just can't wait to get on the road again ;; ( Q )

[Cameron Hale]

Two hours. That was how much sleep Cameron managed to get the night before. It wasn't very much energy to go off of but with a 20 ounce cup of coffee and the five pixie sticks he'd already downed, he would be just fine. Sure it wasn't a substantial breakfast, but he had felt too anxious and jittery to actually eat anything worthwhile. And it wasn't like they gave the same suggestions for a quest as they did an exam or a test at high school. For a quest, there was no one to advise you to get eight hours of sleep, eat a full breakfast, not to cram the night before and to bring snacks along on the quest with you. 

Which was good since Cam had only followed one of those suggestions, and that was the suggestion to bring snacks. The level of water bottles and granola bars in his backpack almost rivaled the amount of clothes in his backpack (which was very impressive; one had to wonder how he had managed to fit everything in that small of a space). Oh and wait, there were at least four bags of Twizzlers on top of the granola bars and water. They were pure sugar and sugar would keep him functioning. And he was more than happy to share but he didn't really think Julia liked Twizzlers and Natalie would probably try and strangle him with one of them if he even offered.

Well at least the lack of sleep didn't show, he mused as he observed himself one more time in one of the Aphrodite cabin mirrors. No under eye circles and no extra mess to his hair for tossing and turning all night (though that could be because he had combed his hair through at least 31 times). For all he knew this could've been the last time he saw this cabin. Because to be honest, he wasn't feeling too optimistic about all of this or of his quest companion choices. Not that they weren't individually clever, but put together...well let's just say he was starting to think of it as less and less of a good idea.

Giving his cabin one last look, and purposefully not saying a goodbye to any of his other siblings (it just wasn't worth the annoying hassle, no matter how horrible that thought made him sound), he seemingly enthusiastically ventured out of his cabin. And it was only 'seemingly' because he was really just bouncing from the sugar high, not from actual enthusiasm.

The little ensemble had agreed to meeting at the property line so that was exactly where he headed when he left. Honestly he wasn't even sure if he was late or early on his way there, but he didn't seem too concerned. The two girls would probably end up yelling at him (in Natalie's case) or just complaining and snapping at him (in Julia's case) for something eventually, so why not get some of it out of the way as soon as possible?

The yelling and complaining seemed like it would have to wait though seeing as neither Natalie nor Julia were waiting around for him. Slumping against a nearby tree, another hour of sleep was looking rather appealing, but both the limited time and the excess sugar in his system were going to prevent that from happening. So instead to keep himself from taking a little power nap (since he knew he would just get kicked awake anyways), he frantically pulled his zipper up and down to the beat of Footloose while singing along in a moderately off-key voice, successfully entertaining his ADHD with it for at least a good ten minutes before one of his other companions arrived.

Tags :: Julia and Natalie
Word Count :: 639
Notes :: I haaate starter posts
Music :: ...Footloose o.o

[/size]

[Julia Porter]

Julia had been awake for hours. At first she had just stayed in her bed, looking up at the blackness of the ceiling and thinking about what was going on. Why had she agreed to this? Well that was obvious. One of the lines made it clear that she needed to go on the quest. But she had so much happening already. Joel… Phobos… Why did she have to add a quest on top of all that?

She finally gave up on that and grabbed a pair of workout shorts and a tank top, slipping them on in the dark of the cabin, lacing a pair of gym shoes up on her feet and taking off into the forest. She needed to run. It wasn’t a good idea to exhaust herself before the quest, but she couldn’t just sit and wait for it to be time to go. She had stuffed a bag full of things she needed the night before. Some snacks, ambrosia, regular money and drachmas, and a startling amount of clothes. Not startling to her, but she was sure that her quest mates would think it was ridiculous. Her nail file waited on the stand next to her bed, waiting to be slipped into the pockets of her pants for the day.

