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“Okay, let’s start from Cabin Three.”
Lee frowns in the direction of the Poseidon cabin. “Ah, Lena, give the kid a break, will you? We could do reverse order.”
Silena rolls her eyes, smacking him lightly with her clipboard. “Nope, we’re doing this the regular way. Besides, if we do Cabin Twelve last, you can flirt with Castor all you want without me rushing you.”
She doesn’t give Lee the chance to argue, flipping her dark hair over her shoulder before striding across the green to the Poseidon Cabin. He heaves a sigh, dragging his feet as he trails after her.
Out of all the responsibilities that come with being a head counselor, conducting cabin inspections is far from the worst. But Lee would be lying if he said he enjoyed the job—especially when paired with Silena. She’s his best friend, sure, and he loves spending time with her, but their approaches to inspections are very different. Where Lee proudly holds the title of fastest inspector, Silena’s reputation is much more sinister, to say the least. She takes the job more seriously than anyone at Camp, which really means that Lee’s role is less about conducting appropriate inspections and more about balancing Silena’s scores so every cabin doesn’t end up with a two.
When he sees her already knocking at the cabin door, clipboard ready, he increases his pace to a light jog, skidding to a stop next to her.
“Try to at least pretend to take this seriously,” Silena mutters, already scribbling something on her clipboard. Maybe the paint shade is too offensive.
“My full name is Lee Serious Fletcher, babe,” he replies, flashing her a small smile. The comment only earns him a pointed side-eye and a scoff.
“You are a dirty liar, Leander.”
He grimaces at the full name. Before he can say anything else, there’s a loud clattering from inside the cabin. Lee winces as the noise subsides and the door creaks open. A pair of green eyes blink into the sunlight, startled, before settling on Silena and Lee. “Um.”
Lee represses the urge to laugh at the sight in front of him. Percy clearly looks like he just woke up, dark curls smushed flat on the right side of his head. The neckline of his faded Fall Out Boy shirt is stretched out, pairing beautifully with his bright blue basketball shorts. He’s mid-toothbrushing, movements slowing as he looks between the two of them curiously.
Silena flashes the younger boy a sharp smile. “Well, hi there, Percy! Glad you’re up. We’re here for cabin inspections today!”
Percy makes a choking sound, and Lee instinctively steps back in case he does a toothpaste-filled spit-take. Thankfully, the younger boy manages to keep it down, covering his mouth as he garbles out a reply. “Can I ‘ave five minut’s?”
And really, if it was just Lee, he’d have happily obliged. But unfortunately for Percy, Silena wears the pants in their partnership. With a firm shove, she pushes past him and into the cabin. “Nope! Now go spit, you’re drooling all over the floor.”
Percy’s eyes widen, fixing Lee with a silent plea for help. He offers him his most sympathetic smile in return before following Silena inside.
Immediately, he understands why Percy is so panicked, though given the state of the cabin, he doubts five minutes would have been very helpful. Clothes are strewn around the bed, the flimsy laundry hamper in the corner housing only a pair of balled-up socks. The bed is unmade, and one of the pillows seems to have ended up halfway across the cabin. Tupperware containers are scattered around the room—some empty, others containing half-eaten snacks.
Silena frowns, already clicking her pen open. “It’s just you living here?”
Percy raises a finger in a “one moment” gesture before darting to the bathroom. The sink runs, followed by what is probably the fastest mouth-washing routine in history. Moments later, Percy walks back out, face still damp.
“I think I saw a squirrel by the Poseidon shrine a while back.”
Silena closes her eyes for a brief moment, probably asking her mother for strength. After a pause, she writes something down on her clipboard before moving closer to his bed. “Crumbs on the bed, pillow missing, no fitted sheet... what is happening here?”
“Hey! No fitted sheet isn’t a crime,” Percy protests. Silena seems to disagree, aggressively scribbling more onto her clipboard.
Lee feels a little useless just lingering around, so he slowly makes his way through the cabin, pretending to poke around here and there. As he spies an intricate fountain in the center of the room, he can’t help but blurt out the question. “Are those rubber ducks?”
Percy blinks, glancing over at the fountain. “Oh, yeah. You like?”
Lee squats down, poking one of the ducks floating in the water with his pencil. “Is this, like, sacrilegious or something?”
