Authors note: Good morning, I hope you slept well. I decided to post this super early in the morning so everyone has a nice sleep. If you haven't read my previous story, then you might be a bit confused as to how they got to this point, so I urge you to go back and read it. I hope you enjoy this chapter, as I tried to make it as funny and cute as possible. Also, the pic is kind of a day in the life of David after adopting Max, I hope you like it because I stole it and can't remember were from.....

David started balling his eyes out as soon as he walked out of the counselor's cabin.

"Jesus Christ David, the camp is only shutting down for the summer, no one died!" Gwen said annoyed as she pushed past him. David had been crying all night and was utterly inconsolable.

"Hey, Gwen," Max said as he walked over. He had his bag slung over his shoulder as per usual. He packed over a week ago and had been carrying around his bag of stuff ever since. He couldn't wait to get away from this fucking camp.

"I just can't believe camp is already over!" David said as he bawled some more.

"You own the camp!" Max snapped at him. "If you miss the camp so damn much then you can always just come back for a campout!" Max sighed as he realized that was probably going to be every single weekend of the rest of his entire fucking life. Why did he have to pick David as his Dad, now he'd be stuck at this camp every fucking year!

"Promise?" David asked. Max sighed as he realized the only way to get David to stop crying would be to promise to come back to this fucking camp every time he missed it.

"Promise....." Max said resigned to his never-ending torture of a summer camp.

"Oh, Max!" David scooped max into a hug that smashed their cheeks together nice and tight. Max resisted the urge to hug back, even though seeing David happy actually made him feel almost.....weird like he was actually feeling joy, but he was still Max, so he figured it would pass eventually.

David kept Max in the hug a bit longer then Max was normally comfortable with, but for some reason, Max never wanted David to let go. He silently cursed himself for actually enjoying hugs from David of all people.

"You two are so adorable as father and son!" Gwen said as she quickly took a picture on Max's digital camera.

"Delete that immediately!" Max snapped as he ripped the camera away. He quickly looked at the picture and froze for a second as he realized it was actually a pretty good picture. He secretly put it under locked files and turned off the camera.

"Well, I'm sure that once we get you settled into our new home you won't even miss camp one bit!" David said as he ruffled Max's hair. Max merely growled and fixed his hair when David was done.

"Yeah, I'm absolutely sure of that...." Max said as he pretended not to notice David playing off his sorrow as something of pity.

"I'm just glad the goodbye party went well," Gwen said. "The campers all seemed to really have fun, which is saying something considering how our parties usually go."

"That's mostly because we tied you and David to the flagpole again," Max said as he recalled the memory. He got a lot of pictures. He didn't understand why, but he felt like he had to preserve this summer forever. It's probably because it was the first time he ever had memories that didn't make him wanna throw up or kill small animals.

"Well the parents should be arriving in just a few hours," Gwen said unusually happily. "Then I can finally get out of this fucking hellhole and get a real job!"

"Gwen, I just wanted to let you know that in my heart we'll always be CBFLS," David said as he put a hand on Gwen's shoulder. Gwen ripped his hand away with a smile.

"Fuck that, I'm out of here!" Gwen said, she then slumped a little as she remembered something. "As soon as my Uber gets here....."

"Great, now you get to stick around for a little longer!" David said smiling happily. He grabbed her in a hug and Gwen just groaned.

"Great....." Gwen said as she rolled her eyes.

"I'm going to treasure every second we have left together!" David said as he hugged her tighter.

"I can't believe I had to pick such a sentimental idiot for a father," Max said annoyed. He suddenly remembered the camera, camporee trophy, and his half of the order of the sparrow stick, all tucked away safely in his bag and realized he was being just like him. "Son of a bitch."

"The parents are almost here!" Neil yelled as he walked through the tents that have already been taken down. All the campers slept in sleeping bags in the mess hall as a final sleepover, but David and Gwen were kicked out because David was such a crybaby about camp ending for the summer.

"Well, at least we get to watch a parade of embarrassing idiots before camp ends," Max said.

"I wanna see how Candy and Carl react to seeing each other!" Gwen said she looked over at Max. "Quick, can I borrow your camera?"

"For fifty bucks," Max said as he brought it out. "But that's just for the recording. I wanna get everything on tape."

"Deal!" Gwen said.

***

Max waited with all the other campers next to the camp Campbell sign. David forced everyone to take a nice big group picture including everyone, and even Max put on a fake smile for it. Max cursed himself every time he felt almost sad camp was over. He was not some sentimental idiot, and he did not enjoy camp, and as long as he kept repeating it to himself it might be true one day.

"Thank you for the picture everyone," David said as he wiped tears from his eyes. "I promised myself I wouldn't get emotional but....." The campers groaned as David again burst into tears. Max wondered if this was going to wind up being the rest of his fucking life. David was crying over every little thing, it was utterly pathetic. Was he going to cry like this every single time he had to say goodbye? He wondered just what exactly his schemes had gotten himself into.

"Cars are coming!" Gwen shouted through her megaphone. "Line up and wait for your parents." A single car pulled up and Carl stepped out. Neil breathed a sigh of relief as he realized Carl wasn't matching him for once.

