Reprieve of the Drunken Artist

Serena woke up to the sun blaring in her eyes. Her skin felt weird and itchy and she had a pounding from how drunk she had been when she had run away from her father. She looked around her and found a sign that read 'Camp Half Blood'. She groaned from the pain in her head and said, "What the hell is a half blood? She walked towards the sign with her pack which was filled with water and her art pad along with her colored pencils. She looked around wondering what in the world this place was.

Serena continued walking but then noticed a boy around her age coming to greet her. She looked at him and heard him say that he could try to explain things to her. It was all such a huge mystery to her, this place. She would be grateful if she had someone around to explain things but she didn't know if she could trust him. She had never really had someone be nice to her before. The only male figure she had had direct contact with was her step father and he made sure to beat the lights out of her every time he saw her. She said to the boy, "Umm, I-I guess. I really could use someone to explain what's going on. Like what exactly is a half blood? Is this some roleplay camp for Harry Potter fans?"

The only time she vaguely heard the term half blood was when she had overheard someone talking about the book Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

Serena chuckled quietly to herself when the boy seemed to understand her Harry Potter reference but then her laugh was changed to a look of curiosity as he said that it wasn't a fan campsite for Harry Potter. she wondered what exactly this place was but the answer she received soon after was not one that she had expected. She heard him tell her the the stories of all the greek gods and goddesses were real and that they had children with people and that she must be one of them. she shook her head and said, "Trust me, I'm really not that special even if such a thing does exist. I don't have, umm, a very good family situation as one might say. In fact I'm currently away from home because of my stepfather. I'm not a daughter of a god or goddess. I just can't be. I'm not that special. I mean sure I'm just an artist who feels the need to get drunk sometimes okay? Speaking of which, I have a raging headache right now."

Serena nodded as the boy asked if she would like proof, saying, "Yeah if you could show me proof that would be great but I just can't believe that all of this stuff that you're saying about me and about the Greek gods and goddesses being real are true. It just doesn't make sense. But then again the one thing that doesn't make sense is why I like the taste of alcohol. Maybe it's just something I picked up from my stepfather. I don't know but just because I like alcohol doesn't mean I'm some sort of half human half god or goddess thing. My father left when I was born. It's pretty obvious he didn't care about me like I'd imagine a god would care about his daughter. Then I get stuck with the worst guy imaginable for a stepfather? It's just not fair."

Serena could hardly remember what she was talking about before she started talking about her stepfather. She was just so upset that she had had to put up with how he had treated her for so long. The only good thing now was that she was away from him and that she was never going back no matter what.

He nodded along with what she was saying, then he heard her say what she said about the gods. He bit his lip, "I wouldn't really say stuff like that about that gods." He stopped for a moment to form his sentence, "The gods can't stay to watch after their kids, gods, they have so many kids. I think it's like a rule that they can't stay, but they always like," he stopped for a moment, he had a really good sentence in his head, but now he was just rambling, oh well. "They always like, make sure we get here. I don't know why they stick us with a lot of things, but they're there."

He sighed, "You wanted proof right? That no one's normal here, and that there are gods and goddess's?" He bit his lip, "I was...gifted by my father, Dionysus, with the ability to grow grapevines." He rolled his eyes, "Great right?" He shook his head and murmured something in Greek, and a small vine began to grow, but it dissapeared just as fast as it had appeared.

Serena listened to what the kid said about the gods and how they couldn’t stay with their children. It would make sense then if that was really the case why she never really knew her real father. She thought to herself about her childhood. Ever since she was eight years old she had been imbibing alcohol and had even made it on some occasions from simple grapes that were in the cupboards in her house that she took when she was able to sneak a bag of them out. She wondered if this might have anything to do with who her father was if what this boy was saying was true. She then heard him say that his father was Dionysus and that he had the gift of growing grape vines out of the ground.

She watched with skepticism which soon turned to disbelief and amazement as she saw a grape vine snake its way out of the ground almost at the command of the boy. When it went back into the ground she couldn’t believe what she had just witnessed she said to him, “Okay, you’re telling the truth. I believe you. But that makes me wonder. Is it possible that my father was Dionysus as well? I mean grapes, make wine and even without any prior knowledge when I was younger I used to make my own wine out of a bag of grapes that I was sometimes able to get from the cupboard in my kitchen. Granted it wasn’t very much but I was able to get drunk off of it. I know for a fact that a normal person of the age I was at the time would not have been able to even consider making wine on their own let alone purposefully do so.”

