BLAIRE REALLY DIDN'T understand why Leo found the side of her extremely freckled face so fascinating. She didn't understand why his wide, constantly roaming eyes were glued to the slope of her slim nose, to the upward curl of her dark eyelashes, to the frizzy strands of hair that had fallen loose from her braids. But Leo, or at least his actions, portrayed a narrative of fascinated awe.

   She tried to pretend she couldn't feel his dark irises scanning each and every exposed inch of her being, it was very hard though. He gaped like he'd never seen a girl before. Like he'd never seen a human being before.

As they were trudging through the dining pavilion, weaving their way through a mob of campers who were invested in an over-the-top game of Mythomagic, Leo spoke up after several minutes of awkward silence, "So, you're Blaire, huh?"

   Blaire wished Leo had an off button, though it was a rather rude course of thought. He bubbled on and on in a way that made the girl want to rip her hair out. He was worse than Marlowe, which was saying a whole lot considering she talked a hundred miles per minute.

   Blaire was not a talkative person, she didn't like to use her voice, to put her thoughts into the world. For she was often times ignored when she spoke, which was very seldomly. Leo, however was the opposite. He was seldomly silent. And extremely irritable.

Blaire didn't turn to face him, or even show any signs that she heard him. Until she muttered, "Unfortunately."

"What?" Leo rose an eyebrow.

Blaire only shook her head.

"I'm Leo, by the way," He tried to start up a conversation again. He failed.

"Okay."

Leo had to admit, he thought this Blaire character was rather strange. She didn't say anything too notable, or anything at all, really. And she seemed rather annoyed at the prospect of prancing around the camp and giving Leo a tour like she had something better to do. But, she was so pretty, he could almost overlook the abundance of negative traits she seemingly possessed.

"Who's your parent?" Leo pressed, despite the way she exhaled rather loudly in obvious annoyance each time he spoke.

Blaire hesitated for a second, weighing her next word very carefully, before she softly mumbled, "Hecate."

Leo perked up, "Cool! Are you like, a witch?"

Blaire frowned. "No?"

"Sorry."

"Sword arena," Blaire told him plainly, gesturing toward the large enclosure.

"Awesome," Leo gushed, "Do I get a sword?"

Blaire shrugged, but continued, "Cabin nine kids weld their own."

"Yeah, cabin nine? What's up with that? Vulcan?"

"That's your dad—Hephaestus'—roman title," Blaire said, "we call the god's by their original names. Their greek names."

"Festus?" Leo chuckled. "What is he, the god of cowboys?"

Blaire did not laugh, or even grin. Her stoney facade didn't crack, not for a second.

"He-phaestus," she corrected. "God of blacksmiths and fire. Didn't you hear Annabeth?"

"So the flaming hammer over my head," Leo quiered, "Good or bad thing?"

Blaire tilted her head, then surveyed her surroundings like she was trying to desperately avoid the question. "You were claimed almost immediately. Usually a good thing."

"But that rainbow pony dude, Butch— he mentioned a curse."

Blaire seemed suddenly on edge, she began fidgeting with the buttons lining the flaps of her coat. "Well—um— when the last head counselor—your brother—I guess, died—"

"Died? Like...painfully?"

"Yeah," Blaire pursed her lips. "I'd say. Very painfully. But, I should let your bunkmates tell you about it."

"Yeah, where are my home dawgs? Shouldn't their counselor be giving me the VIP tour?"

Blaire furrowed her eyebrows, trying not to show any physical signs of second-hand embarrassment regarding his untimely and extremely outdated sense of humor.

"He can't."

"Why not?"

"You'll see."

"Curses and death," Leo said, "this just keeps getting better and better."

Suddenly, Leo froze.

Blaire halted beside him akwardly, "Uhh, are you coming or....?"

"That old lady?" Leo snapped, his gaze unwavering on a point far from the two. "What's she doing here?"

Blaire tried to follow his gaze, to locate an old lady, she couldn't. "What old lady?"

Leo whipped his head around to face her, then he threw his hand out and pointed at a cluster of trees, "Blaire, the old lady. The one in black? How many old ladies do you see over there?"

"I see none," Blaire informed him, "Because there are no old ladies."

Leo looked taken aback at the fact she'd not too halucinated an elderly woman dressed in funereal attire.

He said, "I'm just messing with you."

"Let's go see Cabin Nine, I'm in the mood for a good curse."

