This is the last request I have so send some more in if you want! Also this the last random post before I start the schedule!
It is a PJO one shot and it was requested by Bean 89. By the way I do love the idea of this OC so I really hope you have some stories with her!
Ari really tried to fit in. She tried to blend in with everyone else. She figured it would be better to fit in and blend than to stand out. Her mentality was if she blended in then people would leave her alone. Luckily, she was blessed with a plain face, she wasn't especially beautiful or ugly. She was a Plain Jane and she was happy about that. She dressed like a normal 16 year old, or at least normal for Camp Half-Blood: orange camp t-shirt, black leggings and large navy jacket. Based on outfit alone, she would never stand out in a crowd. She could easily fit in with the Athena children, due to her elbow, long golden blonde hair, always in a low ponytail. Though her plan was too fit in, she loved dying her hair. To comprise, dyed gave herself infrequent indigo streaks.
You would think after 4 years in camp, she would've learnt that she couldn't fit in fully. Half of the problem was her eyes; they were two different colours. Her left was a bright blue, similarly to that of children of Zeus. The right was silver. She liked to say it was just grey so that people believe it was slightly normal. She had tried to hide her eyes by distracting people with large, orange and black glasses, but it didn't work very well. She doesn't wear her glasses anymore. She tried coloured contacts but the colours never showed up. You would think after 4 years in camp, she would've learnt that she couldn't fit in fully. You'd think that after gaining four beads on her camp necklace, she would've learnt that she couldn't blend in. Daughters of Clotho don't get to blend in. Daughters of one of the Fates, don't get to fit in.
Ari stared at her shoes as she walked to the Mess Hall. She studied each crease in her black and grey shoes as she walked. She hadn't put on matching socks again. Though Ari wanted to fit in, she really didn't want to talk to anyone. People usually just shut her out and she was okay with. She didn't mind being anti-social. It meant she didn't have to participate in things she didn't want to. She had barley participated in the last two wars, she helped with battle strategy but she didn't go up and give people pep talks, like other campers did.
"Aurianna! Ari!" Piper shouted from across the Mess Hall. Beckoning Ari to her table. Sitting with her was Nico and Percy. Piper, Nico and Percy were the only people Ari really talked to, Piper was outgoing and extroverted so, once she became a year-round counsellor with Nico and Percy, she noticed that Ari didn't talk many people, she, thankfully, took it open herself to become friends with Ari. They soon become fast friends, making Ari's year a little less lonely. "Ari! Over here!"
No longer staring at her shoes, Ari made her way up the Mess Hall steps, towards the table. She wished she had been looking at her shoes, as she tripped over the last step. She fell face first onto the concrete, just beside the Hermes table.
"Ha! If only you saw that coming!" A voice from the table said, putting emphasis on the word saw, mocking Ari's unwilling power to randomly glance into the future. Ari looked up at her tormentor and groaned. There sat, Lillian Jones, a fellow year-rounder who had made it her mission to torment Ari relentlessly. Trying to ignore the insults and 'That's So Raven' comments, Ari picked herself up and continued walking towards the table.
"Hey guys." Ari said, trying to remain cheerful.
'Hey." Nico said, busy texting.
"Hey Ari." Piper said in singsongy manner, glaring at the Hermes table before turning her attention to Ari.
"Hmph." Percy grunted, his face stuffed with blue waffles and bacon. Ari assumed he was saying "Hey".
"Why do you let them bully you so much? Why don't you fight back or just like punch them. Oo, can I punch them?" Piper said, talking a mile a minute, as she usually does.
"What.. who's bullying you?" Percy said, inbetween bites.
"Hades Percy, do you not pay attention to anything but your campers? We get it, you've got like a billion classes a day and such but catch up." Nico said, looking up from his phone to hit Percy. "And no Piper, you cannot punch anyone, especially someone who isn't a counsellor. You're already on thin ice for trying to burn down the Big House."
"I DID NOT TRY TO BURN DOWN THE BIG HOUSE!" Piper said, all to loudly. Nearby tables stopped talked and glanced at Piper, but her death stares quickly made them turn away. "It wasn't even my bloody idea. It was this idiot's." Piper hit the back of Percy's head, almost making him choke on his waffles.
"Hmph!" He said, which Ari again assumed meant "Hey!".
"He wanted to know if his water was faster than Leo's fire. It's not my fault I was the judge! Or that the Big House was just in their line of fire!" Piper shout whispered.
"Right.. okay then whatever you say." Nico sarcastically said, looking back at his phone.
"Who are you even texting so often anyway?" Piper said, snatching his phone away." Oooh, Wiiiilll. Awww. Nico's got a boyfriend. Nico's got a boyfriend." Piper said loudly, announcing it to the Mess Hall.
"Give that back!" Nico, reaching for his phone but Piper held it far away. Nico resorted to chasing her around the Mess Hall, grabbing for his phone. Percy rolled his eyes, putting down his fork reluctantly, before helping Piper torment Nico, catching and throwing the phone between them.
