lightning bolt [private]

Clutching tissue to his nose and extending out his arm, there was no worse place James would rather be right now. He had been battered and bruised and humiliated. It wasn't that he'd lost the fight against that idiot - who really had been asking for a smack, if James did think so himself – and broken his first two fingers on his left hand because he had swung awkwardly. That was really the embarrassing thing about it all, because he never ended up breaking anything. So here the Ares cabin leader was; dried blood making a trail across his face, holding bloody tissues to his face and trying not to bash his hand against anything that would cause him more pain.

Maybe he should’ve tried to be more mature by this point; he was nearly sixteen years old and he had a level of pressure on him as he had to look after his cabin. He knew getting into fights wasn’t really the wisest thing for him and his already-bad reputation, but he couldn’t help himself sometimes. He wasn’t good with controlling himself lately; James was wound up so tight and spread so thin that he really was just becoming a continually annoyed teenager which was quite a change to the relatively-sensitive kid he had been only months before. He didn’t want to be, of course not, but all the bull life had dropped on him there was really no judging him. His mother was an alcoholic, her boyfriend abused her, and he had been flown halfway across the world to a place where he was surrounded by even more violence and chaos. The trouble was, no one was even bothered to find out why he was always pissed; they just assumed he was a cruel guy, but he wasn’t. He really wasn’t.

Pulling the tissue away from his sticky nose with his good hand, James realized that his nose-bleed was over. Throwing the dirty tissue on the clean bed-covers next to his as he sat there, he cussed.

ooc; wow this is bad do I care no not really

How long did it take to get some service around here? James just wanted an Apollo healer to come along and look at his hand so he could then go. It felt like the kids around him were leaving him to last as if they wanted to avoid seeing to the scary Ares camper, although maybe leaving him till last wasn't the best idea as he was going to loose his temper; and no one really wanted to see James loose his temper.

Snapped from his thoughts when he heard a girl call out to speak to him, he just raised an eyebrow to find that it wasn't an Apollo camper, but another teenager that seemed to be stuck here. He didn't really look at her for long, touching his nose with his fingers to check that there was no running blood still, inspecting his fingertips. "Slight understatement, but yeah; it's been crap." He nodded, his lips pressed in a grim line. He finally looked back at the girl a few beds away from him, taking a moment to process her before his eyes widening and his body straightening a little. "Taylor?" He question, both alarmed and surprised. "What are you doing...what...what did you do to your hair?"

An eyebrow shot up immediately when Taylor started to ask stupid question, making the fifteen year old a little confused. James and Taylor weren’t the easiest people, and she had really started to treat him like crap, in his opinion. So they hadn’t spoke to each-other in many months, and James hadn’t really thought anything of it; she didn’t want to see him, and he didn’t really want to see anyone. He was just really keeping up conversation until she was going to cut him off or something. “Of course.” He trailed, looking at her as if she was stupid. Was she messing with him?

A little taken back when she moved so fast and so close to him, James wondered if she was going to turn around and have a go at him or something, and ran his good hand through his dark hair. He didn’t shift away from the closeness or feel awkward by her enthusiasm, because that wasn’t really the type of person he was, but he thought that it was a little strange. “It looks good?” He made a compliment. He actually made a compliment. He hadn’t done that for a while…well, he hadn’t done it for anyone other than an Athena girl that was meant to hate him. He was starting to turn a little too soft again, and he wasn’t really sure that was a good thing.

His blue eyes studying Taylor as he tried to find out if she was messing around her not, he was a little shocked to see that she wasn’t and that she was being serious. “Have you taken something?” He questioned, half hoping that she had so he knew that she didn’t really mean anything she was saying. Uh…James? You know? You practically broke my leg? You whole thing in New York with...Zeb or whatever that loser’s name was?”

James wasn't the cleverest kid; it didn't take a genius to see that. With both ADHD and dyslexia, which most campers had, he was one of the teenagers that didn't try in school and probably never would. So he had no clue why Taylor was acting weird, and just continued to stare at her as if she had grown another head or something. He couldn't resist letting out a joke at her expense though, smirking even though he found the whole situation absolutely bizarre. "I always knew you didn't have a brain." He had no clue what was happening, and half expecting cameras to rush out of every corner of the room and some annoying, squeaky American to burst out and scream 'you've been pranked!'.