The demi-god urged herself to move faster, but couldn’t help but hesitate for a moment as she reached the spot where she had met her half-brother. Phobos had given her a little time to think about his so-called offer, but he hadn’t come to check on her decision; not that she wanted him to. It just worried her. She snapped herself out of it and turned around, running back towards the main area of camp.

She hadn’t been running long when she paused again, the smell of saltwater bringing her to a stop. She hadn’t even realized she was running towards the Triton cabin until it was right in front of her; her foot was almost on the first step up. Luckily for her it was still early and Joel wouldn’t be awake. Or at least she hoped. She wasn’t sure she could stand to see him before she had to leave. But what if, gods forbid, she didn’t come back from the quest? Choking back a sob, Julia took off one of the rings she regularly wore, placing it on the step of the cabin for Joel to find. Quickly bending down, she took one of the shells that decorated the outside before jogging back to her own cabin to get ready. It was probably almost time to leave.

An hour later she emerged from the bathroom, quite a feat for her. She dropped the sea shell into her backpack after getting dressed and took one last look around the cabin. Who knew the next time she would see it, or if she would even make it back. A final look in the mirror reconfirmed that she had a flawless look, despite the war waging in her mind. Part of her still wanted to run to the Triton cabin and talk to Joel, but she knew it probably wouldn’t do anyone any good. She would be late and probably be an emotional mess.

Instead she settled for heading to the property line. She fiddled with the nail file while she walked, glad she had a concealable weapon for the quest. Mainly the fidgeting served to distract her from the tears threatening to build up. Just when she had found something worth staying for, she had to leave. She dabbed at her eyes as she approached the property line, making sure she didn’t mess up her makeup. ”Cam?”

[/color] She called out, hearing someone singing; albeit quite off key. It made her smile, a nice change from what she had been feeling before. Julia made her way towards her brother, dropping her backpack on the ground and looking around. ”So I’m guessing our other quest mate isn’t here yet?”[/color]

Tag: Nat and Cam
Words: 663
Musics: Those You’ve Known
Outfit: Epic(?) Quest Attire [/blockquote][/size]

[Natalie Ramsey]

Two hours of sporadic sleep is all Natalie’s body would allow. She wouldn’t admit it to anyone especially her siblings, but she was nervous for this quest. This was Natalie’s first quest and a chance to prove herself to her siblings. The Battle of Manhattan was different than a quest. It may not have been Natalie’s quest but she was accompanying two who were bound to get themselves killed, she figured she’d be doing most of the work. Natalie was a bit excited when Cameron asked her to go on the quest with him. And it wasn’t excitement based solely the idea of going on a quest, but going on a quest with Cameron. She flushed again at the thought of him. The dance, the time at the lake…Natalie was growing to actually like like the dumb pretty boy. It was all so confusing.

Natalie cleared her throat and shoved the extra shirt into her pack pushing the thoughts from her mind. She was going to have to focus on this quest, if she were to slip up just once they would all die. It was in her firm belief that the two porcelain dolls as the spawns of Aphrodite would be useless for the most part on this quest. Slipping into her black leather moto jacket she faced the door of the cabin. This was it. This could be the last time she saw her cabin and her siblings again. She glanced around for a moment before hoisting her pack over one shoulder and finishing her outfit off with a pair of ray bans; the property of a kid of Aphrodite. It was where half of her wardrobe came from though most of the time she made all of her transaction through Hermes kids.

Without looking back Natalie left cabin five ready to battle whatever beast they were sure to face. “You got this.” she said aloud standing on the porch of her cabin. She surveyed the other cabins like she owned the place and with a smug grin of self-satisfaction she strutted off to find her fearless quest leader and his annoying half witted bleach blonde sister. With her combat style boots Natalie felt like she could conquer the world, and with the right amount of anger and battle moves she probably could.

