The first steps are always the hardest... (Open)

[Issa Lielle]

It was easy, as always, to slide away from camp unnoticed. It wasn’t like the beach was offlimits, and it was free time. But Issa always felt like she was sneaking around. Always hoping that no one would see her, and that she wouldn’t have to try and make new friends. She moved schools often enough before she came to camp. So going virtually friendless became less and less of a problem. It was hard to understand though, when she thought about it. Even though camp itself was a lovely place, even better than home had been, it was still daunting and scary to imagine trying to strike up a conversation with the campers. Yes, it was easier to slink around like a criminal (Though she was hardly a child of Hermes)… Or to rephrase maybe, it was easier to be as unseen as the air.

Sighing as her feet touched sand, a mildly unpleasant feeling for her, she wiggled her toes a bit in her flip-flops before scanning the area for life. Grimly satisfied when she found no one else, she straightened her back a bit and strode towards the wet sand closer to the water, intending to build herself a sandcastle. "Maybe a fortress to match the one I’ve built around myself" she murmured, sad. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t human, though. Half human, her mind amended. Of course she was lonely. Dreadfully so. Her closest friend in the past years had been Zephyrus, god of the west wind, but even being a minor god he wasn’t allowed to see her much. But when he did, her mind was always easy, and she transformed into a playful reflection of herself. As the sea breeze blew her dirty-blonde hair out behind her and her loose shirt billowed, she couldn’t help but smile. Maybe she really was her father’s daughter. The winds always made her feel much better.

“But,” she said aloud to herself, “He'd probably be ashamed of me.” She blushed slightly, thinking about it. Even though she'd seen her father once or twice, she couldn't help but wonder... What would the great king of the winds think of his daughter who couldn’t even manage a simple “Hello” to the other campers? Sighing and pressing the growing mound of dirt higher and into an elongated shape to begin the wall, she tried hard not to start beating herself up about her social ineptitude again. It was an argument she’d had with herself time and time again, in the shifting walls of the Aeolus Cabin, alone, or on her usual path of the unseen camper. Something had to change, though. As much as she wished she could just snap and her shyness would be gone, that would never happen. Especially if she didn’t even have anyone to relate to. Frowning, she found herself humming a French folk-song from her childhood, wishing she had someone-anyone, to talk to. To call her friend.” But the first step towards a goal is always the hardest,” she said, momentarily distracted by a seagull soaring over the water. “C’est la vie,” she sighed.

-----
Word count: 505

[Cordelia Marshall]

Things hadn't gone at all as she planned. The next time Delia saw Cameron she wanted to look beautiful and composed and explain everything calmly. She had been stupid to think that was even possible. It was no secret to her that even now after all of this time she still wasn't over him. No matter how long she was away and no matter how many beautiful guys she had in her midst none of them were Cameron. It didn't help either that she had heard rumors about his pursuit of an Ares girl upon her return. Delia wasn't really the type to be jealous, but things were always different with him. She tried to shrug it off, boys were a horrible temptation created to make her utterly dumbstruck and useless. When she first came back to be completely done with that type of dependence but clearly that hadn't worked out. Determined to get past this feeling of worthlessness Delia walked further along the water, hoping if she walked far enough she would get lost and forget her worries.

Before Delia knew it she was standing at the shores of the beach. She didn't go there often, even though it was in the camps bounds. That was probably why, Delia had always been one for breaking rules. She didn't like to go places that were obvious or expected. Generic just wasn't her style. Not in life, adventures, running away or boys. She just wasn't meant to fit in with normal people. Not that any of them were really normal. People had been sparse that day but Delia should have come to expect she would run into the perhaps one that wasn't training at the moment. She only caught part of the girls statement but felt rather in tune with her feelings. "I don't suppose there could be room for two in this fortress you're building?"

It was more of a general question then anything but Delia couldn't help herself. It was rude of her to cut in on the girls private thoughts but she couldn't help herself. Delia had a issue with privacy, mostly because in the Hermes cabin you rarely got any. For her own reasons she decided not to comment on anyone being ashamed of anyone. It would have been beyond hypocritical and after all this was a complete stranger. Admittedly Delia knew there would be a lot of new campers but recently it had been a complete mess on her part. Then she spoke in French and Delia found herself bitter for a moment. Cameron spoke French and it always made her swoon. Delia instantly pushed that thought from her head. "Sorry, I am Delia."

464 . Issa

[Issa Lielle]

Smoothing the sands on one side of the sand wall and carving into the top with surprising prowess, Issa began to make the wall into something more ornate than just a long pile of dirt. She wanted it to bear some sophistication, some beauty as could so often be found in the face of misery. She was so lost in thought that she failed to hear the crunch on the beach sand until it was too late: as a female voice cut into her reverie, she lurched, knocking a small section of wall down as she lost her balance. Her heart was beating rapidly and her color-shifting eyes became a stormy blue-gray as adrenaline shot through her system. She got to her feet as fast as she could, shuffling for her war fans that she normally kept tethered to her hip with a belt, but realized she’d left them sitting on her bedside table in the cabin. It was probably for the better, when Issa finally got her wits back and blushed, a little ashamed of her behavior. But it quickly turned to astonishment. Maybe her father really was listening after all… She smiled at that.

