It Had to be You

Chapter Thirteen: I'm Back Baby

Everyone was headed toward the dining hall. Most people were dressed but Max could see Nikki and Spacekid were still wearing their pajamas as they walked in a sleep deprived haze for breakfast.

Suddenly Max felt someone jump on him and wrap their arms around his shoulders. He felt his whole body recoil at the unanticipated touch, but managed to stay standing.

"Sorry!" Nerris pulled herself off Max, hopping forward to walk next to Max "I just thought you could use a hug."

"Yeah, it's fine, don't fucking worry about it." Max grumbled.

Nerris grinned, showing off her brace covered teeth. "Are you excited for breakfast, I'm starving!"

Max nodded. Nerris looked discouraged for a moment at his response before she shook it off and continued speaking.

"I'm just so excited to be back at camp! I'm going to miss my parents, of course, but it's always nice to be here in nature! With dragons! I asked Mr Campbell if there was dragons, like it said on the flier, and he said yes. It's too bad I haven't seen one though. Honestly, I know it was probably just a scam but it'd still be soooooo cool!"

Max flinched again at the mention of Nerris's parents, but managed to stay composed. "That was definitely another one of Mr Campbell's shitty fucking scams. Have you even met the dude? He couldn't tell the truth if his life depended on it. And it has! Multiple times!"

"Oh well. It'd still be cool." Nerris sighed and dragged her foot across the dirt, making a little divot in the earth. "I think what I'm going to miss most is electronics. Think of all the podcast episodes I'm going to miss! The YouTube videos! I'm going to be so behind!"

Max frowned. "Why don't you just sneak your phone in here, like every other asshole in this camp does? Or steal David's?"

Nerris laughed. "Not everyone can be as much as a delinquent as you Max! Honestly, for the first few weeks, I was terrified of you! But then I actually talked to you a bit and figured out that despite your edgy nihilist persona, you're actually pretty cool. I mean, you've listened to most of my rants about The Adventure Zone and that deserves a fricken medal."

Max blushed a bit, not used to being praised by anyone other than David. "Yeah, whatever." He mumbled.

"I mean it! You may act disinterested, but I think you're just kidding yourself." She winked at Max. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. So what do you think breakfast is?"

Max's response was almost instantaneous. "As long as it's not mush, I will eat whatever." He shuddered the the memory.

"Well it's only like, the second day, so I don't think we have enough leftovers here to make mush anyway. You're probably safe." That was true. Mush was usually a conglomerate of the previous few nights dinners in one unholy mess.

"Maybe bacon then." He said. "I haven't had bacon in forever."

"Yes! Oh my god, bacon sounds amazing!" Nerris looked like she might start drooling any moment. "My mom just went vegan so I haven't been able to eat meat in weeks! I have been craving camp food the whole time. Can you believe it? Craving camp food?"

This made Max laugh a little, although he tried to hide it by turning away. He was pretty sure Nerris caught him though, with the way she was smiling at him.

"Well, let's go find out!" She ran across the clearing, hopping up the steps of the dining hall and bounding inside.

Max walked slowly after her, and stepped inside as well.

The dining hall was only half full, but the other campers were coming in quickly. Max decided to make a run for the breakfast line before it had gotten too long. He slid in behind Harrison, who was practicing his one handed shuffle. Begrudgingly, Max had to admit the move looked pretty good. Back with his parents, he used to mess around with a deck of cards when he was bored. There hadn't been much else to do, and honestly the repetitive motion of shuffling was calming in a way. He had tried the one handed shuffle a few times but had never gotten past even cutting the deck with a single hand, never mind actually shuffling the cards. Harrison, though, holds the cards with a confidence that Max never gained with his self taught tricks. Max doesn't remember this confidence from last year. It's subtle, but Max has spent years learning how to read people. It's something in the way Harrison holds himself now, Max thinks. Last year, if Harrison wasn't performing magic, his posture screamed unsure and apologetic. That kind of posture is gone now, and somehow it's reassuring to see that change laid out in front of him.

Max knew that beneath the casual veil of interests and haircuts his fellow campers must have changed in the past year. But it was still nice to see proof of that in front of him. Max had felt alone in his change, like he was the only one to grow as a person over the year. Not that Max had grown in any positive way, but that almost made it worse. If no one had changed, then Max was the only one left behind. But watching Harrison, Max thinks he can let that go now.

Sometime in his musing, he had made it to the front of the line. Quartermaster grunted impatiently and gestured for Max to hold out his tray. Snatching a tray from the counter he held it out in front of him. Quartermaster dropped some toast and an orange on it before gesturing again for Max to sit down. Sighing, Max walked over to where he saw Neil already sitting. Bacon was too much to hope for anyway.

"So who are you rooming with?" Asked Max as he sat down across from Neil.

Neil grimaced. "Spacekid. He brought his spaceship bed from home and set it up instead of the camp beds. It takes up half the space and glows in the dark. You?"

"Preston."

"Yikes. He's such a drama queen. Has he turned the place into a shrine to the theater gods yet? Threatened you to never say Macbeth?"

"He's actually been pretty chill." Max confesses. "When I first walked in and saw him I thought sleeping with him was going to be far worse of a fucking train ride to shit city. But all he's done is force me to brush my hair."

Neil winces. "That's post brush? He probably did you a favor. You look like someone stuck a birds nest on your head."

"No, I didn't actually brush it. But he did make a valiant effort.

Nikki bounces up to the table, seemingly recovered from her early morning slump.

"What're you guys talking about?" She somehow manages to sound both hyper and spacey as well as entirely focused on their conversation, which has to break some kind of law of the universe.

"Just our roommates." Neil says. "You're with Nerris, right?"

"Yeah!" Nikki practically shouts, "She's been really cool. She let me use her cool rolley things but she did not let me eat them, which I thought was weird, but they're hers I guess, if she wants to keep her rolley candy looking things I guess that's her choice. She says they're dice but dice have six sides so she's wrong and I know that because I got monopoly for my birthday this year and it had dice that came with it and they didn't look like Nerris's dice they were white and boring and Nerris's dice were pretty and all sorts of colors so I thought they were hard candy but I guess not because she wouldn't let me eat them."

She paused in her passionate dice speech to sit down and take a breath. After a moment she seemed to visibly calm down.

"Sorry if I'm a little..." She waves her hands around her head in a way clearly meant to signify crazy. "My mom forgot to bring my adhd meds so I'm going to be off them until David can get me some tomorrow. Anyway yeah, Nerris good."

Neil groans a little, but smiles at Nikki to show he's not mad at her. "Of course I'm the only one with the dud roommate."

Nikki frowned at Neil disappointedly. "Oh cmon. You're just still mad he's named Neil too. Space Kid is nice!"

"Yeah sure." Neil groaned. "But you can't talk until you have to live with him. He put up glow in the dark stars. Glow in the dark stars, Nikki!"

Nikki laughs, and it's more of a cackle then a laugh really, but it's warm and bubbly and Max can feel himself relaxing into the sharp and familiar sound of it. He smiles quietly to himself and begins to eat his toast.

Despite my vaguely melodramatic exit from this story, I went back to it and honestly, all of your comments and support made me really excited to write for it again? I make no promises for consistency or quality, as usual these are written as word vomits at midnight, but I hope you enjoy?