Nadia got ready in the girls cabin along with all of the other girls, smiling ear to ear even though she and EJ weren't exactly going as dates. But she understood the reasoning for it so she couldn't really be mad at him; she was more disappointed.

But, she tried to forget about it by focusing on helping Ricky. She had been planting subliminal messages to Gina, which consisted of mentioning his name a lot or things associated with him, to get her to subconsciously think about him.

She told Ricky it would definitely work since girls tend to overthink everything when it comes to guys so if Gina started thinking about him more, she would probably question her potential feelings for him.

Ricky was unsure if it would actually work or not, but he seemed really eager to do go forward with the plan for some reason.

"Okay, I am very hyped for this dance tonight, but someone needs to explain to me why we're doing a vintage theme for camp prom," Ashlyn spoke up as Nadia put in some pink flower earrings to match the vintage vibe. Since Ashlyn told her EJ was wearing some sort of pink outfit, Nadia tried to match that a bit by getting a pink groovy 70s style dress even though they weren't going as dates.

"Ooh, I think it has to do with Susan Fine's birthday. Or the day she died," Gina guessed.

"Definitely one of those two," Ashlyn replied slowly as she and Nadia shared a look.

"Honestly, I've never known," Maddox shrugged.

"Look, any camp tradition that doesn't involve climbing a wall is good by me," Kourtney joked, making them all chuckle.

"And I'm gonna miss having all this time with you guys," Gina whined with a frown.

"I know. Once this summer is over...I'm gonna be going to college and leaving you all," Nadia voiced sadly.

Gina frowned even more. "Have you made a decision yet?" she asked.

Nadia shook her head. "No, I need to talk to EJ before making a final decision."

"Don't let my cousin persuade you from not going to Duke. That's a great school and it would honestly be a missed opportunity," Ashlyn advised.

"I know, but I don't think EJ wouldn't let me go. I just don't know if I'd be able to let myself go if he felt bad," Nadia explained her.

Gina sighed. "Okay, sisterhood vibes all night, okay?" she said, trying to make them all feel better.

"It's gonna be a night of many vibes," Ashlyn smiled excitedly.

"Yeah, I wonder what all the guys are wearing. Especially Ricky, I feel like he fits this vintage style for some reason," Nadia voiced, looking directly at Gina on purpose.

"You know, you keep mentioning Ricky a lot," Gina pointed out, narrowing her eyes.

"I am?" Nadia played dumb and Gina nodded. "Huh, that's weird."

"Yeah..." Gina trailed off, seeming to go into thought. It's working, Nadia thought enthusiastically.

"Hey, Nads, are you good with going solo to the dance tonight?" Ashlyn questioned out of nowhere.

"What? I'm not going alone. I have all of you," she held her arms out. "Honestly, it's fine. It's a Shallow Lake tradition," she shrugged it off.

"That's right. It is," Maddox confirmed.

"Everyone goes stag," Gina added, making Maddox laugh a bit. "Honestly, Ash, I think your cousin's gonna spend the night without me as his date, realizing he's kind of been ignoring me for a week and a half even though we talked about it, and I...don't know. I mean, he promised he'd save the last dance for me, so..."

"Oh, very nice."

"I think the night's gonna end pretty well," Nadia giggled, thinking optimistically.

"In one or another, it always does," Maddox cut in with a nod.

A door to their cabin then opened, and Jet walked inside wearing an orange, vintage suit. "Excuse me."

All the girls began to exclaim at him since he was looking very retro. Jet ignored them and asked, "Maddie, can we talk? Alone?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The girls — except Maddox since she seemed to be talking with her ex-girlfriend — walked in fashionably late, all looking beautiful and amazing. The boys noticed the four of them, staring in shock and admiration at their vintage looks that seemed to fit them perfectly.

"Hello, boys," Nadia greeted since she was the first one to notice their stares. She waved at Marcus, who had been nodding at her proudly.

"Wow," EJ breathed out as Ricky cleared his throat, trying to tear his gaze away from Gina but he couldn't.

"Hey, Ricky, you okay?" Gina questioned as Nadia tried to hide her smirk.

"Oh, just dandy," Ricky answered and Nadia forced down a laugh.

