Chapter 4: A New Stance on Life
Heath slept peacefully for the rest of the night.
The next morning he felt refreshed, and was putting on some clothes. They wouldn't fit! He tried and even grunted as he tried to force his old jeans on, not noticing his hips had changed. He chalked his too-tight t-shirt due to his flabbier chest.
All of his clothes refused to fit him, or just barely did. Finally, he gave up. He couldn't walk around camp half naked to go to the Big House to ask Chiron about getting more clothes.
He would have to risk using the only other clothes on hand.
The clothes the other hunters had in the dressers.
Going to the nearest dresser he opened the top shelf and immediately. It was filled with black sports bras and undwear.
The shelf below it, however, turned out much better. It was full of regular t-shirts. He picked out a couple and ruffled the other t-shirts around. "Hope the Hunter I got these shirts from doesn't notice them missing," he said.
The dresser even provided him with jeans. The girl who owned the t-shirt had jeans just the right size for him to wear. He pulled the jeans on over his wider hips; they were a little tight, but he was just able to wear them, unlike his others.
Glancing at his image in the mirror, he was shocked by what he saw. The jeans clung tightly to his hips, making his butt push out in a girlish way. The T-shirt was also so tight that the flab on his chest was much more noticeable, at least to him.
Looking at the clock, he didn't have time to change. The clock read five minutes til and he rushed out of the cabin to his first class.
When he finally got to the Archery Fields, Heath felt like the eyes of everybody at camp were turned toward him. They just HAD to know that he was wearing girls clothes. He worried that any moment would wind up with some cute boy, maybe one of Dionysus or Apollo campers would hit on him. He felt like he looked so much like a girl.
The Apollo camper in charge of Archery practice was Kyle Pitt, no relation to Brad Pitt, also son of Apollo. Kyle's blonde hair waved in the breeze as he fired arrows, showing the proper stance and breathing technique.
Heath caught himself. He was staring at a boy! What was wrong with him!
It was too late, and he had forgotten to fire his arrow. He quickly fired two, but none of them hit the target, just like all his others.
Kyle was coming over. "Are you okay Heather?"
Heath held the bow at his side. He knew this would happen. It wasn't even lunch yet!
"My name is Heath," he said angrily, "I'm a boy."
Kyle backed up a few steps. Lesson #1: Avoid angry people with weapons.
"Sorry, my mistake." Kyle said, apologizing. "What wrong?"
"Other than that I'm getting mistaken for a girl?"
Kyle nodded. "Yep."
"Well, one, none of my arrows are hitting the target." Heather complained. "I'm a hunter of Artemis, I should be better at this."
"Maybe I can help." Kyle said. "Set up your stance."
Heath nocked his arrow and drew it back. Kyle was behind him now. Kyle lightly touched his shoulder.
"Your stance is wrong. Your not very tall, so you have to use a stance meant for smaller people and girls."
Heath frowned. Everything he did was beginning to be more and more girlish. He changed his stance and rapid fired three arrows. The bowstring snapped and his arrows all hit the middle of the target.
"Are there any other problems?"
He didn't want to admit it. He was from where a boy having feeling for other boys was just plain wrong, but he needed to talk to someone about it.
"I think its an issue that I should talk to a girl about."
"Oh"
Annabeth, the girl that had shown him his cabin, was the next senior camper at Archery, and Kyle when over to get her before heading to help out other campers having archery problems.
But then the camp bell rang.
"Hey Heath," she said. "Are you fitting in well? Your camper profile said you were a normal person before so a lot of the Greek stuff you may have trouble with. Are you having any problems?"
Heath nodded. "I'm having a problem with boys."
Annabeth looked at him, "What's the problem?"
"All of a sudden, they look better looking."
"What's wrong with that?" she said.
"I'm a boy! I'm supposed to like girls! I'm not gay. All my life I've been told that it wad wrong and bad."
"Look," Annabeth said, sitting Heath down on a bale of straw. "Liking people isn't wrong. In Ancient Greece it was very different. Boys loved boys, girls loved girls. There was nothing wrong with those things back then. Let me tell you a story."
"There was once a young Prince of Troy named Ganymede, who was so beautiful that Zeus himself took on the form of an eagle and carried him off to Olympus, making him cupbearer of the gods. There's also the story of Hyacinth and Apollo, and a dozen others."
"Really?," Heath asked.
Annabeth nodded. "Even in Roman mythology. If anyone in camp turns out to be gay, they aren't treated any different."
"Thanks Annabeth," Heath said, hugging Annabeth. The two of them went to their next class.
A/N:
Wow! Longest chapter yet!
Yes, Heath is turning into a girl. The Greek phrase in ch. 1 translates to: "Change into a woman". And the deal about homosexuality in Ancient Times is fairly accurate, and I would hope that people in both Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood would be more accepting.
That's also not the craziest thing that will happen. ;D
Up next, ... Chapter 5: I piss off a Thunderstorm
If I get some reviews I'll preview the quest prophecy!