private -- summer

The situation at home wasn't any better than when she left. Crystal hurriedly made for her cabin—unknowingly dropping her copy of The Lord of the Rings—, meaning to charge her phone before calling her step-brother. Walking across the grass, however, she got the shock of her life—literally. Static zapped right through her, leaving her senses tingling rather rudely. It hurt, too, but Crystal was more in disbelief than pain. Then the anger that had rubbed itself into a fine point started to seriously burn.

An unsettling calm settled over her. The calm before a storm.

If it were any other situation and any other mood or even any other demigod, Crystal would have shrugged it off and probably even given a friendly frostbite to show that there were no hard feelings. Yes, frostbites can be friendly, you cynical sceptic. But having had her patience tested for the third time that day, forget friendly, the daughter of Khione was beyond nice right now. In fact, she was feeling very, very sarcastic.

Never mind that the person who had just shocked her was several years more experienced, nor that he was probably one of the nicer kids in cabin 1. He was getting the full blast of Crystal's temper. Unimpressed with his apology, she turned around to face the camper.

Crystal did not yell or otherwise raise her voice, but her caustic tone cut with unmistakable scathe. "Right, like I'll fall for that. What's the problem with you Zeus' kids? Do you guys just feel the need to disturb every other camper around here? Think you're better than everyone else? Well let me relieve you from your delusions and do feel free to inform the rest of your siblings that you're just a bunch of arrogant, materialistic, incompetent pretty faces.

"In fact, come to think of it, you Zeus people are nothing more than," she swept an incensed hand horizontally to accentuate her statement, "electrostatic inducing lightning rods."

Thunder rumbled. Whatever.

Not all the accusations applied to that specific camper in front of her, but Crystal unreasonably had in mind the bunch of other people who had annoyed her that week. In general, her rants were actually pretty impressive and several campers had turned to stare. On the other hand, the endings were not situations most campers would want to stay around for. Several hastily picked up their belongings and hurried to a safe distance.

To complete that absolute and utterly death-provoking tirade, Crystal rounded the whole thing up by staring right into the camper's eyes and snapping, "Go stand on a roof."

The moment Crystal realised that the Zeus kid was actually trying to help, her anger evaporated at once. Perhaps if he stopped after his first sentence, she would have immediately taken back her words. But instead, he rashly decided to fight fire with fire. His sudden outburst confirmed an unstable temperament, which though held similarities Crystal's, was also dissimilar in a way. They were both quick to anger, but while she was bitingly sardonic, he was wildly so. The glare gone from her gaze, it now was her turn to wait coolly till the guy was done speaking.

As the camper raised the book, Crystal realised what he was about to do. Good thing he had thrown it in the direction of the fountain, rather than anywhere else. Just as it touched the water, she froze the fountain without so much as looking in its direction. The book now seemed to quiver precariously on one of its corners, partly anchored in solid ice.

Crystal's rage at him shocking her was all but gone now. After all, he hadn't intentionally provoked her at the start. Her anger was however, replaced by contempt and unexpectedly, a tinge of thrill at the mess she's gotten herself into. She sensed a potential conflict and due to his actions, decided to continue wherever it led. Maybe I'll get a proper brawl for once.

She stabbed a finger in his direction, an eyebrow raised. "You started this by shocking me before I had time to process any information. Besides, if you're rude enough to judge someone's taste in something you obviously don't care about, and recklessly attempt to destroy campus property over anger at something else, then congratulations. You're not arrogant, materialistic and incompetent so much as an immature, irresponsible brat."

A slight apprehension danced in her chest and on the tip of her tongue. Crystal spent a moment deciding against her next action, wrestling between entertainment and Chiron's admonishings, then gave in. I'm so going to regret this, but, ah well.

The daughter of Khione released her hold on the fountain, but not before propelling the book through the air, sending its relatively soft leather binder slamming into the side of the camper's head.