Little Pick-Me-Up [Julia]

[Annabeth Chase]

Annabeth had a lot on her mind. What with how Percy was acting, and the ordeal with Phobos and the horrible scene he’d shown her that was still haunting her, the return of her old friend Luke Castellan, and the death of another innocent demigod, Riley, Sami’s brother. And all of it had been on her charge, during her quest. It was her responsibility and she’d blown it. Again. Figures. But she didn’t dwell on that terribly long. Ever since getting back from that quest, she’d been down, trying anything she could think of to just occupy her mind. Because trying to sort it all out was an excellent source of headaches and losing sleep. So, as was normal, she had a book.

Today’s choice was The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. It was oddly fitting really, given the thoughts and questions which she was trying to distract herself from. She had only just started the book not that long ago, and was only about two chapters into it. It was a tough read, given the old English - having been published first in 1886 - and the fact that it was in English rather than her usual Ancient Greek. Her preoccupied mind seemed to be making her dyslexia act up all the worse. From what she had managed to piece together though, it was a rather interesting book so far though. And the effort of reading it was doing its job of distracting her for the most part. Until she came upon a particularly long and unusual word. After a good minute of staring at it, which only made matters worse, she let out a frustrated sigh and shoved her bookmark in, closing the book.

Without getting up from where she sat on a stone bench in the courtyard in the middle of the cabins, Annabeth looked up at the water leaping happily from the fountain not that far off. It looked so beautiful, catching the light and glittering as if it were celebrating the sunny weather. She could hear an enthusiastic game of volleyball going on in the distance beyond the row of cabins at her back. Everything seemed so bright and joyous. Everything except the sinking feeling creeping back into the pit of her stomach now that her book was closed and her mind free to wander. She really hoped all of this mess sorted itself soon; she just couldn’t stand this all that much longer! But for now, she just sat there and stared blankly at the dancing water, hardly even noticing it anymore.

Word Count: 444

[Julia Porter]

Don't be offended by my frank analysis
Think of it as personality dialysis.

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Life was going pretty well for Julia. She’d managed to keep her head attached to her body, despite the best efforts of the people who were teaching her how to wield a sword. The worst that had happened that day was singing a bit of hair on the climbing wall. Stupid lava. But she’d gotten over it, fixing her hair into a different style that hid the damage extremely well. Over all it was great to be her. There were no monsters after her and she had the rest of the day off to just do something relaxing. She looked at the sun shining in through the windows of the Aphrodite cabin, debating what to do. Tanning was always an option. And that was how she’d met that rather attractive son of Triton… She’d brought a few good books with her from home, although the dyslexia sometimes made it hard to stay concentrated on the words for too long.

Hmm… There had to be something to do… She could hear the noise of a volleyball game going on as usual with the sunny weather. That was a possibility. So was going for a run. That sounded quite nice actually. Julia had been quite athletic before coming to camp, extremely interested in cheerleading and gymnastics. Maybe she’d try a little run to get herself warmed up and then go back to the things she’d been learning since she was a little girl. Heck, she could probably figure out a way to incorporate it into the things she tried to learn with swordplay. It wasn’t like someone would expect a girly daughter of Aphrodite to do a few back handsprings and come up alright… Well it was worth a shot.

She got ready, sporting a tank top and some athletic shorts above a pair of tennis shoes from her cheerleading days, still stark white despite everything they’d seen. She emerged from the cabin with a bright smile on her face, ready to knock out some stretches and just run. Ignore the possibility of monsters in the forest and just let go. But as the blond sat down on the porch to start stretching something else caught her eye. Someone sat on one of the benches, just watching the fountain that sat in the middle. Something just didn’t seem right. Today was a day to just let loose and be happy, and the person on the bench seemed rather down… Julia gave her another look over before standing up.

Annabeth Chase. The girl’s name clicked in her head. Julia had seen her around camp, usually with her nose in some book or other. Julia always thought she could use some fun, and the way she was acting now didn’t make her think otherwise. Maybe she could do something to help. She made her way from the porch to the bench the brunette was on, raising an eyebrow. ”Something wrong?” Her voice held a bit of a smug tone; she was starting to enjoy it a bit that the wise girl she had heard so much about could possibly have something on her mind that she couldn't figure out.[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Annabeth Chase]

Annabeth was too preoccupied to even hear the sound of soft footsteps approaching. Until a voice spoke up, snapping her out of her thoughts. She looked up and had to hold back a groan. An Aphrodite girl. She’s seen her at the Aphrodorks table before, though she wasn’t sure her name (with so many campers now days, it was hard to keep up). And even without having seen her there, the perfectly kept clothes that matched perfectly were a good indication. That, and the fact that even though she looked like she was prepped for the gym, she still appeared to be wearing make-up. Yep, cabin ten alright. And her tone was less than inviting. Leave it to an Aphrodite kid to think they were better than everyone else. Needless to say, Annabeth had no love - no pun intended - for that goddess and her offspring, or at least most of them.

