Anthízo, Percy Jackson

XI. the indecisiveness of choosing your priorities

TO KARINA, LUNCH WAS ALWAYS THE HAPPY MEDIUM in the day. even if you've had the worst day of your life, or the best day, you will always be slightly excited for lunch. it's just something you could never be upset about happening. so, it's kind of like the in between part of your good or bad day. like a void between life and death, nothing can really go wrong there, or at least most of time nothing can go wrong.

but today, lunch felt like a funeral party. everybody ate. people talked in hushed tones. nobody seemed particularly happy. the other campers kept glancing over at percy like he was the corpse of horror, which he was far from.

karina stood alongside reyna has she made a brief speech wishing them luck. octavian ripped open a beanie baby ( much to karina's demise ) and pronounced grave omens and hard times ahead, but predicted the camp would be saved by an unexpected hero ( whose initials were probably OCTAVIAN ). then the other campers went off to their afternoon classes—gladiator fighting, latin lessons, paintball with ghosts, eagle training, and a dozen other activities that karina wished she could be participating in rather than venturing off on a suicide quest. karina walked with hazel, frank, and percy back to the barracks to pack.

karina didn't want to pack much, but not too little either. this was a reoccurring issue with karina—packing. she never knew what would be important and what wouldn't be important.

should she bring extra jackets incase the others forget theirs? does she want to bring yarn to knit a sweater when she's bored? should she bring her or burgundy colored head scarf or her dark green one?

these things spiraled through her head as she dug around her alcove in the barrack, trying to find a backpack of suitable size to bring.

she finally decided on her kankan backpack, that was a forest green around most of the backpack and then darker redish color on the straps.

she set down the backpack on her bed, and watched hazel as she peacefully packed simple necessities into her bag, finishing packing up in about eight minutes.

karina just stood there, staring at her backpack, dozing off into her own head, her thoughts drifting away from packing and onto other non-important things, like what color eyeliner should she try out next—light purple or red? which type of flower  should she make her signature smell—rose or peony? that's an extra ability of the ceres children, she can create what type of scent she gives off—but it is limited to only earth related scents, like cedar, or pine needles, which she would never let herself smell like. she preferred sweet smells, like fresh dew-covered orchids, or a honey suckle.

before karina could drift off even more, hazel was shaking her, saying her name louder and louder each time before karina finally snapped out of it.

"—yes!" karina belted, blinking rapidly.

hazel sighed and pressed a hand to her forehead, looking up to the ceiling with an expression that said, what am i going to do with this girl?

"karina, you have got to stop doing that." hazel persisted. "you've been out of it for at least five minutes."

karina sighed, her eyes still glossy from not blinking in her transe-like state. "i'm sorry, haz. i just— i can't pack." she said sheepishly, rocking on her heels.

"okay," hazel said. "let me help you then." she smiled, making her away over to karina's dresser, pulling out a loose green cardigan and dark denim mom jeans.

"here," she handed thrusted the clothes into her arms, making karina stumble back just a little. "change into these, it's going to be cold."

karina nodded and made her way into the bathroom to change.