Deep breath. And out... And in... And out of the frying pan... And into the fire... Remember to drop something nice into the campfire... And pray to the gods, making sure to curse Hera... Sit back down at the table again... Start eating... And curse mom again for good measure.
Most kids live worry about whether they'll pass a spelling test, or whether the school bully'll duff them up, or the demigods out there worry if a monster will do that instead. Not George. George lived in constant fear that he'd wake up turned back into a hankie. It wasn't so long ago that he'd got over being an accidental culmination of his dad's tears and Hera's godly sweat. So it was understandable that he still checked his arm every morning to make sure it hadn't unexpectedly changed.
George put a forkful of beans into his mouth, and then stopped - straightened the pepper pot - counted out the same number of beans as there had been last mouthful - and continued. He wasn't sure if it was his ADHD or his OCD - a surprisingly good combination, he had discovered - but he instantly felt happier.
"George!" Came the excited cry as the small boy came running over. "Hello!"
George just stopped himself from groaning. The kid - Nico something-or-other - had only been at camp a couple of days, but he already seemed to idolize George, and as annoying as Nico was, George didn't want to disappoint him.
"What's up, Nico?" He replied, almost convincingly enthusiastic. But Nico didn't hear the exhaustion in George's voice. By then, the boy had started a rather gabbled blow-by-blow account of his day and George could only hear occasional words like "Sword" or "Lake" or "300+ attack damage with the caduceus". But despite what Nico believed, the day didn't sound as pleasant as it could have been. Nico was a good kid, but he really needed to think about what people said to him. Maybe stop taking "You're so much smarter than you seem" as a compliment. But George knew Nico wouldn't, so it was left to him. He should start charging for this sort of thing.
"Um, Nico? Who said that to you?"
"Oh, Drew, in Cabin 10! She's so nice, she reminds me -"
But Nico's words fell on deaf ears. Of course, George knew the girl. She'd been the one to show him around camp. He'd actually promised to look after the girl, so frigid at the time. But that didn't matter now.
Drew was waiting for him. She knew what she'd done, and she knew George couldn't hurt her. She was really a very clever girl and knew despite his many faults, George would never dream of breaking his promise to look after her. He was too good for that. Tragically good, she thought.
And George? George wasn't scared. He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew that looking after her was not the same as being good to her. There was a way out, not least if someone special was involved. Because no matter how much he hated it, he was Hera's son.
(OK, this is actually going a lot better than I expected. I don't know if forty-eight views in two days is a lot, but it's more than I expected. Might do this more often.)