Rebuilding the World

16 Majella's Duties

I quickly changed to my orange camp clothes and black camouflage pants. Then I gratefully pulled on my combat boots, the pair Carlene gave to me last Christmas. She knows that I hate wearing out my snickers and rubber shoes when I’m on a quest.

And speaking of Carlene, she came in the cabin again without knocking on the door.

“Hey,” she said with a sly smile.

“Learn to knock,” I said to her, tying my shoelaces.

“Okay then,” Carlene went out of the door with a smile and then knocked.

“Come in.” I said, smiling at her joke.

“There you go, I made you smile!” she said, sitting down with a slight jump on my bed. “Don’t be too serious.”

“Serious or not, nothing will change with my life. I’m still going to die.” I said to her, remembering the stupid prophecy.

“Everyone’s bound to die in the end, and yes there will be something different if you smile! You’ll live your life in a much optimistic way! And that’s better than being grumpy all the time.” Carlene said, cheering me up and pinching my cheeks.

“Okay, okay.” I pulled her hands away from my cheeks, “Anyways, Jean told me you pointed your knife at her yesterday.”

Carlene looked away, “I just thought –“

“Look, I understand that you’re just being protective. But Carlene, you can’t go pointing your knife at everyone I’ll go with!”

“She looks suspicious.” Carlene mumbled.

“Look who’s talking.”

Carlene pouted and I laughed. She’s intimidating and all, but she’s still childish in the inside.

“I’m going to look around camp for clues how the Cyclops got in, want to come with me?”

“Sure.”

“Jean’s coming with us.”

“Okay then!” Carlene smiled in agreement.

We walked to the stables with Carlene hugging my right arm. Well, she always does that so I guess nothing’s new. Jean is already there, waiting for us.

“Wow, you look stunning.” I said to Jean.

Because of Aphrodite’s blessing, Jean still has a perfect make up on her face and her green and pink dress is replaced by a normal looking orange camp shirt and pants, but it looks perfectly good on her.  As in really, really good on her. The knife I gave to her is hanging by a scabbard on her belt.

“Stop teasing me.”

“Hey Jean,” Carlene greeted her with a hug.

Jean looked a bit awkward with the hug and that made me smile.

“You two looks like you can hit it off, well, except for the knife thing yesterday.” I said to the two of them.

“YOU TOLD HER?!” Jean exclaimed, glaring at me.

“About that,” Carlene said to Jean, “I’m sorry if I threatened you yesterday.”

“It’s alright. Zhane told me you’re protective.”

“Yeah well, I can’t afford to lose anyone anymore. I lost everything before I came here.” Carlene explained, smiling at my direction.

The two of them smiled at each other.

“Okay then, let’s go?” I asked, breaking the silence.

We started walking to the Balete tree that marked the camp’s border. It’s kind of our own version of Thalia’s tree in Long Island but Maria Makiling’s the one maintaining the camp’s border for protection, the Balete tree is just kind of a marker.