"I still can't believe you guys won that last night," Oliver said, reminding the bat of the previous night. Max was also surprised. He couldn't even dance so for him and Oscar to do a decent enough job to be the best couple and accidentally dance their way into the center of the moonlight without paying attention threw him for a loop. Max does think back to what the moon had told them. They were the most passionate. Maybe there was more to the selection than just being a good dancer.
"Pure luck. That's all it was." Hedgehog assured. She had been standing next to Oscar and planned on staying next to him throughout the day, all just to spite Max. She had enacted this little plan of hers early that morning. It was something she thought up and went over and over again last night whilst laying in her bed. "Am I right Max."
He shoots an intense glare her way before turning his death gaze to the ground. She could only imagine how he was feeling at the moment, yeah, she was being a jerk, but it would make him think twice before shooting his mouth off to her.
"Well, whatever it was. I'm still upset." Oliver was more than a little sore and Max was too in all honesty. He'd happily discredit the event as an accident if it meant everyone would stop talking about him and Oscar constantly.
All he wanted to do was put the night behind him. With how badly he dropped the ball with Oscar, Max doesn't want to be reminded about any of it. He may never get a chance like that again and his mind made sure to let him know.
Now it was a new day. He had been hanging out with his usual group. Though it was more like sitting around and doing nothing at all most of the time. Max had made a few suggestions for activities they could participate in, but Hedgehog would either shoot them down or counteract with her own idea. Since Oscar was always down to do what Hedgehog was doing, Max lost out to her every time. It was annoying, he knew she had been doing it intentionally, but he didn't want to get into another argument with her in front of Oscar. Sitting silently probably wasn't the best move for him right now but what else could he do?
"Hey wait. What day is it?" Oscar shoots up. Something seemingly important crosses his mind suddenly. "I think the mail goes out today."
The group collectively realized that today was mail day. A certain time of each week when the kids in camp get to receive special presents or requests sent by their parents or just simple letters from home detailing how much they were missed.
"Oh yeah. It is that time, isn't it?" Oliver sat up, checking his wrist for the time, though dropping it down quickly when he remembered he doesn't have a watch. "Uhm... let's go see what we got huh?" He said, lightly tapping his elbow against Hedgehog.
Max senesces an opportunity then. Going to check the mail was the perfect time to get out from under Hedgehog's iron boot. "Yeah, Hedgehog why don't we? Oscar sounds like he really wants to." He agreed with Oliver knowing she couldn't do anything about this one.
"Wel-uh... I..." She tries thinking of something on the spot. Any excuses she could use to avoid Oscar falling out of her control. Sadly, nothing comes to mind. "Yeah... sure, why not... let's go" she responds, her teeth greet and tone in a familiar growl. She wasn't going to say no to Oscar and Oliver at the same time though she knows that keeping her best friend and Max apart would be much too hard during an activity. Not without Oscar catching on to what she was doing.
"Oh man, I can't wait to see what my mom sent." Oscar gets up instantly and spins his body around to face Max. "I'll race you their Max." He takes off running, giving himself a wide head start with Max following soon after. Hedgehog thought it.
Hedgehog watches the boys run off, with a slightly open mouth and a puzzled look on her face. Oscar tended to get a bit too excited in certain instances. She had forgotten about that. Keeping the two boys apart was already going to be hard despite that. She'd just have to add the elephant's behavior to the list of things to watch out for.
"Hey guys wai-" She begins to run after them, but she's stopped when Oliver grabs onto her and pulls her back. His face was twisted up into a no-nonsense scowl. That kind of look meant he thinks she had done something wrong and one she had seen him give her even before they were together.
"Okay, what's going on?" He speaks in a harsh tone. Any louder and he'd be yelling at her. "Tell me now."
She opened her mouth trying and failing to come up with an answer that might satisfy Oliver's examination. "Come on Oliver, I'm just having some fun. That's all it is." He narrows his eyes at her. She starts to fall the accumulation of sweat droplets begins to roll down the side of her forehead. "Oliver, I sw-"
"I'm not buying it." He sees right through her best attempt at lying. He knew everything that was happening was just to get to Max. Oliver wasn't like most people she knew. There was no getting past him.
