Chapter Text
Tuesday 25th September 2008
3.45pm
I bought this diary with some of the money my grandparents put in my birthday card, the rest I’ve hidden from Josh and Tammy in the air vent in my basement room. It’s the only place they haven’t tried to look in to find any money and any other personal belongings I want to keep safe from them. Yet.
I got this to vent my feelings, that’s what the child psychologist and school counselor recommended I do but not for the things they think of. Anything and everything I say or show them just gets back to Josh and I’ll be punished if I’m honest, well that’s what happens when he pays attention and there’s a 50/50 chance on whether he pays attention or not.
Despite what he thinks, I’m not looking for an opportunity to have him or his girlfriend scream in my face.
So this is a secret diary.
I’m Ella Graves, and I’m stuck in the asscrack of Kentucky (otherwise known as Richmond). I live with my father, Josh, his girlfriend Tammy, and Tammy’s kids. Josh forced me to move here when he found a girlfriend willing to put up with him for the long term. I don’t blame my mother for bouncing, he’s not worth sticking around for.
Not that I am either.
I’m hoping this helps me with my feelings, the counselor was very alarmed when I kicked one of the boys down the stairs and recommended different ways to vent my feelings so I don’t end up doing something like that again. The boy deserved it for pulling on my bra straps, and it’s not like the school will do anything about boys being handsy. The only way to get them to stop is to make them think you’re too violent and crazy to be worth the effort.
I tried explaining that to the counselor but he just spoke some more psychology babble and blatantly ignored what I said.
Typical adult.
I’m hiding in the school library right now, looking through the old (and probably outdated) books on the different stories and myths around the ancient civilisations. Kentucky is a pretty conservative, ass backwards place so I’m surprised that they even have these books here. I think someone might have sneaked them in and no-one ratted the books out.
But yeah, this diary is to help me sort and figure out my feelings and also to write about some of the weird things I’ve been noticing. A compass appeared on my bed last night, a gold compass that doesn’t point north. I hadn’t figured out what it’s pointing to, if anything. The metal casing on the outside looks like it’s made from real gold as far as I could tell, with a lid that opens and clicks when I press on the narrow nob besides the loop that connects the compass to a chain. I could wear it as a necklace if I wanted, so I do.
The inside of the lid had an engraving that said “may this guide you when you feel alone and lost, love Mom”.
A prank like this wasn’t Josh and Tammy’s style, and neither of them would waste solid gold on me so that left out them as the ones who gave it to me. There’s no way it was my mysterious birth mother, why would she just leave me with an expensive compass that doesn’t work properly on my bed instead of talking to me? It definitely isn’t her.
My grandparents like their wine too much, they’d never be able to afford it and it would have been in much worse condition if they had been the ones to buy it for me.
Hell, even the birthday get together Josh arranged for me (I won’t call it a party since he knows I hate them and he invited all my bullies, no friends or even friendly acquaintances of mine were invited) was ruined when my Grandad stood up to give me my card and puked on my shoes, little bits of puke landing on the card.
The money faintly smells of puke thanks to Grandad and since I don’t have any cheap kids’ perfume to douse I’d need to spend it quickly, which I did by getting this diary, the pink glittery gel pen I’m writing in, and a new pair of shoes from the second hand store.
So yeah, long story short no-one I knew could have afforded or given me the compass without me knowing. So who did? Weird shit like this is the type of thing I plan to write about and see if there’s a pattern.
7pm
I stayed at the library for as long as I could but I couldn’t stay there forever. I used the rest of my birthday money to get a burger from the saver’s menu of mc donalds. I took my time eating and got home ten minutes ago, unlike the kids from the wealthier families I don’t have a cell phone, not even one of those brick nokias from the 90s, so it’s not like they could call me to demand I come home.
“Ella, you missed dinner!” Tammy scolded, she resembled a flustered pigeon with the way she huffed and puffed out her chest.
I shrugged and said; “You always complain how much it costs to feed me, one less mouth to feed.”
They hadn't left anything for me.
We always have this argument and like always, Josh stays silent, sulking and acting like he was hurt by me not being around. Yeah, like any child is going to want to hang around people who make them feel like a burden. Do they have more than a single brain cell between them to use? That’s just common sense!
Of course, Tammy doesn’t care about that and she doesn’t like that her actions have consequences so she screeches at me to go to my room for being disrespectful. I don’t think she or Josh have picked up that sending me to my room to be “grounded” is a reward for me rather than a punishment, I don’t have to talk to her or Josh, and her kids stay out of my room and my business when I’m grounded and sent to my room. It’s literally the only time I get to have any privacy uninterrupted.
