Chapter 28

-Girl In Red.

29th January.

It is odd, isn’t it? How something can go so wrong in just the blink of an eye.

Clarisse finally found herself in a state of mind that wasn’t some miserable, grumpy teenager that reflected her problems onto other people by beating them up.

Someone had come along, who she despised, and had been able to weasel their way in through a small gap in the brick of a wall that she had spent years building. Someone who turned out to be a real ray of sunshine once you got to know her. Not just some immature jokester that ended up in detentions and the infirmary four times per week.

Like a leech, she was.

People always think disaster comes with noise-screaming, fire, monsters tearing the sky open. But Clarisse knew the truth: disaster doesn’t always announce itself. It waits, until you laugh naturally and stop looking over your shoulder every two seconds. Clarisse was like that. It was an obsession; to tell herself to always expect disappointment, to brace for it, then, maybe, it would feel a bit better when the dissapointment did come. Or even if it didn’t. To always keep herself on edge was to always keep herself prepared.

Like her father taught her.

When the disappointment came, Clarisse did not find herself any more relieved that she had been forcing herself to expect it. If anything, she felt more disappointed that her forceful mindset had been right.

For a split second, perhaps her walls had been taken away. Maybe she finally did find herself feeling a bit out of the ordinary for an Ares child. So what? She had liked it. There, she said it. Well- in her head. Never out loud.

She had been so close. So, so close to opening up this new chapter of her life. And then it all crumbled before her eyes. Just like that.

Clarisse hadn’t even known half the things she was capable of feeling before this summer just gone. All Clarisse knew was anger. Strength, strictness. A cold, bloodied world in which she imagined herself to die fighting for one day. Had she reconsidered that after summer? Yes, more than once.

And Gods, curse Kayla for losing that damn Jeff Buckeley CD in the Sea of Monsters. Because she really needed it right now.

Clarisse ate a bowl of slop in the dining pavilion as she sat around with her brothers. Her head was down, her shoulders hunched, a moody look on her face. Her spear was strapped to her back that thankfully warned anyone off; not like anyone came close to her regardless.

Camp was gorgeous. Newbies were down by the training grounds, getting used to their new home and relishing in the unreal activity of sword fighting. Athena and Apollo kids were down by the race tracks, chariot racing. Satyrs sat at random campers tables, helping themselves and spreading smiles.

Well, minus Percy and Annabeth on some life threatening quest Clarisse learnt little about, then yes, everything was fine and dandy.

Just any other day at camp for year-rounders in January.

There were less campers than usual due to it not being summer term at camp. Clarisse didn’t know quite what to believe though; if the ones that left for school term had actually left for school term. Or something else. It was no secret now that some demigods were going to Kronos. Some had died. Some had joined Luke. Some had just disappeared.

Well, it was a secret actually, but Clarisse knew it. Chiron had told her many times. All sorts of things.

“Clarisse.”

She snapped out of her thoughts, swallowing the mouthful of porridge she had been chewing on mindlessly for the past minute. “Back so soon, Malcolm?” Clarisse turned her body stiffly to the Athena boy, a scowl on her face.

“I-uh… I stole some of Annie’s things. Look, I’m really worried. As much as you. I know you got close, I just want to help.”

“Help? Help? I told you I don’t want your help. You ditched her.” Clarisse spat, snatching the papers off of Malcolm to peer down at them.

Malcolm twiddled his thumbs, looking down.

“…Don’t listen to me. I didn’t mean that. You’re not helping though. You can sit and watch.” Clarisse pushed herself up off the bench, leaving her brothers to carry on their morning food fight without another word.

He followed her all the way to the lake, where she sat below a willow tree to scout out what all these papers she had been handed were about.

“Annie- she’s obsessed with it. But, you know, she’s not here right now, and you’re really confident she might be in there, so-“

“She is,” Clarisse corrected. “I know she is. She wrote all this?”

Malcolm nodded, tucking his knees up. “Like I say, she’s obsessed. The architecture and things… I- I copied them. Printed them out, so she won’t notice they’re gone whenever she comes back. Whenever,” Malcolm swallowed, shaking his head. “Whenever that is.”

Clarisse pointed to a sheet of paper. “Crossroads, sewers, and abandoned buildings is the easiest, then?” Malcolm nodded. “And stones, tiles, and markers are crucial?” Malcolm repeated his nod.

She scattered the pages on the grass without a second thought. There must have been atleast a hundred, double sided sheets of this stuff. “I’m so screwed.” She whispered, biting her lip.

