Tales of Camp Half Blood

Tale 31; Jealousy, Jealousy

Lou was gone. Her and her brother had just vanished the night after they all learned that Luke had betrayed the camp. With all the summer campers leaving it was kind of chaotic, and it was hard to tell just how many other people had joined Luke. But now they were quite certain that there were other people joining him. So much for Chiron saying this was the work of one misguided demigod.

People had considered that Lou and her brother had just got tired of camp and left at first, no one wanted to jump to the worst case scenario. But Cecil had known the moment he heard they were gone. Lou wouldn't leave without saying goodbye, or well, she wouldn't leave without saying goodbye to Will and Connor, Cecil thought bitterly. This probably wasn't the time to mope about Lou being closer with them than with him, but it was the first thing that came to his mind as always.

And you know what, he got it, they were a set trio of friends for over a year before Cecil had come to camp. He couldn't just expect to hang out with Lou for a couple months and instantly be her best friend. But now it's not like he'd even have the chance anyway.

He was and would forever be seen as nothing more than the annoying little brother they hung around with by the three of them. He didn't get it, Will and him were the same age, and only a year younger than the other two. So why did Connor and Lou see Will as a peer and yet group Cecil in with the younger kids like Lacy and Danny? Maybe that's why he had never been close to Will, he was jealous. Connor had to be friends with him because they were brothers, and Lou saw him as a little brother as much as he wished she'd just see him as a friend. Will had always been the person who Cecil was friends with by association to Lou and Connor.

Nothing much to be jealous over now though, he thought darkly to himself. Lou had clearly decided to join Luke in his stupid rebellion against the gods. Honestly Cecil didn't know which betrayal hurt worse at this point. His older brother who had been the closest to a parent he had, or the girl he considered one of his closest friends.

And that wasn't even taking into account the others. They wouldn't know for sure just how many people had turned to Luke until next summer, but when it came to the year rounders it was pretty clear who had been lost. For all their cabin's defense that not all of them were traitors like Luke, they'd woken up to Yvonne and Tobias being gone. Along with all the unclaimed year round campers. Besides Lou and her brother, there was also Ethan, Alycia, and Chris. The last one was the reason that Cecil was currently hiding in the Hermes cabin. Clarisse had not taken his betrayal well, and getting within ten feet of her right now seemed to be about the easiest way to take a one way trip to Hades.

The only other person they knew about for sure was Liv from the Athena cabin, because she was also a year rounder. Though Charles had told him that cabin nine was pretty sure Alessia was a traitor as well. She was a summer only camper, but with how close she was to Luke, and the fact that she had apparently disappeared the morning before his betrayal, there was little doubt in most people's minds.

This whole situation was just awful, what were they supposed to do? Why did Luke betray them in the first place? Sure their dad was never around, but they still had each other. Did Luke not care about him or any of their other siblings? Was he willing to let them die in his crusade against the gods? People always say 'never meet your idols' cause usually they're not the best people. Cecil never thought that saying could apply to him because his idol had always been his older brother. Now in a weird twist of irony, Cecil was truly wishing he had never met Luke.

Maybe if that satyr hadn't found him so young he could have lived a few more years in blissful ignorance of his identity. Luke and Lou would have been long gone by the time he came to camp, he could have avoided all this heartache to begin with.