When John woke up the next day, Alex wasn't in his bed. Laf and Herc were on the floor, playing Go Fish with a card deck.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," said Herc, noticing John was up.

"G'morning," John mumbled. "Where's Alex?"

Laf smiled. "Why do you want to know? Afraid something happened to your boyfriend, mon ami?"

John blushed. "Never mind."

"If you must know," said Herc, "he went out to find that tool Charles Lee. Said something about finally teaching him a lesson."

John froze and sat straight up in his bed.

"What did he do?"

"Don't blame yourself," said Laf, drawing a card from the pile. "Alex gets in a fight with one of those jerks every year. Even if he hadn't done that to you, it wouldn't happened."

John tried to speak, but he couldn't make a sound.

"We wanted to go with him, but he said for us to stay behind so that we can hold you back," said Herc.

John sprung out of his bed and tore off his bed clothes. He quickly pulled on an orange v-beck and jean shorts and rushed across the room to the door.

"Not so fast," said Laf, as John rattled the doorknob. "We locked it from the inside."

"WHAT? ALEX COULD BE GETTING HIMSELF KILLED OUT THERE!" John yelled at them.

"No, he won't," said Herc. "Alex beats the crap out of them every year, he hasn't lost a battle yet."

John continued to pound on the door, knowing all too well it was pointless. Tears began to stream down his face.

"This is all my fault!" he wailed, sinking down in front of the door.

Laf and Herc quickly slid over to him.

"Shh," whispered Laf.

"He's going to be fine. Alex is smart," assured Herc.

At that moment, someone knocked on the door. John sprung up shouted through the door:

"Alex! Is that you?"

"No, it's the Schuylers and Maria. Can we come in?"

John sunk down to the floor again as Herc unlocked the door.

"Oh, John," said Eliza sympathetically. The girls all gathered around and hugged him.

John sat up and sniffled a little.

"I shouldn't have overreacted last night," he mumbled.

"What? No!" said Peggy.

"John, you acted the way anyone would have. We just have to wait here until Alex comes back, that's all," Maria chimed in.

"Yeah," agreed Angelica. "Alex is an idiot, but he's not going to get himself killed."

"How long ago did he leave?" asked John.

"About an hour ago," answered Laf.

That was too much. John let out another cry and his once dry eyes became wet again.

"Why hasn't he come b-back y-yet?" he sobbed.

"Shhh," said Eliza, rubbing John's back. All of a sudden, there was a voice coming from the doorway.

"Woah! What happened here?"

It was Alex. John bolted up and hugged him as tightly as he could, all the while sobbing into his shoulder.

"N-NEVER," he cried, "NEVER scare m-me like that a-again!"

Alex squeezed him back and looked into his eyes.

"Look at me, John," he whispered, smiling kindly. "I'm fine."

John gasped. "What happened to your eye?" There was a small purple ring around it.

Alex grinned. "It's my war trophy, see?"

John let out another wail and buried his face in Alex's shoulder again. The others got the idea and left the room so the two boys would have a moment alone.

Alex walked John over to his bed and helped him up, then climbed up himself.

"You shouldn't h-have risked your safety for s-someone as s-stupid as m-me," John stuttered.

Alex took John's hands in his own and lifted his chin up.

"Trust me, John," he whispered, "you're worth every scratch."

John lowered his head and sniffled as a single tear ran down his face.

"What exactly did you do?"

"I slugged him in the face," Alex smiled. "It got so serious, Lee had to go to the camp nurse."

John smiled a little and wiped his face with his hand.

"There it is," Alex murmured.

"What?" asked John.

"That smile I've grown to love so much."

John blushed. "I don't particularly love my face."

"I do," said Alex. "Everything about it-your smile, your freckles, your eyes, everything." Then Alex realized what he said. "I-uh-I mean-"

John laughed a little. "Thanks, Alex."

"Of course."

The two boys sat on John's bed for a few minutes. Alex holding John's hands. John wanting to kiss Alex. Alex wanting to-

To-

Well, he wasn't completely sure. Yes, he knew he was bisexual for quite a while, but he normally went for girls. Was he-

Nah.

Alex leaned forward slowly until his forehead was up against John's.

"You're a really amazing person, you know that, right?" he whispered. "You have such a big heart for even the people who don't deserve it. Like me."

John smiled. "You deserve all the love you can get, Alex." Then, realizing what he said, he blushed. "I mean-um-"

Alex laughed. "I guess we both don't know what to say today."

"Yeah," chuckled John.

The boys foreheads were still touching, but Alex's face seemed to be getting closer to his, if that was even possible.

"Maybe we should-NOT talk-for a little while," Alex whispered.

He leaned in closer. And then-

"Yo, is everyone good now?" John an Alex quickly sprung apart from each other as Herc burst in the room, the rest of the crew behind them.

"Herc!" Alex snapped angrily. "Knock!"

Herc smiled. "Oh, I'm sorry! Were you finally about to ask John ou-"

"Shut up!" Alex yelled, blushing furiously. He jumped down from the bunk.

"Come on, John. We have swimming basics in ten minutes."

John sadly hopped down off his bunk.

When John wasn't looking, Alex quickly flipped off Herc. Herc grinned.

The crew had a pretty good rest of the day. The idiot group left them alone, seeing as Alex had basically been able to break one of them. They certainly didn't want to risk losing another.

When John was in the bathroom, Herc, Laf, and Angelica walked over to Alex.

"Hey, Alex," Ang said casually.

Alex narrowed his eyes. "Ok, what's going on?"

"Oh, nothing," said Laf. "Just wanted to talk to you about someone."

"Who...."

"Oh my gosh, let's just get to the point. Do you like John?" said Herc impatiently.

Alec blushed. "What?! John?! You've got to be kidding me! We're just friends!"

Ang rolled her eyes. "Sure, friends who act like they're dating 90% of the time! Pegs actually asked me if you guys were, yesterday!"

Alex turned away. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"We won't judge, mon ami!" said Laf. "Just tell us! You're only making yourself more suspicious!"

Alex's face turned hot. "Shut up," he said, and quickly walked toward the lake.