asked Miss Erin," Daisy sighed, pulling out her phone. "I'll cancel Miss Sasha."
"It's too late!" Rosemary groaned. The Garden Mother of Troop 789 had entered the building, dressed up and looking straight at Max.
"Hey, Max," she purred, leaning on the table seductively. He looked up from his menu and looked very worried.
"Sasha?"
"The one and only!" She stuck out her hip. "See something you like?"
"Um… no." She sat down across from him.
"Well, I do."
"We have another problem," Jaspar whispered to Neil. "Nikki hasn't looked up from her menu."
"What?" Neil looked at his stepsister and groaned. "Of course she's more concerned with food."
"Sasha, what the fuck are you doing here?" Max asked.
"I'm here to go on a date with you."
"But I didn't ask you out."
"That doesn't matter!" She looked angry. "You and I are a perfect couple. Forget about Nikki and focus on me."
Nikki finished ordering her food and her menu was taken away. That was when she looked around the restaurant and noticed Max and Sasha. To her shock, Sasha pulled Max into a kiss. She gasped as a pain filled her chest, then she felt angry. Angry and betrayed.
"Sasha?!" she snapped, getting up and marching over. Max shoved the Flower Scout leader off him at the sound of Nikki's voice.
"Nik!" he yelped. "It's not what it looks like!"
"Oh, yes it is!" Sasha growled, forcing herself onto Max's lap. "Max and I are a thing! Get the fuck out, Nikki!"
"No, we're not!" Max shoved Sasha off him.
"Oh, shit," Neil whispered fearfully.
"This is your fault!" Sasha yelled at Nikki. She picked up a fork. "He'd be mine if it weren't for you! Get out of his life, skank!" She threw the fork. Nikki ducked and it flew towards a waitress, who deflected it with her tray.
The fork landed in Tabii's eye.
"OH MY GOD!" she screamed in pain. Neil grabbed some napkins and pressed them to her eye.
"Shit!"
Nikki's eyes felt hot. She could feel them burning with tears and ran out of The Only Bar.
"Nikki, wait!" Max shot a glare at Neil and his campers. "We're discussing this later."
"We're dead," Gwen groaned.
Outside, Nikki leaned against the wall in the alley, letting the tears fall.
"Nik!" she heard Max say behind her. She turned to face him, feeling angry and betrayed again.
"Go back inside, Max!" she snapped. "I saw you kissing Sasha! Obviously, the whole disgust thing was an act! Go and sleep with her! Get Quartersister!"
"Okay, first of all, I hate Sasha. She's a mean, manipulative bitch who has been stalking me since the Camporee. Secondly, she kissed me! I'm pretty sure that was fucking sexual assault!"
"Sure, whatever! You're just like all the other guys! All you want is a girl to sleep with! You don't care who it is!"
"Nikki, the only girl on Lake Lilac I want to fuck is you!" He covered his mouth as that gem slipped out. Nikki stared.
"What did you say?" She'd stopped crying, so Max sighed.
"I said, the only girl on Lake Lilac I want to fuck is you." He shook his head. "No, that's not it. Nikki, I've been in love with you since we were ten. When you showed up at camp a few weeks ago, all those old feelings came back, along with some new ones. I wanted to kiss you and fuck you in the backseat of the Camp-Mobile at the same time, and after that first night, I wanted to just have you by me all the time. You make me feel safe, Nikki, something that's hard to do. So… yeah. I love you. I get if you hate me, but just know that Sasha means nothing to me."
"Max, you idiot. I only got mad because I love you, too. Also, I wouldn't have objected to doing that in the backseat. Or being by you all the time. I'm glad I make you feel safe, and I'm glad Sasha means nothing to you."
Max reached for her hand hesitantly. She closed the gap and they kissed for the first time.
"Aw!" the Flower Scouts and Campbell campers cooed. An ambulance pulled up behind them along with a cop car. Max and Nikki noticed and pulled apart.
"What happened in there?" he asked David.
"Tabii took a fork to the eye and Sasha trashed the whole restaurant," Gwen reported.
"I will sue!" Sasha screamed at the cop as he forced her into the car. Tabii was brought into the ambulance, Neil right beside her.
"Wait," Nikki realized. "Who's with the other campers?"
"Quartermaster," Jaspar replied.
"That's… not good. Kids, get in the Camp-Mobile. Max, I'll go to the hospital and make sure Tabii is taken care of."
"Okay. Be careful." He kissed her on the cheek and herded the six campers to the car. "We'll go to the Flower Scout camp first and let Erin know what happened."
Erin walked out of her sleeping quarters as the Camp-Mobile pulled in. Daisy, Lily, and Rosemary got out and Max put it in park.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Sasha was arrested for property damage," Max sighed as he approached Erin. "Your campers were apparently trying to set me up with her."
"No we weren't!" Lily protested. "We were trying to set you up with Miss Nikki! Miss Sasha was supposed to make her jealous!" Max knelt in front of the three so they were at eye-level.
"Well, little tip for next time: make sure your decoy isn't a deranged stalker. You guys got lucky that Nikki listens to reason. Otherwise, I might not have been able to drive you home." He stood back up and faced Erin. "Also, Tabii took a fork to the eye because of Sasha."
"We'll pay for the hospital bill," Erin stated quickly. "Girls, go to bed."
"I've got to get my campers back and work out their punishment. We'll be in touch."
Rosemary watched the Camp-Mobile pull out and realized…
Camp Campbell is the most insane, deranged, coolest camp on Lake Lilac.
"I can't believe you kids did this," Max groaned as he drove. "What were you thinking?"
"We thought you'd be happy with Nikki," Gwen replied in a tiny voice.
"You can't force this shit. Nothing good comes of it."
"It was Neil's idea," Jaspar spoke up.
"Of course it was."
"What's our punishment?" David inquired.
"No dessert and you're on cleaning duty for a week. And you have to help Tabii while she's healing."
"Yes, sir," they grumbled.
They arrived at camp and Max sent the troublemakers off to bed. He himself went into the camp office and started filling out an injury form for Tabii. It didn't take long and he found himself thinking over the events of the evening.
Tap, tap.
He glanced at the window and saw Nikki waving. Glad for her return, he got up and went outside to meet her.
"Hey. What happened at the hospital?"
"They said they couldn't save the eye, but she'll live. She should be back in two days. Neil volunteered to stay with her."
"Good. Erin said the Flower Scouts would pay the hospital bill."
"Good."
Awkward silence.
"You… wanna go for a walk?" he asked.
"Sure." They headed across camp and wound up on the dock, where they sat looking at the lake in the starlight.
"Nikki, a lot of shit happened tonight," Max sighed.
"Yeah. It was a horror show."
"I mean, two good things happened, but there was a lot of bad."
"Wait, two?"
"Sasha got arrested and we told each other how we felt."
"Oh, yeah!" They sat for a moment. "Where do we go from here?"
"We carry on as normal, I guess. Maybe we'll be a little more affectionate, but this doesn't really change anything, does it?"
"I don't know. I've never dated a guy that I was friends with first."
"We can take it slow if you want." Nikki thought it over for a second.
"Yeah, maybe."
She leaned over so that her head was on Max's shoulder. He raised his eyebrows but put an arm around her anyway.
"You know, this might be the best adventure we've had yet."
Whoo!
Max and Nikki are together, Tabii lost an eye, and one of the Flower Scouts admires Camp Campbell!
Yeah, that's basically it.
So long and thanks for all the fish!