stollen things || c. stoll

2.12 ~ I Am Not A Happy Camper

"You know, Child of Demeter, we usually answer to 'Ô hárma diabolês.'"

"And money!"

I sighed. "Sorry, ladies. It's an emergency."

The women were all squeezed into the front seat of the smoky gray taxi. They all frowned at me.

"I'll pay you extra when I get to my destination. I need to get to Camp Half-Blood, like, now."

They looked back and forth at each other — even though there was only one eye between the three of them — and eventually nodded.

I thanked them endlessly and hopped in the back seat. I'd only been in this car once before: when I was 13. It was scarring and I never planned on doing it again. But here I was.

With the crazy speeding ladies, we made it from Vermont to New York in two hours. They screeched to a halt in front of Half-Blood Hill.

"Now, where's that extra pay?" Tempest, one of the Gray Ladies, demanded. "You know anywhere outside of New York is outside our service area."

I stared blankly at her for a second, then pointed past her. "Woah! What's that over there?" Then I hopped out of the car.

"What's what?"

"Give me the eye! I wanna see!"

"Stop hitting me!"

I came over the top of the hill and breathed in the familiarity.

I'd never spent time at camp in the fall, so everything was different. The trees were shedding their brown leaves, the weather was starting to cool off, and no activities were going on at all. Apparently the off-season was just one long independent training session. I started down the hill and past the volleyball courts.

"Well, well, well," A voice came from around the corner of the Big House. A voice that set me at ease. A voice I'd come to accept that made me feel good. "You're a bit overdressed, aren't you?"

Connor came into view. I could see his blushed face, even under the cocky grin he always showed off.

"Yeah, I wanted to make a good impression on you for our reunion."

"It's working."

I let out a small chuckle before looking past him. "It's past one. Not getting up to any illegal activities, I hope."

Connor shrugged without answering, just holding up a broken padlock in his hand. He led me to my cabin. "You can talk to Chiron in the morning, but now you need rest. Unless you'd like to come to my cabin with me."

"You wish, Stoll." I winked.

I cleared my throat awkwardly and pulled him into a quick hug before quietly disappearing into my cabin.

•

When I woke, I noticed that I was the only Demeter kid here, as all of them had either gone home at the end of summer or a few weeks afterwards.

I scanned the room, but realized that I hadn't brought any clothes because of how quickly I left.

Walking up to the Big House (as quickly as I could with the bruises from jumping out of a car less than 12 hours prior), I tried to put together what I'd say.

I reached the House and knocked on the door. "Chiron? It's important." I waited a few seconds as I heard footsteps approach. Or, horse-steps.

He opened the door to his office and looked at me for a quick second. I was suddenly aware of how terrible I probably looked what with my unremoved makeup, torn apart dress, and messed up hair.

"Please come in," He stepped aside and beckoned me to sit down. I didn't.

"Sir, I've had two monster attacks since August and another demigod tried to recruit me to Luke's army just last night. I trusted him, too." I explained everything else, including the jumping out of the car part and the Gray Ladies.

"Why didn't you come back to camp right after the first attack?" He squinted down at me.

"I wanted to see if could be normal and handle myself. But I guess not."

"Well, I suppose this means it's time to take even more action. If Luke's forces are trying to pick half-bloods up that are already trained to fight against them, they must be getting desperate. Thank you, child. Head to the infirmary to get those bruises and scrapes fixed up."

I did as he said, and chose to sleep the day away after getting some ambrosia.

•

I woke past lunchtime, with Connor at my side.

"You really can't stay away from me, huh?" I grinned, sitting up and wincing.

"You tell me, you're the one who came all the way back here just to see me."

"Don't flatter yourself."

"Why did you come back?" He asked, serious again.

"My... ex-boyfriend, I suppose, turned out to be a half-blood working for Luke and tried to kidnap me and bring me to him. I'm fine, th-"

Connor had pulled me into a bone-crushing hug. "Do me a favor, try not to date any more spies."

"No promises. I like to keep you on your toes."

•

hi besties 😈 we back at camp sorry for the REALLY short chapter but not really sorry

also i totally lost track of posting sorry it's been longer than usual 💗