Convenient character development (open to any cabinmate)

George was laying in his cabin bed, his monster fighting books on his side. He was holding a paper sheet which read: "Ways to form relationships with humans."

Now, you'd think this is something that needed no planning. For him it needed. He hadn't had any sort of a "friend" before. Partly his fault. OK, mostly his fault.

He got an idea. He wrote on a list that he had already made -that is listing numbers- 'common interests'. Pretty standard, considering the other people in the camp. He started twirling the pencil in his fingers. It fell down. He muttered curses to himself as he picked it up.

He checked his surroundings. Everyone seemed busy. That was great news.

He begun thinking. What kind of interests did he have? He for one wasn't creative, couldn't read normally, wasn't acquainted with video games, hated sports and he hadn't heard music in years.

He sighed to himself.

He deleted 'common interests' from his list.

He thought of other things taking for example his life at school. Looks seemed to matter, though he didn't think it suited his case. He never thought about how he looked. Next thing he thought was that people care a lot about people of the opposite gender. That wasn't his exact priority but he thought he wouldn't mind if he got lucky. He would at least have an acquaintance with somebody.

He gave another look towards his cabinmates. They all seemed to enjoy the challenge of taking their brains to the limit. He thought how much of a pain was reading for him. He couldn't understand that. Of course, he couldn't understand any of the people he saw at camp.

"People are messed up." he muttered, hopefully not enough to be heard, as he put his sheet away.

He immediately got a defensive stance. Why didn't she matter her own business? But on the other hand, he couldn't be rude. Besides he wanted to form relationships with other people.

"N-nothing." he said and he hid the sheet.

He didn't want people to know how much he was bad even at the basics of human nature.

"Why the interest?" he asked, rather suspiciously.

"Well, I think that's a habit that should be demolished." he said, in remark of the Arena incident.

He once again got lost in his thoughts, a bit annoyed even.

"Well there's a difference between that and curiosity. And curiosity is an ugly trait. Besides, there's nothing to learn from what I'm doing..."

He got his sheet out again as if he found something to write, but he lost it immediately.

George was about to cry. He blinked hard and got his sheet back.

"There. Are you happy now?"

He turned his back to her and got his head between his knees, trying not to cry.

He started sobbing.

"Yeah. Of course you didn't."

"Come on, say it. I am just a pathetic loser with no friends."

He couldn't keep hold of his tears at all.

Galena had been working on her computer, well, okay, playing. Still, she couldn't help but eaves drop on every conversation. So when Aria, who was by all accounts a fairly decent person, started making the new claim cry, Galena put her computer down and stood up, looking over to the distrait blond teen.

"We're all pathetic losers, George, it's alright." She said gently, more gently than anyone in Athena cabin was used to her sounding. She was friendly, but rarely played the part of comforter for the Athena kids who all had psychiatric issues that would make a psychologist be able to pay off a small island, with it's own private army.

"None of us come here with friends, and most of us suck at making friends. Too smart, or too awkward, too shy, too socially inappropriate. But we have each other. And we're not going to judge you." She shot a look to Aria, one that said her half-sister had best agreed with that statement.

George highly doubted so. He had learnt the hard way that people were judgemental by nature. Either to appearance, to medical state, to wealth.

Besides, he was pretty sure they hadn't had his childhood. Would he be willing to open his heart and share his secrets? His sisters (half-sisters) seemed genuinely nice to him. They were probably the first people to do that.

"A-all people do is judge. N-negatively. 'You're a retard.', 'no one loves you that's why you're orphan'... everyone seems to be superior... H-how can one make friends that way?"

He was still crying, but he did feel better. For one he would express himself.

Galena cringed at the orphan comment. "Every time you change foster homes, they have you put all your stuff in a garbage bag. Like everything you own is garbage. The smell lingers on the clothes, and the kids at school, they know, they can smell it on you. Liked sharks to blood. Kids are mean, and they pick on what they don't understand. I understand, George. My father refused to ever admit I was his, he thought I was some elaborate prank." Her voice cracked slightly, and she stopped. She wasn't going to breakdown, show weakness. You didn't do that. Being fat was enough of a weakness. Tears just led to bullying. It wasn't true as much here, but it was ingrained in her psyche.

