Tales of Camp Half Blood

Tale 22: Missing a sister

The morning of the summer solstice had everyone at camp waking up far earlier than you'd usually be able to drag them out of bed. Malcolm and his siblings specifically were up before the first lights of dawn even entered the sky. He had never seen cabin six so stressed out. Even if the questers technically had the whole day to complete their mission, they were really cutting it down to the wire here. And everyone was aware that wasn't a good sign.

Malcolm knew his older siblings were putting on a brave face for him and the other younger campers, but he wasn't so easy to fool. He'd heard Ally awake late last night, on the verge of tears as her and Aaron finished the last few stitches on Annabeth's burial shroud. The same shroud that they'd absolutely promised the rest of the cabin that they wouldn't need to actually use since Annabeth would definitely make it home safe. Malcolm didn't claim to be a genius or anything, he was the currently one of the youngest kids in cabin six- he still had a lot to learn. But it didn't take a genius to deduce that crying over the burial shroud did not bode well for his older siblings' true thoughts on whether Annabeth would make it or not.

For his part, Malcolm knew that Annabeth would survive. There was no way his older sister would let some stupid quest take her out, she was the smartest of all of them. She would find a way to complete this quest, he just knew it.

The rest of camp didn't share his optimism much though. Breakfast was a muted affair with everyone stuck in a tense silence. At least they weren't arguing for once, Malcolm was growing tired of his siblings incessant fighting with the Ares cabin. He was just so done with it, especially since it wasn't what Annabeth would have wanted if she was here to actually lead their cabin.

Aaron was great and all, but even though he was four years Annabeth's senior, he was a far worse counselor than their sister. He was smart but overconfident, and had a short temper on a good day.

"Is Annabeth getting back today?" Victoria asked hesitantly, breaking the silence at their table.

Cindy got a stormy look on her face at the question, but Ally merely smiled at their younger sister, "Yes! It's the summer solstice so she has to be getting back at some soon," she assured Victoria with a false chipper tone.

"If she gets back at all," Max mumbled bitterly into his cereal so quietly that Malcolm could barely hear even though he was sitting right next to him.

"What did you say?" Liv, who was sitting on Max's other side, snapped.

Malcolm thought their brother would backtrack after saying that, but instead he glared right back at Liv, "I said, if she gets back at all, " he reiterated, a wild look in his eyes.

"Don't say stuff like that," Ally hissed, eyes flickering over to Victoria, whose shoulders had slumped in misery.

Max frowned, "why! It's the truth, and you're all pretending that it's not. We need to be prepared for the worst case scenario, ignoring the problem won't change anything," he said in a choked voice.

Aaron and Ally didn't have much to say to that, both of them got sad looks in their eyes as they glanced anywhere but at Max's face. The two of them had steadfastly ignored the possibility of Annabeth not making it back from her quest before this in order to try and keep everyone's spirits lifted. They didn't move to do that now though, and Max snorted, angrily scooping more of his cereal up with his spoon.

Vaguely Malcolm noticed the barely unshed tears glimmering in his brother's eyes. He had never seen Max cry before, not even when he'd fallen off his pegasus during riding lessons and broken both of his legs. It felt wrong, as did the absence of Ally's infectious enthusiasm, and Aaron's sometimes scathing witty remarks.