CHAPTER 12: THE ARRIVAL
Athena had waited for massive let down, like the last time that things had gone her way. But either fate was finally on her side or the fact that Thárros had finally dawned had kept up her levels of happiness.
Eventually, Athena found herself in the car, with her luggage, Jemeanii and Hilary. The long drive to wherever Thárros was would’ve at least have been bearable with Tom there. However, he had gone with Leon and Chloe, even Ophelia had gone to wave them off. Even Timothy would’ve been nice to talk too, but Athena hadn’t spoken to him since school was out. So there she was with the only company of her mother’s silent concentration as she drove and Jemeanii’s constant pecking on the lock of the rattling silver cage.
Magnificent greenery passed their car; beautiful blooming bluebells, tall long spiking grass and glorious evergreens that stretched towards the heavens. It was all very interesting at first, but once you had been travelling past these things for over an hour it became rather irritatingly boring. Although, after 1 hour and 45 minutes they finally turned off down a forest tracked path. The gravel crumbled under the pressure of the car wheels. The trees along this road were of a darker bark and they had emerald green leaves. It was fenced around the edges, which made Athena realise that they must almost be on Camp Thárros property. Just as she had expected, they were. A medium sized road sign made out of wood, pointed right and on it were the words ‘To Camp Thárros’.
Athena wondered what lurked in the black of the forest dead ahead. As they neared a large ‘Welcome to Camp Thárros’ sign that arched over head, Hilary slowed up a bit and turned into a supposed ‘car park’. All it really was was a large field. The grass was as green as anything.
“Here we are” said Hilary opening the door of the car, Athena climbed out her own side, her attention was diverted to a swarm of kids and adults bunched around a fence and gate.
“Wow, I didn’t think it’d be so crowded”
“It always is”
“You’ve been here before?”
“Briefly” Hilary shrugged the question off “isn’t that Tom?”
The red land rover emerged through archway and parked up next to them. Out popped the entire Noble family.
“I wanna go” moaned Ophelia
“Four more years” Timon patted her on the back; Ophelia had turned seven on February the 18th.
“I don’t see why we had to come” Chloe mumbled
“It could be fun” Leon laughed “hey Athena”
“Hi” she replied, blushing; Leon was quite handsome.
As a group, they joined the torrent of people and waited a while. Until, the moment Athena had been waiting for finally came around. From some sort of speaker or megaphone came a voice.
“Attention all campers” it was female “please say your farewells and enter into the gate by age category. Once in, follow your leader through to the main headquarters on the campus, thank you.” She repeated it several times until all the kids had cleared off.
As Tom and Athena went through Tom said:
“Dad had a business meeting he was meant to attend, but he missed it!”
“It’s a Saturday”
“I know, but he had to go in and he actually told them he couldn’t make it! Just to see us off! I mean what?”
