Boiling Point {AVERY}

[Annabeth Chase]

Annabeth stared down at the long thin lines and carefully traced lettering that wove together all across the page under her fingers. She’d been working on this drawing for nearly an hour and she still wasn’t happy with it. It didn’t help that there was simply too much on her mind. And for the first time in a week, the list of distractions wasn’t dominated by things relating to the camp’s resident son of Poseidon. No, this time the main topic of thought was Luke Castellan. When she’d met up with him earlier it had started out normal enough. Walking and talking along the edge of the strawberry field. Then things started in a more unexpected direction. Annabeth looked down at her wrist, where the bracelet Luke had given her as an early birthday present caught the small amount of sunlight leaking into the Athena cabin. That little piece of metal had triggered it. Yes, she had kissed him, she admitted. And once he learned that Percy had cut himself out of the picture, he had kissed her back.

Then things went downhill. It seemed she wasn’t ready to give Percy up, even if he was completely ready a week ago to give her up. When her brain had caught up with her, it had been hard to sit there next to Luke. Wearing the bracelet he’d taken so much care to make her? Almost painful. Knowing she’d kissed him? It felt like holding the sky. Percy had broken up with her, in a rather unpleasant way. So why did she still feel like talking to Luke was cheating on Percy? It wasn’t realistic and, worst part, it wasn’t fair to Luke.

She set the drafting pencil back in the drawer and rolled the half-finished drawing up, taking it back to her bed and tucking it away. She had to go see Luke. She had to apologize. Maybe now that she’d had a chance to think some she could straighten things out, make up for what happened earlier. So she left the Athena cabin and set off down the line of cabins for cabin eleven: Hermes. It seemed the logical first place to look. The door was hanging open, which was pretty normal for a lot of the cabins during the summer days; it kept air moving, allowed for sunlight to get in, and encouraged socializing. At least, that was her theory behind it. Taking the cue from the last of these, she climbed the couple of stairs and knocked on the door frame. “Luke?” One glance in told her that he wasn’t there, though. Or at least, he wasn’t somewhere immediately visible. Though maybe one of his siblings knew where he was. It was worth a try.

Word Count: 458

[Avery Reynolds]

"Where the hell is Sir Hugs-A-Lot?"

It wasn't a very common known fact that Avery Reynolds had a variety of stuffed animals scattered around her bed in the Hermes cabin, though amongst most of her siblings, it was a well-known law that you simply didn't mess with them. If not for respecting one of the oldest, most senior members of the cabin, then for survival purposes. The last person who thought that they could get away with stealing her stuffed animals had gone to the infirmary with a broken nose, though he'd never admit to the nurses what he'd done to receive said injury. Needless to say, that boy now slept on the other side of the cabin as far away from Avery as possible, and often avoided confrontations with her. And rightfully so. You didn't take Avery Reynolds' stuffed animals and come out of it without a scratch. Especially if she found out that you were the one who stole it.

Sir Hugs-A-Lot had been one of her first stuffed animals, next to Pinky the Tiger and Maxwell the Horse. He was a stuffed bear, one that she often slept with when she could, and she was rather fond of him. And he was missing.

On a more serious note, however, Avery did need him. Lately, as anyone could assume from the dark rings under her eyes and the tired, sluggish way in which she conducted herself, that she wasn't getting very much sleep. She was having nightmares, and usually, if she was sleeping with Sir Hugs-A-Lot, she didn't have them as often. Granted, she still heard the roaring sound of the ocean whenever she woke up, or screams. Sometimes she was the one screaming when she jumped up from a nightmare, ready to right, sweat glistening all over her. Anyone could plainly see that the quest she'd gone on had taken its toll, if not for the wrist that she currently had strapped to her chest. The healers at the infirmary had told her to get as much rest as possible, but of course that was practically impossible as every time Avery tried to rest, she was haunted by memories she'd rather forget.

She was currently pillaging the campers' beds, desperately searching for her beloved stuffed bear. There was nobody else in the cabin at the time - one of the others had taken them all to archery training as sort of like a 'bonding' experience (either that or the remainder of the Hermes kids were skipping and doing something else), and of course Avery hadn't been allowed to go. It made her made, really, that she was being underestimated. Though, even though she hated to admit it, she wasn't able to string and shoot a bow with only her left hand to do it.

