Chapter 2 / Couple hate club

Inez Reyes

"Inez." A voice whispered

"Inez, wake up, it's nearly breakfast"

I blink my eyes and see the shadowy form of my friend and bunkmate, Maribel D'Arcy, leaning over me and shaking me slightly,

"Inez come on wake up, I don't want Luke or Cat on me for this," Mari mutters, her blonde hair hanging down her back

Finally, I sit up and silently send curses at various gods, hoping they hear me.

"I'm awake, Mari, relax," I say rubbing my eyes

"Thank the gods, I didn't feel like getting the late talk" She replies with a heavy sigh

"I'm going to the bathroom, save me a seat, will you Mar?" I stand up and grab my wash bag and some clean clothes

"Sure, try not to be too long, I can save a seat but I doubt I can stop people eating all the food" Mari replies, a soft laugh escaping her mouth.

I laugh back and nudge her as I walk out of the cabin door.

"See you soon, Mari!" I shout from the doorway.

The walk towards the bathrooms is mainly relaxed, with the centre of Camp being relatively busy as it's nearly breakfast so people are leaving the cabins to head to the dining pavilion.

As I reach the toilets I see two girls coming out, one taller with darker blonde hair and the other shorter with dark brown hair, the second one calls out to me,

"Good morning Inez!" Sophia Bloom calls out with her pure, sunshine smile that always puts a smile on anyone's face.

I smile back at the daughter of Persephone, "Morning Soph." I nod at the other girl with
Sophia, her best friend and daughter of Aphrodite Alisha Gray.

Alisha nods back, Alisha (like me) is not a morning person and sometimes (again like me) she can be a little bitchy but then again all the best of us are.

Soph calls out a goodbye as I walk into the bathroom and she plus Alisha leave.

Inside the bathroom, I walk over to the mirrors and begin the brush my hair, the tangles of last night twisting and turning, full of the echoes of the new kid, Annabeth's words from yesterday and of course the usual halfblood shit like the monsters and the Gods and the childhood trauma.

I brush and brush until all the knots are gone and then head to a cubicle to get changed into today's outfit, an old pair of ripped and frayed jeans (I stole of Cat when they grew out of them), my bright orange (why the fuck is it orange) Camp Half-blood t-shirt, and my pair of worn red converse (courtesy of one Luke Castellan).

I slip out of the cubicle to see a certain dark-blonde-haired and a certain brown-curly-haired perched on the sinks, tangled together, hands knotted like they were born that way, mouths just inches from the other, one hand running the other girl's hair, the way they were looking at the other made me so jealous of what they had.

I made a coughing noise and instantly they looked at me, a slight guilty look on their faces.

I laugh "Good morning to you too, Lucia and try not to frighten the small kids in another way, Clarisse" I see a small blush creep up on Luce's face as Clarisse pulls them down from the sinks, I laugh again, "Don't worry, It's nothing new to me, I have to deal with Cat and Luke"

Clarisse laughs at this which does not help Luce's blush in a way at all. Her face is fully pink at this point.

Luce finally replies, "Glad to know that your 19-year-old sibling and their boyfriend are worse than us"

When they say this, Clarisse gets a soft smile on her face admiring Luce.

I grimace at the clear amount of love in the air and mutter into the air, "Whatever you two are making me feel way too fucking single and I'm hungry so goodbye."

I walk out and watch as Clarisse embraces Luce in her arms and Luce looks like they melt, I turn away knowing those sorts of moments are too private for me to watch them occur.

As I leave, I have that sinking feeling in my gut, I want that, I want stolen glances, I want hands knotted together, I want secret kisses on bathroom kisses, I want that sort of romance but it doesn't seem to be happening.

I sigh turning the corner and walking towards the dining pavilion.

"There you are, bruja [Bitch]."

My thoughts are interrupted by the voice of Cat, and of course, I look up to see them hand in hand with one Luke Castellan.

"We were starting to wonder if you had disappeared," Luke says with a worried look.

"No estaba preocupada [ I wasn't worried]."
Cat mutters under their breath, before seeing both mine and Luke's glares, "Bien, estaba preocupada, [Fine, I was worried], Luke was worried more though."

"Tranquilo, no lo diré [Relax, I won't tell]." I say back to them before beginning to walk again.

Luke smiles at me, even before he started dating Cat, he was an older brother to me, he always looked out for me and Cat, he's the Cabin 11 counselor. Even though Cat is older than him, he's the son of Hermes therefore he is the counselor.

We reach the pavilion and I see Mari sitting down on a Hermes table along with Chris Rodriguez, a Hermes kid and Luke's best friend, We walk over and I take a seat next to Mari.

"Morning, Chicos! [People!]" I mustered up a happy, confident tone.

Chris laughs at my comment, Mari and Luke laugh as well but Cat rolls their eyes.

I laugh back at Chris before starting to get myself some breakfast.

"He's awake"

Later on in the day, I'm hanging out on the side of the canoe lake with Lexi, Annabeth, Mari and our friend Atlas Winchester.

"Lexi, what do you mean?" Atlas exclaims, his bubbly tone excited.

"Percy Jackson, the new kid, he's awake," Lexi mumbled.

"Oh ok, cool," Annabeth remarked, I could see her mind whirring.

"Annabeth, that does not mean you can go and instantly stalk him!" I murmured.

"Sorry, I forgot you're the stalking police, Inez," Annabeth responds in a joking manner.

"Well don't forget again or I'll come for you!" I say trying to sound threatening but ending up giggling.

Annabeth tried to glare at me but also in the end, started to laugh and therefore so did Atlas, then Mari and then finally Lexi started giggling.

I smiled as I looked at the scene around me, taking in the those sunlight memories of us laughing by the lake because little did I know but the world was about to change.

LJ Speaks

hey cuties,

happy boxing day <3

i hope you all have had a good festive season!!

it's crazy that timeless has been around for a year 🧍🧍

i love my silly family dynamic
(it ain't lasting much longer lads)
who said that???

luke and cat my favourites 😓😓
(don't blame me core?)

inezbeth crumbs!!!

jacklow is coming i promise!!

luce and clar 🩷🩷

atlas, mari, soph and lisha introduced!!

love you all <3