Chapter Text
Owen was NOT good at keeping secrets.
Every surprise party, every movie spoiler, every embarrassing moment, every snuck snack and dessert seconds, it eventually found its way out of his lips and into the world. Usually in between tears and bawlings to his mom for the last part.
But now, here he was, asked about one from Noah.
Owen was internally torn. He knew he shouldn’t lie about this flaw, just be honest and say “no, don’t tell me”. But Noah also looked really upset, and like he actually wanted to open up more. Like he trusted Owen. He didn’t seem to trust anyone else there.
Owen looked down at the sand for a minute, trying to think of what to say.
“.....Definitely, buddy.”
Noah sighed and gulped, looking down at the sand, like he was avoiding Owen’s eye contact. Owen was too, he hated lying to Noah like this, but if it meant that he could understand the little guy better than…really, how much harm could it do?
“Owen.”
The larger boy looked back up to the smaller one. It seemed like now he was about to get the truth.
“I’m trans”, Noah looked back up to Owen, his eyes filled with fear.
There 2 looked at each other in silence for a while, the lake waves and forest rustling serving as the only ambience. Noah’s expression didn’t change, as he tried to look at Owen, figure out what he was thinking. What he was going to say.
“.....What does that mean?” Owen just looked confused.
Noah blinked, staring at the bigger kid. He wasn’t sure what he expected Owen to say, positive or negative, but he wasn’t expecting that he’d have to explain the concept to him.
“...It means I can turn into a car”, Noah slumped into his signature sardonic look.
“WHAT?!” Owen’s eyes beamed. He couldn’t believe it, his new buddy was an alien fighter. “That’s AWESOME! Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Cause that’s not actually what it means”, Noah rolled his eyes and sighed. “Before coming here, I…I used to a girl.”
Owen looked at the smaller kid, confused. “..Really?”
“Yeah”, Noah nodded. “I mean I was born a girl, but…I really didn’t like being one. It felt awkward and I looked like one, but…I didn’t feel like one. But around last year, I realized I wasn’t one. I’m not one. That I’m a guy…I’m Noah.”
“...Ohhhh”, Owen thought about it for a minute, taking it in. “I…is that why you’ve been so hurt lately?”
“Yeah”, Noah looked down at his shoes. “I’m a guy, but my body still hasn’t gotten the memo right now. I..I don’t wanna explain THAT to you, cause…it’s kinda gross.”
“Noah, we laugh at scat”, Owen shrugged. “You can tell me, if you want to I mean. How gross can it really be?”
“Eww”
Beth moved Harold’s foot away from her face. “Go kick somewhere else”, she groggily ordered before drifting back to sleep. Most of the other kids were laid about, almost in an anarchic pile, snoring, kicking, and sleeping.
Most of them, except for 2 kids in the middle of the pile that had not talked since the talent show.
Gwen figured it was just her luck she somehow got put right next to Trent’s sleeping bag. She looked up at the tent with wide eyes and slightly red cheeks, avoiding eye contact as much as she could with Trent.
“....Hey uh”, Trent awkwardly whispered over the snoring. “I uh…it’s actually all chill with the notebook thing.”
“....I don’t know what you’re talking about”, she answered back, hoping he’d drop it.
“No I’m serious”, he pressed on, trying to keep his voice down. “It’s ok if you like me-”
“Look I didn’t want to talk about this in private, I DEFINITELY don’t want to talk about it next to everyone else.”
As if on cue, LeShawna’s arm moved and smacked Gwen across the face.
“I…I just wanna drop it ok”, she turned away from Trent on her side.
“Ok, I will”, Trent turned on his side. “But, can we at least hang out again?”
Gwen looked concerned, but sighed. “Alright, we can do that.”
“YES”, Trent spooked Duncan a little bit who immediately glared at them. “Hey will you two shut up? We’re trying to sleep.”
“Sorry”, Trent whispered. He sighed, trying to sleep, but was still smiling.
—---
“....Woah. That IS gross.”
