ALSTROEMERIA 𖥸 Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano

2 | Mama O'Dae

Chapter two:
Mama O'Dae

Natalie never took much from home to camp and from camp to home. What she took was what would be necessary for a small trip and that was all she needed. She liked to travel — no matter the distance — as lightly as she could. So packing never took much of her time.

What took her time, however, was saying goodbye to her friends.

"I'll miss you!" Luke hugged Natalie tighter than before and wailed. Natalie rolled her eyes and patted him on the back and then looked at Annabeth who was glaring at her and mouthed 'help'. The blonde shook her head and looked away with a huff.

Luke and Natalie could be considered besties. From the day a 12-year-old Natalie entered the camp with blood dripping from her, the 15-year-old son of Hermès found himself wanting to be friends with her and that paired with their matching personalities made them fast friends.

Annabeth on the other hand did not like Natalie at all. At first, Natalie decided it was her and Luke spending more time than Annabeth liked them to be around each other, but after she tried to approach Annabeth and offer a peace offering, she found out rather rudely that it was her in general that the daughter of Athena didn't like.

So her attempts of getting the blonde girl to get the 18-year-old crying son of Hermès off of her were fruitless, but it was worth a try.

"I'm going home I'm not going to die, Luke," Natalie finally said and tried to detach herself from him but he just held her tighter. So tight she barely had any room to breathe.

"I change my mind, I'm not going home to die cause I'm going to die here in your arms due to lack of oxygen," that finally made Luke loosen his hold. Natalie took advantage of this and slipped away from him and held out a hand when Luke tried to come close again.

"But-"

"No! Sit!" Luke gave her a deadpan look, "Who's a good boy? Not you!"

Annabeth rolled her eyes before she placed herself slightly in front of Luke, "Enough! We don't have time for this!"

"We don't?" The two older demigods said together and exchanged an amused look.

"No, we have to train and she has to go home be lazy."

Natalie laughed —probably the opposite effect of what the 11-year-old thought that would have on her— and picked up her bag from the ground, "Yeah Luke, not everyone can be lazy."

Luke chuckled and offered her a fist bump, "see you later, Mini D."

"F you too!" She shouted over her shoulder before she walked towards Thalia's tree.

She patted the tree before she went to where her mom was standing next to the car.

Gina O'Dae lifted her head when she heard her daughter approaching and groaned, "Finally! I thought I had to leave without you."

Natalie threw her bag in the backseat before she sat shotgun.

Gina started the car and started driving away from the camp.

"You would never leave your precious little Natalie in there with mean old D."

Gina laughed and lifted a hand to ruffle Natalie's hair without taking her eyes off of the road, "You leave your old fragile mom to be with your weird dad."

"You slept with the weird dude."

"I was drunk."

"And so was he, probably."

"Probably, yeah," she looked at Natalie with a smile, "How was camp?"

"Fine," she shrugged and looked out the window, "Nothing interesting."

Gina hummed and looked at her daughter from the corner of her eyes.

No more words were exchanged during the drive.

When they finally got home, Natalie went straight for the shower and then immediately to her bed.

Demigods had dreams, dreams that could alert them of upcoming dangers, dreams that could be considered communication, dreams that were not pleasant.

Natalie never knew when her dreams were demigod dreams or just the product of her growing madness. It was hard to tell so she'd rather just not think about them.

But that night, she dreamt of darkness. Of a deep voice, chanting, chanting, chanting, chanting-

Natalie didn't go back to sleep.

That's how Gina found her, sitting in front of the TV, watching The Golden Girls.

Natalie didn't blink when her mom joined her on the couch and folded herself around her, she just went closer and rested her head on her mom's chest. Gina ran her hands through the brunette's hair until her breathing became steady and she went into a peaceful sleep.

Gina didn't regret having Natalie, she regretted her being part of Dionysus' crazy word.

She just hoped her daughter could come out as the victor.

Gina paused and amended her statement.

And also out of the closet.

-𖠺-

Heya!
(Not me making matching covers for the next books, no ma'am)

I'm trying to establish some characters and stuff before I go into lighting thief.

There will be time skips but nothing big will happen in the year before the lightning thief.

Also, I think I'm going to make this into a series— meaning not every book will be in this book. They will continue in Pelargonium which will be published when the time comes.

Love ya!