JOHN'S POV

The day continues, we head back to the camp, eat, hang out for a bit, go on the low ropes and just chill for the rest of the night.

I think I really, REALLY like Alex. I just don't understand why he would like me. That's why I said I'm not ready- what if it's some kind of sick joke? Maybe I'll ask him out tomorrow. I think that would be a good idea.

For now though, I'm going to try get some sleep. I look onto Alex's bunk and I can see the faint glow of his laptop. From what I can tell he's a workaholic. I don't even know what he's writing about.

I reach onto his bed and snatch his laptop off his knee.

"Woah! John what are you doing?!" He whisper shouts at me.

"Getting my you to sleep. We have activities again tomorrow. Night Alex."

"Night John..." he huffs.
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- TIME SKIP (THE MORNING) -

JOHN'S POV

I wake up to my alarm at 8:00. An hour until breakfast finishes. I stand up and look at Alex's bed, it's empty... hmm. I wonder where he is. Maybe the bathroom? I walk over to the bathroom and push the door open, no sign of Alex here. Maybe he's in the girls cabin?

I walk over to the girls cabin and knock on the door lightly. A few seconds later Angelica opens the door, already dressed for the day. "Oh, hey John. You okay?" She asks.

"Oh, yeah I'm fine. Was wondering if you have seen Alex anywhere? I haven't seen him."

"Nope, he hasn't been here. Sorry John!" She says.

"No problem, thanks Angelica! If you see him tell him I want to speak with him!" I shout back, being careful not to wake the other campers though.

I walk back over to our cabin and put some clothes on. I look at my schedule, I've got a full day of horse riding... oh... good.

I put some old dirty clothes on as I'm probably going to fall off a few times. I mean, it can't be that hard, right? I wake the others up and we all head to down breakfast. Cereal, pancakes or toast. They have a coffee machine- for the coffee addicted like Alex I imagine. I choose cereal, Laf chooses pancakes and Herc takes toast. We all start to eat and chat about random topics. I can't help but wonder where Alex is. Oh well, worrying doesn't get you anywhere.
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- TIME SKIP (AFTER BREAKFAST) -

We are walking back to the cabin when I hear Washington's voice from behind us.

"Alright, all groups can you start to make your way to your specified activities immediately. The Hadestown Folk, you will need to meet me at the lake for hiking. Thanks."

I guess I'm heading over to the arena then. I sure hope this goes well.

- TIME SKIP (because I don't want to write about them walking there.) -

We entered the arena into the viewing area to see Alex in black jodhpurs and his riding team t shirt. He looks so gorgeous. Stop John we're here to learn. As the rest of our group and a few others enter Alex makes his way over to the seating area, standing on the other side of the fence, in the arena.

"Hello all! So, most of you know I am Alexander Hamilton, but please call me Alex. I am the captain of Camp Yorktown's riding team so I will be the one teaching you all how to ride. Does anyone here know how to?"

Angelica, Eliza, Peggy and Laf all put their hands up. Me, Herc, Thomas, James and the other kids don't. Cool. At least I'm not the only one who doesn't know how to.

"Okay, so today you listen to me. And me alone. I don't care if Lin-Manuel Miranda walks in that door, you do not get off your horse (cause I'll already be there so like get in line people)" he jokes. God he's so adorable.

"We have water over there, if anyone feels unwell please let me know and I will sort it out. In case of an accident I don't want anyone running into the arena or around the arena, I am a first aider and I also have Peggy here- who is one of this camps best riders." He points to Peggy, who jumps over the fence like she's done it 1000 times before.

"Okay! So, as you can see we have a few of our best starter horses here. You won't all be riding at once, and to start we're going to be doing one to one. The rest of you can sit around, drink water, talk, do whatever you want but don't enter the arena unless I say. Okay?" We all nod our heads. He's so good at leading. Now I see why he is the captain.

"Okay, we have already matched people with their horses for today. Me and Peggy will also be riding today, but only  when the arena is empty. You up for a little competition pegs?" He asks while all of my group cheers them on.

"Oh, you're on Lex." Oh my god. This looks intense.

"First person in the Arena I want Herc." He says.

Herc's face drops. I'd hate to be first. Or last. I just like being in between, that's when people focus on you less. He slowly walks to the gate and enters.

"Herc you will be riding Laf." He says with a smirk clear on his face. Hercules pushes him to the floor and Alex rolls around on his back in a fit of laughter. His laugh is so cute.

"Okay! Okay! I surrender" he shouts between laughs as Hercules wrestled with him on the ground.

"Okay,  so you're assigned to Dave."

"Who in their right mind calls a horse Dave?"

"Whoever named him, clearly" Alex shoots back.

"Okay so I might as well just tell you all who you're assigned to now to save time. Okay, so, the arrangements are as follows:
- Herc you're on Dave
-Angelica you're on Daphne
-Eliza you're on Star
-John you're on Usnavi
-Thomas you're on Tegwin
-James you're on Dixy

And he goes on telling the other kids who they're assigned to.  He finished by saying "I will be on Lucifer and Peggy you will be on Vanessa."

