(This takes place directly before Percy and Cassidy go back to their apartment in the city)
-
"Shit!" I heard a loud thud from the Hermes cabin and stepped inside.
"Hello?" I called, it was seemingly empty until out of the corner I could see someone crouched on the floor.
"Cassidy!" Connor jumped up and tackled me in a hug.
I stumbled back from the force of him hugging me. "Hey, loser. What was that noise?"
He blinked. "My shirt fell."
"Your shirt?" It was a pretty loud thud, something heavy.
"I might've been wearing it when it fell," he added.
I rolled my eyes. "You idiot."
"Oh!" His face lit up all of a sudden and he took a step back. "I almost forgot. Now guys!"
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" From behind the bunks, my friends emerged. Travis, Justin, Silena, Beckendorf, Grover, Percy, and Annabeth.
"I hate y'all," I tried hiding my red face in my hands. "I told you not to make a big deal about it."
"Yes but the smile on your face is saying otherwise," Travis mocked, while picking me up in a hug.
Everyone else lined up to hug me and we all sat on the floor of Cabin Eleven, eating cake.
After a while of laughing and eating, Travis got up and announced, "Present time!"
I couldn't believe they had gone through this trouble. I appreciated it, I just wasn't used to it.
"I'll go first," Beckendorf announced. He reached into the trunk under Travis' mess of a bed and pulled out a small rectangular box.
He handed it to me, eagerly waiting my reaction. I snapped open the box and grabbed what was inside.
"Glasses?" I half laughed. I had given up on wearing them. Keeping my glasses intact was not exactly a priority when fighting for my life.
"Celestial bronze glasses," Beckendorf corrected. "Try them on."
I did. They were my perfect prescription, they didn't slide off my nose, and it didn't give me a headache like my other pairs had.
"They're perfect," I smiled. "Thanks."
"There's also contacts in there," Travis pointed. "But we figured you'd want to cover up as much of your ugly face as possible."
Everyone in the room laughed and I stuck my tongue out at him.
Travis nudged Percy, insinuating he should go next. Percy stood empty handed. "Sorry Cassie, my gift's at home."
The fact that he had called it home and not "my house" was enough of a present for me but I nodded anyway.
"Annabeth!" Our small group cheered her on.
She stood up dramatically. "I hold in my hand the lamest gift of all time because I was halfway to Hades when it was your actual birthday."
She unclenched her fist and there in her palm lay a guitar pick with the letters CAMM.
"Stoll," I said. "Who told Annabeth my full name."
"Relax, Castle on a Hill," Connor said. "I just told her your initials."
I kissed Annabeth on the cheek. "It's not lame, I love it. Just one problem, I don't have a guitar."
"Ah, that's where we come in," Connor stood up and from on top of his bunk he pulled down a guitar case and set it on the ground.
"Connor, I swear to Zeus if there's anything but a guitar in there I'll murder you," I threatened.
I loved the Stolls but it was on rare occasion that they ever gave a gift without having some sort of prank behind it.
He gave a wary look to Travis. "Well, I guess we better take those rats out, then."
I jumped about six feet back and everyone bust out laughing.
"Kidding," he assured.
I took cautious steps towards the guitar case and slowly opened it.
Sure enough, the most beautiful guitar I had ever seen in my life lay before me. It was a deep red color that faded into black on the edges. A floral design wrapped around part of it, standing out in white and gold.
"You guys are unbelievable," I said.
"You haven't even heard the best part," Silena said.
Travis handed me a piece of paper. I unfolded it. It was a gift receipt.
"Paid for baby!" Connor said triumphantly. "With money!"
Being the children of the god of thieves, they usually resorted to stealing. The fact that they had bought it was a miracle.
We all cheered for them doing things the legal way and sat back down on the floor.
"And drumroll for Silena, please," Connor drummed on his legs as well followed until Silena held up her hands for silence.
"Alright! Okay! Besides getting you a free hair treatment for this." She picked at a strand of my hair and let if fall while making a face.
"Oooo," Everyone around us took that as Silena insulting me. Since they're all six year olds, they obviously couldn't just let it go.
"I have to admit, this isn't exactly something I got for you," she took out a small leather bag with a drawstring. "It was something I found in Cabin Eight and I just felt that it was yours. I think Zoë Nightshade dropped it."
The mood in the room changed at the mention of Zoë's name. With a gulp, I took the bag in my hands and opened it.
I dumped its contents into my palm. It was a small silver charm, a bow and arrow. I smiled as I felt my eyes water.
I raised it to my bracelet and just like Tyson's charm from last year, it glowed faintly at contact. When the glow diminished, the charm had welded itself onto one of the empty hoops of my bracelet. All of them were slowly filling in. I was now grateful for the empty hoops. It meant I had more memories to fill.
I wiped at my face to make sure I wasn't crying and thanked Silena.
"Last but not least," Travis said. "The wannabe!"
Justin looked at him confused. "The wannabe?"
"Forget it," I said. Ever since I had become friends with Justin, Travis had always said he was trying to be more than friends with me. Him and Connor would always call him the wannabe boyfriend. I didn't expect them to call him that to his face.
Justin shrugged it off, something that probably no other Ares kid would do, and pulled out a small box from his sweater.
