-Sky-

"Saturday. Saturdayy. Sa-tur-dayyy!"

"Yes, it indeed is Saturday. How very observant of you, Sky," Freddy spoke into his cereal.

"But it is Saturday!" I said, trying not to start jumping up and down in my seat. Freddy was sitting in front of me and gave me a tired scowl. "We are going camping! All four of us! And Bella!"

Freddy groaned and hit his head on the table, and didn't lift it up. I could hear him mutter something, but didn't bother to ask what he was saying. It was probably something about how much I annoyed him.

"Freddy?" I spoke his name carefully. "Freddy? Please forgive me. I didn't mean to annoy you. Please? Freddy?" He just growled something incoherent. I waited for a moment and leaned carefully closer to him. "I... I don't want you to be upset with me. Please? I want to tell you something."

Finally, he lifted his head up and looked at me. I leaned even closer.

"It's Saturday," I whispered.

"For crying out loud!" Freddy yelled and stormed out of the kitchen, leaving me to laugh alone at the table.

"Are you teasing your brother again?" Mom asked, walking in just a moment later.

"He's so overdramatic," I shrugged and continued eating my breakfast.

"Am not!"

Mom turned to look at me, and mouthed, "Maybe a bit," before she started laughing. "So, camping trip with the group, huh? You must be excited!" she spoke, grabbing a cup of tea before sitting down next to me.

I almost choked on my cereal when I tried to tell her how excited I really was. Soon, I got the milk out of my lungs and could breathe again. "Troy and Luke are coming with us as well! And Bella! It's going to be so awesome!"

"Oh? I didn't know Troy and Luke are coming too," Mom spoke, and stopped to think for a moment. "No, no, actually, I think you may have mentioned it... I have this faint memory of you doing so."

"Yes, yes, I told you a thousand times already," I chuckled. "One day I'll stop being so annoying."

"I truly hope that never happens!" she spoke with an upset voice. "You are my sweet baby boy!"

"Thanks, Mom," I said, rolling my eyes in amusement. "I'm not a baby anymore."

"Oh, you better be," she said sternly, eyeing me. "My sweet, kind, innocent, baby boy. You hear me?"

"Yes, yes, fine. Geez..." I mumbled.

I was a bit ashamed to say it took me almost an hour before I realized what she meant by innocent.

"Oh sweet Mother Nature...!" I gasped, turned bright red, and wished the earth would open up under my feet and swallow me whole.

"Sky?" Max turned to look at me with worry in his eyes. "What did you forget?"

"Nothing, nothing," I squeaked. "Just... Never mind."

I tried my best not to look at Max, but since he was always so worried every time I even breathed wrong – he seemed to think there was a wrong kind of breathing – he made me look at him.

"What's wrong?"

I was not telling him that my mother feared he had taken my v... vi... that thing.

Especially when my dad was sitting right in front of us! We were on our way to pick up Luke and Bella, and then Troy. Dad had promised to take us as close to the Wilkes' farm as possible, and from there, we would continue by walking.

"I just remembered something embarrassing," I muttered quietly, and thankfully, Max took the hint.

He squeezed my hand and didn't let go. Soon we arrived at Luke's, and he was already waiting for us with Bella.

I climbed out of the car as soon as it came to a halt. "Bella!"

"Well hello to you too," Luke chuckled, and let go of her leash when she came running to me.

"Hi, Luke," I said, trying to stay on my feet while Bella made tiny circles around my legs. "This is going to be sooo awesome!"

"I bet," Luke said, hauling his backpack up on his shoulder.

Just a moment later, we had Bella in the trunk with our bags. I was sitting in the front seat, and Dad started driving to Troy's. I could tell my dad was excited to have Luke on board – the captain of the football team. He turned into the worst fangirl the second Luke sat down in the backseat. Luke didn't seem to mind answering my dad's questions, which was nice. He seemed to be in a good mood, but I guessed it was because he would see his dude in a matter of minutes. It was so freaking adorable!

And it got even more adorable when we stopped in front of Troy's house, and he climbed in. After a short moment of hellos, I turned to look back just in time to see the two of them exchanging shy smiles. I felt bad for them since they couldn't be open about their relationship. That was one of the reasons why I asked them to come with us to the farm. There was absolutely no one to see us, so they'd be able to be as open as they wanted.

Since my dad was so eager to talk about football, I stayed quiet and listened to the rest of them. Well, Troy and Max were talking. Luke only spoke a word or two. It took us fifteen minutes to reach the end of the hiking trail, and ten more to get ready to walk the rest of the way.

When my dad finally left, I turned to look at my companions.

"Now you're all at my mercy," I said, clapping my hands together in excitement.

"That's not scary at all," Luke said with a blank look on his face.

"I'll protect you," Troy smiled, patting his back. "Let's get this party started!"