Blaire had never been inside the Hephaestus cabin, and before she was ordered to give Leo a tour, she wasn't planning on ever going inside. But, there she was, standing inside the cabin alongside Leo and his injured brother.

While the aforementioned new boy let his gaze travel over the many wonders of the cabin—including the spiral staircase leading down to a basement, the cluttered workbenches and hundreds of power tools occupying them—Blaire refused to focus on anything other than the rough denim of her jeans. She didn't want to accidentally make eye contact with anyone and then be forced to converse with them.

"A weed whacker?" Leo asked, studying a long, menacing tool. "What's the god of fire want with a weed whacker?"

From the shadows, a voice said, "You'd be suprised."

At the back of the room, one of the bunk beds was occupied. A curtian of black camouflage material retracted, and the guy who had been invisible only a second before was now visible. Blaire had heard about the tragedies Jake Mason unfortunately endured, Marlowe made sure to tell her all about it, but she didn't quite get how terribly-off he really was until she saw him in the flesh.

He was in a full body cast. His head was wrapped in gauze except for his face.

"I'm Jake Mason," he told Leo. "I'd shake your hand but..."

"Yeah," Leo said. "Don't get up.

Jake cracked a smile but winced seconds after as if the motion hurt him.

"Welcome to Cabin Nine," Jake began, "Been almost a year since we had any new kids. I'm head counselor for now."

"For now?"

"Where is everyone?" Blaire cut in carelessly.

"Down at the forges working on..." Jake cut himself off. "Y'know, the problem."

Blaire did not know. "Oh."

"Do you have a spare bed?" Leo asked, raising an eyebrow. "Y'know, somewhere I could sleep."

  Jake hesitate for a moment, sizing Leo up, "Leo, do you believe in ghosts or curses?"

   Leo shuffled akwardly, "Ghosts? Pfft. Nah. I'm cool. A storm spirit chucked me down the Grand Canyon this morning, but you know, all in a day's work, right?"

   Jake nodded. "That's good. Because I'll give you the best bed in the cabin—Beckendorf's."

  Blaire cringed at the mention of the dead boy.

Jake called out: "Bunk 1-A, please!"

   The whole cabin rumbled. A circular section of the floor spiraled open like a camera lens, and a full-size bed popped up. The bronze frame had a
built-in game station at the footboard, a stereo system in the headboard, a glass-door refrigerator mounted into the base, and a whole bunch of control panels running down the side.

  Leo jumped right in and lay back with arms behind his head. "I can handle this."

  Blaire pursed her lips in envy. She didn't get a full sized bed, and many sources of entertainment. All she had was a small bunk bed that she shared with her younger sister.

  "It retracts into a private room below," Jake said.

  "Oh, heck, yes," Leo said. "See y'all. I'll be down in the Leo Cave. Which button do I press?"

Jake probably would've smiled if it didn't hurt so much. "Our campers have been excavating the tunnel system under Cabin Nine for almost a century. We still haven't found the end. Anyway, Leo, if you don't mind sleeping in a dead man's bed, it's yours."

   Leo's grin dropped so fast, it was almost comedic. He sat up, careful not to touch any buttons. Blaire didn't try to fight the sadistic smile pulling on her lips at his sudden deflation.

  Haha, she thought in spite of the boy. Looks like new kid won't get such a snazzy setup afterall.

    "The counselor who died—this was his bed?"

  "Yeah,"Jake said."Charles Beckendorf."

   Leo thought for a second, before he said, "He didn't, like, die in this bed, did he?"

    "No," Jake said. "In the Titan War, last summer."

   "The Titan War," Leo repeated, "which has nothing to do with this very fine bed?"

  "What do you think?" Blaire huffed. "The all mighty beings that ruled the world before the gods, that killed several demigods last summer trying to return, have anything to do with this bed?"

  "No?" Leo guessed.

  "Gold star for you!" Blaire narrowed her eyes at Leo, who was sinking into the mattress dramatically.

   "Beckendorf was one of the first casualties in the war, and ever since then—"

   "Your cabins been cursed," Leo decided.

     Jake sighed halfheartedly. "Well, I should get some sleep. I hope you like it here, Leo. It used to be ... really nice. And uh— Sullivan, would ya' mind taking him by the forges?"

The way Jake regarded her, wearily, yet timid as if he were holding back a laugh was sickly familiar, for each and every camper spoke to her that way.

   Blaire wanted to tell him to do it himself, but she didn't, she only nodded with an exhasperated sigh.

    "Follow," Blaire told Leo simply, exiting the cabin.

  So he did.

