Alford's Bunk

Alford didn't want any depressing stuff to happen to him anymore today...but it seemed like the world did not want to listen to him.

Alford had been really depressed for the last two hours. His self esteem had been hurt badly during his really short visit to cabin number 25. He had been laughed, mocked, and left alone. And just a few minutes ago, he'dalmost got a friend...a sincere kind camper who wanted to hear his lame speech. For a moment, Alford had felt a little bit happy...but it turned out to be another failure. The kind camper left...mostly because of Alford's lame shutters. Those events weren't really the best things to be experienced by a thirteen year old kid.

Alford sighed as he blinked back tears...and he was about to sleep when he heard a knocking on his door.

"W...who?" He said.

Alford winced. He was pretty much devastated with all bad things that had happened to him that day…but it didn’t stop him from feeling pity for this stranger…who just…uh, fell down onto the ground. Alford felt like it was a déjà vu…but then he realized that he himself had experienced a similar thing a few moments ago. He had fallen down from his bed and almost impaled himself with his own staff. The falling part wasn’t exactly fun, too. It hurt quite a lot.

He wiped his tears—he didn’t want this girl to see him blinking back tears—and got up from his bed. He jogged to the door and kneeled down. “Uh,” he shuttered, like he always did when he approached a stranger, or vice versa. “A-are you o-okay?”

OOC: Alyssa, sorry for not posting. I was grounded.

~~~~~~~

Aria, had been so furious and angry with everything storming around, and accidentally walked into the wrong place. She sighed, "Sorry." She called out.

Alford jumped and shuttered nervously, ''W-who are you?"

"I'm a demigod?" She said questioning, "A human?" She retorted and then settled her hands on her hips.

"W-well," Alford moved nervously. He had always hated new campers going into his bunk, but this one....he loathed this type of person the most! "W-w-what's y-your name?"

"My name's Aria. Aria Keating." Aria said and her arms fell from her sides as she calmed down. "Look I'm sorry, I didn't meant to barge in."

"N-n-no," Alford shuttered, his face burning. Why did he always have to shutter in front of strangers? "I-I'm sorry too. M-my name is A-Alford. Nice to meet y-you."

"Nice to meet you too." She said softly, as her two sided personality changed again and she was no longer angry. "I'm sorry if I have disturbed you."

"N-nah, it's actually o-okay. I tend to g-get nervous easily," Alford said, happy to see that this new stranger wasn't to bad, after all. He wanted to say more, actually, but when he opened his mouth, no voice came out....and so, in shame, he closed his mouth and stood in absolute silence.

Aria watched the boy and studied him a bit and she frowned a bit. "It's alright if you stutter, I wont laugh or anything." She said softly to him. "I know what it's like, I used to be that way."

Alford took a deep breath before he started talking again. "You d-do? But now you don't...s-shutter anymore. I've tried every possible way, but they all don't w-work," he said, feeling quite happy that he didn't shutter that much anymore. Knowing a little about Aria helped a bit. "I guess it's my...fatal f-flaw."

Aria smiled at him softly. "Well in battle, it could potentially throw people off a bit, not expecting it." She said trying to make a light joke. "I can't fight with any kind of weapon if it makes you feel better." She said with a small laugh.

Alford paused for a while, processing the sentence, before laughing in delight. "I-I've never think of that," he said, smiling. "The monsters would probably bored to death b-by a thirteen year o-old kid's shutter, and t-then, they w-would die pretty soon because of m-my staff. That is a-awesome!"

Aria laughed at his last comment and smiled, "Yea, you gotta think of things in positives sometimes." She said smiling. "And one day you'll grow up to be older and not thirteen." She said, knowing it was unlikely that what she said made sense.

Alford didn't have any idea what Aria's last sentence meant, but he shrugged it off. Aria was definitely older than her, so it was probably some sort of an 'elderly' talk. "W-who is your god p-parent, anyway?" he asked.

Aria sighed, as she was asked about her god parents. She fiddled around with the hem on her orange camp half blood shirt. "Lyssa, goddess of rage." She said softly.

"Woah, r-rage!" Alford said enthusiastically. "I've never seen any camper whose m-mother is rage. My mother i-is Anuket, goddess of the r-river N-nile."

Aria laughed a bit, "Well I have a twin sister, so you know same mother and all." She said softly. "Goddess of the river of the nile is pretty neat too." Aria said. "What's that like?" She asked.

"Twin? Oh, that is just a-awesome," said Alford, smiling even wider. "Being a son of Anuket i-is...pretty c-cool, I guess. You c-can control water and t-things, but t-that's it."

Aria smiled, "being a twin has it's perks and such, but it's not always what it seems." She said and then sighed a bit. "At least controlling water is better than having supreme rage." She said.

"Well," Alford thought deeply. "Having a t-twin means that you can a 'replica' of yourself, and I w-would love to see you fighting monsters with rage! It w-would be really, r-really awesome to see y-you yell at t-them, confusing t-them to death!"

Aria laughed a bit and noticed the stutter was coming back up again and she put a light hand on the shoulder of the kid. "Calm down a bit." She said smiling.

After a bit of talking Aria left to go somewhere else.