Luner moving on in

"You don't need it." I said. I waited for her to walk in. Inside, there was a fountain. "You've heard of Iris messaging, roght? Well, this is an amped- up version of it. It can take you to the place you want to see. It was a gift from mom. I think she gave it to us recently, I only found it last week. None of us used it yet, but wer'e thinking we'll all try it out sometime. We only know what it does because mom left a note." I realized I was blabbering and shut my mouth.

"Oh, it's cool." I said. "Even us brainiac Athena kids don't know everything." I joked. I looked at the fountain. I secretly hoped that I would be able to use it someday to check out my old town, where my friends lived. I really missed Skye and Savanah, my best friends. "Anyway, Iris messaging is when you get a fountain or other running water. Then you get a rainbow going. You get a dracma(sp.) which is greek money, by the way, and toss it in. After that, you call out the name of the place you want to see. Then hopefully Iris, godess of rainbows, will show you whatever or wherever you want to see. It's kind of confusing, but you'll get it!"

I looked at Luner a little weirdly. "Anyway, overall, what do you think of camp?" I asked. Yep. Maybe not soon, but someday, I vowed, I would go visit Skye and Savanah.

I walked back into the main room. "Yeah, it is cool, especially after months of thinking that you are the only one in the world that is like this. You feel like an outcast. But you just gotta fight through it. I mean, we are strong enough, we shouldn't let other people bring us down."

I turned around and stared at Luner. "You were abused?!?" I stared at Luner. So I wasn't the only one who had been abused, huh? I kind of half-smiled. "So I'm not the only one." I kept my face like that, not letting the memories that were floating through my head show on my face. "But I was abused by my step-mom. But my dad didn't know that I was being abused. But I think- I think she might have hurt him too. I think she just wanted him because she was broke and needed money. She never really loved him, I know that." I tried not to let too much of my bitterness into my voice.

I saw tears in her eyes. "Hey, if you need to cry, I kinda need to cry too. We could just let ourselves cry it out together. I try to be strong, but everyone needs to let the tears out sometime."

I sat down on my bed and let the tears I had been holding back for so many years stream down my face. "They don't understand us. They think we're just freaks, becuse we're super-smart. They'll never understand."

"It's just the way people who are fully human are. Just making fun of people, being mean, then pretending they're sorry. Even us demigods can be spoiled at times. None of us will ever learn."

I started crying less. "Maybe. But it probably won't happen in our lifetime." I hoped she didn't think of me as a perfect leader. I mean, we were the same age! I couldn't be perfect all the time, even if I wanted to be.