In Eva's fourteen years at Camp Half Blood, she'd seen lots of new campers come in. Particularly to her very own cabin. For some reason, there had been a surplus of children of Eirenne in the past two years. All twenty of Eirenne's children had to stay in the Hermes cabin seeing as she didn't have her own cabin.
Eva had always lived at Camp Half Blood and didn't plan on leaving. She taught herself all the subjects she saw fit and trained harder than the rest of the campers. It wasn't that she had many goals for her future, she just wanted to be prepared for the worst. When all her new half-siblings started moving in, however, she was far from ecstatic. Eva was the oldest out of all of them and therefore responsible for the wellbeing of all of them.
The most tolerable sibling of Eva's was by far Jackson. He was twelve years old, yet her understood exactly how she felt. Their mother was the goddess of peace, so most of their siblings stayed away from most training. Eva had always had a knack for sword fighting, so she spent countless hours a week practicing. Jackson was similar to Eva in that he'd lived at Camp Half Blood for most of his life. Growing up in the Hermes cabin gave him insight to archery, so he loved to go out and target practice with whoever he could drag along. The rest of Eirenne's children, however, remained peaceful like their mother.
"Come on, come on, come on!" Jackson cried, pulling on the sleeve of Eva's bright blue sweatshirt. "You're gonna make us late and there won't be a target left to practice at!"
"Calm down," Eva murmured, smearing on a third coat of lip gloss to make it look less baby pink and more hot pink.
Jackson stuck out his bottom lip in a pout. "You don't understand! I need to get in a few hours today! School starts tomorrow and I'll be loaded with homework!"
"It's pouring out," Eva stated. "There won't be anyone there no matter how late we arrive."
"Just hurry up," Jackson pushed.
Eva rolled her eyes and walked out of the Hermes cabin, letting the door slam behind her. She wanted Jackson to realize that she had things she wanted to do today, too. It wasn't like Eva's whole life revolved around babysitting her younger siblings. Jackson scampered out the door behind her and walked with her in silence to the archery course.
As it turned out, Eva was right about being the only people who would be practicing archery in the rain at six in the morning. Well, almost right. There was a young girl at the very end target. Her skin had a green tint to it and her long brown hair was pulled back in a loose yet elegant braid. She was wearing a flowing light yellow dress that reached just below her knees. There was a ring of flowers atop her head like a crown.
"You practice, I'll be right back," Eva said, walking over to the girl.
The girl noticed Eva walking towards her almost right away and started to run off.
"Wait!" Eva cried, chasing after the girl.
It seemed like being chased only made the beautiful girl more nervous. She kept running and running, leaving Eva almost out of breath.
"Please, just talk to me," Eva begged.
As soon as the girl heard Eva's plea, she stopped dead in her tracks and turned around. Eva hadn't gotten a very good look at her face before she had run away, so she hadn't quite realized what she looked like. She had ears that came to a point at the top and a small yet sharp nose. She truly was stunning.
"I'm not going to hurt you," Eva stated. "It's just that I've never seen you around before. I know all the campers and if you're new, I'd like to get to know you. Maybe we could even become friends?"
The girl looked up shyly, meeting Eva's kind eyes. "My name is Meliae…"
Eva smiled brightly. "Nice to meet you, Maliae. My name is Eva. If I may ask, why exactly are you at Camp Half Blood? Who's your godly parent?"
"I-I don't have one…" Meliae stumbled.
"Oh…" Eva said, not sure what she meant. Everyone at Camp Half Blood was, well, a half-blood. That's just how it worked.
Meliae looked down. "I should go…"
"No, it's fine. Stay. All I want to do is get to know you," Eva said.
"You wouldn't want to know me," Meliae stated.
"Alright, then you can get to know me first. My name is Eva. I've lived at Camp Half Blood for my whole life, meaning fourteen years. My mom is Eirenne and I have nineteen half-siblings. I know everyone here, so I want to know you."
"All you need to know is my name."
"If you don't want to be friends, that's fine. I respect your decision. If you ever change your mind, you can usually find me in the Hermes cabin."
On that note, Eva turned and started back to the target where Jackson was practicing. If she was being honest, she felt a little rejected by Eva. Everyone at camp had been completely fine with meeting her.
"What were you doing?" Jackson asked as Eva sat down in the grass beside his feet.
"None of your business," Eva grumbled.
"You tell me everything," Jackson said. "You even told me about the Uprising. Why can't you tell me something as simple as where you've been for the past five minutes?"
Eva glared at Jackson. It was true that she told him everything, but that didn't mean she wanted him knowing about the first time she'd been rejected by a new camper just by being friendly. He was sure to use it to torment her for weeks.
Eventually, Eva gave in. Jackson was way too sweet to refuse. "You see, I was talking to the girl that was practicing at the end target."
Jackson rolled his eyes. "Obviously. I want to know what happened."
"Well, she started running so I chased after her," Eva started. "After she finally stopped, I tried being friendly with her. It didn't work. She said that I wouldn't want to know her. After that, I left."
"I can't imagine anyone not wanting to be friends with you," said Jackson.
Eva sighed. "I'm going to go back to the cabin."
"But I haven't finished target practice yet!" Jackson complained.
"You can stay here for a while longer. I'll be in the cabin when you come back," Eva promised.
Jackson frowned and turned back to practicing his archery skills. It saddened Eva to see Jackson upset over something she had said, but she let it slide. She was not in the mood to feel worse than she already did. Eva walked back to the Hermes cabin without so much as a glance back at her brother.
Back in the Hermes cabin, Eva knew something was wrong. It was a rainy day and early in the morning, so most of her cabin mates were in the Big House doing puzzles or whatever it is that they did when it was rainy. All the people who stayed at the cabin were all grouped around something. As Eva got closer, she realized it was less of a something and more of a someone.
"What's happening?" Eva inquired, not able to get close enough to see who they were all gathered around.
"It's the new camper," Naomi, one of the oldest unclaimed campers, answered.
"Meliae?" Eva asked.
"His name is Gabe," a camper close to Eva hissed. "Now shh!"
Gabe looked around Eva's age, which was comforting. A new camper in her age group usually made for a new friend. Gabe had raven hair and chestnut brown eyes. Based on his complexion, he was most likely Korean. It was evident that he was talking, or at least moving his mouth, but Eva couldn't hear it because she was too far away.
The residents of the Hermes cabin knew Eva well enough to not be bother by her pushing past all of them to make it to the front to talk to Gabe. She had always been the go to person with new campers. It was probable that lots of them were as confused as Eva was about why she wasn't informed of Gabe.
Eva realized the two people talking to Gabe as Maria and Joe, the only full siblings in the entirety of the Hermes cabin. It wasn't that Maria and Joe were mean, they were just very closed off. They kept everything quiet.
"Excuse me," Eva butted in. "What's going on?"
"We have a new camper," Joe said, clearly annoyed.
"I know," Eva sighed. "I want to know why everyone's crowded around him like we're wild animals and he's a fresh piece of meat."
Gabe looked up, making eye contact with Eva. "There's actually a reason," He said, his voice raspy yet not creepy. "Everyone's super freaked out because my parents are both half-bloods. I'm a half-blood too, but I don't have a 'godly parent'. Instead, I have two godly grandparents."