The Hermes Cabin: A Short Story

[Clarisse La Rue, sporting the camp’s usual orange shirt and khakis, shined her sword on the bench of the Training Center. Surrounding us were campers with various assortments of weaponry. The clang and clatter of metal on metal in the background a constant. Clarisse sat cross-legged towards me, intensely focused, glaring daggers at her perfectly clean weapon. She lifted it and held it parallel to her face, face reflecting in the blade. She tsked at an invisible spot and went back to rubbing and scrubbing, hard.]

You want to know about the Second Titan War, huh? Normally, I would beat up anyone who asks me about this stupid as fuck war but since you’re from the Hermes Cabin, I’ll make an exception. The only exception. Anyone who comes after

And-and I felt relieved. Even when he was insane, the fire quelled. Because Chris was here. He’s alive. And I remember thinking even if Chris never comes back mentally, that’s fine because he’s alive and that’s all that matters.

I try to tell myself that every time I visited him.

But I couldn’t

Did you have any idea how much it hurted to see him like that? To see this cool, collected boy I had crushed on since I was 11 in that state? I wanted to killed Luke right there and then, stab my spear through his blond little head. Chris was his freaking brother! How could he do that to his brother? How…

I’m grateful to Mr. D. Never thought he cared about us but I guess he did. Chris was cured because of him and I thought it was over. But it wasn’t.

I bullied and harassed so many kids I lost count. And it wasn’t in private places but publicly and nobody stopped me. I think we all had the same mindset. If they were from Hermes Cabin then they must be traitors, liars, no good thieves. One day or another they would all leave and join Kronos. Like I said, I was a total asshole as a teenager. Pretty soon I wasn’t the only bully. I never thought of it until Chris had to live at Camp

Will’s and Michael’s disappointed. My siblings’ unsure and some angry. They wanted to fight. They wanted to defend their home and our dad. But I stopped them. Because of a chariot.

So for the first day of the battle, I just destroyed sandbags in the training center. Chris was there with me. He tried to convince me to join the battle and to “think about what I’m doing.” I ignored him. Such a considering girlfriend.

The only ones still at camp was the older pegasi and some nymphs as well as Peleus. The dining pavilion was ghost quiet. Not a sound. Just the clanking of forks and spoons.

Of course I was worried about them. They were 40 puny demigods versus hundreds, thousands of monsters. There was even 10 and 11 year olds fighting not to mention Demeter’s and Aphrodite’s kids are wimpy and would probably faint from the sight of blood but my pride wouldn’t let me go.

I didn’t sleep that night. I was afraid of the dreams I would get.

The next day, Silena came to talk to me. She was still in her greek armor, splattered with blood. I hoped it was the blood of the enemy and not friends. She jumped off the pegasi a few feet above the ground. I guess she tried to act like some kind of cool badass but she stumbled and looked more like a bumbling