Quite a handful of thestudentswere reasonably and satisfactorily upset when it was announced at the cafeteria that their sky-diving activity had been called off. It was supposed to be the only activity that will make the whole trip worth it. Not that Pelham was lodging a complaint about it - it was, after all, perilous. At the same time, he was looking forwards at making Roshon envious. Still, he had no other choice but to face it - that was also because there were some students who looked like they had been reprieved of oppression.

Tomorrow was going to be their last day, and they were reminded that the buses will arrive at eight o'clock sharp in the morning. Pelham didn't see that coming, seeing as he had been getting a thrill out of the trip far too much that he paid no heed towards what seemed to be his crashing realm. He also had to admit that he was basking Lucio's company even without his best friend - not that he realised it.

The students were informed that since their activity was cancelled, they could go wherever they wanted around the camping site and do anything as they pleased as long as it was riskfree. They were relatively thrilled to hear this, for they never got the chance to do anything they really wanted since the beginning of the camp.

Immediately after breakfast, there were students who headed straight for the lake, despite the cold. Pelham nearly suggested diving with Lucio when he remembered that Lucio couldn't swim. There were younger students who had brought along some water guns as well as Nerf guns, and eventually drawing the older students' attention, causing them to disregard any matter of maturity as they joined the battle - both boys and girls. And somehow, Pelham simply felt like spending the whole day with Lucio. He didn't exactly know why, but he just felt like it.

"Are you a daredevil?" Pelham asked out of the blue when they were walking around the camping site, searching for something that might appeal them.

Lucio looked taken aback by the question. "What does it involve?" he asked warily.

"Since jumping into the river from the highest cliff is out of the question, I'm suggesting that we scale the highest tree and see who gets there first,"

"Isn't that considered as dangerous?"

"Are you a daredevil?" Pelham repeated the question.

"Well, I've climbed trees before," Lucio shrugged. "That's not exactly a daredevil thing to do, is it?"

"If you're talking about hugging your limbs around the trunk of a tree half a metre above the ground, then no, it doesn't count,"

Lucio suddenly looked prickly. "You don't know that,"

"I'd say you have no experience," Pelham stated, looking smug.

"I say we go to that tree over there," Lucio pointed to a towering oak tree that stood on top of a hill, looming over a stream.

Pelham gave him a sidelong glance as if in a challenge. And Lucio, grasping the hint, charged past Pelham at that instant. Pelham dashed after him, and they raced their way there.

Pelham was kind of surprised to see how fast Lucio was climbing. The boy was nimble. His lean frame brought an advantage to his body weight as he anchored his fingers into a depression present on the bark of the tree and swung his legs over the branches. He could see Lucio's biceps flexing at the exertion as he heaved himself up. Pelham was a decent climber himself - having had experience ever since he was seven years old and fairly small for his age, where he had to climb the bookshelf or cabinet to retrieve the things he wanted. He wasted no time in scaling the tree after Lucio.

Both boys were out of breath as soon as they reached the vertex of the tree nearly half of an hour later, disregarding cuts that had gashed their skins as well as a handful of ant bites. Lucio was more agile than what Pelham had thought, and he assumed it was because of his thin built and long limbs.

Pelham now wished he had brought binoculars along, owing to the fact that the view from the top of the tree was beyond magnificent. His jaw was practically hanging as he surveyed the greenery all around him, all the lush verdure, seemingly untainted by the adulterated air. He could make out the sight of the students hanging out in the lake below, while some were ambling along the riverbank.

He heard Lucio let out an easy, carefree laugh next to him and glanced over. Once again, he found himself gazing into the iridescent eyes of Lucio Alves, as though there was no contrast between the boy and the splendour of nature.

Stop it, Pelham snapped at himself and altered his gaze. He was clearly growing crossed and befuddled with himself with this kind of indecipherable feeling he had.

"You want to scale another tree?" Lucio asked, whose cheeks were slightly flushed.

Pelham assumed it was because of the height and the cold. He nodded. The two of them climbed more than three trees that morning and eventually had to stop when they saw the teachers searching for the students - due to fear of being caught and getting into trouble, really, which was fairly likely had the teachers spot the two of them on top of a tree.

The sky was overcast, the air cool and relatively saturated, so it was still fine for all of them to continue being outdoors even when it had reached noon. Pelham and Lucio had joined some other games the students were playing, especially with the water guns - regardless of the weather. There was also those who played football. Lucio was satisfactorily nifty at it - again, to Pelham's surprise ("You're good at this!" he'd exclaimed when Lucio practically slid across the ground and swung his leg, kicking the ball so it soared high in the air). They ended up hanging out with a lot more students than they normally did - especially for Pelham, really. Part of him wished that they had done this earlier, for they were considerably engaging. Why hadn't I hung out with these cool people?

