About an hour later, we were all gathered in the mess hall, listening to David telling us about today's first camp activity. "Alright everyone!" he exclaimed, cheerful as always. "Today we'll be doing something very special. Poetry!" Everyone (myself included) groaned, with Max's being the loudest. David rolled his eyes playfully in response. "No need to whine, this is fun! You'll be writing a poem about your favorite word. This can be a hobby, an animal, a movie, anything you like!" David continued to explain while Gwen started handing out lined papers and pencils to everybody.

I looked over at Preston, who was standing about a foot away from me trying to fix his dark auburn hair with a comb. I haven't had the chance to apologize to him yet, but he actually didn't seem that bothered with me. Maybe he forgot about it?

"Harrison!" Preston suddenly exclaimed. "Do not think what happened this morning went by unnoticed!"

Or not.

"One does not simply walk out on moi, Preston Goodplay! I shall not tolerate such a crime." Preston delicately spoke, pointing his comb at me. He then inhaled deeply before sighing. "But, you are my best friend. My noble companion in times of glee and grief. So that is why.. I suppose I could let it slide this once."

I softly gasped. "Wow, thanks Preston. That's uh, very kind of you."

"Yeah I know, I'm so forgiving and benevolent. A gift to the world. Spare me the details." Preston bragged, looking at his nails. "Moving on, I suppose we should get started on this 'poetry' thing.. Do you think 'Lams' counts as a word?" I gave Preston a confused look, raising an eyebrow. "And Lams is.. who exactly?"

Preston facepalmed in irritation, shaking his head. "Do I really have to explain it to you? Again? I've only told you a million times! Lams is a ship! A ship is like peanut butter and strawberry jam: good one it's own, but beautiful when together. You still following me?" I simply smiled and nodded as if Preston hadn't just spouted nonsense. "Good. Anyways, Lams consists of two people. There's John Laurens, who I'm assuming is the strawberry jam, because he is sweet and.. has freckles..? The other one is Alexander Hamilton, he's the peanut butter, because he is.. peanut.. buttery? Yeah I don't know, but that's why—"

While Preston kept talking about his 'ship', I tuned him out and started to think for myself. Considering he had a tendency to get off topic quickly, I wasn't missing out on anything important. My thoughts however were soon interrupted when I heard Preston say, "Speaking of which, there she is." He pointed in the direction of the something he was talking about. Or in this case, someone.

Nerris.

I couldn't help but stare at the elfkin girl. She had these beautiful cyan eyes that I kept finding myself get lost in. And a bright smile that lit up the room. I didn't care how cliche it sounded, it was just the truth.

"Harrison? Are you there?" Preston waved his hand in front of my face, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking again." I quickly apologized. Preston sighed as he rolled his eyes. "It's Nerris again, isn't it?" The tone in his voice made me groan in denial, blood rushing to my cheeks. "Come on, you've been drooling over her all day. How hard can it be to just talk to her?" I looked over at Preston, crossing my arms. "Have you seen her? She's way out of my league. Besides, she hates me, remember?" I reminded him. Preston gave me a confident smile, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Fret not my comrade. For I, Preston Goodplay, shall help you on your quest to win the girl's heart." A gasp escaped me at those words, a spark twinkling in my eyes. "Really??"

"Of course! I happen to know a thing or two about flirting." Preston chuckled. "It's all about patience. You just have to wait for the right moment to strike, and BAM! A chemically imbalanced romance shall blossom forth."

"So what do you think I should do?" I asked him, shrugging. "Well," Preston scribbled some stuff on the piece of paper that was handed out to us earlier. "Considering you two aren't the best of friends, why don't you tell me a little about your 'relationship' with her." Except for his use of words, I didn't see anything wrong with that. I let out a heavy sigh and gave in.

"Well for starters, I feel so confused. I mean, Nerris says that we're enemies, but then again we do have our similarities. Sometimes we get along, sometimes we don't. She keeps sending me these mixed signals of which I don't know what to do with."

Preston was taking notes which I actually found pretty funny. "And how does that make you feel?" I just looked at him with a bored expression. "I already told you, I feel confused."

Preston nodded his head in an understanding manner. "Now tell me about Nerris, what do you know about her?" I looked down at the ground and felt my face get warm. "Well, Nerris is definitely something. There's nothing like her smile, sort of subtle, and perfect, and real. I bet she doesn't even know how wonderful that smile can make someone feel."

