ASHLEY'S POV

I sigh and lay back on my bed. Sometimes boys are so frustrating! Just a few moments ago, I was talking to my almost lifelong crush, Brendan Scott. He had arrived at Camp a few years after me, when I was seven, and ever since he knocked right into me while training and sent us both rolling onto the grass, I had liked him, with his crooked smile, his eyes the shocking color of a sliced blood orange, and his hair so blond that it was almost white. And, even though we were good friends, he could be a real idiot sometimes. I've been dropping hints for years. Literally! Eight full years! "Oh..." my half-brother, Aiden Jeffrey, says. "What's wrong, Purple?" He's called me 'Purple' ever since he first came here, three years ago. "Two words, three, if I wasn't sworn to secrecy about his middle name : Brendan Scott." Aiden nods. "What'd you do this time that he bluntly ignored, Nose Ring?" 'Nose Ring' is another favorite of his. "Guess." "Hmmmm...." he contemplates. "Slight touching? Compliments?" "No. The oldest trick in the book. I asked him how I look." Aiden laughs loudly. "And he missed that? Wow, Purple, I knew you picked a dumb one, but that is an all-time low." I laugh. "Really, Aiden Iron Maiden? I think that's debatable." I only have two combats for how Aiden teases me : Aiden Iron Maiden, and Micha Samuels. She's probably the dumbest one Aphrodite ever popped out. She can often be seen forgetting whether the door to the Aphrodite cabin is a 'PUSH' or a 'PULL' door, flipping her long brown-and-bleached-blonde hair back, and poking herself in the big green eye with mascara. "Hey, she's cute. What's your excuse?" I hit him playfully. "At least I've ever talked to him." Aiden stiffens at this. I've been helping him build up the confidence to talk to and ask out Micha for months. Still no success. He has, several times, walked up to her and opened his mouth to speak, then turned straight back around and stumbled behind whatever is closest : the strawberry bushes, a cabin, an armed camper. It's a work in progress. I shake my head. "Look, I'm sorry, ok? You wanna try again later today?" He nods like a sad or sick child being asked if he wants ice cream. I smile. "No time like the present." I point out the cabin window, to where Micha stands, talking to a redheaded girl in a bright green romper covered in sequins. Aiden groans and stands up. "All right. Let's go."