𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫

── awkwardness

          𝕹o one bothered Aurora as she changed. She had hidden in a stall, pulling her own crop top off and yanking the orange shirt on. Despite everything, it was soft and it smelled clean and for a brief moment, Aurora wondered if it had belonged to someone else or whether she was the first person to have it.

Exiting and returning to Eleven, Aurora was relieved to see that all of her stuff was still in one place, making sure that she had everything and that her laptop was with her. She couldn't leave that behind, too worried about losing the music that she had saved on their. That would be catastrophic.

Looking around, Aurora's eyebrows furrowed at the lack of a plug. That wouldn't do. Of course she knew that demigods and electronics didn't mix, but surely electronics inside of a protected demigod camp wouldn't attract monsters? Wasn't that the point of the borders and boundaries, to keep them safe and all.

Someone cleared their throat behind her and Aurora froze, twisting to look over her shoulder slightly. 

She didn't know what she was expecting, someone small perhaps, but instead her eyes met sandy coloured cargo trousers and vans. She followed the legs up until her eyes were assaulted by the orange camp t-shirt, before looking up to meet the eyes of the boy who was standing over her. There was a necklace around his neck with a couple of different coloured beads and a nasty scar that still looked red down the right side of his face. He had dark curls atop his head and warm eyes.

"Hi." Aurora waited for him to say something else, blinking slowly as she watched him through her eyelashes. He seemed to struggle to form words for a moment. "You're Aurora Trueman, right?"

Aurora just nodded her head slowly.

"Hi, I'm Luke." He grinned, a smile forming on his face as he held out his hand. Aurora's eyes traced along his arm and down to the hand extended towards her, before raising her own to shake his. "I'm your cabin councillor."

Aurora nodded again as Luke grinned properly. 

"Nice to meet you." She muttered as Luke nodded, his curly hair ruffling slowly as Aurora stood. She was a little smaller than him, but could meet his eyes just fine.

"Well, it's a pleasure to have you in the cabin. Chiron's given you a tour, I assume."

Aurora nodded again.

"Great, and are you feeling alright? I know the whole, child of a god thing, can be super weird and con-"

"I feel fine."

"-and you're fine, right." Luke stopped what Aurora was sure was a great, comforting speech for the younger kids. "You're not freaking out? Not scared or worried? Not having an existential life crisis?"

She just shook her head again.

"Okay, wow, haven't really had this reaction before. Normally everyone kind of freaks." Luke muttered as Aurora nodded, sticking her hands in the back pockets of her jeans. The boy in front of her seemed to be trying to find another topic to talk about. "You alright on the floor? You must not be used to it and all-"

"It's fine."

"Are you sure? I feel like it's not right."

"It's really fine." Aurora continued to try and placate.

"You're kind of really famous and all, so don't really feel that I should be letting you sleep on the floor."

"I don't mind."

"Maybe you should have a bed or something." Luke offered as Aurora's eyes narrowed. This was awkward. If this was what all friendship esque conversations were like then she wasn't particularly happy with them because this just felt like a lot of stumbling over words. "Until you're claimed and all."

"Don't some demigods never get claimed? So that's just you giving up someone's bed for an indefinite period of time." Aurora pointed out.

"Yeah..." Luke trailed off as Aurora slung her bag over her shoulder.

"I'm going to go to the Big House and find a plug." She mumbled, before backing off from the strange boy and heading out of the cabin to go and find some quiet spot to compose some new songs and music in, not sharing a single look for the boy behind her. She didn't want to be dragged into another conversation when that one had already gone poorly.

Luke turned, groaning into his hands as he re-joined his friends.

"Wow." Chris slapped his shoulder as Luke sighed. "That was so smooth, Luke. So smooth."

"Shut up."

"She looked so disgusted." Another one of his siblings, Mack, pointed out with a cackle. "The look on her face as soon as you came up to her was nothing short of horrified."

"Gods, you made such a great first impression."

"I hate both of you." Luke tried to stop cringing at himself as he glared at both boys.

"Best swordsman at camp, can't talk to pretty women. Correlation? I think so." Chris nodded.

∘☽༓☾∘

By the time dinner had come and gone, Aurora had still not emerged from her hidden spot. She had seemingly found the one plug in camp, her headphones going over her ears as she had worked on perfecting and creating little tunes and melodies that she wanted to turn into songs.

Maybe not for this album, but for the next one, they could work.

Pulling her legs up a little further, Aurora finished her final email, this time to her mother to tell her that she was still working hard and sending her the images of her different songs as proof, before finally noticing that it had grown dark outside.

Stuffing her laptop into her bag, she slung it over her shoulder, creeping out of the Big House and heading back down into the main part of camp.

There was singing coming from the amphitheatre, though Aurora winced at the off key nature of it, sticking to the shadows and away from other people as she rushed towards Cabin Eleven. This was all a lot and quite frankly, Aurora was overwhelmed. 

There were so many people and new things and she was alone and didn't know anyone.

Getting to the cabin was fine, and Aurora was happy to see that she was the only one around, changing into her pyjamas quickly and brushing her teeth before padding towards her bed roll in the corner of the room.

"Hey, we've been looking for you." Aurora tensed, turning to look at the curly haired boy who had introduced himself first. Her cabin leader. "Got a bit worried. Thought you might have run away or something."

"Working." Aurora shrugged, clutching her toothbrush and retainer case.

"You know for a famous singer and stuff, you don't speak that much." Luke pointed out, that same grin on his face as Aurora closed even further in on herself. For some reason, that sentence struck a slight nerve in her and she tensed.

"Maybe I just don't want to speak to you."

"Ouch." Luke was still grinning and Aurora's eyes narrowed. "Was gonna invite you to come and sing and show off, thought you might like it."

"I don't sing to show off. I sing because I like it." Aurora corrected, before folding her arms further. "Look, it's been a long day."

"Yeah, look, I know rejection when I see it, and I can handle it, honest."

"Had a lot of practice at it?" Aurora cocked an eyebrow as Luke paused, turning to look at her. He hadn't expected that to come out of her mouth. Maybe he had pushed a button a little too far, because everything about Aurora's body language and facial expression screamed uncomfortable and defensive.

"Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot." Luke turned back around, extending his hand again. "I'm Luke Castellan, I'm your cabin councillor and as that, I'm here to help you figure out who your parent is, what your good at and help you to adjust at camp. Your turn."

Aurora watched him for a moment, before slowly extending her hand.

"I'm Aurora Trueman." She mumbled, still tense. "I don't want special treatment just because of who I am or what I do."

"Alright, Aurora Trueman." Luke nodded. "Normal, I can do normal."

∘☽༓☾∘

Hiya,

Spoiler alert, Luke can't do normal especially when Aurora's involved. Also, Luke is the most awkward ever with her and their first conversation is a bit painstaking, can't lie but I do love them and I just think it's funny.

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx