Welcome home (CLOSED)

((that's alright))
I had been redecorating when I heard a knock on the door.
I looked around, the place looked a lot less elegant than before I had started. Popcorn garlands hung over the bunk beds and magnificent paintings that my friend Morgan made for me draped the walls, depicting colourful cyclopses and stylized stormy skies. It hadn't come cheap either; she was my friend, but she always dreamed of making a living with her art so I decided to pay her for her well deserved art. I had just finished placing a lamp shade over the stern face of Zeus's marble statue and marking in a smiley face with a sharpie I borrowed from Arts and Crafts when the I heard the knocks. My face when a shade of red when I realized that sometimes people actually visited me in my cabin. I had completely just been redecorating for my own pleasure, the Zeus cabin was always so uncomfortably formal, I wanted to personalize it, but I hadn't even begun to think of what other people would think.
I climbed down from Zeus's arm, where I had been sitting on, and dropped to the ground.
"Coming!" I called out as I made my way through the door.
I strode to the marble door and pushed it open to see a young girl at the receiving end. The first thing I noticed about her was her hair;it was a colourful purply blue, that reminded me of cotton candy I used to get on my fourth grade class trip to the carnival. It brought out the colour in her steely blue eyes and the denim she was wearing.
My brain didn't process what she was saying. Did she just call herself my sister? No, that couldn't be right. I blinked a couple of times, my brain becoming numb to such a situation. Small miniature people that stole precious belongings? Sure. Me having some sort of family to call my own? I would laugh and call you insane.
"Excuse me? I think you have the wrong cabin." I told her apologetically.
I looked up to the large 1 at the top of the door, and the lightning that constantly flickered out of the corner of my eyes like an annoying fly you couldn't swat away. How would you even confuse this cabin with anything else? Maybe she was playing a trick on me, maybe she was delusional, there were a lot of more likely possibilities.
"This is the Zeus cabin? Like god of lightning and skies and stuff? You wouldn't want him to be your dad anyways, it's not that great." I tried to convince her.
There was no way I had a sister.
Right?

My eyes widened and I stared in disbelief as a jagged wave of electricity flew from her outstretched fingers. I stepped back a bit, I felt almost delusional seeing someone else manipulate electricity like that. I couldn't help feeling a tinge of jealousy too, although I was not too certain why. I willed myself to speak, I couldn't just stand there in front of her with my mouth agape like an idiot. What she had been saying was true; she was my half sister.
"Wow... I'm so sorry about that." I apologized quickly for my rude behaviour. "I just... I've never had one before and everyone else... wow."
Is there anything else you can say other than 'wow'? I asked myself.
"Please, welcome! This is so great. I've been living here without anyone for a while now, I was afraid I'd contract cabin fever."
Words flew out of my mouth as my ADHD helped me progress the information much more quickly than I would have otherwise. I stepped aside to allow Ren into the cabin. Crap, the cabin. I quickly shuffled aside and ripped the garland off a nearby bunk bed.
"Uh, sorry about the mess." I apologized again, continuing to unravel the garlands off of the other bunk beds. "I didn't expect someone else to live here. I'm Luke by the way. Luke Fleming."
I turned to give her a friendly handshake. What I really wanted was to pull her in to a hug and I usually didn't suppress my... overtly friendly attitude but I didn't want to repulse Ren just in case she found it annoying. She had to share the cabin with me and it seemed a little sad if my only sister didn't like me. Anyways, I didn't really know how to act around my new half sister. In actuality I couldn't contain my excitement. The fact that I had a half sister made me grin and I tried with every will in my body not to bounce on the balls on my feet, something I usually do when hyperactive.

I chuckled at her statement of shocking me.
"Yeah taking control of your powers is really difficult and overwhelming most of the time." I told her, placing my hands in my pockets.
Memories of trying to regulate my powers the first time I had discovered them began to make my fingers feel a familiar tingle in them.
"It's one of the most important things to learn, though." I added.
I watched her go in and make herself at home on one of the beds. I still couldn't believe this was happening. I was glad she approved of the decor, it took me awhile to put in place. I forgot to breathe for a moment when she asked me her next question.
"O-oh, um. Yes." I lied.
In actuality I had climbed up the statue, but if I had a choice I would've flown up there. I didn't want to make her think that Zeus kids didn't have aerokinesis, because they definitely did, but ever since my last quest, I hadn't been able to use my powers again. I didn't want to tell my friends and I couldn't tell her. This unknown fear of rejection hung heavy in my heart because what kind of demigod doesn't use their powers? I might as well have been born mortal.
"It takes a lot of practice and concentration, I can only float for a bit before starting to feel light headed. You're basically manipulating winds to support your body weight so it's really tricky. I try not to go too high or speed up too fast, my body will drain too quickly."
It wasn't a complete lie, I could float and I tried not to press myself. It was all the truth, just not in my current situation.
I watched Ren as she took out a magnificent rainbow-coloured plant. It looked so exotic, as if she'd plucked it straight out of a Brazilian rainforest. I guess all Zeus kids have to have something rainbow coloured. I thought as I rubbed my checkered rainbow wristband that I wore at all times.
"That's quite a peculiar flower." I commented, hoping to change the subject. "Where'd you get it?"
When a demigod owned something peculiar, it was bound to have some magical meaning behind it.