But that didn't happen.

Instead she just continued to ask him questions about things he didn't really want to go over again, seeing as she had been there. He tried to scratch the dried blood off his face with his short nails and he frowned at her further. "Sort of, I'm not explaining it to you. You were there. Why you acting stupid anyways?" he asked, before nodding in slight agreement. "A stupid name for a stupid guy."

Expecting the kid that came over to finally see to his and his mangled bones, he didn't think much of how he sort of acted differently when he came closer to James. everyone seemed to do that, right? He didn't really think much of it, just nodding when the guy addressed and told him thatb he would be back in a minute. "About time, man." He told the guy, but he was already leaving quickly. The Ares cabin-leader could probably come across as slightly scary, but that was just a shot in the dark.

Eyes moving away from the direction that the guy had gone and back to the girl sitting next to him, James rose his eyebrows at her and tried to see if there was anything wrong with her physically, seeing as she had to apparently come back here everyday. His curiosity got the better of him, wanting to ask her further questions instead of just letting her go. "You don't remember anything? Anything at all? Like, the time I punched my brother in the face for you or...I don't know, when I was...stuck in New York?" He sounded confused, which was exactly what he felt. "What happened to you?"

James' longish brown hair sort of flopped over his forehead as he looked up at Taylor, who suddenly seemed interested in his again. It had been a long time since the both of them had had a decent conversation, or any at all. He wanted to make a comment about that, but he guessed it would be lost of her anyway. He was in a great position, really, to just take advantage of her and make things up. He could certainly leave some details out about the things he really didn't want people remembering.

Making a slightly impatient noise as he blew air out of his mouth, the English teenager started to explain even if he didn't really want to, "No, not really. We had a race and you cheated by distracting me and basically made me break my leg." the explanation really didn't sound as bad as it had started to, "So when we came over here to get me fixed up, you pissed off one of my brothers and, well, you get the picture." he shrugged then before his eyes darkened a little at the next statement she made, not really wanting to talk about that or even think about it, "Yeah, I feel down a manhole." He rolled his eyes, hoping she would just drop that little bit.

It seemed that even memory-lost Taylor wasn't very good at saying 'sorry'. Neither was he, so that was okay. he sort of grunted, which was the really the whole thing over with. That summed up their whole relationship really; they both treated each-other like crap but neither one of them had the balls to make it up to the other one. He just looked down at his bad hand for a moment, taking in the weird position of his two fingers and wondering if he could try and snap them back into place himself. It was probably best if he didn't attempt it.

Glad that she sort of accepted his joke, James grinned a little and looked back at her, taking in her own smirk. He nodded as if he was going along with his, eyes widening as if he was being serious. "Oh yeah. Zeb pushed me in, obviously. I don't know what you ever saw in that guy." He shook his head, remembering the childish little kid and never being able to understand how he was older than James.

There was so much to cover, about their history. He had developed a little bit of a crush on her when they had first met, and he had really taken any opportunity possible to kiss her, which she hadn't really been a fan of. And then she picked that Demeter guy over him, which had really hurt, so he sort of turned into even more of an arsehole from there on out. The sensitive part of James was well-hidden...for now.

"Zeb? I think his name was Zeb. Zeb...Zaine...Zach! Yeah, that was it, Zach!" He felt a little proud of himself for remembering the name of whom he disliked, which was a long list so it was quite an achievement, before letting his voice go back deeper and more monotone. "He was an idiot, I guess. You and him...dated for a bit, and stuff," He tried to say it as if he didn't really care, although he wasn't sure whether he was successful. "I actually heard he got you preggers, but that's obviously just a rumor." He chuckled a little then, not being able to help himself.

He was literally done with waiting, deciding this before he would answer Taylor’s questions. He let his right hand hover over his left crippled fingers. How did you click fingers back into place? He wasn’t even sure, grimacing as he hesitated, even though he thought that pausing was a sign of weakness. He had no clue what to do, so chose to distract himself further by choosing to continue to talk to Taylor then and mess up his fingers even more afterwards.

