You Can't Choose Your Family (On Hold)

Chapter 4: The Silent Treatment

Chapter 4: The Silent Treatment

I ran to Annabeth along with everyone else. “We need to get her some help.” Someone said. “No,” Maria said firmly. “She’s just shocked. She’ll be okay.” I turned and put my sword away. I shouldn’t have shown them; I knew it as a bad idea. But it made me wonder who my father was.

I paced back and forth for five minutes. Connor had run to get an Apollo kid for help. Apparently, they were all really good at healing people, because of their dad. The kid who came was named Will. He looked about Annabeth’s age. He inspected her for what seemed like an eternity.

“She’ll be okay. What happened to her?” Will asked.

Connor looked at Maria. “She… um… got a little, shock.” Will turned his head slightly, like he was trying to decipher what Connor meant.

After a couple moments he gave up. “When she wakes up she should go back to her cabin. If you need anything else, I’ll be in my cabin.”

Annabeth moaned. She slowly got up. I ran over to her side. When Annabeth opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was me. She sprang to her feet. She looked like she had just seen a ghost. “Where. Did. You. Get. That. Sword?” She asked slowly, pointing at the necklace in my hand.

“My… um… father gave it to me.” Annabeth looked like she was about to be sick. “I thought you never saw your father before.”

“I didn’t. Last year, in August, it just appeared on my bed. There was a letter that said, ‘From Your Father’. But that’s it. I swear. It said it was for my birthday, even though it was two months late.”

“Do you know who that belonged to?” She asked shakily.

“Um… my father?” I asked.

“I sure hope not.” Annabeth said as she walked out of the arena. Before she left though, she looked as if she was going to throw up.

Connor and Maria were the only ones who stayed with me. Everyone else had practically ran out of the arena. I felt like a tigress surrounded by mice. People would point to her and whisper something to the person next to them. But as soon as I would turn to look at them, they would turn around and walk the other way. Some people would gasp when they saw me.

I absolutely hated camp at the moment. It was just like every other school I had ever been to. People would always treat me this way in the end. There were only three people that would even talk to me. They would talk to me like nothing weird had happened. It was a nice gesture, but it didn’t due me much good.

After a couple of hours the conch sounded for supper sounded. I looked up from the book I was reading. Even though I had dyslexia, I could still read really well, if that made any sense. “Ready to go to supper?” Travis said as cheerful as he could.

“I don’t think I’m all that hungry.” I said. But just then my stomach growled.

“It doesn’t sound like you told your stomach that.” Maria remarked with a grin on her face. “Come on. It wont be fun without you. It’s only your second day. Please?”

I pondered it for a while. “I guess I’ll go…” I said reluctantly.

I ignored the eyes that followed me as I got my food. I quietly sat in-between Travis and Maria. Connor sat across from me. We were all talking. We were the only ones talking. I answered questions as quietly as I could when they asked me one, not wanting to draw attention to myself. But other than that, I just kept my mouth shut.

“Well?” Maria asked.

“Hm?” I grumbled.

“Ugh. I asked you, ‘Who do you think your dad is?’” Maria said rolling her eye.