so it goes.

Brent raised his eyebrows, just slightly, and he leaned forward on the bench, taking her hand and pulling her back toward him. “It’s literally their job to hear you rehash that— It’s actually not rehashing, because they help you work through it in a way you haven’t done before.” He decided this warranted standing up, if only to use the advantage of his height over her in the moment. Hands rested on her shoulders, keeping her from fidgeting away from the conversation.

“And listen, I’m not knocking the value of a good cry and wine, but I think there’s a little more you can do, too.” He kissed her briefly, and then smiled, warm and comforting. “I think you should give it a shot, Mace.”

He knew her too well, she’d at least give him that. His hands were gentle and the kiss made her feel safe. 

Macey let out a long sigh, eyes focusing on a spot over his shoulder instead of his face. “You’re doing that thing where your eyes are all cute and puppy-dog like, and that’s a hundred percent not fair.”

She stayed like that for a few moments, trying to gather herself. But, her joints still felt like electrified rubber that needed to jostle around. She hated being still. Staying still meant having to actually stop and think about things instead of leaving them behind. Now that was a big stone for therapy to chip away at; The thought didn’t make her laugh, though. Finally, her eyes flitted back over to him,

“I can’t talk about the war stuff again.” Her voice was weary, like a weight on her chest caused the words to wheeze out, “I really can’t.”

Hazel couldn’t help but laugh at Rae’s dramatics, moving to rest her head on the other girls shoulder when she dropped down next to her.  Rae was always the more confident one out of the two of them, though Hazel had to admit that living with the sunny girl has definitely helped her break out of her shell more, and she honestly didn’t know how she’d survive in Boston without Rae by her side.  

“Oh don’t worry, it’s just as weird for me to wake up and not see you walking around the house in my face mask, my skin was actually confused this morning when I got to it unused this morning.”  She paused to take a sip from her mug.  “It’s also really fucking quiet in this cabin, I’m not a fan of it.“

“Oh, so now you miss my ass talking your ear off every second of every day? I see how it is.” Rae grinned, nudging Hazel with her shoulder. “Just like, sleepover in my cabin or something, it’ll be like nothing’s changed.” She glanced down the line of cabins. After living on the outside for so long they looked almost absurd, so colorful and uniquely tailored to their specific niche. They looked like Disney World compared to the tiny, Boston apartment the two of them called home. Her eyes flicked over to the cabin between theirs, “Or we could just, like, ambush Wyatt and take over the Ares cabin. I know Avery and Nadia would be down. We could probably get Brent on our side too, he loves you. I love a good slumber party.”

Hazel’s smile turned into a bright grin when Macey came running over, standing up and pulling her Hermes girl into a hug before she settled on the porch railing.  “Thank you, lovely, it’s so good to see you.”  Returning to her spot on the swing, she let out a laugh.  “How dare you not know everything about my life, Burke.  I go to MIT now, and I suppose rocket scientist is the easy way to word it.  It’s extremely competitive, and some of the boys are pissed that I’m doing better then they are, but they can deal with it.”  Hazel jokingly rolled her eyes, living with Rae had definitely helped her in the confidence department. “Though I have to hunt down and yell at your boyfriend, I haven’t talked to him in what feels like forever and it’s not acceptable.”

She gave an agreeable eyeroll with her nod, a whopping statement of ‘I understand’. But, she did it all with a smile that couldn’t be held back, the sassy words somehow coming off as endearing. “He’s so bad at texting, Jesus Christ. And I even see him everyday.”

Macey kicked her sneakered feet against the porch railing, “But, I’m glad you decided to kick ass and take names at college too. Maybe I can get Brent to take me on vacation so we can see you. Your roommate already ceremoniously roasted the hell out of me the moment we bumped into each other in the Ares cabin, so that’s at least over with.” ‘Roasted’ was a relative term. Rae bugging Macey too early in the morning as her disheveled self walked downstairs was more like it. 

Hazel was sitting on the porch swing of the Athena cabin, legs tucked under her and a cup of tea wrapped in her hands.  She stared out at camp, amazed that she was even here again.  She heard some noise and turned her head, spotting another camper walking along the path.  When they looked up at her, she gave them a warm smile, lifting her hand in greeting.