Cameron smiled at her, "It could be," He took a breath, "We just would ahve to wait until you're claimed to fully know, but it sounds like a possibility." He smiled at the girl. He was sort of proud of himself for being able to help her out. Even if it was a sort of lame way of doing so. Another camper probably would've done better. He shook his head to move his hair out of his face. "So, um, I don't think I ever got your name...?" he trailed it off like a question. She could've very well said her name, but Cameron had a horrible memory. He bit his lip.

As the boy said that he never got her name she smiled shyly and said, “Umm, my name’s Serena. Serena Mason. What’s your name?”

She listened as she waited for the boy’s answer. It wasn’t very often that she talked to anyone on the outside and it actually felt nice to finally have somebody to talk to. However, she still couldn’t quite get over this feeling of uneasiness as she looked at him due to the fact that he was a guy and she had been raised to fear guys due to the fact that any experience that she ever had with guys had always just been her father’s beatings. She never had actually had a real boyfriend. Though, something about this boy seemed different than her father. He seemed kinder than him. He didn’t seem like the type that would attack her just for the fun of it.

He smiled back at her. "Serena's a pretty name. I'm Bueller." He smiled jokingly, "Cameron Bueller." He looked at her, she seemed like a sweet girl with a messed up past, like most of the campers there. He ran his hand through his hair, a nervous tick he always did. "So, Serena, you have any cool nicknames?" He put his hands in his pockets, "Like... Serene? You seem pretty calm to me, or you could just be S." he scrunched his nose up at her, "Whatcha think, S or Serene?" He smiled at her again. She was cute, a little young for him it looked like, but cute.

Serena listened as Cameron tried to come up with a nickname for her, listening politely as he did so but not liking any of the nicknames really. She shook her head when he asked which one she wanted to be called and said, “Umm, sorry, I kind of like Serena. I don’t really want a nickname to tell you the truth. Thank you though for trying to come up with something interesting.”

She felt kind of bad. Here this boy was trying to be nice and give her a cool nickname and here she was denying it like it was nothing. Though, she did really just like her real name and didn’t feel the need to be called anything besides that. She then asked him, “Would you mind showing me around the camp a little? I’d like to familiarize myself with this place a little bit more if I’m really going to be staying here.”

Cameron smiled, "I wouldn't want a nickname either if I had a name like Serena." He widened his eyes a bit when he realized that she would need to know where everything was in the camp. He gave a small laugh, "Yeah, you defnintely should see the camp. Totally forgot about that." He laughed a bit at himself.

"I better start by saying the two people that run this are Mr. D, also known as Dionysus, and Chiron. He's a centaur and usually pretty cool about stuff." He shrugged and added, "That's also where we eat and I think there's a basement that you can go to, but don't quote me on that." Truth was, Cam usually spent his time either training, trying to get better at his sword fighting skills, walking around the forest seeing if he could find somewhere ideal to dance that no one would know about, or sneaking off places. He didn't usually spend a lot of time in the Main House or his dorm for that matter.

"What do you know about the Ancient Greek Gods and Goddesses by the way?" He added as he began walking towards the dorms. He raised a joking eyebrow at her, waiting for her to join him so he could take her on a tour of the camp.

Serena smiled a bit when she heard him agree that the name Serena was fine just the way it was. She was made even more pleased by Cameron agreed to show her around the camp. It would be nice to actually be able to see where everything was.

As they walked she heard who ran the camp and was surprised. It sounded horrible having your father actually be at your camp. If it was her stepfather that was at camp she would not be able to stay at camp for even a day. She said to him, "Doesn't that ever get embarrassing, having your father be at camp with you?"

Serena looked at the place where she was to eat from now on and rather liked it. she no longer had to sneak food away just to survive. she could eat in the open now. She then saw a building that just looked extremely ominous and as he said that there was a basement she could go to but she at that point made a promise to herself never to go down there.

When Cameron asked her what she knew about the gods and goddesses she shrugged and said, "Not much, just that there are 12 major ones and out of those 12 there are 3 that are the most powerful and their names are Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon. God of the Sky, God of the underworld, and God of the Seas. Though wait, does that mean that there is no heaven?"