Owen’s eyes were wide as he took the information in. He looked out at the beach, standing on the cusps of it by some bushes.
“And yet strangely awesome”, he continued. “Like you can bleed that long and NOT die?! That’s like a superpower!”
“I guess that’s the nicest way to see it”, Noah stepped out of the bushes. “Ok I’m done.”
Owen turned around to face Noah as the 2 walked back to the beach.
“So”, Noah looked a bit nervous. “You promise you won’t tell anybody about this?”
Owen gulped. Not just a secret, but a promise on top of that. Like a double whammy of his worst traits. He knew realistically, he should say no. But also, this was the most Noah opened up to him ever. It was a trust there now, and he didn’t want to break that….maybe he could do those two things this time.
“I promise buddy”, Owen crossed his heart. The boys reached their fire, as Owen laid down in the sand, yawning. “Well, I’m gonna get some shuteye now. You good?”
“Yeah I’m fine”, Noah walked a little more away, before lying down on his back on the sand. At least his hoodie would capture most of it away from his skin. “Goodnight Owen.”
“Goodnight Noah.”
“GRRRRRZZZZZZ”
Chris winced as the bear snored in his ear. Shoot from passed out to fallen asleep, now he really wasn’t moving anywhere tonight.
“Man it feels so weird to be under a bear”, next to him the small redhead child piled up. “I mean usually people lie on top of the bear like on those rugs. But now it’s like we’re the rug for the bear. You think this what rugs feel like all the time?”
“Izzy right now I don’t really care about what rugs feel like”, Chris harshly told her. “Right now I’m thinking about how we’re STUCK under a BEAR and can’t get out! What were you even thinking, getting in under me?!”
“Oh”, Izzy shrugged as much as she could under the fuzzy mass. “I dunno. You said we were stuck, but that wasn’t really true. But now it is.”
“You could’ve left!” Chris yelled as much as he could without waking the bear up. “You could've gotten help or slept in the trees or something! Couldn’t you think of something ANYTHING that would’ve made just a little more sense to do?!”
Izzy paused, and looked down at the ground. Chris sighed, exasperated. “God, this is why they always say never work with children.”
“Or animals”, Izzy looked up at Chris. “My family works with both though. They weren’t very good listeners.”
“I can believe that”, Chris snarked, but was intrigued at the meaning. “What do they do, like movies or something?”
“Pfft, nah. They said those are fake. It’s circus stunts that are the real danger.”
“Really”, Chris raised an eyebrow. “So what were you then, like part of the freak show?”
“No, but my uncle joked I could be with my extra toe”, Izzy giggled. “I mean it’s not with me right now of course, but anyway, I was a junior trapezist! I did tightrope, flips, and a lotta jumps and climbs.”
“Huh..ok that makes sense now”, Chris thought back to how she climbed the trees with ease on her first day.
“Yeah, I’m not in it anymore, my parents got a new job but, that’s what my older cousins would say too”, Izzy explained. “They said it was a strict job and there was no time for horsing around, even when we were around the horses. That the entertainment was for the audience, not the entertainers. And that I should make better decisions.”
“.....Really”, Chris thought back to his own childhood.
“But Mom! Those kids look like they’re having fun!”
A young 10 year old boy pulled on his mom’s sleeve, towards a group of boys outside skateboarding and drinking slushies.
“Chris honey, this sweater’s new don’t drag on it”, the older woman pulled her arm away and readjusted the sleeve. “And right now we don’t have time for that stuff, we have to leave for the next tour stop in 20 minutes.”
The young Chris McLean drooped as they walked towards the bus. “Well, could I skateboard in the next town stop? I’ve been seeing some kids do these cool moves that look sick to try out-”
“And risk breaking a bone? Heavens no, we have too many shows for you to go messing up your leg, or worse. You can’t do stuff like that Chris. You have a job, to entertain.”
“But I thought entertainment was supposed to be fun-”
“It’s fun for the AUDIENCE”, his mother corrected. “Not for the entertainers. For us, it is work. Now let’s go honey, we gotta try to beat this Toronto traffic.”
