Notes: Welp.

Breaking Facade

Chapter 4

She cursed her rotten luck.

Not only had she missed a big chance to set her plan into action, Clarisse La Rue just had to show up. It couldn't have been anyone else. No. It had to be her.

Drew had never felt so terrible. Not even during the war did she sustain this many injuries. Every part of her body ached and her ears will still ringing with the impact of the last blow. She didn't even dare to think what she looked like right now; not even Aphrodite's blessing could fix that mess.

"I can't believe Clarisse actually used a diversion." One of the Apollo kids said as he handed her a glass of nectar.

She couldn't help but snort. "A diversion? Please. That's not Pig Face's style. She's all about the 'rush in and grab the flag tactic'."

"If it wasn't a diversion, then why did she go for you first?" Piper asked.

While the Apollo kids were tending to their wounds, Leo had retold the whole event. The way he said it, it sounded like something out of an action movie, all fire and explosions with epic fights and whatnot. She couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"Hon, if you think you're the only one who hates me, you're wrong." Drew took a tentative sip and smiled. It tasted like the sweets her father would bake. "If there's one person in this camp who'd like to see my head on a spear, it's her."

A couple of the Apollo kids glared at her. One of them, Will Solace, rolled his eyes and turned to Piper. "Bad blood between her and Clarisse. Bad, bad blood. I'm sure you heard the story about Silena?"

"You mean the Aphrodite girl who died a hero?" Jason asked.

Drew could only scoff. Hero? Is that what they labeled betrayal as? If Silena was a hero, then she should have been a damned goddess. At least she didn't abandon her family, even if they had abandoned her.

"Silena and Clarisse were practically sisters, well not exactly, but that's how close they were." Will explained. "Clarisse was there when she died. It's still a touchy subject for her. She thinks that Drew's continuous claims that she was never a hero is tarnishing her name and honor."

"It might tarnish it, if she had any honor to tarnish. News flash, sweetie," she gave Will a stink eye, "anyone who betrays the camp isn't a hero."

"She gave her life the to help fight the war!" Will argued. "Her intervention helped to turn the tide of the war!"

"A war she helped cause," Drew spat. "Why do you think we had such a hard time? Huh? She'd been feeding information to the enemy. You claim she helped turn the tide of the war? The Titans almost won because of her!"

"Are you sure you aren't just pinning the blame on her because you felt betrayed?" Piper asked. Her voice was hard as steel.

The question hung in the air. For a long moment, no one spoke. No one moved. then Drew's glare darkened dangerously. "If you really want to play the blame game, then if anyone's to blame, it's Apollo and the Ares cabins."

"And exactly how is that our fault?" Will asked incredulously.

Drew scoffed. "Hon, if you idiots hadn't been so wrapped up in your little conflict with the chariot, Clarisse's pride wouldn't have reared its ugly head in."

"Are you trying to blame me for Silena's death?!"

"I'm blaming all of you," she said as a matter of factly. "It's because of that conflict that Silena went back to camp and pretended to be Clarisse. She wouldn't have tried to fight that drakon. She wouldn't be dead."

"Just because you're upset about her betrayal doesn't mean you have to bring everyone else into this!" Will snapped. "Don't go pinning the blame on everyone else!"

Drew didn't know why she was getting so worked up over it. She didn't know why she kept arguing the point. Maybe the fight with Clarisse had shaken her up a bit more than she cared to admit, both mentally and physically. "Then who's fault was it? It was you're choice to continue the issue just because you're cabin wanted a bit of spotlight. Oh boo hoo, no one noticed you. Get over it. It was Silena's choice to join their side."

"Luke blackmailed her!"

"If Luke blackmailed you, would you have done the same thing? Would you have betrayed everyone? She claimed she knew so much about love, and yet Beckendorf died because of a war she helped to escalate. I bet she informed them of that mission too. You call that love? "

Will laughed. "And what exactly would you know about love?"

"Okay guys, that's.." Jason tried to intervene.

"Enough," Piper said sternly.

Drew laughed as well, but hers was dry and mocking. "Trust me, hon, I know a lot more than you think I do."

Without another word, she pushed herself off the cot and stormed out the door.

The sun was just starting to set. It was annoyingly low in the sky, and Drew had to hold her hand up to shield herself from its offensive light. She had no location in mind, but she didn't care. She needed to get out of there before she lost control of her emotions. She never let herself get that worked up.

She had a mask, one that she had perfected and hardened over the years, but it had cracked. She let more show than she should have. Conflicting emotions were stirring inside. Her words were contradictory; if Silena never really cared, then why would she come back and try to get the Ares cabin to join the war? But at the same time, if she really cared, why would she betray them? Suddenly, Drew realized that Silena wasn't as easy to read as she thought she'd been.

She didn't have the slightest idea what her sister had been thinking. She was beginning to wonder if anyone did.

With a huff, she tromped towards the woods. She couldn't let the issue with her past get to her. She had a plan she needed to modify and put into action. Piper had really pissed her off, jumping in like she had a place in that conversation.

She was the new girl. She knew nothing. She didn't know her and yet she had the nerve to talk like she did. What really irritated her was that she'd been right, but she had to call her out like that, as if her business were for everyone to know. If she wanted people to know, she wouldn't be wearing a mask, now would she?

A few choice words slipped from her lips, followed by a deadly glare when she caught and of the campers staring at her. Drew's bad moods were infamous around the camp. It was always a running joke among the rest of them that she was bipolar. They always talked about it when they thought she couldn't hear them. But she could. She could hear every word they said behind her back. Ever since Piper had shown up, she'd been the center of the gossip.