Malcolm made no comment of denial. “You can’t do it, Clarisse. Listen to Chiron. We have to-“

“I’m not listening to anything else of what that stupid centaur has to say to me. There’s no reason he can’t let me go! He let her go so carelessly, I-“

“He let her go because of her parentage. A mix between life and death is a good asset to have for quests. Besides, from what you told me, she was meant to. You’re not, no offense. No one else has had a prophecy like that, or-“

“I don’t need a prophecy, Malcolm. Do the ones that switch to Kronos get a prophecy? I don’t think so. So I’ll just do the same. I’ll leave without one.”

Malcolm went quiet. His shoulders slouched, his posture hunched. “You’re brave.”

“I have to be,” Clarisse replied quietly, looking at him through her lashes. “We wouldn’t get anything done if we weren’t brave, us demigods… but I don’t blame you for not wanting to come. It’s suicide.”

“You said it yourself,” Malcolm shook his head, burying it in his knees. “It’s suicide. You’d go to measures of that, for-“

“Don’t make me admit it,” Clarisse scoffed, straightening her back. “Frankly, Malcolm, and I still hate you after I tell you this, but not many people give me a second glance in life. My brothers don’t even know my birthday, or… I dunno, my favourite animal. My dad-” She choked to a pause, shaking her head. “Is my dad, point blank. I don’t have much going, to sum it up. It’ll keep me busy, right?” She diluted her point a the end, shrugging it off. The papers were bunched up into her hands once more as she stood up. “Thanks. Tell anyone my plan, and I’ll make sure that you know that I know. Later.

…

“Clarisse, come on, man, that is not fair-”

“What, you wanna act like a pig every time we sit down, so be a pig, punk!” Clarisse argued with her brother, Axel, over dinner at the dining pavilion. She was stood at the end of the Ares table, holding Axel’s food over the floor on his plate. “Everytime! All of you! Sit down and eat the food. Do not throw it! Just cause our dad’s sacred animal is a hog, doesn’t mean we need to act like them!” She bickered, slapping his hand away as it made a jump for his plate. “Oliver! Sit. Down!”

All of her brothers dropped to their seat in one second flat, miserable and bored looking. They had been throwing food at each other for the millionth time. Clarisse was fed up. Every meal. Loud, messy. Like two years olds who thought you ate food by mushing it all up with your hands first for fun. “Now, not for one minute can I get peace with you animals.” She growled, moving the plate further away. She gave them all a sly, stubborn look- then flipped the plate upside down, letting Axel’s delicious chicken dinner soak into the floor of the dining pavilion.

“Oh, come on! You’re acting like dad! Jesus-“

“Clarisse!” A voice boomed through the hall, echoed trotting following. Chiron. “To the Big House, child.”

She snarled, sending a glare to them all as she accepted her fate. “Well I can’t believe our dad likes you better than me, Dean. I hope you choke on your next mouthful.”

With that, she stormed off, flipping the bird to all of her brothers. “That was quite the scene, Miss La Rue.” He turned, strolling peacefully back to the Big House.

“Just put me in detention, I know what I did. I don’t want to hear it. And no, I am not saying sorry, Chiron.”

Chiron shook his head with a huff, putting his hands together. “No, I understand you are not at your best right now. I want to talk about something different, I need you in my office. Oh, no, Clarisse thought. Malcolm was really gonna have a rough nights sleep tonight if Clarisse found out he had said anything.

“It’d be best to not start talking until we get inside. The matter is… well, you’ve argued with me about it plenty of times before.” With those words, Clarisse knew exactly what he was on about. Her head lifted up. “Where is she, Chiron? Nearly three months is not right. Not safe, not anything! You-“

“Inside, Clarisse. That is what I said,” Chiron huffed, swinging the door open and holding it for Clarisse to walk through first. She sneered and stormed off to sit in the guest chair in his office, immeidately sinking down into it. He moved around and stood across from her. “This, Clarisse. Here it is.” He pulled out a single bit of paper from his desk drawer. Clarisse gave it an uninterested look. Oh, Malcolm was so dead.

“Mh, dunno what that is.” She shrugged, shaking her head.

“No? How many times have you come to argue with me the past two months. About four times a week? About the same thing? And now, just… laying on the grass this morning, I find a printed out sheet of Annabeth Chase’s work of the Labyrinth, is that right?” It was easy to see with the pixels that it was printed. And, well, the initials in the corner told everything Chiron needed to know about whose it was. “Do you mean to tell me Annabeth has her work laying about while she isn’t even at camp? How odd of her.”

