Young Writers Society

Levi wasn't convinced.

He took a step break, freeing his shoulder from Elias's grasp.

There was still a risk. There was always a risk. Levi had become good at playing the part of a regular, normal human, but he knew there were things that he didn't that weren't quite normal. All it would take for Charlotte to catch on was a single wrong move. He couldn't risk that.

Not when he felt like he was finally getting somewhere.

Levi shook his head.

"There's a risk," he softly said. "I don't think she'll figure out your secret, but she could figure out mine. She just needs a few clues. I can't interact with her too much, and it isn't good for you to interact with her, either--she might learn something through you."

"That's fine," Elias said firmly, still sensing Levi's rising anxiety.

He smiled, patting his shoulder again.

"You're my friend, so I trust you. And I guess I don't know Charlotte too well, but if it'd make you more comfy for us to not talk to her, we can avoid her. Okay?"

He let out the breath he had been holding.

"Okay," he softly said. "Thank you."

He glanced out into the rest of the hallway. It was mostly empty, but he could see a few students already starting to walk through it. A quick glance at his phone's clock proved his guess right: it was almost time for class.

"We should go back to the classroom now," he said. "Class starts soon, and you don't want to be late on your first day."

Elias grinned, placing an arm across Levi's shoulders and around his neck, bringing him in.

"You mean, we don't want to be late on our first day," he teased.

It only barely registered to him that this wasn't Levi's first day.

Levi had been so preoccupied with everything Elias-related that he had completely forgotten about the annual field trip his grade went on. It was considered one of the perks of the school. Every year, without fail, the students and a few teachers went to a location picked by the teachers in charge of that grade. Last year's had been the aquarium; Levi had pretended he had the stomach bug that day.

This year, they were going to a special camp.

It was technically a leadership camp, but it honestly functioned more like a summer camp. They would be spending all of Friday, Saturday and Sunday doing activities at Camp Readen.

Levi, of course, stuck into school Wednesday night and changed the cabin assignment so Elias and Levi were the only ones in their cabins. There was already going to be two students on their lonesome because of the number of students in Levi's grade, but he just moved them to a different cabin.

After a drive that only lasted thirty minutes but felt like much longer, the school bus pulled into Camp Readen's parking lot.

Did Elias force Levi to sit at the front of the bus? Maybe. Was Elias practically dragging him down as soon as the doors opened? Perhaps.

"WE'RE HERE!" Elias yelled as zipped down the bus's stairs with a full backpack of snacks and other goodies, but then frowned as he looked around. "Uh, Levi?" he said over his shoulder. "Where are the trees and stuff?"

They went all this way to go to a parking lot. How lame.

Levi sighed, but he couldn't stop a tiny smile from appearing on his face as he grabbed Elias by the wrist.

"They're over here," he said. He led Elias around the bus. The trees had been visible from their earlier spot, too, but the bus had blocked some of the closer ones from view. The area around the parking lot was more of a field than a forest; Elias wasn't entirely off in his first assessment of the camp.

But the field had a volleyball net, a rock wall for climbing, and other assorted lawn games, so Levi was sure Elias would find something that caught his eye soon.

Elias took that back. This wasn't lame. There were so many goodies around, and he hardly knew where to start. He turned his attention back to Levi, bouncing foot-to-foot like he had to pee, but really he was just excited.

"Can we go to the rock climbing wall?" he asked. "I'm pretty good at climbing. We can race to the top!"

Levi looked over at the teachers that had emerged from the bus. From the little snippets he could overhear and the way their other classmates were spreading out across the nearby field, it looked like they could go wherever they wanted. There was even someone from the camp waiting at the rock wall; they probably had to make sure the climbers were safe.

"Okay," he said, the tiny smile growing. "Let's go climb a rock wall."

Elias grinned and ran towards the rock wall, looking over his shoulder every once in a while to make sure that Levi was following. The whole way over there, Elias boasted about how he was totally going to make it to the top. The wall wasn't that big, especially since he had scaled higher places before.

By the time he approached it and stood in line, he looked back at Levi with another grin. "Wanna race to the top?" he asked.

Levi eyed the top of the rock wall.

It was too bad they were out in the open here. He could have easily won by teleporting to the top of the wall. But Elias probably would have been disappointed if he did, so it was probably for the best that he had to do this the normal way.

"Sure," he said, his smile still on his face. He didn't look like much, but he had made sure he was just as agile as he used to be. He just had to hope he could climb faster than Elias.

"Alright, ready?" Elias asked with a smirk, readying himself to climb the rock wall.

"Wait, you have to be strapped in," some random adult said next to him, but Elias interrupted her before she could even finish.

"GO!" he yelped, and with that, started to climb up the rock wall, higher and higher and higher, racing against Levi.

"That's cheating!" Levi yelled. One of the camp workers moved to strap him in, too, but Levi started to climb up before they could. Elias had the upper hand with his start; Levi had the experience. Rock walls were admittedly something that he hadn't really encountered in the past, but he knew a thing or two about climbing.

With a burst of speed, he caught up to Elias.