“....Ok Mom.”
Chris thought about his flashback as he looked back at Izzy. She was still smiling, but it was clear in her eyes that smile was faltered a bit by bad memories.
“Well”, he started to say. “I know how that feels kid”
Izzy looked back up at Chris. “You’re still a weirdo”, he continued on. “But, you don’t get a lot of time to be a weirdo and get away with it. So, you keep being that way and have some fun, alright?”
Izzy smiled up at Chris. “Can do Chris!”
“Good”, Chris nodded satisfied. The 2 had a comfortable silence, one that was interrupted fast by a stomach grumbling.
“Man I’m SOO hungry”, Izzy whined.
“Yeah”, Chris chuckled, but remembered something. Doing his best to avoid waking the bear or making too big of movements, he reached into his backpack. It was near the top, just a little bit further.
“A-ha”, he quickly felt the granola bar, and pulled it out of his backpack. Opening it, gently, he saw the gooey mushed together bran. Man he really WAS hungry to make granola look so appetizing. A sentiment Izzy shared as she looked wide eyed at the food in his hand.
Chris looked back at Izzy, and tossed it over to her. “I’m already gonna have trouble sleeping over this bear, I don’t need your stomach on top of it.”
Izzy caught the bar, and looked at it. She looked ready to eat the whole thing in one, before looking back at Chris, squirming under the bear trying to get comfortable. She looked back at the granola, before splitting it in half.
“I won’t sleep with your stomach growling either”, she winked at him and handed half over. Chris scoffed, but took the half anyway.
“Hmmm”
Bridgette fidgeted in the tent, in between so many other campers. She popped her head up above the sleepers, looking around the tent, before getting up.
“Oof”, Ezekiel grunted in his sleep as he felt a kick.
“Sorry”, Bridgette whispered, before reaching one of the CITs
“Sierra”, she nudged the teenager to wake her up. “Sierra.”
“ZZZ-but Officer, the football team should’ve had tighter security-ZZZ”
“Sierra!”
“Bridgette?” The girl turned behind her and saw DJ standing up behind her.
“..Do you need to pee too?”
“Yes”, she nodded furiously. “Like, crazy. I just didn’t wanna go out alone.”
“Me neither”, he held onto Bunny tighter, but looked down at the CITs. They were both still asleep.
“Sierra”, Bridgette nudged again, but that teen was a heavy sleeper.
“What is it”, however, the teen boy next to her wasn’t so heavy.
“Alejandro”, the kids looked at the older teen, yawning and sitting up. “Can you go outside with us?”
“Sure”, he groaned, but got up to leave. Dodging small bodies the best they could, the trio made it outside the tent.
Bridgette looked around the woods nervously. The fire had been out for a while now, only a few small embers remained. Unfortunately, not enough to really provide decent light.
“Don’t worry”, Alejandro pulled out a flashlight from his pocket. Now there was some light to see everything. “Just don’t go too far away, ok?”
The 2 nodded before going off in different directions. Bridgette moved away a bit into the bushes, before hearing something rustling closeby.
“Huh? …Hello”, she nervously approached the noise. “Come on come on”, she could hear small harsh whispers. “Just get in the ground already!”
“Is someone there”, Bridgette asked a little louder, getting closer to the sound. The rustling stopped fast as Bridgette moved the leaves out of her view to see-
“Heather?”
Heather gasped, and quickly moved something behind her back. “Heyyy, Bridgette. Uh-what’s up?”
“What are you doing”, Bridgette peeked behind the girl and saw a dug hole. “Why are you digging?”
“I’m not”, she lied, walking awkwardly with Bridgette’s pace, avoiding her backside. “Must’ve been by some animal already there. I just uh-had some trouble sleeping so I came out here.”
Bridgette tried to look behind Heather’s back, but failed. She walked towards her, the black haired girl walking backwards. “What do you have behind your back?”
