Being the daughter of Hecate sucks for many reasons, but my main grievance with my mother is simple - and it's not really her fault at all. It's the fault of my fellow campers. It's as simple as one word; stereotypes. Now, I'm not a part of any major social minority. I'm a middle class white girl, and I understand that I barely even understand a fraction of the hateful stereotypes that other people have to suffer through.
But gods do they suck. I'm expected to be enigmatic. Isolated, spooky, disdainful and superstitious. Ok, I am superstitious, but other than that - I'm not. Sure, I'm pretty introverted, and I have a weird sense of humor. But I'm not scary, just painfully awkward. I'm not mysterious, it's just hard for me to talk to people.
Either way, people give me a wide berth. Well, everyone except for Grover. He was Percy Jackson's best friend, helped him on all the quests and stuff, but after the war with Kronos, Percy just sort of… forgot about him. He's like me in one aspect - so, so awkward. I'm an interesting scene - Weird, creepy Isla Maddock, wearing way too many crystals, and a cheap-looking skirt with moons printed along the bottom.
Yeah, not the kind of person you want to see outside of your bedroom window at - I checked my watch - 1:00 in the morning. I scooped up a handful of rocks and hurled them at Grover's bedroom window nonetheless. They clattered against the glass. After a moment, Grover opened the window. It creaked, it seemed like he hadn't taken my advice to oil it. Grover's curly hair was flattened to one side from sleep, and he was wearing a baggy t-shirt so covered with holes he couldn't possibly wear it in public. It looked as though I had interrupted his sleep.
"Isla? It's like, three am!" he said, his voice irritated.
"That is wishful thinking, my friend. It is one am, and you shouldn't say my name! The counselors don't know I'm here, so neither do you." I wiggled my fingers in what I hoped was a mystic way. "You never saw me," I said, in an attempt at a hypnotic voice. I stopped when I saw his quizzical look. "Too weird?" I asked.
"Too weird," he confirmed. I sighed.
"Well, I'm pretty much the definition of 'too weird'." Grover rolled his eyes, and jumped nimbly out of his window.
"You're not weird, just… special," his laugh sounded more like a bleat.
"Yeah, well, I couldn't sleep," I said. "And I wanted to show you something in the forest."
"In the forest?!" he asked. He laughed again, this time more nervous. "No way! I don't care if you want to go into the forest at night, I'm not gonna risk my life."
"You're not going to risk your life. We're just going to go for a quick walk to look at something cool! C'mon Grover, you can't lame your way out of this one." Without waiting for his response, I started walking towards the forest, Grover complaining about how annoying I was the whole way.