So here I am, content in my room with this new diary and the compass to keep me occupied.
You’d think that having a basement room to myself would be great but it’s not, half the room is taken up with storage boxes, I have a brittle plastic wardrobe that will break and fall apart if it’s knocked over, I have to keep at least six damp catchers in here and a bottle of bleach and a bucket to fight the damp and mould from growing. The only window is a narrow one at ground level and it’s rusted shut and can’t open anymore, my bed was secondhand when -my dad- Josh got it for me when I was six. I barely fit on it anymore, and I have to get into the fetal position if I want to sleep on it. It creaks ominously when I sit on it and I know one of these days it’ll break and I’ll fall through it.
If I’m lucky then one of the wooden slats supporting the mattress would pierce my heart and end my misery on that day. I’ve never been that lucky so I’m not getting my hopes up.
It feels kind of dumb but the compass I have reminds me a little of the compass Captain Jack Sparrow has in Pirates of the Caribbean so I’m going to try saying where I want it to point, if nothing else it’ll make that nagging feeling shut up.
8.30pm
It worked, saying there I want directions makes the compass point to where that thing is.
What the fuck?
Wednesday 26th September 2008
12.30pm
I didn’t sleep much last night, I was too busy testing the compass to care about sleeping. I managed to sleep for most of the morning classes by hiding behind a bookshelf and having a nap there. I even missed Gym which I was grateful for.
I had a packed lunch with me that I managed to make for myself in the early hours of the morning before Josh and his family woke up, and I gladly wolfed down my pasta salad, enough to easily keep me full until bedtime.
3.30pm
I used the compass, which no-one, including the school bullies, seems to notice to point me in the direction I want to go to avoid the worst of the bullies. The girl bullies would pull my hair, break or tear my things and say the usual things bullies say like “go slit your wrists, retard!” The boy bullies? They did all of that too but they would pull on my bra straps or grab my work books or notes and rub it on their crotch whilst making moaning noises.
So yeah, the male bullies were the ones I wanted to avoid more than anything, the animals.
I didn’t have any friends at the school, not for a lack of trying. I stopped trying before I entered the double digits; I was the “retard” or weird kid, and if any of the other students were seen with me it would ruin their reputation and make them a target too. It just wasn’t worth it to be friends with me, and I get it. It’s survival of the fittest in schools, it’s not like the teachers or our parents will protect us so the kids do what they have to do to get by with as little bullying heaped on them as possible.
It doesn’t stop me from resenting them for it though.
I’m honestly amazed the school counselor’s hair hasn’t turned grey yet from having to deal with me, I know Tammy’s hair has started greying. She blames it on me and likes to whine about it for sympathy points. Sucks to suck.
On a lighter note, I’ve noticed some strange shit happening. Some of the students and teachers changed when I looked at them, if was like seeing a crack in the matrix and I’m peering through it. One moment they looked normal, then they looked like… something not human. One tall guy looked like a cyclops, a cheerleader changed into a woman with snake tails for legs, and another became significantly shorter with a beard.
What stood out to me the most, was a girl named Pansy. Pansy was a hippie student who was born without lower lips so she has fake feet and when I looked at her, instead of seeing prosthetics I saw furry legs and hooves. I’m sure she saw me staring because she became very, very nervous.
When classes finished at 3pm I rushed to the school library to google “girls with furry legs and hooves” and came up with a mixture of fawn and satyrs in the search results. If magic compasses could exist why not this?
I googled the other creatures I saw and was a little worried when, during my research I saw that cyclopses and dracnae were both known to eat “mortals”. You know, humans. I sure as hell wasn't going to go near them now that they know that they might eat me. It was great to know that dwarves still have no interest in eating humans.
I think the other two have been eating students, a few have started disappearing since school started. It’s only the third week since school started, that’s two students a week. People have started to notice and rumours are going around.
I’m not sure how to stop them, either. Wikipedia said that demigods and chosen heroes of the greek gods used weapons made from celestial bronze, whatever the fuck that is, to kill and/or defeat them. Even if I could find a celestial bronze weapon, I wouldn’t know how to use one and it’s not like the creatures are going to just stand there and wait for me to figure out how to use a spear or sword made from magic metal.