Clarisse rolled her head back to the ceiling, groaning. She must have missed a sheet when picking them all up this morning. “She’s got good work, Chiron.”

“Clarisse,” He prompted. “I know you, I’ve known you for a long time. People may not think you are smart, but you are. And you know it too. Now I don’t know how you got your hands on this, and possibly all of her other work on the Labyrinth which I have seen because she has shown me before, nor do I think I want to know, but you need to listen, dear. Yes, you found what you needed for information. Stealing Annabeth’s work is smart. But her work is a speck of dust so far compared to everything else we don’t know about the place.”

She lifted herself up in the seat, to get into a more convincing position. “You need to let me go, Chiron, I don’t care about a prophecy. She could be dead, and you don’t even want answers? That’s all I’m hearing right now. I know Luke’s army is big, you’ve told me that. They will not stop me. I also know your little secret about how they’re using the Labyrinth. I have ears. And, and- the fact she left a day early on her quest? No notice?” Clarisse slammed her back against the chair in anger, crossing her arms. She had not been a fan of Chiron’s decisions since the end of summer.

“You don’t know enough, Miss La Rue. There are endless rules to the Labyrinth. And first off I hope you haven’t told anyone what her quest was actually about.”

“I haven’t.”

“You care for her, I understand, but you must understand the Labyrinth. She could have been rejected from it, or perhaps she could have joined-“

“She wouldn’t,” Clarisse snapped, slamming her hand down on the table. “Kayla had her opinions but she was not like that.“

“Kayla Graves had her opinions just like she had her fatal flaw,” Chiron replied gently, waving his hands in acceptance. “Jealousy, Clarisse. Not quite the same as yours. Hers can lead her to… evil decisions. And from what I recall, she was always rather jealous of Mr Jackson. That could potentially have led her to a one way mindset to- well, get revenge. On the gods and their higher off spring.”

Clarisse rolled her eyes, letting out the most sassiest of disgusted sounds anyone would have ever heard. It most definitely beat Aphrodite kid snarls. “Please, Kayla wasn’t jealous because of the Gods, she was jealous because Percy Jackson came in and made himself this… golden boy icon.”

“Which led back to him being claimed in less than a week while she waited three years, and his early retrieval of a quest, and his… main character prophecy, lets put it.”

“You know what else Kayla was?” Clarisse inclined her body. “Petty. So, unbelievably petty. She lived on pettiness, in fact. So if she wanted a chance to get back at him, she wouldn’t do it by joining an enemy force, for what? Help? She would do it single handedly!”

Chiron hushed her, lifting his finger up in the air. “We all have our theories, child. But do not deny it. You know it might be true, or you would not be defending her so hard. You want to venture off and find a way into the Labyrinth, Clarisse La Rue? Be my guest, yet I advise you revise every single one of those sheets you stole. And prepare for a long time, Clarisse. I will allow you to venture for her and find out anything you can about the Labyrinth, but I want no one knowing of your whereabouts. I don’t want big talk of the Labyrinth, or any theories to be spread. This is serious, Clarisse. Very, very serious. The war is rising. Be warned, child. Even the bravest of demigods might not return from the Labyrinth.” He explained softly, giving her that familiar look with squinted eyes; that off acceptance, worry, and defeat, all in one.

Clarisse sat up directly in her chair, sending a scoff with a look that pierced right through Chiron’s eyes. Why did he have to be so pessimistic as to think she couldn’t do it?

“I will.”

Please vote!!
Lowkenuinely Just finished s2 omg I’m scared cus that was absolute cinema
You guys better start praying for this mfs happiness😁

ANYWAY- a sort of blurb I promised of another Clarisse book, many people voted yes. Not being published for a while, BUT, here it is, and I would like to state a big idea for this book was not not have a proper plot come into it for quite some time, so it would be alot of well written fluff with a soft storyline. But let me cook when the plot comes in i’ve got such a BITTERSWEET idea plspls

Bittersweet.

Think of this as a scrapbook of Clarisse La Rue’s time at camp.
Summers of sunburnt shoulders, campfire smoke, lazy afternoons and a girl who makes her laugh- Poppy.
There is no what happens next. This is a summer that never ends.

Until it does.

This is a version of Clarisse who gets to rest. Who gets to laugh without it being a defence mechanism while she bullies someone just to keep her reputation up. Who gets to be a teenager in love at Camp Half-Blood instead of a soldier.