Half of My Soul

Ex-Boyfriends Suck

Clarisse:

Gods, Training with Aphrodite Cabin, yet again. Clarisse was not a fan of the girls, and for that matter, the guys as well from Cabin 10. Self-centered, shallow, and utterly insufferable. Anytime their cabins got paired up together, Ares cabin actually trained while the Aphrodite cabin sat on the side and fixed their hair, as if it needed fixing. 

As a daughter of the god of war, Clarisse was naturally talented with a spear, or any weapon at all. But even with this natural forthcoming she still worked her ass off to be the best spearsman at camp, or spearswoman. She never felt adequate with her abilities, not just because of Percy Jackson beating her in every fight. Her father bore down on her as well, being his favorite daughter hasn't quite cracked up to what she thought it would be. She could still feel the sting on her cheek from the last visit she got from Ares. 

This made her train even harder. Sweat was dripping down her face, small beads rolling down her neck. She trained more than the others, often spending her free time in the woods by herself, stabbing and slashing trees and brambles with her spear. Today, Clarisse didn't feel alone in the woods, though she knew monsters were always lurking, something else was present. 

Soon the dinner bell rang. Shit, Ok. Clarisse scrambled out of the woods as fast as possible. As head counselor of her cabin, she had to round up everyone for dinner, which couldn't happen if she were in the woods. Just in time, Clarisse bounded into Cabin 5.

"Ok everyone, line up, let's go get dinner," Clarisse yelled into the cabin, hoards of teenagers nearly ran her over trying to get out the door for dinner. One thing about Ares' kids is that they are nothing short of aggressive. 

"Took you long enough, Clarisse," A voice came from the back of the group.

"Shut up now or I'll shut you up," Clarisse wasn't known to be very calm either. She knew she intimidated her siblings, and she knew how to use it. She led them out of the cabin, towards the dining pavilion, the group's line broke apart and they ran for the table, the last one to get there was a rotten egg. 

All the Ares kids sat around their assigned table, across the way Clarisse could see Cabin 10's table. Each of the teens sat straight up, right leg crossed over the left, some lost in gossip, some looking in hand mirrors fixing their hair or makeup. As if it had been messed up from all the gruesome training they had done. 

Clarisse's ex-boyfriend, Chris, sat at the table next to Cabin 10. He glared at her, their breakup had been messy, seeing as she had nursed him back to health after his escape from the labyrinth. His dumping her for some random from Apollo Cabin wasn't something she deserved. And she made sure he knew that. Not trying to get him back, just to make him never forget. 

Clarisse's eyes kept being drawn to the regal girl from Aphrodite Cabin. Silena Beauregard. She had talked to her a few times at head counselor meetings before. She seemed smarter than the rest of her cabin, but still, Clarisse assumed she had the same shallow personality as the rest of them. No matter how many times Clarisse tore her eyes from the girl, they kept finding their way back. 

Their eyes meet, just for a second. Clarisse wasn't even sure Silena was actually looking at her, but it was still enough for Clarisse to turn bright red, blush crept into her ears, burning its way into her cheeks. A nice non-artificial blusher.

"Woah, Clarisse, who are you looking at" She whipped her head around to see who it was, "I would say Clarisse has a crush on someone, don't tell me you still have a thing for Chris!" Clarisse wanted to punch the smug smile right off of Sherman's face. But seeing as food started cropping up on people's plates, she decided to let her anger out on a burger instead.

After dinner, Cabin 5 dispersed around the camp, finding things to do before going to bed. Most of which included bullying newbies and Apollo kids. Although Clarisse enjoyed the occasional dunk of a newcomer. This evening she decided to stroll around the camp, it may have felt leisurely to her, but campers seemed to be repelled away from her whenever she walked past them. 

Clarisse walked around the edge of the forest, careful to listen to any impending monster attacks. But all she heard was quiet sobbing from a few feet away. Clarisse drew her spear, the electricity hummed a faint glow in the dark, also protecting her from what may be a trap by a monster. But no, she was no monster, the dark-haired girl sat against the tree. Her long model-like legs tucked into her chest, her arms hugged her knees and she cried into the darkness. 

"Hey," Clarisse crouched down and folded her knees underneath her. She put a hand on the other girl's shoulder, not sure why, it just felt right. The girl looked up from the ground, eyes red and swollen. She seemed surprised that Clarisse was the one comforting her. It took a couple of moments for Clarisse to realize the girl was Silena, but as soon as she did butterflies erupted in her gut, and her hand immediately started sweating. Maybe this was some kind of power that Aphrodite kids had, but for some reason, Clarisse wasn't fully convinced. 

"Hi," the girl managed to say in between sobs. The red of her tears brought out her blue eyes, staring deeply into Clarisse's, begging for an escape. Clarisse dropped into the grass and sat hip to hip with Silena. The ragged rise and fall of Silena's chest slowed to match the other girl's controlled breathing. 

Clarisse doesn't know how long they sat there, heat from their bodies warming each other in the cold night air, Silena's head against Clarisse's shoulder. Clarisse inhaled, not sure if it was too soon, "What happened."

"I saw that Hermes girl with Charlie, they were holding hands and laughing," Silena and Charles Beckendorf had broken up a month prior, "It's stupid, I know, we aren't even together-"

Clarisse brushes a stray long black hair behind Silena's ear. "It's not stupid," she quietly whispers to the crying girl. Clarisse wraps her arms around the girl and buries her nose into Silena's silky hair, "It's gonna be ok, I've got you." 

Notes: Hey y'all so I made a couple of changes to the book, like Chris/Beckendorf not being in relationships with either of the girls cause we don't do the cheating thing in this house. But other than that this is going to be as book-accurate as possible, I haven't decided if I'm going with the plot point of Silena's death, but we will see. 

Let me know what y'all think, constructive criticism is very much welcome and appreciated. If you have any ideas on how the story should go feel free to let me know, I have a basic idea of what I want to happen but I love the input. Thank you all!