Camp Half-Blood

"Ha! I will simply have to lose them all between now and then," Adara said cheerfully. "Now that you've told me your plans, I shall easily thwart them." She grinned at her friend. "And besides, if you just listened to my complaining, you wouldn't have to buy so many jackets."

 

"I guess. But I don't want to."

 

"Well, that is your problem," Adara told him, hopping to her feet. "We should get going, lunchtime's almost over, and I promised myself I'd practice archery today..." Adara sighed. She hated archery, but she'd picked right after lunch because she was hoping there wouldn't be too many other kids around to watch as she failed miserably. Most kids went and had some free time right after lunch.

 

"Yeah, well, your problem is that you overthink it. If you stop worrying about it, you'll get the hang of it in no time."

 

"But hoooooooooooooooooooooow," Adara whined. "How do I do that? I can't just....shut off my brain." She sighed again. "Besides, when am I gonna need archery anyway?"

 

Jack shrugged and turned back to their food. "Brains are dumb." After a moment, they stuck a cookie in a plastic bag and put it in their pocket to freeze for their dad.

 

"True," Adara agreed. "Oh, crap, I almost forgot!" She grabbed the last of her calzone and raced over to the pavilion fire, where she dumped in the calzone, not bothering to pray to her dad or anything--she mostly did the sacrifice to keep up appearances, and because she knew Hestia got part of the sacrifice. She didn't particularly care if she was in her dad's good graces or not--it wasn't like he cared enough to pay attention to her anyway, so why should she pay attention to him? Sighing to herself, Adara strolled back over to the others and looked at Jack, Lark, and Auden. "So, what are y'all gonna do? I mean, you're welcome to come watch me fail at archery, but that doesn't sound like much fun."

 

"I already told you what I'm going to do. And then after that, hmm. I might come laugh at you."

 

Adara made a mock offended noise. "Rude! And, yes, well, it...slipped my mind. I still don't remember. Tell me again?"

 

"I'm going to steal back all the jackets while you're busy." Jack grinned. "See? Nothing you can do about it."

 

"....dammit, you, ruining my fun. Well, you'll only get back like twelve of them, because the rest are gone, lost forever to the winds of time...." And the forest, where she'd lost many things over the years.

 

"Winds, you say?" Jack raised an eyebrow.

 

"....figure of speech. Not literal winds. Which you would actually be able to get them back from. They're more...lost in the forest. You know, the place where I lose lots and lots of things."

 

"I know, I know. I just like to see the look on your face when you realize what you've said."

 

Adara rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at Jack.

 

Jack smiled at her. "You know you love me."

 

"True, but that doesn't mean you aren't a total pest," she teased, smiling.

 

"I can help steal things!" Auden said. "Wait. Uh. Yes I am a very morally upright person????" he added, before grinning. "I think."

 

"And I don't sneak out of camp to go to the library all the time," Jack deadpanned. "Wait, no, I do do that and you are entirely welcome to come help me. You're too tall to be morally upright, you probably have to bend down in doorways."

 

Adara looked at him and shrugged. "Rules were made to be broken. But rest assured, the jackets will return to me eventually." She shot a smile in Jack's direction.