𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐢𝐱

── glory

          "𝕿here you are!" Aurora froze, looking down from her hiding spot as she sighed. Luke was standing below the tree, hands on his hips as she sighed. "Either I'm coming up or you're coming down. Pick your poison."

There was more chance of running away from social interaction if she went down. Reluctantly, Aurora clambered down from the tree.

She never said that she was mature, and honestly, when Luke had first proposed the idea of finding what she was good at, Aurora had been somewhat for it. It would be alright, she could make friends at her own pace. Then he told her that they'd be doing it with the rest of Cabin Eleven and whatever other cabin was there, and Aurora had not been best pleased. So, when Luke had turned his back on her, she had disappeared.

"You're trouble you are. Like a cat." Luke stuffed his hands in his pockets as Aurora joined him on the floor. "I turned away for two seconds, and you were gone. You're never going to get claimed if you don't participate in things."

Aurora mumbled something out in response, looking for a way out as Luke sighed.

"Alright, the hard way it is. You run off again, I'll put you in a toddler harness."

"You wouldn't!" Aurora turned around to stare at him with wide eyes, shock running through her. The embarrassment? The humiliation! He wouldn't dare.

"Probably would actually." Luke grinned, a cocky little smirk that had Aurora's mood worsening. "Come on, I promise, everyone's super nice."

"Sure."

"And you're going to have fun-"

"Uh huh."

"And make lots of friends." Luke slapped his hands down on her shoulder, standing behind her as he forced her to walk ahead of him. Aurora huffed, struggling a little but his grip was firm as he led her towards camp. "Best to just rip the band aid off, meet lots of people all at once."

"I really don't want to."

"I know but you've had two days of just insulting me and running away, time to be sociable."

"Everyone's going to treat me weird."

"No they're not." Aurora shot him a scowl and a narrowed eyed look. "I'm with you, they're just gonna treat you like a normal camper."

"I've had three people ask for my autograph already." Aurora shook her head. "I just want normal."

"I know, but you've just got to let them get used to your presence instead of sitting in a tree somewhere like an bat."

"Did you just call me a bat?"

"Is that all you took from this conversation?" Luke sighed, shaking his hair out as he pushed her a little further forward and back towards Cabin Eleven. "Come on, put the bag away."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes." Luke nodded. "What are you worried about?"

"It's got all my work on there. If anything happens to it-" Aurora trailed off, clutching onto her bag a little tighter. She'd be screwed for her album, for her next album, for her acting gigs and interviews, for everything. Her entire life was on that laptop and she was terrified of one of the other kids breaking it or stealing it or someone hacking onto it.

"Give it here." Luke held a hand out.

"What? No." Aurora scoffed. "You're just going to put it somewhere high and out of reach."

That thought had occurred to Luke but then he reasoned that he didn't put it past her to kick his shins and that was painful.

"No, I've got a lock box." Luke took her over to his bed, unlocking the box at the end of it and opening it to show some other stuff. "I've got a bed, so I have a lock box. Put it in the box."

"Will you let me get it back out?"

"Yes. I'll even give you the code for it, will that make you feel better?" Reluctantly, Aurora placed her bag into the box as gently as she could, watching as Luke did all the locks up. She felt a bit naked without her laptop, and anxious, but Luke placed a hand on her shoulder and led her back out of the cabin. "Look, now we'll get you some glory, get you claimed and then, you'll have a lockbox to put your laptop into, yeah?"

"Sure."

"Great. Now, can I give you the glory speech?"

"Is it short?"

"Let's go with yes so you don't kill me." Luke nodded as Aurora weighed up her options before nodding. "Great. Gives me a chance to show off all that class taught me."

"You went to school?"

"Ooh, solid burn from Aurora. She's going four for four, and Luke's ego is not going to be able to stand anymore hits. Over to Chris for deeper analysis." Aurora paused seeing two boys following them, speaking into pretend microphones as Luke sighed. 

"Thank you, Mack. Yes, as you can see, it's been a rough few days for Luke Castellan who's ego has been shot to pieces by Miss Trueman, who is quite frankly, doing the gods work for the rest of us..."

"Shut up." Luke groaned as both boys descended into cackles. "Gods above..."

Luke was then shoved out of the way, as both boys appeared on either side of Aurora.

"Hi, Aurora, teach us your ways. I'm Mack." The boys had ginger hair, a cheeky grin on his face and bright green eyes that promised mischief.

"We're in awe of everything you do, especially when you bully Luke. I'm Chris." They both took one hand of hers, shaking it as they grinned. Chris had dark hair, like Luke's, but was far more tanned that the taller demigod. "Please, how do you do it?"

"I don't mean to." Aurora muttered as both boys gasped.

"You're so cool." Chris and Mack said in unison. "Marry us."

"Get off her!" Luke shoved them out the way. "Go on, go away! Stop being annoying! You're going to overwhelm her!"

"No fun." Chris hissed, sulking away as Mack followed.

"Just cause he wants her all to himself."

"Selfish." They finished the sentence in unison, scowling as Aurora stifled a giggle, covering her mouth with her hands. Luke was bright red again, trying to hide it by ruffling his hair as Aurora hid her laughter a little more.

Now, them, Aurora found them fun and not that intimidating.

"Okay, glory, moving on." Luke spun on his heels, leading her into the centre of camp, down a paved path. "Was known as kleos, demigods have always fought for it. It's like this stuff that just attaches to your name."

Aurora looked up at him through the corner of her eyes, seeing how hard Luke was trying to get back on track. She thought that this time, she'd oblige him instead of commenting on how long his speech was.

"Makes your name bigger, scarier, more important. Though, you might already have some." Luke muttered the last bit as Aurora looked around the camp more, seeing forges from the corner of her eyes and other cabins hidden between trees. "People listen closer when you talk, they work harder to be your friend and they think twice about messing with you."

"Hopefully, no one'll do that." Aurora muttered, watching everyone else around her with narrowed eyes. She was a bit surprised that no one had put two and two together yet and thought, good singer, must be a daughter of Apollo but then again, her dad was taking his sweet, sweet time to claim her. He must be waiting for her to do something kleos worthy first. Maybe archery, but knowing her dad, he'd want her to demonstrate her healing.

Her dad had a thing for her being a healer and Aurora had a thing for wanting nothing to do with it.

Someone slammed into her shoulder and Aurora almost went straight to the floor, slamming back into Luke as he caught her. Her eyes narrowed, twisting to find who had done it as Luke held her closer for a moment, before remembering that she would probably shoot another comment at him, and letting her stand up on her own.

"Hey, just say excuse me next time, please." Aurora told the girl who's hit her shoulder. The girl turned, eyes narrowing as she stormed over but Aurora crossed her arms and held her ground.

"What did you say?"

"Knock it off, Clarisse." Luke intercepted, shaking his head as he stood in between the two. Aurora's eyes narrowed, looking over Luke's shoulder to glare at the girl, though she did have to stand on her tiptoes to do it. "Not today, alright?"

"So, this is Aurora Trueman, the famous girl. Unclaimed are you?"  Aurora hummed, looking her up and down and scowling. "How's that working out?"

"Let me guess, Ares for a dad?" Aurora hummed, looking her up and down. "Heard he lost his mind a while back, got dumber and more psycho over the years. How's that working out for you guys?"

Luke twisted, wondering how Aurora knew that considering she was unclaimed and that was quite rare knowledge to know. Aurora looked the girl up and down, shaking her head as the daughter of Ares fumed.

"What did you say?"

"If you've got an issue because I've come to camp with glory and you're still having to earn it, say it with chest." Aurora reprimanded firmly, keeping her tone even and polite. "But next time, use some manners and ask me to move, okay? Good meeting you. Let's keep going."

Aurora spun on her heels as Luke looked between her retreating form and Clarisse a few times, unsure of what to make of this.

"Luke, you coming?" Aurora called and Luke turned, following the teenager away from Clarisse. When he reached her, she leant closer. "Where are we going?"

"What was that?"

"What?"

"That!" Luke pointed out. "You just insulted Clarisse, daughter of Ares!"

"So I guessed right? I wasn't sure if I was correct with her godly parent because I know that a lot of the gods have the confrontational thing going on-"

"You know more than you're letting on."

"No I don't." Aurora denied. "Are you scared they're going to mess with you now that I've insulted them?"

"They know better than to do that, I'm more worried what they'll do with you." Luke explained as Mack and Chris reappeared. "No, go away you two!"

"Aurora!" Both of them joined her side, shoving Luke away again as the boy let out a frustrated groan. "How are you so cool?"

"We'll protect you, don't listen to Luke."

"I can protect her just fine." Luke pointed out, trailing behind them.

"Luke's the strongest swordfighter at camp, though it's hard to believe..." All three turned back to look him up and down before spinning around again as Luke rubbed his forehead. He should never have introduced all of them. "...But we'll keep you safe, you don't need him."

"I don't think I needed him in the first place." Aurora shrugged as Mack and Chris both laughed, turning to Luke and then laughing more as Luke sighed and rubbed his forehead,  fighting down the pang of hurt that her words elicited. "I'm more than capable of taking care of myself. Luke, you didn't say where we were going?"

"We'll show you." Mack offered.

"Sorry boys, but I promised that this time I'd listen to Luke's speech." Luke grinned at that, knocking his brothers aside as he twisted her towards the archery course. "Also, I could feel him moping behind us."

They started laughing again as Luke sighed, and shook his head.

"Next time Clarisse knocks into you, I'm letting you fall into the mud." Luke muttered as Aurora hummed in fake agreement.

∘☽༓☾∘

Hiya,

So, Luke just wants all her attention and doesn't want Mack and Chris around, Mack and Chris want all her attention and are determined to leave Luke out, they're a lot of fun and I'm definitely enjoying them. Clarisse has appeared, Aurora thinks she has no manners and is spilling godly tea because she is her dad's favourite child.

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx