Just another day of the birds chirping, the summer breeze blowing, and Muack peeing into the dirt outside Yuni's tent. Seriously... we have got to professionally train that thing.

Yuni sleeps softly in her cot, phone in hand and journal snuggled into her chest. She had stayed up all night reorganizing her notes and adding some more doodles to their respective pages. She wakes up to an annoyed voice.

"Oh, seriously... Come on! Now my boot's all nasty..." Yuni stretches into a sitting position, yawning. She squints at the sliver of light coming into her tent before the tarp is forcibly shoved to the side. Gwen stands in all her moody glory, a stern frown on her face. "Kid, you really gotta stop going to bed so late. Now, come on. We've got shit to do today..." The counselor does not wait for an answer, grabbing Yuni by the hood and dragging her out towards the mess hall.

"Wait, but what about breakfast? And the bathroom?!" Yuni croaks out.

"That can wait until after the announcement." Gwen tells the girl, setting her right in the front. They stand at the mess hall's entrance in wait.

Now that Yuni takes a look around, she notices Campbell and David off in the distance, a group of kids following behind them. She recognizes the Flower Scouts' colorful hair straight away, as well as the short Wood Scout, Snake. The other two Wood Scouts she didn't know, but Yuni had a sneaking suspicion they knew Max.

It's when they all meet up in the middle that the girls take notice.

"Yuyu~!" Tabii and Erin are the first ones to run up and hug the sleepy girl.

"Ugh, give it a rest!" Sasha groans, still not over the nickname.

Yuni flushes at the contact, suddenly getting very self-conscious and pulling her hoodie over her mouth. "Mm... Hey girls."

Tabii senses the movement and breaks out of the hug. "What's wrong?" She searches the shy girl's eyes for any sign of discomfort. "Are we hugging too hard?"

Yuni shakes her head. "Just got up..." She muffles, feeling her face grow warmer. "Morning breath..."

"Oh don't worry!" Erin pulls out a pack of strong mint gum from her skirt pocket. "Always come prepared." She winks, offering Yuni a stick. Once Yuni pops the gum into her mouth, she continues. "So, have you thought about what we told you?"

Yuni fights the urge to spit her gum out, almost choking on it in the process. She blushes briefly, fanning her face to make it go away faster.

"Oh yeah!" Tabii interjects. "Sasha and Erin told me about your crush on-" Before the Flower Scout could continue, Campbell signals David to blow the trumpet. The volume of it, coupled with how close they were, caused everyone to plug their ears. Yuni swore she felt hers pop.

The Campbell campers file out of the mess hall one by one, starting with Max. Tabii's eyes sparkle at his entrance, finally getting to put a face to the name her troop sisters kept telling her about. "Wait, Yuni! It's hi- Wah!" Before Tabii could finish her statement, she gets leg-swept off her feet by her leader. "Hey! What the hell?!"

Sasha shoots her a look and hisses. "Geez, Tabii, keep a secret! He's literally right there."

Tabii rolls her eyes. "I know tha- Oh em gee, Neil!" As soon as she spots the science boy, Tabii runs off to say her own good mornings.

"And there she goes..." Sasha sighs. She turns back to Yuni. "So, like Erin was saying..."

Yuni holds out a hand to stop her from continuing. "I have thought about it. And my answer remains unchanged. I don't like him that way, and he doesn't like me. Period. End of story." She chews on her gum with more force than necessary, almost biting the inside of her lip on accident.

Erin scoffs, brushing her bangs away from her eye, only to have them fall back into the same position as before. "He's obviously not trying for anything because he clearly has issues that he doesn't wanna tell you about right now."

"You just have to deal with that later when you two get closer. Today, you show him what he's missing out on." Sasha agrees.

Yuni gives the redhaired leader a confused look. "What do you mean? What's today?"

"Good morning, children!" Cameron booms, startling the girls into paying attention. Sasha motions Tabii to join back with the group, the latter leaving Neil with a flying kiss before skipping over to where they were. "Guess who's got two thumbs, diplomatic immunity and is here to host the annual Lake Lilac CAMPOREE!" Campbell flashes two thumbs and points to his face. "This guy!"

