Chaotic Order

As I walk to the big house, the crisp breeze washes over my face, the smell of saltwater fills my breath and the crunching of the leaves under my feet somewhat satisfies my undying want for sound. The clang of clashing swords in the distance mixes with the crashing waves on the beach. The volleyball courts are filled with happy campers as they finish the final game of the fall tournament. Other campers walk the paths with swords at their side or bows on their backs headed to the training field. Kids come and go from the cabins, and canoes rock against the docks as others jump off to swim. The training wall is covered in red hot lava occupied by a few daring campers. A group of younger campers practice their vocals and acting skills in the amphitheater with smiling faces. Nothing could be better; no wars, no battles, just peace.

An older teenage girl standing with Chiron reverts my attention. She’s quite gorgeous, but no Annabeth. She seems rather annoyed as she stands there with her arms crossed. Her eyes— those eyes; I can’t quite place where I’ve seen them before.

“Percy, this is—” Chiron starts.

“Brooke Hayes,” she interrupts. Her voice is melancholic and has a twinge of a british accent. “I can speak for myself; I’m not incapable.”

“Yes; I’m sure you can. I apologize,” Chiron replies.

“Hi! I’m Percy, camp activities director.” I put my hand to shake but she just nods and doesn’t budge an inch. I shove my hand in my pocket feeling a little awkward..

Chiron speaks, “She has just arrived at camp. I would like you to proceed for her eval after she is finished with the initial tour.”

“What? Can’t one of the counselors do it? That isn’t one of my responsibilities.” I usually don’t question Chiron, especially in front of campers, let alone new ones.

“Brooke, would you please wait here while Percy and I talk?” Chiron asks her.

She turns her body towards him and nods silently then turns her attention back to the camp. We walk a little ways down to the other side of the wrap around porch.

“Percy, you know I wouldn’t ask you if I didn’t think it was important,” he says.

“Yeah, I know, but I’m just confused.”

“With everything that’s been going on in Olympus, everyone is on edge.”

The Olympians argue—a lot. Right now they are in shambles from deciding new laws and the Gods are taking sides. Zeus wants to place new laws on how things are done in Atlantis and the Underworld. Let’s just say Poseidon and Hades are, well, not agreeing on some of them. And the fact that Zeus says the rules on Olympus are perfect is an issue as well because we all know that a curfew of nine o’clock is ridiculous. The nightravens love it though; they get to scare all the nymphs’ children into going home on time.

“I just don’t understand why I have to do it; I have plenty of responsibilities already.”

“I am the director of this camp, and I am telling you now that you are going to do this. That’s final!” he raises his voice for the last two words. “I’m sorry for raising my voice Percy,” he takes a deep breath. “I want you to have Christian show Brooke around then I would like to discuss more of what is happening on Olympus later.”

“Fine,” I answer.

“Also, nevermind the eval. Have Christian handle that too.”

Really? All this arguing for him to hand that off to Christian? Not that I’m mad or anything, but this argument was just pointless.

Brooke’s neutral face expression hasn’t changed at all since I first arrived, but she has made he way over to the rail. I assume she moved to ignore our conversation.

“I’ll be right back,” I say to brooke as Chiron trots away to the archery fields.

She gives another nod in my direction then goes back to gazing at the camp.

I walk into the big house to find Christian in the kitchen, probably raiding the broken dishwasher for parts.

“Awe man!” he yelps.

“What did the son of Hephaestus do this time?” I ask casually leaning up against the door.

“Uh. Hey Percy. I was just um I was just fixing this,” he lies running his hand across his forehead wiping a bead of sweat. He also took parts from the air conditioner which has not worked in a week thanks to him.

“Sure; listen, I need you to show a new camper around and do an eval for her.”

“Her? Eh?” he says with a smirk.

“Don’t even think about it. She’s very particular with things and doesn’t talk much, so don’t be too nosy.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” he says wiping his hands on a nearby hand towel. The grease from his hands ruins the perfectly white cloth.

“Now I’m going to worry,” I laugh.

“Haha,” he says sarcastically. “When is she arriving?”

“She’s on the porch.”

“Dude, you didn’t tell me that! I’m all dirty and I can’t change. First impressions are important to me! Dude!” he exclaims.

“I doubt she’ll even care. She’s very distant and like I said, doesn’t talk much.”

“Fine. But. You. Owe. Me,” he says washing his hands. He throws his parts in his brown bag then throws it over his shoulder.

“And you still owe me the ten drachmas from that bet on Friday.”

“Yeah, yeah.” he says as he pulls his hand through his dirty blond hair.

He pushes past me to the living room. When I hear the screen door screech open and then fall closed, I follow Christian’s movement to the porch. Before I open the door, I hear, “Hey, you Brooke.” There’s no answer. “Hello? Can you hear me?” There is still no answer. “Okay, Miss mute, I’m going to run to my cabin, and I’ll be back. Don’t go anywhere.” Christian’s footsteps die away.

“You can show yourself now,” she says with her accented monotonous voice.

“How’d you know I was listening in?” I ask walking outside.

“It’s not that hard. Chiron asks you to get the boy, Christian, requests to talk to you then walks in that direction,” she says looking towards the archery fields. “And with the probability being so low to exit from another door to get to the destination, there was a high chance that you would come through this door.”

I am very impressed how this girl doesn’t miss a detail. She’s very focused on everything she thinks about, and doesn’t miss a thing. She talks a lot like Annabeth, and looks a lot too. She’s got the same cheekbones, and oval eye shape. But she’s definitely not her sister because she has pale skin like almost paperwhite, and her facial features are more defined. Her dark grey-blue eyes look like they could cut through Hades’ soul even though he doesn’t have one. (It’s an inside joke. You wouldn’t get it. ;])

“Oh, I didn’t think you were listening.”

“Do you take me for a fool, Mr. Jackson?” she questions turning towards me.

“Um, no. You can call me Percy. And I don’t remember telling you my last name,” I say suspiciously.

After I became immortal along with Annabeth, I asked Zeus to have everyone’s memories wiped of the war and my heroics, so it wouldn’t happen ever again. Also so I could live my life normally. Well, normal as a god can live.

Her expression hasn’t changed; she isn’t fazed at all by the statement-question. “Chiron told me. I guess he let it slip out.”

I doubt that, but I keep the thought to myself. Chiron always introduces me as just Percy. Always. This girl, this teenage girl shouldn’t know it. Who is she, and what does she know?

Before I can say anything else, Christian yells from the cabins motioning for Brooke to go over to him. Her brows furrow for a split second then her expression returns to normal. She walks down the steps, her black heels clicking on every step.

“Bye; I guess,” I shout waving my hand. She doesn’t acknowledge it.

I watch her walk towards the cabins with the breeze blowing her long dark curly hair behind her. She holds herself as if she is higher than anyone else; shoulders back, head high, kind of presidential. Yeah, think of how a prime-minister or president holds themself. That’s how I would put it.

‘Christian is so screwed,’ I chuckle to myself. I bet he tries to make a move, and she’ll totally dis him or say something smart like Annabeth that doesn’t make sense. They are very similar if I think about it. I’ll talk to Chiron about that. Speaking of Chiron, I should probably go find him. I begin walk to the archery fields to attempt to find him, but Zach, the counselor of the Apollo cabin tells me he went to the dining pavilion to oversee chores. When I get there they tell me he headed back to big house. A big circle, that’s just great. I hike back to the big house, and enter his office. Before I enter, I can hear two voices discussing something in depth. I knock on the door, but don’t wait for an answer; I walk in expecting to see another trainer or something but man, am I way wrong.

Notes

Enjoy :)

-A.D.R.