Forest Sisters

The New Camper

Ivy's POV

We, Hugo and I, spent most of the morning down at the beach. The others had left about an hour ago, some off to classes, some to teach classes those said classes, and a strain someone off to work on projects that he swears had only a thirty percent chance of blowing up camp and everyone in it. I had the morning off from classes because of my injuries, even though I felt fine, but it's Annabeth's orders. Besides, I wasn't complaining too much about missing classes. It's not that I dint like to learn, because I do, it's just the other campers. I know, I know, they probably weren't all bad, but I would rather read a book or hit my self with a sick instead of going to classes with a whole bunch of other people. I thought Hugo would leave too, seeing as everyone else had things to do, but he reassured me no one would miss him too much if he skipped out for the morning. I highly fought his absence would go unnoticed.
We were still sitting there at the beach, looking out at the waves, when I had enough sitting down. I got up and started to walk towards the water. "What are you doing?" He said, getting up from the sand. "I just thought I might want to put my legs in the water." It seemed obvious enough to me, but he looked a little sceptical. "What?" I asked. He looked down and shook his head, and to my delight some sand fell from his hair. He looked back up at me with those big brown eyes. There was something written on his face, the same look I had got previously this morning that looked a little like concern, but as before I brushed it away as wishful thinking. No one cares about the runaway. The only looks I ever got were dirty looks and sometimes fear. There would always be great in people's faces, whispers about-
I cut the thoughts out of my head before they could escalate. I focused back on Hugo as he opened his mouth, as if to say something, but then closed it again. I fought the sensation to laugh at his expression, because frankly it looked like a fish out of water. He opened his mouth again and said, "Aren't you just slightly scared at all? I mean, you almost drowned and were attacked this morning!" I raise my eyebrow at him. "So?" I ask. He looks at me with bewilderment. I just shrug my shoulders and walk into the water. I had no shoes and I was already wearing my shorts, so I didn't worry about getting them wet. I kicked around the water for a moment and turned around.
Hugo was still standing at the shore, glaring at the water like it did something bad.
I considered holding my tough, doing what I always did and fade into the background, but for once I felt safe. And I realized that it wasn't the camp that made me feel safe, but some of the people in it. Some had seemed distance or even hatred towards me, but some were more fun to be around. Some even invited me in and seemed to generally want to befriend me. I hadn't had that in a long time, and it took me a while to realize what that warm feeling was. Also, it turned out the person I felt the most safe with, the most at home I had felt since, well, since the fire, was Hugo. I felt safe when he was around and it seemed like he wanted to be around me as well.
I walked over to him and ducked under his gaze, making him look at me instead of the water. He still looked worried, but his face softened. I walked over to him and smiled. "You know it won't bite, right?" He smiles at me, then looks away, still worried about something. I nod my head and walk back up the beach to grab my discarded swim suit. He watches me.
"What are you doing now?" He asks. I answer over my shoulder "You don't seem comfortable here, so I thought we would go back to camp, unless you have any adjective?" He watches me with his lips pulled up in a small smile. I turn around and start walking up the beach toward the camp, then have to stop and turn around.
"I still don't know where the cabin is." I admit. His smile widens and looks genuine this time. He walks up besides me and we start our trek back to the Hermes cabin.

***

We were walking through camp uncomfortable silence when we heard the yelling. It wasn't like before, with the screaming fear, no, this sounded more like excitement. Three guys ran past us, heading up the hill. Hugo stopped one to ask what was going on. I hide behind Hugo, not wanting their attention to turn to me.
"You mean you haven't heard?" The guy asks. Hugo shakes his head, and there may have been a couple bits of sand that fell into his shoulder. "There's a new camper." The guys says. Hugo raises an eyebrow. "So?" He asks. The guy looks excited as he says, "She's a powerful demigod, I can say that for sure." Hugo scrunched his eyebrows at him again. "How do you know?" He asks. The guy rolls his eyes like it's the most obvious thing in the world. "She had a giant scorpion after her and the miditar himself after her. Percy destroyed the scorpion, but the miditar got away." Hugo nods his head and releases the guy. He quickly starts sprinting after the others, making his way up the hill.
I start to follow when I notice Hugo is no longer at my side. I look behind me and he is in the same exact place I left him, with his hands in his pockets and looking into the distance. "You coming?" I ask, but he shakes his head. More sand falls. "I thought I'd hit the showers. Some crazy lady stuffed my head in a sand castle and I wanted to try to get some of the remaining sand out of me hair." I stifle a laugh and wave him goodbye.
I start towards the hill. I wonder what kind of new demigod this is. What's their parentage? I make it up the hill quickly and look behind me. I watch as Hugo's shape moves towards the large building that I guess are the showers and bath room. I smile to my self and turn around and bound up the last few steps up the hill. When I make it up their, I have to do a double take. It looks like fifty campers are milling around, all trying to get a look at the new camper. I can't see anything from my hight, so on look around for higher ground. Yes! I think triumphantly when I see the large tree at the side of the crowd. The branches reach out over the crowd, giving a perfect view of what's going on.
I dash over to the tree and find that it's quite easy to climb. The lowest branch is ten feet in the air, bit I am able to climb the tree without the use of branches. Just another one of my skills people often over looked. Once I make it to a nice sturdy branch that reaches over the crowd, I start to crawl out on it. I expected it to make some noise, for leaves to rustle and fall, but it doesn't. It's like the tree wants to keep me hidden. I make it to the middle of the branch and look down. I am about fifteen feet in the air, almost right above a figure I recognize as Percy, and have a perfect view of the new camper.
She has black hair and smooth tanned skin. She is on the tall side and looks as beautiful as a swimsuit model. No joke, she looked like one. And her smile was genuine, not some fake flirtatious smile. That made her even more beautiful to me. She looked to be about sixteen. Annabeth was talking to her, and I though I heard the name Aquilla. I watched from above and didn't know what to expect. I was looking at her, trying to place her face, when a glowing green emblem started floating above her head. The whole group seemed to gasp and went silent. One by one they started to kneel, except Percy who just looked plain confused. The emblem was of a trident, I could tell that much from where I was sitting, or more accurately, laying.
Percy did a little fist pump on the air and said, "sweet, someone else to clean the cabin!" He said it in a normal voice, but because of the silence of the crowd everyone could easily hear it. Annabeth put her hand over her face once again. Soon the simple faded and the crowd started to disperse once again. I watched them silently as they talked, not knowing where to go. It had been about five minutes when I spotted Hugo coming up the hill. His hair still had little droplets of water in it that glowed in the sun and it was shooting out in many a lot of different directions. The remaining campers left, and I was about to call to Hugo when he seemed to spot Aquilla.
She turned around, and her face lit up. A wide smile spread across his face as she ran to him. "Hugo!" She yelled. She ran into his arms and they hugged for a long moment. I starred, shocked at the loving embrace. After a long, love felt hug Hugo picked her up and twirled her around in the air, her legs flying out from under her. She laughed and he set her down, kissing her forehead. Something inside me seemed to break. I had seen enough. I made my way down the tree and dropped down the last seven feet to the ground on the opposite side of the tree, hidden from sight.
I started to walk towards where Hugo had told me the cabin was. Something inside me seemed to have fallen loose, now banging around me. When I thought of Hugo, I did not feel the safety and reassurance I had felt earlier. Now all I felt was betrayal, anger, and so many other feelings. I wondered why it hurt so much. I was used to this feeling, being betrayed and left behind so many times before. But this felt different from all those other times.
I guess I had just hoped Hugo would be different, but I guess I was wrong.