Avery was kneeling behind one of the beds when she heard the knock, and the voice that she utterly despised. Immediately, hatred bubbled in her stomach as she heard that daughter of Athena call out for her brother. Of course that was what she was here for. Why else would the mini-goddess Annabeth Chase choose to grace the otherwise lowly Hermes cabin with her presence? Avery got to her feet, glaring directly towards the spot where Annabeth stood. "What the hell do you want with him?" she demanded, narrowing her eyes.

Sir Hugs-A-Lot

[Annabeth Chase]

The bright side was, getting out of her cabin had at least helped a bit. Nike had told Annabeth a while back when she’d shut herself in her cabin for a few days that she needed fresh air. Annabeth had scoffed at her then, but she was coming to learn that fresh air actually was helpful. It was like her cabin was starting to be pinned in her mind as one of the pits of negative thoughts, so it was impossible to think clearly there. Outside, though, her mind actually cleared a little. So things weren’t as bad as she thought… Just her cabin was filled still with memories of wondering why Percy suddenly didn’t like her and of hating Percy herself and, well, Percy. So of course her mind had been on Percy to some degree. How could she be stabbing in the back if he had done it first? There was no reason she should feel remorse over it. It was over. Good riddance.

That didn’t mean she didn’t still want to talk to Luke though. Things earlier had been such a blur. Well, that and it was nice getting to spend time with him again. After all these years, they had a bit of catching up to do. The noises coming from the Hermes cabin made it sound like there was something going on, maybe akin to a small war or a hurricane. Then again, this was the Hermes cabin. Those things happened. She knocked on the door and called out, though her first glance told her several important things. One: Luke was not here. Two: only Avery was here – which meant the Fates must hate her at the moment. And three: Avery seemed to have taken it upon herself to destroy the entire cabin single-handedly. And she was doing a pretty good job of it.

She was not surprised in the slightest when she earned herself a glare from the daughter of Hermes. It was no quiet secret that the two girls didn’t like each other in the slightest. Annabeth rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t aware I had to report everything to you, Reynolds. I want to talk to him, okay? Do you know where he is?” She did not particularly feel like spending quality bonding time with Avery Reynolds right now. Or ever for that matter. Avery was one camper she would be more than happy to have gone from the camp. Not that she wanted her dead – even if she did think about it occasionally, but Avery made it hard not to – just not here. And not such a royal pain in the butt. Why couldn’t she be in another cabin? Like Mania? She’d fit right in there.

Word Count: 454
Tag: Avery
Note: Starting to learn how hard it is to find good pics for the top of the post... just gave up on this one, lol.

[Avery Reynolds]

Almost immediately, Avery went back to searching for her stuffed bear. Honestly, Annabeth wasn't worth her time - not nearly as much as Sir Hugs-A-Lot was. Couldn't Feather Brain, as Avery had come to call her, go and bother someone else about the whereabouts of Luke? Go somewhere else to inquire? Because, to be honest, Avery didn't really know where her brother was and didn't want to admit it. Besides, she had a slight bitter resentment towards her brother at the moment, as lately he'd been dedicating all his time to either being around Annabeth or brooding about her. He didn't have time for his crippled sister anymore, or so she'd noticed, but since when did anyone ever have time for her? The only people that even remotely hung out with her on a regular basis were Ryan Simons and Azrael Everett. Ryan, who was almost always depressingly quiet these days, and Az, who was 1) one of the biggest asses that Avery had ever met and 2) really just spending time with her because he pitied her.

"You come into my cabin and tell me you don't have to report what's going on? All because you think you're queen of the camp doesn't mean you have jurisdiction in the Hermes cabin, if I have any say about it," Avery snapped as she pulled back the covers on one of the beds nearby. Her eyes narrowed as, once again, she failed to see any sign of Sir Hugs-A-Lot. Honestly, where the hell had he gone? She was fairly sure that she was pretty close to having searched the entirety of the cabin, and she hadn't found even a trace of him yet. And it was really beginning to tick her off. Huffing, Avery bent down and tossed one of the pillows she'd thrown in the search back onto the bed they belonged to.

With a disgruntled sigh, Avery picked up a picture frame she had also thrown and put it back on the nightstand it had been on earlier. It was the picture of one of her siblings with his mortal mother. Avery smiled halfheartedly as she looked at it, and snorted to herself, feeling a spark of longing for her own mother, though she hadn't seen her in eleven years. Avery shook her head. She hated that this was distracting her, and she glanced back at Annabeth and scowled. "Sure you just want to talk to him? Or do you want to continue messing with his head and make out with him again?" Avery growled, eyeing the daughter of Athena in suspicion. She scoffed, "Fat chance I'd tell you even if I did know. You act like Luke actually cares to tell me where he's going these days. But, then again, you act like you know everything anyway, so why wouldn't you think that?" That last part constituted more as a grumble than anything else.

