Walking into a camp for demigods, no big deal

Jason Troy was lying in the grass of Half-Blood hill, soaking up the sunshine and doing his best to avoid camp. One could call him anti-social which was odd considering who his mother was. Jason had been at camp a long time, nearly a decade and he had since learned that he was not like the others. His siblings for the most part were overly flamboyant, self absorbed and manipulative all things which jason did not like.

Other half-bloods displayed similar traits as their god parent, the Ares kids were typically born with a short fuse, it annoyed Jason that a parent who was never around could rub off on a kid like that. Yet as he bathed in the sun he couldn't help but feel a bit like a hypocrite, his mother had bestowed upon him a splendid set of genes. His metabolism was high and when he hit puberty he developed a washboard stomach. Perhaps the immortal genes over powered the mortal ones, though he hated to admit he was nearly identical to his father.

He was jarred out of his thought by the arrival of someone, a new camper perhaps.
He caught sight of her out of the corner of his eye, she looked like shite. No she was not ugly in the slightest but she was grimy. The poor girl looked like she had lived in her clothes for sometime and her hair was greasy looking. 'yup new camper alright' he thought as he rolled over on his back. He didn't know if he wanted to waste his time talking to the girl, though he was curious as to how she had lived this long without attending camp.

Where to first, where to first... Charlie pursed her lips and thought about it. It was kind of exciting, she had to admit, going to a place so unique and out of the ordinary. Or, maybe it was ordinary for camp, who knew? She'd always lived close to the city, and never had an opportunity to go somewhere so...woodsy. Not that she minded. With the tall buildings around and the hoards of people, nobody really noticed a small, stealthy girl like herself. Nobody noticed when she'd "borrow" some money from their pockets, or "find" some food that she liked at a cart with a vendor that didn't pay particular attention to the whereabouts of his products. She was elusive, a shadow of stealth and skill there.

But this was a new training ground, and even though she had butterflies in her stomach, she looked forward to the challenge. Would the apparent gods who ran the camp be on her side? How about the goats? Or would she have to sneak around them? And what about the other campers? Surely she'd be able to make some friends... Or in the least, allies. Or...basically just someone to show her the ropes and what's off limits(nothing to Charlie is actually off limits per se, but they would represent more of a problem in obtaining/accomplishing.)

A handsome man lay nearly motionless in the grass a few yards away from her. Charlie raised an eyebrow curiously. How long had he been there? She scanned him over and decided he looked approachable. And, even somewhat attractive. He looked like the cool guy in movies with the slick leather jacket and sunglasses who would lean on the hood of his vintage Camaro. The guy who would just nod at girls walking by, mumbling a quiet, "Sup" that would have them fawning over him for the next week. Okay, so he didn't have the leather jacket, the Camaro, or the glasses. But he was still kind of cute.

However, romance wasn't something Charlie did. It was something she'd always looked past and didn't care about. She didn't know how to flirt intentionally, and this guy looked several years too old, anyway. Charlie just tried to decide whether it would benefit her to be seen with him. Would it earn her respect among the people she'd now have to live with? Would they fear her? She might be able to manipulate this to her advantage.

Say hello, Charlie encouraged herself before she could over-analyse the situation anymore. She stepped forward and nodded hello. "Hey. What's up?" Play it cool, Charlie. Don't do anything stupid or you'll blow your chances.

Just great, the grimy girl had chosen to come over and chat. Jason wasn't really a talkative guy, girls at camp had labeled him the strong silent type. His reputation of being a curse while on quest kept nearly everyone away from him and he preferred it that way.  He did have manners though, ignoring her was out of the question. 

"literally? I guess my grandfather the sky and the sun, which is why you see me as I am now" he said putting his hands behind his head. Jason gave a half smile and shut his eyes as the warm light washed over him. "really though I am just trying get away from it all, first time at camp ?" he asked knowing full well the answer had to be yes. Normally after the first year kids had a backpack or track back of supplies when they arrived and they were cleaner. Jason sighed mentally, he must have gotten this trait from his mother. It was odd since love was the messiest thing of all and yet here he was a clean freak in a sense. 

Charlie laughed softly, not really comprehending the whole sky and sun thing. Was he joking? This greek thing was not easy to grasp. "Yeah, I'm new. I'd say it was a good guess but... I just... look new." Being all nasty after surviving a several day journey from one city to the next by herself was hard enough. Surviving and being clean? Apparently that was too much. She'd have to work on that. "I'm gross, I know. So, know a place where I could clean up?"

 Jason lazily point brought a hand out from behind his head and pointed down to the camp. A simple answer for a simple question he thought. " head down to camp, you'll want to visit the big house first and check in with the centaur Chiron" he said opening his eyes once to face the world. Jason had given this great advice for many years, hadn't failed yet. " you can't miss the big house, it's the largest building at camp and Chrion is the guy with a horses behind" Jason said sitting up and stretching.

