Disclaimer! I don't own PJO, I only own Evie.
"I hate being a demi-god."
"The fates hate me."
"Why do I smell so good to monsters?"
"I wish I had never found out about the Greek gods."
"I never asked for this."
"Why couldn't I just have been normal?"
Evie sat up abruptly on her bunk. Her long, curly, golden hair fell in her big blue eyes and she blew it out of the way. Her cheeks were flushed and her eye's sparkled dangerously. She swung her bare feet off her bunk and let them dangle down. Her sister on the bunk under swatted at them.
"Get our gross feet outta my face." She demanded.
Evie continued swinging her feet, gazing about the brightly coloured room. Musical instruments completely dominated one side of the wall, fiddles, harps, ukuleles, flutes, guitars, tambourines... You name it. That wall was Evie's favourite.
Her next favourite was the ceiling. It was covered with pages and pages of poems and songs her siblings had written. She loved laying on her back, trying to make out who hadn't written what. Even if it was murder on her eyes.
"Evie, move your feet!" Her sister ordered again, smacking her.
Her older brother, the cabin leader, looked up from restringing his bow for his new quiver of arrows. "Evie, move your feet." He told her.
She couldn't blatenly disobey the cabin leader. With a frusterated groan she jumped off her bed. She landed with a soft thump of the ground.
She pulled her orange camp tee-shirt down, it had ridden up while she had been laying on her bed. She fixed her shabby pair of shorts, flipped her golden curls and with a sniff of indignation, stalked out.
Her bare feet were tickled by the grass, it was still wet with the little shower they had just had. Everything smelled of freshly cut grass, strawberries, and sweat. The last one might not have smelled nice to a normal person, but Evie wasn't normal.
She was a demi-god. A daughter of Apollo.
And right now, she was at her camp. A special camp made for people just like her. She loved it.
A bee buzzed right by her ear and she waved it away. Without thinking about it, she slipped into a soft jog. Running seemed to be the answer to everything lately. Run and let your mind be lost in the rhythm of your feet hitting the ground, breath coming in rhythmic pumps. Arms moving up and down, heart thundering until all you could hear was the pounding of it against your chest.
No matter how hard she tried, Evie couldn't think about anything while she ran. She couldn't think about small things, like the new painting she was working on, or the new pair of shoes she needed. The thoughts of big things were drowned out too. She couldn't even listen to music. It was beautiful in it's own crazy way.
Running was a rhythm and it took over in the best way possible.
Hair started flying behind her as she picked up speed. All her negative thoughts were lost as the sun peaked out from behind a cloud and touched her head. Making her want to scream for joy.
Throwing back her head, she laughed out loud. Who cares if anyone saw her? They were all crazy too.
The run was cut short by Evie plowing into somebody and taking them down.
She screamed a little as she hit the ground, more out of surprise than hurt. Blushing furiously, she looked to see who her victim had been. She prayed it wasn't Clarisse or Annabeth or anybody else who would beat her up.
It was Chris what's-his-nuts. From the Hermes cabin.
He was sitting up already, looking quite surprised. He laughed good naturedly when he saw her face.
"S'up, Evie... Didn't see you there."
"I was running." Evie tried to explain breathlessly, but she couldn't help the nervous giggle that rose up in her chest and burst out of her lips.
"Obviously," Chris made no move to get up and leave so neither did Evie. "What were you running from?" He asked, teasingly.
Evie smiled brightly. "My thoughts, mostly. But also my siblings."
Chris nodded, his whole face had turned darker. "What's so bad about your thoughts?" He asked quietly.
He must be bored out of his mind. He was at least three years older than Evie and this was the most they had ever talked. Why was she suddenly so interesting?
Then Evie remembered Clarisse, Chris's girlfriend, saying something about going into the city today. She must have left Chris behind by himself.
"Well, they were mostly about strangling my siblings and I didn't want to do that." Evie chirped. She was in a surprisingly good mood after her sprint.
"What were your siblings doing?" Chris prodded.
"They keep complaining about being demi-gods and it was really getting on my nerves." Evie folded her arms, which was uncomfortable since she was still sitting on the damp ground. She looked about her and wished Chris hadn't asked. She'd rather be sitting with somebody else, singing a song or something. Not talking about the stuff that had made her run away in the first place.
"Can you blame them?" Chris asked bitterly. "Being a half-blood, sucks." His voice sounded hollow and empty but Evie's eyes still flashed at him.
"You're the same as all of them." She accused. "Why can't anybody see how great we have it?"
"How great we have it?" Chris shook his head, unbelievingly. "We have to fight for every minute of our lives."
"Yeah, but at least we have something to fight for."
There was silence. Evie took that as a green light and plowed ahead.
"Do you remember what it was like being a mortal? All I ever thought about was myself. I was a selfish bitch without a care in the world other than if a guy liked me or not." She snorted and shook her head in disgust. "Now, I see death, I see pain and I see hurt. I look at betrayal and destruction everyday but I wouldn't trade my life for anything."
Her hands danced alone the edge of her tee shirt before she grabbed the hem and pulled it up.
Chris stared at the fairly new scars that had definitely come from claws. Big claws. Monster claws. They were brutal, he wasn't sure how she had survived.
"I got this because I was protecting Connor Stole, your brother." Evie said, her voice alive with passion. "And I lived because I was protected by you."
Chris took a sharp breath as he looked in her eyes.
"I wasn't thinking about me when I jumped in to help Connor, and you weren't thinking about you when you saved me." Evie's voice was quiet now. "Don't you see? We have something worth fighting for and we can fight for it. We have the power and tools to fight for what we believe in. Mortals don't have that as easily as us."
Chris still didn't say anything, so Evie stood up and brushed off her shorts.
"I don't think I ever thanked you, for saving me." She said. "So... Thanks, I guess."
She started running again but Chris could only stare at where she had been sitting. his mind reeling.
/././././././././../
Evie woke up to the sound of someone banging on the door to her cabin. Whoever it was had something urgent going on, the dart-board that had been hanging on the door fell off and clattered to the floor.
Her brother, Matt, the cabin leader, rolled out of bed, his hair was everywhere and he was only wearing a pair of sweatpants.
He rubbed his eyes before opening up the door.
"Hello?" He rasped out.
The door was forced open and Chris stood in the doorway, the moonlight streaming in behind. His sandy hair was also messy but his eyes were wide awake and bright.
"You were right!" He yelled, pointing at Evie.
"Me?" She asked.
The entire cabin blinked at her, confused.
Chris danced in the room and reached up to Evie's bed. He grabbed her head and pulled it down. He planted a kiss on the top of her golden curls and laughed.
"You were right!" He repeated. "We're demi-gods, for crying out loud! We should be proud, we have a family worth fighting for! It all makes sense now! I fight because I can, and I promise you right now that I will always protect you, even if it kills me. What's death to me? If I die the death of a hero, I will die happy!" He danced out again, laughing, and Matt closed the door.
"Did he lose his mind again?" He asked, dumbfounded.
"I think the bigger question is why was he kissing my sister?" Her other brother grumbled.
Evie was finally coming out her shock.
"It was a brotherly kiss." She said. "His girlfriend is Clarisse, do you really think he'd cheat on her with me?"
She flopped down on her pillow and started laughing. She laughed until the tears streamed down her face.
At least she had finally got to someone.