Thinking of Home (Annabeth)

[Alexander Ruckshack]

Ellie was looking over the camp. She was on Half Blood Hill, sitting and thinking. Not meditating or anything, she wasn't into that juju stuff. The thirteen year old was just thinking about everything that had happened to her the past week. To many things for her to process. She was a demigod, a daughter of Poseidon, she had a half brother named Percy and she was...sort of a freak of nature. It was so weird, it was like this last week hadn't really seemed real. Yet it had been. She had been in a food fight with several other campers. Not in in it. She had mainly hid under a table with a smaller girl named Agatha.

She hated to start on such a negative note, but Ellie wasn't really liking camp that much. The food fight she had been in just increased her dislike. She didn't really feel like she belonged or anything. They were all demigods, yes, but still. It sort of looked like all the campers here knew eachother had been here for a while. They knew the ropes and everything. She? She was the very new, and very shy, girl. She hadn't even talked to Percy. She did sort of try to avoid him and she knew she was being rude, but right now, she was just freaked out of her mind. She sighed and looked at the sky. "Why'd you bring me here?" she muttered.

[Annabeth Chase]

Annabeth had just finished one of her many lessons and was returning from the woods for a much-needed break when she spotted a shape on Half-Blood Hill besides the pine and its dragon protector. Curious, she adjusted her course to go investigate. She’d hardly cut through the strawberry fields at all when she realized it was not only another camper, but someone she recognized: one of the newer campers, and Percy’s half-sister too. And she looked miserable. Annabeth made her way over and, from the words she caught, she could guess pretty easy what the problem was. That, and it was a pretty common for newcomers.

Feeling a rush of sympathy for the girl, she headed to where she was sitting by herself. “We all ask that same question,” she said when she was close enough. “It’s a lot to take in. I’m Annabeth, by the way. Annabeth Chase. You’re…Ellie, right?” She felt a little bad that she mostly could just remember the girl’s name because she was Percy’s half-sister. Had she been in one of the other multitude of cabins, it would have been a toss-up if she’d have known or not. “Mind if I join you?”

[Alexander Ruckshack]

Ellie was off in thought about her mother and wondering about all the other stuff they had told her and her father and, well everything. She got sort of shocked as Annabeth's voice broke into her thoughts. She jumped, shocked and not knowing someone else had been around to hear her think out loud. "O-oh..." she said, blushing and quite flustered. It was an older girl.

The thirteen year old nodded her head slightly. "O-h...H-hi Annabeth..." Ellie said quietly. The girl gave another nod. "Yes...I'm Ellie..." she said. She kept her gaze down, however, when she first met someone, she'd be extremely shy. "S-sure..." she said, moving over slightly so the older girl could have room.

[Annabeth Chase]

Annabeth took a seat next to the younger girl and offered her a warm smile. “Sorry for startling you. You just looked like you could use some company.” She took a deep breath and leaned back on her arms. “So, Camp not treating you too well so far, Ellie?” She knew it was sort of a rigged question. What camper had this place treated well right off the bat? There was so much to get used to: not just the ‘normal’ camp stuff like the training and the other kids and all, but the whole idea of the gods and the even crazier-seeming idea that one could be a child of them!

It really was enough to drive anyone into self-imposed hermitage. If she hadn’t had Luke when she first came here, she likely would have been worse off than Ellie. But Camp Half-Blood certainly had its charm. It just took good friends and patience, really. She hoped maybe she could at least help Ellie out with the first part, if not the second.

[Alexander Ruckshack]

Ellie looked at the older girl, so what if she was older? Did age really matter? Well, yeah, the older, the more experienced and fighting and all. No, it didn't. The older seemed like a kind girl, and that's all that mattered. It still would take a while for her to become her normal self again, though. "O-oh..." she said, getting slightly red. Had she been that obvious? Apparently so. "D-don't worry about it," the younger girl said.

Annabeth was right, of course. Right now, she was just feeling lonely, but she was to shy to make friends right now. Or for her to make the first move in the process. "Eh..." she said, thinking about her first week in camp. "I-its alright..." she said. Odd thing was, she never really bashed anyone or thing, no matter how horrible it or they were. She was having a pretty rough time of it, and she was doing pretty okay considering what had been shoved at her.

She was sure that other people would of had a much harder time than she had. Ones that had come when they were much younger than she. It had a good side and bad. Good, that they grew up around it and it was more natural to them. Bad, because, well, they were young. Ellie wasn't really sure, but she knew that she had a lot to be thankful for. She shouldn't really be complaining. Ellie's foot shuffled the grass slightly. "S-so...how are you?" she asked a bit on the quiet side.

