Dinner was awkward. Drew had to sit with the rest of her siblings because that was the rules.
She collected her food-barbecue again-from the dryad, and walked over to the fire.
"Aphrodite," she put her best pork in the fire. The smell that came back to her was vanilla and ginger, like chai tea. "Please don't do this to me, Mom."
She sighed, knowing there was almost no chance of Aphrodite actually listening to her.
She sat down at the very end of the table, staring down at her food.
"Are you okay?" Mitchell asked, "You've been ignoring us."
Drew glanced up at him and accidentally met eyes with Piper. She looked sad.
"I'm fine."
"Piper wouldn't tell us what you were fighting about last night," Lacy began.
Drew sighed heavily.
"But I was wondering," she continued, "where did you stay? You stormed out."
"Zeus cabin," Drew answered shortly.
It was only when Lacy looked shocked that Drew realized how that could be taken. "Nothing happened," she said hastily, "We weren't even alone."
The table lapsed into silence.
"Oi, Lacy!"
A boy called from the Hephaestus cabin called out.
Lacy turned pink, "Yes, Aaron?"
"Wanna go on a date this weekend?"
"Wha..." Lacy fumbled around for words, "S-sure."
"Great!" The camper turned back to fist-bump one of his brothers.
"Ooooh," the Aphrodite campers sang, "Lacy's got herself a boyfriend."
Lacy looked nervous, "What should I do, guys? This is my first date ever."
"Act cool," Drew advised, "Don't let him reduce you to a blushing mess."
"No, be yourself," Piper said, "If he doesn't like who you are then it won't work."
"Maybe, but definitely don't show him how much he means to you. Boys always use that against you."
Piper tensed, "Not always."
"Right, so if he is Mr. Perfect, he won't, but only one of those exists."
Drew didn't mean to let out her pent-up bitterness, but it just poured out of her.
"Oh! Maybe if you show up looking like a bedraggled rat and pouring out your emotions to your first love. Maybe if you hang over him like a sick puppy. Maybe if you somehow enchant everyone into loving you even though you're an immature, naive, whiny bitch, maybe then you can find true love your first try. Maybe then you'll have a happy ending!
Oh wait, I forgot, only Piper has that luck. Because for some reason she's Aphrodite's favorite, even though she is nothing like her mom, she never even tries to please her, and she hates her. For some reason, she even has her own mother under her spell, even though she never works for it!"
Drew had managed to keep her voice down through her whole spiel, so only her siblings were staring at her.
Drew's brief glance at Piper saw that shock and anger were mixing on her face.
After a small silence, Piper cleared her throat, "So, Lacy, don't throw yourself at his feet, but it's definitely okay to be vulnerable."
She pushed her empty plate away and left the table.
Drew felt sick to her stomach. She did it again. Lost her temper and yelled at Piper.
"I'm sorry," she whispered to her plate, not daring to look at her siblings' faces.
"You should talk to Piper," Mitchell said firmly.
"If you're actually sorry," Lacy added.
Drew nodded. "I will." She walked out to look for her.
The girl was sitting at the top of a small hill, staring up at the stars.
Drew swallowed the lump of fear that was growing in her throat and began her climb up the hill. When she was about ten feet away, she stopped.
"Piper?"
The girl's hand instinctively flew to her dagger, "What? Haven't you said everything yet?"
"I just..." Drew hesitated. She wasn't used to apologizing. "I wanted to say...sorry."
"What?"
"I didn't mean to say those things about you. I don't know what came over me..."
Piper looked down at her feet, visibly relaxing. "It doesn't matter whether you meant to say it or not, you still think it, don't you?"
"I..."
"You think it's somehow better if you just bottle up your anger?"
"Well..."
"It's not. I think you should let it out sometimes, otherwise, it will always come out in massive explosions like today."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"I'm not sure. I guess it's my way of talking myself out of being mad at you."
"Oookay."
"Anyway, they're starting the campfire. We should get down there." Piper got to her feet and walked over to Drew, "I do appreciate your apology." And she walked away.
Drew stared after her. That was the weirdest girl she had ever met, and, being a demigod, she met a lot of weird people.
