The whole town, we hooped and hollered
She drove away, nobody stopped her
Na na na na, I'll say it again
Someone give me an Amen
Drew
Her birthday, ironically enough, was Valentine's Day. And she got to camp, ironically enough, on April Fool's Day.
Probably should have seen the signs.
When she gets there, she's eleven and she does not look beautiful. Not even pretty, in fact. Lenny, the satyr at her school, had called her house at 6 am on a Saturday (what type of sick person does that?) and told her to pack a suitcase with everything she owned. Well, maybe two suitcases. Still not much. Drew didn't bother to wake her dad up, just left a note on the counter next to the coffee machine saying, I'm gone.
She doubts he would have noticed otherwise.
Most parents would have called the authorities when their only daughter disappeared, leaving only her fluffy pink bedroom behind. Then again, Drew's father had never been conventional.
She finally gets to this stupid camp at seven in the evening, and the car ride was too bumpy to apply make-up during it. Drew watches the video, rolls her eyes at the gory parts (so Hollywood) then gets assigned a spot on the floor in the Hermes cabin. Some nice unclaimed camper who had been there a while named Baina gave her a pillow with a pack of tissues tucked discreetly inside the case.
Drew would never admit it, but she used every single one that first night sleeping on the cold, unforgiving floor.
Within two months, she's claimed. And suddenly, she's stunning, shockingly gorgeous, and boys are falling all over themselves to move her stuff to the Aphrodite cabin. Drew decides she likes the attention, and pecks one of the boys, Pollux, on the lips as he leaves. She decides she also likes how his cheeks stained red as the wine his father brewed. The blessing of Aphrodite lasts one week, a really long time, but then Drew is back to her normal self. Light mocha skin with a few red pimples near her nose, stick straight black hair, and plain brown slanted eyes. Luckily, her newfound family is more than willing to give her a makeover. Trust me, pink brings out brown, and, let me teach you to curl your hair! She looks like a model every day, just like everyone else in her cabin. But then, she notices things. She didn't leave her blush on that vanity, and she always puts her favorite yellow dress in the second drawer, not third.
Those bitches.
Year after year, Drew stays year round at camp, where her only job is to flirt and look pretty. She starts dating Pollux, and it feels nice to have someone who always takes her side (and who's a really good kisser to boot). One by one, the older campers go out into the real world, never to return. When she's fourteen, Silena becomes head counselor. Drew's cool with that. Silena never stole anybody's stuff, and actually started punishing people who did. She was always quick to give a sincere compliment or extra pegasi-riding lessons.
But then her dad calls.
Apparently, he just got remarried, and her new step-mom wanted to meet the daughter who's been away at an elite private boarding school on Long Island. The best part? She has a daughter Drew's age! Come back home, Drew, spend time with your real family! Doesn't that sound fun?
Drew didn't think it was possible to hate someone that much. Her freaking dad, owner of the Starbucks chain, and his stupid little 30-year-old trophy wife (Drew does the math, that means she got pregnant at sixteen) want her back. After three years, her dad thinks he can just call her up and enter her life again. Umm, no.
Well, Chiron apparently doesn't share her opinion. She gets only one night to rant about the injustice of it to Pollux, who listens and squeezes her hand. Then she's sent to her father's mansion in South Carolina.
"Oh, hi, you must be Drew!" No, I'm Cassie. The other daughter he hates.
"This is my daughter, Ali!" You have got to be kidding. The girl has long, wavy auburn hair, large green eyes, and just a few freckles on her nose. She is tall and slender. She is beautiful. And she doesn't even need makeup.
"Well, Ali plays travel soccer and is the school volleyball champion! She also does swim team in the summer. What sports do you play?" I do archery and sword fighting, but I'm best at the lava wall.
"Oh, nothing," is all she really says. Trophy Wife purses her lips.
"Well, not everyone can be athletic. It's Ali's thing. You just need to find your own!" You just need to burn in hell. A week later, Drew snaps.
"You know what my thing is? Putting on makeup and being a bitch. Now excuse me, I have places I would rather be."
So Drew ran away for the second time.
