Leo was awkward.
That was cute.
I pointed in the direction of where all of the camp activities were and told him what they were for. I kept my eyes closed the whole time. I knew this camp like the back of my hand, so it was easy to navigate.
Why did I keep my eyes closed? I have this problem- I don’t know if it should really be called a problem- that when I don’t have on glasses I can’t see through the Mist. I can see through the Mist without glasses every once in a while (like on my first few days at camp) but usually I see nothing abnormal or demigod-like at all. I keep my eyes closed when they’re off because I want to be able to learn to trust my hearing. If my glasses fell off during a fight, I’d be completely screwed. My glasses were made by Beckendorf. I don’t know what he made them out of, but they help a lot. He made me about ten pairs before he died and I lost the first pair today.
“Why are you closing your eyes?” Leo asked me.
“I have a Mist issue,” was my response. I lead him to my cabin before showing him anything else and went to my bedside table. The second drawer held glasses that look exactly like each other. I picked up a pair, put them on, and opened my eyes to see a weirded out Leo. He was standing in the doorway of the Poseidon cabin.
He looked extremely confused. “Why do you-?”
“The Mist is a sort of cover that stops mortals from seeing this camp, monsters, weapons, and pegasi,” I told him. “I don’t know why, but sometimes when my glasses are off I can’t see through the Mist. These are the only way to make sure I can always see everything.”
Leo nodded slowly. “Okay. Weird. How did you tell me where everything was? You were like an old blind man who knew his way around the neighborhood.”
“I’ve been here for two years. Most campers have been here a bit longer. So, yeah. I don’t really know why I know this place by heart. It’s just important to me.”
“Like your second home?” He seemed to have a longing look in his eyes.
“Ha. My only home. I was adopted and then ran away to this place.”
“Adopted?” Leo frowned. “My mom is dead, but I had to go from one foster home to another.”
I nodded, not sure if he wanted to talk about it more or not. I was surprised with myself; usually I could never say ten words to someone I had just met. Talking to Leo was still awkward, but easy for me to do. I led him out of the cabin and showed him around Camp Half- Blood. I told him about Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon and how they had a deal to have no kids. He thought that was awesome.
“Dude! You shouldn’t even be alive! It’s like you were a rebel baby or something!” Leo found this hilarious and had to bend over and hold his stomach. The most I did was smile. I never really found anything about how I shouldn’t exist amusing.
I showed him every cabin except for the Hephaestus one; I wanted to save that for last. As I was giving the grand tour he asked a lot of questions about getting a sword and being claimed. More than half of the time he didn’t even wait for me to answer, he just moved to the next question. When we walked up to it he grinned. The Hephaestus cabin always fascinated me. It had a big, circular door that had gears always spinning. The cabin was a dirty silver color and always had smoke coming out of the top. Compared to my cabin, it was amazing. Poseidon’s cabin was just blue with dolphin designs on the door.
Leo looked excited to go inside. “Got a steampunk theme going on, huh?”
“Yeah. Well, I’ll feel awkward if I go into a cabin that isn’t mine, so have fun.”
He frowned. “You’re leaving me?” That seemed to upset him a bit too much, considering we had just met. Though if I didn’t have social problems, I would stay with him the whole day. Also, I didn’t want to see all of the depressed Hephaestus kids complain about the “curse”. I didn’t believe in the curse; I just think that all of them feel that nothing can work without Beckendorf.
He offered his hand for me to shake. I giggled and when we shook hands he did a cute dramatic bow. “It was nice to meet you, Brooke.”
“You too. If you ever want to hang out, I’ll be in cabin 3 if I’m not searching for my brother.”
He nodded and turned away from me to go inside of his cabin for the first time. I did the same and when I got back to cabin 3 I laid down on my bed. The sound of the fountain in the back of the room calmed me. When I said “if I’m not searching for my brother,” I wanted to cry. I missed Percy so much. He was my only family and I just could not lose him.
I fell asleep in my dirty camp t-shirt, wondering if Leo could survive being around his depressing siblings.
