starshine- luke castellan x oc

my best friend is 13 years old

My first night sleeping at camp was filled with nightmares. As a demi-god, I was used to having dreams that left me uneasy, but these were different. 

Before becoming a huntress, I hadn't had much interest in boys. I never had a silly schoolgirl crush, or daydreamed about what kind of flowers I would have at my wedding. Maybe it was being near my sisters, but my night was filled with dreams of me sitting side-by-side a faceless boy. It seemed we were on a picnic, then later we were watching fireworks, pointing out constellations in the sky. 

It was worse than any nightmare I'd ever had. 

I shook the dreams from my head, getting up to ready myself for the long day of teaching I had ahead.  The rest of my team should be arriving today, my best friend Abby being one of them. I had that to look forward to as I suffered through. 

***

"Everyone's form looks much better, I'm gonna let you all go early today. Maybe you can beat the lunch line." I dismissed my last class for the morning. 

I began cleaning up the arrows that hadn't hit a target. There was an alarming amount scattered across the ground. 

"Need a hand?" Luke handed me a handful of arrows. 

I took them from him, "Are you stalking me?" 

"Maybe. We never get new campers my age, I already know everything about about everyone here." He shrugged. 

"I'm not really your age." 

"Close enough." He hesitated. 

"You can ask, it isn't rude." 

He opened his mouth, then closed it again. I couldn't help but laugh at his hesitance. Everyone was a bit unsure how to navigate the age of the hunteress's. Like it was somehow a secret we were in our hundreds. 

"I'm seventeen then." I started putting arrows in quivers, preparing for my afternoon classes. 

"How long have you been seventeen?" Luke said, in an attempt to be smooth. 

"I don't really keep track anymore. It just gets depressing." I answered. 

It was true. When you think about being immortal, you only see the benefits. Nobody ever thinks about how if you're four hundred and thirty-eight, all your friends are dead. I was also stuck in the most awkward stage of my life, forever. Sure, I had a bit of a "glow", but I was still a teenager. 

Luke didn't press it any further, probably not wanting to deal with an emotional girl, we set up the stations in a comfortable silence. 

"So who's your parent, then? Godly parent." He asked as we started the walk back to camp. 

I thought for a moment, nobody had asked me that question for hundreds of years. Once you were a hunter, it didn't matter who your parent was. That was the best part of joining the hunt, everyone respected me, they didn't need to know I was a decendent of the goddes of love. 

"I'm not a half-blood." I told him, "My parents were both mortals."

"Oh, I didn't realize there were mortals in the hunt." 

"Yeah, um, Artemis accepts anyone who takes the oath." 

"Right.... the oath." 

"Yeah... the oath." I felt my face get hot as I said it. I shook it off, telling myself it was just an awkward topic to discuss with someone you just met. 

Boy was I wrong about that. And somewhere, my mother was throwing a party to celebrate. 

***

After a long day of lessons, I was glad when dinner finall rolled around. Especially when I was greeted by Abby sitting at our table.

"This place sucks, I'm glad I never had to come here." She told me as I sat down. 

Abby really was a mortal. She joined the hunt after her first boyfriend broke her heart. You might think its an overeaction to swear off all men forever just because a thirteen year old boy broke your heart, but desitny is destiny. 

"Yeah, it was even worse before the invention of indoor plumbing." I bit into my burger. 

"Gross." 

As we ate I filled her in on the classes I had taught, and how I planned to divide the work between the girls. It seemed that archery was not seen as important at Camp Half-Blood, because most kids didn't even know which was their dominant eye. It was an annoying thought that archery had been pushed to the side, I had always enjoyed it when it was taught at camp. 

"Okay don't look now, but a boy over there is staring you down hard." Abby informed me. 

Big shocker, Abby was of the viewpoint that all men were pigs. Not that I felt strongly that they weren't, but I didn't mind sharing a bow with or sitting next to one. 

"Oh that's Luke." I said, giving him a wave. 

Abby raised her eyebrow, "Luke, huh? Got a little crush, lover-girl?" 

I rolled my eyes, "Stop it, you know I don't. And don't call me that, I told him I didn't have a godly parent." 

"Why? Isn't it better to be a half-blood here?" 

We accepeted mortals into the hunt, and generally they were well-respected. However, there were a few girls who treated the mortals differently, as if we weren't all given the same abilites once we took the oath. 

"Not when it's Aphrodite." I whispered. 

Abby gave me a look, but didn't push it further. She knew how I felt about my heritage and why I had joined the hunt. I felt bad lying to Luke, and the rest of camp, but I didn't want to be seen as weak again, not when I had to spend three months teaching them how to do someting they clearly didn't enjoy in the first place. 

"So you left me the top bunk, right?" Abby smiled.