Demeter Cabin's Garden

Today was fairly warm, not too hot or humid. There was a slight breeze that made the windchimes that were hanged on the back porch of the cabin jingle and make soft music. This made me smile as well as work harder. I wore a green t-shirt along with torn up jeans. My shoes were a tan color from all the dirt I've been in over the past year or so. My beautiful, coffee brown skin glistened in the sunlight. A had a straw hat on to keep the sun from blinding me. I was on my knees in front of a blueberry bush that I had decided to grow. Gods there is nothing like getting your hands dirty.

Kane walked from the Dionysus cabin to the Demeter cabin, he was whistling softly to himself, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He wanted to meet some of the Demeter kids, and to be honest, he had a desire to see if they could grow some good grass. He had a hankering for it, having been on the wagon ever since his mother's arrest.

He walked to the cabin, noticing a guy out in the garden with a bush. What kind of bush? Some sort of fruit or berry. Kane smiled and moved closer to it, coming within a few feet he reached his mind out and felt his stomach churn for as a few seconds as the bush started to grow some. Meanwhile, he also focused on the guy. Dark skinned, well built, with a straw hat that hid his face.

"Hi." Gee, Kane, could you be any more lame?

I was just about to get up and drag the water hose from the side of the cabin when his rabbit-eye blueberry bush started to grow out of nowhere. My eyebrows frowned as I looked around to see who was making it grow. My eyes fell on a white guy with green eyes and brown hair. What did he want?

"Hey. Is there something I can help you with?"I asked him as I rose up, dusting off my khakis.

"Uh..." Every once in a while, well, no, more than once a day, Kane found himself unable to get out more than a strangled vowel sound as his brain temporarily shut out verbal communication. He moved his hands around like he was trying to encourage his brain to keep going. "Uh, hi. I'm Kane. That's a very nice bush you have. What is it? Blueberry?"

I raised an eyebrow at the nervous demigo who's name happened to be Kane. "Um, thanks. It's a rabbit-eye blueberry bush." I stated, looking over the guy who had decided to walk into the 'backyard' of the Demeter cabin. "I'm Alexander Grains."I kept my eyes on him as I continued to make the bush grow more. I've perfected my power to the point where I could make something grow without even looking at it. Anywho. "Nice to meet you. Are you looking for any fresh fruit or...?"

"Son of Demeter named Grains, eh? That's beautiful." Kane said with a friendly smile. Alexander looked strong, his dark skin gliding over his muscles, a firm strong jaw and deep brown eyes. Kane felt his heart flutter for just a second, but he pushed it down. No need to jump head first into flirting.

"Anyway, um, I'm good with fruits. Pretty much anything that makes wine or brandy. No, I, uh, I was looking for something a little more medicinal in nature, if you know what I mean."

I rolled my eyes playfully when he stated that my last name was beautiful. "Thanks I guess." I smirked and looked the guy other, looking into his eyes. They reminded me of the Emerald city of Oz. "Oh really? That's actually pretty cool. I don't know a lot of Dionysus kids who can control berries as well."I pointed out as I dug my thumb into my back pocket

"Uhm...well I have some healing herbs if that's what you're looking for." Sweat beads started to trail down the side of my face. "And I really hope you aren't suggesting what I think you're suggesting."

Profane words flipped through Kane's mind at Alexander's comment about hoping it wasn't what he thought it was. Because it was probably exactly what Alexander thought it was. "Ah, well, um, you see there, the fact of the matter is... Yes, I am asking about cultivating a small misdemeanor offense. But no mortal cops are going to come into Camp Half-Blood, so as long as we keep it confined here... No harm, no foul?"

I cocked my head to the side as Kane went on to explain himself and why he had chosen to come talk to me. After about a few seconds of silence, I spoke. "So lemme eat this straight. You want me to grow you some weed?" I asked, but decided to add something else. "And let's not talk about the fact that I've never met you a day before in my life." That wasn't completely true. I'm sure I've seen him around at the mess hall, arena, or eve the strawberry fields...now that I think about it.

