"𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍 𝐎𝐅 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐃𝐀𝐘."

Day One: Paintball showdown

A/N: this is my custom made S5, this is a slow burn book, and will contain mostly dialogue. I will be making a Spanish version of this once I'm done with this!!
(English is not my first language, I am from Argentina.)

(Taken place in MAX's POV)
Woah, woah, WOAH! Where did the camp find the funding to stay up for the next summer?! How?! When?! Well...let's take a small trip down memory lane, shall we?

—

It was August 17th, 2018. The camp corp bullshit was over with..for the most part. Something felt..wrong. Missing. Incomplete. At least that's how it felt to David.

David was chatting with Gwen when we heard a familiar voice and a car door shut.

We all ran towards the sound, and I wanted to laugh at the stupid remark Campbell made.

"You said we were going to the PARK!"
Yeah..that line stuck with me for a while. ANYWAY!

A few lines of dialogue later. Blah, blah, blah,
Conversation was boring until the FBI agent said that David was now in charge of the camp. And I've heard this is just a rumor..and I'm 69.420% sure that they forced Campbell to give half of his money towards the camp. So now we have ACTUAL plumbing!! And food that looks slightly more edible. The mashed potatoes stayed the same though. Quartermaster said he'd slice us in half if we threw that recipe out the window...creepy guy. Never really liked him.

And that's how we're here today..first day of camp in 2019. God this is gonna suck....
————————
OHHHH~
There's a place I know that's tucked away!
I place where you and I can stay! Where we can go to laugh and play, and have adventures EVERYDAY!
I know it sounds hard to believe...
But guys and gals it's true!!
Camp Campbell is the place for me and you!

We'll swim through lakes and climb up trees
Catch fish, bugs, bears, and honeybees!
There's endless possibilities, and NO, that's NOT hyperbole!
Our models Campé diem which that means I'm telling YOUUUU!!!!!!

We've got-
Archery
Hiking
Search and rescue
Biking
Horseback
Training that'll save you from a heart attack
Scuba diving
Miming
Keeping up with rhyming!
Football
Limbo
Science
Stunting
Pre-calc
Spaceships
Treasure hunting
Bomb defusal
NO REFUSAL!
Fantasy
Circus trapeze
And fights
And ghost
And paints
And snakes
And knives
And chess
And dance
And weights-
ITS CAMP CAMP!!
——————-
THIRD PERSON POV

The sun was shining, radiating it's hot rays onto the camp grounds. The birds were chirping, and the campers were all asleep.

David had woken up fifteen minutes ago, and now he was in the mess hall, sipping a cup of coffee.

"Good morning, Gwen! What campers cool activity are we doing today?" David piped, walking over to his fellow co-counselor.
"Well today..We got Ered's activity." Gwen replied, looking over at the clipboard.

"Awesome! What a great way to start out the week! With a..PAINTBALL FIGHT??" David placed his hands on his face, he wasn't looking forward to cleaning up the camp after a paintball fight.
"Relax, it'll be fine." Gwen dismissed, handing David one of her anxiety meds, David taking it gladly.

A few minutes later, the campers started to wake up. Starting with Space kid, then dolph, and slowly the campers arose from their comfortable slumber and into the uncomfortable seats of the mess hall.

Max of course woke up last, and he sat down between his two friends. Nikki and Neil caught on right away that something was wrong. Max acted the same, but he didn't look the same.
He looked..anxious? Was that the way to put it? Probably not. But they couldn't put it in other words.

His hair was rather disheveled, the tag of his shirt was visible from his hoodie, meaning he had put his shirt on backwards. And the entire day he just seemed on edge.

He seemed nervous and anxious until the activity. He actually wanted to participate?? What kind of angel possessed max?? Nikki stared at him as if he was a different species for the entire day, Neil tried to figure out what was wrong, but max was stubborn as ever.

DURING THE ACTIVITY...

It was a free for all kind of thing, no alliances, no cheats, nothing but a paintball gun and some paint. The only two ways to get eliminated were if you ran out of paint or if you got hit.

"HAHA! GET ELIMINATED BITCH!" Nurf shouted at dolph as he shot paint at him.
"Ack! It appears I have been hit!"
"Yeah, now scram."

After an hour, the only campers left in the game was Max, Nurf, and Ered.

Max hasn't been seen throughout the entire game..well he has. Nobody knew that though. Having poofy, black hair really helped him blend in within the shadows. It was a stupid idea...but it worked! And now he was gonna get both Nurf and Ered.

Max crept around and found his way back to the camp, while he was wandering around, Ered had taken down Nurf. So now it was just Ered VS Max.

They both met eachother at the middle of the camp, ered was confused, and max was getting his aim ready.

"How are you still in game?"
"I have advantages you don't consider. Now do you want me to shoot you now or do you wanna play fair?"
"Play fair, no duh."
"Then hurry up and try to shoot me before I shoot you first."

The two circled the main area of the camp before they both started to shoot paint at eachother, actively dodging while doing so. It was harder to hit max because of his height, and they also weren't allowed to hit eachother in their private areas, or in the head. So that mad Max an even harder opponent to go against.

Ered was tall, it was easy to hit her. But goddamn was she flexible. Max had a million questions going through his head, like how fucking often does she go through these types of situations to be able to dodge every single shot?? And it just pissed max off even more knowing he won't get the answer.

This dodging and shooting thing went on for a few more minutes, that was until they both hit eachother in the chest with paint.

"Motherfucker!"
"Oh, cmon!"

For once max felt..happy? No..excited? He couldn't tell what it was. But it was probably a "Temporary feeling." And he brushed it off without a second thought. Him and Ered shook hands, said 'good game to eachother' and all the campers went to the bathroom to wash up.
(At least after they all waited for Preston to get out the shower)

As the day went on, max was surprisingly more cooperative than usual. But maybe that's because he got coffee? Everyone by now had noticed that he was acting weird..or weird to them. Max was acting nicer, more composed. It confused everyone, but god FORBID they actually asked, they liked this max more and they were all trying to get as much as they could out of it.

They were glad max was finally calming down and changing from being angry 24/7...BUT NOT EVERYTHING LAST FOREVER!

During the campfire, nikki had sat down next to max, who was munching on a s'more.

"Hey, Max! Why are you acting nicer?"nikki asked, grabbing a marshmallow and a stick.

And all the sudden, something in Max's head clicked. Like a flip of a switch, it was as easy as that for max to return to his normal attitude.

"The fuck are you talking about? I've been acting the same the entire day." He denied.
"No you haven't! You've been nicer!"
"Nicer? Me?! Who the hell gave you drugs?"
"Aw man...nice max is gone."
"There is no nice max, it's just max!"
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{~1328 words~}