8pm
At least I think it’s 8pm, it’s starting to gotten dark and it starts getting dark at around 7pm in September.
Anyway, I’m writing this as best I can whilst sitting on the train with Pansy. She came to find me after school was over, and asked to talk with me. We sneaked around the bookshelves into a part of the library to the section very few people willingly go into; the maths section.
To her credit, Pansy was blunt and she asked if I saw her.
I’m assuming she meant the real her, and just at that moment she changed so that her hooves were on display.
“Yeah, they were hard to miss.” I told her.
Pansy sighed and said; “You’re learning to see through the Mist so quickly, there’s going to be so little time to explain things.”
Not going to lie, I floundered for a moment, not sure what I should say or if I should say anything at all. Before I could decide, she started talking again.
“Alright, I’ll give you a basic rundown but not here,” Pansy said as she straightened up, her doe brown eyes briefly scanning the gaps between the bookshelves as if she expected someone to be nearby, listening. “Let’s walk and talk as we go to your home.”
“Why are we going…”
“Your dad knows, let’s just… walk and talk.” Pansy said, one of her hooves scuffing the linoleum floor.
So we did. She told me that I was a demigod, that the older I get and the more I become aware of who and what I am, the stronger my scent becomes. My scent had been so faint it was barely noticeable, only drawing in a couple of monsters but ever since I found my magic compass and starting seeing through The Mist, my scent was stronger and it would start attracting more monsters wanting to pick a fight with me.
Picking a fight and winning against a demigod probably would sound impressive and be worth bragging about if I were a monster… ok, calling them monsters feels wrong, and so do creatures now that I think about it. If I can call bears an animal or, you know, a bear and treat them with respect despite knowing they could kill and eat me if they wanted, doesn’t mean I couldn’t do the same for the supernatural beings too.
Regardless, I have no interest in becoming anyone’s conquest or bragging right, in life or death.
Pansy must have called Josh to let him know she was coming home with me before she came to get me because when we got to my place, he was there to meet us at the kitchen table with a small suitcase.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out what he wanted, as a “mortal” he was in danger if I stayed because of my scent. I left him to talk with Pansy whilst I grabbed the suitcase and went to my room to pack what I’d need, as well as a pink handbag large enough to fit this diary, my new pink gel pen and my coin purse.
I fit all my favourite clothes in there, all things I had bought from the second hand store myself or gifts from my grandparents. My grandparents were the only family I was going to miss, and even then I wouldn't miss them enough to try reaching out.
When I went back upstairs, Josh was quiet and Pansy’s face was bright red. I’m not sure if that’s from embarrassment or anger.
“Goodbye Josh, let’s hope we never meet again.” I tell him, unable to resist twisting the knife in. He doesn’t love me, not really, but he hates knowing that his only biological daughter doesn’t love him despite being a shitty dad. He’s that self-centered. “Hopefully Tammy lasts longer than the other girlfriends, you both deserve each other.”
Josh practically forced us out the door at that point, literally throwing some bus and train station tickets at us in his haste to get rid of us.
“What? He’s a prick.” I say when Pansy stared at me a little too long for my liking.
She was a bit quiet but she still answered the questions I had, like what The Mist was (a magic veil that keeps normal humans from seeing supernatural things). I didn’t have that many since I didn’t really know what to start or what questions I should ask. Would it be safer to go in blind so my scent doesn't get stronger and attract more supernatural beings?
I remembered to ask about celestial bronze, and she said it was provided at a Camp for demigods. It was called Camp Half-blood, and it was located on Long Island Sound, New York. Demigods go there to get celestial bronze weapons, to train to be able to defend themselves, and to meet and build support systems with other demigods.
“Hey Pansy, do you know which goddess my Mom is?” I asked her as we got off the bus that brought us to Lexington and walked into the train station from there. It was late and whilst there were some supernatural beings and a ghost or two, there was nothing to set off alarm bells.
“No, no-one will know for sure until you’re claimed.” She explained as we navigated the train station to find the right one. Thankfully she knew what she was doing and where to go, this was my first time catching a train and I was learning as I was going.
“When does that happen?” I asked, pausing briefly to give a homeless man a bit of change I had.
“When the demigod does something that catches their deity parent’s attention or to make them proud.”
“But…” I felt a little sick as a sudden, horrible thought occurred to me. “What happens if you’re never claimed?”
“...then you never know,” Pansy said, losing what little cheer she had regained since we left Josh’s house.