"But Oliver, you should have heard the way he was talking to me last night." She cracks under the pressure of his gaze. "Like no respect dude."
" Yeah, sure." He releases her and folds his arms over one another. "But acting like this is the wrong way to go about solving the problem you guys have. You're just being petty for the sake of being petty." She looks to the ground with no response at the ready. He wasn't trying to upset her, that was the last thing he had in mind. He puts a finger under her chin and lifts her head. Gazing into her eyes with a look that was one part apologetic and one part understanding. "Come on. hedgehog be good, please. For me, if not Oscar. he doesn't deserve this."
She stares back into his eyes. She finds some sort of comfort in them that she could only explain in her dreams and agrees. "Okay... okay Oliver. I'll try." He smiles at her. As much as she doesn't want to, she'll be the bigger person.
Oliver leans in, giving her a small peck on the lips and she does the same back at him. Their dove-kissing session goes on for a few more seconds before they end it once they realize that they should probably start catching up with Oscar and Max. Preferably before the boys start tearing open their mail.
"Ha-ha! come on Max!" Oscar said, dashing through the campgrounds. "You're supposed to be the athletic one! What's wrong!?" He mocked the bat from his position far ahead. Max could have easily overtaken him if he wanted to. If only he weren't so distracted by the boy's enthusiasm. That's what he'd like to say anyway, but he knew the real distraction was getting a good look at Oscar from behind. As much as he liked spending time with the other boy, watching him go was also a positive for him. Max just couldn't help himself but stare.
"Don't worry, I'm right on you." He says, more so trying to catch Oscar rather than win the race. There was just something so hypnotic about him. A devious thought crosses Max's mind in an instant. He could care less about the race anymore. All he wanted to do now was tackle Oscar to the ground from behind and leave him pinned there. "Ugh- no... come on Max, keep it together man." He shakes the thought from his mind and begins to pick up his pace.
"Well." He whips his head over his shoulder and back to Max. "You might as well give cause- Woah!" Not paying attention to the path in front of him, Oscar trips over something. Something soft, black and white, and "pepper?" He let out an exhausted groan. His adrenalin had all but left him behind.
"Hey! Watch where going Oscar, you could have killed me," Pepper said. The small panda may have been exaggerating. If only a little.
"My bad pepper. Just really excited to get to umps." Oscar gets up from where he fell on the tiny boy and offers out a hand as Max finally catches up.
"What happened? You, okay?" He rushes over to Oscar and checks him for any bruises or broken limbs. Pepper sits in place with one hand resting on his cheek and his face in a pout. Usually, people would wait on him, hand and knee if he were hurt or in distress. He's confused when Max comes striding up and instead of checking on the baby panda and goes straight for Oscar.
"Ahem." Pepper cleared his throat, not so subtly seeking the attention of Max, which the smaller boy thinks should have been on him from the start. "Uh, Max? I think I'm hurt; can you help me up." The attention-seeking panda boy remarked.
Max turns his focus to the smaller boy still laying on the ground. He had almost forgotten Oscar was the one to run Pepper over. "Oh right. My bad Pepper. Here." He reaches out his hand to get the boy off the ground and looks to see if he's okay as well. Nothing was broken and there were barely any bruises to speak of. Other than his pride being shattered, the panda should be alright. "What are doing out here anyway Pepper?"
He holds his blanket, an object of comfort for the boy, close to his face before speaking. "Well, I was going to check the mail too. "He shoots a glare toward Oscar. "I'm supposed to be getting something special today."
"Oh yeah? What is it?" Oscar asked. Pepper was hesitant to say. He was unsure about telling them about this all-so-important package but decides to. Oscar and Max were the last two people who'd try to steal from him.
"Well, I asked my mom if she could send my gamestation. And I was sort of afraid to go by myself." He said holding his blanket close to his face. "So, I stopped to think it over."
Oscar turns his attention to Pepper once the small boys' gaming console steps into the topic. "Wait a second. You have a gamestation?" He rushes up to Pepper with his familiar enthusiastic charm.