The bitch who finally got knocked off her pedestal. That's what she was to them. Piper was like a goddess to them for it, too. Because she was the only one who'd managed it; the knight who overthrew a tyrant.

She was crying by the time she reached the woods. Despite having had nectar, she'd only had a tiny little bit, not nearly enough to fully heal the cuts and bruises that littered her face. They burned as her tears fell.

They would never understand. None of them would. Every one she'd ever love left her in some way or another. Her father, Silena, her mother who basically abandoned her as soon as the Dumpster Queen showed up. The first and only boy she'd ever loved, the one who'd taken her heart and ripped it from her chest, crushed it in his hands, and threw it on the ground in front of her.

She scoffed at the thought. Her sisters thought it was romantic, to break someone's heart to the point that they could never love again, but there was nothing romantic about it. It was painful. It hurt worse than anything she'd ever experienced. It was like a piece of her had been ripped away from her; like she was living with a whole in her chest. She could function like a human being, but she just did feel alive anymore.

Love was a joke. A sick and cruel joke. She'd rather face all of Tartarus on her own then have to go through it again. So she broke hearts. It was a completely different game when she was on the other side. How could she possibly get hurt when she was the one in control? When she could break it off before it got too far? When her own heart was so shattered she wasn't sure if she was even capable of loving again?

Maybe that was the reason she hated Piper so much - because she had what she couldn't have - someone who loved her so unconditionally despite her flaws. She didn't need make up, she didn't need pretty clothes; she didn't need anything. She had everything. Her mother's favor, her superstar father, her boyfriend, her siblings, her friends; everything that Drew didn't have, Piper McLean had.

And she absolutely loathed her for it.

If she couldn't get her man, she was going to get the next best thing. She was going to ruin her friendships. She was going to make Piper look like the bad one. Piper hated her, and Leo was her best friend, and she knew that if Leo got involved with her, Piper wouldn't like it. In her ideal plan, Piper would try to break them apart, and if she could play her cards right, she could possibly convince Jason that it was because she she fell for Leo instead. Then she could take her bestfriend and her boyfriend.

Piper would be the one knocked off her pedestal and Drew would be right there to take her place. She went through hell to get to there. She did everything in her power to please her mother and yet all Piper had to do was exist and she instantly won her mother over.

You're being irrational, my child.

Her mother had told her that a few days back, when she first got the idea of using Valdez. Her mother hadn't spoken a word to her since Dumpster Queen showed up, and when she finally did, that's all she had to say.

Irrational. She was irrational.

In her mind, however, Drew felt like it was completely justified. She had nothing. Did her mother really expect her to sit down and be okay with that? Because she wasn't. Drew was not okay with it at all. She wasn't okay with any of it. She wasn't okay.

She never was.

The sun was setting faster now. In the distance, the horn that signaled dinner sounded, but she ignored it. She had no appetite, a feeling she was becoming accustomed to these days. The treehouse was before her now, she hadn't even noticed she was getting close, she just walked. But her feet always carried her there, to her own little castle of isolation where she reigned queen of the misfits. All she needed was a poorly made paper crown and she was set.

The ladder creaked as she climbed. She wished it would rain. The rain always calmed her down. When she was younger, it used to put her to sleep, but it never rained inside the camp's borders.

Instead of grabbing her journal, she just leaned against a wall and closed her eyes. Monsters were stirring in the woods and she'd left her sword in the infirmary, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

"She's so freaking infuriating." Piper groaned. She plopped down at the end of Leo's cot and pushed her fingers through her hair.

Jason looked at Will. "Has she always been like that?"

The Apollo camper shook his head in frustration. "Yes! She always has to pin the blame on someone else! With her, things can never just happen, it always has to be someone elses fault! She blames Silena for Bekendorf's death, she blames Silena for the Curse of Cabin Nine, she blames us for Silena's death. She blames Luke for the whole war, although it really was his fault. I wouldn't be surprised if she's blaming the gods for everything too!"

"Sometimes its easier to just blame someone else," Leo shrugged.

Will gave him a confused look, but Piper and Jason just shook their heads. They knew exactly what he was talking about.

"That doesn't give her the right to," Will snorted.

"In any case, how are you feeling, Leo?"

Leo shrugged. "I'm good. Nothing I can't handle." He grinned at Piper and winked. She just smiled in return.

He really had been feeling better after his nap.

"I still don't understand how you guys managed to beat Clarisse."

"Truthfully, it was Drew who did it." What will told them about the issue between Clairsse and Drew made sense, and it certainly explained the look in her eyes, or why she even fought to begin with.

"How?" Piper asked.

"She hit Chris and Clarisse in the head with her hilt and the other one..."

"Mark," Will informed him. Then he turned to Piper and Jason. "Cheap shot. She hit him in the groin."

Jason winced.

"I didn't think she could even fight." Will muttered.

"I think she surprised everyone," Piper nodded in agreement. "I bet Clarisse isn't happy."

A few cots over they heard a muttered curse.

"Nope." Will said. "None of them are, especially Clarisse. Being bested by Drew had to have given her nasty blow to her confidence. Anyway, if you're feeling better," he turned to Leo, "then you're free to go."

He didn't argue. The cots weren't exactly comfortable. With Jason and Piper steadying him, he stood up and started towards the door. They offered to escort him back to the cabin but he refused.

"I want to do a little more work on the Argo II," he told them.

Reluctantly, they let him go.

In reality, he was feeling a bit down. He couldn't even take out three people, three people. He'd been in much more difficult fights and yet he'd nearly lost against three campers. Drew held out better than he did. With a heavy sigh, he trudged towards the woods.