We didn’t talk much after that, other than when I asked if she wanted anything from the cafe nearby our bay and she politely refused anything.
Now I’m here on the train, writing about this whilst I munch on a sandwich and sip my can of pepsi. Pansy nodded off within half an hour, I think she was more scared and rattled than she let on to be this tired.
Hell, I feel tired too. Now that I know there are supernatural beings out there that would gladly eat Pansy and I, I feel too nervous to sleep. She said that even now that I know, my scent is still relatively mild so I might not be noticed. I don’t like the idea of holding much hope on mights and maybes.
Thursday 27th September 2008
5.45am
The rush hour is due to start soon, the New York City strain station smells like cigarette smoke and piss.
I didn’t sleep much on the train.
Pansy is using one of the payphones outside the train station to call ahead so a guy named Chiron (was he named after the centaur?) would know ahead of time to expect me, and something about graveyard soil. I was excited but nervous too, I’m excited to get away from James but nervous about what the catch is with this place.
There’s always a catch, even when someone promises you there isn’t. When people try to deny there’s one, you know it has to be big. I’m not expecting this to be any different.
10am
I made it to the Camp, and I’m starting to see what the catch is.
There’s going to be a war, a fucking war where I’m only going to get three years to train and be prepared for it, and I’m supposed to be ready to fight and die for the Greek deities. Not only that, if my Mom is a minor deity or a titan, my siblings and I won’t get our own cabin (unlike the children of the olympians) and likely won’t be recognized at all out of spite for the lack of cabins?
It kind of feels like I went from the frying pan and into the fryer.
If I didn’t need to learn how to use weapons, and this being the only place that has celestial bronze weapons (that I know of, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were other places but we weren’t told about them so we would have to rely on this Camp) then I would have decided to take my chances on the streets or just offed myself.
Out of the Olympian goddesses, only Athena and Aphrodite have children so if one of them isn’t my mother, I’m not going to be claimed at all.
I really don’t like the odds.
7pm
Today has been a hell of a day, I’m skipping the camp’s singalong to go to bed early. I’m not sure if I’ll sleep much now that I know what to expect in the future. Maybe I’ll run just before the war starts? It would give me a little less than three years to learn what I need to survive but I guess that’s better than nothing.
When I arrived here with Pansy, I was ushered into a big blue house aptly named The Big House (or something like that, I wasn’t paying much attention to be honest, I was too busy staring at the pegasus some of the kids were riding) to watch a video that explains everything about this new life.
I had to rewind the tape and watch it through a couple more times and make some notes on the last couple of pages in my diary to make it easier to remember, there was a lot to take in. Not to mention that one of the kids in the cabin I’ve been dumped in, the Hermes cabin, had to tell me about the Big Three kids and to not get on their bad side.
The Big Three are Lord Zeus, Lord Poseidon and Lord Hades, and Big Three kids are their demigod children. It’s pretty sexist that they’re ignoring Lady Demeter’s kids, especially since she’s also a child of Kronos and her kids have the potential to be as powerful as the Big Three kids. Everyone acts like Poseidon’s kid, Percy, or Zeus’ kid Thalia are going to be special somehow but they ignore the plentiful Demeter kids.
I say plentiful when there’s only four of them but that’s still three times the amount of the Zeus and Poseidon kids, and four times more the amount of Hades kids. Apparently the Big Three swore on the river Styx to not have anymore kids because they’re too powerful and cause too much chaos, apparently only Lord Hades took the oath seriously.
Poor Percy and Thalia, they’re going to be the ones that are punished for their fathers breaking the oath and suffer. That’s parents for you, it’s always their children that suffer for their bad decisions.
But yeah, I’m planning to make some alliances with the Demeter cabin and Aphrodite cabin for protection and to get more access to knowledge. It’s sad that they’re the kids that’re the most dismissed in this fucked up place but it’s a great advantage for me, it would help me to fly under the radar. I hope. With my luck, I’ll end up with some really rare power or skill I inherit from Mom that will make it impossible to fly under the radar.
For now, I need to try and sleep. I’m so glad I learned cursive and every other demigod in this place has dyslexia which makes it near impossible for them to be able to read what I write. I guess I skipped the dyslexia part and got autism instead.
Friday 28th September 2008
1pm
I woke up early to get breakfast and to start on my training, there were so few other kids here that it surprised me. When I asked one of the Ares kids, Clarisse, about it she said that some of the kids only come during the summer or winter, during the times school isn’t open, but most just stopped coming.
