Rock Climbing Conundrum

Chapter 4: 'How Am I Gonna Tell David?'

Gwen began to demonstrate to the campers how to properly (and SAFELY) do rock climbing while Max sat along the sidelines. He was impressed on how Gwen was able to pull this off, especially with David being gone. He even wondered if David KNEW about the rock climbing activity, which in his mind, he probably didn't. "Alright who wants to go fir-" Gwen asked before she was cut of by Nikki shoving past everyone and quickly climbing up the peak. No one was really surprised at all since Nikki practically lives off nature. "Ok, Nikki. You can stop there!" Gwen shouted from the bottom. But Nikki didn't listen and continued to climb higher as the kids watched her, hoping she wouldn't get hurt. "Oh for fucks sake." Max growled before he began to climb up the starting point, but nobody took notice. Once Nikki finally reached the top, she took a sigh of accomplishment and stared at the view. "Wow..." She said, barely above a whisper. "NIKKI GET DOWN FROM THERE!" Shouted Gwen, her voice cracking a couple times. "Wait... Where's Max?" She asked, looking for the missing child. The kids looked around for a moment before "He's up there, Gwen!" Harrison pointed out, accidentally summoning a dove. "Oops." He muttered. 

"Nikki, I don't know if you know this, but you're being REALLY fucking stupid right now." Max said, trying to reach his friend when he wasn't even halfway to the top. "What's that, Max?! I can't hear you!" Nikki shouted back. "Just wait for me, ok!" Max shouted. "Awww, I support you either way." Nikki replied as she sat on a patch of grass. Max was just about to reach the top when he heard someone from behind. "Max?! What are you doing?!" Gwen exclaimed. "...Saving Nikki. What does it look like?" Max scoffed. "Just get down, ok? I'll get her myself!" Gwen replied. "No way, Gwen. I'm just trying to do something that for the record, you seem to be incapable of!" Max retorted before he began to climb again. Just before he could reach the top, the rock he was holding broke, causing him to fall off. "MAX!" Gwen shouted, holding her arms out so she could catch him. Max unfortunately missed and landed in some bushes. Gwen ran over to check on the kid while Nikki climbed down, making sure to be careful after witnessing her friend almost get killed. "Just... Go back with the other kids, Nikki. I'll take care of Max." Gwen ordered. This time, Nikki obeyed and met up with the other campers. 

Gwen looked back at Max and saw he was trembling from the fall. He was cursing under his breath a few times, which was to be expected because, well... He's Max. "Max? You ok, buddy?" Gwen asked softly, reaching out a hand for Max to grab onto. But Max was in too much pain to answer. He felt tears begin to sting his eyes, but God forbid was he gonna let them fall. He blinked a few times and looked over at Gwen. "...What do you think, smartass." He said, barely above a whisper. "Annnnd there he is." Gwen admitted. "Here let me help you up." She said. Max reached one of his arms out before retracting it to his chest. "Ow...." He muttered under his breath. "Oh great. He's injured. How am I gonna tell David about this?!" Gwen panicked, but she stayed calm and scooped the boy into her arms. "Just hold on tight, ok?" She asked before Max wrapped his arm around her neck as she had a tight grip on him. 

The other campers watched anxiously as the two slowly made it to the bottom. "You know this is technically your fault, Nikki." Errid pointed out. "What? No it's not!" Nikki replied. "Actually, she has a point." Added Dolf. "Guys. Let's not jump to conclusions just yet. We don't even know what condition Max is in right now!" Neil said, trying to keep the peace. "...But Dolf and Errid are right, Nikki." He added. Gwen reached the bottom with Max in her arms and she walked over to the rest of the group. "Alright, campers. We're heading back. It should be time to break for lunch soon and well... I need to check Max for any injuries." Gwen said before the campers followed her back in single file. On their way back, she seemed to notice something... Different about Max. He was a lot more vulnerable this time around, but was trying to hide it. Once the group reached the campgrounds, Gwen ordered the kids to go inside the mess hall while she went back to the cabin with Max. She watched the kids head inside one by one before she turned to Max. "Let's get you back to the cabin, ok?" She said, Max avoiding eye contact with her as they went inside. 

Once inside the cabin, Gwen placed Max on his bed and went to get a first aid kit out of her closet. Max had stopped trembling at this point, but was still in a lot of pain. It didn't take long for Gwen to return with the kit and she opened it up. "Alright, kid. Where does it hurt?" She asked, waiting for Max to throw some snarky insult at her. Instead, Max simply couldn't speak and just pointed to his left arm. "Your arm?" She asked again, this time Max nodded. Gwen scooted closer and examined Max's wrist for any bruising. There were a couple scrapes that could be easily treated, so she took a mental note of that. "I'm gonna roll up your sleeve for a minute. Is that ok?" Max began to tense up at the thought, the look of pain in his eyes broke her heart into a million pieces. "It won't be for too long, I promise." She said, trying to reassure the child, but he was still scared. Gwen held out Max's arm and slowly rolled up the sleeve on his hoodie. Max had his eyes shut tight and flinched a couple times. "Max..." Gwen said, at the level of a whisper. She had never seen this side of him before. This wasn't the same Max she was used to, instead he reacted like a normal kid would when they'd get hurt. She examined Max's arm and saw hat it was at least twice the normal size with fresh scars and a few bruises on it from the fall. "I'm gonna get you some ice, ok?" She said, warning Max ahead of time. "Ok..." Max said, trying to speak. Gwen gently let go of Max's arm and got up to go to the mini fridge inside the cabin.

She contemplated whether or not to tell David about what happened in that moment. She was gonna tell him, but she wanted to wait until she got things sorted out with the injured camper. "God, I'd hate to drop this sort of news on him during the family reunion." She muttered to herself. She looked back at Max, who held his injured arm to his chest like he did earlier. "I'll tell him later..." She thought before pulling an ice pack out of the mini fridge. She walked back over to Max, ice pack in hand. "How are you holding up there, Max" She asked, getting down to his level. "How do you think?" Max said in a shaky voice, barely giving her eye contact. "...Well. I'm gonna tuck this ice pack under your sleeve. You might feel a little pressure at first." Max nodded,  trying to hold himself together. Gwen could tell how much pain he was in and how scared he was. Max flinched as she gently place the ice pack on his arm and rolled his sleeve back down. "See? That wasn't so bad?" Gwen said trying to make him feel just a LITTLE better, but that didn't help. "...Can you walk at all?" Max slowly got off the bed to make sure his legs weren't hurt either. Luckily, he was able to stand and walk with no issues. But he didn't feel like walking at all. He just got back onto the bed and sat down.

Gwen knew what was next: A trip to the ER...