Hey guys! I decided to do this short story while I have bad writers block on my other story. It's when Clarisse and Chris first met... I hope you like it R&R!
Disclaimer: I don't own PJO, Rick Riordan does!
So you're asking about my relationship with Clarisse, eh? You have no idea how many people have asked me these questions. Let me tell you about our first meeting; Well technically our second. I saved her life, even though Clarisse insists she would have been fine.
"Need any help?" I called to the girl that couldn't have been older then fourteen, she was clearly an Ares girl, hanging on to a rock trying to pull herself up.
I had been walking down the small path, up on a cliff. You see, camp was doing a hike. It was like a beginning of the summer type thing. All of the year rounders came on this trip, the trip took place two weeks before the summer campers were expected. We had driven a few hours from camp to a great hiking spot. It was a rather long and restless drive, in the Delphi Strawberry Service Vans. I had wondered why we took a special trip this year, we had never gone away on a hiking trip before, there were plenty of good hiking paths inside the camp itself. I wasn't complaining though, the sights were beautiful, there was grass and trees everywhere! They had a guided hike, where everyone at camp walked together on the dirt path. We got familiar with the area. After, they let us split into small groups and explore.
At first it seemed dangerous, if you were under thirteen you had to have a partner. Most of us older teens still travel in packs. I would have been with someone, but he was going hiking with some Demeter girl, so here I am, walking alone, looking down at a struggling girl.
"No, I'm fine!" She said stubbornly.
Yup Ares chick, "It doesn't look like it from here, you're just hanging there. Well, I guess you are holding onto something…" I told her.
She didn't answer, she just started trying to pull herself up.
I shook my head, and leaned down, grabbed her hands and pulled her up. Even though she didn't want me to, she still let me help her up.
When she was up next to me, I took in her appearance. She had long stringy brown hair, it kinda looked more like it was wavy or something, I bet if she used better shampoo or conditioner it would look rather nice. She had a strong face, dark eyes, and muscles, all around rather tough and hardy looking. Even though she was scowling at me, she wasn't bad looking, not like I always thought children of Ares would be. I guess she had a pretty mom, or maybe she just was lucky.
"I told you I didn't need any help!" She yelped.
"That's what the Ares children would say," I told her, "but yet you obviously needed help..."
She glared at me, then shoved past me and started walking away, looking up for a place to keep climbing. "You know after someone saves a life, it's nice to get a 'thank you', or an 'I appreciated that, I needed the help', you know, something besides a glare." I told her racing after her.
"Well I didn't need the help, so technically I don't have to say thank you." She told me.
"Alright, so you're a typical Ares chick,"
She stopped dead, turned to me, and looked me straight in the eye, "Ares 'chick'? Never heard that one before. I've heard Ares brat, jerk, idiot, moron, nuisance, thief, warrior, butthead, creep, monster, beast, but never chick."
"What's your point?"
"Don't call any of my sisters that, they will smack you to Hades knows where." She told me.
"So why didn't you?"
She snorted loudly in response. "Maybe I just don't want to damage your face," She looked back over to my face, "Not that it would make much of a difference. Either way, I could still give you a black eye if I wanted to."
I looked at her bemused, "Give me a black eye? In case it escaped your attention unnoticed I'm stronger than you."
"Doesn't matter if you're physically stronger than me, in the long run it's who's a better warrior."
She wasn't glaring at me anymore. She was looking up at the cliff, as if thinking maybe she could keep climbing up. A whistle blew; it was time to return to the vans. She started climbing back down the hill, I followed suit.
We started walking towards the vans, they were maybe a quarter mile away.
"So what is you're name?"
"What's yours?" She shot back, almost as if she was a trained attack dog.
"Are you Ares chicks just hardwired to attack people?" I snorted putting an emphasis on the chicks part. She didn't seem to care.
"Maybe, we aren't well liked because of past reputation, so we don't bother to be nice anymore." She told me.
"Were you ever nice?"
She stopped to think, "You know my brother told me there was a time when we were nice... That was a long time ago. Some would say it never happened."
"Alright- so seriously what's your name?"
"Clarisse."
