10. Kenneth

Kenneth was pretty glad he couldn't see the cabin he was staying at. He heard Leo saying something about hating the colour, so it must've been horrid. The moment he stepped in, a million different types of aromas filled his nostrils, leaving him quite nauseous. He walked around, not sure where to go, until he bumped into someone who was only slightly shorter than himself.

"Oh! Sorry." said the person, who was most definitely male.

"No, it's alrigh'." he replied, "Is there anywhere I can, ya know, crash for the night?"

"Yeah. We have an extra bed in the guy's section of the cabin. There aren't that many of us. Only 5. Well, 6 now, including you." he explained, leading him towards wherever they were going, "My name is Mitchell, by the way."

Kenneth just nodded, not sure what to say. He couldn't tell what he looked like but he had a soothing voice that made him want to fall asleep. In a good way, mind you.

"Oh right. I should introduce myself. I'm Kenneth." Kenneth stated, smiling. Mitchell chuckled slightly, probably not matching the face to the name. When they stopped, Kenneth just assumed that they reached their destination.

"There's a bed at the end over there. Right next to the wall. There's a wooden box for you to put your stuff. Oh, right! You don't have much stuff, right? I'll go get you some stuff so then you can put them in your box! Don't worry, we've got loads extra, so it's alright!" Mitchell said enthusiastically, rushing off to get the, well, stuff. Kenneth had no idea what he meant but he just assumed Mitchell was talking about clothes. Kenneth really wanted to get out of his weird clothes. Just didn't feel right.

The first thing he took off were his earrings. He sadly didn't have his old hoops so he ended up putting the new golden ones back. He sat on the bed he was assigned and ran his hand along the large wooden chest at the end of the bed. Seemed neat enough, as long as this box didn't split into ten thousand compartments or something. When Mitchell returned, he plunked a bag on Kenneth's bed and brought in a few new clothes.

"Ah, thanks, bro! Appreciate it." thanked Kenneth, smiling at the direction he assumed Mitchell walked to. If this was his family, he was going to have to get used to it. Kenneth didn't even bother to find somewhere private to change. He just turned around and pulled off his fancy dress shirt and the weird golden bangle things that circled his arms. He quickly pulled on the soft, cotton T-shirt and switched his trousers for shorts. With that done, he dumped everything into the chest, not even bothering to pack it up neatly. He could feel the eyes of the other boys watching him, probably thinking about how not neat he was.

He climbed onto the bed and rested his head on the pillow, slowly drifting off to sleep.

But, of course, no sleep could be complete without a dream. Although, this dream was different to Kenneth. It was more like a memory than a dream. He knew this because he could see. It was the park he used to visit so often back when he lived in Hong Kong. He always loved it there since the rest of Hong Kong was pretty much industrial and polluted. The green grass and tall trees were just such a big contrast.

It was definitely a memory. It was when he fell off his bicycle when he was 9 and crashed head first onto the grass. Thank the gods it was grass and not pavement. Of course, his mom came to help-

That wasn't his mom that was helping him. This was someone else. Something else. It was a bright light that made him screw his eyes shut. He couldn't tell who or what it was, but he looked anyway. The presence of this thing seemed peaceful enough, but he was uncertain.

"Who are you?" he asked, mentally hitting himself for asking such a stupid question.

"You should know, my child." said the sweet voice. He couldn't actually pinpoint what it sounded like but it was probably the most beautiful thing he had ever heard.

"Are you... Aphrodite? My mom?" he guessed. He was sure that the ball of pretty presence nodded at him, making him feel a little bit better.

"I don't get it. I don't think I'm your child. Everyone else has such powerful... uh... auras, yeah. I bet they're beautiful, ya know. I ain't no pretty boy so I ain't sure how you got me as a child. You probably got me confused with the Thompson twins." he blurted out. He wasn't sure what was going through his mind but the ball of light let out a soft giggle.

"I cannot ask if you have seen Piper, but she is not like the rest either. Being my child does not mean that you have to be beautiful. Piper said it before. It's about spreading the beauty, not keeping it to yourself." she explained. Kenneth smiled a bit, but it slowly turned into a scowl when he thought about the first line a bit more.

"I'm blind. I don't know if people are beautiful or not." he stated bluntly.

"Yes, you do. You said so yourself. That their auras are powerful. You're special, Kenneth. You're blind love personified. You can convince people to fall heads over heels for one another and just as easily break it apart." she clarified, "I made a big decision, giving you this gift, my child, but I know you will use it well. The fact that you can fit auras together to create harmony is one thing, but because you cannot see, you cannot draw boundaries on love."

"...I lost you there, mom." he admitted, scratching his head slightly.

"You're a matchmaker."

"You mean like, I can make matches?" he questioned.

"No, child," she said, sighing, "You can convince people to fall in love with the right people and fall out of love with the wrong people. I chose you because you went blind. I cannot give this gift to my other children because they have sight, and sight is a form of judgement and love should not be judged, correct? Well, my time is up. Sleep well. You will understand soon enough."

With that, he woke up; beaded with sweat. He never had dreams like that before. Was he going crazy or did that really just happen? He wiped the sweat away and ran a hand through his hair, scowling as his hair flopped back into position. He was just going to lay his head down and wait until someone woke him up.

To tell the truth, nothing made sense to him anymore. He didn't want to become any weirder, but he just guessed it came with the whole demigod package deal. Really, he didn't want it. He didn't want to be a matchmaker, or whatever his mom called it. 'Boundaries on love'. He wondered what she meant by this. Couldn't she have spoken in proper English or something? Maybe he could just tell if people were meant for each other or not. He really didn't want to interfere with love life.

Aphrodite pls. Kenneth cannot comprehend all this at once. 8(

But you catch my drift, I ain't owning nothing