The campers all look on with varied levels of surprise and terror. Nikki looks around, confused.

"So do we get breakfast or..."

They do, in fact, get breakfast, just like Gwen promised Yuni. Once everyone is cleaned up and fed, save for the guests, the campers reconvene outside where Campbell proceeds with the explanation.

"The Lake Lilac Camporee is today! And that means you little rascals will be competing in a series of fifteen events! All of which will be submitted by the participating summer camps. The first five will be brought to us by Flower Scout Troop 789! The next five submitted by our neighbors The Wood Scouts! And the last five presented by my very own Camp Campbell campers!" Yuni wonders why the only participating summer camps were the only ones they've ever interacted with.

'Weren't there other camps?'

Sasha raises her hand. "So, like, what do we get if we win?"

Cameron gives her an approving nod. "Great question, little Sally!"

"Sasha." Said Flower Scout deadpans.

"Whatever." Campbell waves a hand dismissively. Sasha rolls her eyes at the disrespect. "We brought in a panel of three unbiased judges, all of whom are more than qualified to score your performances." He gestures to a small table where three familiar strangers sit. Yuni realizes she recognizes them from when they went into town a few weeks back.

David slides in to describe the prize for winning. "The troop with the highest score at the end of the day will go home with the coveted Camporee trophy," He pulls out a hollow tree log with a one slapped to the front of it. "A year's supply of s'mores, and have their picture featured on the front page of the Sleepy Peak Times metropolitan section!"

Max sighs hard. "Well, don't care about that shit."

"You wanna throw this whole thing and roast ants with a magnifying glass?" Neil offers. A pretty mundane thing to do, at least considering Neil.

Max sighs again, this time appreciatively. "That's what I like about you, Neil. You get me." He pats the other boy on the shoulder.

Neil observes the Flower Scouts huddling around Yuni, seemingly whispering to each other about something. He narrows his eyes. "You ever wonder why the Flower Scouts hang around Yuni so much?"

Max shrugs. "Not really. But it is suspicious."

The campers hear Pikeman clearing his voice. "Excuse me, Mr. Campbell. Might I suggest we raise the stakes?"

"Pikeman!" Yuni almost laughs at the irony of Campbell only remembering that kid's name. "What do you have in mind, sport?"

Pikeman smiles evilly. "If Troop 818 wins this year's Camporee, Camp Campbell will surrender its grounds and campers to the Wood Scouts."

David rolls his eyes, a rare sight. "Well that is ridic-

Cameron considers the prospect, rubbing his chin. "Hmm, and what if we win?"

Gwen pops in. "Sir, you can't possibly-"

"We hand over all earnings from our yearly popcorn sales." Pikeman interrupts.

Cameron gets right into the kid's face, pointing a finger a bit too close. "Darn it, Eddy, you KNOW I've got a crippling gambling addiction!" He immediately grabs Pikeman's hand, shaking it with vigor. "So... of course we accept!"

David and Gwen share the same look of shock. "What?!"

Campbell ignores the cries of his counselors, posing with the Camp Campbell salute. "Let's Campe Diem!"

All three groups transition to the open field, splitting up and occupying their own separate section of grass. The Flower Scouts set up their first round in the meantime.

"Alright, gang." David crouches to the campers' eye level. "We don't want to end up with the Wood Scouts at the end of the day, so I need you all to work together. It's the only chance we have at winning this thing."

Max huffs out a half-hearted laugh. "It's a bunch of prissy little girls, how bad can their challenge be?"

"Um, 'scuse me." Tabii calls everyone to attention. The Flower Scouts have covered their challenge with the amphitheater's curtains, but they do not mask the bubbling noises coming from behind it.

Sasha curtsies. "The Flower Scouts' first challenge will be a test of posture and proper walking form." She nods at Yuni curtly. None of the other campers think twice about the interaction.

Max smirks at David. "Precious."

