1. les - childish gambino
2. pink + white - frank ocean
as lee turned onto aunt grace's street, sasha became tense with nerves. she didn't know why. why did she get so scared everytime? if anything, aunt grace should be scared of sasha. she was the one with a godly parent, unbeatable aim, unmatched knife skills. so why did aunt grace get in sasha's head so much?
maybe it was the way grace treated her: dirty looks telling her she shouldn't exist, harsh words telling her she shouldn't exist, violent actions telling her she shouldn't exist-
lee reached over and squeezed sasha's hand, pulling her out of her destructive thoughts. he gave her a kind smile.
very few people knew much about sasha's relationship with her aunt and uncle. lee was one of the few. along with annabeth chase, her best friend from cabin 6, athena, silena beauregard, the counsellor for cabin 10, aphrodite, and luke castellan, counsellor for cabin 11, hermes. grover knew they didn't have a good relationship, but not much more.
silena knew the most. silena was like an older sister to sasha. being one of the only current campers who was there when sasha first started, she dealt with lots of young sasha's tears and nightmares and general annoyances.
and even silena didn't know the whole truth.
luke also knew a lot. he knew sasha's past, why she joined camp so early. he knew how her family treated her. he took her in instantly when he joined camp, the summer after her, and immediately treated her as his own. sasha considered luke her mentor and brother.
lee knew enough, about the same as annabeth - sasha couldn't put a burden like that on a fellow child when she had her own family issues. he instantly took young sasha under his wing, working with silena to keep her calm and help her thrive. he loved his little sister, yet treated her with respect, acknowledging how her tough past matured her.
"it's alright. it'll be fine," lee reassured her, "it'll take no time. you'll be in and out."
sasha nodded, still slightly distant. "in and out. yeah."
with that, sasha unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door to get out of the suv. relax sasha. just 5 minutes to get the stuff. for annabeth. do it for annabeth.
"hey," lee called out as sasha was about to close the door. sasha looked up to him.
"you're strong. way stronger than me," he told her determinedly. he didn't do it in a mushy, you're so strong kind of way. sasha knew lee wasn't like that. he meant it.
sasha just gave him a tight smile, though her eyes told him she was freaking out inside. she shut the door and turned towards the house. her house. she hopped on the spot slightly, shaking her hands as though shaking out her nerves, attempting to almost hype herself up.
her aunt and uncle owned a condo, on the smaller side compared to the rest of the neighbourhood, but still considerably large from sasha's point of view. running up the wall on the left side of the door was a large pipe, reachable by the recycling bins, with ridges jutting out every foot or so, leading up to a large window. sasha's room. the large window usually let plenty of light into her room, though currently the curtains were drawn tightly shut. sasha never shut the curtains. the pipe was sasha's means of sneaking out on the rare occasion she was actually staying at her aunt's and uncle's. it was pretty much your average american home, though sasha hoped what happened within its walls were anything but average.
sasha walked up to the front door, pulling out her key, slipping it into the lock and twisting it for the click. she pushed the door open and stepped inside, staying alert in case her aunt or uncle were home. they didn't seem to be. sasha shut the door behind her and began to move through the house, feeling slightly more relaxed.
first, she went into the kitchen, grabbing snacks annabeth had asked for, plus some for herself and her sibling, mostly herself. she got strawberry laces - fizzy and normal, fruit winders, granola bars specifically for annabeth, gods her bestfriend was pretty weird. as well as family packs of kitkats, mini eggs, snickers, lion bars, heroes, coke and fruit twist fanta, aka the best fanta. she brought all the acquired food and drink upstairs into her room with her.
when she opened the door, dust billowed out filling her nose and mouth. sasha spluttered and coughed as she moved into her room. it almost looked abandoned. only a small slither of light was allowed it at the moment, so sasha chucked the snacks on her bed and went to open the curtains first. then she moved to her wardrobe and pulled out a rucksack to put her things into.
first, the drinks went into the bag, then all the snacks, then sasha scoured around her room searching for the things annabeth had requested. she quickly emptied her desk of all its pencils and birots (what? the camp store was pretty expensive for children), putting them all in the front compartment of the sack. she looked up from her desk and saw her collage of polaroids.
