Attention. I wanted it because I was a teenage girl. I attracted it because I was a daughter of Aphrodite. I got it by just being myself, and showing up. When you were the most beautiful girl in the modern world, attention was unavoidable.
I shimmied as I pulled the shimmery ruffled pink tube top over my platinum hair. I looked into the round mirror, twirling around so I could see the complete ensemble together. The silver sequined shorts reflected off of the chandelier light in my dressing room. They were super short and came up to my tiny waist, with a sparkling bow in the center. I guess they were pretty slutty but what could I do, not wear them? Even my pink stilettos, which matched the pink on my top perfectly, were 6 inches tall. The perfect touch was the word 'Barbie' written in silver glitter on the side, touching where the big toe would start and tapping the heel. I looked super hot, as always, but my perfectly pink glossed lips formed an unmistakable frown.
I put on a fake smirk and walked out of my closet to show my friends, who were waiting in my room for the reveal of my outfit. It was a tradition of sorts, the night of your birthday party all the other popular girls giggled and waited outside for you to change into your outfit and then you came out and they showered you with a variations of ,"Oh my gods so sexy!" So it was the night of my 21st birthday party that I wasn't even crazy about having, but I had no choice, and I was sauntering out of my dressing room to show them what I had come up with. I didn't even want to have the party because it would be the first one I'd had in a long time without Luke. The pain of Luke missing numer 21 was debating if it wanted to east me alive or let me enjoy the night. Something told me it wanted to eat me alive.
But it was nearing 4 months after his death, and I no longer sulked around camp like I was some sort of makeupless Daughter of Aphrodite zombie. I wouldn't say I was getting over it, but I guess I was trying to move on and face reality. I didn't want to lose everything else that was important to me because Luke had decided to leave me. I was a single, sexy, 21 year old...women now. I needed to start taking matters into my own hands. And what better way to move on from Luke's suicide than to get a boyfriend?
"Well?" I asked standing with one knee popped, twirling a piece of my shiny hair around my polished finger.
"So sexy Tess" Amanda, my half sister who was also a daughter of Poseidon, said grinning to me. The rest of my friends nodded in agreement, with the usual chorus of compliments I got no matter what I wore. Though I had to admit, the time I walked around camp in nothing got me a few more compliments. Long story, involving me outsmarting the Aphrodite cabin tradition of the shoes of shame.
I looked around, my blonde hair spinning with my head in confusion. "Where's Aira?" I asked to them, my eyebrow wrinkling at the absence of my sister. Aira was a free spirit, but I didn't think she would miss my prep-party. Like I said, it was tradition.
"She texted me and said she would meet us at the party." Jenna piped in, answering my question. I was confused, where would she be instead of with us?
"Yeah remember when we were making invites and we invited Anti? He actually came." Cassidy told me smirking. I could tell we were having the exact same thought.
Anti was Aira's twin brother. Like I had Keegan, she had Anti. And Anti, if I remember him correctly, was super sexy. He was a male version of Aira, but a bit taller, with a six pack even more defined than hers, and a wider smirk. His black hair fell to his ears and gave him the rugged bad boy look most girls, including me, found attractive. He had the same striking blue eyes that when you looked at him, you saw the ocean.
"Having fun?" I smirked as I felt a soft tickle on my ear, which I knew was Luke's lips brushing the soft cartilage. I put back on a sexy, but bored look on my face as I gently rested my face on his shoulder. I got the point that we needed to entertain the boy sitting next to Luke, but I didn't get why we had to watch them fight or quite honestly why I was here instead of tanning on our cruise ship.
I heard one of the doors to the area open, and my eyebrow raised in interest as I noticed Percy, Annabeth, Rachel, Caroline, and some bobble headed girl who was probably one of my half sister's being walked inside, wrists tied behind their backs. I almost wanted to say something sarcastic about Percy and his band of 4 girls with him, but I figured now wasn't the time.
The boy next to Luke, Antinous, had familiar blue eyes and black hair. The thing about him was that he was extremely tall. He actually was pretty sexy, definitely my type. And after this I planned to slip him my number. "Good entertainment, but nothing I haven't seen before. What else do you have Luke son on Hermes?" My boyfriend sat up straighter. First his jaw tightened, I figured because of the mention of his dad. Then his eyes twinkled like he was in a good mood, his lips smiling wickedly. Luke was so sexy when he thought he was being evil.
He said something else to Antaeus, not that I was paying the slightest attention. I looked around to the tier of seats with stone benches that were filled with many monsters, giants, you name it. There were creepy skulls everywhere, and a banner of Poseidon under where we were sitting.
I figured Luke had mentioned Percy, because I caught Antaeus's eye's lighting up. "A son of Poseidon. Then he shall fight well or die well!" His voice echo'ed as he jumped down from our seats of honor, and landed in the arena.
I lost interest again, resting my head on Luke's shoulder while the boys had a petty argument over who daddy liked more. It was almost cute, I bet Poseidon was watching this and laughing at them because he liked neither of them. Then Antinous, who I had nicknamed as of now Anti, had tried to one-up Percy. "I am a child of Gaea and Poseidon! What lowlife mortal was your mother?" He said back with a smug look. Insulting Percy, I was beginning to like this guy.
Then I was caught off guard. The bobble-head half sister of mine, wasn't really that. It was Aira in some sort of disguise. She had easily broken free, pulled out a sword, and nocked Percy over to safety. Yup, that was no daughter of Aphrodite, that was my sister. And I looked to Luke panicked, because nobody wanted a wild Aira. Especially not one who had just been tied up. She glared at the boy, turning to fight him. Only later did I realize, that was her twin brother.
"Well that's great?" I exclaimed, not sure if that was a good thing or not. I mean I was just thinking about getting a guy and Anti was a sexy one for that matter. But Cass was always competing with me, like it was her goal to have every guy I had or something. Luke for one, was always with Cassidy when we were fighting. But enough about Luke, if Anti was here I was definitely going to spend some one on one time with him. If Aira could date my twin brother, I could date hers.
"Whatever, lets finish getting ready!" I putting on another perfect smile for my friends. I may had been knocked down hard when Luke died, but one thing I was good at was still staying on top. I was still the leader of the popular girls and nothing had changed. What I said was the law, even if I didn't say it like an order. But doing each other's makeup was like another tradition of ours and tonight wouldn't break it. I had already had too many things broken.