The ride back to camp was tranquil. The roads were empty, which meant no traffic, which meant no read rage, and Gwen was happy about that.
Max was in the back seat watching the scenery. Trees after trees, green, yellow, and orange. Max wasn't fond of being outdoors much, but he liked looking at nature. He looked at Gwen from the rearview mirror and down at the prescribed pills in the bottle, "Take one every 12 hours…can be ingested with or without a meal, contains blah blah blah-hey, Gwen?"
Gwen looked at Max and hummed in reply.
"Do I need to take all of these?"
"Well, no… I mean once you start feeling better you should probably stop talking them…we don't want to throw off your stomach's Ph balance, that's what got you here in the first place."
"so then what are you gonna do with the extra pills?"
"Uhhhhhhhhhhh trash them?"
Max shook the pill bottle and tossed them aside. He brought his legs up and positioned himself to lay down in the back seat, "Good night"
"It's 5 pm…"
"Fuck 5 pm"
"Alrighty, good night. I'll wake you when we get to camp"
Back at camp, Neil was at his science station, mumbling to himself. He hasn't seen Max at all today, in fact, he wasn't there during breakfast or Lunch. It was almost 3 and he was getting worried, it wasn't like Max to just disappear like that. He turned his attention back on his computer he built and began programming again. It helps calm him.
"Hey, Neil!"
Neil jumped and turned around to see Nikki come towards him with an apple, "Hey Nikki"
"Whatcha doing?"
"Oh, nothing I was just playing around with come computer programming."
"If Max were here… he would call you a nerd. Since he isn't here, I'm gonna do it for him." She grabbed Neils shoulder and turned him around, she did her best Max impression, "Neil, you're a nerd"
They both giggled and Nikki handed him an apple, "here, take this, David gave it to me to give to you because I ate your food."
He grabbed the apple from her hand and bit into it, "Well, you didn't eat it, I let you have it."
"The food was good tho, why didn't you eat it?"
"I don't know, I wasn't hungry…Hey, did David tell you where Max is?"
Nikki shook her head, "No I didn't ask"
"What if he's dead…"
"MAX DIED?!"
"WHAT NO!"
"Oh. stop scaring me." Nikki went over to Neils computer and looked at the screen, "What's all this?" She ran her hands over the keyboard and pretended to smash the keys, she turned towards Neil, "I'm in."
"Nikki, don't touch that, it took me hours to get it this far, I don't want to have to start all over." Neil began to put away his computer and ate his apple in the process. He didn't realize how hungry he had gotten. He walked over to his computer and locked everything up. "Come on Nikki, let's go see what leftover food they have at the mess hall, I'm getting hungry."
"m'kay" Nikki walked next to Neil and they made their way to the food court.
It was empty inside, Neil made his way towards the kitchen window and called out, "Quartermaster? Ya there?"
In the kitchen, the quartermaster was talking to David and turned his attention to the voice calling out his name. He looked back at David and shrugged, he walked towards the small food window and saw Neil, accompanied by Nikki. "What."
"I'm hungry"
"lunch is over"
"Yeah but-"
"lunch is over" he turned his attention back to David and found that he was gone. He shrugged and walked into the back room, and proceeded to watch TV.
David walked out into the dining area and gave Neil a protein bar, "Here you go Neil, I noticed you didn't eat much during lunch so I sent Nikki to give you an apple, I see it opened up your appetite! Hooray!"
"Oh thank you," he grabbed the protein bar, unwrapped it and took a bite.
Nikki walked up to David, "Hey David, when's Max coming back?"
"Oh don't you worry Nikki, He should be back soon"
Nikki grabbed Neil's protein bar and took a piece, she stuck it in her mouth and chewed.
Neil turned to David, "He's okay?"
David smiled, "Of course he is!"
"Do you know when he's coming back-"
David nodded, "Yeah, Gwen radioed me a few minutes ago, I was gonna meet her outside," He looked down at his watch and gasped, "Oops, I probably should get going, they'll be here any minute. Stay here, kids."
"But-" Neil watched as David made his way outside and left him with Nikki, who was eating his protein bar.
Outside, David stood inventively watching the road for cars. once he saw Gwen pull up, he quickly made his way over.
Gwen put the car in park and got out, she saw David and smiled.
"GWEN! You're back!" David pulled Gwen into a hug.
"Yep. I'm back… Also, I can't breathe."
"Oh," he let her go and turned his attention to the back of the car, "Where's Max?"
Gwen looked at the car and gestured to the back seat, "He's still asleep, I didn't wanna wake him up…"
David went over to the car and opened the door to the backseat, he reached in and pulled out a half-asleep Max. "Let's get you inside"
Max had no idea where he was, he quickly shook himself awake only to realize he was back at camp, "Oh… We're here…"
"MAX! YOU'RE ALIVE!"
"Sadly."
David hugged him unexpectedly, "I honestly thought you were dying, I'm so glad you're okay!" David was practically twirling Max around in his arms which caused Max to struggle to break free.
"Jesus Christ David put me the fuck down."
David happily obliged and put Max on the floor.
"now, where are Nikki and Neil?"