She gets back, and runs to her favorite tree in the forest, the one with clover growing near it and really soft grass. But she can't fling herself down on it, because two people are already occupying it.
Pollux and Silena are completely intertwined.
Drew swears she hears her heart shatter into a million pieces. But the only thing worse than losing is letting people know you lost, so she starts gluing pieces back together. And she starts building walls around her heart. Brick by brick, she becomes more of a bitch. Sounds almost poetic, really.
Drew becomes head counselor after Silena dies (and good riddance to all this 'hero' business, Silena was a traitor to more than Luke). And she does something uncharacteristically nice. She brings back the Rite of Passage. That way, no more of her siblings would have to suffer heartbreak.
(Well, they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.)
She does have rules though. No cheating allowed in breaking the heart. No maiming or killing. Of course, nobody appreciates these moderations. Drew knows that she is not popular, in fact, her only friends are Elene, Cass, and Baina. But it's enough for people to think she's popular, to feel revered (even if it's from fear, not awe).
Then she shows up. Piper McLean. With her choppy hair and mismatched clothes and kaleidoscope eyes (Baina has the same eyes, nobody ever made a big deal), she's pretty without even trying. Wow, she's beautiful with no makeup. Sounds disgustingly like Ali.Then, she tries to bitch at Drew for flirting with Jason. He's hot, and sweet, and not the type to cheat on his girlfriend. Unfortunately, Piper convinced herself (and almost convinced Jason) that she was his girlfriend. Bitch, bitch, bitch. Hon, he didn't even know your name three hours ago, so I have just as much of a right to flirt with him as you do. Then Piper's not letting her go on that quest, even though she fought in a war and trained for five years and is clearly way more qualified. And when she gets the blessing, she tries to wipe it off. How freaking disrespectful can you get? Why would you not want to be gorgeous? She hates that her dad is famous and she got to grow up in a mansion?
How. Fake. Can. You. Get.
At least Drew doesn't try to be someone she's not. She's a bitch, inside and out. The only people she will defend and care for are her three best friends. So what if she tells Lacy that her braces would be less noticeable in silver or gray? (She said it in a snotty tone.) So what that she gives Mitchell half her emergency chocolate stash when his first girlfriend breaks up with him? (She didn't leave a note on the box.) And so what she threw her most comfortable hiking boots into the pile for Piper? (She stole them from Ali anyway.)
Piper comes back from her quest, all successful, and has the nerve to challenge Drew to the counsellorship of the cabin. No matter that she hasn't spent a full day at Camp and has never seen a schedule, so what that she never even heard of cabin inspection, Piper's nice. Then she threatens to catapult Drew across Long Island Sound if she goes near Jason. Well, sorry hon, but he's not yours. And she didn't catapult Silena across the Sound (looking back on it, that would be a great idea) and she was dating Pollux for two and a half years.
But it doesn't matter if nobody else can see Piper's true colors. Drew does. And she never had many friends to begin with, so she's not really losing anything now. But still, there was that moment with Jason when the world seemed sweet and right in a way that it hadn't since Pollux, and she wishes she could just have one more chance.
She was not her father's favorite daughter, so she doesn't mind too much if she's not her mom's either.
Reyna
She was happy. All day, she got to do makeup and hair and swim and sunbathe and practice spells with her big sister. And all the other sorceresses felt like big sisters too. Circe was like their favorite aunt. She was safe and content.
Then that boy showed up. That feisty blonde cared about him too much and just had to save him. Reyna wouldn't have minded, but they had to set free the worst, the pirates. The grinning face of Edward Teach when he realizes he can have his revenge is forever burned into her mind. He kills her favorite aunt, all her older sisters. Except Hylla. Her real older sister. Then, him and his crew drag them on to some boat and do unspeakable things to them, night after night. And that dirty feeling takes years to wash off.
Finally, her and Hylla steal some swords and murder them all in their beds (who said they had to fight fair?). They have no clue how to control the ship, but the winds just seem to blow it towards this huge red bridge. They pull up alongside a dock, and they jump off. They run towards the city they see, and it's a glorious first glance of New Rome with her chiton blowing in the wind and her braid whipping around her face, holding Hylla's hand the whole way.