Once the curtain gets pulled down, the bubbling noise is explained. A lone plank stretches across the murky, toxic liquid while three spiked, mace-like weapons hang from ropes, swinging from side to side menacingly. The Campbell campers drop their jaws at the sight, expecting something much less deadly from a few "prissy" girls. They all share the same smug smile before bowing.

"We'll start with the beginner's course." Sasha announces. She can't hide the laughter in her voice. "As a show of good faith."

"We usually use clean spring water from the French Alps and Fiji springs, but-" Tabii begins.

"The stuff you had in your kitchen looked like it would incentivize you to win way more." Erin finishes.

Max wishes he could take back his words. "Umm-"

At the starting bell, Yuni, Max, and Nikki line up to test their luck at the posture challenge. Yuni glances over at the Flower Scouts who are watching from their spot of grass. They all flash her bright "you-can-do-it" smiles, gesturing her to step forward and just go. Yuni takes a breath, suddenly remembering something from a long while ago.

"...not have my daughter behave like some commoner heathen. I trust that as a beauty pageant participant you will have some knowledge of it. If I find that my trust is unfounded, I will not hesitate to fire you. Am I making this clear, Penelope?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Yuni hears the click-clacking of heels on the marble floor getting closer, so she jumps back from her door and pretends to busy herself with whatever toys were laying around. The steps stop and she pretends not to see the door open further as her new teacher invites herself in.

"Hello, little Yuni." The lady coos. "Aren't you just so lovely and supple~" She reaches for Yuni's face, squeezing at her baby cheeks. Yuni bites her tongue, holding in the string of curses she wanted to spew at this stranger. But the cameras were everywhere, and she needed to be polite. Instead, she just scowls. The lady ignores it. "I'm Miss Priss, your etiquette teacher! Your mama hired me to teach you to be ladylike, doesn't that sound fun~"

Yuni raises one eyebrow in suspicion. What did her mother care if she wasn't ladylike? She was just fine with what she was already doing. 'Probably some ploy to distance me from dad again...'

"Oh, I forgot." Miss Priss drops her sweet act. "She said you didn't respond unless you were told to. Speak."

Yuni grumbles out a low hello. She could hear Miss Priss sigh and groan at how hard it was going to be to train such a brat.

"Alright. Up against the wall. We're working on your posture first."

'It's just like Miss Priss said. Head parallel to the floor, shoulders back, tummy in. Keep your eyes up and walk in two straight lines.' Yuni steels herself with another deep breath.

"Jesus, are you gonna go or not?" Max interrupts from behind her.

Yuni rolls her eyes without turning around and puts one foot in front of the other, just like she was taught. She was able to get to the end without any major damages. 'Maybe those etiquette lessons weren't useless...'

Max goes next. Yuni watches as he dips under the first two obstacles only to get swept into the goo out of sheer bad timing. 'If he waited a bit longer for the second one to swing back the other way and then get up, we could've had two people up here.'

Nikki goes last, and Yuni remembers the girl mentioning that she was a former Flower Scout. Was she there long enough to practice for something like this? The adventurer dips and dodges the obstacles with ease, panting once she makes it to the end. "You alright Nikki?" Yuni asks, offering a hand.

The two girls look over at the judges who flip up their cards. A six, four, and three. That makes thirteen points for Campbell!

"Well," Gwen reacts, genuinely surprised. "We're... not doing all that bad." She eats her words when the other two camps go their turns. The Wood Scouts brute force their way through the obstacles, losing Petrol in the process.

"Your sacrifice will not be in vain! Stephen van Petrol!" Pikeman salutes to the sinking thumbs-up.

The Flower Scouts rock the challenge, as expected. The added book weights on their heads and the curtsying throughout the way was all for show (and bragging points.) They earn a solid thirty for their performance.

"And that's the end of round one!" Campbell announces, sounding an airhorn. The scores were thirteen for Camp Cambell, twenty-two for the Wood Scouts, and thirty for the Flower Scouts. It certainly wasn't all that far a game, but to still be in last place despite their efforts sucked.

"Well, we still have a chance to win every other challenge." Gwen shrugs, optimistic for a change.