"Yeah, the newest one." They go into a conversation about gaming and some of their favorite video games they always played. Pepper was into fighting games mostly and Oscar was an adventure kind of guy. The whole time Max watch's them in a sort of semi-jealous state. The way he talked and giggled with Pepper was making him feel inadequate about their own relationship. Or he should say their friendship. Max is still kicking himself for last night.
He didn't even know Oscar liked video games. That would have been useful information to have on hand. Max didn't play much himself, but he would have tried to start up a conversation about what Oscar liked to play and what he was looking forward to.
Just as Pepper starts to talk about the new features on his gaming console and a bunch of other things Max could barely seem to understand, Oliver and Hedgehog catch up to them. He hadn't realized how long they were stopped for.
"Hey, you guys alright?" Oliver said, coming up to and stopping at Max's said, "Why'd you stop?" Max turns to him and motions to where Pepper was chatting with Oscar.
"Well Oscar basically ran over Pepper and now they won't stop talking about video games." Max points over to the two boys who were gushing over their newly found interests. It made Max feel awkward for some odd reason surely. He wasn't so deeply in love with Oscar that any basic interaction the boy made with someone other than him would tip his scale, right?
Oliver looks over to see the angry expression on Max's face. He couldn't be serious Oliver thought. Not Pepper of all people. Everyone loved pepper. "You okay man?" He said, poking a finger at Max's arm.
"Yeah, Max you look a little ticked." Hedgehog chimed in from behind Oliver. Though her input was more out of a need to boast than concerned. "Anything we can help you with?" Her mocking only made his already high temper flair up tremendously. He felt like saying something then. He wanted to tell the overbearing Hedgehog to buzz off. He needs to keep himself together though. Things didn't need to get out of hand. Max just needs to play it cool. He was good at being cool, no need for that to change now.
He takes a breath and slowly faces the two, cool, collected, and uncaring. "I'm fine. just the heat that's all. Gonna wait for Oscar to finish talking to Pepper." He tried to come off as he naturally would before this whole ordeal and considered if it was too late to call it quits. Remaining friends with Oscar didn't sound like the worst thing in the world. The sound of Hedgehog humming a bemused pout and him seeing a smug look on her face settles Max back into reality and leaves his mind as quickly as he had entered it. She looks at him and he looks back.
An intense starring contest breaks out between Max and Hedgehog, a battle of attrition between two conflicting sides. One of sheer domination over the other and one of pure desperation determined not to give in and neither willing to back down. As their heated staring ensues, Oscar walks over with Pepper in tow, interrupting the silent war.
"Guys come on," Oscar said. "Let's go." Both Max and Hedgehog snap out of their trance and direct their eyes to Oscar slightly confused.
"Wha- what?" Max begins to question before quickly realizing what the other boy was alluding to. "Right." He forces out a hushed whisper. This thing between him and Hedgehog had really taken its toll. Max seemed to be forgetting the simplest things when competing with her. All he wants is for the squabbling to end, but he walks away now he'd be the only one losing.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
"Kid, like I said before. If Michael wants his mail, he has to come get it himself" The monster in charge of the UMPS van that day said to Jason. He might have spent all morning going back and forth with the monster. "Why do you let them push you around kid?"
"Umm," He begins, clearing his throat. "It's not like that. Michaels just... a little busy today" Jason spoke the best he could through his raspy tone. He was still recovering from the little accident between him and Michael.
"Hmm" the monster squints his eyes at the boy that stood before him, and Jason returns a sheepish smile. "Yeah, he always is, huh kid?" The monster sighs. "Okay, here you go." He hands Jason a package and a letter belonging to the pink-haired koala. "But let him know this is the last time, alright."
Jason nods to the monster and turns to walk back to Michael's. When he sees Max and his group approach the UMPS van with Pepper and Oscar taking the lead, he gets the urge to stop and chat with them. Jason knew he shouldn't. His bad ideas were typically worse in execution than on paper. Then again, it was Max, he always liked being around the bat.
As they pass, Jason gives in to his urges to walk over and say hello. Max who despite looking rather annoyed, for whatever reason, was still a welcoming sight to the boy.