Their sorceress powers and sharp fighting skills (not to mention swords) get them good recommendations into the Second Cohort. Reyna loves the vigorous training, and beating the older campers. She was never the best at magic, but she was the best at fighting. She doesn't even mind the boys too much. Circe taught that all men were pigs, and the pirates reinforced this message. But Reyna believes everyone deserves a second chance. After all, isn't that what Camp Jupiter was to her? Boys were definitely inferior, and infinitely stupider, but not necessarily sexist Neanderthals. Unfortunately, Hylla doesn't share her views. Then again, she was older at Circe's island, and better at magic. Circe told Hylla, who was seventeen, things that she wouldn't dare tell twelve-year-old Reyna. In the end, Hylla hears about the Amazon's and decides to join them. Reyna begs and pleads but she doesn't cry (she refuses to cry after the pirates) but Hylla won't stay. She gives Reyna a ring, says she has a matching one, so that they can always remember each other. If someone shows her that ring, she will know Reyna wants Hylla to help him or her. She gives Reyna a tight last hug, and then walks through the tunnel to the real world without looking back.
Camp seems a lot scarier without Hylla. She doesn't dare be alone with any boys (she knows where that goes), and people don't respect her as much without big, scary, Hylla backing her up.
The probatio campers were sent on a field trip into San Francisco to learn to use public transportation (hey, it's important). All the cars and people and noise scares the Pluto out of Reyna, who had been raised on a small tropical island seemingly stuck hundreds of years in the past. The centurion from the Fifth Cohort is named Jason, and he has golden blond hair, bright blue eyes and is the same age as Reyna. She hears a lot of girls swooning over him, but she scoffs. She promises herself to never make a fool out of herself because of a boy.
He may be from the lame Fifth Cohort, but he's a son of Jupiter, has been at camp eight years, and is a really good fighter. So Reyna can respect him. He's funny sometimes too, making faces at people who bump into Reyna instead of laughing at her disgusted expressions. They turn a corner into an alley; 'shortcut' Jason says, and there it is. Huge, green and brown, with too many red eyes to count and frothing at the mouths. Reyna recognizes it from her Monster fighting class.
A Hydra. It immediately swipes at Jason with it's spiked tail, and he goes down oozing yellow pus out of the slices. All the other probatios back up. One girl bursts into tears. Reyna just curls her lips in hatred. She almost considered Jason a friend, and no stupid monster will mess with a friend of hers.
She pulls her sword and stabs it in the chest. It hisses but isn't hurt. The only place she can cut it is the neck. She sidesteps one head and spins as a second assaults her. It's a dangerous dance between sword and fang, poison and blood, and Hylla and Hydra are all mixed up inside her head. She realizes all the heads are gone, and remembers she needs to burn the stumps. Jason has regained consciousness, and weakly tosses a packet of matches he was keeping in his jacket pocket. She strikes one on her arm (she picked up some tricks from the pirates) and tosses it at the first stump. The flames flicker to the next one, and the next, until it's all up in beautiful orange flares.
When she gets back to camp, she gets her SPQR tattoo and a bronze leaf of honor. Everyone congratulates her, and she craves more of this admiration and respect. But the best part may have been when Jason walks over and says,
"Thanks for saving my life," with this little grin and a twinkle in his eyes. And all Reyna can say is,
"Never take a shortcut again." Before walking off. But from then on, Reyna and Jason are good friends. And in two years, they're best friends. Reyna's centurion of the Second Cohort. They fought sea monsters and dracaena and they even caught a glimpse of Saturn up on Mt. Tam. Then Jason defeats Saturn in combat and Reyna leads the rest of the legion and both the praetors are killed and the next thing she knows, her and Jason are raised up on shields.
She feels like every god in the world was smiling down on her. The dogs, Aurum and Augum, like her better than Jason, which she teases him for. He insists on the bowl of jelly beans on their desk, and she smiles in defeat. Octavian is worrying her, though, she thinks he may make some power play, so she calls in Jason for a private meeting. He looks so adorable, leaning forward with his chin resting on his hand and his eyebrows screwed up with worry, that she leans over and kisses him on the cheek before he leaves. His face is split in a big, goofy grin, and she thinks hers is too. So much for not swooning.
