At Camp Campbell, it didn’t take long for everyone to notice you never spoke. Not during roll call, not during activities, not even when David prompted you directly with his endless, overly-cheerful questions. At first, the counselors assumed you were shy. After a few weeks, though, the running theory around camp was that you were mute. Even Nikki and Neil had stopped trying to pry words out of you, accepting the quiet presence you brought into their chaotic trio.

But Max… he didn’t quite buy it. He’d never say it out loud, but he noticed everything: the way your eyes lit up at jokes, the way your hands sometimes twitched as though you wanted to reply but swallowed the impulse, the way you never looked truly voiceless. Still, you stayed silent, and he stopped pushing.

Until one night.

The camp was heavy with sleep, cabins creaking in the breeze, the forest outside whispering under the moonlight. Max had woken up restless—probably from a dream he didn’t care to remember—and slipped outside with his usual scowl. He was halfway to the mess hall for some contraband instant coffee when he froze.

There was a sound.

Distant, faint, but unmistakable. A voice.

Singing.

The melody floated through the night air like something unearthly, soft at first, then swelling into something powerful and beautiful. It wasn’t just someone humming, either—it was trained, majestic, and heartbreakingly full of emotion. Whoever it was, they weren’t just singing; they were pouring themselves into it.

Max’s brow furrowed, and he followed the sound like a moth to a flame. The closer he got, the clearer it became until there was no doubt. He stopped dead in his tracks when he spotted you—alone, standing by the edge of the lake, your face turned toward the moonlight, every note spilling from your lips with effortless grace.

The mute kid wasn’t mute.

Max’s eyes widened, for once too stunned to hide it. His first instinct was to scoff, to make a sarcastic comment, to shatter the moment before it shattered him. But the sound anchored him where he stood, silent, caught between disbelief and something he couldn’t name.

And for the first time since you’d arrived at camp, Max saw you not as the quiet, unspoken camper in the background… but as someone with a secret, and a voice more powerful than anyone could’ve guessed.