Garth
Gone
Zeus23
VileSnake
datadogie
JesseJ
Necroes
rebornfan320
Morose
Location: Camp Half-Blood
Skill:
Skill:
There hadn’t been any word from the other group yet. Andy didn’t know where her brother was. Or several other people that had gone with them. They hadn’t even been able to tell Janelle that her brother was dead yet. She hated that. Not knowing what was going on. She felt like she was going through motions. Trying to make it to the next day so that she could get answers, but the next day didn’t have answers.
Andy liked being around Stella though. The other girl knew what Andy had been through and didn’t ask questions about that. They talked about everything else. Andy felt like the older kid when she was explaining how camp worked, and that gave her something to do. At breakfast she waited for Stella. Andy had no one in her cabin and didn’t want to sit alone so she liked to sit with Stella.
Stella had been going through the motions as well, putting on smiles when she was talking to her fathers, assuring them that she was fine, and around some of her new found siblings when they asked her how the quest had gone. There was one person that she felt like she could be honest, and be herself around though, and that was Andy. As it turned out, when you shared holding up the entire sky together with someone it really did bond you together.
That morning she got up and headed to the dining pavilion and saw that Andy was alone, as usual, since her brother was still missing. Stella gathered up her breakfast items and went to sit down next to Andy. ”Still no word?”
Andy smiled, it didn’t reach her eyes. She shook her head. ”Nothing yet. I don’t know what to think.” Andy sighed and pushed the food on her plate around a bit. Andy considered asking Stella if she slept okay, but that usually meant she’d be asked back and Andy hadn’t been sleeping well. Every night she had nightmares. ”What do you want to do today?” The rock wall was one of Andy’s favorite things to do, and otherwise there was always something to do around the camp. Though the non-summer months were a little less busy than the summer ones.
Stella set her tray down and tore the blueberry muffin she had gotten in half and put half of it on the ground of Arbor, since he had tagged along, as usual. He didn’t seem to like being far away from Stella, and if she was being honest with herself, she preferred it that way. ”Sorry there’s still no news… not even an Iris message.” She shuffled and pushed her own food around a bit. “As for today, good question. I think I do have some language lessons later, since I’m still new to this, otherwise no plans. Wanna go to the wall again?”
Andy nodded, ”Yeah, and maybe we can ride my Gryphon later.” Andy munched on her food a bit thinking. Greek had been oddly easy to learn. English had always been difficult. Andy had gotten more schooling since coming to camp a year ago. That had helped her improve her education, but she was still way behind in a lot of things. Some of the older, smarter, campers had made it a point to teach her stuff. She had liked learning for once too. Now it felt scary. The wall was good because she couldn’t think about all that other stuff, just climbing and making it to the top without lava or rocks hitting her. She hadn’t done a lot of riding since coming back and she felt a bit bad about that. ”How are lessons going?”
”Mmmm that might be fun.” Stella took a sip of her green tea, trying to calm the storm inside of her mind as she also tried not to focus on the myriad of other things going on. ”The lessons are going well, it is weird how easy Ancient Greek is to learn, and it does explain the dyslexia, and the like” She took another sip of her tea and looked at Andy. ”...you been having them too? It was less a question and more a statement, as she could see the tired mirrored in Andy’s eyes. Those nightmares that had plagued her since Mount Tam.
Andy froze for a second, her fork pushing food on her plate, then she set it down and nodded. ”Yeah, Chocolate wakes me up from them, but they happen every night. It’s,” She looks away and to the sea ”The labyrinth and everything. I wake up feeling like I’ve been running and lifting weights all night.” That was part of why she kept doing a lot of exercise when she could. She fell asleep a bit better at night if she had worn herself out, but the dreams still came and she couldn’t get back to sleep after that.
”Arbor wakes me up as well… but yeah. I know the feeling. Especially the… crushing feeling.” In a weird way, it was comforting to know that she wasn’t alone in having nightmares after what they had gone through. ”You know… maybe I can ask Eve if you can sleep in our cabin? I… I doubt that it’s… easy alone.”
”What if he comes home and I’m not there?” Andy asks her eyes filling a little with tears. She didn’t want her brother to worry about her. If he came home in the middle of the night and went to their cabin and she wasn’t there would he fear the worst?
Stella saw the tears in Andy’s eyes and got up and sat down next to her friend and hugged her tightly. ”Want me to see if I can sleep in your cabin then? I don’t feel right leaving you alone.”
Andy nodded at that. She didn’t let the tears fall but she sank into the hug. It felt good to be hugged. Even though she didn’t like things on top of her anymore, even heavy blankets upset her. But hugs felt good. ”If you can. I know they can be strict about the sleeping arrangements. And I’ve got Chocolate who’s a good boy.” Chocolate was sitting at Andy’s feet, his head pressed up against her legs.
”I’ll ask Mr. Chiron… he might be more sympathetic. I won’t tell him why. That’s not my reason to tell.” Stella let her head lean against Andy’s gently, enjoying the hug as well. She probably needed it just as much as Andy did, and she’d take the moment to enjoy it.
”I can go with you.” Andy offered. It was for her after all. She expected that Stella might need the companionship as much as she did. ”At least we have beds in our cabin now.” Andy wryly smiled. ”When I first moved here, before Demi got here, there weren’t any beds. I just had a sleeping bag.” There had been so few children of Zeus but there were slowly more and more.
”No beds before? Wow. And thanks for coming with me.” There was a small genuine smile on Stella’s face, the first in some time that might have reached her eyes. No false smile for her friend. ”Want to go when we’re done eating?”
”Yeah, that sounds good.” Andy says and takes a few bites of food. That was a good step. She hadn’t been eating a lot, and she had already been skinny.
Stella smiled and took a few bites herself, glad that they had a plan, and glad for her friend.