One of the year-round kids, Annabeth, told me that a lot of them were suspected of joining the Titans.
I pointed out that some of them could have left cause they didn’t want to be involved in the war at all or fight for either side, the earned me an elbow in the ribs from Annabeth. Ouch.
A girl from the Demeter cabin with brown curly hair named Katie took me to the weapons shed to pick out something that would suit me, as I looked over the weapons, unsure where to start or what to pick, Katie said; “...I think you’re right, about a lot of the kids just bouncing.”
“Yeah?” I said, mostly to show I’m listening. I’ve learned over the years that just being quiet and listening isn’t enough to show you're listening, ugh, neurotypicals don't even follow their own stupid rules most of the time so why do I have to?
“Yeah, no-one here feels loved by their deity parent,” Katie added, folding her arms. “They’re busy taking care of their domains but surely they can make time to send us birthday cards at least?”
“They should,” I agreed and then I saw it. I felt immediately drawn to it, a scythe at the back that was collecting a layer of dust. All my attention was drawn to it, so I went and immediately grabbed it. It felt heavy in my hands but unlike with the other weapons, it felt like a good or comforting weight.
“That’s the one?” Katie asked, passing me a cloth. I wonder where she got it from?
“Yep,” I reply and started using the cloth to clean the scythe, it wasn’t very big, the stick part was only as long as my forearm and the blade was a little shorter than that. It was very sharp though, and I don’t want to cut my fingers and have a wet grip. I don’t want to drop it whilst training. “It feels right.”
There wasn’t much taking after that but Katie did pair up with me to train, apparently she also used a scythe although hers was much bigger. She took me to the training grounds to go through how to use my little scythe, and by lunchtime my arms were aching and I was sweating like a pig in a sauna. She advised me to take a break for lunch, which I did. I stopped by the cabin to write my diary and give my poor, shaking arms a rest.
I’m torn between going back to train more but by myself and practice what Katie showed me, and resting my arms for the rest of the day. I’m wary of pushing myself too much and pulling or straining a muscle but I only have a three years (or a little less) to learn how to use my weapon to survive, and I need to make the most of the time I have to train as much as possible.
Decisions, decisions.
3.35pm
I did the smart thing and trained a little more this afternoon, and I managed to keep going until 3pm until my hands and arms were too sore to lift my scythe anymore. I had a shower and changed into some of my clean clothes, and now I’m here writing in my diary.
Katie recommended that I try the climbing wall tomorrow, which I think I will. I think I’m in the process of making my first alliance! She even patted my shoulder for trying so hard on my second ever day at camp, which looks like a good sign.
I’m starving and ready for dinner which won’t be ready for at least another hour and a half yet. I think I’m going to put on a load of muscle and weight here, which I’m looking forward to. I hate being so thin and looking like a stick insect.
8pm
At dinner I did what the other kids did; grab what I wanted to eat and sacrifice part of my dinner to the gods. I scooped up an extra portion of spaghetti and meatballs for Hermes which I pushed off my plate and into the fire, and when I went to get seconds (a salad and roasted salmon) I pushed some offerings to my mother into the fire too.
“Please, tell me who you are. This is for you, Mom,” I said, feeling a little silly as I dumped a portion of fish into the fire for my mysterious Mom. The scent of dry, stale soil greeted me when I put the fish into the fire, which I still don’t know what to make of.
After dinner, Chiron called me over to the Big House. I felt small and like I was being called to the Principle’s office, and I saw some of the kids staring at me as I followed Chiron (who was the original Chiron by the way) into the Big House. The doorways and ceilings were tall enough for the centaur to squeeze in. Perhaps that’s why it’s called the Big House instead of the Blue House.
He brought me in to talk about my options for schooling if I stay long-term, there was a school run by older demigods inside NYC and there was a bus that would take us to and from school, driven by a guy named Argus. Demigods that live in NYC but don’t stay at camp year round are given the same offer, although demigods with families that live outside NYC but don’t want to stay at camp year round have to find their own schooling.
I decided to take up the offer to go to this year-round school, although the fact that there was a school with teachers that understood and knew how to teach kids with adhd and autism was a tempting one. It almost made it worth sticking around for this war, it’s not like I want to be homeless. I don’t particularly want to risk going into foster care or be eating by some kind of supernatural being but I really don’t want to fight a war for beings I don’t give a shit about either.