Arriving fashionably late Natalie spotted the other two at the top of the hill by the property line. She took a deep breath pushing the butterflies to the bottom of her stomach to lay dormant while she was around others. There was no possible way she could let them know how nervous she actually was. “Yeah, she is.” Natalie responded hearing the girl’s remark. “And look at you. Well you’ll be the most fashionable demigod to go down fighting a monster, I’ll give you that.” she scoffed eyeing the ridiculous choice in quest attire. Her eyes drifted to the shoes, the heels almost as sharp as blades. She pulled the sunglasses down a bit to get a better look at the heels this plastic Barbie had on. Natalie gave a little harrumph and pushed them back up the bridge of her nose.

“Nice footwear. Not that they’ll do much when it comes to running, but they’re cute. I’ll have to remember to lift them later.” She looked over to Cameron her eyes lingering for a while on him. Oh boy, was he looking good this morning. Her cheeks wanted to flush but Natalie tossed her head back, her long hair tied in a low resting ponytail flopped to the other side. She cleared her throat, trying to show indifference toward Cameron. In reality she was excited to be here and getting to spend more time with him, even if his sister was here. “Are we ready to get this show on the road then?”

WORD COUNT//~639
OUTFIT// H E R E
NOTES//she kind of sort of compliments Julia….not really…

[Cameron Hale]

Snapped back into reality at the sound of his sister’s voice, Cam quickly cut off halfway through the second chorus of Footloose. His sister already knew he was a bit of a dork, but he didn’t need to give her any more reasons to think that…and not to mention if she had gotten that close to him without him noticing then that meant Natalie could do the same thing. And he really would rather avoid making an idiot out of himself in front of her before the quest even started, considering there would probably be plenty of opportunities to make himself look moronic later.

“Good morrrning, Jules.” He grinned, looking and sounding much too chipper for a person who was about to go on what would probably end up being a deadly quest. Personally he really wasn’t feeling all that optimistic about the whole thing, but he figured that as the technical leader of the quest he should try and act positive. And he said technical leader because he had a feeling that both the fiery daughter of Ares and his slightly proud sister would try and take charge of this thing, leaving him to sit back and play referee to their bickering when things got out of hand.

Just as he was about to open his mouth and make what was sure-to-be a witty response, Natalie decided it was finally time for her to show up and cut in. About time too, he’d been waiting for forever for the both of them. Or, well, seven minutes actually according to his watch. Ah well, exaggerating had always been a strong suit of his so he might as well use it while he still had time.

Pushing himself up and onto his feet, Cam tried to suppress a smile at Natalie’s bashing of his sister’s outfit. His attempt was only semi-successful seeing as he didn’t smile, but he did accidentally let slip an amused snort. Being as clever as he was-or wasn’t, depending on which way you looked at it-he managed to cover it up with a short, fake coughing fit. Smooth, Cam, real smooth. Well, to him it was just entertaining that they hadn’t even left yet and he could already tell that Natalie despised his sister (…and him too, though he already knew that long before now). Though she did have a point that those heels weren’t exactly practical, however as Julia would most likely point out, they were fashionable and fashion was all that really mattered. Plus his half-sisters could do a lot of things in heels, and he wouldn’t be surprised if fighting monsters was one of those things.

“Before you lovely ladies get too friendly now, I should probably introduce. My sweet darling sister Julia, this is my lovely, albeit slightly bitter petite amie Natalie.” Cameron pointed to each girl in turn, winking jokingly at Julia when he introduced Natalie. Good thing she didn’t know French (or at least he assumed she didn’t), because if she knew what he’d called her then he would’ve been starting this quest with a freshly broken nose. Of course he’d been joking about her being his ‘petite amie’ but he didn’t think she’d see the humor in it.

