Orange Juice | 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐞 𝐋𝐚 𝐑𝐮𝐞

𝟎𝟎 - 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐀 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥

    She had never wanted this life. This was the truth of Atalanta Evans's life. She had never wanted to be a hero. She had wanted to be normal. But girls like her never got that. And now. Now, she was running down the street with a small bag on her back, sliding through people and struggling to keep up with the traffic of people pushing her back. She shouldn't be here, she knows that. She knows that her mother and her grandma were probably worried sick. But she needed to get there.

    She was tired, scared, and alone in the middle of New York City and she really just wanted to go home. But... But she had gotten this far and she wanted this itch to go away. To stop bugging her all day and all night. So instead, she hurried into some alleyway, hoping that the group of adults coming from the clubs wouldn't notice the thin little girl sitting in there watching with a small bronze knife in her hand and blood dripping down her forehead and onto her dull yellow shirt and ripped jeans.

    She watched till the sun went down, till shadows appeared and people stopped caring about what was happening around them, and she started to shiver. She forced herself onto her shaky legs and moved toward wherever her itch was taking her. She continued for what felt like hours till her attention started to drift, and she ran straight into someone.

    She tried to force herself away, but a hand wrapped itself around her wrist. "Hey. Hey. It's okay. It's okay." The person said that, and she forced herself to look up. Eyes blinking slowly. Her eyes narrowed quickly.

    He had dark black hair, blue eyes, and a sharp nose. He was older than her by what looked like 6 years. He was wearing a bright-ass orange shirt that said 'Camp Half-Blood' on it, and it made some part of her relax, and the itch dulled.

    "I'm Luke and it looks like you recognize my shirt, yeah." He said, slowly crouching down slightly to her height. She felt something staring at her, snapped her head around, and forced her eyes to focus again.

    "I think I'm supposed to find it." She said before grabbing his arm, minding what she now realized was a box from what looked like the bakery down the street. Her hair started to rise as she looked around, shadows moving in ways it is not supposed to. "Something's watching us." She whispered and Luke nodded before starting to walk.

    "Why do you think you're supposed to find Camp? And what's your name?" Luke asked as they started to walk. She let her hand tighten around her knife. "Why does it matter? You have the symbol, and I don't know what it is."

    Luke looked behind us before shaking his head. "It doesn't matter yet. Let's return to camp and get you to Mr. D, Miss?"

    She frowned before sighing. She didn't think he was going to stop asking. "Atalanta."

    He nodded and they continued to walk. He was walking fast, almost too fast for her. She was out of breath watching as he led her through the streets off toward the edge of Long Island.

    By the time they reached a hill, she started to pant. She never was really good at sports or track, then again she was never in track cause that happened in middle school, but that wasn't the point. "Yeah. I don't think I can go much further without a break, Luke." He turned to her before looking behind them and nodded. "They can wait an extra 5 minutes, sit down."

    She let her eyes trail around her. A hill stood in front of her tall and daunting, a feeling of despair radiated from it and a large, looming pine tree stood on top of it and she could see what looked like a face peering down at her from the tree.

    She turned to look around but nothing else was around. Just more and more trees dancing in the wind. It made her feel lonely. It made her miss her alleyway because at least there were people around. Not good people but they existed, they were there.

     "If the camp is here why haven't I heard about it yet? It's honestly pretty close to the city, enough to be talked about. I don't understand why no one would know about the camp." She said and watched as Luke let out a laugh, but it didn't seem like he was laughing at her.

    She didn't know why but it reminded her of her mother. Calming and caring, just like how her mother laughed when she didn't find it funny but wanted her to smile so she laughed anyway.

    "Why don't we get to camp, I'll let our Activities Director explain that to you. Now, you good?"

    She gave a small nod and lifted herself back up. Compared to Luke, she was tiny and it still made her hesitant, every talk from her mother and grandmother about not following older people, kids or not, was repeating in her head and she had to force them down. She followed Luke as he started the long walk up the hill. As she walked past the tree, she felt something touch her ripped-up sleeve and she snapped around. But nothing was there, not even any kicked-up dirt. But on the ground, now laid the sad piece of fabric that was her sleeve. She snatched it and everything went quiet as she looked.

    There were buildings around her, tall and large and beautiful.. Painting the familiar pictures of old stories told by her mother in the middle of the night of greedy gods and glory-hungry demigods. She let her eyes wander over crowds of kids, older than her and with imposing figures running down dirt paths like they were running from someone trying to pluck out all that was good in them. She felt a slight tremor and realized she was shaking as she skidded down the path to a house with large windows.

    The house looked desperate for a painter with its peeling blue walls, cracked floorboards, and stairs. She watched as Luke's back straightened and his faint smile faded into something duller, hands tightening around the box from the bakery. He shoved the door open and revealed it to show a man with curly black hair and brown eyes. A can of some kind of drink and...

    And next to him, was something that made her stumble. She felt three sets of eyes turn to her and her eyes blinked as everything slowly faded in and out before settling on what had to be the truth on what had to be real.

    A man with a horse's lower body stood in front of her. Dark skin, and gray hair with a tweed jacket and a tie. But a kind face. Kind face like her grandmother, and he smiled at her.

    "Well, it's not every day we get a new camper, I'm Chiron. What's your name?" He said and she turned to stare once more at the man at the table. He didn't seem that interested, more interested in the cards in his hand and the boy next to her.

    When she turned to Luke, he looked like he wanted to be anywhere else, weary of whoever sat in front of her and she didn't seem so scared anymore. She liked the fear. It was normal, a comfortable looming cloud.

    "Atalanta... Evans. What... What is this place, what are you? Why did I want to be here?"

    Chiron let out a small laugh before turning to the man behind him and back to her. "I believe it's time to show you the orientation video. You can go now, Luke. Unless you'd like to say." He said, before motioning her toward him. She let herself step forward till she was guided to one of the chairs and an older television was put in front of them.

    It turned on and she hoped this would make everything make sense for once. To make her life make sense for the first time since she could remember her dreams.