HOUSE OF CARDS. percy jackson & olympians

v. Talent Shows

house of cards
❛ v. talent shows ❜

━━━━━ GENNA WASN'T SURE if the stench of sewage would ever leave her nose. Luckily, no one else seemed to pay her much mind after the whole "bathroom incident". (It was a lot more dramatic than it sounds.) No one curled their nose at her, or grimaced as she walked by, or anything like that. If they had ... well, Percy would be a dead boy. Which would suck for him — he was just starting to have a normal routine at Camp Half-Blood.

               That was the odd thing — the normal routine. It felt like nothing should go back to normal after everything that has happened. The Minotaur attack, Percy managing to defeat the Minotaur, the odd dream Genna had that very night, the bathroom incident. It made her feel like she was going crazy with how normal everything was. In all honesty, Genna liked routines — they helped her keep her days straight, her mind at ease (somewhat, at least; having ADHD kept your mind pretty muddied), and helped her feel a bit of normalcy, even if the routine wasn't normal. But now? The Camp Half-Blood routine was driving her crazy. The summer solstice was getting closer every day, and nothing was being done. It was like everyone was acting like nothing was wrong — especially when everything felt wrong. It felt like the whole camp was holding its breath, waiting for the bubble to finally burst. Despite all this, Genna went back to her routine, acting like she hadn't been doused with toilet water. The only interesting thing was watching Percy trying (and failing) most activities he tried; she had a lot of amusement watching him lose his foot race against some wood nymphs.

               Percy was trying just about everything you could at Camp — archery, foot racing, wrestling, metalwork. Anything he could, Percy tried it. They wanted to see what he was good at, that was a pretty good indicator of who his father could be. So far, they didn't know. Genna was taking a step back, letting him try everything. She wasn't the one assigned to help Percy settle into camp life (and she thanked the gods for it — or, thanked Chiron). This was not her problem — until Percy made it her problem.

               It had been like that since their chat at the canoe lake. Percy gravitated towards Genna, like he wanted to be friends with her — or, truly friends instead of just classmates that coexisted for Grover's sake. Genna furled her nose at him each and every time, but Percy didn't get the memo — he kept reaching out, no matter what.

               Oftentimes, when Genna wanted to hide away (to get out of chores or to get out of practice), she would hide in the amphitheater. It was an odd place, sure, but it did the trick — if Genna sat in the right row, or slid into the footrests, she was completely invisible if people just skimmed over the place. Maybe it wasn't the most comfortable, but Genna made due. It wasn't like her brothers were ever going to really notice all the shirts she stole to make a makeshift pillow out of.

               Genna thought she was able to deal with Percy constantly reaching out — until he found her in the empty amphitheater. He huffed and sat down hard on the bench Genna hid behind. He braced his feet on the seat below him and leaned back against the bench behind him — nearly leaning over Genna. The daughter of Hermes was stunned to see him and froze, which allowed Percy to rant; "This is so stupid! Annabeth thinks just because my dad's a Greek god, that I automatically know how to read Ancient Greek. Doesn't she know that this is basically a whole new language for me?!" Genna had been so preoccupied with trying to finish the stupid I SPY book she had nicked in the Big House, that she hadn't responded.

               Soon, it became their routine, despite what Genna wanted. Every afternoon after the summer activities were completed, or even in the morning before, Percy would find Genna in the empty amphitheater. Sometimes, she would be trying to complete the I SPY book she had stolen, other times she'd be reading some Ancient Greek play (or trying to read, Genna wasn't an avid reader, mind you), or even trying to patch holes in her pants or sharpen her sword. Genna wasn't looking for new friends, even if she didn't have many now. She wasn't good at making friends — not the most socially adept person around, and had trouble picking up the clues when people wanted her to shut up. Percy seemed to have figured out all this, and yet, still went out of his way to talk to her. Some of her smiled at it, the other half — the majority of her — wanted to puke.