  "HOW DID HE DIE?" LEO ASKED "I mean Beckendorf."

  Blaire truged ahead of him, eyes focused on the thick greenery before herself, however she glanced back when Leo said this, with a half-grimace.

  "Blew up."

   Leo halted, suddenly frozen in place for a moment. "Hold up, what do you mean blew up?"

   "I mean he blew up."

  "How?" Leo rose a concerned eyebrow, "Or, do people just do that around here? Is it like, a normal thing?"

   Blaire was half tempted to tell him, yes! Spontaneously combusting is completely normalized at Camp Half-blood. But she didn't.

  For some reason the absolute fear evident in his voice compelled her to tell the truth.

  "He and Percy were on a cruise ship full of monsters. They blew it up, but Beckendorf didn't make it out," Blaire explained, easing Leo's nerves slightly.

   "So Beckendorf was pretty popular?" Leo asked. "I mean —before he blew up?"

  The daughter of Hecate shrugged, "Don't know."

  "How don't you know?" Leo quiered, falling into step beside Blaire.

  "Cause I don't care," Blaire admitted, but she didn't sound ashamed or embarrassed, just bluntly truthful.

  "Noted," Leo said, as Blaire stopped before a forge.

    The forge looked like a steam-powered locomotive had smashed into the Greek Parthenon and they had fused together. White marble columns lined the soot-stained walls. Chimneys pumped smoke over an elaborate gable carved with a bunch of gods and monsters. The building sat at the edge of a stream, with several waterwheels turning a series of bronze gears.

   The two stepped through the doorway, rather reluctantly though, due to Blaire's lack of care for the situation.

    A dozen guys and girls who'd been working on various projects all froze.

   The noise died down to the roar of the forge and the click-click- click of gears and levers.

"Leo," Blaire gestured toward the aforementioned boy, stepping further away from him. "I'm leaving now."

  And she did. Before a response came, she stepped through the door, ignoring her chortling peers.

Leo Valdez was having the strangest day. There was a long list of seemingly fictional things that had happened to him in the span of merely a few hours. A storm spirit ambushed him. He found out his teacher was a go— satyr. He flew in a chariot carried by winged horses, for crying out loud! Yet, the most thought inducing thing he'd encountered wasn't a mythical concept, it was the introverted daughter of Hecate who had given him a tour of camp.

    As he strolled beside Nyssa, his newfound half-sister, he couldn't keep his mind from straying and landing upon the odd, silent girl.

  "Hey, what's up with that Blaire girl?" Leo quiered suddenly, watching his cabinmates race to dinner.

  Nyssa pursed her lips at the usage of the girl's name. Nobody really called her by it, they usually referred to her as Sullivan, or freak.

  "Sullivans a bit...odd," She informed him. "Before today, I didn't even know she could talk."

  Leo cocked his head, nodding in agreement. Blaire was very hard to converse with. "Why's she like that? Quiet and all brooding-ish, I mean."

    Nyssa shrugged, "She's always been that way. Got worse though after...."

  "After what?" Leo was quick to ask, eager to learn more about the girl.

  "After her boyfriend died," Nyssa told the boy with a sigh, "After she killed her friend in the titan war."

  Leo wasn't concerned with the fact she killed someone, instead the concept of Blaire having a boyfriend at any point in her life was what totally blew his mind. How could she have a boyfriend when she never spoke? Did Blaire and her past lover comunicate using sign language?

  "Her boyfriend?"

  "Yup," Nyssa said simply. "But, like I said, she's always been weird. Hasn't said a word since she got to camp when she was six."

   Leo's jaw dropped, "Six? Where the hell is her mortal parent?"

    "Don't know," Nyssa shook her head, "She wouldn't say."

  Leo furrowed his eyebrows, undoubtedly enchanted and very intruiged by the complete enigma that was Blaire.

  "And back up for a sec," Leo demanded, "She killed her friend?"

AUTHOR SPEAKS: UPDATE becasue tomorrow is babydoll Blaire's birthday 😭😭😭 This is the worst chapter of ANYTHING i've ever written in my life but if you say anything regarding that, I'm shooting myself I swear to God. Do you guys also love Blaire or am I just biased because I wrote her?!? I think she's funny af and so real. It took me a WHILE to get this chapter out but I will try and publish the next one soon for sure. And I can garuntee it will be a thousand times better and a lot more entertaining. ALSO don't be a silent reader or I will send people after you I'm so serious. LOVE U 💅UNEDITED AFF!