It was nice to see the joy on her younger sister's face as she discovered what it meant to be a child of the goddess of youth. People tended to underestimate the Hebe cabin, because they weren't necessarily 'the best' at any one skill. They weren't as clever as Athena's children, weren't as fast as the children of Hermes. But then children of Hebe were the embodiment of what it meant to be young and full of life. When they put their mind to something they could accomplish a lot, and tended to both work hard and play hard. They had a boldness in them that could only be explained by youthful exuberance. It was a wonderful feeling.

"It's usually pretty good. Lunch is usually some kind of barbecue and fruit, breakfast is usually exactly what you would expect. The dryads don't make anything too extravagant, but I've never seen them make anything bad." She smiled, hoping that would reassure her. The food was usually on the healthy side, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. They didn't need to be eating greasy food just before a workout or a party, it was a good way to make yourself sick!

"Go ahead and get in line to grab some food. I'll go grab our table before the Hermes cabin takes all the good ones." The Hermes cabin was by and far the largest cabin. Not because their father was the most prolific reproducer--that honor probably belonged to Apollo, currently--but because Hermes took in all the unclaimed campers and those whose parents didn't have cabins yet. They often had several tables to themselves.

Alyssa chuckled softly at her sister's exclamation. "There's more where that came from." She smiled as they walked. "Children of Hebe have magic of our own. Well... sort of." Alyssa wasn't sure how much they had managed to explain to her during her orientation. Oftentimes it wasn't very specific to the parent, because the kids almost never knew who their parent was when they went through orientation. "Our mom is the goddess of youth so... we can do a lot of things like heal blemishes in the skin, make people feel younger, even look younger. And if we don't get ourselves killed by monsters, we will live longer than most other demigods." She said with a smile. "That's why I try to stay in shape. I don't want to be 80 years old and winded from a hike. If I'm going to live a long time, I want to enjoy those years."

As they got closer to the Mess Hall, Alyssa heard Julia challenge her to a race. Before she could even begin a countdown, Julia took off running. "Oh no you don't!" She laughed and chased after her. Aly could be a bit on the competitive side, but it was more about having fun than actually needing to win. So she didn't put forth all her effort, but she gave just enough to make it so that Julia enjoyed herself and thought Aly was trying. It wouldn't have been fair for her to go all out, she was several years older after all. Let her be a kid for a while longer. As a child of the Goddess of Youth, Aly could appreciate the exuberance that only children felt. She tried to hold onto that feeling, and let others hold onto it, for as long as possible. "Darn! You won!" She grinned. "Ready to head in?"

Alyssa nodded. "The mess hall is basically like a cafeteria at school. The only difference is that instead of sitting with your grade or class, you sit with your siblings from your cabin." Confirming that it was probably exactly like what she was used to from her orphanage and likely her school.

She chuckled as the younger camper ran to her room to get dressed. She didn't have it in her to let the girl know that pajamas probably wouldn't have mattered. Nobody really policed clothing at Camp. But when she returned, Alyssa smiled. "Alright! Let's get some grub." She began walking out the cabin door towards the Mess Hall.

"Uh... not really. It's just kind of whatever the Dryads serve. But the goblets automatically fill with whatever you tell them to. Iced tea, Coke, Root Beer, you name it, the goblet will fill with it!" Alyssa offered as a consolation. The goblets also never emptied, but she figured that was a surprise she could let Julia experience herself.

Alyssa had to stifle a small giggle as she saw the young girl jump. "Yeah, I'm your half-sister." She said with a gentle smile. The young girl had definitely never been to a summer camp before, and finding out that she had half-siblings had to be super weird. Alyssa could understand how disorienting this whole experience must be for her. It was normal to Alyssa now, but she could remember when she had first gotten here how strange it all seemed. "Yeah, the Mess Hall, you know... that big building that was kind of like a cafeteria? That's where all the campers eat all the time. We sit at tables by Cabin. So you'll be sitting with me." She said with a smile.

"I'd love to come with you." Alyssa beamed at the young girl. It had been a while since she had shared the cabin with a sibling and she was glad to have a little company and not eat alone. The satyrs would occasionally come eat with her when they felt like joining at the Mess Hall, but it happened so few and far between that Alyssa really had stopped hoping they would and resigned herself to eating alone. In a way, she was grateful to have a sibling in the cabin.

Alyssa nodded. That was exactly it, the feeling of freedom. As a child of Hebe, Alyssa appreciated a lot of the things that represented youth, and freedom was one of those things that she, personally, felt encapsulated youth. "Exactly."

Shaking her head. Alyssa crossed her arms over her chest. "I beat children of Hermes climbing this thing all the time. You're gonna have to do better than that." She also looked at him like he had five heads when he said what he wanted when he wins. "Let me get this straight... if you win, you want me to read the journal? Why not just... show it to me then?" Alyssa really didn't understand why he wanted to go through all this pretense if he just wanted her to read a journal entry. "I mean, if you want me to read it that badly, we don't have to climb the rock wall."

Stepping away from the rock wall, Alyssa started walking over to the chest.

Alyssa stifled a bit of a giggle when she realized she had startled him anyway. She had deliberately been quiet to avoid it, but when he got startled anyway it was hard not to laugh. "Sorry, Ibram. I did try not to startle you." She said honestly. The two had never really had an opportunity to get to know one another. They travelled in different circles and hadn't really ever crossed paths before now. "The archery range is big enough for the both of us. You don't really have to go anywhere."

Alyssa stepped up and notched an arrow. She let it fly, hitting the target, but not in the center. "Damn..." She sighed. "I still suck at archery." Alyssa was fairly athletic, but she was much more of a hiking, rock climbing, and yoga kind of athlete than archery. She preferred hand to hand combat over weapons most of the time, so her skills with weapons were fairly rusty. Still, she figured if she was ever going to be able to go and see her dad, she should probably be able to use something made of celestial bronze someday.