Charlie's smile disappeared for just a second. "Centaur? You mean, like, the half horse half man-bros? With bows and arrows and stuff?" Her eyes lit up with delight, and her childish innocence was coming out. She had to keep herself from jumping on her toes in delight. "Sick! You mean, those actually exist? And they're here? Oh man, this is so cool!" He let out a laugh, a heavy, whole-hearted laugh and spun excitedly towards the building. Unlike before when she had looked at the mass of structures, one especially large tower stuck out. Her smile returned, this time nearly ear to ear. She flashed shining white teeth. "Awesome!"

Her first impulse was to run towards it, and she was just about to, placing one foot forward and about to dash off, when she suddenly halted, almost losing her balance in the process. She stood upright again and turned around, looking down at the man on the ground. It would be rude to just leave him like that. "Come with me?" She asked, extending her arm out to the guy who sat on the ground in a mid-stretch position to help him up.

Jason raised an eyebrow as the girl began laughing. She was kinda cute with her amazement of the camp, it reminded him of his youth. That had been so long ago eight years ago the wow factor of Camp had washed away and he woke up realizing he had nothing but this camp now. He never left the camp any more, not after the last quest in which his companions all met with gruesome deaths. It was one of the many reasons why he stayed as far away from people as possible.
Jason shook his head and fixed his bright blue eyes on her, she really wouldn't want to do that. " I wont come with you, Ill show you down the hill and to the edge of the Strawberry fields" he said getting to his feet without her aid. He was going to head back to half blood hill to sun bathe again. He was going to take the time to think of ways to Piss off the Gods.

She rolled her eyes lightly and let her arm drop. "Not all the way? Lame, man. What have you got against camp?" It seemed pretty cool to her. He was probably just being lazy. "Come on. You know you want to~" She snickered and stuffed her hands in her sweatshirt pockets, walking towards the large building. A centaur shouldn't be too hard to find, right? Actually, it might be. The camp was huge, it seemed, covered in woods with a beach and a field...Finding one guy-horse might turn out to be a challenge...Especially for someone who didn't know the layout well. She had to get this guy to come with her...At least until someone else came along.

Jason looked at the patch of grass that had conformed to his body and let out a sigh. "Yes I am totally lame" he responded picking up his blood red tank top. Putting it on he turned to her and stuck his hands in the pockets of his faded blue jeans, groaning slightly when he realized the left pant leg was nearly worn out. Knowing his luck the right side would be perfectly fine. "Well straight this way Ms.?" he said glancing sidelong at her.

"Psh, doubt it. Show some enthusiasm, man!" She pat his shoulder and chuckled, watching him look at his pants in displeasure. He let out a groan and Charlie raised an eyebrow, smirking. "Need a new pair of pants? I could use one too. Point me to the nearest clothing store and I'll grab us both a pair."

Jason stared at her then shook his head. He would put money on the fact she was a daughter of Hermes. The way she said grab implied to him steal and that was not her first tell. Her eyes and some of her features could be seen in some of the cabin eleven kids, small mannerisms and such. when you've been here as long as I have enthusiasm is not in your vocabulary" he responded. Leisurely he began to walk towards the camp, not looking back to see if the girl was following.

Charlie stood and watched his back grow smaller for a minute. She pouted and let out a, "hmph!" before running to catch up. "This place is an adventure waiting to happen and you're just so apathetic about it. No, no..." She scratched at her temple with one finger, shaking her head subconsciously. "Apathetic isn't the right word; you don't seem apathetic. You just seem, well, grumpy! Mr. Grumpy Pants, this place could be a lot of fun. Have some fun with me!" She tugged at his sleeve and pointed towards towards the buildings in front of them that grew slightly bigger with each step. "Show me where to shop. I'll get us both some new threads, and you can be my look out." She grinned, her eyes sparkling with excitement. Her heart started to race at the mere thought. This would be her fix of trouble for the day. "It'll be a cinch." She promised, winking one eye. Charlie was practically bouncing up and down with excitement.

Jason shook his head while Charlie talked. He had been at camp to long, been on to many botched quests the wow factor was gone. He was trapped here, if he left now monsters would be on him like white on snow, the adventure was over for him. "no I said I would take you down as far as the fields, from there your on your own Chucky" Jason said with a small grin.

"Chucky? Pfffft." She folded her arms over her chest and roll her eyes. "You could come up with better than that, I'm sure, Grumpy Pants. Now come on, let's go have some fun. Some very innocent fun." Her eyes twinkled. "You just stand outside on the look-out and I'll do the work, mmk? I'm all out of cash but new clothes is a must. And don't worry," She looked around to make sure nobody else was watching, before leaning in closer to Jason and whispering, "I'm a total professional."