But that left her little shyness problem. Issa opened her mouth and closed it several times like an idiot, trying to force some sort of sound to come out. Finally, she managed: “I… Um… I-I… S-sure.” Real intelligent, Issa… Irritated with herself, she sunk back down into the sand and went back to the fortress, repairing the broken wall, hoping that maybe less eye-contact would make this sort of thing easier. But so far, she knew she was doing a pretty miserable job. Trying to be more… relatable, she wracked her brain, trying to remember if she’d seen the girl before, but thanks to her pointed avoidance of contact with just about everyone, even during her very brief stay in the Hermes cabin as her cabin was being finished, she came up blank. Which successfully made her feel even worse about her problem. This was all happening in a matter of moments.

She’d missed Delia’s bitter glance when she’d muttered “that’s life” in her fluent second language (or first technically, but it was used much less than English), which was probably a good thing. Nothing like acute face reading to turn a first meeting into something that made her writhe and panic even more than she was, internally. But at the second address, the girl giving her name, she tried to muster up her courage again and looked up, as calmly as possible, trying to meet her eye with a poor excuse for a smile. This ineptitude really was inexcusable… “H-hi,” she managed shyly, and in a voice so small, she hoped desperately that the girl, now identified as Delia, could hear, “I’m Issa.” Curious, terrified, and admittedly strangely a little bit happy that she might actually begin to make progress, her smile became a little bit warmer as her irises shifted back into a reflection of the blue seawater.

Word count: 506 ~ Delia

[Cordelia Marshall]

When Delia first spoke she had clearly cought the girl off guard. Instantly the blonde felt bad when she stumbled backwards taking out part of her wall and standing quickly as if she was preparing to fight Delia. She wondered why that was everyone's first instinct in this gods forsaken place. Some days she really hated being there, she wasn't made for this kind of life. There were a lot of people who didn't really fit in but they did at the same time. Delia on the other hand, she fit in perfectly but she still felt like she didn't belong. It was a terrible problem that she had been working to deal with, though it wasn't exactly going well. Something took a little time and Delia wasn't exactly known for being the most patient of people. It was one skill she hadn't inherited from her father. Which was to be expected seeing as there were few things she wasn't good at because of him. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Delia said putting her hands up defensively. Not that she thought she had actually scared this girl, but she did catch her off guard. That was never good at this camp, unless you were intending to try and die.

At first Delia wasn't sure what to think, it was almost like the girl was debating on what insult to throw her way. That was usually the case but when the girl actually spoke she was rather pleasant and that made Delia beyond happy. "Awesome!" she said rarely noticing the girl's stammering. Things like that Delia was oblivious too, the way you spoke didn't really make a difference in the long run. The only thing that mattered is what you said. Unless of course you were a guy with a really hot voice who spoke a foreign language. Delia instantly shook that thought from her head. She was way to easily distracted and it wasn't good for anyone around her. Delia looked at the girl and noticed she had returned to making the castle. The fact that she was shy never crossed her mind, Delia barely knew what the word shy meant. Encouragingly she sat down near the girl building a wall that was a replica of hers.

Delia couldn't recall the last time she had really played in the sand but she had admit it was freeing in an odd sort of way. When the girl said her name suddenly Delia didn't feel like she was intruding quite as much. "Issa? that's really pretty," she said with a smile. Pretty wasn't really a word Delia used often, but it was exactly how she felt about her name. It seemed fitting especially since the girl herself was really pretty. Different pretty thought, not at all like she was used here at camp. Different was good though, Delia liked different.

497 . Issa

[Issa Lielle]

Pressing a shell into the sand wall, Issa had nodded at the girl’s apology for the scare, blushing slightly at her own behavior. She knew that her leaping to conclusions of danger was mostly a product of her ADHD and her lessons in being on guard, but also more personally from the fact that she didn’t know of anyone at camp really, who would come after her to the beach. But this was just coincidence, so there was no harm. Her shoulder muscles were tense with worry about how well she was doing with one of her first real encounters since the time she had come to Camp Half-Blood, but realized there was little point to worrying. Maybe confidence would come with time. She hardly looked over when Delia settled into the sand next to her, though a slight smile had been elicited from the other girl’s comment. So far so good, maybe…

As the sea breeze picked up again, it brushed her shoulders and blew her hair out behind her and she reveled in the feeling. She wasn’t expecting the girl to tell her her name was pretty. It certainly caught her attention and her eyes went back to Delia, her lips reflecting the smile more easily this time. “Really?” She paused for a moment, working the words from her mind to her mouth. “..Thank you.” Looking away again, she tried to hide another rush of blood to her cheeks. Still facing away, she asked, “So… What brings you here?” in as casual a voice as possible. Maybe this wasn’t going to be so hard after all. Pressing the wall a bit more to compact the sand, she returned to making the design along the top, occasionally pausing to press more shells into the wall.

She wasn’t sure if she should expect an answer or not, and it suddenly occurred to her that the question might have been the wrong thing to start with. Even if it was an innocent enough question, she worried that she might have done something bad. Needlessly, most likely, but it was never easy to tell that sort of thing… Hastily, she added to her last comment, “You… you don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to.” A sudden wetness on her toes, pointed towards the surging ocean waves, made her look in the direction of the beach. The waves were starting to push a little further into the sand and she found herself hoping they wouldn’t melt the walls. She had to admit though, the coolness of the water felt nice. Smiling to herself as she realized her wandering mind got the better of her, she turned her attention back to Delia, hesitantly at first, but made to look at her from the corner of her eye, wondering what cabin she might be from. She was definitely pretty. The word probably applied to Delia better than it applied to herself, she thought. But that was beside the point. In her heart, she really did hope that this encounter might be the beginning of something better.

Word count: 514~ Delia