I know I won’t get good grades or have much of a chance to get a good job if I go to a normal school but I don’t want to be a child soldier either.
I won’t start school until next week, once I’ve been fully enrolled and put into their system and had time to get used to staying at Camp.
Saturday 29th September 2008
12.30pm
Training is a bitch, my body has never felt so sore. The climbing wall is evil, who in their right mind lets kids be around lava?! The climbing wall spouts lava at random! Most of us aren’t lava proof!!
I had to go to the infirmary and eat ambrosia for the first time, and have my legs wrapped up like an egyptian mummy to treat my burns. I’m not a wuss by any means but lava burns hurt!
“Are you ok?” Katie asked me as she sat with me on the grass.
I was watching people train, I didn’t even want to look at the climbing wall.
“This place is nuts and not in a good way,” I commented to her. I felt safe to do so after our little chat yesterday when I was picking out my weapon, I kept my voice quiet though so other people wouldn't hear. “Kids shouldn’t be near lava.”
I don’t want Annabeth to elbow me in the ribs again if she didn’t like what I had to say.
“Yeah,” Katie said and she sighed.
I asked her if she saw any signs that she knew of that pointed to Demeter before she was claimed, and if there was anything I could use to give me a clue on who my Mom could be.
“She claimed me when I accidentally made the grass grow really high in the training fields,” she admitted with a little giggle. "And I felt drawn to gardening before I was claimed."
That immediately made my hopes drop, as far as I could tell I have no powers at all. The only clue I have is my magic compass which I keep in my bra cup when I’m not using it, I don’t want to risk it being stolen. I'm not drawn to anything I used to do either, other than writing in my diary. Is there a goddess of diaries? Maybe she's my Mom.
“Maybe you have some kind of power that could make your Mom notice you,” Katie suggested. I think she picked up on my mood. She managed to coax me to work with her to come up with ideas we could use to try and activate any hidden abilities or powers. Since it was pretty common for demigods to be claimed after a show of skill or power, we decided that something like that would help me to be claimed.
A plan would have to wait until tomorrow, if my burns were healed enough by then.
9pm
I like Katie, she’s really nice and supportive. She’s a good ally.
Sunday 30th September 2008
11am
Apparently Sundays are chill days meant for demigods to rest from a busy week or catch up on homework, and since it was still warm enough to get away with wearing just a t-shirt and jeans I decided to wear that, and hang out at the beach and take a walk until breakfast.
My legs were a different colour in the places the burns were and the skin was a bit tender but the burns are almost entirely gone now, I wish they would had let me take more ambrosia so the burns could heal all in one day and I wouldn’t have needed to wait until today to be pain free.
Katie and a sister of hers was one of the few people that were up so early, other than Clarisse and I. Everyone else took today as an opportunity to sleep in, apparently.
After a hearty breakfast of blueberries and porridge, with a helping served into the fire for Hermes and my Mom, Katie and her sister came to me with a suggestion.
“You want to do what?” I asked, feeling a little wary of this plan.
Katie linked one of my arms in hers and her sister, Elsie, did the same with my other arm and they frog marched me to the edge of the forest, close to the training grounds.
“We’re going to draw out your powers, being faced with potential pain is always a good way to draw it out.” Katie chirped. I wasn’t sure if I was looking too into it or not but I was sure there was a bit of a sadistic gleam to her eyes. “I’ll use my plant powers, and since Elsie got Mom’s winter aspect, she’ll use her ice powers.”
Elsie looked downright excited to use her ice powers on me.
It was brutal, I felt like an ant scrambling around to avoid being stepped on by humans. Except the humans in this case was controlling the plants and trees to try and whack me, and Elsie was hurling snowballs made of ice and as big as me at my head.
It didn’t work, nothing came or changed. There was a time where I felt a tingly feeling when I dodged a tree branch that should have at least grazed my leg and left no injury but that could have been my panicking brain doing panicking brain things and nothing to make note of.
We had to stop when Katie and Elsie got too tired or cold to carry on.
“Don’t worry,” Elsie told me as they helped me walk back towards the cabins, my legs were shaking like a newborn deer. “There’s plenty of time to figure things out, we can try this again after school tomorrow.”
I’m not looking forward to it, and now I’m starting to think they enjoy making me run around like a headless chicken.
They’re sadists.
Elsie then asked me my age.
“I’m thirteen, why?”
“No reason,” Elsie said with a giggle, and she giggled more as Katie sighed.
Weird.