violent delights, percy jackson

chapter ten

VIOLENT DELIGHTS
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( chapter eight! )

NINE O'CLOCK WAKE UP call's could burn in Tartarus in Azalea's not so humble mind. They were a curse that ought to be punishable by death. That's without bringing up the few people — cough, her siblings, cough —  who actually enjoyed waking up at the ass-crack of dawn. Even with their father Apollo's ungodly wake up calls at sunrise, Azalea easily could do without. How so many campers could be chipper and bright in the most horrible time of day, the dirty-blonde haired girl could never understand. Or even how Kayla could look as good as she did on less than seven hours of sleep, she couldn't  comprehend. She needed either six shots of espresso or an energy drink paired with a good dose of motivation cause at this moment, Azalea Bates was ready to skewer someone who so much as mentioned their excitement towards the game set up for that morning.

She loathed mornings, with every fiber of her five two being. Almost as much as she loathed being dragged to places she didn't want to attend, like breakfast or archery class. Yet that didn't stop Mandy, from holding her arm in hers and dragging her all the way there. Nattering her ear off like crazy too. Making up lost time when Azalea gave her, along with the rest of her cabin, the cold shoulder for the day previous.

"—and Lee fixed Travis's arm with only a tree branch and duct tap in training cause the medics tent was too far away! It was crazy!" Mandy prattled on excitedly as if the feat in itself was something out of the ordinary. When really Azalea had learned in the past few weeks that it's not all that uncommon.

"I bet," She monotonously replied, as she was dragged towards the dining pavilion by her younger half-sister. She stifled a yawn with her free hand, though her tone didn't go unnoticed by her sister, who thought mornings to be gods gift to man, or something equally as wonderful. Azalea gave it too years before she too got sick of their absent father's wake-up calls.

Mandy sighed loudly at her older sister, as they walked into the pavilion and headed towards the table to grab their golden platters. "I know you hate sunshine," Mandy lamented with a frown, "but can you brighten up please? It's going to be a great day!"

Azalea mustered up a small frown as she consulted her platter filling up with a few strips of bacon and jelly to slather on her toast that appeared soon next to it. Together, her and Mandy then took their platters, Azalea's already filled with her planned meal while Mandy's was empty, to get in the start of the line up to sacrifice a portion to the gods.

"Sure," She replied not all intending to try and 'brighten up' as Mandy had suggested. She was perfectly happy not being a happy camper in the mornings. She was here, she was dressed and hadn't killed anyone as they told her good morning ( there was a few close calls however ), what more did they want from her?

Mandy frowned, tucking her empty platter under her arm and sharply pinching her old sisters side. Azalea hissed in pain as she swatted at the the girls hand who simply glared at her with her big brown eyes and scolded her in her ten year old and not at all scary voice. "Stop being a fun-sucker-outer!"

She pinched her again, though much harder. Azalea slapped at her hand again, not at all realizing that the commotion had caught the attention of a few onlookers and more importantly the person behind them who had also migrated into the line up for the annual meal sacrifice to the gods.

"Stop pinching me!"

"Then brighten up sunshine!"