Learning About the Past and My Future

"Da-ad! Let me come!" I complained.

Dad looked at me, "No."

"But-"

"No buts, Thalia. The answer is no."

"Da-ad!"

"You can come next time, okay? But now you're going to Grandma Sally's."

"But Selena and Herc get to go!"

He knelt down so he was level with my eyes, "Sweetie, Herc is ten and Selena is fourteen. They are three and a half and eight years older than you."

Like I needed reminding.

He turned to face the stairs, "Herc! Hurry up, or we'll leave you behind! We will not be late!"

A boy ran down the stairs, "Ready, Dad."

Meet my, I'm-perfect-and-I-know-it-all-because-I'm-ten brother.

"Good. Go and get into the car. We'll be out in a minute."

I watched as my brother's gray eyes left my father's green ones and as his floppy, black hair disappeared out the front door.

I looked back at Dad, "Please can I come?"

He sighed, "You know Mom's rule-"

No camp until you're seven, I know, I get told every year!

"-no camp until you're seven," he finished.

I told you so. Suddenly, I had a thought that hadn't occurred to me before.

"Dad?"

He sighed. Again. "What?"

"Why is the 'age' seven?" Dad got this... this... this smile. What? What is making him look at me like that?

"Because that's what age your mom was when she first went to camp."

I could feel my mouth forming a comical 'o' as I said, "oh," quietly.

Dad laughed, "Just be thankful she didn't decide you had to be the same age I was."

"Why? What age were you?" I asked, frowning.

"Twelve."

"Oh." My mouth returned to it's 'o' shape. Twelve? But that's so far away.

"Yeah. Now, go and get your bag from your room," he said, standing up and leading me to the bottom of the stairs.

I ran upstairs just as my mother walked out of the kitchen.

"Did you talk her round?" I heard her ask.

"Yeah, I told her what age I was when I first went to camp."

"Ah, I see," Mom went back into the kitchen, smiling. "I bet that shocked her."

Dad chuckled.

I ran into my room, missing anything else they said, and grabbed blue backpack before coming back down the stairs, and giving my bag to Dad at the bottom. He crouched down and whispered into my ear, "Do you want to race Mom out to the car?"

"Yeah!" I whispered back, enthusiastically.

Dad lifted me up onto his back and shouted, "Annabeth! You are so going to lose!" He started to run the hundred metres to the car with me and the backpack.

Mom came hurtling out of the kitchen and started to run towards the car. Unfortunately, Dad had had a big head start and so just about got there first.

"You two cheated! I wasn't even in the room!" Mom panted.

I decided that maybe now was the time to defend Dad, seeing as he was trying to get his breath back after running whilst carrying both me and my backpack. "But Dad was carrying me and my bag!"

Dad grinned. "Thank you."

I grinned back at him.

"Urgh!" exclaimed Mom, "Has anyone seen Selena in the past hour?"

Herc stuck his head out of the open car window, "She went into the bathroom about half an hour ago, so she's probably still there."

Mom and Dad locked eyes, "Just like Selena!" they said in unison. Mom, Dad and Herc all laughed. This had always confused me. I had figured out a long time ago that this 'Selena' person was not my sister, so who was it? Until Herc went to camp for the first time, he was as stumped as I was, but then he went too and, now, he seemed to be in on the joke and it was just me who didn't understand.

Mom left, presumably to go and hammer down the bathroom door. I got into the car and Dad checked to see that Herc and I both had our seatbelts on and then got into the front passenger seat.

"Dad?" My voice was quieter now. I was almost afraid of the answer I might get. Dad probably knew exactly what I was going to ask. "How long are you going to camp for?"

"Well," he started, and I could sense Herc listening now too. "Herc, Selena and Mom are going for six weeks"

"YES!" Herc yelled.

"NO!" I shouted.

Two whole months? That was a horrible thought. Then, I had a worse one. Two whole months? Alone? With Grandma? I mean, don't get me wrong, I love my grandma and I love going to her and Grandpa Blowfish's house. But, I would rather spend the time with my parents and siblings because, although Selena and Herc don't always get along, I get along fine with them. Probably because I'm the youngest and because I don't see them as often as they see each other because they go to boarding school but I get really homesick and so I don't go, even though my parents always tell me that I should be. Three years ago, I got this idea and I thought that they didn't love me as much, but then Selena noticed that I was miserable and asked what was wrong. When I told her, she didn't laugh like Dad would have, or frown, like Mom would have, or try to laugh it off and act like she understood it like Herc would have. Instead, she gave me a big hug, sat me on her knee and told me that they did, and that I would understand when I was older. I really hope that I will understand at some point, and I hope it comes soon, cause I'm bored of waiting. But then, I hope all these things that I will "understand one day" come one by one, otherwise I will be blown into, like, space from the force of it all hitting me.

Just then, Dad interrupted my thoughts, "Herc! Quiet! But I am only going for four days. And, can you tell me anything special that happens about that time?"

"MY BIRTHDAY!" I shouted.

"FOURTH OF JULY!" cried Herc at the same time.

"Yes. Your birthday," said Dad, obviously ignoring Herc, "And what age will you be? Five? Six?"

"SEVEN!" I almost screamed.

"And, sorry, what is the age you have to be for camp?"

"SEVEN!"

"Exactly. So I am going to go to camp, and then come back and get you and bring you to camp," Dad laughed.

"YES!" I yelled.

"NO"' yelled Herc.

Mom arrived with Selena trailing behind her. As she put her belt on, Mom said, her eyes twinkling, "Well there's certainly lots of shouting going on out here. Has anybody got any news?"

"I'm going to get to go to camp with you," I said happily.

"Yeah? Does this make you happier to go and stay with Grandma for a bit?"

"Yeah! I'm going to tell her and Grandpa Blowfish that I'm going!"

"That's good, Honey." and Mom drove off towards Grandma and Grandpa Blowfish's house.

When we arrived, I got out eagerly, said goodbye and virtually flew inside to tell Grandma all about going to camp soon.

A/N edited 22/05/17