However, she had noticed Dakota staring her way with his mouth practically dragging along the floor. "You too, Skate?" Nadia added, arching a brow.

Dakota couldn't seem the find the words, just blinking like an idiot. "Yeah, you good?" EJ queried, his tone a bit more stiff.

"Yeah, it's — it's just hot in here, am I right?" Dakota made up, trying not to look as obvious.

"Ooh! The photo wall is lit!" Kourtney squealed.

"Oh, we're stealing them," Ashlyn said, grabbing Nadia and Gina's hands before she pulled them away from the boys.

"Later," Ricky said awkwardly while Dakota just stared after them.

"Need some air, Dakota?" EJ questioned once the girls left, his lips pursed together.

"No, no, I'm good, Elton. Let's just run more of Ricky's lines, huh?" Dakota responded before he took a sip of his drink awkwardly.

"Ricky was totally staring at you, Gi," Nadia told her once they had walked away, going forward with her plan.

"Psh, no he wasn't," Gina brushed off, denying it even though it was so obvious. Nadia gave her a look. "Okay, maybe he was. Is it bad that I might...kinda like him?"

"Oh, my God!" Nadia squealed, jumping up and down excitedly as Gina quickly shushed her since she didn't want to draw attention to herself. Nadia then cleared her theory, shaking her head at herself since she usually didn't act like that. "Sorry, sorry, but this is good."

"Is it? Because he's Nini's ex and I wouldn't want to do that to her," Gina spoke guilty, rubbing the back of neck.

"Trust me when I say this, Gina...Nini will probably be happy for you," Nadia assured her and Gina grinned a bit. "And when she's a pop star thanks to your brother, she'll have Harry Styles and Bad Bunny so I think she'll be fine," she joked, causing the both of them to laugh. "Now, let's have some fun!"

"Whoo!" Gina whooped, going over to the photo booth where Ashlyn and Kourtney were already taking some photos.

The night had been pretty fun as Nadia hung out with the girls, dancing and laughing excitedly. Her last type of dance ended in a bloody nose and breakup, so Nadia was definitely having the time of her life at this one.

She then spotted EJ talking with Kourtney, Ricky, and Skate so she decided to make her way over to him. "EJ, can I have this dance?" she asked happily.

EJ smiled. "Yes. Just a couple more prompts and then I'm all yours," he replied, which made her smile falter. He then looked over at Kourtney. "Elsa, when Anna says..." EJ trailed off, looking for Anna's quote. Nadia's eyes traveled over to Dakota, who was already looking over at her so he looked away. "'But why? I don't understand,' you say..."

"Uh, I know this one. Um..." Kourtney thought about it.

"Curtain's up, cameras are rolling," EJ urged since he wanted this musical to be as perfect as it could be.

"Yeah, uh, I-I know...um..." Kourtney tried again, not seeming to remember her line.

"Kourt?" EJ asked, leaning forward.

"Remember this part?" Nadia cut in, trying to help her out since she really hadn't been a co-director at all this summer like she had wanted to.

"Uh...I'm blank," Kourtney admitted.

EJ forced a smile, shutting his binder. "Still got 24 hours," he assured her, or maybe himself.

"And counting," Kourtney added, chuckling nervously.

"Okay, well, Dakota, would you like to dance?" Nadia asked since EJ wasn't going to any time soon.

EJ furrowed his brows. "Hang on, I think Maddox is taking the stage," he told them and Dakota grinned awkwardly at the couple before he walked away.

The microphone that Maddox was holding on stage buzzed, grabbing everybody's attention as the music got quieter. "Hey, gang."

"We love you, Gadget!" a guy shouted in the crowd.

"Thank you. Uh, just a...just wanna make an announcement. Actually, it's not an announcement, it's, um, an explanation. So sometimes...I want things to go exactly my way. I push people away. Good people who screwed up like I probably screw up, basically, every day. So I thought I might sing something tonight," Maddox spoke to everybody.

"Shallow Lake song!" someone yelled and some of them cheered.

"Actually, I had another idea. It's a song that used to be my favorite when I was little. It made me happy, and it made my little brother happy and I think maybe we're ready to be happy again," she continued. "And I know we've had 100 ups and downs since then, but Jet, I wouldn't change a thing."