“Yeah. Rumours are rumours.” Although he really tried to uninvolved himself with anything like that, because it would probably just involve himself with he hearing rumours about himself or something. He had just picked up of her name as remembered it, he guessed. When the conversation went onto him, he could help but look up at her again and smirk a little before back at his hand, amused, “Me? I’ve been…alright. Me and tori, uh…never mind…you wouldn’t know who that was anyway. But I’ve been fine, I guess. Nothing much to say, really.”

ooc; this is a milestone for us dude

With another little shrug, James’ little smirk dropped and he sort-of tried to shake everything off nonchalantly. “Ex-girlfriend.” He amended then, putting emphasis on the first syllable. He didn’t really think he cared anymore, because he was James and James didn’t care abut nobody anymore, but it hurt him a little. The rock had feelings too, y’know, although in this context James was referring himself as the rock, not to be confused with Dwayne Johnson.

“Should I?” He grinned then, thinking that it may be funny for a short second before the pain would kick in. His brain never had really worked right when it came to violence or pain or something like that. It didn’t really seem like anyone was going to come over anytime soon. So, before he could talk himself out of it, he grabbed the mangled fingers, pulling on them and pushed them back in as hard as he could. They looked worse than they had before, although the vein on the side of James’ neck poked out as he started shouting profanities at the top of his lungs that basically showed how much that had actually hurt.

James probably should've waited, because trying to fix his broken fingers himself was a lot more painful than he thought originally. He was so distracted that he didn't even think anything of Taylor grabbing his hand, which was the first time she had really touched him without her acting all funny like she had a few months ago. He could look at his fingers, as he had seen worse being the Ares cabin-leader and having to look over little aggressive kids, but it wasn't a pretty sight. He would probably do something stupid like try to bend them back, back Taylor was pushing his hand far enough away that he wouldn't try.

"Holy crap that hurt." He finally lowered his voice again, but it was still a little shaky. "Holy crap. I shouldn't have done that." He would normally find Taylor comment amusing, but right now he was in quite a lot of pain that he was trying to hide unsuccessfully, his face turning red and the muscles in his jaw clenching a lot. "Can I get some freaking help?!" He yelled again, although he didn't say 'freaking' if you catch my drift.

It felt like as soon as James had yelled, three kids started to run in. Did they know how stupid it was to piss of an Ares kid. The Ares cabin-leader, at that! He saw the disgusted look on Taylor's face and noticed how she was trying not to look at his mangled hand, smirking a little despite the situation. He could remember a similar reaction to his leg beforehand. It seemed like, even though she couldn'tt remember much, she hadn't really changed.

"What took you so long, asswipes?" James demanded when the Apollo kids finally scurried over, and he thought the insult was acceptable seeing as the wait had just made him do things that would put him in severe pain. He didn't really process any of the intelligent crap they spoke to him, only dropping in once or twice with insults or criticism, and the more they touched his hand the more it freaking hurt. When they went on to chastise him about what he did to his hand, he sort of lost it again, exploding, "This is not my fault, you little pieces of crap! if you hadn't made me wait so long I wouldn't have tried to do your job for you!" The younger kids winced a little as the Ares teenager started to clench his good fist, probably a little scared. "Now hurry up before I sock you one, got it?! And could you please make it a little less painful because it kills! Thank you!" He realized he had adapted a heavily sarcastic tone, but he was using 'please' and 'thank you' right?

James was really used to pushing people around; having a higher position compared to his siblings and probably being one of the best-known Ares children ensured this. He ended up in the infirmary a lot, they all knew, whether it was because he was hurt or because Mr D had dragged him along or something to apologize to one of the kids he had got in here. He didn't understand how he still had the position, seeing as he was just as bad as the little kids when it came to controlling himself; maybe it helped that he wasn't the only cabin-leader, as he also elected June, so maybe having two of them helped.

Looking over and a bit relieved to see that the Khione girl was still here, James' smirk got a little wider when he listened to her comments, which hadn't really changed. "They wouldn't dare do anything to an Ares cabin-leader." He told her, although he was sort of threatening the little kids as well and if they pissed him off anymore or didn't do a good job, he would break their own hands and make them try and fix their fingers themselves, the same way he had. He watched the discrete exchange between one of the boys and Taylor, his grin expanding even more. It only disappeared when he was given the medicine, almost snatching it out of the kid's hand. It tasted like the melted caramel that his grandparents used to get from their friend, whilst he stayed in Miami.