Percy shrugs, quickly grabbing a handful of clothes from the floor as Silena’s back is turned and tossing them in the vague direction of the laundry hamper. He misses spectacularly. “Nah, my dad is chill with it. Probably.”
“...Right, right.”
As Lee pushes himself back up, Silena whips around, eyes narrowing as Percy is mid-throw with his second pile of clothes. After a long moment of staring, she walks over to Lee, underscoring something on her paper. “One out of five.”
Percy groans so loudly that Lee’s genuinely worried the kid might blow out his vocal cords. “Dude, c’mon.”
“Don’t ‘dude’ me,” she huffs, waving her pencil at him with a frown. “Take this as a learning experience and clean your shit. You’re making the Hermes cabin look like a five-star hotel, and they have over twenty campers living there.”
Percy groans again, somehow louder than before, turning to Lee with wide eyes. “Are you gonna ruin my day too?”
Lee pauses, weighing his options. He could either irritate Percy or irritate Silena, and while the idea of making the chosen one himself, Percy Jackson, suffer through stable duty is tempting, getting under Silena’s skin is just too fun.
“Depends—how many of those cookies are you offering?” He nods toward one of the Tupperwares on the floor.
Silena whips her head around, throwing him a heated glare, and Lee instinctively takes a small step back, just in case she decides to give him a face full of clipboard. Percy, on the other hand, lights up at the chance to partake in bribery, immediately following Lee’s gaze and grabbing the cast-aside Tupperware.
“Even it out to a three, and you can have this whole box. No need to return the container, even,” he declares, shoving it into Lee’s free hand. Lee inspects the box, grinning as he counts at least ten bright blue cookies.
“Well, congrats on your first five, kid.”
Percy cheers loudly, and for a moment, Lee is convinced he might actually do a little cartwheel and everything. Unfortunately, Silena stops the celebration before it can get that far.
“Fletcher, I’m warning you now, if you bump him to a three, I’ll give your cabin a zero.”
Lee’s jaw drops. “A zero? That’s not even allowed!”
“Neither is bribery. Now, take your pick.”
Lee sighs, eyeing the box in his hand. After a moment of consideration, he opens the box and manages to grab four cookies before handing it back to Percy. “I’ll give you a three.” He glances back to Silena, raising an eyebrow. “Is that fair?”
Silena makes a face, scanning the cabin once more. After a beat, she sighs. “Well, this definitely isn’t worth a two overall.” Her gaze flickers to the cookies in Lee’s hand. “Split the cookies, and you’ve got a deal.”
Wordlessly, he hands two over to her, satisfied with the outcome. Percy, however, is very much not happy, if the pained noise that escapes him is anything to go by. “Wait, what? No, the cookies were for closers!”
He lunges for the remaining two cookies, but it seems Percy has forgotten that Lee has twelve younger siblings. Before the younger boy can even get within a foot of him, Lee licks both cookies, then shoves one into his mouth.
Percy freezes mid-attack, caught between disbelief and fear, maybe. Next to him, Silena clears her throat loudly, and Lee catches the smile creeping across her face from the corner of his eye.
Before Percy can say anything, Silena wraps a hand around Lee’s arm, pulling him toward the door. “Have a good day, Percy! And clean this place up, please!”
They hurry out the door, and Lee barely catches Percy’s mumbled what even just before the door closes behind them. As he swallows the cookie mash in his mouth (it’s delicious enough that the slight choking sensation is worth it), Silena smacks his arm lightly, breaking into giggles.
“What happened to give the kid a break?”
Lee clears his throat, making sure he’s out of choking danger before shooting her a faux glare. “He practically shoved the cookies into my hand! I took the invitation.”
Silena takes a deep breath, suppressing another rise of laughter. “Bribed on the first inspection. This bodes well for the rest.”
Lee rolls his eyes, waving his final cookie at Silena’s own spoils. “You also took the bribe. No moral high ground here.”
Silena laughs again, shaking her head as she takes a bite from one of the cookies. “Guilty as charged. Now,” she says, finally moving off the cabin’s porch, “let’s get going. We’ve got another eleven cabins to get through, and I have a feeling they’re only going to get worse.”
Despite Silena’s ominous words, compared to the Poseidon cabin, grading the next three cabins is relatively straightforward.