"Yes!" I chirped, and turned around to face the forest. "Onwards!"

I felt happy when they all chuckled at me and started following me through the forest. I'd never had so many friends coming with me! It was going to be so much fun! And, since it was hardly even noon yet, we had the entire day to spend at the farm! And tomorrow as well!

We spent the first five minutes chatting about our projects, comparing how we were doing, how much work we had left, and so on. Then Troy, who was walking next to me, suddenly stopped.

"Right. I think this is far enough," he spoke with a smile, looking around.

For a moment there, I thought he didn't want to come with us after all, but before I had the time to get sad over the thought, he turned around, stepped in front of Luke, and hugged him tightly. Luke hugged him back with a smile on his face, and it grew even wider when Troy looked up at him.

"Hi," he said softly.

"Hi," Luke muttered tenderly, and I turned away to give them some privacy.

I turned to give Max a smirk, and together the two of us continued walking at a slow pace. Max was smiling too and peeked at his friends.

"Stop spying on them," I chuckled, grabbing his arm and pulling him closer to me.

"Sorry," he smirked, and immediately peered at them again. "I'm just so happy for them."

I turned to look at Troy and Luke as well. They were kissing in the middle of the pathway. They had probably forgotten we were there.

"You just like watching them making out," I said, nudging his side with my elbow. "Perv."

"I'm not...!" Max said with a grin. "I can't help it..."

"Should I be jealous?" I asked.

"You? Never!" Max said sternly. "I'd love to watch you more than them, but watching myself would be weird, and I don't want you to kiss anyone else, so..."

"Uh-huh," I laughed. "Perv."

"I'm not a perv!" Max chuckled quietly.

I was silent for a moment, before I looked back at Troy and Luke, who were still exchanging their... greetings. And saliva. "Maybe I'm a little perv as well," I admitted, taking my eyes off them.

Max laughed, and we continued walking. A while later, Troy and Luke joined us again, and this time, they were holding hands. They looked so darn cute together! My heart was melting to see them so happy to be together, and be able to show they were together. Bella was all over us, but she didn't go too far, even though she didn't have a leash on.

Since we weren't in a hurry, it took us almost an hour to get to the farm. I had advised Luke to keep Bella close to us, since the farm was filled with nests with babies in them. I had also told everyone to keep their voices down, so we wouldn't bother the animals.

"We are now in their home," I said with a big smile. "Let's not make them regret letting us stop by."

Max hugged me with one arm and kissed my temple before we continued walking down to the big log where we always set up our camp.

The ground was dry now, and during our last visits, Max and I had built a bit more permanent camping setting for us. We had made a firepit for a campfire, using rocks and sand to make it secure enough, and dragged a smaller log close to it for seats. We had also cleared out a lot of hay, so the tent was easier to set up, and there was enough room for a second one.

"This place looks deserted," Luke spoke, looking around. "Last time Gwen and I were here, this place was much cleaner. A lot of people came here to take a break and swim in the river."

"There's no river anymore," I told him. "There was a landslide two years ago, and it took the road and blocked the river on its way down," I added, pointing to the tall hills looming behind the forest. "We haven't seen anyone around here."

"Yeah, you mentioned it. I don't mind the privacy," Luke said, looking at Troy shortly.

"Same," he nodded.

"We'll be having a lot of that around here," Max said, patting my shoulder. "That's why I love it here. It's so nice and quiet."

"Yes," I smiled, and stopped next to the log. "We can leave our bags here. I think we should start putting up the tents, so we don't have to worry about them later."

I wasn't surprised to see that Luke knew what he was doing when he started helping Max with one tent. I found it funny that I had so much in common with that grumpy guy. Especially since our friendship had such a rough start. It just made me feel so much better about myself to know that I wasn't such a weirdo after all. If the popular football players knew how to put up tents and build campfires and baby talked to their pets, I had nothing to be ashamed of. Soon enough, Troy was one of those who knew how to handle a tent after I taught him everything he needed to know.

"All right," I said, once they both were ready. "Let's get our beds in, so everything will be ready when we want to go to bed."

"And that will happen a lot sooner than you think," Max said. "I'd be surprised if we're still up after nine."

"Nine?" Troy chuckled. "I'm used to staying up after midnight."

"Not here, you won't," Max smirked. "Spending the entire day outside is much more tiring than you'd think."

"Really?" Troy asked, taking a deep breath. "Oh, can we see your owls now?"

"Yes!" I said, making a little jump. "But you have to stay quiet," I reminded them.

"I'll leave Bella here," Luke said, and tied her leash on the log. "You be a good girl now and be quiet." Bella sneezed and sat down, looking important with a serious look on her face. I so wanted to hug her, because she looked so adorable, but she was now following Luke's command.

I started walking to the barn, and the rest of them followed me.