"Hm? Oh right, that." Cam nodded slightly in acknowledgement, finally pulling his head back into the game. He'd silently admit that he maybe had been, quite possibly, though probably not, checking Natalie out. Though he didn't think that was really his fault, if anything it as hers, for actually making a leather jacket, of all things, look good. "Anyways, yes, very ready, teddy." He grinned pulling his backpack up on his shoulders, and courteously picking up Jules' in his left hand as well. "So what I've gathered so far from our surprisingly uncomplicated fortune cookie fortune..go to that hella tall mountain, with that hella big dragon named...Lenny..or Lance..or something with an L? What about you ladies? Have any interesting insights or snarky sarcastic remarks that just can't wait?" He inquired, looking between the two of them as he started to lead the way out of camp by taking a few, big steps backwards.

word count ;; 724
tags ;; Julia and Natalie
notes ;; petite amie = girlfriend
i love the way my cammiebear describes things o.o that 'hella tall'...'hella big'..he's a real genius
listening to ;; Son of Man from Tarzan!

[/size]

[Julia Porter]

Her brother’s singing made her laugh, something she really needed with all of the depressing thoughts running through her head. That she was leaving Joel for what could possibly be the last time. That she might never see camp again. That Phobos was going to show up any second and demand her answer. And that wasn’t even adding in everything about the quest. If any of her ideas were right they were in for quite the ride. The choice of Paris… Choosing between Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena for giving the Golden Apple. And the only children of any of those Goddesses were herself and Cam. Which meant that giving one of them the Apple was a bad idea.

”Morning Cam.”

[/color] She forced a smile, trying to push all of the fear to the back of her mind. Cam seemed perky enough; why drag him down with her depression? If they were going to die then at least they could die with a smile.

Julia turned as their quest partner appeared, immediately trying to place her with a godly parent. ”Well sadly I don’t plan on going down at all during this quest.”[/color] She had too much to come back for, even if she doubted herself. And then the other girl just kept going. Really? She had no idea what Julia could and couldn’t do in heels. She bit her tongue as she looked her quest partner over to stop herself from saying something about the… more functional outfit. ”Don’t even start, Cameron Hale. I am not in the mood for it today.”[/color] She didn’t even look at her brother when he fell into a fake coughing fit. ”And I’ll have you know that I could run miles in these shoes without batting an eye.”[/color] The new addition to the group was really just making her angry and more upset than she had been.

”Ah, vraiment? Elle? Et y a-t-il une autre raison d’elle d'être ici?”[/color] She asked, raising an eyebrow and banking on the fact that Natalie didn’t speak French. ”Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you Natalie.”[/color] Julia extended a hand as a friendly gesture. If Cam liked her then Julia would try to be on her best behavior. Not to mention it was amusing that her brother’s choice tried to hide her reactions to Cam. There was no hiding that from a child of Aphrodite.

She rolled her eyes at her brother’s comments, though she understood the need to crack a joke about all of this. But she hoped he knew more than his little ramble had let on. ”Ladon, if I remember. And believe me, there are plenty of sarcastic remarks I would love to make right now.”[/color] She looked over to Natalie for a minute before taking her backpack from her brother and slipping it on. ”We’re going to California, right? That was kind of obvious… But the rest I have no idea.”[/color] She lied before swallowing quickly.

”If we find a car on the road I can get us a ride. And anything else we need. When we get to California I could give my dad a call if we need help with stuff there. He actually probably has people in New York … Either of you have ideas?”[/color] She realized she was rambling and decided to give them a chance to talk.[/blockquote]

Note: Translation = Really? Her? And is there another reason she’s here?[/size]

[Natalie Ramsey]

Natalie eyed the daughter of Aphrodite carefully. She had seen her pretty little blonde head around camp before but never had she spoken with her. It was quite possible that Nat owned a few articles of clothing that once belonged to her. They looked about the same size. She could tell that the two of them weren’t going to get along. Natalie didn’t really care to. She was here for Cameron, but mostly because she was asked on a quest which could mean a lot for her cabin.