He walks up to the seemingly distracted bat to greet him. "Hey, Max." He lets out the small greeting as softly as he could through his raspy voice. His throat was still in pain. Over a short period, the pain had only gotten worse. He didn't want to before, he thought he could just wait for the pain to fade, but if it continued like that, he'd have to go see the camp nurse.
"Oh, uh... hey Jason" Max snaps out of his own thoughts to greet the purple-haired boy. "How's it going?" The bat looked troubled and constantly back and forth between Oscar and Hedgehog.
Jason rubs the front of his neck before speaking. "It's going good. I'm just picking something up for Michael." He said. He was barely able to say a few words at a time but managed through the pain.
Max doesn't look exactly pleased with hearing that Jason was picking up Michael's stuff for him. "Why?" He asked plainly, bringing his eyes off his friends and planting them solely on Jason. "Why are you still doing things for that lazy bum?" He wonders out loud. Jason could tell that Max was confused as to how he could even stay friends with Micheal, especially after everything recently. Jason wonders the same thing if he were honest.
"It's no problem. He's just busy you know." Max scowls at him. That wasn't the answer he wanted out of the boy.
"I mean..." Max steps closer to him and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Why don't you just stand up to him?" Max speaks quietly but is no less concerned for Jason. "He doesn't own you. You're not his toy, you're not his boyfriend. So why?"
Jason blushes at the ladder statement. "I-I don't know." Is all he could manage to get out. He didn't know why. Well, he knew why, but he didn't know why. Love or not, Micheal was clearly a bad person.
As they fall into awkward silence a burst of energy suddenly erupts from Oscar who had been next to Pepper the entire time.
"Guys, guys! We got it let's go!" Oscar yells to the group and a light bulb appears to go off in Max's mind.
"Hey. why don't you come hang out with us?" Max offered though Jason wasn't sure. He still had to give Micheal. "Come on just." Max groans. "At least come hang out for a little. Then I'll walk with you back to Michaels afterward."
Jason took a second to consider the proposal. Naturally, he'd agree to go along with them. "Okay... yeah, sure." Things between him and Michael couldn't possibly get worse anyway, he tells himself that a lot. Most likely just wishful thinking on his part.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
"Alright! I can't wait!" Oscar screams as Max sets up the game console on a borrowed tv they had gotten from Betsy who had urged to keep the entertainment to a minimum to not arouse Susie's suspicion. Though with how much Susie slept during the day, no one was particularly worried. "This is gonna be so much fun." Oscar could barely contain his excitement. He would be playing a game with some of his closest friends. If only he could play with the camp as well, but this would do.
"Alright Oscar, calm down boy," Hedgehog said, petting the elephant on the head until he had come more down to earth.
Oliver looks on in amazement. How could she have done that he thinks to himself. The bond they shared was either some of the strongest he's seen, bordering on unbreakable or Oscar was just really a well-trained pet, disguised as a kid.
He needed a bond like that with her. It almost made him jealous, but he understands why it is the way it is with her and Oscar. They Had been together since they were babies, so they were basically brother and sister. There was nothing he could do about that, but he was fine with where he and Hedgehog were now.
"Alright done," Max said, turning on the tv and game console and handing over control of the rest to the little panda boy. He already had a few games he wanted to play in mind and the first one for him was a no-brainer.
"A- a fighting game?" Oscar stammered when Pepper pops the disk into his console. He wasn't very good at fighting games; he wasn't very good at most games, but he always loved to play anyway. There was something about fighting games though that just didn't click with him.
Max noticed the boy's discomfort and took it upon himself to move in to try and soothe him. "Don't worry man." He puts an arm around Oscar "It'll be fun."
Hedgehog pouts in frustration. She could see what Max was doing all too clearly. She moves to Oscar's side opposite from Max and grabbed hold of Oscar's arm. Despite promising to be the bigger person, she acts just as petty now as she did when the day began.
"Yeah, Oscar it's gonna be really fun." She pulls Oscar closers to her while Max did the same. It was certainly a spectacle to behold, like two lions fighting for the same territory. Oliver just rolls his eyes at the two before stepping in. He has to break this up now.