“Miss Hazel!” Macey exclaimed with an overdramatic gasp, turning her walk into a run and climbing up the Athena cabin porch. Perching herself on the railing, Macey swung her sneakered feet back and forth, “Welcome back, lady. How are you? How’s—” She paused, trying to think, “—Where do you go to school? With all the rocket scientists or whatever? Brent told me once, but t-b-h I don’t remember because my memory’s shit.”

“Seems like a few years,” Ashton teased. “I don’t know, I just gotta remind you.” Ashton gave a small smile, showing that she was joking. Ashton knew full well it was Rae who taught he how to care for the strawberries and how to use her chlorokinesis. “You can help them if you’d like, I have a basket of newly picked ones going.”

“Yeesssss,” Rae clapped in excitement. Her hands already felt electric at the thought. “You have no idea how ridiculously hard it is to have our powers in a big city. Like, there’s no plants to even do anything with. I’ve got a bomb-a-f little herb garden and some flowers back at my apartment. But that’s legit like, it. ‘Lemme at these suckers.”

Her steps were practically skips over to a new row of fruits, crouching down once again to inspect them. The motion was so natural, so easy; A couple of gentle fingers held onto a little, runt-looking one, and Rae watched as the strawberry grew brighter and fuller, until it matched the others around it. The feeling in her chest was the same feeling she got after a good workout, endorphins and happy warm fuzzies all swirling around inside. She didn’t even notice how big she was smiling.

Rory sat on the ground of the arena, a half drunken water bottle on the ground next to her.  She was panting slightly, just coming off drills for both her fighting skills and refining her powers, leaving her feeling out of breath and very noodle-legged.  Giving herself another minute to breathe, and slowly went to pick herself up off the ground.  Though after realizing she needed some help, she looked at the other person in the arena and held out her arms.  “Can you help? I have pool noodles for legs right now.”

Nadia glanced over at the exhausted Rory next to her, having watched her just suck down half a water bottle in a matter of seconds. “Yeah, girl, I got you.” Holding out her arms to meet Rory’s, she pulled the other girl up, “You gotta pace yourself and drink more water. We don’t any passed out demigods on the arena floor for people to step on.”

“I’ll be fine,” Kennedy ensured. “I’ve trained for longer before. Besides, I don’t think I can let this go before I get this perfect.”

“Okay, if you say so.” Nadia only shrugged, leaving it at that. She wasn’t one to be the mom friend. That job belonged to Brent or Avery. People knew their limits. And if they didn’t, that was their own fault and their own mistake to make. Taking her time to unwrap the bandages around her knuckles from training, she observed the area around Kennedy,

“What are you trying to get perfect?”

Avery shuffled in, her eyes still full of sleep. She grabbed a mug, throwing it under the keurig to make a cup of coffee. She got little sleep, which hasn’t been abnormal for the young blonde lately. Avery put up a finger toward the blonde when she spoke, taking a drink of coffee, letting the heat burn her throat. Now that she had a sip of her first coffee of the day, she spoke, “How are you so perky?” Avery questioned Rae. “It’s like your radiate your perkiness from the sun.” Avery was usually happy and perky, just not exactly in the morning.

Rae couldn’t help but chuckle at Avery’s mood. She leaned in to her smaller friend and grinned, “It’s called less coffee and more green juice, Aves. And getting up early. Also, summer break probably has a bit to do with it too.”

She shrugged, putting her smoothie and phone down on the counter, “Sun’s in my name too. That’s where the ‘Rae’ comes from. Ray of sunshine. It’s so dumb, blame it on my dad. But I can’t possibly go against my brand after all these years perfecting it.” Rae was of course joking. She rinsed out her smoothie cup in the sink and glanced over, “But how are you this fine morning? Why are you up so early?”

Hazel was sitting on the porch swing of the Athena cabin, legs tucked under her and a cup of tea wrapped in her hands.  She stared out at camp, amazed that she was even here again.  She heard some noise and turned her head, spotting another camper walking along the path.  When they looked up at her, she gave them a warm smile, lifting her hand in greeting.

