Heart Pierced - Kayla Knowles (1)

V. My Sister Is A Very Stressed Woman

(A/N: Clarisse is a based woman, don't get me wrong. Yet, it's criminal that we only ever get to see her through the lens of anything and everything but the lens of a young woman who has stress from having to deal with younger siblings and now the added pressure of camp potentially no longer being safe and the guilt from the Stymphalian Bird attack that would have been disastrous had it not been for the intervention of Percy, Annabeth, and Colton.

With that out of the way, on with the chapter.)

Clarisse La Rue was a very stressed woman. Don't get her wrong, she loved being the head counselor of the Ares Cabin, and even if she wouldn't admit it, she outright adored her younger siblings, especially Sherman and Colton. But being the head counselor of a cabin of kids that either wanted to go and fight wars and kill people or in Colton's case, act like a loner who could secretly be a hunter of Artemis was no easy task. Far from it.

Her older sibling, Austin, had managed the Ares Cabin well in the years before he had left camp due to college and handed the position to Clarisse. He had no such problems managing the cabin seriously, and here she felt like she had way more responsibilities than just managing her siblings on her shoulders. Maybe Austin had similar issues and he just was smart enough to hide them effectively. (A/N: I am actually not referring to Austin Lake. Another one of my OCs, Austin Maxwell, takes the place of Luke as the host of Kronos in a different fanfic of mine. Here, he leaves camp a couple of weeks before Percy arrives, thus leaving Clarisse as the head councilor. Maybe I'll add him into the story in HOO or TOA. Dunno.)

Either way, she had a lot going on right now. Only Colton and Sherman saw it, the rest of her siblings were too busy basking in the rewards of their victory in the chariot races. As such, her favored siblings became an outlet for her to express her feelings and frustrations.

She had a lot on her mind. The guilt she had felt over not pressing Tantalus hard enough and insisting that patrols continue weighed heavily on her. She had even expressed such feelings back when the Apollo kids were treating her for her injuries.

The fact that Colton, who had been there in the right place at the right time, was being punished instead of rewarded for his valiant and desperate defense of the other campers, alongside Percy and Annabeth just felt wrong, and really further pissed her off.

WHY IS HE GETTING PUNISHED?! He was there when I couldn't be, she yelled internally at herself. It was madness that the man of the hour, her younger brother, was being treated like this by a man who had no business managing a camp of kids.

Oh, how she wished Chiron was back here. Fuck this stupid situation, Fuck Tantalus, Fuck that bitch Kronos, Fuck that traitor Luke, and most of all.. FUCK YOU ZEUS!

She wasn't the only one who was unhappy about how Colton was treated. Even as Tantalus continued about on with what was beginning to be seen by the other campers as his 'Nero-like' reign of the camp, Kayla Knowles was also pissed off at him over Colton.

She had been livid when she finally heard what Tantalus had said about Colton's brave action. That bitch! How dare he to that to my hero, she thought to herself. She may have been only thirteen, but even she could tell that this was the wrong way a soldier, even a soldier as old as her, should be rewarded.

She hated Tantalus.

Hated him with every fiber of her being. She wished that the centaur Clarisse, Colton, and the others had talked fondly of, Chiron, was here instead of Tantalus. Perhaps things would be much more stable, even with the urgency of the situation.

That brought her thoughts to the boy she couldn't stay from.. couldn't stop thinking about right now.. Colton. He was everything all the boys who had tried to claim her heart with their looks, wealth, and their totally atrocious behavior weren't. He was caring, not an asshole, and best of all, willing to put his life on the line to save others. I mean, who couldn't like a guy like that?