Bewitched || P. Jackson

𝕀t's question time!

"So, what's all this talk about a camp?" Thalia shrugged, taking another bite from the poptart Nicki had provided her.

You can't expect a teenager to go to a boarding school and not have a stash of snacks. The Hunters so kindly brought along her food store with the rest of her things.

The pair were nestled against a tree in the snow, blissfully ignoring the cold. Nicki would never admit it, but Thalia's hatred for the Hunters and her quick wit was honestly refreshing. It was a great change from Grover's incessant rambling about how magical Artemis is.

"It's not a whole lot, really. It's a safe space for demigods. Camp Half-blood, cause you know, we're Half-Bloods."

"Oh yeah, really hard to decipher that one. Thanks." Thalia sent a vulgar gesture in Nicki's direction, making the 14-year-old inhale part of her poptart. Thalia snorted, not attempting to help the coughing girl.

"Karma." Nicki rolled her eyes, wiping the escaped tears from her cheeks. "Now, as I was saying before you interrupted me." Thalia shot a petty look in Nicki direction, not that she cared. She found the poptarts more interesting than Thalia's scowls.

"Listen, not my fault you were being Captain Obvious." Thalia threw Nicki's bag of food at her defensively, laughter bubbling in her throat.

"Hey! Do you want to know or not?" Nicki held her hands up in surrender, her chocolate poptart dangling from her mouth precariously. "Thank you. It's a training camp for us. You know, Chiron, right?"

"Centaur?"

"Centaur. Well, he's our activities director. Then there's Mr D, he's our director. Dionysus, the wine god. Of course, we have the cabins for the 12 Olympians, you'd be in the Hermes' cabin, that's where you go if there isn't a cabin for you. There are about 100 campers during the Summer and a lot less in Winter. They're what we call year-rounders, can't go home for some reason."

"Why don't I have a cabin?"

Thalia frowned, allowing her eyes to train up to the sky above her. "Superiority complex, I dunno. No minor gods have cabins."

Nicki scratched the back of her hand nervously. She didn't need to be a genius to know the gods were a sore spot for Thalia.

"I guess it's fate, yano?" The daughter of Zeus cocked a brow at Nicki's words, not moving her gaze from the inky sky above her. "Well, my name means descendent of the messenger, and my cat is called Hermes."

"I guess you're right, it must be fate then." Nicki smiled, offering the girl another poptart. Thalia let out a laugh, taking the chocolate poptart with a lopsided smile. "My friend Luke is a son of Hermes. He would've been your cabin counsellor."

"Why won't he be."

"He's with Kronos now. The bad guys... I was 12 when I met him, he was 14. Then we met Annabeth who was 7 and we became a trio. We made it to camp, but there was a hoard of monsters chasing us and I made them run, to be safe."

"Obviously, I was naive and a complete idiot and they completely overpowered me. So my dad, Zeus, turned me into a tree to protect the camp, so no one else would die like I did."

"How are you here? You're not a tree."

Thalia snorted, biting into her poptart. "Oh yeah, really hard to decipher that one. Thanks." Nicki stuck her tongue out, pulling a face, making Thalia grin.

"Well, Luke, who was bad by this stage, poisoned my tree so he could attack camp, and that would kill me. So there was a whole lot of quests going on last summer to find the Golden Fleece, which would save the tree."