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Melissa had been called Missy her whole life. Her dad thought that Missy was a cute nickname and he was right, but when she turned thirteen she had asked for him to start calling her Melissa. Melissa was an adult name and, in her eyes, Melissa was an adult.

A few days after her thirteenth birthday a hydra attacked when she was at school, in gym class. Her satyr, Markus, got Melissa to camp but she hadn't been able to see her father since then.

She was fifteen now and it truly felt as if Missy was an innocent child who had been exempt from the horrors of the world and Melissa was a hardened adult with a sword strapped to her belt at all times.

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Estella sat next to her at dinner. This was the new normal, Estella, next to her and Nora across from the two. It was strange for Melissa to go from a loner, someone who had spent two years with no friends and barely any acquaintances, to someone with two friends who had vowed to stick together, that it was them against the world.

She sat with them at the end of the Hermes table, it was crowded as usual and the other campers gave it a wide berth.

Unclaimed kids were dangerous. The Battle at Zeus' Fist proved that. It proved that, when angry, children could wage a war. This war was being fought by the unclaimed so the campers gave them a wide berth, worried they would join Luke Castellan and Kronos.

Melissa had spoken to Estella about it earlier that day, but her thoughts about the subject were muddled.

"Do you agree with him?" Melissa asked, sure to keep her voice down as she sat on the beach overlooking the Long Island Sound. It was the best place in camp to go for a bit of privacy as the crashing of the waves made it hard to hear whispers from a distance.

Estella cocked her head to the side, seeming to be thinking about the question, before answering "Sort of." Melissa blinked, worried they had missed something, but Estella Winehart kept speaking. "I think the gods need to take more responsibility, but war isn't the way to do it."

They mulled over what Estella had said, hating how much sense it made. "But we're not joining him?"

"No." The older girl grabbed a handful of sand and watched calmly as it spilt through her fingers. "We can get them to listen some other way."

Melissa so desperately wanted to ask how. How were they supposed to get immortal gods with tempers unknowable to mankind to pay attention to them, lowly bugs on the face of the earth? It seemed like an impossible task. But something about the idea of standing up to them, calling out 'I demand to be seen', invigorated Melissa, it left them with a sense of purpose. A cause.

So Melissa knew what the three of them were doing in regards to that topic, however, it wasn't as if the rest of the camp knew. And they weren't the only unclaimed children at camp. There were at least ten others and some of them weren't hiding their dislike for the gods.

Melissa noticed a commotion at the other end of the table, a kid, unclaimed, was head-to-head with one of the children of Athena. The boy, she knew slept in a bunk close to the Hermes cabin restrooms, and the girl was a daughter of Athena, strong-willed and a good archer.

The boy had his hand on the hilt of his sword and the Athena girl's hands were clenched in perfectly formed fists.

She was whispering something that Melissa couldn't hear but could tell was riling up the boy as his hand gripped the hilt and unsheathed the sword with a sharp yell.

This altercation was immediately halted by the arrival of Chiron, who dragged the two back into the kitchens to do dish duty as a punishment. Melissa could feel the air zipping out of the pavilion as the boy unsheathed the weapon and how it slowly flowed back in as Chiron stomped them away.

They were more afraid of what he could do than what she could have possibly been saying to him. One of those was terrifying to Melissa and it hadn't been the unsheathed Celestial Bronze sword that was deadly to her, but the unsheathed words which could destroy everything she had built here merely by implying that she sided with Kronos in this war.

Beside them, Estella turned back to her food, her eyes down and hair flowing to obstruct her eyes from view. Nora was the same, focusing on her food and ignoring the tension in the pavilion that had a death grip on Melissa. However, Melissa tried her best to do the same, eyes down and locked on the food in front of them.

She had to let this interaction go, dwelling on it could get her killed.

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Her eyes opened in the middle of the night.

The night felt soft and kind as if it was enveloping her with a sense of warmth.

They unwrapped themself from their sleeping bag and walked out of the cabin, the hardwood floors strangely warm under their bare feet.

There was no need for her eyes to adjust as the light of the full moon illuminated the porch of the cabin as she stood there.

Nothing had ever felt more correct.