At the end of the next four rounds, the Campbell campers collect another twenty-two points. The scoreboard shows them being left in the dust by the other two, with the Flower Scouts killing it at a comfortable 119 points. The airhorn sounds, announcing the end of the Flower Scout portion.

"And that's the end of round five!" Cameron claps his hands together. "Let's pick up the pace, campers! I want me some popcorn money!"

"And I want to see you all in Wood Scout uniforms." Pikeman muses lowly as he passes the current losers.

"Great job, Yuni!" The Flower Scouts simultaneously compliment, waving in the girl's direction. "Good job too or whatever, Nikki." One of them says as they walk away.

"Seriously, isn't that a little off-putting to anyone else?" Neil waves his arms in the Flower Scouts' direction. No one listens to him.

The campers come together by David to talk about their next game plan. "Yo! David! I think I speak for all of us when I say that I don't wanna become some fascist militant peon!" Or complain, in Max's case.

"He does not speak for all of us." Concerning, Dolph! Loving the spirit...

"So what's the plan?" Max reiterates.

David continues to try his advice again. "Look kids, I'm telling you! If you just work together and really start trusting one another, you can accomplish anything!"

Nikki jeers with her hands by her mouth, makeshift megaphone style. "BOO! Give us actual advice!" David slumps at the rejection.

"Advice can't save you now, Campbell campers." The camera pans over to Pikeman and his troop. "Now begins the Wood Scouts' march to glory!"

All groups trudge over to the edge of the lake where boats lay in wait. Pikeman takes center stage to explain the next challenge. "Maneuvering the treacherous waters of the wilderness is an integral part of survival. Therefore, your first challenge is to row out to Spooky Island and back."

Erin and Tabii gush about the great exercise that this challenge provides. Yuni, being close enough to hear this talk of movement, cringes at the thought.

David surveys the campers at his disposal. "Uh, do we have anyone here for rowing camp?"

"I can do it!" Nikki volunteers. "Let me get at them boats!"

Yuni snickers into her journal. "Good luck, have fun."

At the Quartermaster's gunshot signal, the campers take off. The Wood Scouts obviously take the lead, with Petrol doing most of the heavy rowing. Sasha leads her troop as if it were the Olympics, shouting "stroke" every so often. The Chaos trio climb into a boat themselves, with Nikki and Neil as rowers.

"Uh, uh, okay, no... Wait! Wait... Wait... Wait... Okay! No, wait..."

Nikki's fruitless attempts at synergizing with Neil earn them a sweet... nine points. Great. Now they were majorly behind.

Gwen turns to David after watching the scoreboard flip. "Well, it's not like they can win every other-"

Ding

Ding

Ding

Ding

And just like that, we have Camp Campbell at fifty-seven points, the Wood Scouts at 193, and the Flower Scouts at 192. Really puts into perspective how hard it is to get these kids to work together. The airhorn signals the end of the Wood Scouts section of the competition.

"SON OF A BITCH!" Gwen yells offscreen.

"Uh, nothing to worry about!" David keeps on a happy smile, albeit a strained one. "We just, you know, gotta believe in ourselves!"

"Nope." Gwen replies in disbelief. "We're boned."

Pikeman appears out of nowhere, already attaching himself to Gwen's side. "Fear not, sweet Gwendolyn. Once you work for the Wood Scouts, the only man you'll have to deal with in your life is me." He hums low in his throat grossly, probably intending it to sound dominating. Eugh...

Gwen just about throws up in her mouth. "Oh, Jesus Christ..." She runs away towards her exhausted campers to escape the sweaty clutches of the creepy pubescent militant. "Campers, we are winning that fucking trophy!"

"How the hell do we do that?!" Neil groans out, shakily getting onto his feet.

David swoops in to repeat his lesson of the day. "By overcoming our differences and working toge-" A warm hand slaps over his mouth, effectively shutting him up.

"NO! Shut up." Gwen points a finger at her campers. "You are not going to work together." The children give her a collective gasp.