"The mess hall! Oh, they were so worried, they thought something bad happened to you and-" David realized Max had stopped listening and had already begun walking towards the mess hall.
Gwen looked at David and laughed, "he's feeling better, so that's good."
"Yeah I can tell, he's more Max now." David and Gwen walked behind Max and saw him push open the doors.
Neil was sitting down next to Nikki, "NEIL IM GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!" Max threw the doors open and made his way towards Neil. He grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, "YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!"
David quickly pulled Max off of him, "Not even an hour back and you are already fighting!"
"PUT ME DOWN DAVID, IM GONNA KILL NEIL!"
"Max, Why don't you try to-"
"David I swear to God I will hinder your abilities to have kids if you don't put me down…"
David sighed and put him down.
Neil got up and took a step back, "hello to you too Max?" He made his way towards Nikki and stood behind her.
Gwen walked in and audibly sighed, "Max, we literally arrived 3 seconds ago…"
David looked at Max, "Max, try not to kill Neil, I'm gonna go talk to Gwen outside and when I get back you all better be in one piece."
David walked outside, leaving the three children inside, Max was facing Nikki and Neil. "Fuck you, Neil"
"Well Geez, I don't even know why I'm being fucked"
"Don't play stupid with me, you know exactly why you're being fucked" Max poked Neil in the chest.
Nikki smiled and joined in, "Am I being fucked? Max, are you gonna fuck me?"
Max and Neil turned their attention towards Nikki, "I swear you say the weirdest shit possible sometimes… And no, I actually kinda missed you, so you're fine," Max pointed towards Neil, "It's him I'm mad at."
"What did I do? I'm innocent!" Neil held his arm out.
"You got me sick!"
"HOW?"
"Well… I don't know…. BUT YOU DID!" Max actually had no idea how Neil did it, but deep down he knew Neil was the one to blame, he did eat acid…
Gwen and David walked back inside. They joined the trio and calmed everyone down. "okay, I can see why you would have thought it was Neil, but let's not point fingers yet Max."
"Yeah," Gwen added, "What he said"
"can someone just tell me why Max is BLAMING ME?"
Max looked at Gwen then back at Neil, "because… I ate acid!"
"You what?" Neil couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"You heard me," Max was getting irritated, "this is your fault!"
Neil burst out laughing, "YOU ATE ACID!"
"It's not funny-"
"YES, IT IS! YOU FUCKING ATE ACID!" Neil was dying of laughter and Gwen couldn't help but giggle along with him. Even David let out a small chuckle.
"Okay Neil, that's enough…" David looked at Max, "Okay Max, I can see why you think it's Neil, but if you ate it then it's got to be something from the kitchen… Not Neil."
Nikki looked at Neil and her face lit up, "I ate Neil's experiment a few days ago and I'm doing just fine." she smiled and tugged on Neil's shirt, "remember? Cuz then you kicked me out of the lab... Good times, Good times" she looked up as if reliving a memory.
"Oh shit." Everything came flooding back into Neil's mind. The experiment, the frustration, the coming to the kitchen to show the Quartermaster.
"What?" Gwen glared at Neil "What did you do Neil…"
"I uh, I may have brought in my science experiment into the kitchen the other day, and the quartermaster may or may not have added it into the mash potatoes, and I may or may not have forgotten to throw away a plate, and Max may or may not have eaten that plate on accident…" Neil looked at David and Gwen, and he didn't dare face Max, he already felt his stare.
"Well, you told the truth…we aren't mad at you-"
"Not mad? NOT MAD? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH PAIN, RESPECT, AND TIME YOU COST ME NEIL? I COULD HAVE DIED! I HAVE A REPUTATION TO MAINTAIN IN THIS CAMP AND BEING SICK ISN'T ONE OF THEM!" If it weren't for David and Gwen, Max would have already been attacking Neil.
"Now Max… Neil didn't mean to get you sick, it was an accident. Although," Gwen looked over to Neil, " Neil, you do know that you aren't allowed to bring in your science shit into the kitchen right?"
Neil nodded.
"Alrighty then! We figured out what happened and now all that's left is to apologize!" David smiled and gestured over to Gwen, who was visibly unamused by David.
"Oh… yes. Apologize!" Gwen spoke in her sarcastic pretending to care tone and made her way towards the door and dragged David along with her.
"Remember kids, friendship is magic!"
"No shut the fuck up David." Gwen rolled her eyes and they walked outside.
Neil looked over at Max, "Sorry Max." Neil felt guilty, he didn't mean to get Max sick, and he kinda didn't want Max to be mad at him, considering Max and Nikki were his only friends… And sometimes maybe space kid.
Max sighed and lied through his teeth, "whatever, I'm feeling better anyway…"
A/N: HAPPY THANKSGIVING and BLACK FRIDAY! We have only maybe 2-3 chapters left, so yeah, it's getting wrapped up nicely. I am thankful for all the support on this story! Please remember that comments and reviews are always welcomed! If you all want, I might post twitter handle, so you guys can see what we're up too and chill with ya girl. XD Anyways, If you don't see me here next week it's because finals are kicking my ass, but I will try to update next week! See you there my little Shits!