“Oh really?” Natalie asked arching her brow. The girl seemed pretty sure of herself. Though Natalie wasn’t going to touch the bet that the Aphrodite girl could run in those heels. Natalie was pretty sure each daughter of Aphrodite was born with heels attached to their feet. So really it should have come as a surprise that she would be wearing them for a quest. It still seemed absurd to have them on though. “Well, we’ll just see how long you last in those heels before a monster tackles you.”

Sweet darling? Natalie would hardly describe Julia as such. She sneered at the blonde and then over to Cameron when he said something in French she didn’t understand. Natalie pointed a finger at him. “If that was some kind of slur in French don’t think I’m not afraid to end you before this quest even starts.” Then, Julia launched in a stream of French. If this was going to continue the entire quest Natalie would have to pull out their vocal chords. She hated feeling left out and because they were speaking a different language this left Natalie paranoid and wondering if they were talking about her.

Natalie looked at the hand Julia extended to her but she didn’t take it. She brushed past her, “Likewise.” she readjusted the strap of her bag over her shoulder and took a spot on the other side of Cameron. She rolled her eyes at the way Cameron described things. And while she appeared annoyed by it, Natalie actually found it rather cute. Naturally she would never let on that she thought anything about Cameron Hale was cute.

She hadn’t been paying attention when Julia looked in her direction. Had she, Natalie probably would have said something. “As much as I hate to agree with Barbie, I think that would be our best bet; transportation first and figuring everything else out on the way west.” She snorted and turned to look at Julia again. She was so sure she could get them a car, and in all honesty a girl like her just needed to ask and some dumb guy thinking with the wrong head would hand one over without question. Natalie had to admire that just a little.

“I bet you could.” she muttered. “Alright, enough standing here, come on quest leader do what you were meant to do and lead us.”

WORD COUNT//487
OUTFIT// H E R E
NOTES//natty no like the french

[Cameron Hale]

"Don't start with what? I have no idea what you're talking about, little sis." Cameron smiled innocently, wiping his arm across his forehead to temporarily block out the look of amusement that passed over his face. He knew he was in for a hell of a quest, not just because of the quest itself, but because of the people going on his quest. He knew he was relatively difficult to put up with on some days, but somehow he foresaw these two girls being even more difficult to put up with. So he was going to cling to his humor and his small amusements like refrigerator magnets clung to well...a refrigerator. If he didn't he was sure he would cry within the week. In private. With no pretty girls in sight-cue sidelook at Natalie. And very macho, manly tears obviously.

Shrugging to himself, Cam allowed a small smirk to creep up on him. "Parce que je sais qu'elle va vous ennuyer les." Looking rather amused with himself, he glanced briefly towards Natalie. If she said something in a foreign language, of course he would expect it to be a slur, but he didn't believe he had said anything to lead her to believe that he would say anything nearly as rude about her. "Unless you count terms of endearment as slurs, then we don't have a problem. And it's not like you would even know if it was a slur-not that it was, as I said." He pointed out cautiously so as not to anger the beast-oops, sorry, the girl. Though talking in another language was probably annoying her already. But he foresaw Jules and him doing it quite frequently so he supposed he would just have to dim down being annoying in other aspects to balance it all out. 

Or maybe Julia would compensate by playing nice, he thought hopefully as his sister actually attempted to be pleasant towards the Ares girl. Natalie apparently wasn't having it though because she didn't seem at all inclined to repay the favor of kindness. Not that he'd expected much from her in this case because he knew she wasn't Aphrodite-friendly. Or people-friendly as far as he knew. "Thanks for trying?" He leaned down and whispered to his sister, half-smiling sweetly. 

After snooping around a little he'd learned a little of Julia's own like petit-ami. And if she could try for him-when Natalie was practically impossible-then he supposed he could try and be nice to Jordan if he ever met him. Well, Joel, but Cameron was just allowing himself to stubbornly call the boy by the wrong name. It made him feel a tad better as the big brother if he could disrespect the boy in one way or another.