[Annabeth Chase]

Annabeth could tell that Avery didn’t really want her to be here. Which worked out, honestly, because there was not a snowball’s chance in the Tartarus that she wanted to be here either. Or anywhere that Avery Reynolds was for that matter. The girl liked to be a nasty little nag and claim that Annabeth had the biggest ego in the world, but to tell the truth sometimes Annabeth wondered if it was because she named her reflection Annabeth or something. Avery did have an annoying habit of pointing out her own faults in others, after all. She would have made an excellent research case for an idea that she had come across in a book recently that the attributes one finds annoying in others are often reflections of one’s own faults. She made a mental not to try and not get too frustrated with people with pride issues like her own.

Rolling her eyes, she crossed her arms and took Avery’s bombardment of pointless chatter. “Yes, I am telling you I don’t have to report anything to you. I’m not part of your cabin, am I? Thank the gods or I might have to kill myself. And by the way, I’m only queen of the camp in your own little mind, so what does that tell you for you putting me there, hmm? Just shut up before you make an even bigger fool of yourself.” Which would be really hard, for the record, as she added to her own village idiot reputation every time she opened her mouth. So understandably it would take a heck of a lot to get rid of what she’d been trying so hard to make.

She watched Avery pick up a couple of things, seeming to have finally realized that she was trashing her own cabin. Well done, Avery, well done. She shook her head when Avery was distracted, until she noticed what it was. A picture, of one of the other Hermes campers to boot, and what looked like was probably a parent or a mentor or someone. The way Avery looked at it though, for the split second she allowed herself to actually look human… It was a look that Annabeth knew. Or rather one that she had a feeling she recognized, and she’d caught Avery with it a couple times when there weren’t a lot of people around over the seven years that the daughter of Hermes had been here. And the fact that she was looking at one of her siblings’ pictures, or in the past it might have been when people started talking about going home for the winter or the like. It reminded her of how she used to feel when people brought that stuff up when she herself was little, before Percy had stepped in and helped things. Annabeth silently wondered what Avery’s childhood had been like before they’d met, though that was usually something to avoid talking about around camp. After all, they all were, in society’s eyes, illegitimate children with only one parent, which had a much higher tendency to lead to issues.

Annabeth was pulled from her thoughts by Avery’s scowl – such a horrible way to come back to reality. It was like waking up to a hellhound sitting on your face. But then Avery opened her mouth, and completely doomed herself. Annabeth let her hands drop to her sides, fists clenched. “Excuse me!? I am not messing with his head and no, I do not want to just make out with him,” she added a name in ancient greek that, translated verbatim, didn’t make much sense, but the traditional inflection to it was anything but kind. The worst part, though, was that Avery got Annabeth thinking, questioning. Avery saw Luke a lot more than she did, being in the same cabin and all… what if there was some truth to the messing with his head thing? Not like she was trying to! Not like she wanted to either. Part of her wanted to punch Avery for putting the thought there at all, and the other just wanted to leave. “I don’t know why I’m even still standing here. Not because I’m all-knowing like you seem to think I am, but more because it’s just pointless to talk to an arrogant ass.” And to be honest, she wasn’t sure looking for Luke anymore would be such a good idea given her freshly bad mood. Maybe shooting something.

Word Count: 743
Tag: Avery
Note: Sorry this is so late!

[Avery Reynolds]

Avery narrowed her eyes at Annabeth's comment, if only to hide up the sting that she suddenly felt at her words. No, of course Avery didn't give much of a damn if Annabeth wanted to go commit suicide... but did she really make her siblings want to do it as well? Was that really how she made them feel? Did she make Luke want to kill himself? The thought was nearly enough to make Avery sick. Almost immediately, she shoved the thought away, but she hated to know that it was going to come back and bother her later. She absolutely despised the way that Annabeth could plant ideas like that in her head, but then again, the little know-it-all daughter of Athena knew everything, didn't she? So surely she knew all about Avery.

