Red
Author's Note: So for the past couple of days a couple friends of mine and I have been talking about this absolute perfect ship and after discussing everything possible that could happen and deciding it was the cutest thing ever (and that it needs to be a thing, since apparently it isn't) I needed to get this down. I have no idea how long this story is going to be but I do know, for the most part, where I want it to go so please stay tuned because it's going to be great. Or I hope it is. Oh, and as for the rating, T for now because it's really nothing right now, but I'll most likely have to re-rate it to M later on.
Reviews are greatly appreciated; please let me know what you think so far and/or if you'd like to see this story continued! I plan to continue it anyway but it's better if people actually like it. Anyway, on to the story!
Chapter 1: A Visitor
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For the past two weeks, Drew Tanaka had been living in a perpetual state of anger, all thanks to none other than Piper McLean. Drew was two years the girl's senior and yet somehow the whole of the Aphrodite cabin, the boys included, had voted her out of the cabin leader spot in favor of Piper. To say this was a travesty would be a bit of an understatement.
To be fair, this vote had happened just over a year ago, and maybe Drew should have been over it by now. Maybe she almost had been. Her return to school had proven that while the kids at Camp Half-Blood might have been harder to influence than she originally thought, there were plenty of others outside the camp that she had control over. And as the year progressed and Drew dealt with other, non-demigod responsibilities, she'd practically forgotten about the whole Piper ordeal.
But the minute she had stepped foot back onto campgrounds, she was just as angry as she had been the day it happened.
She hated Piper. She hated everything about the girl – her celebrity father, her unconventionally pretty face, her weird sense of style – and she especially hated that she was related to her. How her beautiful goddess of a mother could have produced that was beyond Drew, and every time she looked at her she felt like she wanted to vomit. This was partly because of the fact that she took Drew's spot as cabin leader, but it was mostly about the fact that despite everything, Piper somehow made an effort to be nice. To everyone.
And that "everyone" included Drew. While it was strained, the effort was obvious and it made Drew sick. For one, Piper was never going to get anywhere the way she was acting. Silena was the same way, and she was dead now. And while Drew might not be so sad to see Piper go, she didn't want to have to be there to pick up the pieces. Secondly, Piper should absolutely despise Drew, so she could not for the life of her understand why Piper would even try to be nice to her. She guessed some people were just like that, but those kind of people weren't worth her time.
The tall Japanese girl stepped out of the bathroom of the large cabin, her long dark hair falling over her shoulders like a waterfall. She was adorned in gold jewelry and had somehow managed to make her orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and jeans (which were now cut into shorts and rolled up to just below her butt) look better than anyone else at camp. She observed the cabin for a moment, which was constantly clean or being cleaned, before strutting out the front door, pushing past Piper who had tried to greet her. She got down the front steps of the cabin and immediately turned toward the Poseidon cabin and its one inhabitant.
Since the start of camp this year, Drew had found a friend in Percy, and admittedly that might have been because he was one of the only people she wasn't horrible to in the past. She knew his girlfriend, Annabeth, wasn't particularly fond of their newfound friendship, but luckily for Drew, Percy had decided that it wasn't such a big deal. Especially now that Piper had taken Drew's spot in the Aphrodite cabin, she knew that no one was really obligated to be nice to her anymore. And, as much as she hated to admit it, Piper was a better charmspeaker than she was, which meant that Drew couldn't even charmspeak people into being friends with her anymore without Piper reminding them that she wasn't to be trusted.
She knocked on the door of the cabin quietly and waited for a response. Instead, she got nothing, even after a second knock. She supposed he could still be sleeping, but decided to try letting herself in anyway.
Immediately she was greeted with the sight of Percy – or Percy's back, rather – wearing nothing but a pair of boxers and shaking his ass to Gods know what song, the bass line of which she could hear faintly coming from his headphones. She chuckled to herself and in a few quick strides, she was at Percy's side.
"I don't think you're supposed to have that here." She said loudly enough for him to hear, looking down at his iPod.
He jumped back and looked at her with the most frightened face she'd ever seen on the boy, and she laughed. He yanked his headphones out of his ears and threw them on the bed.
"And I don't think you're supposed to come into other peoples' cabins without knocking!" He half-yelled, a small smile creeping at the corners of his mouth. She heard a small breath of a laugh escape his lungs.