there were plenty of her with annabeth, holy shit they looked young. they looked like two 7-year-old monkeys with their wide grins and squinting eyes. sasha could remember the summer annabeth arrived at camp. she remembered how much more fun it was, having another girl her age running around camp with her. they had instantly clicked. only the older campers like silena, beckendorf, luke or lee would remember them as the little menaces of camp.
it was a lot more fun than sasha's first summer at camp. sure, she had silena and lee to care for her. but it was just that. caring for her. they were many years older and had a lot more training to endure. sasha being 6 that summer, had a very different schedule than silena or lee, and she could remember feeling quite lonely.
There were a couple sneaky candids of silena, looking stunning as per. there were a couple lee had taken on her camera without her knowledge - in one you could see sasha running up to him in the background. there was one of will sleeping peacefully on his first night at camp - sasha had taken an instant liking towards him - and there was a group photo of cabin 7 posed by the lake.
sasha pulled them all off the wall and placed them carefully into the rucksack so they didn't get bent, planning to put them up in her real home. she also grabbed the old camera off her desk and stashed it in her bag as well.
sasha then moved to grab the rest of her art supplies she had had to leave behind last time: the rest of her paintbrushes, her fancy watercolour paints, another palette, her better-quality colouring pencils, her charcoal, placing them each in her bag as she went.
suddenly, sasha heard the click of the front door, the clacking of heels moving through the house. sasha froze in fear.
"sasha?" her aunt called out from the ground floor, slightly muffled from being 2 floors down. she must have seen the van down the road. the voice triggered unwanted memories which had been elaborately buried.
7 year old sasha was being pushed through the house by her aunt. with each shove, her aunt shouted another hurtful comment.
"you stupid, piece of shit."
"why your mother kept you, i'll never know."
"why would grandma alex leave everything to a useless child like you?"
sasha was was sobbing through it all. the ringing in her ears should have blocked out her aunt, but the words still managed to pierce through.
"what? you think you're special?"
"you should have never been born."
"you don't deserve shit."
shove after shove after shove.
until little sasha's head hit the corner of the table-
sasha forced herself out of the memory, a tear escaping as she blinked hard. she had to get out of there, fast. she searched frantically around the room, looking for her mums old diary. fuck, where had she hidden it?
finally she found it at the very back of her wardrobe. she stuffed it into the rucksack, zipping it shut speedily and hefting it onto her back, just as she heard footsteps coming up the stairs.
"sasha? are you in your room? if you're visiting, at least say hello to your dear aunt. it would be terribly rude not to."
with clothes now littering the room, sasha moved to her window with hast, unlocking it and pushing it wide open. she clambered out as she heard her bedroom door opening.
"sasha?"
but she was already halfway down the pipe. the daughter of apollo jumped the rest of the way down, not wanting to spend another second near the woman. sasha landed on the bin and used the momentum to land softly on the ground. effortless.
she sprinted down the street, not looking back once. she could feel her aunt's glare burning into her back. she could almost hear the woman's growled remarks in the back of her mind. sasha pushed those away.
she reached the white suv and practically flew into the passenger seat. "go go go"
lee immediately slammed his foot on the pedal and they careered down the street, the condo quickly out of sight.
sasha gave a sigh of relief and slumped back into her seat. lee kept flickering his eyes between the road and his sister, trying to gage what happened.
will was still sound asleep.
finally, a couple hours later, the three children of apollo reached camp halfblood.
this was sasha's home.
camp consisted of a deadly climbing wall, campfire, amphitheatre, archery range, its own forge and more. with long island sound glittering along the north shore and the many acres of baking strawberry fields scenting the camp, sasha couldn't help but adore it.
the three had missed dinner but that didn't even bother sasha at this point. she had had enough excitement for one day and just wanted to go to sleep, so she headed straight for cabin 7.
