𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧

── album

          "𝕱ar be it for me to rat Aurora out..." Lee started as Aurora froze. She had her back to her brother, eating her dinner as she noted Aruna's teasing grin. "But do we think that there's a few songs on her album that seems a bit targeted."

"Now you mention it, Lee..."

"Shut up." Aurora groaned, placing her head into her hands as her siblings began to chuckle. 

"...I was thinking the same thing." Aruna nodded. "What was the line again?"

"Don't."

"Wasn't it..." Aurora stood up before Lee could finish his sentence and walked off, a blush marring her cheeks as they all laughed behind her.

She had returned to Camp around a week after the album had come out and had settled back into spending time with her siblings. Most of them had gone back to their schools now, but there were around seven others left in the cabin with her.

It was actually, surprisingly fun.

They were all working together. Most of them were still in high school, and everyone did roughly the same types of things so everyone helped each other out. Once that was done, in the mornings, they would spend the rest of the afternoon training and doing other fun things. Aurora had discovered she was surprisingly good at sculpting, which she hadn't even thought was a possibility.

"Hey Sunshine." Aurora froze on her walk down to the lake side. The one person she'd been avoiding, though she really hadn't wanted to, was now standing on her other side. Twisting, Aurora gulped as she looked up at Luke.

The older teenager shot her a half grin, ruffling his hair in a way that had Aurora's traitorous heart beating a little faster than it should have. He looked the same as when she had last seen him, if not better.

"Luke."

"It's been a while. I haven't seen you around." His eyebrows furrowed. "Congratulations on the album. It's great."

"You've listened to it?"

"Yeah, of course. We put so much time into the puzzles..." Luke smiled, trailing off as Aurora watched him. She wasn't sure what to make of that. "Hey, I just wanted to check in though. I haven't seen you at all and Mack and Chris said that you were back, but I guess we just haven't crossed paths. We should hang out some time."

"I don't think we can do that, Luke."

"What do you mean?"

"Luke, there you are!" There was another voice from the direction of the lake and the pair both twisted to see who was coming towards them. It was the girl that Luke had kissed, the one that wasn't her, the one that he was now dating. It was the reason they couldn't hand out. "Oh hi!"

She sent Aurora a warm smile, her hand threading through Luke's as she extended her other hand to Aurora. 

"I'm Millie, it's really nice to meet you. Luke and the others have great things to say about you." Aurora felt guilty not shaking the girl's hand, even if she didn't really want to. That should have been her and it wasn't and she hated it.

"I'm Aurora." She gulped down the annoyance and sadness, forcing a smile. "I dread to think what they've been telling you."

"Apparently you constantly bruise Luke's ego." Luke groaned at that, looking away as Millie laughed. "I need you to teach me how to do it. He's sometimes just too cocky."

Aurora let out an uncomfortable laugh. She didn't think that was a wise idea.

"Anyway, it was great meeting you. We should definitely hang out sometime." Millie smiled, before turning to Luke. "I'll see you later, right?"

"Yeah." Millie stood on her tiptoes, kissing Luke's cheek as Aurora looked away from anything or anyone to focus on. She hated this.

Millie walked off with a final wave, as Luke turned back to Aurora. Perhaps he noticed her face, or maybe her mood.

"Aurora, look I-"

"Rory!" Both turned as Mack came in and Aurora could have kissed him at his brilliant timing. "You're back! I told you so!"

"You constantly lie!" Chris followed behind him, before both of them practically jumped on top of Aurora, who let out a shriek of fear. "Hi Rory!"

"You're so heavy!" Aurora groaned as Luke chuckled. He'd missed their antics.

"Were you going to the beach?" Mack stood up. "Funnily enough, so were we. Let's go together."

"Brilliant idea." Chris agreed. Mack grabbed onto her, hauling her over his shoulder and running as Chris did interference with Luke, before cackling and running off after them.

"Mack..." Aurora tapped the boy's shoulders. "Mack, come on, put me down."

Mack slowed, and for once seemed to actually listen to her, setting her upright and back on the floor.