Angrily, she picked up a blanket she'd put on the floor and threw it onto one of her siblings' bed. That little feather brain had absolutely no idea. She didn't know anything about Avery. Tiny little Annabeth wanted to run away from home because of family drama? Well tiny little Avery hadn't wanted anything of the sort, yet she got thrown out onto the streets nonetheless. Tiny little Annabeth got Luke and Thalia to take care of her? Well, tiny little Avery had to take care of herself for two years, and had been practically starving to death when she first arrived at camp. No, no, Annabeth had absolutely no idea what her life had been like, and so she had absolutely no right to judge either. So what if she made people want to kill themselves? Avery reiterated her mantra in her head, You don't care what other people think of you, other people don't need to care about you at all. "It's not my fault you're blind and ignorant on top of being self-absorbed," Avery snapped, glaring at the daughter of Athena. "I'm not the one who put you there if that's just the way things are."

She really didn't know anything, did she? Did Annabeth hear all the praises that people sang about her? She was everyone's favorite. The gods adored her, the campers adored her, hell, even little kids adored her. Just the other day, Avery had been teaching one of the tiny temporary Hermes campers archery (she was pretty sure the tike was going to turn out to be a daughter of Apollo with the way she shot). And what did that little girl say as she made a bulls-eye? "I want to be just like Annabeth." Avery had almost lost her lunch right there and then, and a horrible sense of longing had filled the daughter of Hermes. She'd been at camp almost as long as Annabeth had. She'd been working just as hard, to get a billionth of the credit. Why didn't kids look up to her? She loved the younger kids at camp, and made an effort to spend as much time with them as possible. Yet, none of them ever wanted to be like her. The thought caused a second sad pang somewhere in Avery's torso.

"Don't talk like you know what's going on in my brother's head. And, no, you just want to do the things that lead up to the making out, right? So you can claim you had nothing to do with whatever follows?" Avery demanded of the girl, raising an eyebrow. Annabeth really did bring out the worst in her, though oftentimes her worst was already showing. And it didn't help that she was tired and somewhat already irritated. Especially since her quest to find Sir Hugs-A-Lot was proving to be fruitless. "I don't know why you're still standing there either, your Majesty. I realize us commoners aren't worthy of your company." Then, she glanced Annabeth with a mischievous spark in her eyes. "You know, if you want to see an arrogant ass, all you have to do it take a look in the mirror. It really isn't healthy to talk to yourself - it's the first sign of insanity, you know."

[Annabeth Chase]

Annabeth was getting really tired of this. Not that it took much to get tired of being around Avery. The girl was like a walking emotional black hole and Annabeth was pretty sure that Avery’s ability to infuriate her possibly even exceeded the immortal power of Ares. She rolled her eyes as she watched Avery attempt to clean up, or at least she guessed that was what was going on, though in reality she seemed more to be making more of a mess instead. “You show that blanket…” she muttered, though doubted Avery heard. The girl seemed to be in her own little world. Whatever was going on in her head seemed to only be making her angrier. “You know, coming from anyone else, I might actually take that seriously. But considering it’s you… don’t think I will. So I hold my ground that you are just blowing things way out of proportion.”

She was getting really tired of Avery going into her own world too. Knowing Avery, it was likely brooding or plotting. Neither was usually good. Brooding made her angrier and thus more of a pain in the butt to deal with. Plotting, well, that part was self-explanatory. Annabeth had heard plenty of her threats over the years, though thankfully none of them had yet come to fruition, as most involved some form of explosive and would likely result in maiming or violent death. Such a sweet little daughter of Hermes. And she wondered why people sometimes avoided her. She had all the charm and social skills of a starved wolverine.

Annabeth was perfectly ready to just accept that this was a stupid conversation, if it could be called that, that was only making both of them furious and leave, when Avery went on. One could almost see something snap in the daughter of Athena’s expression. “Excuse me?” she said a little quieter than the conversation had been going so far, letting the simple question leak unspoken threats. “And here you are, talking like you know how my mind works. Tell me, Reynolds, have you ever heard of the term ‘hypocrit’? Look it up. Then again, you could just look in a mirror for that one.” She walked further into the cabin, completely ready to hit this girl at a moment’s notice. “Commoners? Give me a break. You give yourself a lot of credit with that term. And ooh, like I’ve never heard those second grade insults before. I would expect more from the camp back pain. Though I suppose if one needed an expert on the signs of insanity, it would be you, so I will give you credit on that one.” She glanced around the cabin. “And an expert at completely disrespecting her siblings’ space and possessions, I see. You really are insane.” She gave her a blatantly fake smile. “Well, I’ll leave you to trash your cabin and explain it to your siblings, if they’re not already used to it, in solitude. Thanks for your time. It’s been just peachy,” she said with heavy sarcasm before turning to leave the cabin.

Word Count: 516
Tag: Avery