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"Stop acting so stupid. You just didn't want to help me like always!"

The smell of burnt food was one of the many fumes that could be inhaled throughout the residence that could only house 2 but was a home to four. Distinctively, a scent of alcohol frequently lingered through the halls and haunted the residents besides the one that brought in the liquor.

A little girl sat on a tiled floor with tears dampening her face. Her broken crayons that colored a disfigured animal in a bright yellow on a piece of paper sat at her feet. The child had been trying to replicate the creature she'd sworn she had seen galloping outside their window, but in doing so, she'd gotten distracted from keeping an eye on their dinner on the stove.

Standing in front of her, steam pouring out of her ears, her older sister who didn't care to peer down at the drawing. It was a Griffin. But she was to preoccupied with the worry of their dinner that was now charred. She stepped away to finish laundry and tasked the little girl with telling her when the bread had finished grilling.

"I'm sorry Dari.."

"You're not! You keep doing this! Do you even care at all that we're gonna be eating this tonight?" She lifted up the coal-black texture of the food and dangled it in front of her face.

The little girl never meant to get distracted. But she couldn't help it. Unbeknownst to the two girls, she had severe ADHD that never allowed her to focus on something for very long no matter how hard she tried.

Continuing to weep, the 6 year old watched as her sister stepped over to their couch where their mother laid, passed out in a drunken daze. She carefully removed a beer bottle from her loose grip while picking up other miscellaneous glasses.

Walking back over to the girl on the cold floor, she harshly tossed out the trash and spoke "Andrea, how do you think you'll ever do anything if you have the brain of a goldfish?" She was scolding her yet still keeping the house running at the same time.

In her phase of throwing things out, the older girl quickly leaned over to pick up and crumble the paper where her sister had drawn a silly outline of some deformed animal. This is what she chose over their dinner? How dumb.

The tiniest girl was still sat with her knees against her chest, back to a wall, when a back door could be heard being opened and quickly shut again as footsteps followed.

"And where the hell have you been?" The eldest child barked at him.

"What's your problem?" The boy asked back.

"My problem is that I've been home all day doing everything and you went out with your stupid friends again."

The middle child, the brother to the two girls, had come home, skateboard in hand with no cares in the world. The little girl was no longer quivering in the corner as she stood to her feet and scurried over to hug her brother. He gently held her and then felt the tension in the room.

"Jeez, Aria. You need to chill out."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, stop being such a jerk to Drea."

She rolled her eyes and began piling dishes away while saying, "Just clean your room, Ezra."

The little girl's eyes had dried against her brothers shirt where she felt the most comfortable. He guided her away from their crazily frustrated sister and into their room.
Even then, with all the yelling and tears, their mother had never woken up.

ϟ

How could it be true? How could another forbidden child exist? Sure, Zeus forbade the agreement first, but Poseidon too?

Drea wished so deeply for it to be some kind of mistake. This had to be related to the problem going on with the gods. If Poseidon was in the middle of fighting with Zeus, would he really dare to claim his forbidden son?

Besides all of the god drama going on, there was pain and confusion going on within the confines of the cabins. Drea couldn't fathom that her sister had officially been welcomed to cabin 4, Irene couldn't cope with learning about Luke and Daria.

Drea wanted nothing more than to comfort Irene and be by her side, but she never accepted the support. It was another thing that set her apart from her love obsessed siblings, she struggled to accept offers of love.

Without much of a choice, Drea had confessed to Sylvia about her sister and her sudden appearance at camp because Sylvia insisted she tell her why she was distraught.

"I knew Luke was no good! Haven't I been telling you this for like years now?"

"Hey! Up until now he's never done anything wrong." Drea pounced to defend Luke to Sylvia. He was her brother. He might've screwed her over, but it couldn't erase the years they'd spent together.

"That was then. Now we're in the present when he has done something wrong."

Dre's chose to block out her negative remarks. Sylvia noticed her eyes drifting away, signaling she wasn't really listening.

"Drea, I'm not saying this to be mean. I'm saying it so you can understand that's something not right.. so you don't get hurt again."

Sylvia was all for joking and having fun, but if the situation needed, she could actually be very serious and considerate. Drea knew this to be true even though she wasn't like this with very many people.

She wanted to listen to what she had to say, she really did, but her mind was flooded with so many thoughts that she had to concentrate on forcing them out instead of hearing Sylvia's words. Whilst she was talking, a door burst open at the front of the cabin, and in walked Annabeth.

She took quick steps towards the two and grabbed at Drea's arm, beginning to drag her out of the cabin.

"Woah! Annie, what's going on?"

"You'll see." She murmured.

"You kids have fun!" Sylvia sighed.

Drea was stumbling behind Annabeth because of her rapid pace. "You mind telling me what's happening?"

They trudged through the main parts of camp as they reached Chiron and Dionysus's joint office when Annabeth came to a halt. Drea accidentally pushed into her from her sudden stop.

"Ow!"

"Sshh!"

"Annie, what are we doing?"

"It's him. It's actually him."

