For Your Sake, Don't Let Me on That Horse

Stepping onto the cold ground, the daughter of Chione walked barefoot towards the riding ring with one of the horses. Lorelei has not rode on a horse since she was living in Sweden "Helan går; Sjung hopp faderallan lallan lej" Lei sang. That was one of her favorite songs when she was little.

She still loves it today, but in order to make friends Lei needed to scrap being the Swedish exchange kid and be that girl with the cool personality. Her brother, however, not so much. But that's what happens with twins. Sometimes they're the same, but then sometimes they're polar opposites. "Helan går; Sjung hopp faderallan lej" She sang again. Lorelei isn't a great singer, but she can keep a tune going.

Lorelei smiled as she petted the horse's main. The horse was a chestnut color, Lei didn't know what kind of horse it was. She was never really good with names, but it doesn't matter if it's just a horse, right? Lorelei shrugged it off as she smiled at the horse. She led the horse closer to the track, but she didn't go on it yet. She was kinda scared, really. She didn't want to fall of and make a fool out of herself.

Caleb had been riding for quite some time, so going to the stables was a daily experience. He had been riding the horse he was currently jumping since he first came to Camp Half-Blood. Jumping Miguel was awesome, and he had a smooth gallop.

Caleb was wearing a red- plaid button down shirt, which was rolled up to his elbows. His black jeans were making an annoying squeaky sound, from being rubbed up against the leather saddle that he was riding in. His boots felt uncomfortably big in the small stirrups, because he let his friend borrow his stirrup irons and had to improvise.

"Slow, boy," He breathed, and slowed Miguel down to a walk. Miguel's shiny black coat was dripping with sweat, showcasing the hard work Caleb put him to today. Suddenly, he heard a girl singing in a language he couldn't recognize, and his ADD sparked. He looked over towards the voice's direction, causing Miguel to walk straight into a jump stand, knocking it over. "Damn it," He muttered, and gently pulled on the reins, moving Miguel.

Lei looked up from her horse. She could've sworn she heard a voice. She turned around slowly, facing a boy by a horse. He seemed a couple years younger than she. How long has he been there? "Lei du dum dum flicka. Bara att gå nu, kanske han inte ser dig." She muttered to herself. The daughter of Khione mounted onto the horse and grasped the reins.

Lorelei hasn't been on a horse since she was ten, and even then she was a horrible rider. She slowly guided the horse to the ring, hoping the boy was still a good distance away from her. She didn't want to look like an idiot. Then the boy would tell everyone at camp and she would be more of a laughing stock than the Athena kids at prom.

Caleb studied the girl who had just mounted. He knew her; she was one of the more popular girls at camp. They weren't friends, but his friends talked about her a little; then again, they talked about practically every girl here. He tried to recall her name. Was it Lauren, Laura.... Lorelei. That was the girl's name. He tried to recall any other information about her..... Nope, that was it. He just knew her name.

Caleb felt weird for staring at her, so he dropped his eyes, resting them on the trail in front of him. Slipping his feet out of the stirrups and letting them dangle, he neck-reined Miguel, relaxing his free hand on his thigh. He tapped his fingers against his thigh, making a pattern.

Finally, Caleb felt very awkward, so he decided to break the silence. "How long you've been ridin'?" He called out with his deep voice.

Lorelei and the horse jumped from the voice, unfortunately for Lei, it resulted on her on the ground and the horse running to the water. "How long do you think?" She said to the boy. The eighteen year old blew a strand of hair out of her face. This is exactly what Lei did not want to happen. She really wanted her long board right now so she could just....skate away, y'know?

The dirt was clinging to Lei's light was skinny jeans. The daughter of Khione sighed, this will never come out of her jeans. She kind of just sat there. Lorelei hasn't felt this awkward since she snowboarded into the meeting hall back in Sweden. Just look down, Lei. She told herself. Lorelei did the opposite. She looked at the guy and smirked.

It seemed as soon as the girl's rear was on the ground, Caleb's boots were as well, jogging swiftly towards her. "Not long," he muttered. "Not long at all." When Caleb got to to her (nearly tripping over a rock in the process) he knelt besides her. "Are you okay, ma'am?" He asked. His voice, not unlike his expression, was full of concern. His eyes searched her face, looking for any sign of pain. That's when he noticed. Was she.... smirking at him? His mouth pressed into a hard line, determined not to smile back. If there was one thing he learned, it was never to look happy when something that goes wrong is your fault.

Of course he felt responsible for her fall. He yelled, which of course was not one of things you wanted to do around horses. Speaking of horses, he had forgotten all about Miguel, who was standing patiently for his rider right where Caleb has unexpectedly dismounted. If Caleb had been thinking about him, he would've been very grateful that Miguel was such a good horse.

Lorelei rolled her eyes, "Ma'am is the word for older ladies, like prehistoric women." She stood up shakily. The guy had a forced straight face, weirdo. Lei was never going to say that to him though, that's rude. Save it for your friends. Unless one of your friends knows the guy then don't say anything. Ugh, the rules of feminism is way to complicated for Lorelei. She pulled her hair up into a loose bun. She already looks like one of those slacker kids, so why not enforce it. Lei was wearing light wash jeans from Abercrombie plus a flannel top from Urban Outfitters. That's besides the point. The point is lei needs to make the best out of what she was wearing, she was in the presence of another person. Therefore she must look good.

Caleb shrugged. "Oh, um. Sorry." He was used to calling any and all women ma'am- that's just how he was raised. He could still hear his mother chirping into his ear. You need to respect women! And that's how it's goin' ta be, now and forever. Caleb was polite, and listened to his mom, so he still followed her rules. The thought of her made his heart ache, so he decided to distracted himself. "If I can't call you ma'am, then what do you want me to call you?" Of course, he already knew her name, but felt like it would be awkward if he called her by it even though she hasn't told him yet.

"Lei." She simply replied. Lorelei dusted herself off. Her brother would've wanted her to address herself formally and properly, full name and everything. But that's dumb. Lorelei and Augustus are probably polar opposites with each other. See, Lei knows how to skateboard, snowboard, and most importantly, she knew how to have fun. Gus was like a little dad. But he's cool, she guessed. Lei really wanted her board right now. It didn't even have to be her skate board, She could roll down the hill or something.

Caleb nodded. "Caleb Guardian," he said, sticking out his hand as an offer to let him help her up. "Son of Moros." Although Lei didn't tell him her godly parent, Caleb told his. He had gotten so used to addressing himself as the 'son of Moros' that he didn't even think about it when he said it. He heard Miguel come closer towards Lei and himself, to the point where the old horse's muzzle was nuzzling Caleb's back, waiting for his typical rider to mount, or lead, or untack him. But Caleb just kept his gaze on Lei, waiting for the older girl to respond.

"Wonderful. Now,you can start another conversation." Lorelei never liked the 'who's your god parent bull crap. So, she just keeps it private. Unless she's with her friends, then she'll talk about anything. The guy, Caleb, was certainly not her friend. They just met and stuff. She's not going to come out like an open book to a stranger. He'll just have to figure everything else out on the way.

Was that mean? Probably in any other person's eyes but Lei thinks differently than other people. Her strategy when she thinks is to be mysterious. Don't let people know everything, or you're useless.

Caleb raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. It was obvious that she wasn't looking for a friend. A light pink tint spread across his upper cheeks when she didn't take his hand, and he dropped it. Standing up, he moved over so he was side by side with Miguel, and he pulled the thin leather reins over his neck, and held them with his left hand. Not that Miguel would run off; it was more so Miguel realized that Caleb wasn't completely ignoring him.

In an effort to break this sudden awkward silence, he looked up to where Lei's horse had galloped away. He pointed in the direction. "Does he... Usually do that? Run away, I mean." It was an idiotic question for two reasons. 1) Lei probably had no idea. She did say she didn't ride often, after all. 2) If the horse did it once, it's probably done it before. It was common sense.

"I dunno, I haven't rode at camp in a while." Lorelei shrugged. She moved towards a little wooden stool. There, the daughter of Khione started to braid her hair. "You seem friendly with your horse, what's it's name?" She asked. Lorelei never had a horse. She borrowed her father's horse back in Sweden. Even there she couldn't ride a horse. She kind of used the horse like a speed boat, just on snow. he would use her snowboard like a boogie board. Give the horse a good start and then woosh! Instant fun time. But it rarely snows at camp, with the weather controlled in all. And Lei's too lazy to go outside of camp just to snowboard. Eh whatever. She doesn't snowboard a lot anymore besides the fact of the camps no snow weather. Since coming to New York with Gus, Lorelei has found better things to do. See, in Hörkself there's not much to do. But in New York, there is shopping, and girls without beards (no she didn't have a beard but some of the women did), boys, cute clothes, oh and boys. It's pretty cool here. But still, Lei misses Hörkself; it's much calmer there.

Caleb smiled. "This is Miguel." He said, patting the horse's neck. "He's not mine, but I'm usually the only person who rides him." Caleb took out a rag from his pant's back pocket and began to wipe down Miguel's sweaty neck. Caleb really, really wanted to have Miguel, but he was the camp's horse. Caleb couldn't just claim that the horse was his. Although, Caleb had had thoughts about doing so.

Caleb was glad that the camp's borders were up. That means he could ride more. He hated to ride in snow and rain, although he'd down it many times before. "So if you don't ride much, what made you come out to do so?"

"I was just practicing." Lei stated. "Mt friends and I are riding horses the night before Halloween." Halloween was Lorelei's favorite holiday. True, the first time she celebrated Halloween she cried, but now it's her absolute favorite holiday of all time. Gus and her normally go as the same thing. Vampires, candy people, a horse. But Lei wanted to do something different from her busy body twin brother. Gus is going as a Vampire again. Lei wanted to be an asylum patient. She had the fake blood and face paint all set up. It's going to be awesome.

"Oh," Caleb said. "That's pretty cool." Caleb had never really celebrated Halloween. Hell, he never celebrated any holiday. Not really. It was because he never had enough money. One time, when he was 6, he begged his mother so much for a costume that she finally gave in. Together, they made a low budget costume out of old paper plates. It was a decent- looking costume- until it rained and got all ruined. He shuddered just thinking about all of the kids who laughed at him.

"So I assume you're going to the dance, then?" He asked. It was an innocent question; one he asked all of his friends at camp.