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Aly rolled her eyes and smirked as he said he was 'almost impressed'. "Ah yes, that was just what I was hoping for, too bad I just fell shy of the mark." Alyssa was her own person. She didn't really live to try and impress others, and tended to be a very go with the flow individual. If people expected her to try and conform to what they wanted, they were going to be sorely disappointed. While she wouldn't go out of her way to rebel against them, she also wasn't going to put forth the effort to do as they expected of her either. She did what felt right to her in the moment, and tried to live life by those rules. Impressing people was not something that she typically cared about. Stepping up to the wall, Alyssa placed her hands on the stones. "I do like that feeling of freedom when I get to the top. You know, before I have to scamper back down before the lava starts flowing."

"What do I get when I win?" Aly asked jokingly. If this were a sprint, she would have no chance at beating a Child of Hermes, and she knew it. They were the fastest kids at the camp, and the only ones who came close were the Children of Nike. But here, on the climbing wall, it was more about strength and precision than classical speed. Being able to do it quickly would be important, but it didn't matter how fast you were if you had no upper body strength. There was a reasonable chance that she could actually turn this into a reasonable competition. Mostly, though, she was just in it for fun. And she loved a good challenge, especially when there was something on the line.

Aly smiled as Idris obliged her request to join him on the climbing wall. She moved forward, stepping up to the bottom and looked up. The lava could be heard bubbling near the top of the wall. Speed was the name of the game when doing the climbing wall. You had to make it up fast enough that the wall didn't collide with the other wall and cause the lava to come pouring out. Though, there were other modes that could be turned on if someone wanted more of a challenge.

Idris began asking questions and Aly had to snap her attention back to the person near her. "Woke up, got dressed, came here." She grinned over at him. "I may have slept in. I was up late last night with some of the Dionysus campers." If someone wanted to unwind and relax, Dionysus cabin was where you went. They were the party people. Children of Hebe loved to party--probably because it was an activity people tended to grow out of as their youth faded. Parties meant you were still young.

Just as Aly was about to set herself up to start climbing, Idris asked another question. She chuckled to herself because it felt like maybe he couldn't handle the silence if someone else was there. It was endearing. "We don't really have many other options for climbing walls." Aly smiled. "But yeah, I try to climb at least once a week."

Alyssa hadn't gone for a climb in a while. She liked to keep fairly active, at least with these kinds of physical activities. Combat wasn't really her forte, so the arena wasn't her favorite source of exercise. But climbing? This was something she enjoyed. It gave her far more satisfaction than any of the combat classes ever did. Part of being a child of the goddess of youth was having an appreciation for the things that kept one feeling young. Adrenaline was the perfect fuel to maintain that feeling. The best way to get it was to keep yourself active and engaged. So every day, Aly did a new activity to help make sure she kept herself feeling as young as possible for as long as possible. She slid into a pair of leggings, and a tank top before calling out goodbye to her sister and heading for the climbing wall.

As she arrived, she saw a somewhat familiar face. Aly had been at camp long enough to have met Idris in passing, but she had never really gotten to know him. They travelled in different friend circles, were in different cabins, and there had never really been a chance to get to know one another. She waved casually as she arrived, and smiled. "Mind if I join you?" Aly stepped up to the bowl of chalk that was nearby and started chalking her hands so she wouldn't lose her grip as she got sweaty from the climb. "I didn't want the day to go to waste."

Alyssa had taken some time away from the camp to go visit her father. She didn't stay long, she never did, but upon returning to the camp she ended up getting a new sister. Family was important to Aly. Her father meant the world to her, and they were all each other had. Her other siblings had left the camp and she was the only one left. Getting a new sibling, and being an older sister, was something new for her. She had been the baby of the cabin for so long. But Alyssa was up for the challenge. Admittedly, it was a lot easier with the two of them still being fairly close in age. She wasn't exactly going to have to play barbies with a nearly 13-year-old.

Lilythe had helped settle Julia in last night, and the poor kid was so tired she had fallen quickly asleep, so Aly hadn't had time to introduce herself. Alyssa got up that morning and got herself dressed. As she stepped out of her room, she was surprised to see the young girl standing there already. "Good morning. I'm Aly." She said lightly, hoping not to startle the poor girl. "You're probably hungry and want breakfast right? We'll have to go to the Mess Hall. We don't really have a kitchen... it's a summer camp." Alyssa explained. One of the down sides to being here was that they didn't really have much more to the cabin than a few rooms, a common area, and the bathrooms.

Alyssa had nothing better to do that day, so she decided to get a bit of extra archery practice in. Truth be told, she was contemplating whether or not she wanted to join the hunters of Artemis. All the girls her age were finding themselves falling in love and she wasn't sure that was something that interested her. She was a very go with the flow individual, and believed that if she was meant to find love it would happen in its own time. So she wasn't chasing it down the way her friends all seemed to. Unfortunately, that meant that she had a lot of free time when they decided that they were going to sit and gossip about their various crushes and who was dating who. Aly had no interest in that kind of gossip and was most content when she could actively do something. Whether that was reading, crafting, or trying to stay in shape.

She had just excused herself from one such conversation and grabbed a bow from the armory to head out for some practice. As she arrived she saw that she wasn't alone. Standing there was one of the campers that she had seen around, but hadn't really gotten to know. All she really knew about the boy was that he was from the Nemesis cabin. He seemed focused, so Aly just stood there waiting for him to be done with his shots so she didn't disturb him. Or worse, startle him.

Theo

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