Isabella, Tartarus survivor

How the heck do showers work??

Chapter 28

Nico took me on a detour, quickly showing me the grounds like I'd requested. I looked around as we walked, trying to drink in as much as I could. People were sword fighting, others were practicing archery. Some people were above us, doing an action course up in the trees.

"Do I get to do that?" I asked Nico, getting distracted and walking off towards the archery course. Nico grabbed my hand and gently pulled me away, guiding me back to the path we were meant to be taking.

"Not yet, Miss. Distratto." He chuckled. (A/N- 'Distratto' means distracted in Italian) "We need to see Chiron first."

"Who is Chiron?" I asked, slightly frustrated that I couldn't go and join in with the cool stuff the other kids were doing.

"He's the activities director at Camp. He's basically the guy in charge." Nico explained. I nodded. I'd started to realise that people were staring at us. At me. I looked down, letting my matted hair fall in front of my face. I really needed a haircut. And a bath. I stopped walking. It had been a while since I was among other people, other humans, and it had just occurred to me that I was not in an acceptable state to be out in public.

"Um, Nico?" I called to him, blushing deeply.

"What's wrong?" He asked me, his voice laced with concern.

"Nothing, it's just... are there any baths here? I look a mess." I said under my breath, feeling really embarrassed.

"Oh my gods, sorry! I completely didn't think. Yeah, come on, I'll take you to the Hades cabin."

I followed Nico past several of these 'cabins' until we finally got to ours. Number 13. He opened the door. "Uh, I've never used it so I don't know what the facilities will be like, but the girl's dorms and bathrooms are through there."

"OK. See you later." I stepped through the door separating the girls and boys dorms and was overcome by how luxurious it looked. There were beds, actual beds. Better than that, they were double beds. The sheets were plain white with black quilts over the top. The headboards were carved with intricate skull designs. Yes, I would probably redecorate that, it felt a bit too gothic. I saw a door with a WC sign on it, and went into the bathroom. It was wide and spacious, with several showers and toilets. I checked, and there was already shampoo and conditioner in there, along with shower gel. There were also flannels and towels. I picked up a flannel, and stripped of my clothes.

As I turned the handle on the shower, water shot out and I stepped back. It used to take a little longer than that to get going. I placed my hand under the stream, testing the temperature, but yanked my hand away. Gods it was hot. I fiddled with another handle a couple of times, trying to cool it down, but I couldn't figure out how. Eventually I gave up and put my clothes back on. Knocking on the door that separated our dorms, I sheepishly stepped in. Nico was lying in bed, fiddling with the skull ring on his finger, staring into space. "You alright?" He asked, lapsing into our native Italian as he noticed me stood there.

"I can't figure out how to get the shower to work." I admitted, also lapsing into Italian and sighing a little. Nico grinned at me, smug that he knew something I didn't.

"I'll show you." I took him through to the girl's bathroom. "OK, so you just gotta turn this to start the water." He explained.

"Yes, I know that!" I snapped at him. "How do I change the temperature?" Nico pushed the temperature handle to the right slightly.

"There. Is that cool enough?" He asked me. I stuck my hand under the flow of water and nodded.

"Thanks." I called after him as Nico left. I stripped of my clothes again and stepped into the shower.

I tried to work a comb through my hair as I stood there, but it was useless. The teeth all broke because my hair was too matted. Sighing in defeat, I massaged some shampoo into my scalp and washed it out. Next came the difficult part. My skin was filthy, and I was going to have to scrub myself raw if I wanted to get it clean. I poured shower gel onto the flannel and got started.

I emerged from the shower 40 minutes later. I wasn't spotless but it was a bit difficult to wash away 70 years of grime in 40 minutes. The mirrors were covered in condensation. I rubbed part of a mirror and saw my face for the first time in seven decades. I was shocked. My cheekbones stuck dangerously through the skin. My eyes were sunken. I somehow still had all my teeth, thanks to the river Phlegethon I guessed. I dried myself off and found a stick of deodorant. I hastily applied some and stepped into my room. On one of the beds was a neatly folded pair of jeans, a pair of underwear, a bra and a bright orange t-shirt that said 'Camp Half-Blood' in bold letters. They were in my size, so I put them on and went back through to Nico.

"Ah!" Nico said as he saw me. "Now you look half presentable, mostro." He teased. (A/N- 'Mostro' means monster in Italian)

"Shh." I said as I playfully punched him in the arm. "Come on then. Take me to meet Chiron."

I thought it was because of how dirty I was that the other campers had been staring, but they still stared at me as I walked by. Finally, I cracked.

"What?!" I snapped at someone who was staring. They turned away with a quiet 'nothing'. I looked at Nico. "Why is everyone staring?" I asked him.

"You get used to it. We're children of one of the big three. They're scared. And they're especially scared because we're children of Hades. Our dad has a bad rep because of his job. We can do some messed up stuff Issy. Like how you summoned those skeletons? It makes people uncomfortable." I nodded, but felt a frown form on my face.

"That's not fair! It's not our fault!"

"I know." Nico agreed, "But all we can do is just ignore them." I scowled.

"Fine."

We reached the Big House and Nico led me up the stairs. A guy with horse legs, a centaur, stood at the door. "Nico, Isabella, can I help you?" He asked.

"Issy, this is Chiron." Nico introduced us. "And yeah Chiron. Issy thinks that Leo's still alive." I saw shock register on Chiron's face, but he quickly masked it.

"Right." Chiron cleared his throat. "Well, come inside."

A/N- Hey guys! It's been a while. Gah, sorry about that. I haven't been very inspired, and I've also just started college. (I'm British, so college here is the equivalent of American Grade 11). Hopefully I'll be updating more now though! Don't forget to REVIEW, and VOTE! xx