"Hi Clarisse, I'm Chris Rodriguez. Wait! Did you say Clarisse?"
"Last time I checked."
"Oh, so you're Clarisse!"
"Do I have a reputation of some sort?"
"Sort of," I mumbled, "Everyone thinks you're gonna be the next Ares head counselor."
"Really?" She asked excitedly.
"Well yeah, you've been at camp since you were nine, I believe, that's what that one dude told me. It would probably be either you or Sheila."
She nodded trying to hide a smile, "Sheila, eh?"
"Yup, I've had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting her, she's horrible." It was true I had met Sheila, I was half hoping this Clarisse girl did get the head counselor job, anyone was better than Sheila.
Clarisse looked a little lost in thought, so I looked around the forest. With the mossy dirt, birds chirping, clouds that were looking red from the sunset, and the soft breeze, it really was beautiful. The huge hill was near us, I watched as a bird swooped down and grabbed some type of insect, it flew up to the sky, with the bug struggling in its mouth. I loved everything about wildlife, ever since I was little I spent all my free time outside. Hiking was one of my favorite things to do... Hold it!
I looked straight at her, "Hey! You're that girl I helped out at the earlier group hike at camp!"
She scoffed, "Helped me out? I didn't need your hand! I was fine!"
"Doesn't matter! You said 'thank you' back then!"
"Yeah, because Chiron was watching!" She yelped at me.
Flashback:
Their were about 20-30 of us in all, assorted cabins. We were staring at the wildlife around us. In front of us there was a rocky cliff, about six foot tall. Everyone in front of me was pulling themselves up or scrambling up the rough face, it sloped a bit. but not much. I climbed up the cliff with no problem, and turned around and and gave a hand to the girl behind me to help her over the edge. She muttered a quiet thanks.
My friend immediately looked over, "Did she just say 'thanks'?" he asked me in disbelief. He turned back to haul up one of the shorter kids. who had just slid back down for for the third time.
"Uh, yeah, that's kinda what you say when someone helps you out." I told him annoyed.
I noticed a few people were listening with interest. I hadn't really thought about it much at the time, but it was rather strange that a child of Ares would say thank you They're hardly the most polite cabin, and there were no adults nearby to require proper manners.
Flashback over:
"No he wasn't, Chiron was yards away, and Mr. D wouldn't care." I realized Clarisse was walking away from me. I ran to catch up with her. This time however I didn't attempt to make any conversation with her, she clearly didn't want to talk.
After a few minutes of walking silently together, we could see the camp site in the distance. There were tents everywhere, I knew that tomorrow was going to be our last hiking day, we were leaving the following morning. It was around 5:00 in the afternoon, the campers older then sixteen could hike until 6:00, and the young adults could hike until 8:00. So my friend wouldn't be back for another hour.
"You know I heard Chiron made a deal with the gods. They agreed to cast something on us so monsters can't sense our presence. It was so we could do this hike safely." I told her.
She didn't say anything, but I swear I heard her mumble something along the lines of 'Useless information'.
"I wonder why they bothered to bring us here? We're staying at a camp anyways, why don't we just go hiking there?" I wondered out loud.
"Maybe they wanted to get away, because the gods were doing something at camp. Something we couldn't be there for, or maybe just so that we all could get some fresh air, away from swords and the forge. it clearly was an excuse to get us out of camp." She told me.
"You know this how?" I asked.
"I heard it from Danny."
Huh, I had no idea who Danny was, but I made a mental note to tell Luke about this. By now we were back at the tents. A few people that were already there looked up at us, Aphrodite girls I think, I heard them giggle. I was walking to my tent I was sharing with a few other undetermineds. Clarisse still wasn't saying anything to me, so I looked to see what other kids were doing. There were two Hephaestus kids arguing with some Athena girls, an Ares boy trying to beat up another boy, but people were holding him back.
"Well, see ya around."
I looked up from watching the fight, startled, but Clarisse had already walked into the Ares tent and disappeared.That was surprising, I thought, She's not anything like her camp reputation. I bet she would make a good head counselor. I didn't think about it much more as I headed to my tent. I had a few things to tell Luke when he got back.