🧠

Nora hated being looked down on. She knew how things in the world worked, if you were young you were trodden over. Kids had a different amount of thought put into them than adults did. They were an afterthought. The world wasn't built for them and she knew that.

People treated you differently than an adult because they saw you as lesser in mentality. Nora most definitely was not lesser in mentality, in fact, there was a high chance that Nora had a higher IQ than the average American adult.

Being young, however, had a few upsides. Because everyone saw you as a child you were easily taken care of. People took care of Nora and she enjoyed that, despite it feeling slightly infantilizing.

Hearing, as she pretended to sleep in Crafts, that Melissa and Estella had decided to stick together for her was almost laughable. Nora now had two individuals to throw themselves in front of a monster so she could escape.

Nora couldn't help the small uptick in the corner of her mouth. She was finally feeling like Camp Half-Blood was a place she could stay.

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the soft light of the sun drifted through the white curtains.

there were pancakes on the table in front of nora. she reached out to grab one but stopped suddenly. this room felt too familiar. it certainly felt too normal for her to be sitting on the stool, her hands on the cool marble of the kitchen island.

a deep voice behind her called her name, "NORA."

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Nightmares weren't abnormal for demigods, Nora knew this. But hers couldn't possibly be prophecies. There was no way anything she dreamt could possibly come true.

It just wasn't possible.

Nora sighed, sitting up in her makeshift bed and rubbing her eyes. Sure, there might not have been anyone watching to perform childish for but sometimes it was comforting to rub the sleep out of your eyes as if you were 8 years old and still able to retreat into the arms of your father.

She took in the way the sun appeared under the door to the cabin and deduced it must be about 7 a.m. Normally she woke up earlier but she supposed it would have to do for now.

Nora noticed that Melissa Findlay was asleep to her left and Estella Wineheart was asleep to her right. She tried not to grin at the show of protectiveness from the older two girls but it was hard. Nora took a deep breath of morning air and slipped out of the sleeping bag.

It was slightly chilly, maybe 40 degrees Fahrenheit but Nora enjoyed it. She could assume that the day wouldn't get too warm which Nora enjoyed. She was used to cooler weather anyway.

Nora grabbed her clothes for the day and went to change in the Hermes girl's bathroom. There was stolen makeup on the counter from the Aphrodite cabin and countless stolen bits and bobs of jewellery. Nora fingered the dark leather choker around her neck. That would never end up in a pile like this, not as long as Nora was alive.

She changed quickly, forgoing the regular CHB T-shirt and choosing instead to wear a long-sleeved shirt. One her father had gotten her years ago. A pair of jeans were what Nora usually wore and today was no different. She emerged from the bathroom feeling a year or two younger but still with the life experience of 12-year-old Nora Grey.

Melissa had awoken and, as far as Nora could tell, was just lying in the warmth of her sleeping bag, her eyes open and staring at the ceiling.

It would be smart for her to say good morning, to cement her as a child-like figure, jumping around and wishing for them to get up and take her to breakfast but Melissa looked so peaceful and Nora knew what that moment felt like.

That moment when you're awake and conscious of everything going on around you but you're not visibly awake yet, you have no responsibilities, no thoughts, nowhere to be and no one waiting for you. Your existence is fleeting and you are liminal.

Nora wishes she could feel that way again but it just wasn't in the cards.

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Breakfast at Camp was nice. You could have whatever you wanted, no matter how impractical.

Every day Nora had a bowl of vanilla yoghurt with berries.

Every day she would chuck exactly three berries into the pyre. A blueberry, a raspberry, and a strawberry. Maybe they signify something but to Nora, they were just the three fruits she enjoyed on her yoghurt.

Every day she tossed the berries in one by one and wished that they would go to her mother with no message. Nora didn't have anything to say to her mother. What she wanted to say she would rather say to her mother's godly face.

This fine morning Nora sat down at the Hermes table with Estella and Melissa who were picking through their food. Estella had a fruit bowl with more strawberries than other fruits and Melissa was slathering sriracha on an omelette with one hand and taking a sip of her coffee with her other hand.

Nora sat down and wished for a glass of orange juice, enjoying the way the cool liquid felt on her throat.

"So," Melissa began, her body turned away from the rest of the Hermes kids and towards Nora and Estella. "What does sticking together mean?"

Estella stared for a minute and Nora kept her mouth shut, knowing that her definition of 'sticking together' was abundantly different from most other people's.

"Us over them," Estella said simply. "We prioritise each other over anyone else."

Nora smiled softly, her eyes drifting to her food. The only berry she hadn't eaten yet was a single raspberry, surrounded by the cream-coloured yoghurt.

Melissa's eyes were sharp, "Each other over anyone else? Including the gods?"

There was always a god watching the camp. Internally Nora wanted to say yes, each other over the gods, their loyalty to her would be useful and nice to have. But the gods were always watching and it wasn't smart to cross them, especially out loud.

None of them responded. It was probably the safest choice.

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Every afternoon there were about 4 hours of free time before dinner. Nora spent most of her free time helping with some of the cleanup from the Battle at Zeus' Fist. Today, despite her working her butt off in sword training that morning, Nora walked over to the flower fields to grab a few herbs for the infirmary.

She walked through the fields, keeping her feet on the dirt path and making sure to keep her feet off the growing plants. Heading towards the herbs, Nora paused, her eyes passing over a boy sitting at the end of the row of flowers.

Unfortunately, she had to pass by him to get to the herbs. So it was time for Nora to grow up and interact with someone her age.

Nora walks past him slowly, her eyes taking in his attire. He wore a soft cardigan over his camp shirt and a lamb stuffed animal sat in his flower basket as he seemed to be coaxing lilies of the valley out of the ground.

She tried to simply walk past him, her eyes averted and her feet taking deliberate steps. However, his head snapped up from his flowers and locked with hers. "Hi," he said, his eyes golden brown in the sunlight.

Nora didn't want to reply, mostly because she didn't want to be stuck there having a conversation, but also because making friends could be dangerous and Nora didn't want to even remotely risk that happening. So she simply responded, "Hi."

The boy smiled, his teeth crooked and slightly yellow but not unhealthily so. "I'm Sammy, Sammy Bright. I've seen you around."

"I haven't seen you," Nora said, her eyes landing on the stuffed lamb.

He followed her eyes, "Oh, this is Aρνάκι."

Nora didn't ask to be introduced to the lamb, whose name was Lamb which was unoriginal and strange. She almost flinched as Sammy reached over to pick up the lamb. It was childish and stupid for him to be holding on to something too naive.

"He's pretty nice," Sammy said, seemingly noticing her slight flinch. "He won't hurt you."

"He's not real," Nora said, her voice caustic in a way she hadn't allowed it to be in a while. "Grow up, seriously. It's a dangerous world and if you don't grow up, you die." She turned on her heel and stalked away, towards the herb field, afraid that if she looked back she would see the brown-haired boy with tears in his eyes cuddle Aρνάκι close to his chest and whisper 'She didn't mean it.'