Anna
Anna threaded her way through the throngs of collegiate students in varying stages of dress and undress. The entire gang was already there, Jess dressed as a sexy nurse, Luis as a ghoul, and Sam, as usual, had no costume on.
"Sorry I'm late short stuff, couldn't find my costume. But, then again, I guess you couldn't either." Anna stretched onto her toes to ruffle Sam's hair. Everyone laughed and the bartender slid her a beer that spilled all over the table top.
"No big Anna. Besides tonight is about Sam, and his awesome LSAT victory." Jess said raising her glass.
"All right, all right, it's not that big a deal," Sam huffed, toasting with his own shot anyways.
"Short stuff scored a one seventy-four, of course it's a big deal." Anna threw back a shot before trying to ruffle her friend's hair again. Sam swatted her hand away as Luis asked if that was a good score.
"Scary good," Jess bragged as she took her shot.
"So there you go. You are a first-round draft pick. You can go to any law school you want!" Luis said sitting down with another round.
"Actually, I got an interview here, Monday. If it goes okay I think I got a shot at a full ride next year," Sam announced. Jess nudged Sam gently.
"Hey. It's gonna go great."
"It better," Sam said. Anna tossed back another shot.
"You're going to get in." Her voice was edged with certainty.
"How does it feel to be the golden boy of your family?" Luis asked.
"Ah, they don't know," Sam said, Jess looked at him with a hint of sadness in her eyes.
"Oh, no, I would be gloating! Why not?" Luis asked.
"Because we're not exactly the Brady's," Sam said. Anna slammed her shot down harder than she meant did not drown out the memories of what her family's dysfunction looked like.
"And I'm not exactly the Huxtables. More shots?" Luis asked.
"No!" Jess and Sam chimed. Anna kept quiet, sipping her beer as Luis got up and went to the bar to get the drinks.
"Seriously. I'm proud of you. And you're gonna knock em dead on Monday and you're gonna get that full ride. I know it," Jess said. Sam gave Jess a sweet smile and asked,
"What would I do without you?"
"Crash and burn," she joked as she pulled him in for a kiss.
"Ahhh! My virgin eyes!" Anna teased, covering her eyes with both hands. Rolling their eyes they broke apart. Anna peeked through her fingers to check if it was safe and laughed. She smiled thinking how nice normalcy was. Anna looked down into her drink, frowning at the dark turn her thoughts had pulled her.
Being a demigod, being a daughter of Athena, her life was destined to be short and brutal. At twenty two she had more than outlived her life expectancy of fourteen. She had been lucky enough to survive both wars and was looking forward to avoid getting caught up in the shenanigans that was her Uncle Apollo's mess. She did not want to lead her family and friends back into battle. Or worse, risk everything to spy on their enemies. Again.
She'd convinced Chiron and her mother and Mr. D that she could handle the mortal world enough to attend college. She spent every vacation at Camp Half Blood to train and spent most weekends at Camp Jupiter. She spent the first half of her collegiate experience commuting from Camp Jupiter and only began to live just off campus during her second and final year. Her mother's blessing helped her speed through credits.
She'd hung up her shield, put away her sword. Anna had changed her name and hidden her identity so deep only the gods themselves could have unearthed her past from before Camp Half Blood, and only another demigod could find who she was while she had been there.
"Hey Anna, you ok?" Jess's voice pulled Anna away from her spiraling thoughts. She plastered on a smile.
"Nope! I think I forgot to turn in my thesis for my Psych class." She lied easily. Sam laughed as Luis returned with a new round of shots.
"To being young and stupid and mostly free of responsibility." She toasted. Everyone laughed as they clicked their glasses together and drank.