WHITE NOISE , percy jackson [1]

ONE

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

He missed his old life.

The Long Island sunshine was fine, but it was nothing compared to Dubrovnik's sunshine, right on the Adriatic Sea. He remembered sitting on the coastline with his mother, basking in the sun as she read him stories.

Oh, what he would give to go back. Maybe twelve-year-old Milan Abramović was just bored now; now that he was at Camp Half-Blood, he really didn't do much day-to-day. He trained, but only because his father made him. He preferred to spend his time reading his Greek myths, but even so, the Greek myths reminded him of home. Of a place he'd never get to visit again.

Milan tried to recreate the feeling of being in Dubrovnik, but it really wasn't the same. As he laid by the lake, a Greek copy of Homer's Iliad in his hands, he found that the weather just wasn't right. It was the distant thunder he could hear from the outside of camp, and the cool breeze that blew through even at the end of May. He sighed, adjusting his position as he finally lifted his sunglasses onto his head, pushing his dark, curly hair back. Gods, he just wanted to do something other than training or reading.

Campers were just starting to come back for the summer, and he was grateful when the familiar Li Hua walked up to him. He lazily turned his head, letting a light smile spread across his lips.

"I knew I'd find you here," Hua quipped, smiling back. "So... how was your school year?"

Milan laughed, shaking his head. "That's how you greet me?" He finally decided to stand up, smoothing out his orange Camp Half-Blood shirt. Hua smiled and initiated a hug between them. "My school year was fine," Milan finally said when they separated. His voice still held his light Croatian accent, even though it had been one year since he was last in Croatia. "Dad let me go to this artsy middle school in the city. They have a really good theater program."

"After last summer?" Hua said. "I'm surprised he even let you leave." She sat on the beach, pulling Milan down with her. She made sure not to get any sand stuck in her clothes. "Your dad seemed even crabbier than usual when I got here." After Hua sat down, she reached into her small purse to grab her lipgloss, and she started applying it, checking her reflection in the lake.

"I know," Milan said. This had been his routine with Hua last summer; she did her makeup (even though she was pretty enough that she didn't need it), and they would gossip together. "Like, he totally has been. He was fine all fall, and during my winter break, he said I should come on the field trip to Olympus. But I didn't, because I was so sick of this whole Greek mythology thing. And then, when everyone came back, my dad was so ornery."

"Oh, you so should've gone!" Hua said. "Milyy, I get it, but. Something obviously went down! Have you seen the weather?" She then switched to curling her eyelashes.

"I guess you're right. I mean, a whole thunderstorm in February? And that tropical storm. We never get those, not this early in the season," Milan said. Even after living in New York for only a year, he'd grown accustomed to the weather patterns. He set his book aside, so he could give this conversation his undivided attention.

     "Well, I suppose there's nothing we can do," Hua said. "Chiron never trusts us with anything, and I don't think your dad would tell you."

     "I know," Milan said thoughtfully. But he still felt like he didn't have a right to be upset that his dad wouldn't tell him; after all, he was luckier than most demigods. For one, his father spoke to him on a regular basis. He had to; he was the camp director. And Milan never had to worry about being unclaimed, or staying in the dusty, dirty Hermes cabin where campers' things were never safe.