CHAPTER THREE
—stupid patrol

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  —JUDITH craned her neck at an awkward angle to see the patch of smooth wood of her bunk as she carved her initials with a throwing knife she found on the ground ( probably one of Sherman's ). Her spine was starting to cramp, but she only had the 'S' left ; she always did her best not to leave just a 'JK.' The rest of the wooden beams and planks were covered in the etchings, most her name, some explicits. The next Ares kid to occupy this bunk would have to wonder who this JKS was until the end of time.

  Judith ignored Clarisse and one of her brothers as they stomped in the cabin unceremoniously.

  "Get up, we're getting the chariot ready," Clarisse said, tossing a bronze helmet onto her bed and turned to her lounging younger sister.

  "I have patrol in five minutes," Judith said, not even looking away from her delicate work. "Besides, we have a long time."

  "I want to get the building out of the way so we have more time to train. We don't have experience fighting on a chariot."

  Judith let her arms fall and swiveled her head around to stretch it out. "Nobody has any experience on a chariot," she corrected.

  Mark, the brother that had come in, shook his head darkly as he leaned against a far wall. "I bet the Apollo kids have that kind of thing in their blood. It'll come naturally to them."

  "Yeah," Clarisse agreed with him, "but I don't see them being able to build a chariot from scratch."

  "They'll probably bribe the Hephaestus cabin to do it for them," Mark scowled.

  Judith shook her head. "Beckendorf wouldn't give in to bribes, especially not from Lee Fletcher. Silena — maybe, but I doubt the Aphrodite kids are participating." She stood to her feet, depositing the throwing knife on back on the ground where she found it instead of putting it with Sherman's belongings. The girl started to put on her lightweight armor. "Anyway, we can start tomorrow, Clarisse." She headed out the door without bidding them farewell, knowing she'd be seeing them later anyway ... unless she died while on patrol. That would suck.

  Judith hurried to her designated patrol spot, unwilling to be caught by Tantalus in his push to ban the border patrol groups. Who was he to waltz in and bark orders like he owned the place?

  She strutted up half-blood hill, tuning out the clanging sound her sword made every time it bumped her thigh. When she first joined the camp, the ringing sounds that the metals made when hitting each other annoyed her to no end, but she had gotten used to it over time. Soon enough, it became a soothing white noise.

  Coming up on the crest of the hill, Judith saw someone examining Thalia's dying tree, one of their hands touching the bark. Briefly glancing at the shriveled up branches, she adjusted the leather on her arm and walked up behind the camper, taking notice of the pen he was fiddling with in his right hand. She could recall only one person who would carry a pen with them everywhere.

  "You some kind of tree expert or something?"

  Her question broke the concentration of all the satyrs who had been harmonizing their reed pipes; she assumed they were performing healing songs, and by the looks of things, it was doing absolutely nothing. They all threw her annoyed glances for the interruption. Judith only rolled her eyes, showing she didn't care if they were mad.

  Percy spared her a glance and turned back to the pine tree. "No, the last thing I know how to do is take care of a plant. But I don't need to be a son of Demeter to know that this isn't good."

  "What gave it away? The rotting bark smell or the ritualistic half-goat people?" Judith asked, not intending to be mean, but earning herself a few more nasty looks anyway.

  "They've been at it all day, apparently," he claimed. He looked to the top of the tree and squinted his eyes through the sunlight.

  "They've been at it all summer," Judith corrected, quite annoyed that the satyrs still persisted to play their repetitive tunes when it wasn't doing a lick of good. Percy looked back down to the base of the trunk and started walking along the camp's edge, not yet leaving his post. Judith followed behind, figuring his company was better than the goat people, but probably not by much. "Isn't your shift done?"

  Percy stopped to look at her curiously. "No? I just got here a few minutes ago."

  Double booked.

  The mistake wasn't hard to make now that they had to decide by word of mouth who would be on patrol and when. Tantalus made sure to keep tabs on any high activity spots in camp to make sure no sign up sheets were taped up. Somewhere along the line, a time could have been messed up or forgotten. Either way, Judith had already decided to patrol instead of build a chariot, so she wasn't going back down the hill.

  "You can go do something else," Judith let him off. "I have nothing else to do."

  But Percy just shrugged. "I don't either."

  The girl rolled her eyes and continued on the path that the boy had started. "I'm letting you off easy. There doesn't need to be two of us."

  "Well, I can stay, I don't mind," the boy returned and Judith wanted to rip her hair out. He was being unnecessarily difficult in a situation that had a simple solution.

  "I don't care, do whatever you want," Judith finally said, moving onward. Her stoic face only hardened more as he jogged to catch up.

  "Hey, quick question, how do you not hate me?"

  Judith scoffed. "What gave you the impression that I don't?"

  Other than their footsteps along the hilltop, there was complete silence. Judith thought she might have actually offended him, but as soon as he started chuckling, she knew she hadn't. "Well, you're not telling me to go away, for a start."