[Annabeth Chase]

Annabeth let out a sigh. “It’s hard for everyone, Ellie. I remember when I first came here, though I was lucky enough to already know Luke. It’s not easy.” No, so for sure remembered that, though it wasn’t something she talked about often. Most of the people here, well all of them save Mr. D and Chiron were still here and had actually been there when Annabeth and Luke had only just made it to Camp thanks to Thalia’s sacrifice. That had been one of the most horrible years of her life: just when she’d though things were taking a turn for the better and that she actually belonged, her little ‘family’ was ripped apart again. She hadn’t left Luke’s side if she could help it for… gods, it must have been at least a year after that. Until she was claimed by Athena and had to change cabins.

She paused when she noticed she’d been staring at the ground, twisting the grass around her fingers. She never meant to just start ignoring Ellie, but her mind had wandered off. Which really wasn’t that surprising a thing for a demigod, given the ADHD, but still. That didn’t make it any less rude. She looked up and regarded the younger girl with a warm, encouraging smile. “But don’t worry about it, you get used to things. I know it’s a lot to take in, all this Greek gods and goddesses and once-mythological creatures stuff. You’re not alone in all this, Ellie. Everyone, or mostly everyone, here wants to help. After all, if we can’t all be friends with each other, it would be one really long summer,” she added with a laugh. “So what do you say? Want to be friends?”

Annabeth leaned back slightly, propping herself on one outstretched arm. “I’m doing pretty well. Tired, but well. Sometimes tired is a good feeling though. At least I think so. A feeling of accomplishment. What about you?”

[Alexander Ruckshack]

Ellie gave her head a nod. She was sort of feeling that she was self pitying herself to much, she needed to knock that off. What the older camper said was true. It had to be hard for ever camper that set foot in Camp. Her mother had told her about Luke. He had been playing the bad guy for a while, but he wasn't really in control for a while there. She didn't blame him for anything and he was now considered a hero. "O-oh...when you came here with Luke, was it new to him?" she asked before she could stop herself.

The younger girl gave the older one a slight smile. "Y-yup...hopefully..." she said, looking at Annabeth's grey eyes. She was a daughter of Athena and had been here much longer than she, so it was fine to trust her. Her accepting that almost every Ellie had to laugh. "Yeah, it would be," she said as Annabeth pointed out that it would of been a long summer if non of them were friends. She smiled and lost her stutter for a moment. The thirteen year old looked at her and smiled slightly. "Sure," she said. To have a friend here would be nice. She was still sort of iffy about the food fight, but she shouldn't just let one event color her view.

Ellie smiled. "T-that's good..." she said, looking more at Annabeth than at the ground now. She nodded. That made sense. "I'm doing alright, thanks."

[Annabeth Chase]

Annabeth shifted slightly, Ellie’s question bringing back a few not-so-pleasant memories. She vaguely remembered visiting Luke’s house once when the three of them were running from monsters. The only thing she could honestly remember was a lot of yelling and Luke being really mad afterwards. She’d talked with Thalia in the last couple years since… since Manhattan. Thalia had filled in the blanks. They weren’t pretty. “Um… well, he was sort of a unique case. He knew already. As did Thalia. And they told me before we got here. Luke-… nevermind.”

She smiled, even if it was a bit forced, grateful for the change of topic. Though, admittedly, it wasn’t much of a change. The girl was obviously really, really shy. Well, Annabeth couldn’t blame her too much for that, really. “So, Ellie… how are lessons going for you?” Lame, yes. But she really couldn’t think of a good thing to talk about, and that was the first thing to come to mind. And besides, it was, at least in some other half-bloods’ cases that she’d talked to, a happier topic, as battle training tended to be easier than, say, arithmetic. Or worse, English.


((OOC: Sorry, I know it’s late and short… *hangs head in shame*))

[Alexander Ruckshack]

(*pats you* No problem )

Ellie looked at the other girl as she shifted. She wondered if she had brought up the wrong topic to be discussing at this moment. "Oh..." she said, nodding as the older girl finished. If she didn't want to continue and wanted to stop with 'never mind' Ellie didn't want to press her. If the girl wasn't up to sharing, that was fine with her. They were all allowed to share and not to share what they wanted and what they didn't want to. Ellie didn't like it much when people pressed her into telling them things she didn't necessarily want to tell.

The memory of what happened at the beach kept popping up in her head. She sort of forgot what it was, it had to do with the water, obviously, she just forgot what she had done. Created a wave or...something that made her mother realize that she needed to get Ellie to camp. Great birthday present. Get shipped to a camp full of other demigods.

"Oh...they're going alright," as the topic of subjects and lessons was brought up. "B-better than English class..." she said, giving a slight smile. English had to be her worse subject when she was in a regular mortal school. English, then Math. The thirteen year old had done sort of well in History as she found it interesting and her teacher had mostly been the verbal type.