The DJ then started to play and upbeat version of "Wouldn't Change a Thing" from Camp Rock 2. Maddox started singing before  Jet walked on stage and grabbed a microphone, singing along with her.

The crowd danced along to their duet, happy that they finally made up after their feud all summer. Nadia danced with her friends, not even trying to find EJ since he was probably too just looking over everyone's lines.

Carlos and Seb then walked onto stage, making the Wildcats all cheer since Seb had somehow shown up. Marcus hopped up on stage to dance next to Jet, which he seemed happy to do so. Nadia held her thumbs up at Marcus since she knew that he basically had a crush on the guy all summer.

"Come on, Nads. It's the last dance of the night. Grab a partner," Ashlyn said to Nadia as her and Kourtney danced with one another and Gina and Ricky had been dancing.

Nadia forced a smile on her face, finally looking around to try and find EJ but he was nowhere in sight. She spotted Dakota and he started to dance, but that didn't seem to cheer her up.

The song then ended and the campers clapped, making Nadia clap and clear her throat. "Everyone, everyone, this is Madison of Mad and Mad fame," Maddox introduced.

"What's up, Wildcats?" Madison greeted excitedly.

"We have heard so much about you," Ashlyn told her and Maddox chuckled.

Madison then turned to Maddox. "Hey, I have a long drive home."

"I know."

"You'll call when camp's over?" Madison asked.

"Like I could forget your number," Maddox laughed before Nadia walked away, trying to find EJ.

She was able to find him in the back room away from everyone, reading over his Frozen binder like she had guessed he would. "Hey."

"Hey," EJ replied before he looked right back down in his binder.

"Got a minute to talk?" Nadia asked.

"Yeah, of course."

"You wanna put that script down?" she suggested.

EJ laughed, "Of course." He then finally put the binder down for the first time that whole night.

"So, tonight has been memorable," she began.

"Oh, yeah, everyone loves the camp prom," he said before someone put a drink down on Elsa's castle near them. "Hey, please don't put that drink on Elsa's castle! We need it for tomorrow night!" he shouted before he looked back at Nadia. "Sorry."

"EJ, you missed the last dance," Nadia told him, getting to the point.

"Oh, crap. Hold on. I'll just put on a song and we can just boogie around," EJ said, walking past her.

"EJ, stop," Nadia quickly said, turning around to face him. EJ's smiled dropped once he saw the look on Nadia's face. "We had two completely different nights. Two completely different summers, actually."

EJ sucked in a breath, trying to figure out why to say. "Look, I'm a little distracted with opening night tomorrow, but—"

"But maybe it goes deeper than that, you know? I mean, we've both graduated from East High and both of our worlds are getting bigger. Maybe too big for the both of us," she pointed out.

"What are trying to say?" EJ questioned.

"Look, you've just missed out on a lot of stuff this summer. The whole woman in the woods things, our Color War team—"

"Sorry, is it me or do both of those things have the same person in common?" EJ cut her off, referring to Dakota.

"This is not about Dakota," Nadia voiced, shaking her head.

"Why was he the first one that came to mind then?" EJ inquired about, tilting his head to the side a bit.

Nadia scoffed at him. "Are you serious right now? You're accusing me of cheating?"

"Not cheating, but it feels like you two are always together," he said with a shrug,

"Because you were never around!" Nadia exclaimed, her eyes going wide. "And if you were, you were always with Val or — or Corbin. Never me." EJ just stared at her, not knowing what to say. "Look, EJ, we've had a rough past and I've looked past it because I ended up falling for you. But maybe our competitive natures have just come back and bit us in the ass. Maybe we're just better off alone."

EJ began to shake his head. "No, don't do that. We're great together," he said, trying to backtrack.

"Yeah, for like five minutes at the beginning of the summer. But we haven't really been together this summer at all. It's just been Nadia. And EJ. Not Nadia and EJ. And if that's a preview to some future where we can't be together at all, I...I think I need to skip ahead," she admitted.

"What do you mean by 'skip ahead'?" he asked.

