It turned out there wasn't much to do when you were an Aphrodite camper staying year round. Most of the others were gone, so there were less people to pair off, less potential makeover recipients...
Needless to say, Drew Tanaka would probably have avoided staying here if she could, but there wasn't much to go back to. An alcoholic, bitter, borderline abusive father who saw her as a failure, another prep school where people saw her as an object instead of a human being? No thanks. So Camp Half-Blood it was. Fortunately, some of her cabin mates, including Silena Beauregard, were also year rounders, so at least there'd be some familiar faces. Michael Yew was also apparently a year rounder, though she tried, unconvincingly, to tell herself that that fact was irrelevant.
"Hm, Channing Tatum? I approve." Silena was conducting the daily inspection, and everyone knew you got higher marks for good fashion sense. The recipient of Silena's praise, a girl with a southern drawl called Lena, grinned in reply.
"It's a first edition!" She said proudly of the poster.
Silena nodded as she checked something off and moved on to the next camper. "Hm...I don't recognize this one."
"Tristan McLean, he's gonna be the next big thing, trust me," the owner said confidently.
Silena chewed on her pen cap, as if contemplating the image of the handsome actor. "With those looks, I wouldn't doubt it. I'll give it marks for originality."
This was just another normal morning for the Aphrodite cabin, it had been a couple of months now since the break had begun, and the silence of the typcially robust camp was both refreshing and tedium-inducing. Drew found it all a bit too quiet. She had spent the last summer trying to move on from whatever she had felt for Michael Yew, it would only end in heartbreak anyways, that was the only truth love had ever shown her. So she decided to turn the tables. From now on, she would be the one to end it, she wouldn't let anyone get too close, she could have the thrill and not have to deal with the aftermath. It was so much easier that way. But now...but now that she was alone with her thoughts, she realized that no matter what she did, she simply couldn't shake whatever that feeling had been. No matter how deeply she would bury it, it would find its way to the surface again. And it would remain there, in her heart, a presence she couldn't ignore. Then one day, she finally gave in.
There was nothing to it, she rationalized to herself. Just a camper asking another camper for some lessons, that's all. The Apollo cabin had archery practice at 11am, every morning, all she had to do was go and- and what? Ask to join? When I've never touched a bow in my life? When the only thing I'll accomplish is my own humiliation? This is such a terrible idea-
But it was too late, they had already seen her, she couldn't turn and run now.
The memory came to Drew as clearly formed as if it had happened yesterday. The feelings of uncertainty she had felt then...the nervous anticipation, the fear of rejection. But Michael Yew...he'd treated her differently, saw through her somehow. She was a hopeless archer of course, she couldn't even load an arrow properly. But Michael took the time to personally show her, it was a small gesture, but whether he knew it or not, it meant the world to her. Where she came from, people didn't exactly help each other out of the kindness of their heart.
"Attachment breeds weakness. Every person knows this, they will take advantage of you if you do not do the same to them first." One of Keisuke Tanaka's favorite sayings. Drew had once dismissed that, but now she was convinced...except...except she couldn't explain Michael Yew.
"Silena, can I ask you something?"
"Sure, Drew. Anything."
Drew stared down at her fingers nervously. "Well, um...it's about love."
"I see," Silena replied with a knowing look. They were alone in the Aphrodite cabin, everyone else was out giving the other cabins a winter makeover.
"Anyone in particular on your mind?"
"No," Drew blurted a little too quickly. "Just...in general."
"Love," Silena said with a small laugh. "You know, a lot of people think its like a Hallmark movie - and don't get me wrong, I love Hallmark movies - but real world relationships are complicated and messy. Sometimes two people have something, but circumstances get in the way, or they have things in their past that continue to haunt them. And sometimes...well sometimes every shred of common sense is telling you that you shouldn't, but you do anyways."
"Like you and Beckendorf," Drew hadn't meant to say that out loud, but Silena didn't berate her, instead she just sighed wistfully.
"You're perceptive, that's a gift from mom I guess. There's an old saying...that you shouldn't mix love and war. I mean, look at Aphrodite and Ares. They loved each other, but it was wrong, but...it wasn't."
Drew had a confused look on her face. "I don't get it."
Silena couldn't help but laugh at that, as though she had once had the same reaction herself. "The point is, love has inherent risk, and the higher the stakes, the greater the extremes."
"What should I do?"
Silena smiled, though her final thought seemed almost distant, as though she were talking more to herself than Drew. "Follow your heart."
If Drew could have purged any of her memories, it would be those of Silena Beauregard. To think that she had ever seen her as a friend and mentor, to think that all that time, she had been serving Kronos...and yet Silena had been a huge part of her life at that point, she had been the first one to welcome her to camp, her first real friend, the only person Drew felt comfortable confiding in. She couldn't keep a smirk from creeping on her face as she thought of how Silena had reacted when the Hunters of Artemis came to Camp Half-Blood.
"Can you believe these people? They think they're sooo righteous just because they stay single for centuries. Well excuse me, mother superior, but some people actually like to live life..."
Drew had never seen Silena this angry before. She didn't know much about the Hunters of Artemis, but apparently they had all taken oaths to remain maidens forever in exchange for immortality. Now that she thought of it, they had seemed rather snobbish, but still-
"Oh don't worry, this is a normal reaction," the guy standing next to her, a son of Aphrodite named Paul, said assuredly.
"It is?" Drew replied uncertainly.
"Yep," Paul said with a grin. "It would've been several months before you got here. We were taking a mythology class in the Athena cabin, and that was the first time we learned about the Hunters of Artemis. Silena was so mad she left without finishing the lesson."
"That's right," Silena said, revealing she had been listening all along. "And that's why we're going to play capture the flag this evening, then we'll show them."
"We are?" Another camper said in surprise, "but we almost never play capture the flag. You know we're all terrible with weaponry."
"Maybe so, but come on! Don't you want to prove them wrong? Think of someone in your life, anyone, that you love, the Hunters are saying that doesn't mean anything. If you won't do it for anything else, do it for that person."
Drew knew Silena was talking about Beckendorf.
"Hey Drew, tell them I'm right," Silena said, looking for support from a fellow camper. "You have someone like that, don't you?"
No, Drew thought, because it was true. She had taken her father's words to heart. No attachments, no letting anyone in. Only...what if there was an exception? What if someone had forced their way in, despite all her efforts?
"Yeah...I do."
"See?" Silena exclaimed triumphantly, "Now lets get ready to kick some Hunter hiney!"
And for once, everyone in cabin Ten raised a proud cheer of "for Aphrodite!"
The game had gone poorly of course. Percy Jackson charged the enemy base, leaving the camper's defenses exposed, which the lead huntress, Zoe Nightshade, wasted no time in exploiting, claiming victory for the Hunters. Afterwards, Percy and Thalia Grace had nearly come to blows, at least until the oracle of Delphi somehow came down from the attic to give a prophecy. The truth was, for Drew most of these events had gone by in a blur.
The clearest memories from that day would always be the time spent with Michael Yew. How she'd found the courage to volunteer to go with him into the forest, how she'd finally put those archery lessons to good use...and how they'd kissed, in the middle of a game of capture the flag, terrible timing? Yes. But Silena Beauregard was right about one thing. Drew followed her heart, and the moment her lips met Michael's she knew it was the right decision. Because for that one, sweet, moment in time, the world belonged to them.
Drew's felt her cheeks flush from the all too vivid memory. That would have been a perfect ending. A Hallmark ending. But she supposed Silena had been right about another thing, relationships really were messy and complicated. This was nowhere close to the end, and as for what would happen the next summer...well that was another memory that Drew wished to erase.