"Alright, guys any more of this and you're gonna rip him apart." They both let go turning away from each other with crossed arms not wanting to admit that the other was wrong. They were honestly acting like annoying babies. Wait, was he starting to sound like Susie? All this bickering was no good for any of them.
"Can we play now?" Pepper interjects want to put this tension behind them and Oliver couldn't agree more. "Plus, if there's something wrong, you could always settle it on the battlefield." Pepper points at the game waiting to be started. He was right. It was time for them to settle this dispute of theirs.
"Alright, so it's gonna be Hedgehog versus Max, Oscar versus Jason, and Oliver versus me. winner gets bragging rights and dibs on the game for the rest of the day." Pepper proposed.
"Works for me," Jason said. He didn't think he'd be spending time with people he had almost done something awful to or was forced too at least. This group seemed to be really friendly with each other. If he weren't counting Hedgehog and Max's recent outburst, these were the kind of friends he wanted. But something was keeping him with Michael, and he didn't want to admit what it was. "But who's going first?"
Oscar vs Jason
The first match-up was between Oscar and Jason they both had picked their character based on their look rather than their skill of themselves. Since they both weren't the fighting game type, they were a perfect match.
"Don't worry Oscar I'll go easy on you," Jason said playfully as the round began. Although Oscar was never the biggest fan of fighting games, he always found mashing any button he could see to be a sound strategy for any game he played. For Oscar it was all light punches, no specific combo strings, no special moves, the boy didn't even move from his one spot. Just stood in place as Oscar's chosen character spastic punches. The most jarring part was that Jason couldn't get around it. "I- I lost!" Jason cried. "I seriously lost dude. That's wild." Oscar's button-mashing tactic had worked. Jason was barely able to do anything about it, even though he knew some of the moves every time he got close there would only be a flurry of punches and kicks awaiting him.
"What can I say." Oscar leans back. "I'm just that good." He bragged with a smug expression on his face. "So, who next?"
Pepper vs Oliver
This time there was a bit of a miss match. Everyone thinks it didn't seem fair that Pepper had to go about against someone way older than himself. Surly Oliver would take it easy on him. That is until their characters were picked, and the round had started. What happened next was a bit of a blur for Oliver and the rest of the group honestly. At the start he was holding his own against the panda, even taking the first round. However, once the next round began it became clear that Oliver was the one at a disadvantage and the round after that was even worse. Pepper was no pushover. He had known all of the special moves and combo strings with his chosen character. Suffice it to say, it was a blood bath.
"Next." pepper said, smugly calling on the last two challengers.
Max vs hedgehog
"Hay Max. Why don't we make this more interesting?" She turns to him, a hint of malice in her voice.
"Yeah, like what?" He was curious and a bit afraid at the same time. but he had to know what she had in mind.
"Let's say the winner gets to have Oscar for the next three days and the loser has to go off to do something completely separate from the rest of the group." She proposed the deranged offer to him. He thinks it's insane and that he'd be stupid for accepting that. Though on one hand, if he wins, he would have Oscar to himself for three whole days giving him more time to bond with his secret love. But one the other if he lost that wouldn't be happening. Even though he was terrible at admitting his feelings, he never wanted to spend a second away from the other boy.
"What's the matter? Not up to the call?" He was scared but her picking at him like that only made his blood boil and his thinking rash.
"Deal." He agreed without a second thought and only thought it may have been a bad idea after picking their fighters but there was backing down now. Forfeiting was still losing. Before they could get to virtually beating on each other, however, the door to Pepper's cabin came flying open.
"There you are Hedgehog." Betsy had come barging in "I've been looking for you. Somethings come up just recently and I could use the help."
"Uh, what!?" Hedgehog yelled, hopping up from her cross-legged position on the floor. "But Betsy I-" she was cut off when Betsy grabbed her by the arm, guiding her out of the cabin.
"No time to explain, just come." She said in her usual kind, polite tone while holding a heavy grip around Hedgehogs arm. "It's for the drive's finishing touches and all. So, on the double young miss." Besty makes it sound like it was an urgent matter so Hedgehog wouldn't complain. Max had gotten lucky again, but that luck was sure to run out in time.