Rae gave an over exaggerated wave in response, sauntering over from the kitchen. If she wasn’t already big-headed enough, being back at camp made her feel more powerful and confident than usual. Maybe it was being somewhere familiar instead of surrounded by normal people. Regardless, Rae plopped down next to Hazel on the swing,

“It’s wicked weird not being in the same house as you, I’ll be honest. Like, I keep expecting to see that face mask of yours that I love in the bathroom—you know that one that gets all the gunk out of your face?—so I can steal it, but, it’s not there, because you’re here.” She sighed, “It’s a struggle.”

Jack shrugged. “We should just do it. I mean, if we dig up a huge hole and fill it, it’s not like Chiron can just fill it back up himself.” Jack went through his head to remember if he knew anybody with earth powers or water powers. He definitely knew somebody with heat powers. Ugh. “Isn’t it better to ask for forgiveness than permission?”

“Yeah, but, we don’t have anyone to actually run the spa.” Macey shrugged, “So like, Chiron would have to find some mythical people or some shit. Nymphs? I don’t know. I do know we won’t be getting any Aphrodite kids doing our nails, though. Also t-b-h, I don’t wanna do the work to build myself a spa. It kinda defeats the purpose of one.” She chuckled.

Macey waved her water bottle around the arena like a pointer, “And normally, I’d say yeah, forgiveness is easier. But, permission is better and saves you from doing all the work just for someone to rip the spa down with some godly powers or something.”

“I think one might be more official than the other, but I dunno, I guess I should look into one, actually.” He put his knife to the side when he finished wiping it off. “That seems like the perfect situation, so it sounds like your life is pretty set now that we’re entrepreneurs.” He sat back and thought for a moment. “Hm, maybe I’d pay some of the satyrs to film everything but the magic stuff that happens at camp, and we can have our own reality show and get famous for being famous.”

“Dude,” Macey gasped, “That’s fucking brilliant. That’s like, better than the demigod-proof nails. Could you imagine?” She laughed, imagining the show playing out in her head, “Like ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’ but so much better. Every fight would be TV gold. Or like, that time Julian and Viv got married?” Macey leaned against the wall the bench was situated against, astonished, “Shit, man. Why didn’t you think of this sooner?”

She grinned widely as she washed the blender out. “Awesome! That means I have to go grab Hazel and shake her for not telling me she was here sooner. How’re you two working as roommates?” She put the blender top back on its stand and started going to the freezer to pull out some fruit. “Gods, I feel that. Sometimes I set my alarm for ten minutes earlier than I have to get up so I can scroll through my phone before getting out of bed.” She let out a laugh and dropped some fruit into the blender before putting it away again. “But good! You know, same-old, same-old around here. How’s… Northeastern is it?” 

“It’s good!” Rae nodded, “It’s like, way more challenging than I thought it’d be, but, honestly, it’s better than monsters, so I’ll take it.” She laughed, “But whatever I do, Hazel’s work is like, five times as hard. That girl’s studying to be a genius or something. I keep trying to hook her up with the other cute nerds at MIT but she’s not having any of it.”

Rae shoved her phone into the pocket on the side of her leggings, “But living together is fun. It’s so nice having a roommate who like, gets you and isn’t weird. My sorority doesn’t have a house or anything or else maybe I’d live with them. Massachusetts has, like,” She waved a hand in the air, trying to catch the right words, “This weird-ass law that when more than six girls live in a house it’s legally considered a brothel, so.”

L couldn’t help but laugh at Nadia’s expression. “Sorry! That was a bit like ‘blah-la-la-la-la’,” she mimicked herself and rocked back on her heels. “I just get so excited about this stuff, it’s sort of dumb.” She shrugged as she played with her camera. “Well, I have a ton of experience if that helps any.” She let out something between an exhale and a laugh. “Normally it’s easier to get a natural pose from someone when they don’t know you’re taking their picture, but I wanna make sure it’s alright, y’know?”