Demeter’s is tidy, save for a few vines creeping where they probably shouldn’t have been and some dirt scattered on the floor. Silena is surprisingly generous, giving them a 4 almost instantly, though Lee suspects it’s probably a result of Percy setting the bar so low. Still, he happily matches the score given that it meant less lingering about.
The Ares cabin is a different beast. Not exactly messy, but the sheer chaos of weapons and loud music is its own kind of disorder. Lee stands off to the side while Silena inspects, opting to take the time to reason with Clarisse regarding the recent blare of heavy metal music from the cabin. The conversation has absolutely no effect, apart from Clarisse informing him of all the different weapons she could and would shove down his throat if he bothered her about this again. Out of spite, he jots down a 2, bringing the total score down to 2.5.
The Athena cabin falls in the middle, earning a solid 3—not pristine by any means, but far from a disaster. Lee isn’t too shocked by the scattered books and half-finished projects—geniuses can be absent-minded, or whatever.
By the time they reach Cabin 7, the bar has been raised enough that Lee desperately prays that Kassy had somehow managed to whip the cabin into shape. He considers trying to distract Silena long enough that he can check in prior to inspection, but he’s too slow to stop her from knocking. They wait barely a moment before the door swings open, and there stands Will Solace, smiling bright like the the afternoon sun. “Silena!”
Silena’s face lights up as well. “Mon soleil!” she gasps, stretching down to give him a quick hug. Internally, Lee cheers. If anyone can get Silena to go easier on them, it’ll be his littlest brother.
Externally, Lee rolls his eyes, shooting Will a mock frown. “Where’s my hello?”
Will extricates himself from Silena’s hold, sticking his tongue out at Lee. “You get none. I see you all the time.”
Lee sticks his tongue out right back, earning a soft laugh from Silena. Excellent.
“We’re here for cabin inspections now,” Silena says. She tries to go back to all-business, but her smile is still warm as she watches Will. “May we come in?”
Will’s face falls as he glances back over his shoulder into the cabin. Whatever he sees seems to send him into full-on panic mode, which is unfortunately enough confirmation that Kassy, in fact, did not manage to whip the cabin into shape.
“Can we…um, can we have five minutes, please?” Will asks, his voice pitching up just a bit. “I promise we’ll be so quick. Really!”
Silena frowns, and for a moment Lee thinks she might say no and push inside like she did with Percy. But then, there’s a glint in Will’s blue eyes as the sun hits him just right and a slight pout plays on his lips, and slowly, her shoulders drop.
“Two minutes,” she concedes, sighing. “But then we’re coming in whether you guys are ready or not.”
Will practically deflates with relief, throwing his arms around Silena in another quick hug. “Okay, thank you! It’ll be spotless by then!”
A smile creeps across Silena’s face again as Will pulls away, making quick to slip into the cabin. As the door closes behind him, they hear him shouting to the others inside. “Mikey, Ori, hurry up and hide the—”
The door slams shut before he can finish, which Lee decides is for the better. Silena raises a hand to cover her mouth, stifling a laugh. “I see the head counseling is going well.”
Lee shoots her a glare. “I’m fantastic at my job, thank you very much. And for the record, the favoritism just now was crazy.”
Silena scoffs, drumming her nails along her clipboard. “I don’t know why you’re whining when Will probably just saved your cabin’s ass.”
Lee barely has a moment to prepare a retort when the sound of frantic clattering and shrill shouting from inside stops him short. He winces. “Okay, fair enough.”
Two minutes pass, painfully slow, before Silena raises her hand to knock on the door once more. But before she can, Will flies out the door, hair ruffled and a bright blue sticky note clinging to his sleeve. “Just so we’re clear, my side is perfectly clean,” he declares seriously to Lee. Before he can even ask, his brother takes off running to gods-know-where.
Lee and Silena exchange a glance, her looking significantly more amused than he feels. After a moment, Lee sighs. “Alright. Let’s get this over with.”
“I still can’t believe you gave us a three.”
Silena rolls her eyes, bumping Lee with her shoulder. “A French Horn almost mangled my leg. That has to be classified as a hazard.”
“Lena, I’ve got twelve siblings and counting and one of them is Michael Yew. I think we deserve some sympathy.”
Silena doesn’t seem impressed by Lee’s argument, walking ahead without a second glance. “If the Hermes kids can clean up enough that nothing explodes for five minutes, you guys can too.”
Lee makes a face, ripping off a corner of his paper and throwing it at Silena. It pegs her straight in the forehead, but she continues onwards as if nothing happened.
After finishing up with Cabin 7, the two had sped through the rest of the inspections. Cabin 9 had taken the title for lowest score overall—a rock-bottom 1.5. Which Lee thinks is warranted, given that they walked in to find several pieces of furniture and campers on fire. It does bring Lee much joy to watch Beckendorf on his hands and knees begging Silena to reconsider. Unfortunately for him, it seems her crush only grants so much grace to disarray.
The Aphrodite cabin, is up next. Unsurprisingly, it’s near-pristine, though that doesn’t stop Lee from putting in the work to find any reason to dock points. His search is successful when he finds a tissue, crumpled in a corner, just barely missing the trash can. With no hesitation, he jots down a 4 and shows it to Silena, then spends the next five minutes avoiding Silena’s attempts to smack him with her clipboard.
One bruised arm later, they head to Cabin 11, which somehow earning a stunning 2.5. Though Lee feels compelled to bump them up purely out of sympathy when a fight breaks out mid-inspection and Travis looks to be in pure agony.
And now here they are, standing in front of the final cabin. Cabin 12. Lee tries not to let his excitement show, but given the looks Silena keeps as they approach the door, he probably isn’t doing a great job of hiding it.
Silena knocks on the door in front of them before taking a step back. There’s a crashing noise and muffled cursing and the two try to stifle their laughter. As the door swings open, though, all of Lee’s merriment and rational thoughts promptly exit stage right.
Castor stares at the two of them, blinking hard a few times as his eyes adjust to the light before smiling tiredly. His long black hair is twisted back into two dutch braids, messy from sleep. A strand of his hair falls directly in front of his face, and Lee has to resist the urge to reach out and tuck it behind his ear for him.
Castor stares for a beat longer before offering a soft smile, dark eyes gleaming in the afternoon light. “Hey, guys. Cabin inspections, huh?”
Silena raises an eyebrow as she smiles back. “It’s two PM. Did you seriously just wake up?”
Castor clears his throat, running a hand over his hair to smooth down some flyaways. “Well, Lux and I were already up late yesterday, and then I ended up staying reading, so…” He trails off, his brow furrowing as his gaze shifts to Lee. “Are you alright? You’re quiet.”
Before he can stop himself, the words tumble out. “You—um, you’re wearing glasses?”
Next to him, Silena makes a strange noise—something between a laugh and a gag—as she pointedly looks away. Castor, meanwhile, pushes the glasses up the bridge of his nose, frowning slightly.
“Oh, yeah. Blind as a bat without them, but I usually wear my contacts.” His ears turn slightly red as he glances at Lee. “They’re goofy as all Hades, I know, but—”
“No,” Lee blurts, louder than he intended. Heat rushes to his face as he scrambles to salvage what’s left of his poor dignity. “I mean, they look good on you. You look… good. Yeah.”
Like the traitor she is, Silena looks like she’s on the verge of tears from trying not to laugh, but it’s worth it when Castor’s entire expression brightens. His eyes catch the light, flashing a soft purple as he studies Lee’s face.
“Well, thanks, I guess,” Castor says, a small smile returning to his lips. His eyes flicker up and down Lee for a moment. “You really know how to make a guy feel special, Romeo.”
Oh, wow. Lee is positive his face is lighting up like the harvest sun. Thankfully, Silena steps in, saving him from having to respond.
“Right. You done ogling Castor’s glasses then? We’ve still got a cabin to inspect."
…Okay, maybe saving is a generous term. “Shut up,” Lee grumbles under his breath.
Castor laughs, though there’s a faint pink tinge on his cheeks now too. “Let’s get this over with, yeah?” He steps aside, holding the door open, and gestures for them to enter.
The cabin seems clean enough at first glance. Both of the twins’ beds are made, and the large pine bookshelves lining one wall hold arranged books and dusted trinkets. Unlike some cabins, there are no piles of clothes strewn across the floor or stray shoes kicked under a chair. The only visible mess is the smattering of paint stains on Pollux’s desk and a few scattered papers on Castor’s.