Drea gave her a dead stare to say 'I have no idea what you're talking about'.

"Percy! He's the one! They're putting him on a quest."

Before Drea had a moment to react dramatically, Annabeth pulled out her cap and placed it on her head while gripping onto Drea. The two instantly turned invisible to the eye and Annabeth thrust them both into the office where some serious was going on with Percy as the focus.

All Drea could think was, 'Seriously?'

Of all the kids in the world that would be a forbidden child and go on a quest, it had to be the kid who couldn't take anything serious?

They huddled in the corner while the three males talked about the war on the horizon between Poseidon and Zeus. Zeus was sure his brother had stolen the bolt through Percy himself, considering he had just claimed him in the middle of their fight.

He had declared that if his bolt was not returned back to him before the summer solstice, war would commence with no mercy. Percy's quest was to venture off to find the bolt and give it back to Zeus so that no battle begins.

Percy was confused. Where would the bolt be?

"There's a third brother who has always deeply resented them both."

Oh great. He'd have to go to hell.

"I know it sounds daunting, but you won't be alone. A quest is always undertaken by three. But you're lucky. In this case, you could be accompanied by two who have been.. on the waiting list, I should say, for a while now."

"Annabeth and Drea." Percy sighed.

Excuse me? Drea thought, Percy should be so lucky to have Annabeth and I with him on a quest like this.

"Seeing as it is your quest, neither are actually entitled to going with you. That is your choice to make. But in the event that you do pick them, you may have another companion of your choice."

And, of course, Percy immediately began to refuse.

Denying a quest? Was this kid slow?

"He must not have more than 10 brain cells and even then he probably couldn't even count them on his fingers."

Annabeth hushed her as to not draw attention from the others in the room even though Drea had spoken in a quiet voice.

"Notice how you didn't disagree."

Annabeth still said nothing.

"Poseidon has claimed you. This is his will."

"Poseidon has ignored me my entire life."

"You are his son!"

"I am Sally Jackson's son!"

"Who's Sally Jackson?"

Yikes. As much as Drea liked Dionysus, even she could put together who she was.

"She's the one who cared enough to call herself my mother! She's the one who got herself killed, so that I could be safe here!"

Drea was growing uncomfortable knowing that they were secretly listening in on this personal moment. Annabeth was thinking the same thing as she said, "I think we should go.."

They shuffled out quietly as they heard Dionysus yell something about the world depending on him and the success of the quest.

Annabeth released Drea from her grasp and they became visible again. But there was a lot to worry about.

"He can't turn down the quest! Forget us needing to go with him, the entire world will have to pay the price if he doesn't do this."

Annabeth sighed deeply as she leaned against the wood railing, allowing herself to fall into her thoughts.

"He doesn't have a choice. One way or another, he's going to take the quest. I know he's.. thick-headed.. but he's going to do it."

"And how do you know that?" Drea asked tiredly.

"Because we have to have faith if we really want this."

The girls stood in silence for a moment before they decided to head back to their cabins. The
Athena cabin was right across from Apollo's so they separated. Yet only one of them had someone waiting on the front steps for them.

There sat Luke, looking anxious as Drea approached cabin 7. He seemed to have a sour expression and Drea wondered why he was even there.

Unbeknownst to Drea, Luke had actually wanted to wait inside for her. But Sylvia, avidly angered with him, kicked him and told him to, quote,

"eat shit!"

Drea had every intention of turning away and heading somewhere else, but he swiftly stood up and stepped in front of her, blocking her way.

"Before you say anything, I'm sorry. I know it was stupid and you have lots of reasons to be mad.."

"Yeah, I do. If I stood here and recited them all we'd be here until the sun went down and came back up." She cut him off.

"Drea, you have to understand that this came from a place of love. I didn't know it was her at first, but the second I found out I couldn't look at her without seeing you. It was dumb, but I thought it could be an opportunity to reunite you guys."

"Newsflash, neither of us have seen each other in years for a reason."

"I see that now.."

"And what's with you guys dating? How do you explain that?"

Luke sighed awkwardly, "Along the way things got complicated .. but my goal was always to heal your guys's relationship. You know my connection to my family.. or lack thereof.. but I care about you. I just wanted to.. help you."

Drea didn't say anything. It would make sense. Luke wouldn't do something knowing that it would hurt her. He just wouldn't.

"I'm sorry. I know you don't want her here.. but she's a half-blood. And camp is for every one of us."

Drea huffed in annoyance and thought out loud, "Why do you have to be right all the time?"

He sneered in response. "..are we okay?"

She thought for a moment, pretending to really think about if she forgave him or not.

"I guess. But you owe me double the sessions of training."

"Deal."

Sylvia would be disappointed in her choosing to forgive him, but she would get over it. Luke was her brother. Drea believed that he wouldn't do something like this with the intention of hurting her, he'd never done it before and she had no reason to think he would start now.

She'd just have to live with her sister at camp. Maybe she wouldn't even notice she was there.

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Ellie Speaks!

yessssssss flashback moment 😶‍🌫️

p.s. drea will indeed notice her sister is at camp