"Very poetic, Harrison." Preston remarked, writing it down. "Please continue."

"Well, whenever she gets bored she scribbles stars on the cuffs of her jeans. And she likes to fill out the quizzes that they put in those teen magazines."

Preston wrote everything I said down on the paper. "Alright.. and are you planning on telling her what you just said?" I dismissively shook my head at the question. "No thank you. I'd rather keep it all inside my head. Just leave it unsaid, you know?"

"And why is that?" Preston inquisitively asked.

"I mean, I want to. I really do! But I just can't find a way-" I stopped mid sentence when I realized what I said.

A smirk spread across Prestons face. "I think we've figured out the problem. You have feelings for Nerris." This time, there was no point in denying it. I really did have feelings for her. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but.. I think you're right." Preston gave me a stunned look, gasping dramatically. "Did you just admit I was right?"

"Don't get used to it.", I said in a joking but serious manner. Just because he was right, didn't mean he got to rub it in my face. "So what do I do now?"

"Now's the part where you go and talk with her." Preston explained. "Get to know the girl!"

"But what if it doesn't work? What if I make a fool out of myself?" I said, starting to worry again. Preston carefully placed a hand on my shoulder and gave me a reassuring smile. The only thing I could do was sigh in defeat. "Fine, I'll talk to her..."

"Later."

—

When the first camp activity of the day was finally over, we had a free hour for ourselves before we were going on a hike. Preston insisted on going back to our tent to work on his new Beauty and the Beast play, and I simply followed him without any objection. I was pretty much entirely quiet on the way to our tent. There wasn't really anything to talk about, and I'm not that big of a talker. Preston on the other hand was rambling my ears off about Hamilton, although he was pretty much talking to himself at this point.

We were about to walk past Nerris' castle, when I heard a voice coming from inside. Without thinking, I let my curiosity get the best of me and stopped to listen.

"76 damage points! In your face Mr. Waffles!"

It sounded like Nerris was playing some sort of game with herself. Probably one of those fantasy role-playing games of hers. I was about to continue heading to my tent when Preston got an idea. "You know, this looks like a perfect opportunity to talk to her~" he cooed, stepping up beside me. I glared at him, dismissively shaking my head.

"Why not? Come on, what do you have to lose?"

"Uhm, my dignity maybe? My image? My self respect?"

Preston crossed his arms. "Oh don't be dramatic. That's my thing. And besides, you have none of those thing, so you should be fine."

"Gee, thanks Preston."

"What are you guys doing?" another voice asked. Preston and I looked up to see Nerris looking right at us. "Nothing! Nothing at all!" I quickly blurted out. "What about you..?" Preston glared at me in confusion, and I could literally feel him sending me a telepathic facepalm.

Nerris tilted her head, staring at us with a curious glance. "Well I was playing Pokémon TCG with Mr. Waf— I mean with myself. But I was actually about to stop." she explained, slightly pushing up her glasses. It was then that Preston got an even better idea.

"Fear not madame, for Harrison here would love to accompany you." Preston spoke, bowing elegantly as he did so. My eyes went wide and I almost had a mini heart attack right there. Glaring at Preston, I shook my head and mouthed the word "No" over and over again, but that didn't stop him from covering my mouth with his hand.

"I don't know if that's a good idea." I knew for a fact that Nerris was just saying that to be nice. Which was strange, considering she normally would've been mocking me by now. "Besides, I don't think you know how to play and I'm not in the mood to explain it to you."

Preston scoffed. "Nonsense! Harrison here loves playing Pokémon! Especially the trading card game. He simply won't stop talking about it." Nerris skeptically raised an eyebrow, but then shrugged. "Well if you know how to play, I guess it's okay. Come on up." Preston gestured at me to enter the castle. "Well? Don't keep the lady waiting." he said, giving me a push in the back.

"But I don't even know how to—"

"Just go!" he commanded, pointing at the door. Without further hesitation, I opened the castle door and entered the tower. As I slowly make my way up the stairs, I feel my hands getting sweaty and aggressively start wiping them off on my pants. I take a deep breath as I try to clear my mind.

This wasn't going to go well, was it?