"We're not?" Harrison says.

"No! You're all terrible at it!" Gwen slams a fist into her open palm. "But we've got something they don't!"

"Sub-par indoor plumbing?" Ered sasses from behind.

Gwen ignores the hard truth and continues. "We've got the most bizarre collection of campers with niche talents and ridiculously specific skill sets Lake Lilac has ever seen!" She pauses for dramatic effect. "And sub-par indoor plumbing." The campers all cheer with new found determination, ready to bring home the win with the last five rounds.

After some planning and discussion, the final five rounds come down to the most unique and flat out dangerous talents that Camp Campbell possesses. Yuni sits out for these, fairly certain that there was no way to make something like journaling competitive. She did take this time to get info on everyone else, however, so she didn't really mind. Or care.

Neil completes the set up and stands by his own table, ready to reveal the eleventh round. He grins mischievously, knowing he's already won.

"Uh, what is this?" Sasha points to the different colored liquids in beakers and other equipment on the table.

"Round eleven." Neil announces. "Create a stable batch of nitroglycerin."

"Wait, what-" Pikeman tries before being interrupted by the Quartermaster's starting gunshot. "ACK!"

"Start sciencing."

The Flower Scouts look on at their table in bewildered fear. "Umm... Okay..." Sasha slowly starts. "It's just like baking, ladies." Erin reaches for one of the canisters, accidentally knocking into the neck of one of the flasks. It tips over, spilling its red contents onto the table and disintegrating it. The girls are eliminated.

The Wood Scouts have an inkling of what to do, but they let Pikeman take the charge and give them instructions. "Nitrogen." Canister from under the table. "Oxygen." Petrol takes out a canister of carbon dioxide from under the table. "No! Petrol!" Snake misinterprets the scold as an order, retrieving the gasoline tank from under the table, placing it right by the open flame. "Wait, WAIT!" The ensuing explosion leaves them in a cloud of smoke.

Neil, in all the chaos, finishes his batch. "Done!" Everyone turns to the judges, grinning as a solid thirty points is added. Things are starting to turn around for the underdogs!

"Good job, guys." Yuni claps it up for her team on the side. "Get 'em with the next one Harrison!"

The magician gives her a thumbs-up and a wink before stepping onto the stage. "Round twelve. Illusion." He earns the team another thirty points, showing up the Flower Scouts who get attacked by Muack before they could even attempt to do a trick.

Next round's Ered's with, "Motorcycle repair!" Another thirty!

'When were we taught motorcycle repair...' Yuni thinks. She writes down the new fun fact under the cool girl's name.

Nerris is up with the task of destroying the One Ring of Power. There just happened to be an active volcano in their reach for this challenge, which should be more concerning. Regardless, the sorceress takes home another thirty points!

"Who's up last?" Yuni asks the magic girl as she comes back to the field. The two share a high-five, Nerris taking a seat on Yuni's right. "Is it Nurf? Dolph? I hope it's Max."

"Getting to know what Max's special talent is would be exciting," Nerris agrees. "But I think we have Nikki as our last challenger!"

"Ah, yeah. That makes more sense." Yuni sighs, watching Nikki stand up to announce her round after some prep work with the Quartermaster.

"Round fifteen." The adventurer picks her head up, giving the other teams a confident smirk. "Cross-species communication."

The Wood Scouts and Flower Scouts look at Nikki like she's grown a third head. Tabii is trying her best to keep it together behind her troop sisters, taking deep breaths.

"But... that's impossible!" Pikeman whines incredulously.

The distant rattling of a metal cage is heard before the growls and barks of an incoming wolf charge towards the campers. Nikki, unfazed, waits for the wolf to get close enough for it to hear her before barking right back in its face. The campers watch in stunned silence as the creature whimpers in submission, lowering its head to who was clearly the alpha. Nikki smiles, fighting the urge to pet it or mount it to glory, turning and pointing a finger at the other competitors. "Kill."

