Chapter Text
I was skipping rocks when the sun decided to play chicken with the canoeing lake.
It was a normal morning, all things considered. I had slipped out from the Aphrodite cabin right before sunrise. Silena and Laurel were wonderful, but there were some days I just couldn't face the thought of being there with them. Not this morning.
I had come out here to watch the sunrise. It was always quiet. Some days, I imagined I could smell my mom in the strawberries and ocean spray mingling around me. Once, I even imagined that I could feel her kiss the top of my head.
I threw a rock at the lake and it skipped four times. The sun peeked out from behind the horizon and I watched the pink and orange dance through the sky.
This off-season at camp had been more bearable than most. It was just the three of us in our cabin, and there were some nights where it felt like Laurel and Silena treated me just like they treated each other. Without anybody else around, the three of us had gotten pretty close.
And yet, they still kept me ever so slightly at arms length. Last night had been 'girls night.' I think they watched Legally Blonde. I snuck out to light a fire and read until it was late enough for me to slip back into the cabin without interrupting them. I just didn't want to be there while they were giggling and happy and trying to enjoy their movie across the cabin while I was feeling jealous.
I threw a rock at the lake and it skipped three times. Today seemed like it would be uncharacteristically warm for December. The sun had already warmed me enough that I should have unzipped my hoodie. Looking up, the sun was further above the horizon than I thought it would be. Either the sun was broken, or I had been trapped in my own head again for longer than I thought.
My mind wandered back to the main issue I had been facing. I still had an entire half year until the camp was back at full enrollment. Six months until I would be surrounded by dozens of half-bloods. When they all got here, I wouldn’t be able to sit alone anymore. Everyone would be constantly seeing me.
Six months could be a lot of time, but it would be here before I knew it. I could be a different person in six months if I wanted to be. I could take my entire life, fold it up in pieces, and shred what I currently had. I could rebuild my life, put everything into a new order, and restart. I could change, if only I knew what change I needed.
I think I was changing already, and not in the ways I wanted. Not in the ways I needed. There was no reason to have hope in the face of this change.
Usually the sunrise chased away the better part of melancholy, but the feeling had been encroaching further into my life, one day at a time. I felt the pain of not fitting in when Laurel and Silena whispered across the cabin loud enough for me to hear, but quiet enough that I couldn't decipher it. I felt the pain as I slowly grew into a life I couldn’t recognize.
It also felt like I was even missing out on the de facto cabin ten coming of age experience. I hadn't ever had a crush before. Not one that I could remember at least. And you'd think a first crush would be one of those things you would remember. Especially if you're a child of Aphrodite. Silena and Laurel already had crushes by this age. I asked them about it. They gave me plenty more detail than I had even wanted from them about which boys at camp used to be dreamy.
And yet, I could feel something building up inside of me. Something unnamed and new. I was a child of Aphrodite. It must be my first crush. What else could it be?
I shouldn't start crushing on either of them. We had the same mom. Technically. But, that didn't stop the longing I felt from growing.
I threw a rock at the lake and it skipped five times. I could feel the rays already warming along my skin. That was the best part of sunrise. You could feel the day reaching out to wrap you in a warm hug, exactly what I needed. Even if the warm part of that hug was hotter than usual this morning. I could enjoy an unseasonably warm moment and then try to shuffle through the rest of the day on the little sleep I had.
As I looked up again, I started. The sun was concerningly large. It almost looked like it was hurtling towards me. But that's stupid, because the sun is hundreds of millions of miles away. Or something like that. I never understood how Apollo factored into all of that.
I threw a rock at the lake and it skipped once before plopping loudly into the water.
Yeah. The sun had definitely gotten closer. It's not supposed to do that.
How the hell was it doing that?
I scrambled behind a boulder as the sun screamed towards me. The air around me heated beyond even a summer's day as I hid in the shade. I could feel the rock behind my back beginning to heat. I prayed to my mom.
“Please don't let me die here. Not like this. Not when I feel so–”
I was interrupted by a massive FLOOOOOOSH as the sun slammed into the lake.
Steam rolled around the boulders, enveloping me in a warm hug. The unseasonable day quickly faded to exactly what I would expect out of a December dawn: chilly.
I peeked over the boulder and saw a school bus floating in the middle of the lake. Someone should go get help, and I might be the only one who had seen the crash landing. I gathered my feet under me to dash off to the Big House until I saw it begin to move again. The weight of the emergency seemed to be evaporating with the steam.
The bus managed to drag itself out of the lake somehow -- magical godly powers, probably -- and nearly two dozen people stumbled out. They looked to be varying levels of carsick after that crash landing.
I recognized a satyr and the boy from cabin three stumbling out first alongside some blonde guy who definitely wasn't from camp. Thalia, of pine tree fame, followed shortly after alongside...
Holy shit, it was the hunters of Artemis.
I flashed back to books I'd barely been able to read. There was something wrong about reading them. I don't know what was wrong, but I could just tell something was. Usually, the dyslexia stopped me from being a big reader, but that wasn’t the case with this topic. I felt like I wasn't supposed to be reading about the hunters.
As they walked away from the crash site, I saw the satyr trip over himself as he tried to walk and look over his shoulder at the girls he was leading. Their demeanor made it clear his guidance was unnecessary. I knew I would be equally starstruck if they tried to say anything in passing, and they would probably be equally dismissive. There were only two places they could be going: the big house or the Artemis cabin. Either way, they would be passing right by me.
I took a deep breath. I was here already. There was no reason to freak out. Be normal.
I sat against the boulders and took another deep breath. I needed my pulse to stop running laps around me.
Their unneeded guide raced past me without sparing a second glance. His attention was entirely on the party trailing him to his own detriment apparently. He tripped and barely avoided face planting into a dandelion.
Leading the hunters was a redhead. My breath caught in my throat. I could smell strawberries again.
She stopped in her tracks. The others walked around her as her gaze pinned me to the rock amidst the stream of girls. Her brow was furrowed, but I couldn't decide if it was in condemnation or question.
She approached me, her boots whispering along the damp stone. She reached out a hand to me. "Phoebe," she said.
She was tall: taller than me. Her hair was shaved into a mohawk and then braided down her back. Silver flecktarn left her shimmering in the early morning sun. She was built like a wrestler: chiseled muscles, a confident grin, and a gait that exuded confidence.
I was speechless. The hunters had a reputation for not giving an inch of daylight to anyone at camp they weren’t trying to recruit. I clamped my jaw shut before it became obvious I was stunned.
"Usually this is the part where you introduce yourself too, doll," she continued with a grin that made my heart race in my ears and drew a blush to my cheeks.
"I-- umm... Jason. My name's Jason?"
"Really?"
"That's what they tell me." I grasped her hand and she pulled me to my feet. Once I was up, she pulled me forward. I lost my balance before she caught me against her shoulder.
Her voice was a whisper right into my brain stem. "You know it doesn't have to be, right?"
I furrowed my brow. "How do you...?"
She propped me back up before I could complete that thought. She began walking away before she called over her shoulder. "We'll be here for a couple days. Come find me if you finish cracking before then, babe."
And I felt myself shatter into a thousand pieces as the hunters of Artemis walked away from me.