Be that as it may, there was this somewhat negligible part of him that just wanted to be with Lucio, almost as if he didn't want to share Lucio with anyone-

Not true, he told himself, very irked by now.

He and Lucio took their food outside when they were all called in for lunch. Some of the others who saw this seemed to think it was a good idea, so they followed.

"Look at you, drawing attention and such," Lucio pointed out when they noticed that nearly all of the students had joined them outside.

"Yes, let me bask in this moment and feel superior for five minutes,"

"You mean feel popular for five minutes?"

"Don't ruin aspiration,"

Pelham honestly didn't feel like entering the cabin later that afternoon. Instead, he and Lucio took it all outside, due to the convenience that the soothing weather offered. They laid down on the grass under a tree that provided a good shade, not far from where their cabin was located.

"I don't know much about your taste in music," he suddenly said after a few seconds of lying down under the tree, watching the leaves rustle from the soft breeze.

"I'm pretty sure we have different tastes in music," Lucio stated a matter-of-factly.

"Do you have your own playlist?"

"I'd be crazy not to have one,"

"Can you put it on shuffle?"

"Why? Is your playlist outdated or something?" Pelham could tell Lucio was smirking.

"Or something," Pelham said.

Lucio fished out his phone from his pocket and tapped on the screen. Pelham waited. There was a soft, melodious tune, before the first two lines of the verse came;

Throw your heart to me,

Let it fall and hit the ground,

Let it go, oh, whoa-oh,

"You listen to Years and Years?" Pelham asked, feeling a smile creep up on his face.

"I didn't know you know them,"

"Not a lot of people do. But I like their music,"

Lucio was humming along the song. Soon, he was singing, apparently lost in the music itself. Pelham could have sworn that his heart had stopped beating for a second as soon as he heard Lucio's voice.

The boy could sing, all right. Not just with any neutral voice, but he knew where to hit the keys. His accent might still be evident when he was singing, but his vocals were smooth and mesmerising. Very euphonic. Pelham couldn't help but stare as he listened to it.

Another song was shuffled. He didn't recognise it, but the song was catchy as well. Lucio didn't seem to realise that he was singing along with his eyes closed. As a matter of fact, he looked profoundly engrossed into the whole thing - into music. Pelham didn't dare say anything. He was honestly savouring the moment he had that afternoon.

Just a close friend who can do almost everything, he told himself. He hadn't really met anyone in his life who had a really mellifluous voice - apart from the celebrities, of course. Lucio was clearly the first one. Pelham felt reasonably self-conscious with himself. There were songs in Lucio's playlist that he was familiar with, but he didn't feel like singing along when they came on even though he knew the lyrics to them. Comparing his voice to Lucio, he was adequately certain that the latter had the best one. So he settled on the fact that he just had to listen rather than embarrass himself.

Pelham gazed up at the overcast sky, taking pleasure in the breeze around him. It was serene, despite of still hearing voices of boisterous laughter and screams all around him. Children. In that moment, he eventually dozed off.

*

"Wake up, you're gonna sleep the whole day,"

Pelham rubbed his eyes with his knuckles. When he opened them, he nearly panicked at finding that he was outdoors instead of indoors. He didn't know what time it was. For all he knew, it could be dawn or dusk. Then he shook his head; he had dozed off. Stupid afternoon naps, he thought bitterly. Besides him, Lucio was grinning.

"I hate evening naps," was the first thing Pelham said.

"I know. You feel like you've been sleeping for a century," Lucio pointed out the precise fact. "I think we should pack our stuff before we leave tomorrow."

"Brilliant idea."

Pelham was glad that Lucio suggested that. It actually took him quite a long time to collect his clothes altogether. They were strewn all over the mattress and in the dresser. Even the cabin nearly became his own house.

That night, he sent April a text message;

Pelham: How r u keeping up?

She replied ten minutes later;

April: better than the Kardashians

Pelham: i dont feel like going to school on Mon

April: then dont

Pelham: not gonna miss me, I s'ppose?

April: stop it

April: u know i hate cheesy stuff

April: and cheese.

April: definitely cheese.

Pelham: just tryna get under ur skin is all

April: so how are YOU holding up without Rosh?

Pelham: good

April: just good?

Pelham: i mean i have Lucio for company. He's actually a pretty cool lad

April: cute too. Have u seen his eyes, though?

April: and his eyebrows. I could kill to have those.

Pelham: April

April: Right. I'll stop.

April: honestly, don't you think he's charming? I mean, even straight guys like u can see it, right? He's mysteriously quiet. The girls talk about him a lot. Me included.