"You alright?" He questioned as Chris joined them. "We saw Millie and then Luke, thought you might need some help."

"Thanks you two." Aurora patted the pair's cheek. "I'm alright. It's all okay."

"You looked like you were about to cry." Chris deadpanned as Aurora turned to look at him, cocking an eyebrow. "What? It's true!"

"Doesn't mean you have to say it." She hissed back as Mack cackled. "You could just say, we know that's a tough situation for you, Rory, so we thought we'd help you out, not that I looked like I was about to cry."

"Sorry, did you want me to say? Yeah, Rory, you looked like you were about to cry and then kiss him because you had those big puppy dog eyes so we thought we'd save you from making poor choices!"

"I didn't look like that!" Aurora scowled. "Mack, tell him."

"You did actually look like you were going to cry and confess your love though."

"Mack!" 

"What?" 

"That's not the point I need you to make!" Aurora hissed, as Chris laughed. Mack shrugged. "You're supposed to be on my side."

"I'm on no one's side." Mack protested. "I did my one nice thing for you today which was save you from confessing your love for Luke like a loser so I'm all good in terms of karma and all that."

"You two are horrible for my self esteem." Aurora pointed between them. "I thought you liked me."

"We do." Chris nodded. "But we need you to get out of your slump over Luke, who is a man, and get back to writing banger revenge songs instead of 'I'm depressed because someone I wasn't dating got with someone else'."

"Cold." Aurora scowled again, all three walking off along the lake shore, "and I'll have you know, that's not one of my song titles."

"That is true. You haven't stooped that low yet." Chris gave her some credit as Aurora rolled her eyes. "But get over the man and go back to bullying him. Tell him he's got a receding hairline or something."

"He doesn't though." Both boys pretended to be sick. "I didn't even say anything."

"We can feel your crush permeating the air." They both hissed. "We don't want a crush."

"It's not infectious."

"You never know." Mack pointed out. 

Both boys then made the mistake of looking away, as Aurora reached her limit. She licked both palms of her hand and then dragged it down the side of each son of Hermes' face, cackling as they screamed. Both fell to the floor, rolling around like they'd been stabbed, screaming that she'd infected them and Aurora was sure that at some point they'd start shouting Cooties or something stupid.

"Now you're both infected." Their screams got louder as Aurora grinned at her handiwork.

"Aurora!" She froze, twisting to find Aruna stomping towards her. "What did you do?"

"She infected us with her crush!" Mack cried, both of them crawling over to Aruna to cling onto her legs. "She's mean to us, Aruna!"

"Grow up!" Aruna snapped back, shaking them off her legs. "God, you're like octopus or something. Get off!"

Both boys jumped up with a grin at that as Aruna shivered.

"I hate it when you two do this." She shook her head, before turning to her sister. "You, cabin, now. You two, I'll report you to Chiron for terrorising Aurora."

"She was terrorising us."

"Probably true, but who will Chiron believe more, me or you two." Both boys considered it before relenting.

"You're good, Aruna."

"Very good."

"But we'll get you."

"Watch out."

"I'm shaking." Aruna rolled her eyes at the pair, who was giggling to themselves again. "Bye boys."

"See you." Aurora waved as Chris and Mack swore at her, before running from Aruna's glare. 

"I came to check up on you. Thought the teasing might have gone a bit far." Aruna clarified, tucking Aurora under her arm.

"I met Millie. She thinks we should hang out." Aurora admitted.

"We'll think of some excuse to get out of it." Aruna squeezed her shoulder. "Well done for being mature though."

"I didn't want to be-"

"-But you were and that's what mattered." Aruna kissed her head. "Lee's got us for music now. Let's go and show off."

∘☽༓☾∘

Hiya,

So, it's been a while, oops? I've had a lot of work with my masters degree hence why there's been little to no activity apart from pre-written chapters on other books. So, yeah, I know it's been a while but Luke and Rory interacted so yay! I'm excited to see how this goes. Also, if anyone knows any graphic shops that are open, let me know, because I need to make a new cover for one of my books but I'm wondering if anyone has a shop open that I can check out!

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx