a/n: hey guys, it's ya girl XD this chapter is early because I gotta go somewhere and I can't bring my laptop.. anyway, it's also a little short but I'll make the next one a little sweeter to make up for it (probably next week when I get back)

Enjoy ;) - Angel

_

“Hey, hey, hey,”

Nana gently smacked Irene’s shoulder. “We wanna know if you finally won the staring contest against that coffee mug.”

“Huh?” the just-out-of-trance Irene lifted her head and saw her half-sibs looking at her.

They were having their breakfast at the pavilion the morning after their payback plan turned to a peace agreement. Though gods know that Irene would rather hide under her bunk for a month than go outside after that little ‘incident’ involving a member of Cabin 7.

“Well?” Joy arched a brow, glanced around them, then lowered her voice. “Are you still upset about last night?”

“I mean, we will understand if you are,” Hayoung continued. “After all, you did that.”

Joy speared a piece of toast. “We all created the plan, she didn’t act alone.”

“And whatever happened last night, Chiron already told us to forget about it. It’s best that we do,” Nana said, she then leaned closer to Irene. “Walk with me after breakfast?”

Joy chewed on her toast noisily, deliberately annoying Hayoung. “Don’t take too long if you guys are going on an excursion, we have the strawberry fields to tend later.”

“Right, the strawberry fields,” Irene groaned, putting her forehead on the table. She totally forgot about the punishment Chiron had given them, and the fact that they shared it with Apollo’s cabin.

Great. Just great.

“We have ultra-strong sunscreens in stock, in case you guys are worried about sunburn,” Hayoung informed them, scrolling thru her inventory list. “But since we’re working with the children of Apollo – the god of sun, I wonder if any of them could make the sun, I don’t know, less burn-ish?”

“What?” Joy choked on her toast. “Do you really think Apollo would care if we get a sunburn or not?”

“How would I know? Why don’t we go ask his kids?” Hayoung retorted in irritation.

Nana sighed and picked up her plate, then took Irene’s arm with her free hand. “Let’s go before these kids start pelting each other with bread crumbs.”

“Don’t play with your food,” Irene told the two who remained seated as she stood up with the head counselor.

“Don’t eat your playmate,” Joy called back, smirking conspiratorially.

“Depends on who the playmate is,” Hayoung giggled, then she and Joy fell to a laughing fit. Nana threw them a look which prompted the couple to instant silence, but as soon as they turned their backs, they started giggling again.

_

Nana and Irene strolled down the beach, skipping the small waves and picked up colorful shell fragments. The water looked like it was covered in fine diamond dust the way it sparkled under the bright morning sun.

“You’ve been really quiet, I can tell there’s something bothering you,” the head counselor broke the silence between them.

“Yeah, but…” Irene muttered, hesitating.

“As the head girl of Cabin 10, I’m ordering you to spill,” Nana told her jokingly but her eyes were serious.

Irene sighed, still debating with herself if she wanted Nana to know the conversation she had with Wendy by the lake. However, the girl might take it on herself to question Wendy’s motives if she learned that the latter kissed Irene on purpose.

“What do you know about Hecate?” Irene asked instead.

“Hecate as in the goddess Hecate?”

Irene nodded. “Yeah.”

“As far as I know – and I don’t know much about her – she’s the goddess of magic and witchcraft and ghosts and necromancy. She’s also a Titan so she’s powerful. Some of her kids in the camp can control the mist which is very useful. There’s also a rumor that some of her older children have made a witch coven of their own.”

“Hmmm,” Irene nodded, absorbing the information. “What do you know about Legacies?”

“Legacies?”

“The descendants of gods and goddesses through their demigod children,” Irene explained.

Nana looked thoughtful, she paused walking and let a tiny wave lap at her feet before walking again.

“All I know about being a Legacy is that sometimes they get the abilities of their demigod parents or ancestors,” she said, glancing at Irene. “Why the sudden interest in Hecate and Legacies?”

“It’s just…” Irene looked at Nana. “Have you ever wished you had a different mother?”

“You mean a different god as a parent?” she asked back. “Have you?”

Irene shied away from Nana’s piercing stare. “Yeah, just now.”

“Why? Don’t you like being a daughter of Aphrodite?”

“It’s not that,” Irene tried to think of how she will explain it without offending the head counselor. “It’s just… some of the campers thinks we are a joke. We live in a giant dollhouse, we never win in Capture the Flag, we don’t excel in any physical activities. All we are good at is being cute and being cute doesn’t matter in a battlefield.”

Nana was quiet for awhile and then- “Piper McLean.”

“What?”

“Piper is our sister and a daughter of Aphrodite,” Nana said. “She didn’t let her parentage to define who she is, who she wants to be, or what she could do. You can be a daughter of Aphrodite and still be a badass warrior. Being cute is not a limitation, it’s just a part of you. And if you want to be more than just a cute girl living in a giant dollhouse, all you need to have is the courage to try. It doesn’t matter who your parents might be, you create your own identity.”

Irene beamed at the head counselor. “Thank you.”

“Now,” Nana gripped her shoulders. “I’ll let you do whatever you want but absolutely no broken bones, or broken rules – at least not so much that you’ll get a severe punishment from. Are we clear?”

“Yes,” Irene hugged the head counselor in gratitude.

Their moment was interrupted when another girl arrived at the beach.

“Hey, Jinah.”

They both turned their heads to the direction of the voice and saw Wendy casually ambling towards them, in her hand is a clipboard.

“I wanna talk about the strawberry field thing,” Wendy said when she was near enough, she acknowledged Irene’s presence by simply nodding to her. It’s as if whatever happened last night just vanished to the thin air.

“I’ll go first, then,” Irene offered a thin smile to both counselors and walked away.

Wendy watched her for a while until Nana cleared . “Um, you want to talk about something?”

“Oh yeah,” Wendy looked up at the other girl, silently cursing Aphrodite for making her children so freakin tall they’re practically giants compared to her.

“As much as we want to believe that all bad blood between our cabins are now gone, I don’t want to be complacent and risk getting a bigger punishment from Chiron, so I drew up a plan,” Wendy gave the clipboard to Nana. “We’ll go on alternate shifts, our cabin will take the first shift this Monday, yours will have Tuesday, and so on and so forth until we’re done.”

“Sounds good,” Nana nodded her agreemen