"I did knock." She pursed her lips. "Twice. But you were busy with that which, like I said, I don't think you're supposed to have here."
"Please." Percy responded nonchalantly, waving his hand in the air. "This is nothing. It's one of those ancient iPods, the ones that aren't phones. See?" He held it up in the air for her, and she crossed her arms. "It's not gonna do any harm. Not like all that jewelry." He said, giving her the classic up-down before turning back to his iPod to roll the headphones around it.
"What's wrong with my jewelry?" She retorted, slightly offended.
"You tell me how the hell you're going to fight monsters like that. It's not practical!" Percy threw his hands up in the air dramatically as if he took personal offense from her choice of clothing. She waved it off and walked to the other side of the room.
"I'm a daughter of Aphrodite. I'm here to look good, not fight monsters."
"Whatever." He snorted as he finally started searching for a pair of pants. "Care to tell me why you decided to walk in on me in my underwear?"
Drew turned back around to face Percy and then sat down on the bed adjacent to him, leaning forward and letting her arms fall to her knees in an almost pathetic, downtrodden sort of way.
"I don't know." She sighed. "Because you're the only one at this camp who's still nice to me?"
"To be fair, you brought that on yourself." He replied. She threw a pillow at him.
"I'm serious, Percy. I can't even stand being in the same cabin I used to be in charge of. They all hate me, and I swear I can feel them all staring at me all the time."
"Don't you like that?" Percy threw his own orange t-shirt over his head and sat down across from her. She groaned.
"You know what I mean. Their eyes are like daggers."
"I'm sorry, Drew." Percy sighed. "I'd invite you to stay in here with me, but I don't think that go over well with Chiron… or Annabeth." He chuckled.
"No, it's fine. I mean I'll survive." She replied. "Or at least I hope I will. I feel like they're going to kill me sometimes." She let out a single laugh.
"They're not going to kill you." Percy assured her as he stood up and sat down next to her, leaning down with her and turning his head to look at her. "Look, you need to stop stressing so much. Everything is going to turn out fine." He got up again and moved toward the bathroom. "It's only been two weeks and tensions are high. But it'll calm down!"
Drew stood up and made her way to the window. She stared out into the open camp, which looked completely empty. It was still fairly early in the morning and a lot of the campers wouldn't have even been up yet. Her own cabin had been awake and bustling simply because they were always so intent on getting their chores done, though not necessarily because they wanted to but rather because the turnout was good. In fact, she was even surprised why Percy was up as early as he was, but she decided to leave it alone.
"I don't know Percy. Since Piper took over cabin leader, I've got no real reason to be at camp anymore."
"What do you mean?" She'd clearly been thinking about this a lot lately, and there was a hint of worry in Percy's voice now.
"Well I'm just saying." She shrugged, her gaze still fixated on the empty grounds of the camp. "I mean I've never been on a quest, I'm not cabin leader anymore, and I'm not even the only charmspeaker at camp anymore. It's like… what's the point?" Percy looked at her dumbfoundedly.
"Maybe you're forgetting the part where this camp protects you from everything that's trying to hunt you down? Of course you've got reason to be here, Drew, don't be so dramatic." She shrugged again.
"I'm just saying, this isn't very easy for me, Percy. I've never really been on this end of the social ladder. And it's a chance I'm being forced to adjust to, and I really hate it."
"Obviously no one is going to like not being popular, Drew."
"Easy for you to say, Mr. I Have A Girlfriend And Everyone Loves Me!" She snapped back at him.
"Yeesh, okay, I get it." He held up his hands in defense, taking a step back. "Look, do me a favor, okay?" He asked her sympathetically. She groaned. "No, it's easy, I promise! If you're really that worried that things aren't going to work out, go see my friend, Rachel Elizabeth Dare."
"That's the mortal girl, right? The one that took on the spirit of the Oracle?" Drew asked him, finally turning around to face him again.
"Yeah, exactly! She can see the future, and she'll tell you. Everything is going to be fine."
Drew sighed and moved towards the front door. "Fine. But if she tells me anything other than something reassuring, you owe me, Jackson."
Post-Story Notes: Just thought I should let anyone who follows me as an author know; I used to go by the pennam Kibble 93, but that was a really old thing that was really stupid that I honestly hated, so I changed it. Sorry if there was any confusion!
