𝙎𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙙 𝘾𝙝𝙤𝙞𝙘𝙚 , percy jackson♡

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐

That night Callie dreamt. A memory of her past, a happier past, came to greet her.

There, in the backyard of their Connecticut family home, a brother and sister were sitting down in the grass. Callie was placed in the body of her younger self, only able to watch the scene unfold.

This was before Luke ran away, when their mom was still somewhat sane, when they were all content with the life they were living.

She could feel the grass beneath the picnic blanket they had laid out, no doubt crushing several wild daisies. Their yard was full of the tiny white flowers, to the two children's amusement. When it was spring, and the amount of daisies were at its peak, they would run outside and spend until sundown weaving daisy chains and making flower crowns.

The fresh spring breeze cooled their skin and the scent of bug spray floating in the air. Her brother was completing the last of his homework. She was sitting on the blanket, in the middle of weaving her mother a loosely made flower crown. Being only 5 years old, her flower crown making abilities weren't the best.

"Luke," she pouted. "Help, please." Callie held up the daisy chain falling apart in her hands.

Luke sighed, taking it from the little girl. He carefully untangled all of the delicate daisies and began to start a fresh chain. "Remember Callie," he motioned for his younger sister to pay attention to his hands. "Make sure to make the hole's small so the flowers don't fall off. It needs to be tight."

She eagerly grabbed a handful of flowers from their pile on the grass, trying to imitate the motions of her brother.

"And also be careful, so the petals don't fall off," he murmured, concentrating on his task.

The little girl nodded vigorously and kept trying to string the flowers together. She grew frustrated at the clumsiness of her own chubby hands.

Next to her, Luke had already finished his flower crown, turning to face his younger sister. Only to see Callie, lips pouted, eyes teary, and eyebrows creased as her puffy hands struggled to weave the stems together. Luke silently laughed at the adorable sight.

He placed the already finished flower crown on her head, the petals sitting in her hair. She looked up when he took the one she was making from her hands.

Callie removed the crown from her hair and held it in her hands. "Is this mine?"

"Yes."

She giggled at the present, only to frown a few moments later. "How come I'm so bad at it?"

He freed one of his hands to pat her head in comfort, "Because you're young."

"When I get older I'm going to be good at it too?" She looked hopeful.

"Yup."

Callie stared at him in wonder, "How do you know?"

"Because we are dad's children," he smiled. "We kind of have to be good with our hands."

"Why?"

He weaved the last stem into itself, completing the daisy crown. "For troublemaking," he grinned mischievously. "But I don't think you'll have much trouble with that, little gremlin."

"I'm not a gremlin," she huffed, taking the finished chain from his hand. "And I'm going to give this to mommy."

He painted fake hurt onto his face, "but I made that, I should give it to her."

"Then, what do I give her?" her lip quivered. "My hands aren't good, can't make pretty daisy crowns."

He stroked her hair, closed his school books, and put them away. "I'm sure she'll love anything you give her."

"Even if they're ugly daisy crowns?" she wiped her wet eyes.

"Even if you gave her regular old daisies, she would love them forever," he assured.

Callie looked at the pile of flowers next to her and held up one singular stem. "If I gave you this one flower, would you love me forever too?"

He smiled, "I'd love you forever even if you gave me poison ivy."

"Me too," she grinned, rushing into his open arms. Callie started putting the daisies into his golden hair. Her brother smiled at her like she was the only flower in his eyes.

Suddenly, Callie was fading. The happy memory of daisy chains falling through her fingertips. The last thing she saw before she awoke from her dream was the bright smile of an older brother who loved his sister.

Now awake, Callie suddenly sat up. Around her, kids were running around the cabin in chaos. This was a normal morning occurrence in cabin 11. But something was different. The kids looked too panicked, the sun too high in the sky, the chaos too unorganized. Usually, Luke was there to guide the craziness.

Today, he wasn't. Her brother's bunk was empty and Callie doubted he was in the bathroom, this late in the morning. Luke was an early bird, and annoyingly so. He made sure everyone was already cleaned and dressed an hour before breakfast. It wasn't like him to wake them up so late.

Still waking up and confused, Callie called to Alex, the 8 year old boy in the middle of finding his other sock in the pile of clean laundry. "What's going on? Where's Luke?"

The messy haired boy rushed up to her bed, "Callie! You're such a heavy sleeper!" He grabbed her arm and tried to pull her from the bed. Despite everything going on, Callie's mind immediately focused on the cuteness that is her little brother. With his big brown eyes, fluffy hair, and adorable front teeth, he looked like a little bunny.

"Hurry up!"

Not now Cal, she thought. Focus on the problem at hand.

"What is going on, Alex? Where is Luke?"

The boy pushed one of her sweaters he had found in the basket of laundry into her arms. "Get up, we need to be out soon!" Alex almost dived into the basket to look for his other sock.

"Alex, tell me what's going on right now!"

He tried to explain whilst still looking for a sock. "A few minutes before you woke up, Sal from Apollo cabin came running and screaming. Everyone woke up because of the noise." Alex had given up searching and instead opted for a pair of flip flops. "He was talking really fast about Luke and an attack and quest or something. Whatever he said must have been important because the older kids started telling everyone to run out the door!" Like everyone else, Alex was still in his pajamas, but now he was wearing pineapple printed flip flops, one foot was bare while the other was covered in a turtle patterned sock.

He looked ready to run out the door, "But that's not even the worst part! We missed breakfast!"

Callie paused, "Wait! Luke was attacked?"

Alex looked at her with disbelief, "And we missed breakfast?"

Her mind spiralled into all different possibilities of what might have happened. She believed her brother could very well defend himself, but for a camper to run in here screaming, something big must have happened. At camp, they've dealt their fair share of surprises, especially in cabin 11. So for the older Hermes kids to be running around like headless chickens, Callie would be lying if she said she wasn't nervous.

He had said Luke, attack, and quest. Quest? Yesterday, Percy Jackson came back from his first quest. Did he have something to do with Luke? Did he attack him?

Callie was wary of Percy Jackson, everyone at camp was. He was a son of Poseidon, child of one of the big three, that alone should be enough reason too. He had disarmed Luke using a sword, defeated and killed the minotaur, and managed to acquire a quest, all in the first weeks of arriving at camp.

Percy Jackson didn't scare her. She was more afraid of the disaster that followed. A 12 year old boy arrives at the border of camp, bloody, tattered, and having slender minotaur. Not even a few days into his stay, a monster breached camp, the girls bathroom was destroyed, and now Luke was supposedly attacked the day Percy and his posse returned from their quest. His reputation for disaster was intimidating.

Callie's mind is spurred out of control with possibilities. She barely remembered putting on her shoes, grabbing a sweater, and being pushed out the cabin door.