“No, it’s not dumb,” Nadia shook her head, reassuring, “If you’re not excited about your hobby or talent, like, what’s the point, right?” 

She ran a couple fingers through her hair in an attempt to de-frizz it at all. The attempt was futile: a day at the arena was not a happy hair day. “I know you want like, natural, but,” Her sneaker kicked at some gravel, glancing around at the scenery. It was a beautiful day—when wasn’t it nice at camp, though? “I’m gonna need a lil’ bit of direction. When people say ‘act natural’ I’m like, that person in every sitcom who acts the complete opposite and looks like an idiot.”

“Just make sure nobody who’s adopted him finds out, and we’ve struck gold.” He grins, then tilts his head back as he laughed. “Trophy husband? Or are you content just staying a sugar mama?”

“It can be both, right? Like, that’s a thing?” Macey saved a couple of fancy houses she found and looked over at Parker, “He’s hot, I’ll have money, it’ll be great.” She grinned, “What would you do if you got rich?”

Brent remembered, quite vividly, the day he laid in bed from sunrise to sunset. It had started because of pain— spasms and sharpness radiating out of his spine, that prompted him to sleep in. But it became apparent as the hours passed that there had been something more going on. A suffocating darkness, hanging over him. That was the day he and Macey simultaneously decided he needed to talk to someone.

It hadn’t been an immediate fix, and it took time to even feel like a good decision. Now, he swore by it. And clearly, it showed, though he hadn’t realized how noticeable his recovery was. “Yeah… It’s all the therapy,“ he said with a small smirk. "You should try it sometime.”

With the conversation turning to her, her body begin to get fidgety. The uncomfortable feeling trickled down her palms and the backs of her legs like an itch under her skin. She busied herself picking up a couple nearby arrows, ones she’d just said they weren’t cleaning up, twirling them around in her hand to stay occupied. Macey wasn’t stupid. Some part of her knew he was right. Honestly, the whole damn camp needed therapy.

"Which is fantastic," She nodded. A bigger part of her was still childish about it though, firing a hopeless joke back in defense, “I just don’t think a stranger needs to hear me rehash my mommy issues, PTSD, and guilt to them. A good cry and some wine does the same thing, right?”

Brent laughed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He in fact knew exactly what she was talking about, but he still rolled with the humor of the moment. “I’m the same handsome and perfect guy.”

Macey was looking at him in that way she had been more and more often. Like he’d shown up in a strange outfit or said something outrageous. To be fair, agreeing to leaving the arena messy was a decently outrageous thing for him to say. That coupled with his latest playful retort was certainly an unusual display. He couldn’t really blame her for being surprised, but he could tease her for it. “What? I feel like I grew a second head the way you’re staring at me.”

“Don’t make hydra jokes, you almost died once.” Macey smiled. She couldn’t help it. His laugh made her smile, his smile made her smile. Seeing Brent relaxed and playful like this made her heart fill up with all those fluffy, happy feelings that were sickly sweet. Honestly, it made her want to kiss that dumb, grinning face.

“It’s nothing. Just...you’ve been like, way more chill lately—In a good way,” She clarified, “Like, I’m here for it. I’m just so used to seeing you be way more...” Her fingers drummed against her leg, thinking, “Responsible? Maybe that’s not the word. Like, structured? I don’t know.” Macey finally shrugged, “Chill looks good on you. Which you probably already knew, because, as you said, you’re apparently handsome and perfect?”

L wiped the sleep out of her eyes as she trekked over to the kitchen to make herself breakfast. She began putting her hair up as he pushed the door open but dropped it when she saw Rae. “Hey! Oh my gods, since when are you back?” She looked at Rae in her workout gear and then down at her pajamas, exhaled a laugh, and began washing the blender. “Going to or getting back from a work out?”

Rae smiled at L’s cheerful greeting. People being happy to see her was a feeling that never got old. “Me and Hazel drove down here like, just the other day,” She added, “Wyatt’s here too. Oh—” She glanced down at her clothes, remembering why she was here in the first place, “Going to, eventually. I kinda got sucked up in Instagram.” She laughed, “But how are you?”