"If that's all you've got then I'm not going to lie, that concerns me." He glanced sideways at Julia, looking slightly confused, but he didn't seem to see anything wrong besides Jules' inability to decipher a prophecy better than him. "Even I can gather that we're after a serving size of golden fruit. Choice of Paris...golden apple...wringing a bell dear sister?" 

Shrugging to himself, Cameron couldn't argue the point of transportation. He didn't even want to walk a marathon, so there was no way they were hiking it all the way to the sunshine state. "Well then, you two might as well do what you're meant to and follow the leader." He waved his hand as he started past the boundary line, not bothering to look back to see if either girl was following. 

It should have been easy enough to find a car, Cam figured once he hit the actual road. Jules would easily convince someone to lend them their car, they simply had to get someone to at least pull over first. Sticking out his thumb, Cam grinned optimistically at his fellow companions. "I'm sure there's some creep or elderly old woman who will pull over for us. Though I'm banking on the creep, because it just seems wrong 'borrowing' a car from a poor old lady."

tags ;; natalie and julia
listening to ;; storm warning by hunter hayes
notes ;; Success! God I'm sorry this took soooo long. Hopefully the post is at least decent ^^ cam hasn't been exactly cooperative

translation : "Because I knew she would annoy you"

[Julia Porter]

Julia couldn’t stay angry at Cam for just trying to lighten the situation a little. She and Natalie weren’t exactly getting off on the best foot; not to mention their being on a quest adding to the tension. And Cam didn’t even know the real reason she was so wound up. Few people were truly optimistic when leaving for a quest, but Julia was sure that the foreboding feelings were something more. It wasn’t just apprehension over potentially having to go up against a dragon. While that was certainly part of it there was more; Phobos for one. She hadn’t been able to shake the feeling that he was watching her since their meeting in the forest, and it was stronger now than ever.

She rolled her eyes at her brother’s answer to why he had invited Natalie. ”Well merci beaucoup, Cameron.”

[/color] Her Franglais was quite sarcastic. If annoying her had been Cam’s intention then he was succeeding with flying colors at the moment. ”Oh believe me, the slurs will come later.”[/color] She muttered under her breath, not quite in the mood to be ended before the quest even started. Even if she tried to stop herself Julia was sure she wouldn’t be able to keep everything she thought about the Ares girl quiet. Something would slip out during the quest, whether it was when they were sleep deprived or if Natalie just annoyed her enough.

Already she had to bite her tongue to keep an insult in when Natalie just brushed past the extended hand. She did her best to keep her face blank when Cameron looked at her with confusion on his face. Of course she knew the story of Paris and the Golden Apple. It had been her favorite before she knew who her mother was and she had constantly asked her father to tell it to her when she was younger and had learned a little about the Greek myths. Choosing the fairest of the goddesses… Paris’ choice had led to war. Well, Aphrodite could be blamed for that since she promised him Helen, but still. Did that mean Cameron would have to make the choice of giving the Apple to one of them? Would the actions of the Aphrodite cabin lead to the same sort of catastrophe that Aphrodite’s actions had? All of it had been buzzing around in her head since she had heard the prophecy. Not that she could tell either of her quest mates. They had no reason to think she would do anything that would lead to war, but Julia knew deep down this had something to do with Phobos’ hatred of the Camp.

”I can be quite persuasive when I want to be, Natalie.”[/color] She said with a smirk, though she was pretty sure Natalie wasn’t thinking about Charmspeaking. It wasn’t exactly a common power, and she had never used it against the daughter of Ares, so she probably just jumped to the conclusion that Julia would use her looks to get them a ride. Julia started off after Cam, anxious to get going before her thoughts persuaded her to stay. ”Ugh. I hate ‘borrowing’ from creeps. And if it’s a creep then I am definitely Charming him and leaving him on the side of the road Any objections?”[/color] She joined her half-brother, sticking her thumb out and waiting for a car.[/blockquote]

Words: 605
Music: What I Did For Love
Notes: It's kind of all over the place, sorry[/size]