"Watch out for the snakes," Max said quietly, as we passed by a rock where the snakes usually liked to hang out.

"Watch out for what now?" Troy asked timidly.

"Snakes," Luke said. "There's one."

Troy nearly jumped behind Luke, but he didn't let out a sound. I saw the snake Luke pointed at, and kept my distance when walking around it. Troy and Max took a longer path around it, while Luke followed me, shaking his head in amusement.

"It's not venomous," we both spoke at the same time.

"Oh, good," Troy said and relaxed a bit.

"That one is, though," Luke said, looking somewhere at Max's feet.

Max jumped. Like really jumped, letting out a muffled yelp. Troy retreated from him, and suddenly I was crowded by three big football players.

"Luke was kidding. There's no venomous snakes around here," I said, elbowing Luke on his side.

He just laughed.

"You're awful, you know that?" Troy said, but started laughing as well.

Max had to take a moment before he was able to laugh at Luke's little prank. Even then, he kept looking around, trying to see if there really were venomous snakes around. I felt bad for him. No matter how many times we visited the place, he still wasn't able to let his guard down. He loved being there, he had talked about it countless of times, but he was still a bit scared of the dangerous things in the woods. It was, of course, a good thing. It was common sense to stay on alert, but the reason I felt bad for him was that he was ashamed to be afraid.

I let Troy and Luke walk ahead of us so I could hug Max.

"I love you," I told him quietly. "And I'll protect you." Max smiled at me, but he still had that ashamed look in his eyes.

When we stepped into the barn, I gestured for everyone to stop. The female owl was glaring at us on the rafters, but I couldn't see the male anywhere.

"Oh, wow," Troy muttered when he spotted the nest. And the five baby owls that were staring at us, wobbling their heads.

"They are around two or three weeks old," I whispered, and took a couple of pictures of them. "The male is hunting or sleeping elsewhere. He's now in charge of feeding the entire family."

"Is this cool that we're here?" Troy asked.

"We shouldn't stay for too long," I mumbled back. "The female doesn't like us."

"I can see that," Luke murmured.

The female was definitely giving us the stink eye, so we decided to leave them alone shortly after.

"I've never seen baby birds before," Troy said once we were back outside. "Have you given them names?"

I blushed when he asked that. I wasn't sure if it was silly for me to come up with names for wild birds. "Yeah..."

"Cool, what are they called?" Troy asked.

I looked at Max, who gave me an encouraging smile.

"We call the female Jinx. The male is Rocky."

"Aww, I love the name Jinx," Troy cooed, and turned to look back at the barn. "This is so cool."

"Yeah," Luke said, and grabbed Troy just in time when he tripped over a big branch that was lying on the ground. "As long as you don't break your neck."

Troy smirked apologetically and found his balance. "Oh, how about the babies? Do they have names?"

"Not yet," I said, feeling better now that I wasn't getting laughed at. "It feels a bit inappropriate to name them."

"How so?" Troy asked.

"Well, they're not our babies," I said, and now I felt stupid. "It just... feels... wrong... somehow..."

"Okay, I get it," Troy said. "So, what next?"

"We need to find wood," Max said.

"Wood?" Troy coughed.

"Oh, please no," Luke sighed.

"There will be plenty of that in the morning," Troy said, and he was already laughing by the time he ended that sentence.

"Oh my God, that was bad," Luke chuckled.

"Absolutely horrible," I agreed.

"You should be ashamed of yourself," Max added, but Troy was already laughing so hard that Luke had to grab him and keep him up on his feet the rest of the way.

"Wood...! I can't...!" Troy giggled, gasping for air.

"This is entirely your own fault!" Max said, but he couldn't keep his face straight – none of us could. "I meant firewood, moron."

"Firewood!" Troy gagged, and started laughing even harder, if possible.

"Is that supposed to be funny?" Max asked.

"Oh! I get it!" I squealed. "It's like morning wood, but firewood!" I said, feeling proud of myself for getting the joke.

Troy fell down on his knees and rolled over to laugh. Max and Luke stared at me.

"That's it," Max said. "You've been hanging out with Troy way too often."

I turned bright red again when Max grabbed my hand and jokingly pulled me away from Troy. Luke started laughing and easily picked up Troy from the ground. "You need to stop teaching Shrimp bad jokes."

"I can't... breathe!" Troy replied. "This is... too... much...!"

"Deserves you right," Luke chuckled, and Troy just kept on laughing. "Okay, no one says a word until he stops that."

Max and I watched him drag Troy to the log, where they sat down, and Troy buried his face on Luke's shoulder. It took him a long time to finally quiet down, and when he did, he had a drowsy smile on his lips while Luke caressed his arm slowly. Neither of them were in a hurry to move, and Max and I did our best not to disturb their peace.

They definitely deserved all the time in the world to be together, with no one interrupting them.