He takes Herc into the arena and helps him onto his horse. He slowly leads the horse around with Herc sat on its back.
No one else except for me and Laf were paying attention at this point.

"You think you wanna speed up a little bit Herc?" He questions.

"NOPE NOT AT ALL." Herc shoots back.

"Okay, okay, don't worry I'm not gonna make you do anything you don't want to. Just stick with what you're comfortable with." He assures him.

This goes on for a while, each person getting their own time in the arena. I am pulled out of my trance when Alex shouts me.

"Hey john! You ready to give this a go?" He says. Oh shit. No, I'm not ready. But I guess I have to be.

"Yeah... okay." I say as I strap my helmet on.

He takes my hand and we approach the horse. So this is Usnavi... I thought Alex said he was injured? Oh well. He helps me onto Usnavi's back and adjusts the saddle so it fits better with my body.

"We're gonna take this nice and slow okay? We're just going to slowly walk around the arena and we'll see how we do from there." He says, smiling at me.

"O-okay." We set off around the arena, walking in one big loop. I slowly gain my confidence more as time goes on. I actually quite enjoy this. It's fun.

After another 5 minutes of walking around Alex asks me "do you think you want to try a trot?". What the fuck is a trot?! He sees the clear confusion on my face and answers "I mean a faster pace." Ohh. I nod my head hesitantly. He asks me to kick my legs gently and makes a weird noise with his mouth. Usnavi gets faster, which is terrifying. Alex starts to lightly jog around with Usnavi, encouraging him with that weird noise.

I slow back down to a walk again after one lap of the arena.

"I thought you said Usnavi was injured and he couldn't be ridden?" I ask.

"Oh yeah, we'll I'm trying to build his strength back up for when tournaments come around, he's the best horse we've got. Well, he's the best in my opinion." He replies.

"Plus, I didn't want you getting hurt, so I thought I'd give you the horse that I have the most trust in." He says quietly so only we can hear. THATS SO SWEET.

"Alex. I need to talk to you." I say, I see his face change into one of worry and confusion.

"I'm really sorry about the other night. I only said I wasn't ready to date because I thought you were playing a joke on me. So I was wondering, do you maybe wanna be my boyfriend?" I ask hesitantly. His face lights up. "Of course I'd love to be your boyfriend John" he says back. THANK THE LORD. We stop Usnavi and I get off, feeling more calm and a a lot happier than before. Alexander Hamilton is my boyfriend! That'll never get old.

Peggy and Alex both go to sort the last of the horses out, so we have about 15/20 minutes to ourselves. Lucifer and Vanessa are the only two horses left in the arena now, seeing as Alex and Peggy are having a competition. God I hope he wins. I'm sure he will. I'm actually quite excited to see him.

A few staff members we've never seen before enter the arena and start setting up the jumps.

A few minutes later Peggy and Alex emerge both in their dark blue team shirts, black pants, black helmet and boots. They play rock, paper, scissors to see who goes first. Alex wins so Peggy goes first. She completes the course flawlessly... she really has a knack for this sort of thing. Once she is finished one of the kids from before comes and takes Vanessa off of her, whilst we wait for Alex to start. He gets onto Lucifer and starts the course. The way he glides around effortlessly... it's incredible. He had complete control, and he looks so relaxed. I feel so blessed to be able to call him mine. Once Alex has finished he takes Lucifer back and comes back about 10 minutes later. Him and Peggy argue over who won, both saying that the other was better. Of course Alex would never say that he won. He's too kind. They finally agree that they drew and we all start to make our way over to the cafeteria. We had lunch outside the stables before so that we didn't have to walk it far. Looks like they're serving pizza. That's good with me.

Alex doesn't join the food queue, but instead goes straight to where the cereal is kept. Cereal for dinner... I can respect that I guess.

We all make our way back to the table and engage in conversation like we normally do. That is until Laf throws Alex's water straight over his head. The whole table goes silent...

Suddenly both boys burst out laughing. They're so weird. I love it. So now Alex and me are holding hands under the table and he looks like he has had a shower fully clothed. Dork.

The atmosphere in the cafeteria is kinda weird. No one wants to speak too loud, so everyone half whispers, but because everyone is doing it the cafeteria is really loud. But if we were to speak at normal volume we would be way louder than the other tables. That sounds weird. I don't even know how to explain it. But it seems that my table doesn't care as Laf and Alex's voices echo off the walls.

The rest of the night goes pretty quickly, we all decided to head down to the lake and just watch the stars. It was nice. Everything was peaceful. Me and Alex were the only people left eventually, and I curled up under his arm.

I like this.
I feel calm, relaxed.
I could stay like this for forever.

And with that we both drift into a peaceful sleep. By the lake.