That was the last time she saw Jason Grace.
For the first time in four years, Reyna sits down on her bed and cries. Not ladylike, silent tears; but snotty, heaving sobs. Afterwards, she puts on her strong mask and rallies the troops. Not much she can do now but lead, and pray to every god (even Pluto and Neptune) that Jason will return.
Meeting
Dinner the day after Argo II lands
Drew surveyed the pavilion, bored out of her mind. Elene and Baina had a "lady" emergency (i.e. bleeding through shorts) and had to run back to the ship to change. Drew didn't mind the alone time too much, but did want to talk to someone. And since Piper, not many people had been willing to talk to her. She spots a girl with a long dark braid over one shoulder sitting at a bench all by her lonesome. Drew recognizes her as Reyna, the praetor (and the one Jason remembered). Why would she be alone? Whatever, Drew wasn't one to judge. She walked over and delicately plopped herself on the bench next to the girl. She crossed one tan leg over the other and inspected her pedicure.
"Hey," she drawls. The girl glances up but doesn't smile.
"Hello," she answered.
"Drew."
"Reyna."
"Believe me honey, I already know all about you." This causes Reyna's eyebrows to furrow.
"How?" she questions. Drew leans back leisurely.
"Well, you're obviously the praetor, pretty high position. Yet you're sitting alone. Says something about your personality. Or other people's personality's, I guess. Oh, and Jason remembered you," she smirks slightly with the last sentence. Despite being out of favor, Drew knew how to make friends. Reyna whips her head to face Drew.
"He remembered me?"
"Well, after a little while. Even then it was fuzzy. Got a bit better over time. Not sure Piper dear was helping with that, though," Drew waves a hand nonchalantly. Now she notices Reyna's eyes dart over to wear Jason is holding the hand of a Native American girl.
"Piper, huh?" Reyna whispers. Drew can see the heartbreak in her eyes, only because those same eyes looked at her in the mirror for years.
"Yeah. I think it's a stupid name, personally, but who am I to disrespect tradition," Drew rolls her eyes. Reyna's mouth quirks.
"What type of fudged up tradition makes you name your kid after an instrument?" Drew snorts. (Shocking, yes.)
"I have no idea. Tradition isn't as big a deal at Camp Half- Blood as it is here. Tell me, how long do you wait before someone becomes, um, centurion, I believe?" Drew asks innocently.
"At least a year, normally longer. Why?" Reyna tilts her head.
"Well, little miss Guitar over there came to camp, got a quest the same night, came back a week later, landed in my pizza, then became head counselor. She had never even seen a schedule, or spent a full day at camp, or suffered cabin inspection," Drew gets more and more worked up, and has no idea why she is pouring out her feelings to this girl she just met. But Reyna looks sympathetically enraged.
"Wow. That would never happen here. There should be rules put in place or something. Were you the head counselor?"
"Yeah," Drew gulps. "Yeah." Reyna awkwardly puts an arm around her and squeezes. Somehow, it makes Drew feel a lot better.
"So, you like Jason?" Drew smiles.
"Umm…" Reyna looked terrified.
"Daughter of Aphrodite here. Killer instinct," Drew points one perfectly painted finger at herself. "Want the dirt on Guitar over there?"
"Only if you let me tell you all about Mr. Sunshine," Reyna smirked. They both burst out laughing at the (admittedly dorky) nicknames.
Odd how the two coldest people in the camps were so instantly warm with each other.
But maybe they weren't even cold to begin with.
Word count before A/N: 3292
Author's Note: Oh my gosh. That took forever to type. But the idea wouldn't leave me alone! I feel as though Drew and Reyna get so much undeserved hate. So I wrote a story where they are both awesome :) I obviously changed a few things (Drew goes to the same school as Sadie Kane), but on the whole tried to keep it true to the amazing Riordan. Sorry for glossing over Reyna's life, but we don't know much. Lyrics at the top are form the song Amen by Eden's Edge. Didn't fit the story, but I am obsessed with that song. Leave me a review and tell me what you thought of the story! (Even if you thought it sucked.)