I studied his body some more. He was rather cute, but I'm sure he was straight; I think?

"Uh, well, when you put it that way, it sounds horrible, doesn't it?" Kane said, cocking his head slightly. His eyes flickered up to the grass on the roof top and the tomato vines on the side of the cabin. Most people made jokes about how much of hippies Cabin 4 campers were. Hippies toked. Why was there a disconnect? "To be honest, when I came up, I figured someone already grew it. I mean, it's good for everything from headaches to anxiety. And half the Demigods in this camp have some sort of anxiety or neurosis."

I gave him a half smile, crossing my arms as he tried to justify the reason why the Demeter kids would need to grow the slightly illegal substance. Those Dionysus kids; always looking for something to do with their time. Parties, drinking, smoking weed, what was next? Se--wow his eyes were really green..like a trees in midsummer. I quickly shook my head.
I sighed and snapped my fingers, causing a small weed plant at my feet. "Is this what you want?"I asked him before nodding toward Kane, causing the weed to grow into a long vine, moving around like a snake. "Here then." I unfolded my arms and pointed at the son of Wine, causing the vine to strike at him.

Kane was smiling when the indica plant started growing quickly, but he stopped when it started trying to attack him. "Hey, not cool!" Kane said, stepping back. He looked around hoping to see a set of pruning shears or something he could defend himself with.

He didn't see anything, and he was starting to get anxious. Then he felt his stomach churn, and for a moment he thought brandy might magically appear, but he felt drained, and it wasn't the same kind of tired he got from producing brandy. No, he was fairly certain he had just induced confusion on his new friend who was attacking him with the plant.

The smirk that was placed on my face slowly started to fade as I started to feel weird. I took a step back, breaking my connection with the indica weed plant and myself. The plant slithered back into the ground while I rested one of my hands on my forehead. "Where am I? I was just at the blueberry busy, now I'm...." I asked myself as I tried to remember what I was doing. It was like whatever happened in the past few minutes was just wiped from my memory.

My eyes turned upward to see a guy standing in front of me. Who are you?

"DUDE! SHOOT! I AM SO SORRY!" Kane yelled, running over to the guy. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! I'm not really a jerk. I just panicked when you attacked me with the weed plant. Dude, nice plant though, really healthy looking. That's phenomenal. Are you alright? I'm so sorry!" Kane said, guiding the other teen to a lawn chair.

I watched as the guy came up to me, telling me how sorry he felt about doing whatever he did. The more he talked, the more everything started to clear up. As my mind continued to resemble itself, the male demigod sat me down in a lawn chair. "I'm fine..." I grumbled looking down at the grass, now remembering what had transpired in the last few minutes.

"I-it's okay. I just...I didn't mean to attack you with the weed." I admit, my reaction was rather hostile and unnecessary. "I apologize for my reaction."I sighed and wiped my hand over the ground, growing another weed plant, but this time it was about a foot high. "There." I took my straw hat off and tossed it to the side.

Kane sighed in relief and took a step back, then looked at the weed plant. "Listen, I'm sorry if I bothered you and it's against your morals. I'll just do it the old fashioned way, if you'd like. I mean, I can grow without using powers." He said, shrugging a little. "It just helps me."

I shook my head, putting my hand up. "No, just take the plant." I bent down and plucked it out the ground by the stem and handed it to him. "I won't take no for an answer. One of my exboy-- I mean one of my old friends back home used to smoke this stuff. Always asked me to help him grow it sense mine always 'felt' the best. Turns out that he was only using me for that very reason." I never really told anyone that story, but I just thought he should know.