she exchanged a couple fleeting greetings along the way, including clarrise, micheal, the stolls, beckendorf, and a couple other campers sasha didn't really know quite as well. she passed silena and promised her a full catch-up and girls' day tomorrow. she found annabeth and took her into cabin 7 with her to give her what she managed to nick from her aunt's.
at first glance, cabin 7 looked just like any old cabin; ordinary gray-white stone, windows lining the sides, the only decoration being the sun symbol carved into the door, slightly more ornate columns on either side and the lyre mosaic in the porch's floor. however, in the bright light of golden hour, the cabin seemed to be made of pure gold, gleaming so bright it was hard to look at. the sun carving on the door appeared to glow from within.
inside, there were bunk beds lining the sides, with a couple cots in one back corner of the cabin for the injured (children of apollo were natural healers), and a myriad of different instruments in the other back corner (with all the children of apollo being natural musicians as well).
there was a baby-grande piano (they had wanted a grande but it wouldn't fit and was too expensive), a couple lyres, two flutes, two violins and a viola, two cellos, one double-bass, a bass guitar, two electric guitars, 3 acoustic guitars, one ukulele, a banjo, a clarinet, a saxophone, a drum-kit, 2 bongos, 2 recorders and a french horn. to be honest, they all wanted many more but they were reaching the limit.
in the centre of the ceiling was a large, circular window which let in plenty of natural sunlight, with mosaic tiles spreading out from it, creating a sun design on the ceiling. all the walls were plastered white, seemingly plain while the sun was out. but when the sun set, glowing golden spots dotted the walls, creating a peaceful ambience in the cabin, like warm stars. flowerpots decorated the windowsills, filled with cheerful yellow blooms from the island of Delos. they only grew inside and around the cabin.
each member had their own personal belongings. will had a growing collection of books about their father Apollo, and lee was constantly adding more shelves to the wall by his bunk. lee had his bow and arrows hung up next to his bed - they were a gift from their father. michael had an expensive bow (the music kind) no-one was allowed to touch. so on, so on.
sasha had her own acoustic guitar standing next to her bunk, as well as her beloved manta ray teddy RayRay lying in its place on her bed and her trademark white and black adidas superstars.
the guitar had been a gift to her on her 7th birthday, her first birthday at camp, from lee and chiron. it had become her favourite instrument to play and she took that specific guitar with her to every boarding school she went to. RayRay was her favourite stuffed toy since childhood. you could probably tell. the adidas had belonged to her mother, and sasha got one of the children of hecate to charm them so they would shrink to fit her and grow with her.
sasha led annabeth to her bunk and slid her rucksack off her back, beginning to take out the stationary and the printed photos.
"so..." annabeth initiated interrogation, looking through the polaroids casually.
"so?..." sasha feigned ignorance to what her bestfriend was asking.
"don't give me that," annabeth nudged sasha playfully. "how was your year? how was yancy? how's grover? do you reckon its percy? in the prophecy-"
"whoa there annie," sasha cut her off. "jeez, one question at a time, please."
"okay, okay. how was yancy?" she asked first as she sat down on sasha's bed, making herself comfortable.
"yancy was fine. same old, same old," sasha replied, grabbing annabeth's hands and gently pulling the girl off of her bed. "now annie, you know i love you-"
"mhm," her bestfriend interrupted sassily, raising an eyebrow.
"-but i am exhausted. i promised silena a girls' day tomorrow so a girls' day we will have. and i will answer any and every question you want," sasha assured, all the while subtly leading annabeth out of the cabin. "but i would really like to sleep now, so goodbye."
"but it's not even dark yet!" her friend protested.
"i don't care," sasha shrugged, replying honestly.
"but-" sasha shut the door on her bestfriend. it's fine, annabeth will get over it, especially when she recieves all her new (old) pens and pencils.
with that, sasha changed into some sleeping shorts and an old, oversized t-shirt, cleared her bed by shoving everything underneath it. she pulled back the covers and practically jumped in, tucking herself in. she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
relatively short chapter, soz. sad sasha memories :((, also short tho, i promise there are more to come.
ignore the fact i pretty much entirely redesigned cabin 7, but i think its more apollo this way. what do you think?
do leave comments to let me know your thoughts xxx