"Hello, Neil."

The child Max was referring to wasn't paying enough attention to notice that Max had walked in a while before he started talking.

"Hey," he replied, disinterested. He was too engrossed in this book he found to continue any time-worthy conversation.

When he saw that Neil had refused to look up when speaking to him, Max waddled on over to his bed, and plopped his brand-new sheets on to it. He spread them all out across the cot, tucking in the sides neatly and making sure the pillow was straight and smooth before he even thought about continuing.

When Neil finished a chapter, he looked up from his book, and saw how professional Max's side of the room looked compared to his. While it was bland and didn't show off much of his own interests, it still shows that one if the people on here actually cared about how it looked in case anyone ever saw it

"So," he tried sparking up another stellar conversation, slowly closing the book he was reading, "What camp were you signed up for?"

Max looked through his backpack.

"This one?" He pulled something out, examined it, and put it back in.

"No no, which camp?"

"I'm staying at the same camp you are."

"Science camp?"

"Wh-" he looked at him to show how confused he was, "no. This is Camp Campbell."

"Have you not been signed up for one?"

"I was signed up for this camp."

"What-"

"I'm confused." He muttered, rubbing his eye.

After a brilliant moment of realization, Neil took the next few minutes to explain how the camp worked. How it was a trap, and that the brochures on display were designed to trick the parent into thinking that their kid would get into a specific camp instead of a camp alongside many other camps. He expressed how much he wanted to spend this summer in an air-conditioned laboratory, rather than staying at some, quote, 'shithole.'

After Neil got quiet, Max waited a few seconds to make sure that he was done talking before speaking out himself.

"So it's some sort of... Camp Camp?"

"I guess? What did your parents sign you up for?"

Neil watched Max's once calm expression turn into one of anger.

"Daniel is not my dad." He muttered.

"Okay, okay."

"And uh, I wasn't signed up for anything."

"What?"

"Yeah. Daniel just saw that a camp needed a new counselor, and... I came along." He turned away again to face his backpack, "But it doesn't really matter. I'm not really good at any of the activities they have available."

"What are you good at?"

Max pondered for a moment.

"I can play the violin. Daniel taught me how."

"I'm sure there's a shitty music program you could get enrolled into."

"I don't own a violin, though. There's no point."

"You could always learn to play guitar from Dav-"

"No." He cut off.

"What?"

"I'll just stay camp-less at the moment. No need to rush into things." He laughed nervously, jumping on to his bed just for the sake of laying there.

Max didn't remember the last time he planned on sleeping in an actual bed instead of the front seat of a car. Daniel always loved traveling, cleansing camps in the span of a day or less so that they'd be back on the road as soon as they could. Max didn't enjoy it as much as his colleague did. He hated it. If he needed to sleep, he always did it in the front seat, and always woke up with a pain in his neck from uncomfortably leaning his head against the window for support. If he trusted Daniel's driving skills, he would've considered sleeping in the backseat, hoping that they wouldn't hit the wrong speed bump and kill him.

After a while of appreciating the existence of beds, Max actually got ready to go to sleep.

Before he dumped the contents of his jacket pocket into the front of his backpack, he made sure to place his 'inhaler' by his bedside in case he would need it in the middle of the night.

He was very reluctant on taking off his jacket. There were cuts and bruises on his arm from fighting off children not that long ago, and just the thought having it out in the open for anyone to ask about made him feel more than just uncomfortable. Thankfully, Neil didn't seem to care about what Max was doing on his side of the room while he was putting stuff away. He easily put away all his sharp toys without getting in trouble.

Max pulled out the fuzzy and matted teddy bear that he had for the longest time.

"You still sleep with stuffed animals?" Neil asked.

Max looked up at Neil, who was now finally looking away from his book.

"No..?" He stretched the word out long enough for him to put it away again.

"I'm not going to tell anyone."

Max narrowed his eyes, but pulled it back out so that he would be able to sleep with it during the night.

"Are you finished reading?" Max asked, ready to turn off the lantern at any moment.

The boy sighed, bookmarking and closing up the page he was on.

"Yeah."

"Goodnight, Neil."

"Night Max."

The light shut off, and both of the kids in the tent pulled a bed sheet over them before drifting off into a peaceful sleep.