“Nothing”, she held one empty hand out, still walking away. “Why are you out here?”
“What’s behind your other hand then”, Bridgette pressed on.
“Also nothing”, Heather switched hands to show the other one, lying badly. “So could you drop it?”
“Heather?”
Heather went wide eyed at the older voice. There was no way he was out there too.
“Heather, what are you doing outside?”, Alejandro asked again.
“Uh nothing”, Heather turned around. There was no way that he just saw that.
“Aha”, Bridgette snatched the mysterious object from Heather’s hand. “What is this?”
“Give me that”, Heather tried and failed to get it back.
“Is…is this a pull up”, Bridgette held it with her fingers. “And it’s wet…are you gonna BURY it?!”
“No-I…it’s not mine”, Heather lied. “I just found it-”
“Heather, do you know how dangerous that is to the environment? It’s like littering, but worse!”
“I wasn’t gonna- I told you it’s not mine”, Heather kept trying to reach it.
“Pardon my rudeness, but actually I think it is yours”, Alejandro butted in. “It says so on your file.”
Heather went wide eyed and looked up at the teen. “You…you know?”
“Yes, your mother wrote it down for us”, Alejandro shrugged. “It’s no big deal, figured there’d be at least one bedwetter still here. Just part of the job kid.”
Heather’s face went red, as she repeated the word to herself. Kid…that’s all he really was gonna see her after knowing that. You know, besides how she’s 11.
“It..it’s no big deal Heather”, Bridgette tried to comfort her. “It happens…I mean when I was still 5 I-”
“Why couldn’t you just drop it?!”
Heather pushed Bridgette back, towards where teh fire used to be. Luckily Bridgette was fine and landed a bit away from the embers, except for a stray that managed to land on the tent.
And of course with how the night was going, it caught on fire, exposing everyone inside.
“What”, Courtney stirred awake, and looked up at the sky. “Hey! What happened to the tent?!”
This caused some of the others to slowly wake up and register the change of scenery as well. As the murmurs started, Heather glared at bridgette, who gulped nervously.
“Nice going”, Heather ran away while she still could to avoid suspicion. And also to go back to hiding.
“Hey thanks Alejan-WOAH!”, DJ walked back from the bushes to see the new mess. “What happened?!”
“The tent burned up”, Courtney answered. “Now we have nowhere to sleep!”
“Well maybe not burned. Maybe it just turned invisible”, Tyler leaned towards where the tarp used to be, before falling on top of Cody. “Ow! Nope. Not invisible.”
Chef sighed as he was forced awake. First he has to go camping, then Chris loses some kids so Chef is stuck by himself. And now, their tent is gone. How could this night get even worse?!
Almost on cue to his thinking, he felt a rain drop on his head. And then another, and another
And then suddenly a downpour.
Oh…so this is how.
“Aw man!”
Owen and Noah quickly moved from their original spot to underneath the trees. It was still a little wet, but not as much as before than on the sand.
“Where did this come from?! There wasn’t a cloud in the sky when we slept”, Owen looked up at the sudden storm.
Noah shrugged. “Summer rains; you can never predict them.”
“Clearly”, Owen yawned, as they got their new shelter. He shivered. “Woof, it’s cold now.”
Noah agreed, slightly shivering himself. Now would be a good time for him to have his blanket, which was still lying in his bunk away from the elements of nature. He looked at his blue hoodie, which was at least a little more protection. Certainly more than what Owen was getting from his camper vest.
“Here”, Noah took his hoodie off, and lay down next to Owen. “Makeshift blanket.”
“Awww, thanks”, Owen looked down at the hoodie, then back to Noah. It was then he noticed Noah was wearing a green shirt with red sleeves. “Wait, you DO have a camp shirt!”
“Huh”, Noah looked down at his newly exposed sleeves. “Oh, oh yeah I do. We all got the same one.”
“I know, I’ve just never seen it on you, just the hoodie and your vest”, Owen pointed to Noah’s chest.
“Oh yeah, I like my layers”, Noah explained. “I’m cold a lot, and I like the pressure on my body.”
“Oh”, Owen thought about it for a bit, before yawning. “Ok…thanks Noah.”
“No problem Owen”, Noah yawned, and started going back to sleep in the rain
CRACK!
Chris stirred a bit from the thunder crack, and looked outside the cave entrance. Rain. Ok so maybe it was a bit of a blessing in disguise he was stuck in this cave, instead of outside.
“Mmm”, he felt something to his side, and looked down to Izzy snuggling closer to him for warmth, as if they didn't already have a massive bear on top of them for that already. She was whimpering a bit in her sleep and moving, like a dog dreaming.
He sighed, and awkwardly patted her head, which seemed to at least calm her down enough to stop moving.
Her hair was gross, Chris found out fast. There were little leaves and woodchips in it, and it felt coarse. But, at the same time, it wasn’t too bad if it got this kid to calm down for the night. Shoot no way would he have thought that 3 hours ago.
Confused, but mostly tired, Chris went back to sleep.
“Chris!”
Chris stirred a bit awake, catching himself mid-drool as Izzy looked up at him.
“Izzy, what is it?”
“Can we keep him?”
“Keep who-”, Chris’ eyes drifted, before coming face to face with the bear, now awake and growling. “OH SHOOT ALRIGHT TIME TO GO!”
The bear roared at the man, and looked ready to attack before-
“NO”, Izzy tapped the bear’s nose. “McGillis, he’s a friend!”
The bear, the named “McGillis” in question, whimpered like a dog would, and deterred in submission.
Chris looked down at Izzy, amazed. She turned back to him. “He woke up a few hours ago, but I taught him some tricks and stuff. We talked about fish and hiking and spaghetti sauces, but he’s actually a sweetie. Isn;t that right McGillis”, she scratched the bear’s neck, who immediately fell into it relaxed and happy. Chris couldn’t believe it. “Can he come back to camp with us?”
“No”, Chris got up, making his way to the exit. “C’mon Izzy, we still need to keep looking.”
“Aww, PLEASE??”
And there they were. The biggest please faces Chris had ever seen. Izzy snuggled close to the bear for maximum effectiveness, the duo’s sparkling wet eyes next to each other to try and change his mind.
Chris looked at them. Of course he would’ve said “not in my lifetime”, but something about seeing this girl, that was previously denied of fun in a trying career, not wanting to have this animal that at least liked her, and it seemed to like him.
“.....He can walk with us back to the campgrounds, but it goes no further than that.”
“Yahoo!!” Izzy hugged the bear tight, excited at the sorta compromise. “Oh! McGillis”, Izzy held up one of the jerky wrappers from the ground. “We’re looking for the guys who had these? Can you track them?”
The bear nodded, and sniffed the ground, walking outside of the cave.
“Ok he’s got the scent. Let’s move out”, Izzy climbed back on Chris’ neck, pointing the man towards the way.
“Oh! It’s this way!”
Owen sniffed the air as him and Noah walked on the beach. Owen knew by the smell of leftovers, he could find their way back to the campgrounds through the sand.
Noah watched as Owen sniffed the air. This big guy was full of surprises, and even though camping was still the last thing Noah would ever want to do…last night wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been.
“Gasp! There it is!”, Owen pointed up to the ledge. Sure enough, Noah could see the camp’s dockside.
“Finally”, Noah actually started running alongside Owen to the beach, the tether between them dragging loosely on the ground. “You think anyone else is back yet?”
“I don’t know”, Owen shrugged as they climbed the steps. “CHRIS? CHEF?”
“MCLEAN”, Noah shouted. “IT’S US! NOAH AND OWEN!”
The boys reached the top, and immediately came face to face on the campgrounds to a bear.
“AAA”, they clung onto each other. “What do we do now?!”
“They’re here”, Izzy popped up on top of the bear’s head to face the boys. “Hi guys! This is McGillis.”
“Uh…hello”, Owen waved awkwardly.
“Uh hi there”, Noah followed suit as the bear gave a massive fang-filled smile. “My, what big teeth he has.”
“All the better to greet you with”, Izzy beamed, before turning behind her. “Chris! We found them!”
“Noah? Owen”, the group saw some rustling through the trees, before Chris stepped out. “Oh thank god you’re still alive! We’re all safe!”
“Yeah luckily for your job we are”, Noah rolled his eyes as he and Owen walked towards the man.
“Oh shoot, you 2 still had that on the whole time”, Chris pulled out a small hook from his pocket, and used it to unhook the tether. “Probably a good thing too, otherwise you’d be lying in the woods the whole time complaining.”
“Oh ha ha”, Noah stepped out of the rope, and looked back at Owen. “But I guess being stuck to this big guy wasn’t the worst thing ever.”
“Aww, I liked being with you too”, Owen hugged Noah tightly to his chest. Noah was taken aback, the wind forced out of him.
“Man that SUCKED!”
The small group was joined by a larger group returning to the campgrounds. The kids were all visibly tired and wet, complaining about the night they had.
“Aw now come on, the rain stopped when the sun camp up”, SIerra tried to lighten the mood in between yawning. “And we all got to be in one big place together under those tree leaves. Uh, right Alejandro?”
“I hate camping even more now”, was the boy’s only reply. “I can’t wait to shower.”
Some of the kids agreed as they walked back to their cabins, exhausted.
Chris raised an eyebrow and looked back at Chef, behind the group struggling with the supplies (or what was left of them) and carrying a sleeping DJ.
“Don’t ask”, was all the larger man said as he walked back over to the faculty cabin. Chris looked on confused, but shrugged. At least it was nice to know someone else had a worse night than him.
“Alright Izzy you know the deal”, Chris pointed to the woods. “Thanks for the help Bear, but you need to go home now.”
“Awww”, Izzy climbed off the bear’s fur and waved. “Goodbye McGillis! I’ll see you soon!”
The bear grunted and waved back, before heading towards the trees into his home.
“Now why don’t you kids go back to the cabins? I uh-I think we’re just gonna call this a rest day for everybody.”
“Good idea”, Owen nodded. He turned back to Noah as they walked. “Hey do you have any real food snacks? I could go for something processed now.”
“As a true naturalist would want”, Noah rolled his eyes but smirked. “If you don’t eat it all, I got this huge bag of pretzels.”
Chris watched as the boys talked, walking back towards their cabin. Something in him almost felt weird, Noah was actually getting along with someone now, someone that wasn’t Chris. And he felt…happy? Geez what was going on? Chris looked away back to Izzy, she was still staring out in the woods where the bear had walked down.
"Hey", Chris got Izzy's attention, and she whipped her head back around to see him.
"Thank you", Chris awkwardly looked at the ground. "For helping me find those 2 knuckleheads. And uh, dealing with the bear. That..that was pretty cool kid.”
Chris suddenly gasped as a small redhead clung into his waist in a hug.
"I liked spending the night out there with you too", Chris could've sworn there was a small teasing tone in that sentence. But instead of immediately trying to fling her off, despite the mud and plants and everything, let her stay there for a minute. Sighing, he ruffled her hair, but in a much lighter way than he would've usually done.
"That'll do Izzy. That'll do."
“Finally!”
Owen munched on some pretzels with zest on his bunk bed. “Man nothing like camping to make you appreciate junk food, I almost forgot how pretzels could taste so GOOD!”
“I didn’t think you’d forget how any food taste”, Noah chuckled as he ate from the bag.
“Well of course I don’t but you know what I mean”, Owen kept munching away. Noah looked up from his book towards his bunkmate, humming to himself as he ate.
Noah looked back to his own stuff, and pulled out a notebook and a pencil.
Dear Mom and Dad,
I’m doing fine. Beyond my expectations, I’m somehow still alive, so there you go Dad.
He smiled, thinking a bit about some of last night.
And Mom…I think I made a friend.