He handed it to me with a smile and told me to open it.
Inside was a plain golden necklaces with a small paper airplane charm at the end of it.
"I remember you once said you were scared of airplanes because of Zeus," he explained. "I thought this could be a reminder that you can control your fears. You're bigger than this small plane, your bigger than you fears."
I put the necklace on and smiled down on it. It hung slightly below my camp beads.
"I love it," I hugged Justin and he kissed me on the cheek.
"Awwww," Everyone in the room cooed and laughed. Our faces turned two shades redder.
"And in front of Percy?" Connor said. "You got guts."
I looked at Percy who was playing with icing on his plate. He tried to play it cool but I knew he was just trying to hold back from saying something.
Everyone else noticed, too. There was an awkward silence until Beckendorf said, "I think you just signed your death warrant, kid."
We all laughed at that and Percy finally looked up, smiling.
It couldn't have gone any better.
-
I sat in the bathroom of Cabin 10 with a plastic bag hastily wrapped around me.
"I was thinking some teal highlights," Silena told me while rummaging through her comedically enormous bag. "It'll complement your eyes but not exactly match them. What do you think?"
"That sounds good," I said. To be honest, I didn't really care what she did to my hair, as long as she somehow got rid of the gray streak.
"Also what do you use for your curls because you look like you need a new hair routine," she started brushing out the knots in my hair. She took a whiff of my hair and looked at me through the mirror. "Cassidy, why do you smell like boy?"
"Uh," I stuttered because she was giving me an almost murderous glare. "Because I ran out of shampoo so I used Percy's."
"You used Percy's?" She half yelled at me. "Oh gods, you need a lot of work."
She instructed me to lay my head back as she started washing it out with something from a fancy bottle that smelled like coconut. The whole process was extremely relaxing, I even fell asleep for a minute until she told me it was time to cut it.
"What if we do some layers," she ran her fingers through my hair as if creating a mental image as to how she could make it new. "And some angles, maybe even-"
"Silena," I cut her off. "Do whatever you want, I don't understand half the words coming out of your mouth right now."
She smiled maliciously. "Just remember that you gave me permission to."
She crouched down to be face to face to me and moved my hair around my face in different ways. I felt myself holding in my breath because her face was directly in front of mine.
She smiled. "I can see your freckles more when you're blushing like that."
I hadn't even realized how heated up my face was and I felt embarrassed, which probably just added onto the color of my face.
"Curtain bangs!" She decided, and thankfully moved on.
After a moment, some reason, there was foil in my hair. I didn't question it because Silena knew much better than I did.
As she was waiting for the dye to settle in, she flicked the necklace that Justin had gifted me for my birthday.
"I told you," she said, in a singsong voice.
"Oh, shut up," I rolled my eyes.
"It was so incredibly obvious you guys liked each other," she continued.
"Look who's talking about incredibly obvious. When are you and Beckendorf finally going to confess your undying love for each other?"
She made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a frustrated sigh. "I told you I've been dropping hints but he's so dense!"
"He's dense? You know he's been dropping hints at you, too, Beuregaurd."
She thought for a moment. "At least I'm not as oblivious as your brother."
I nodded my head. "Oh, definitely. Him and Annabeth are both insanely clueless. I give it about a year."
"I think your overestimating their ability to express their feelings. I give it two years."
"Is that a bet, Ms. Perfectionist?" I dared.
"You bet your ass it is," she cocked an eyebrow. "You're dealing with the devil, Malloy, and there's no way you're gonna win."
"Watch me," I said.
We shook on it and agreed we couldn't interfere directly with it. I also processed the fact that I had just bet on a relationship with the daughter of the love goddess, not my wisest choice.
The timer made a pleasant ding noise and Silena got up from her chair to take the foil out of my hair. She washed it again and began to cut. Chunks of my hair scattered all over the floor.
She trimmed away and faced me away from the mirror so I couldn't see the results until she was completely done. She put more products in my hair as she chided me for not properly caring for it.
She finished blow drying my hair and instructed me to close my eyes.
I felt her turn my chair around and she told me to open them.
I saw myself in the mirror and immediately noticed one thing. The silver streak was still there. Silena noticed my eyes drift to that specific strand.
"I know," she said. "I don't know what happened, but the dye didn't cover it. I guess it's some type of magical scar. I can't wash it away."
I kept staring at the mirror and smiled. I couldn't remember the last time I had gotten a proper haircut. I really liked how it looked and it made me feel a little more confident. The teal colored streaks popped out of my black hair like fireworks in a night sky.
"You like it?" She asked hopefully.
"I love it," I told her.
I got up and ripped the plastic bag off and gave her a hug.
"Great!" She exclaimed. "I absolutely love it. I mean the color suits your skin tone so well and the volume in your hair? Are you kidding me? It's all so stunning. I think I outdid myself. Let's go show my siblings!"
"I don't think-" But before I could protest we were already out of the bathroom and in the middle of the Aphrodite cabin.
Not everyone was there at the moment but the kids that were all immediately ran up to me to critique Silena's work. I stood there, enjoying the smiles on their faces. Sure, the training camp had was amazing, but it was moments like this when I truly felt at home. At the end of the day, we were all just kids.