madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-she's on the wall but she's no spiderman-

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"Am I tripping balls," Teqi asked, "or did we finally get those renovations?"

"I'm tripping balls, not sure about you though. Dunno what the vibe is at Wilderness," Will said with a yawn, looking around at the line-up of cabins nestled between the forest on either side of them. He stretched his arms above his head.

There were all the normal ones, with their silvery columns and patches of daisy's alike, but the layered concrete apartment-complex type building with the basketball ring hadn't been sitting next to the Iris cabin last time. Neither had the tiny casino with its flashing lights and cracked fountain.

She stepped over a landmine and squinted at Will. His eyes were red. And not in the crying way. She made sure he didn't blow up both legs passing the Ares cabin. "Your patients should really know you're seeing everything in rainbow when you're operating on them, you know."

"That would ruin the fun," he said, grinning smugly. "And I'd be put on toilet cleaning duties."

She squinted up at the sky. No more falling chariots, just the sort of grey and blue cloudless sky that meant cold weather and wind. They strolled past the Aphrodite cabin, with its heart shaped windows, and then the basketball/lavaball court, where the Hermes cabin was having a very heated debate.

Except they never actually debated, they just yelled until someone lost their voice and was crowned the loser. The logic was baffling.

"Kendrick!"

"Drake!"

"Ken-"

"I'll fucking eat the eyeballs out of your head if you don't shut your fucking trap!" Katie screamed from where she was knee deep in a garden bed of dirt and tulip bulbs, waving a menacing looking hand shovel, hair tied back with what might be a snakeskin. 

Anything looked menacing in an angry Katie's hands.

She was very good at ending arguments. The garden beds had been built beside the courts to encourage less explosions.

Cecil and Connor went quiet, and then returned to their game of what was probably 'trying to find Cecil's homemade firework in the basketball tub before Chiron did'. It was a competitive sport. 

"They're so..." Will squinted at the ragtag cabin and their lime flavoured vapes and speakers and crumpled Pokémon cards. "Primitive."

"I'm pretty sure you bit off-"

"I will dunk you in the lake again," he interrupted with a woozy finality, and they stopped outside her cabin. It looked like a tiny white Hansel and Gretel cottage, with a wraparound porch and dark red trims, quaint and fresh looking. Like a mint.

And if the outside was a starlight mint, the inside was a party mix.

See what she did there?

Teqi walked up the creaky front steps. A crumpled vanilla coke can sat on the doormat that read 'come back with a warrant'. All lowercase. She kicked it to the side and paused before opening the door.

Her thumb nail was gnawed down to the pink, but she had a good go chewing on it anyway.

Will came up the steps behind her, thongs making that stupid flippy sound, and looped his arm through hers. Her soggy jumper was going to leave wet patches on his hoodie. She rested her head on his shoulder. Or his upper arm. It wasn't her fault she was average height and Will was as gangly as a stick insect.