But Lee knows better. He’s spent enough time around the twins to know their gameplay. Even from his position near the door, he already spies some signs of a last-minute cleanup: a sweater sleeve peeking out from under Pollux’s bed, the way one of Castor’s desk drawers refuses to close all the way, probably a second away from throwing up its contents over the floor.
Still, Lee is happy to turn a blind eye. Really, if nothing explodes in the next five minutes, he figures this cabin deserves a spot in the top three for the week.
“Lux is out already, so I’ll be fielding your questions today,” Castor explains, taking a seat at his desk as he smiles at the duo. He gestures for them to go on.
Silena is already taking notes, nodding approvingly at the neatly folded blankets on one of the bunks. “Well, at least your side of the room looks better than half the cabin’s we’ve seen today.”
“She’s not saying names, but just know that’s definitely directed at Percy Jackson,” Lee adds in a low whisper as he passes Castor’s desk. His chest fills with warmth when Castor’s laugh follows.
The inspection itself is relatively uneventful—Silena critiques a few minor things, like a water stain on the desk (“Use a coaster, guys, c’mon!”) and a peeling spot in the wall paint from a previous poster, but overall, Cabin 12 scores a respectable 3.5. As Silena finishes up her notes, Castor turns to Lee, leaning against the edge of a bunk. “Any plans for the rest of the day?”
Lee grimaces. “I’ve got a shift in the infirmary until five, so that’s eating up most of my time.”
Castor’s lips curve into a small smile. “Well, all I have planned is to practice in the studio for a bit, so maybe we could do something after you’re off?”
Lee blinks. He wishes he had called his mom before this, because his heart might actually explode. “Yeah? What’re you thinking?”
Castor raises an eyebrow, slowly standing up from his seat and stretching. “Now don’t make me do all the work, Fletcher.”
Lee blows a raspberry at him before pausing in thought. “Strawberry fields, then?”
Castor flashes him a grin. “I like the sound of that.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
They linger there for a moment, both mirror images of dopey smiles, until—
“All right, lover boys, time to go,” Silena cuts in, grabbing Lee by the arm. “Don’t want you late for your shift, Fletcher.”
Immediately, Lee groans. Castor laughs at his expense, a sparkling sound that lingers in Lee’s ears as Silena drags him towards the cabin door. “In a bit, twinkle toes,” Lee calls over his shoulder, flashing Castor a final smile.
“Have fun at the infirmary!” Castor calls back, his laugh ringing out when Lee sighs a final time.
Silena and him walk in silence for a few moments after leaving the cabin. Then—
“Do I need a haircut?” Lee blurts out, glancing sideways at her.
Silena blinks, caught off-guard momentarily, Then, a laugh bubbles up as she reaches over to ruffle his hair. “What, your date has you worried about your hair now?”
“Cut that out!” he grumbles, swatting her hand, his face going warm. “And it’s not a date.”
“…Sure.”
Lee frowns. “Why are you saying it like that?”
Silena blinks at him innocently. “What on Earth do you mean?”
Lee shoots her a glare, which she returns with a look of her own that practically screams you’re hopeless. “Okay, look. You’re telling me you don’t want it to be a date?”
“What? No! I—” He groans, running a hand through his hair. “I mean, if it was a date, that’d be fine. But we’re friends. Best friends. And this is just... what we do. Hang out. And do... stuff.”
“We have this conversation every time you guys make plans to ‘do stuff’,” Silena says dryly, “and I tell you every time that you’re going on a date. You two are literally dating, Lee. Face it.”
Lee scowls, looking down and kicking at a rock in his path. “He doesn’t like me like that, Lena. And I’d rather him my friend then not in my life at all, so…”
He feels Silena’s eyes on the side of his head, but after a pause, she doesn’t press the argument further. “Well then, to answer your original question—yes, you could do with a haircut. And yes, before you ask, I’ll cut it for you. Come find me after your shift.”
Lee snorts, looking back up to his friend. “You’re only really cutting the sides, though. No more than half an inch off the top.”
Silena just smiles sweetly at him, a glint in her eyes. “Hm. We’ll see. Buzzcuts are so in right now.”
Lee narrows his eyes at her. “Silena.”
She just laughs, walking ahead briskly ahead.
“Silena!”