April: I could say I'm shameless about that last part.

Pelham: u talk about boys a lot. U even forced me to watch Smosh

April: you admit that u like them too

Pelham: yeah ok no I lied.

Pelham: I'd rather play Tomb Raider for the rest of my life.

April: look sorry i need to finish my assignment. I'll talk to u tomorrow or..when I have the time.

Pelham: bye

When Pelham looked up from his phone, Lucio was staring at him whilst cradling a blue mug in both of his hands, the sleeves of his sweater pulled past his knuckles. "Why are you smiling?" Lucio queried.

"Is it not charming?"

He couldn't decide whether his eyes were deceiving him, but he thought he saw Lucio's cheeks going pink at his remark.

During dinner, they were reminded to pack their belongings and to get up on the following day as early as possible, for they had been informed beforehand that it will most likely rain,not to mention that the buses might slow down during the journey back. At this, Pelham jokingly asked Lucio whether Lucio would mind sitting with him on the bus, seeing as Roshon wasn't around. He wasn't expecting Lucio to nod, however.

"But," Pelham began to splutter, "don't you, like, have your other friends? What about the one who sat beside you before? I mean, you don't actually have to sit with me - God, I sound like a nine-year-old."

Lucio shook his head. "I didn't sit with anyone on the journey here,"

"Oh," Pelham said. Then, he added, "That's quite sad."

"Says the boy who only hangs out with Roshon,"

"You're my friend, too. Be grateful,"

"Good to know,"

Pelham refrained himself from rolling his eyes. "Hey," he said, realising something.

"Yeah?"

"There's a TV in our cabin, right?"

"The 2008-flat-screen-version one?"

"'2008-flat-screen-version'? Don't you have a proper adjective to describe it?"

"The 2008 TV," Lucio deadpanned.

"Anyway, we have a TV right?" Pelham asked. Before Lucio could answer, he said, "We haven't even turned it on over the week."

Lucio pressed his lips together, looking meditative. "I don't think it'll be as entertaining as normal televisions do,"

"Oh, so there are special features that normal televisions can do?" Pelham crossed his arms over his chest. "Do they brew coffee or something?"

"I'm starting to hate talking to you,"

"Probably one of the reasons why I only have one friend," Pelham shrugged. "Anyway, I heard they say there are old movies."

"I like old movies," Lucio remarked vaguely.

"I heard they played the first Harry Potter movie a couple of nights ago," Pelham explained.

"The first Harry Potter movie isn't that old," Lucio frowned.

"Let's watch it together some time and see if you feel old,"

Really, Pelham was merely saying that because he himself was a fan of the Harry Potter movies.

On the one hand, he regretted not touching the remote control. If he were honest with himself, he had lost interest over electronic gadgets for nearly a week. That wasn't the point, however; the television had merely been sitting on the table in the living room, untouched - now accumulating with dust - ever since he and Roshon arrived. It never appealed to either them, due to passable reasons.

He and Lucio ended up watching the middle of Zathura: A Space Adventure later after dinner. They were seated on the couch, their belongings already neatly packed inside their bags, stacked at one corner of the living room. All of the lights were shut off, and Pelham and Lucio were each cuddled in their blankets, owing to the fact that the next movie was going to be Nightmare: On Elm Street.

Earlier on, Pelham had gotten way too thrilled at seeing the movie that was currently being played. Lucio, however, pointed out the fact that he hadn't seen Zathura.

"You have a horrible childhood," Pelham noted.

"So I've heard,"

"Everyone has seen this movie and you're just here ruining the moment,"

"Forgive me," Lucio said as he took a sip of his hot coffee and fixing his eyes on the screen. "Which one is Walter again?"

"The older brother,"

Lucio narrowed his eyes at the screen, scrutinising the boy with short brown hair. "He looks like Fred from iCarly."

Pelham glanced sideways to give Lucio an incredulous look. But the boy had an inscrutable expression, which told Pelham that he wasn't joshing.

"Let's just focus on the movie." Pelham eventually said, averting his gaze from Lucio.

Pelham couldn't focus that much, however. At one point during the movie, Lucio had leaned back in the couch, and his head had lolled sideways so it was almost resting on Pelham's shoulder. Pelham resisted the tiny urge to rest the side of his head on top of Lucio's - it was too tempting. It was as though he was chained in a chair while someone coquettishly placed his favourite chocolate waffles right in front of him, just at an arm's reach. It didn't help as well that Lucio's thigh, though covered under the blanket, was practically resting against Pelham's.

It was all too much that Pelham found himself musing on whether their newfound friendship would ever last.

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