Hera's Idea

Water and Fire Don't Mix

I woke up to Emmy jumping on my bed. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, and reached over on my end table and pulled some scraps and handed it to Emmy.

"I'm coming, Em," I tell her, "Go play with this."

That was probably stupid, to give scrap metal to a one-year-old. But, this isn't just any one-year-old. She's a one-year-old Valdez, so my actions are justified.

By the time I was dressed and ready for breakfast, Emmy was holding a car, sitting on the steps of the cabin with Calypso. 

"She made that," Calypso whispered in awe, as Emmy put the car down on the step and it did a donut. 

"You'll get used to it, Mom," I responded.

Calypso smiled at me sweetly, and I picked up the little car.

Emmy started to whine, so I told her, "Voy a ayudar." 

She stopped and watched as I added a tweak here and there. I mean, the fact she could make a car in itself is impressive. I ignited my fingertip to weld to pieces together to finish it off, and handed it back to mi hermanita.

"Gracias!" She yelled, laughing as she let the car drive itself.

"I'll never understand how any of that works." Calypso looked at the little car in amazement. "I can barely understand the basic stuff from this time."

I shrugged, "You're pretty good with modern stuff in my time." I frowned in thought, "Or that could be just that you're with Papà."

She didn't respond to that. So, we just sat in silence. I drummed my finger impatiently on my thigh, trying to pass the time. My bottom lip was almost bleeding from me chewing on it.

Finally, the rest of the cabin came out, and we made our way to breakfast.

Breakfast was short, and after it, Chiron told us that we didn't have to do any camp activities for the day, to get ourselves situated.

Skylar and Zoë came over to my table. Zoë leaned over Aidan, her black hair falling into her eyes. "We should go swimming!"

My eyes widened, and I bit my lip, running my hand through my hand. I shook my head vigorously. Even though Zoë knows it, I have severe hydrophobia, or fear of water. I had a huge panic attack when we went on a cruise a few years ago. 

Zoë sighed sadly, "Right, I forgot. You have hydrophobia. Can you sit on the docks while I swim?"

"As long as the water's nowhere near me, I'll be fine."

Skylar rolled her eyes, "I'm not gonna swim either."

"You're both boring," Zoë muttered, "I'm going to get my bathing suit, and I'll meet you by the water.

I did not sit on the docks, in fact. I sat as far away from the water as I could, while still being in talking range. Zoë sorta ignored me, like the good friend she is, spending her time trying to splash Ethan and Charlie. Most of the younger versions of our parents were closer to the water, talking amongst themselves about this and that. Probably us, to be honest. 

Skylar, like a good friend, sat by me. Well, she had to go and be extra and float about a foot off the ground. And it didn't help that she was a good deal taller than me in the first place. 

"Sièntate, Skylar." I told her, "On the ground, I mean." I added when I noticed she was about to protest.

Maturely, she stuck her tongue out at me, but she floated down and sat beside me.

In the distance, I heard Naomi and Bianca yelling at each other, nothing new there. I also heard the splashing of water, which sent shivers down my spine, but that's besides the point.

Skylar and I started talking about mundane things. You'd think we wouldn't have time travelled with our conversation, but we don't see each other often in person. She lives in Oklahoma with her parents and twin brothers. I, as aforementioned, live in Indiana. And even when your friends and you time travel, you still have plenty of things to talk about.

We were interrupted by a soft cough, and we looked up to see Skylar's father, Jason, standing there. "You wouldn't mind if I stayed here, would you?"

"Not at all!" I said. He sat beside Sky, no surprise there, and we all fell into an awkward silence. I drummed my fingers on my lap, the only thing that kept me sane for that long. 

"So, Jason," I began after a while, "How are you? Good. I'm good." Small talk, I know, but I was set on rambling until someone else spoke up. "Lovely weather we're having. Right? Right."

Luckily, my small talk didn't ensue for that much longer, because Jason chuckled. "Just as good at making small talk as Leo is, I see."

I shrugged. "I guess so."

I turned to Sky, who looked reluctant to talk in front of the younger version of her father. So to prompt her, I asked, "Are we just gonna sit in silence or am I gonna start the small talk again?"

Sky mumbled, "Not the small talk," under her breath, and with that small prompting she started to open up.

Younger Jason was cooler than older Jason, who I met a few times. He told us a little about what it's like living in 2011, and in turn we told him what it was like in 2031, the year we're from. I'd tell you the details, but honestly, that would be sort of a bore. And with the clashing of the waves, my brain was already spinning.

Hey, so it's been a while. Since last summer actually, and it's the last day of March. I don't really have a good reason for why this took so long other than I got so wrapped up in my other fics that I sorta forgot this exsisted. Well, not really anyway. I just forgot literally every detail about this book. Luckily it's still near the beginning, because I had to reread the entire thing before I wrote this.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter regardless!
-Maddy 🖤