Of course the change in subject wasn't any less of a touchy one. I couldn't help but have my interest levels peak at the mention of her friend Caty.
"A female satyr?" I asked inquisitively.
I've only read about them, they were mostly in Roman myths under the title 'faun'. I've always wondered with I've never seen them around before.
"That's actually quite rare here, I've never seen a female satyr before. I'm so sorry for your friend... you shouldn't blame yourself about it, it was her duty to bring you here and she was well aware of the risks she would take for you."
I took a tentative seat next to her on the bed.
"Furies are dangerous creatures, they never stop until they've tormented their victims. There wasn't anything you could do; being weaponless, defenseless, and clueless to what was going didn't leave you much options. I don't know much about reincarnation, but I'm sure Caty's in there somewhere, proud that you've made it to camp alive."
I hoped I wasn't too bad or said anything over the line while consolidating Ren, bad things always happen to demigods and it's hard to say 'it gets better' when it really doesn't.
"That shield's a good start for defenses though." I switched over topics again. "And you can go ahead and personalize this cabin as much as you want. It's as much of your home as it is of mine. There's some paint and assortments of decor at the Arts and Crafts if you want to make your own stuff. I was just finalizing my touches on the Zeus statue. What do you think? Does our father need any more pizzazz? I'm not sure if he's quite fabulous enough yet."
I made my fingers in the shape of a rectangle and framed Zeus's face in it like a painter planning their next step in a masterpiece.
I still can't believe we were sharing such a cold and calculating man as our father. I wouldn't be surprised if he zapped his own cabin because I called him 'fabulous'.

I grinned, watching Ren as she applied a bit more personality to Zeus's lightning bolt. My new sister had great ideas that were very well appreciated here. I was surprised to watch her lift herself in the air, it had taken me weeks to even realize I had Zeus powers. Then again, I was pretty slow, and didn't get claimed until near the end of the summer. I twisted one of the beads in my necklace; the first bead I had gotten. It was a light yellow with black grape vines plagued over it to symbolize Charlie's indiscreet betrayal and attack on Camp Half blood. Now that was an overwhelming year.
I resurfaced from my thoughts and looked at Ren as she stretched out over Zeus's arm.
"I'm really glad you think so." I told her.
I clambered up the marble statue and sat on Zeus's shoulders, holding onto his fat head for support.
"So Ren, how long have you been at camp? I've never seen you around before." I asked, eager to better learn about my new sister.

I lifted my eyebrows, impressed at the quick claiming. Zeus was doing a better job at claiming his children these days. Maybe I had help influenced that. Or maybe he just preferred her as his child.
"I've been here for about... hmmm..." I had to pause for a second, counting the years on my fingers. "This is my fourth, I believe. Unless I counted it wrong..." I stared at my fingers with a wary expression, wondering if my hands could deceit me. I'm pretty bad with memory and math, but I'm sure this had been my fourth. I pressed my chin into my chest awkwardly and stared at the beads around my neck. Three beads. Yup, I was right.
"It's weird, some days it feels like I had been claimed just yesterday and other days it feels like I've been here my whole life. These beads are given out to each camper near the end of the summer session each year. They're painted with little symbols of the most important event that year." I leaned forward and stuck my necklace out for her to have a better look.
"Ignore the medallion, that's just a token that the foster lady found next to me. I think it was my mom's." I told her, dismissing the golden coin that was strung next to the beads.
"I was claimed near the end of my first year." I told her, pointing to the yellowish bead I had been playing with before.

The smile faded from my face at the mention of Charlie. He's been ruining my summer so far and I'm not too happy about what he's done to the camp. I looked to Ren's stormy gray eyes with a sober expression as I tried to think of ways to properly describe him.
"He, uh... used to be a camper here. He left on my first year with plans to usurp the gods because hates them and the concept of hierarchy so he basically wants to kill them and make everyone equal. His plans are really dangerous and unstable, though. Since He's the son of Dionysus he gets more powerful by feeding off people's sanity... but he seems to be slowly losing his mind as well. You can't trust the guy, he's like a politician."
There was a lot more I could expand on him but I didn't want to drone on about him.
"He's got spies here and he's been turning our satyrs and nymphs against us. There's a forcefield around a large portion of the forest now to keep them out."
Again, a lot more I could say, but I didn't want to overwhelm her with the state the camp was in right now. From an outside glance you would think we're perfectly fine, but we're a lot my dysfunctional than we make out to be.