"Hey, dude.... Are you ready to go head on home?" Carl said as he walked over to Neil. He was wearing a red turtleneck and blue jeans instead of what he wore during parents day. Another car pulled up and Candy popped her head out of the vehicle, wearing what she normally wore.

"Hey, mom!" Nikki said as she walked over.

"Uhh, what?" Candy said as she texted on her phone. She looked up and realized Nikki was standing right there. "Oh hey baby girl, you aren't gonna try to bring a pet this time are you?" Nikki looked up at a massive eagle perched above her.

"Well, he doesn't have to stay in the house....." Nikki said as she tried to explain.

"Whatever, as long as they don't rip up the seats....."

"Yay Timothy!" Nikki said excitedly.

"Hey Candy...." Carl said making Candys eyes go wide as she saw him.

"Nikki, you got everything in the car?" Candy said.

"Yup, that should be....."

"Get in the car sweetie!" Candy said as she ripped her door open and jumped inside. Nikki barely managed to get inside before Candy peeled away from the camp leaving a dust cloud behind her.

"Wait, you didn't give me your number!" Carl said. He sighed and turned back to Neil.

"Dad, let's just go, I already said goodbye," Neil said as he pushed the last of his science equipment in the back.

"Alright dude, thanks for taking good care of our kids while we were gone," Carl said as he waved at David and Gwen. He climbed in and drove away from the group leaving Max to wave at his two best friends one last time. He stuck his hands into his hoodie and grumbled as he walked over to David.

"Oh, are you sorry to see your friends go?" David asked.

"Shut up David," Max said. "I'm just annoyed that they had to leave first." The rest of the campers all filed away into their respective vehicles. The most exciting one was Nerfs mother who showed up driving a stolen car with a helicopter following her.

"Bye guys," Nerf said as she climbed in and Ms. Nerfington peeled away. The Millers were delayed by a few hours because of an escaped prisoner in the area.

***

The final car pulled up and a priest climbed out, which confused David and Gwen because the only campers left where Max and Harrison.

"Harrison, my child." the priest said. "Please step into the car, your parents have sent me to purge the evil that dwells within you."

"But I already brought my brother back, he was only gone for like a month....." Harrison complained.

"Do not worry my son, you may return to your family when you have been cleansed."

"You aren't gonna touch me in weird places are you?" Harrison asked.

"Heavens no.....unless you want me too....."

"What?!" Harrison asked.

"Enjoy getting raped, Harrison," Max said as he kicked him into the car. The priest closed his door and drove away with Harrison banging on the window.

"Finally!" Gwen said as she spotted her taxi. "So long suckers!" she climbed into the back and the taxi sped away.

"Well, that's everyone!" David said. "I hope they all remember to campe diem!"

"That went surprisingly fast, it's almost like they wanted to get the fuck out of here," Max said.

"Now Max, we really need to work on your language," David said.

"Good luck with that, camp man," Max said. "Let's just get out of here and back to civilization."

"Well everything's already loaded up in the camp mobile, if we start out now we can be at my house by nightfall!" David said excitedly. "I can't wait till you see our wonderful new home."

***

"This isn't even house!" Max said angrily. They were parked in a parking lot outside of a building he had never seen before. It was blue and had the word 'Blockbuster' on the front, along with a ton of advertisements about rental DVDs and something called VHS which Max had never heard of before.

"It may not look like much, but I can assure you that the store has a nice apartment on top," David said as he tried to alleviate Maxs misgivings. He wanted Max to love this place as much as he loved owning and operating it. Cameron Campbell bought it a few years ago when the company went under and figured he could bring back the whole brand.

Ownership of the store was reverted to David because Cameron thought it would be a good idea to include the store in the camps paperwork because buying it in the first place was a fucking terrible idea. It was literally worth more as listed floorspace for some godforsaken summer camp, then it was a store itself. That and it was an excellent money laundering scheme because when asked about how the company makes so much, you can just say it's out of pure nostalgia.

"Why would anyone rent DVDs?" Max asked. "Is this the place for people who've never heard of Netflix?"

"Well, I'm sure that if we just put in some hard work and elbow grease, I can make this store successful again!" David said smiling. "Why don't I give you the grand tour!" Max walked toward the store with a resigned sigh. He really hoped his room was at least somewhat nice.

"Wonderful," Max said as David followed him. David took out a set of keys and opened the door to the store. A small bell rang out as the two of them entered the building. Max looked around the store and realized there was a whole rack covered in rentable video games. He suddenly decided that maybe living over the store wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Back here is the counter where people will pay for things and rent movies!" David said. He pointed toward a back door. "Through that door is a rentable backroom for movie parties. Back there the customers can have a party whole party to view a movie they either brought themselves or rented from the store!" David said happily. Cameron Campbell went through a lot of trouble fixing up the place to rebuild the brand, all except actually making it digital as the blockbuster should have before it died.

"We have our own movie theater?" Max asked as he realized the potential. He was a smart kid, and he knew he could make this work, as long as he could manipulate David enough to keep some control. He didn't wanna end up homeless after all.