Aria looked at Galena, smiling slighty, though listening to the convestation. She did a akward hand waving thing, and stopped to were her hand was pointing at her half-sister.

"See, George. It's nothing to be ashamed of. When I first came her, people thought that I was just a stereotypical child of Athena. But we're smart enough to find our way no matter in what situation. You know why I don't like the Ares children?"

Well, besides the obvious were they only used blunt force, instead of strategy.

Well, George could think of a few reasons. He had instantly disliked the Ares kids.

The topic change distracted him as if he was a toddler. If the others had sort of the same problems as him and were now like the other campers, then why couldn't he too?

"W-why?"

He wiped his tears off his cheeks, his eyes still watery.

Well, he sort of got the point. George was still a little worried tho.

"Y-yeah, I see. Th-the thing is, before I came to camp, I hadn't spoken to anyone in years. Like, I don't know how to behave to people..."

He was a bit shaken by all this, but less hopeless and it was visible in his expression.

Galena didn't agree with Aria on all of the Ares kids being awful, some weren't. And she didn't buy into the hating someone e because of who their parents were shtick either. Nevertheless, she stayed quiet until George mentioned how he wasn't good talking with people and hadn't done it for years. "Huh, the foster care system always made me talk to counselors of I didn't seem like I was turning into a sociable young adult. Never mind. Have you considered starting with family? Half of us, like I said earlier, are quite awkward. We understand. Honestly, I think really only the Apollo kids have it all together. All Apollo kids are cool."

He gave a slight smile to the girls being so genuinely kind and wanting to help him.

"I-it wasn't only the foster care. It was..."

He suddenly paused in memory of the incident.

"I'm sorry. I-I can't share that. Too painful."

He turned to Galena.

"I know what you mean about your dad. M-my dad always blamed me for mum, erm, Athena leaving. He killed himself."

Finally everything went off his chest. It felt good. His eyes were again watery.

Galena took the kid's hand and sighed. She blinked back tears for a second. She was screwed up in her head, no doubt, but she could only imagine what George was going through. "George, people kill themselves for a lot of reasons. Mainly mental illness or terminal illness. They feel like they're trapped behind enemy lines fighting with no backup, and eventually they can't handle it. They don't see how to make the pain stop. It's not your fault. Or Athena's fault. Or even your father's fault. He probably had an underlying problem that just drove him further than he could handle. And I'm sorry. That's a wound that'll never heal, but you need to know it's not your fault. Or Athena's."

She knew the pain. Not as sharply. Suicide attempts were not uncommon in the foster system, though most were unsuccessful. She had thought of it before herself, but she knew her mental problems. One of her foster sisters had committed suicide, though. Everyone had blamed themselves, except those who weren't close enough to it. They could step back and see that she had hid her intentions very well. It sucked hard, but it was life.

OOC: Sorry for the shortness.

BIC: "See, George. Keep your head up man. Besides, I was just playing around when I snatched the list." If Aria new that her taking that possession would be so effective, then she wouldn't have even spoken to the boy in the first place.

"I-it's okay. I overeacted anyway."

He was feeling really weird. A mixture of anger, sadness and happiness. Not a conventional combination of feelings, but what best describes George's situation.

Good, he had sort of stopped crying. That made Aria feel better. Well to a certain point anyway.

"I understand, George. Over reaction..." She shrugged. "It just happens."

She went back and sat down on her bunk, grabbing her laptop and starting to type once more. She pulled up a list of people that she had talked to, adding George along with his quick description to it. She tended to like evaluating people.

George was grateful. She didn't seem to mind about his overreaction. He tried to get his thoughts together. Galena's words echoed through his brains. "Why don't you start with family?". Why indeed. He got his list and threw it in the trash.

"My turn to ask. What are you doing there?" he said to Aria, trying his best to smile and make his voice don't break after the whole emotional overload.