The moon was round and yellow, its glow washing over her features as they took in the light.

It felt as if every single molecule in her body was vibrating at a speed unknown to man. Faster than light and faster than sound, at a frequency that could only intersect with the beams of moonlight falling across the camp, illuminating her face like a beacon.

She stood there until the last drop of moonlight faded in the light of the new day.

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"What are your thoughts on camp?" Melissa asked Estella, the two standing barefoot on the beach, Melissa's long and curly hair pulled back into a bun to avoid sand.

Estella turned to face Melissa, her eyes sparking in the light of the setting sun. Nora stood, ankles in the water mere feet away, however, the soft and rolling sound of the surf kept their conversation from the younger girl's ears. "In what way?" Estella asked, seemingly not sure how to interpret the question.

"Like, are you–" Melissa started before rethinking her question. "Well, I mean to say, what do you think about the point of it all?"

Estella shook her head back and forth softly, "It was smart, a place where half-bloods can be safe."

"But are we safe?" Melissa whispered, unable to keep her thoughts inside for much longer.

"What do you mean?" Estella asked, an eyebrow doing a pretty good job of wanting to be raised but not knowing entirely how to get the facial muscles to do what it wanted.

"Are we safe?" Melissa asked, softly, suddenly feeling shy in a way they hadn't for a couple of days now. "Are we safe when the entire camp believes that we could join Kronos at any minute?"

Estella kicked at the sand, watching as a waft of it puffed up and then settled softly. "Safety isn't something I'm worried about right now."

"What do you mean?" Melissa tried to ask, but Estella had walked away from her and towards Nora, joining the younger girl in dipping her toes in the cold water of the Sound.

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Shooting arrow after arrow at the target was meditative in a way. Melissa enjoyed it.

The sun was setting and they were expecting to hear the conch shell that would declare 5 minutes until campers had to be in their cabins. Not that that meant all the campers would be. It was a camp for godly children, after all, they were born to rebel.

Melissa grabbed another arrow but found that her quiver was empty. She sighed but settled herself to walk over to the target and began pulling arrows out of the haybales that were meant to simulate monsters. With one hand against the target and the other firmly on the arrow, Melissa pulled them out, finding this part just as meditative as the repetitive nocking and shooting of archery itself.

"Wow," A voice behind her said along with a few slow claps. "You're really good at that."

She turned, finding herself face to face with a boy she had maybe seen once or twice before. He had sand-coloured skin and curly hair that might have rivalled even hers. She opened her mouth but that familiar lump in her throat halted all sound so, embarrassed, she shut her mouth and went back to pulling arrows from the target, aware of his presence behind her,

"I'm Jonas," He said, his voice kind but those were easy to alter. She couldn't be sure of his intentions. "I've been wanting to learn archery. I've been told I'm generally pretty terrible at it."

Melissa continued ignoring him, hoping that he would give up and leave her alone.

"But you seem really good at it. Like, really good." he inched closer to her. "Would you teach me? If you have time, I mean. I wouldn't want to put you out."

How was she supposed to answer that? Yes? No? I want to because I enjoy being helpful but I am chronically shy and I don't think I can say a single word to you right now.

She stood still, having turned around and finally faced him. No words would come out, despite her wanting to say yes, wanting to help him to learn.

"I just, you know. I'm a child of Apollo and I'm just really terrible at archery. But I've really never been terrible at anything before and I just want to learn how to be terrible at it better, you know?"

She wanted to say yes. She wanted to tell him how much she understood, how easy it was to go through life being good at everything but be stumped by one simple thing.

He seemed dejected by her non-answer, lowering his head, almost as if all the bravado had sapped from his body. "Right, okay. Sorry for interrupting you. I'll leave you to your practice." He turned and walked away, his eyes downcast and his feet almost dragging.

Melissa wanted to call out to him, to tell him YES! I'll help. I'll teach you to blend in. I'll help you feel like a part of something. But her throat was closed up and the breath in her lungs was stuck.

Jonas was gone and the breath slammed into her body and Melissa shook with frustration and rage. All she wanted was to make a friend, to have a conversation. Why was her stupid body so against that?

I've been thinking about these guys for the past week so I hope yall enjoy <3 

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