She looked back to the fountain, not even giving little miss prissy the benefit of looking at her. “Nope, everything’s fine. I appreciate your concern though.” Yeah, concern, sure. But hey, if the other girl was going to be falsely nice, why couldn’t she be falsely polite. She really didn’t feel up to an argument anyway, really. And like she was really going to tell some random person, and especially not some ‘I’m-going-to-pretend-to-be-nice-to-you-for-some-strange-reason-of-my-own-but-not-because-I-actually-care’, about her problems. Right now the only person she could think of she could talk to about this stuff who was actually around - seeing as Thalia and Grover were hardly around Camp anymore, Percy was mad, and Luke might be a little awkward - was Nick. That list did not include Random Aphrodite Girl #1.

She picked her book back up from her lap and slid her finger back in where the bookmark was, ready to open the book and commence ignoring the interruption. Rude? Probably. But who said the Aphro girl hadn’t started that? So what was the big deal? She opened her book and found her place again by looking for the craziest, most jumbled-looking word on the page. Yep, there it was.

Word Count: 381

[Julia Porter]

The reply she was offered wasn’t exactly what Julia had been expecting. In all truth Julia wasn’t even sure what to expect. Probably anger, some sort of snappy witty comeback to send the blond on her way, most likely something about there being a new mirror somewhere that she should go find. After all, that was what most people at the camp thought of Aphrodite’s children; that they had no concern for anything other than their own beauty. But when the brunette on the bench waved her off with a reply of everything being alright she caught Julia’s interest.

”Obviously not.” She said, looking the other girl over for a moment before taking a seat on the bench next to her. There was definitely something going on, something that made the daughter of Athena uneasy, which Julia had heard was hard to do to most children of Athena. ”Just taking a wild guess here, but does it have anything to do with a certain son of Poseidon?” Her eyebrow arched in question as she watched the other girl read, a sure sign that her presence wasn’t exactly welcome here. But if this was something she could help with, why not go ahead? It would be an interesting bond between a child of Aphrodite and a child of Athena if Julia was able to get a gesture of kindness across.

”I mean, sitting out here, throwing yourself into a book and looking like you’re about to drop from what I’m assuming is a lack of sleep… This may just be because I’m a child of Aphrodite but I would say that love has something to do with it.” If that was indeed the case then she could help. Or if help wasn’t wanted she could at least do something to help the other girl feel better… Her mind was swimming with possibilities already.

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[Annabeth Chase]

The girl sat next to her. Annabeth was starting to wish she hadn’t left her cabin, that way she wouldn’t have to deal with this. But it seemed the other girl was really inquisitive. Great, just her luck. And then she opened her mouth again. Annabeth’s attention snapped to her. Was it that obvious? Or had rumor spread or something. Gods knew, rumors spread pretty fast around here, and the Aphrodite cabin was always at the lead of that. She remained silent as Julia continued. After a couple of minutes, she opened her mouth to say she was wrong, until she decided it wasn’t even worth it pretending. If half the camp didn’t know about her argument with Percy - or rather, Percy being a jerk to her and Luke - than they likely would soon enough. Eleven years here had taught her that much.

“Yeah…” She said quietly, absentmindedly flipping through the pages of her book. “He, uh… I think he’s having trouble coping with recent events. Not taking things well…” That was about as detailed as she was willing to get with a random Aphrodite girl she hadn’t even spoken to before this. She shut the book and set it on the bench beside her. “I don’t know if there’s anything anyone can do to help really though. I’m still holding out hope that he just needs a bit more time and things will go back to normal.”

Annabeth took a deep breath and looked back to the other girl, not even noticing that she’d never taken her eyes off her book, reading or not. “So how are you-….? Um, sorry, I don’t think I know your name.” It was a bit embarrassing, not knowing a camper’s name. She used to be so good about that. And being friendly with a child of the love goddess… that was a sure sign she was not herself right now…

Word Count: 342