His bright blue eyes glinted at her mention of her being a professional. Yeah she was a pro, so was every other  camper from cabin eleven but that didn't mean stealing from camp would be easy. Her arrogance was astounding and he scowled at her request to be apart of her failure, Jason had had enough of failure. look little girl you  new and a runaway, I get it but you won't be able to get anything out of the store, Argus has eyes everywhere literally and figuratively he explained cooly.  He pointed to the fields "go seek your accomplice in the fields."

"My accomplice in the fields?" Charlie sneered. Now this guy was getting to her. What, did he just enjoy saying no to everything? "My accomplice is right here. I don't know if you have self-esteem problems or what, but you seem to think that everything here totally blows. Why? Your parent is a god, you're a half-blood, you get to go on adventures and you don't have to go to school and you get to hang out and do pretty much whatever you want. So what's there to be so angry about, Mr. Grumpy Pants? Seriously? Live a little." She didn't know his back story, but it didn't really matter to her. Depressing background or not, this guy was a downer. She'd have to teach him to live life to the fullest, as cliche as it sounded. And she'd start with teaching him the power and beauty that was adrenaline. She was a bit of an adrenaline junkie herself. A bit being an understatement. "Come on, dude. Let's go have some fun! Everything doesn't always crash and burn, you know."

Jason scowled at her and turned the other way, he wanted  no fun or adventure. In his youth he had partaken in his share of that and his reward were a dozen or so corpses. Now all he wanted was to live a peaceful secluded life, Charlie was interfering in that plan. "have fun finding someone to show you the ropes, I'm done kid" he said walking away from her, yup back to sun bathing or maybe a dip in the lake. It didn't matter as long as he didn't have to socialize. 

Charlie scowled. Two could play this game. "Fine. Fine, if you wanna be difficult. I'll just follow you!" She walked after him and folded her arms across her chest. "You'll learn to live if I have to die teaching you..." She muttered, mostly to herself as she stared at the ground, frowning. It was amazing that he had said to have fun, considering he didn't know what fun was. Charlie didn't think so, at least. She'd follow him around all day if she had to. If they wouldn't go to fun, fine. Fun would go come to them! ...Somehow.

Jason didn't know why the girl kept following him. He  had pointed her in the right direction, brought her down to the fields and made it clear he wanted no more of her. Now while he headed back to his sun bathing spot, she followed in tow and would probably  block out his rays. Jason fell back into his spot and yawned, yup this was highly enjoyable minus the living shadow 

Charlie watched Jason return to the exact same spot he had been in before. "You know," She mused, "You keep sittin' here in the exact same way you're gonna kill the grass and permanently make an indent or something." She plopped down on the grass next to him and crossed her legs indian-style. "So... This is your idea of fine?" One eyebrow raised skeptical, and she looked up at the sky, squinting at the light. "You're a real killjoy, aren't you."

He smiled and turned to face her "you have no idea." If the grass died he could ask his friend Phil to revive it. He returned to his original position of staring up at the clear sky. "To answer you though, yes this is my idea of fun" he said closing his eyes. He hoped that if he left them shut the next time he opened them Charlie would be gone. Perhaps if his past had been better he would have been more sociable, alas that was not the case. Time had hardened him, he was a bitter old man in the body of a young man.  

"Meh," She yawned, scratching her stomach with one hand and plucking at grass with the other. "You don't get out much, do you." A cloud gave them momentary shade and a cool breeze picked up, blowing through Charlie's hair. She wrinkled her nose at the smell. "Fowl." She grunted, then grinned. She unzipped the mess of a hoodie, and tossed it on Jason's face. "Get a load of that. It'll wake you up pretty quick." She laughed lightly, plastering on an innocent yet guilty grin. Charlie knew exactly what she was doing. He'd hate it at first, but she was positive he'd get over that and not hate her eventually. Persistence over resistance.

Jason opened his eyes as the ripe hoodie landed on his face. The girl really needed to wash, she probably needed to bath even more so. He gripped the shirt and threw it back at her, the smell was appalling. "Go down to the fields, Find a Shower then we will talk again" Jason said curling his lip curling up in disgust. Like the saying said Cleanliness was next to Godliness, he like some of his siblings really lived by that code.

"I think I'll stay here until we do something fun!" She prodded at the guy. "How long can you keep this up for? And when is lunch? Oh, and do you know Phil? The plant guy? You two seem like you'd be great friends. You but like plants and being anti-social!" She leaned back again and laughed, letting out a sigh of content. "You know, I haven't been here that long, but this place is already great. I just..kind of know it."