What a handful. (A Camp Camp and Gravity Falls crossover story)

Chapter 10: Snow? In summer?

I watched as all the children stood there, standing in amazement at Harrison's tricks. These weren't sleight of hand, as I already knew. "Boo! Faker!" Nerris said. "For once, I agree with Nerris. Magic isn't real." Neil said, from the other side of the small crowd. Conflict, interesting. I watched as Harrison's smile fell and Eli's face turned a bit red from anger. The poor kid walked off the stage, as everyone started to throw tomatoes at the two. I walked round the side of the stage, following the pair to the backstage area. "Harry, it's not that bad! Who the heck cares what they think?"
"I told you not to call me that. And I care! I care a lot! You of all people should know that, Eli."
"Yeah but you shouldn't care, they don't know the first thing about magic. E-except Nerris...hehe Nerris..."
Seriously, was anyone straight in this place? I continued to listen to them arguing.
"Nerris! Yes! It's always them, she hates me! She hates me so much, she brings up Charlie whenever she can."
"But...you...you can't really hold that against them..."
"YES I CAN! SHE KNOWS HOW GUILTY IT MAKES ME FEEL, SHE KNOWS! SHE JUST DOESN'T CARE! I MADE CHARLIE DISAPPEAR AND SHE KNOWS THAT! I don't even get why you like them so much. She's an awful person."
I stepped into the room. "Is everything okay in here? I heard yelling."
Harrison went pale and wide eyed. "H-how much of that did you hear..?"
"I only came backstage now.",I lied. He sighed a breath of relief, wiping some tomato off his arm. I tilted my head. "Hey you look a lot like me." I said. He looked down at himself, and then back up at me. "Yeah, you're right. We do look alike." Eli has exited the stage at this point, presumably to go watch another movie. "So I have a question about Eli..."
"Yes, their pronouns are they/them, yes their powers are real and no I don't know what they are." He answered, almost annoyed. I was surprised. "How did you know I was going to ask the last question?" I said in disbelief. "Because I get asked those three questions a lot. I don't know why everyone asks me and not my sibling themself, Eli's really quite harmless. Usually." I shook my head. "Okay, they're harmless by choice. If they wanted they could probably break the earth." Well that was good to know. "Interesting. Can you keep a secret?" I didn't even mean to say that, it just slipped out. "Y-yeah...well it depends on the secret. But I'll try my best to keep it." He replied. I was not ready to tell him anything just yet. "Uh, never mind. It doesn't mat-"
"IT'S SNOWING!" Preston burst into the room. "Oh hi Harrison!" He said, smiling. He tried to lean on the wall but missed and fell over. "Hey Preston. Me and Bill were just talking." Preston picked himself up from the floor, brushing himself off. "Well! In case you wanted to...y'know...build snowmen or ice skate or something...it's snowing!" I pushed Harrison and Preston outside. "Go play, have fun bye!" I yelled at them, shutting the curtain. I clicked my fingers and instead of my usual yellow and black suit and bow tie, I wore a brick pattern yellow sweater. I do say, I always try my best to look fashionable. I walked outside, and saw exactly what I expected. Ered and Nerris ice skating, Nurf, Preston and Dolph in a snowball fight, Harrison building a snowman, and space kid, Mabel and Nikki were making snow angels. Max and Neil were talking with Pine Tree. Oh yeah, Pine Tree! I had completely forgotten about him. I felt my shoes crunch onto the snow as I looked for Eli. David was inside the mess hall, yelling about something. I didn't even need to use my powers to tell that, the door was wide open. Also his voice was ear piercingly high pitched. I made my way to the mess hall, occasionally getting hit by a snowball. Great, more pain. I walked into the hall, only to see David sitting on a bench with his head in his hands. I sat down next to him. "What's wrong David?" Calling him Davey didn't feel right so I just stuck to David. I heard sobbing coming from the roof. "Oh, Eli's locked the attic door again. This is what I wanted to talk to you about." I was confused.
"I'm listening."
"Well Eli's brother Harrison...you've met him right?" I nodded my head and David sighed. "Harrison had an...an incident a couple years ago.Their brother, Charlie was um...Harrison made him disappear." Oh no. I knew where this was heading. "So after that, Harrison was shamed for it. Apparently it was an accident but I wasn't there so I wouldn't know." I nodded as David glanced at the attic door. "Their Mum and Dad were both busy with Harrison so they didn't notice as Eli made magical developments as well. After they did notice as well as 7 exorcisms that didn't appear to work, they stuck with the simplest solution. Locking Eli in the attic. When they were very young, they were exposed to really graphic and violent movies. Horror movies were a form of escapism for them I guess. So every time they're homesick they'll lock themselves in the attic. The most they've ever spent in there -at home anyway- was 12 days. In a row. That's not to say that Harrison wasn't mistreated as well. It's just that Eli's form of parental abuse was...different. Harrison's was emotional, yet Eli's was physical. They were sometimes starved or hit. The only reason I know this is because I heard them both talking about it." There was a thump from the attic. The crying had stopped. I secretly clicked my fingers behind my back, and the lock was unlocked. I saw David pull a chair over to the door in the roof, and stand on it so that he could reach. He opened the attic and climbed up. He came back down, holding the small child. They appeared to be sleeping. "Eli? Are you okay?" They opened their eyes and nodded. They glanced at the window, and started floating towards it. "It's snowing! Why did no one tell me?" They dropped onto the floor, running out the door and face planting into the snow immediately.