[Annabeth Chase]

Annabeth had to smile at her comment. “Yeah, I don’t think anyone here did much good in any English class.” She laughed slightly, but it was short-lived. The conversation seemed so… stale. And she couldn’t get Ellie’s words out of her head. ’…you came here with Luke…’ Luke… It had been two years, but she wasn’t over what had happened that day. She didn’t think she ever would be.

“He’s dead now…” she said sullenly, seemingly out of the blue. “Luke. He’s gone.” She pulled up a fistful of grass as if it were the very essence of the titan that had done that to him. But the sudden slight aggression melted away almost instantly and she threw the grass back down half-heartedly, never taking her eyes off the ground. “Gone…” she said, barely above a whisper. She cleared her throat. “Sacrificed himself to keep Kronos from rising. He saved everyone.”

Annabeth pulled her dagger out and looked at it. It was as close a replica as she could make to the one Luke had given her when she was only seven. The same one that-… She honestly tried to keep her calm, but it wasn’t working so well. A single tear escaped, and that was enough. She dropped the dagger and rested her forehead in her hand. “And it was my dagger that killed him. He used it to kill himself…”

Annabeth sat in silence for a moment before she started to remember where she was again. Oh great. Way to scare the new girl even more: Oh, killing ourselves happens all the time. No need to worry. Perfectly natural end for a demigod. She wiped the wet streaks from her face and looked up. “Sorry… anyway…” Why she’d suddenly gotten the urge to blurt out what had happened with Luke was beyond her. She hadn’t talked about it with anyone since that day, not even Percy. Maybe that was the reason though.

[Alexander Ruckshack]

Ellie had to laugh a little. All the demigods had Dylexia, so naturally, English would be hardest as their brain was meant for ancient Greek. "Y-yeah..." she said. She looked at the older girl and saw that her eyes had become somewhat distance. Then she started talking about Luke. Ellie's stomach gave a nervous lurch, she felt like she had said something wrong, or intruded or...something.

She could just watch the older girl as she told her...almost everything. "Oh..." Ellie said, frowning. That must of been very hard on her. "I'm sorry..." she said, putting her hand on the older girl's shoulder. "Th-that was very brave of him," the younger girl said softly. "O-Oh...." Ellie said, turning slightly red. "N-no...i-it's okay..." she muttered. That had been wild. No wonder Luke was viewed as a hero these days.

[Annabeth Chase]

Annabeth shifted slightly. Growing up, Luke had been her hero. And he still was. Even when he had betrayed them all to work for Kronos, she hadn’t lost faith in him. Not entirely. And she’d been right, hadn’t she? He really was a good person. She nodded slightly. “He was incredibly brave.” She smiled slightly before adding, “And stubborn. You know, one of the last things he said before he died was that he was going to go for rebirth. Try for the Isles of the Blest. He may be out there right now, as we speak. I know he’ll make it.”

She paused. “All of this,” she waved a hand out to indicate the much-greater-than-twelve cabins, “was his last wish. That everyone be claimed. So that no one could feel left out again like those many who did join Kronos.” Annabeth looked to Ellie with a smile. “It’s nice to talk about it for a change. I haven’t felt like I could for… well, even when he was alive, people thought I was crazy for still having faith in him. So, six years, I suppose. But I feel like I can talk to you.” She laughed. “If you don’t mind the babbling! But anyway, I’ve talked far too much as is. I feel like I’m taking over any attempt at a conversation. Sorry.”

[Alexander Ruckshack]

Ellie frowned slightly, still thinking on how hard it must of been to see your friend being turned into something you knew he wasn't. Seeing him change sides and having to fight him. Must of been really hard. "I-I'm sure he was..." Ellie said, nodding. From the stories her mother had told her, Luke had seemed pretty brave to her as well. At first she had sort of hated him for his betrayal, but that had been her, skipping to conclusions. As soon as she heard the whole story though, her view about Luke changed. "O-oh..." she said, giving a slight smile. She nodded. "I-I'm s-sure he will..." she said.

She looked out at all the cabins. It had expanded. A lot. More than twelve cabins were on the grounds now. "Th-that w-was v-very kind of him..." she said. She thought of all those minor gods whose kids hadn't been recognized, all the demigods who didn't know that they were demigods because their parents wouldn't claim them. That had all changed after Luke had requested it. She looked at the older girl. "N-no...i-it doesn't sound crazy at all..." she said, giving the older girl a smile. The thirteen year old blushed a bit and looked down. "Thanks..." she said quietly. "No...I don't mind at all. Don't be sorry," Ellie said quietly.