Realising that she was no longer included in the conversation, and not wanting to feel like an outsider, Ari left the Mess Hall, not having eaten anything. Again, staring at her shoes, she walked to the training grounds, hurrying once she saw that the Hermes table had started to leave. To avoid confrontation, Ari took a long route through the woods. As she was reaching the training grounds, everything went black. She leaned against what she assumed was a tree and waited for her vision to start. She couldn't help when they happened, she didn't have anyone to train her in them. Frankly, she didn't want to be trained to control them. She hated her vision. She feared them. They gave her unavoidable pain and she didn't want to become some sort of weapon or battle strategist. Besides, they were usually about someone dying or getting hurt. And the end result was usually unavoidable, no matter how hard she tried to stop it. If she was ever to be trained in them so wanted to be trained so that she would never have to experience them again.
She saw the training ground. It looked like the same day. She saw a guy, standing opposite three training dummies. As he swing for the first one a series of arrows fly over the training ground wall, Ari assumed from the nearby archery range. Most of the arrows hit the wall but one struck the guy square in the chest. He fell to the ground, clearly in pain. The arrow had managed to break through his armour, though how she did not know. The the vision faded, Ari saw the man topple over and lie on the ground, dying.
Ari's world became light again as the vision ended. She stood up, against the tree, her head hurting from the vision. She tried not to focus on the pain and instead on her surrounding sounds. She heard swords clashing together from the training, the wind howling, and leaves rustling. From far away, she heard arrows being shot and a voice shouting.
"Oh Zeus, I shot it to high, it's gone over the wall."
Ari's perked her head up, she could still feel the pain in her head but she ignored it. She dashed through the remaining woods, into the training grounds. She looked around. There were people training and sparring. There was a group of people entering the grounds; the Hermes cabin, but they weren't important. Then, she spotted him, a guy training on three dummies. He was just about the swing for the first one. Ari sprinted at full speed to him, spotting the arrows flying over the wall. Her head hurt too much for her to be able to yell at him so she did the next best thing. She tackled him. The arrow just missed him, but struck her in the shoulder. She doubled over in pain, forcing him to drop his sword, on her foot. Luckily it was the butt of the sword but it still hurt.
"Zeus!" She yelled in pain. She had a migraine, her shoulder had an arrow in it and now her foot hurt. Her world started to go dark as she faded into unconsciousness. The training ground was spinning as people gathered around her, in the arms of the guy she saved. She could hear people gasping and a certain girl laughing.
"Hey, you alright?" Was the last thing she heard, coming from the guy. Leo Valdez.
When Ari next regained consciousness she was in the infirmary. Her shoulder had large bandage on it but at least her head and foot no longer hurt. Three people surrounded her: Lillian Jones and two of her goons. Ari groaned mentally but smiled at her tormentor.
"Hey Lillian. Um.. how long have I been out?" Ari said through her teeth.
"About a day but really Aurianna? Is it not enough that no one likes you? Did you really have to go and tackle a guy? And one of the Heroes of Olympus as well? I mean I've heard of having crushes but I think that that was more of a stalker-y thing to do. Man if I had known you were so boy crazy I would have..." Lillian sneered through a fake smile. She was cut off from a voice in the doorway of the room.
"Dude that's enough. The fuck is wrong with you? She saved me life, that arrow could've seriously injured me. Anyway stop being such a fucking prick." The voice said. Lillian and her goons stopped sneering at Ari and turned towards the door. Leo Valdez stood there, arms crossed, glaring at the three girls, there as a short of fire in her eyes. As he entered the room, Piper followed, in the same pose as Leo.
"Yeah, that's right bitches. And stop being so bitchy or I swear to Hades..."
"It's chill Piper, thanks for standing up for me but you heard what Nico said in the Mess Hall." Ari said sleepily.
"Still! They're just so.." Piper started moaning childishly.
"Chill Piper." Leo reinforced.
"Fine. Ugh. But are you okay, Ari? We heard you had a vision and saved this idiot?"
"Yeah but I'm okay now. Are you okay, Leo?" Aurianna smiles lazily at the counsellors, trying not to worry them.
"Oh yeah! I'm fine. Thanks to you that is. Thank you so much for saving me!"
"Yeah, we wouldn't want you to die.. again." Piper raised an eyebrow, referring to the Battle with Gaia, where Leo sacrificed himself, only to return a week later with Festus.
"It was no problem, thank you for stopping Lillian just now." Ari said, pretending to ignore Piper, but giggling to herself.
"Yeah, I guess, we're kind of even now." Leo said, slapping Piper on the shoulder for her comment.
"Even? Please, she saved your dumbass life, all you did was scare off a couple of high school bi.." Piper commented, getting herself another slap, this time on the head.
"You know.. you could've just taken me out for coffee to say thanks." Ari said, again ignoring Piper but again giggling to herself. She found herself batting her eyelashes. Leo was kind of handsome. She had never really seen it, always associating him with humour or brains, rather than looks, like she did with Jason. She, now, she started seeing him in a different light.
"Oh. Well, I was planning on doing that as well. You're pretty cute." Leo smirked and swaggered out of the room, turning back only to wink.
Piper groaned and rolled her eyes before following her flirtatiously friend.
Ari found her face getting hotter as she blushed. She giggled slightly before biting her lip. Maybe she didn't need to fit in all that much.