"Like I said, maybe we're just better off alone," Nadia said as tears began to fill in her eyes, as did EJ's. "Look. You're amazing. You've helped me through so much but..."

"But it's over," EJ finished for her.

"I'm sorry," Nadia breathed out, looking down as she tried to not let the tears fall.

Seb then came rushing into the room, a surprised look on his face. "Elton John?" he spoke in shock. Nadia licked her lips and patted EJ on the shoulder before she walked away, finally letting the tears fall.

The only way to actually get out of the place was to walk back into the dancing area where she prayed no one would see her crying. "Hey, Nadia," Dakota called out as she pushed through people, going outside. Dakota quickly followed her out, catching up to her. "Hey, is everything okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, everything's fine," Nadia said shakily, not wanting to turn around to show Dakota her tears.

"Are...are you crying?" Dakota asked and Nadia sighed, turning around to face him. "Oh, shit, um...did something happen?" Nadia wiped at her wet face, nodding as meow tears before. "Here, let's sit over here," he said, softly grabbing her arm and taking her over to the bench. "What's up?"

Nadia breathed in deeply and breathed out, trying to calm herself down. "I...I think I just broke up with EJ," she revealed.

Dakota's eyes widened, but he couldn't say that he was exactly surprised. "I'm so sorry," he told her.

"No, no, it's just...this whole summer has been a complete waste. I-I thought that EJ and I would be happy together but — but it was the complete opposite," she began to go on a rant. "Everyone was saying how s-surprised they had been to see us together and — and how they didn't see u-us working, and maybe I should have — have listened at the beginning."

"This isn't your fault, Nadia. You didn't know that EJ was going to be a complete workaholic all summer," Dakota assured her, trying to make her feel better.

"No, but I know him and he knows me. Our personalities just — just clash. We're too...competitive," she said. "And I know I said I-I wouldn't be this summer, but I-I just can't help it. Everything I-I do is to just get ahead. It's toxic."

"It's not toxic to me," Dakota told her and she looked over at him, giving him a look. "No, really, it's not. I think you're great. More than great, even. I didn't surprise me when I overheard you say that you got into Duke."

Nadia nodded slowly before she furrowed her brows at his last sentence. "You overheard me say I got into Duke?" she questioned.

Dakota blinked at himself, realizing his mistake. "Uh, yeah, about that actually..." he trailed off and Nadia turned more towards him, wanting to hear what he had to say. "I thought EJ knew that and I know how much he wanted to go to Duke from the past few summers with him so I...I brought it up but he definitely did not know that you got in."

"Wait, you told EJ that I got into Duke?" she questioned, putting the pieces together. "That's how he knew?"

"Yeah, but I'm so sorry. I actually didn't know if he knew that or not," he said making her give him another look, "and I did it because...because I like you, Nadia. I really like you. And EJ was in the way so—"

Nadia stood up from her seat in shock, looking down at him with a hurt expression on her face. "You wanted to break EJ and I up?" she said breathlessly. "I-I thought you two were friends."

Dakota quickly got up from the bench. "We are! It's just...he always complained about you for summer after summer and then when he brought you here as his girlfriend, all of us couldn't help but be confused. And then when I got to know you this summer, I realized why he had fallen in love with you. So I did, too."

Nadia just stared at him in complete and utter shock before he began to lean forward, wanting to kiss her. Nadia didn't realize what he was doing until his lips were just inches away from hers, and then she slapped right across the face.

"Ow!" Dakota winced, bringing his hand up to his face as he looked at her in surprise.

"You're a manipulative piece of shit," she seethed. "You ruined my relationship."

Dakota began to shake his head. "It was already ruining itself and I just gave it a little push, that's all."

Nadia scoffed at him. "Don't ever talk to me again you fucking asshole," she insulted before she pushed past him, wanting to go back to her cabin. Dakota tried to grab her wrist but she turned around and punched him square in the face, sending him right on the ground. "I promised myself I wouldn't go back to my old ways, but I think this time it's needed," she spoke down to him as his nose started to bleed.

She then walked away, wiping all the tears away as she headed back to her cabin.

authors note
i'm so sorry 🫣
also this isn't spell
checked at all so sorry
if there r mistakes