The kids back away slowly as the wolf switches to take its anger out on them. They begin to run into the woods to try and avoid becoming wild puppy chow, but the wolf follows them, intent on seeing the command through. The airhorn sounds the end of the final round, with Camp Campbell winning with a sweet 207 points. "Camp Campbell wins!" Cameron declares proudly.

The campers cheer for their victory, all with varying levels of excitement. "Hundred XP for everyone!" Nerris proclaims.

David slides back into frame to close out another wonderful adventure. "Well, I think we all learned a valuable lesson today."

"Don't ever work together!" Nikki nods.

David slumps as the message of the day flies over his kids' heads. "Uh, no!"

"Yeah!" Neil puts a hand to his chin thoughtfully. "Things really seemed to turn around when we each just did our own thing!"

David's worrying a crease into his forehead. "But guys, that's a really narrow-minded way of looking at things-"

"If you look at it that way. The true lesson here is-" Yuni starts, only to also get interrupted.

"David," Max looks up at the counselor, keeping eye contact as he drops the stupid trophy to the ground. "No one cares!" The campers all walk in a group to the mess hall, eager for dinner and a long night's sleep.

Campbell comes up behind the counselors, putting a heavy hand over both their shoulders. "Great work today, counselors! Thanks to you I made fifty dollars!" Gwen's eyes go wide in disappointment. The stakes were so high (to her) and the reward was just pathetic... "Well, back to Thailand! Apparently they need running water!" Cameron shrugs at the hilarious request. "I don't get it, you guys are doing fine!" He retreats off to who knows where to prepare.

Gwen lets the day's events wash over her like a river. Just one or two more hours, and the day will be over. "I hate this place." She stomps off to do damage control in the mess hall, hoping to all that is holy the kids would just be too tired to do anything but eat.

David watches his co-counselor go with a quivering lip. He bites on it from the inside to try and calm down, dismissing the sound of growling. Before he could cry wolf, the creature lunges at him, tackling him to the ground. "Down! Down! Down, boy! Nice dog!"

"Don't you think you were being a little harsh?" Yuni deadpans from across the table. "Nikki, I'm eating that." She says, seeing a hand slowly move towards her Jell-o cup from the corner of her eye.

"Dang it..."

"A little harsh? I was telling him the truth." Max points his fork at the girl. "He's just the kinda guy who won't see it. It's stupid and annoying how he can be happy all the time." He stabs at the cut up canned peaches on his tray. "I'm just trying to get him to get with the program before life fucks him over."

"I'm just saying, you could've been nicer with it." Yuni avoids eye contact, already figuring how the boy was gonna react. She flinches at the slam on the table.

"You keep saying we're nice when we aren't! Why do you care so much?!"

"Hey, don't lump us in with you!" Neil interjects. "We can be nice!"

"Yeah! What Neil said!" Nikki agrees.

"I'm not saying we care about David or the Camporee. 'Cuz we don't. But Yuni is kinda right. You were being kind of an asshole." Neil calls Max out, and suddenly the tension in the room has gotten thicker.

"Uh, yeah, it's 'cuz I am an asshole." Max gives Neil a look that says he should've known by now. "An asshole with a realistic view on life that no argument or lecture is going to make me apologize for what I said." He turns back to his food after letting the sentence hang in the air, picking at the now cold rice and beans.

Yuni sits there, staring at her food and thinking over the small spat. Without looking up, she pushes the tray forward and offers Nikki the Jell-o. She stands and grabs her notebook, clutching it to her chest before getting up. As she walks to the exit, Yuni leaves Max with one final statement.

"I hope you live to be an idiot."

Max
Not a wild card. Just a complete and utter asshole.

(Elsewhere...)

Max's words echo in David's head as he gazes longingly at pictures of the camp. He keeps finding himself looking between the picture taken while he was a camper and the picture taken with the current kids. His sigh curls his body in, something he would chastise himself over later. "I just don't get it. I loved summer camp as a kid. What changed?"

He continues to stare at the picture of his childhood, hoping to find an answer to a camper's happiness within it. It's when he remembers when the picture was taken that an idea falls into place. "That's it!" He gasps.

"The Sparrow..."