"Yuppers!" David said happily as he realized Max was actually starting to like the idea. Max suddenly stopped on the tour when he noticed something that made him groan. A whole aisle was filled to the brim with thousands of editions of the farmer's almanac. He was not going to listen to that for the rest of his life.

"I guess we can make this work," Max said. "As long as you get rid of all of those," Max said as he pointed at that particular aisle.

"I guess we can do without that, I already bought my own full collection anyway!" David said smiling. He was so glad Max was finally showing some enthusiasm over there new little home.

"Over here is the door up to our new apartment!" David said as he opened a door to some stairs. Max and David walked up the stairs into a small room that must have been the storage room.

"Here it is!" David said as he gestured wildly at the storage room.

There was a mattress tucked into the far corner, along with an area of shelf that's been turned into a makeshift kitchen with portable burners. A mini fridge was set next to the wall at the foot of the mattress, and a large tv that looked like one of the TVs from downstairs was hanging on one of the walls next to where the door was. The first row of shelves had been completely repurposed to hold neatly folded up clothes and other small items like fishing gear, picture frames, and space heater, as the room did not have air conditioning.

"This is it?" Max asked as he looked around the room. It was actually a fairly large room, but storage for everything else the store needed took up like two-thirds of the place.

"I know it's not much, but I'm sure that we can make the best of it if we just try hard enough!" David said as he tried to put a positive spin on their situation. "That and I can't really afford to live anywhere else....." David said as he remembered his unfortunate financial situation. "The good news is that I'm no longer renting this place from Mr. Campbell, so I won't be paying three grand a month just for the pleasure of staying here!"

"Seriously?!" Max said as he heard just how much David got screwed on that one. "You were paying three thousand dollars a month to sleep in this shit hole?"

"I know right, Mr Campbell told me he was giving me a really great deal!" David said. "I'm so thankful that he went so low for a dear friend!" Max sighed as he realized David was probably going to be swindled out of his money for the rest of his life.

"Where am I supposed to sleep?!" Max asked incredulously as he realized there was only one mattress.

"I've already planned for that!" David said as he walked over to one spot to the left of his mattress bed. He gestured to a shelf he cleared out and put a small mattress on, so Max wouldn't be sleeping on the floor. He even put up a sliding curtain so Max could have all the privacy he would ever need.

"A shelf?" Max asked incredulously. He suddenly thought of all the times his parents shoved him into a closet and thought of how alone and scared he was being stuck in the tiny room he couldn't escape. Max sighed as he realized that while it still wasn't what he was expecting, It was still better than he ever had. "Alright, I guess this is fine."

"Really?" David said happily. "You mean it!" David scooped Max into a hug no matter how much Max protested. "We're gonna be one big happy family!"

"This fucking sucks, but at least I'll have all the video games I could ever want." Max thought to the video games aisle.

***

Max grabbed a box various cleaning supplies and pushed it down the stairs. It crashed at the bottom and max simply dusted off his hands before following it down. They were all made of plastic, so it's not like he was actually spilling anything. He stepped over the bow and dragged it after him out into the main retail area where David was busy dusting the displays.

"Hey Max, could you start cleaning off the counter?" David asked.

"Isn't that like.....child labor?" Max asked.

"Not if I own the business!" David said happily at educating himself concerning the law. "Since I own the business I can legally employ you as long as it's not a hazardous job! That means you can earn your very own paycheck long before you turn sixteen."

"Son of a bitch," Max said annoyed. He was not looking forward to working in the last blockbuster on earth simply so he can get his own paycheck, he already probably had more money than David. When he was a candy kingpin he was practically in charge of the whole fucking camp and bled it dry.

"Don't worry Max, I'm sure that as long as you apply yourself you can have a lot of fun!"

"Shut up," Max said as he used some kind of horrific chemical to dust the table.

"We have interviews for a desk clerk in just a few minutes, and I for one want to make a good impression!" David said excitedly. "Oh, I hope they love this place as much as I do!"

"David, I've watched fifteen people stop in front of the store and take pictures of themselves next to the sign without coming in. Instead of returning videos, people use the video return slot as a trash can." Max said annoyed. "If we can afford a third employee, then I say we take that money and not push our luck!"

"I can't be expected to run the store all the time!" David said. "Besides, soon you'll have homework, and I don't want your work in the store to interfere with your studies!"

"Right.....school," Max said annoyed. He never had many friends at school, his attitude tended to drive people away, even if he's changed quite a bit since the start of summer, he doubted he was going to make many friends.

"Don't worry Max, the schools right next door!" David said. "Just on the other side of the mall!"

"What mall?" Max asked. He had fallen asleep on his way into the parking lot, so by the time they had parked, he could only see the blockbuster storefront. Though now that he thinks about it, the building looked a lot bigger and wider on the outside.

"The mall our store is connected too silly!" David said. "I guess you didn't get to see it when we pulled up, but this place is called Sleepy Peek mall!"

"Were in a mall?" Max asked. "Wait, shouldn't our store open into the other areas of the mall." Max realized there was no internal entrance to the other areas of the mall. If this was a mall then shouldn't they have two entrances?