  "Was that not what I was doing back there when I said I could handle this?" Judith asked, skillfully trying to make him just offended enough to leave or be quiet — she didn't care which, though if she was honest, leaving was the more preferable option.

  "Actually, it sort of sounded like you were being nice by offering to stay," Percy claimed.

  "I wasn't trying to be nice," she amended quickly, not about to let that thought cumulate in his head longer than necessary.

  "My bad, my bad. Anyway, you don't treat me like Clarisse does."

  She huffed, her hand coming to rest on her sword hilt comfortably. "Do I look like Clarisse to you?" His eyes widened as he looked her over. His head shook vigorously as he answered.

  "Uh, no?"

  "So why would I act like her?"

  "Because you're related?" He guessed.

  "Do you treat people the same way Tyson treats people?" Judith asked then, just knowing the topic was a sore one for the boy still.

  She took satisfaction as he winced. "No."

  Judith didn't say anything as she gave him a pointed look that said she rested her case. But if she thought the conversation was over, she would be wrong. Was it impossible to push this boy's buttons?

  "But I literally doused her in toilet water last year," Percy brought up.

  "Do you want me to yell at you to go away and to stay out of my business, is that what you want me to do? Because I can," Judith snapped. He was pressing this issue so hard that she just may grow to treat him like Clarisse. Maybe this was why the gods seemed to have it out for him, he was just insufferable. She couldn't blame them if that was the case.

  "No, no. I just don't get it. Sherman and Mark don't like me." His hands were up in a defensive stance. "And I didn't do anything to them."

  "Sherman and Mark don't like anyone," Judith muttered. "Besides, what you did to Clarisse last year was before I was claimed as an Ares camper. I didn't know her then; therefore, I don't care."

  "So if I did something to her now, would you care?" Percy questioned.

  "You planning on doing something?" Judith fired back, tired of his interrogation filled with hypothetical questions.

  "No, but if she hits first, I might retaliate." The boy shrugged.

  "Then she'd have it coming." Judith sighed. "Look, are you done? I don't hate you, but I am coming this close to." She held up her pointer and thumb finger, leaving about a centimeter of space between.

  "Yeah, sure. Questions answered."

  "Thank gods," Judith muttered.

  But the boy didn't leave her side, despite her blow up. She didn't really care so long as he didn't ask incessant questions every waking moment. But as they came up on Thalia's pine tree again, he just couldn't help himself.

  "Did you know Luke?"

  Judith glanced after him, seeing a dark shade in his eyes, reflecting whatever inner thoughts he'd arrived at. She wondered how someone could go so care free one minute then find themselves caught in a pit of emotion the next.

  For the first time that day, the question caught her off guard. "I knew him — of him. He was nothing more than a head counselor to me."

  Judith saw him concentrate on a pink scar on the palm of his hand. She had plenty of her own, but something about the one on his hand made her curious. She snuffed out that feeling as quick as it came, forcing back a question of her own; Judith Sloane was not a hypocrite.

  "He was more than just a counselor to me," Percy said darkly. "He pretended to be my friend."

  Judith didn't say anything, waiting for him to continue because she just knew he would.

  "He betrayed everyone. The gods, camp, me."

  "Well, at least you got something out of it," Judith said, the words leaving her mouth sounding insensitive without her trying.

  Percy looked at her with a scowl. "'Got something out of it?' What's that supposed to mean?"

  "Luke was your sword trainer, right?" She didn't wait for Percy to nod, she already knew she was right. "He taught you to fight, which I find kind of stupid on his part. He could just have easily left you to your own devices. It screams cocky to me."

  She could see him fighting off a smile and forced herself to look away. "Yeah, it does."

  Against Judith's better judgement, she gave in to her curiosity. "Is he the one who gave you that? The scar?"

  He looked down at it thoughtfully while skimming a thumb over the raised tissue. "Yeah, same time he did this to the tree." The two had yet to move away from its canopy. "Poisonous scorpion."

  "Was it meant to kill you?" Judith hated that she was the one asking questions now, but to be fair, this topic was infinitely more interesting than what she felt toward the boy.

  Percy nodded absently. " ... It all seemed too coincidental. He knew how water could heal me, he knew the woods were filled with nymphs and dryads. And yet, he still did it all by the lake."

  Judith had to give it to him; it did all seem suspicious, like Luke hadn't really been out to kill Percy, despite what he said. "So he was either trying to kill you and failed, or he had plans for something bigger."

  Percy chuckled dryly. "I'm still deciding which I prefer."

  "Doesn't matter what you prefer in the end," she remarked.

  "I guess not," he conceded. There was a pause as he turned to her with a narrow-eyed look. She flipped it and turned it right back on him. "Are you sure you don't hate me?"

  Judith rolled her eyes dramatically with a big puff of air. She only held up her hand again, this time shortening the distance between her fingers to show her aggravation.

  "Right."

  "I don't hate you," she finalized.

  "Cool."

NOTES ;
I HAVE TO CHANGE LITERALLY EVERYTHING ABOUT JUDITH. I MADE HER SO OOC

edited : 06 / 23 / 2020