CATHARSIS, jason grace¹ [REWRITING]

𝟬𝟭𝟬. the beauty of beauty and its curse

THE CAT FIGHTS in Cabin Ten were notorious for being as thrilling as any gladiator fight in the ancient days. Besides Aera, the Aphrodite kids may not have produced an actual warrior in over a hundred years, but even the Ares kids knew to step aside and watch the spectacle. There'd be earring-removing, shoe-throwing, hair-pulling―the whole nine yards. Brownie points to whoever could yank out more of their opponent's hair extensions (the Ares crowd went wild for those spoils of war).

These catfights were usually caused by pretty shallow things like a stolen pearl necklace or leaving the straightener plugged in. They got especially bad during evaluation season, where everyone was tense and anxious and they had no one to take it out on but each other. Looking back, that was probably the most poisonous thorn about being part of Cabin Ten's flower garden. Despite how ugly it got or how impossible Jolina's demands were, no one wanted to leave.

Cabin Ten only had each other. None of the other demigods would be able to understand why every single camper in the Aphrodite Cabin woke up before dawn to spend four hours getting ready for the day or why beauty was more important to them than any other basic necessity like food or water. They'd be laughed at or scorned if they went to anyone else about eyeshadow fallout or dieting tips.

So, no matter how deeply the thorns cut into their skin, none of the Aphrodite kids would let go of their flowers. Because they knew if they did, they would have nothing left.

Maybe that was why Drew went totally Tyra Banks on Aera when she tried to stop her from getting rid of stuff from Jolina's reign.

After Hera's super annoying message about busting her out of some jail (which Aera obviously planned on ignoring), Piper had fainted like a damsel-in-distress during her camp tour, the mermaid-devotee had forced Johnny Bravo to Cabin Fifteen for some beauty sleep, and Leo was ... doing whatever it was Leo did.

That left Aera with an ample amount of free time to perhaps file her nails or have a secret romantic rendezvous with one of the dryads before she left on her grand getaway to Paris. That was until Chiron had practically beauty-napped her against her will to Cabin Ten for some quote and quote "overdue sibling-bonding time". It soon became clear that the only thing that was overdue for Aera, however, was a facial appointment for her impending stress wrinkles.

"What's all this?" Aera questioned as she stood over the group of pink cardboard boxes near the fire pit in the center of the cabins.

Drew snapped on her bubble gum obnoxiously, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. Aera found it hard to believe this was the same girl who got straight A's all throughout middle school and was obsessed with cable-knit sweaters. "Um, we're doing a spring clean, duh."

"It's December."

"Whatever." Drew rolled her eyes. "The seasons move around us, we don't move around them."

Aera nodded, doing a critical once-over. "That explains your last season's outfit."

Lacy, Mitchell, Stephanie, and Kit, who had been moving the boxes out snickered on the sidelines. Drew's lips curled at Aera, but her attention had been enraptured by the binding of a scrapbook sticking out of one of the boxes.

"Wait a second." Aera reached down to pick up the familiar conch-shell-lined book. It felt like a giant beauty blender had sunk into her chest. "This is Silena's. We made this for her 14th birthday. Why would you throw this out?"

"Well, it's not like she's here to look through it," Kit put in.

Drew gave their brother a side-eye that was electrifyingly intimidating with her bold pink eyeliner. For a second, Aera almost felt proud. "Kit, shut up! Gods, can't you read the room? Go back inside and sort out my shoe collection! In color-coded order!"