Kane frowned, looking between the plant and his hopefully new friend. "Man, that sucks. I wouldn't like the stuff either if that was my only experience with it. I, uh, I started smoking a little over a year ago. Shortly after I found out I was a demigod. I mean, I always knew I was different, but I had never suspected demigod. Kinda always thought I was a wizard who never got my letter to Hogwarts. But anyways, your ex-boyfriend shouldn't have done that. I would never do that to any boyfriend. Not that I've had any. I've always kind of sucked with flirting with men. Women not so much, but that's because, you know, I'm not exactly worried about being rejected. 'Cause there are no stakes involved with that. It's just flirt, tell someone they're beautiful, and you're good. Boosts they're self-esteem, makes you feel good. Doing that on a guy? You can totally ruin everything. Also beautiful tends to put men off."

Kane stopped, realizing he was completely rambling a lot more than he intended to. He sighed and bounced a little on his toes. "And given your discomfort saying ex-boyfriend, I'm gonna guess this isn't really well known around here."

I bit the inside of my lip nervously as I listened to his story. Now I understood why he decided to pick up the habit of smoking weed. Especially since his father was Dionysus himself. Then he started to talk about how he didn't know how to flirt with a guy. I could completely understand why. First off you never knew if the guy you liked was heterosexual or not, then you had to see if you were his type. It was all very complicated to be honest. "Well I don't think it's off putting if someone were to call me beautiful...well it kind of is, but I'm not gonna stop talking to you if you did. For instance, your eyes. They're rather beautiful. Like a field of green grass or the fact that your slicked back hair reminds me of obsidian " I said that part nonchalantly while I walked back over to my blueberry bush.

"Well, not really...don't get me wrong, I've talked to guys here, but it never really went anywhere." I stated and looked back at Kane. "Do you mind handing me that bucket please?"

"Well, bro, you are hot. Very fine. And thank you for the compliments." Kane said, grabbing the bucket and handing it over. "Nice to meet someone else who understands. I mean, it's rough. I grew up in a theatre, everyone was very accepting and all in the theatre. Not so much in school. I mean, not really bad, but just kind of awkward at times, you know what I mean, eh? And I've only been here a couple of weeks, and then last summer. It was only suppose to be a summer's only gig, school and home the rest of the time."

I blushed deeply when he said that I was "hot". "Thank you...and you're welcome." I took the bucket from him, accidentally touching his hand with mine. After I took the bucket, I started to pluck the blueberries off of the bush, listening to the fair skinned demigod. "Well I never was into the theater...acting wise. I loved watching plays and stuff like that. It was quiet entertaining actually." The bucket started to fill up some as I continued. "Really? I kind of wanted to stay home so I could go ahead and graduate high school, then off to college, but sense I'm now a year rounder, I don't think I can...well I could enroll in one of the local schools here in New York or travel to New Rome and attend their high school and university." Maybe I was talking too much, but I didn't care at this point. One of my half-sisters walked past us and waved at me. I of course waved back and continued on with my conversation. "But yeah, I understand what you're feeling. Not everyone is accepting, but I glad most of the people here at camp are."

"Oh? Why can't you go home?" Kane asked, then stopped. He didn't want to answer that question himself, why was he asking? "Sorry, never mind. And I never acted in the theatre. I preferred being a stagehand, grip or working the board. It was my mother that was actress, director, singer, star. Well, less star. I mean, she was good, y'know, but never made it to the big leagues."

I probably should've worded that differently. "Oh, I can go home if I wanted to. Matter of fact I went home for the holidays last year. What I meant to say was, I don't want to go home and stay. Putting my dad in danger again isn't fun." Hopefully my corrections made sense to the son of Dionysus. "Well I'm sure all of your painted props, sound and lighting were the best back at at your school."I stated as I placed the bucket filled with blueberries down on the ground. "Oh, well that's still good. Good enough for your dad to take special attention to her."

Kane felt a little funny, Alexander hadn't meant he couldn't go home. Kane couldn't, though, best he could hope for was visiting for a few hours. It was because he didn't pay attention and was willing to put his mother in danger. Well, he hasn't realized he was putting her in danger, but wasn't it the second time she encountered a monster?

"Yeah, she was good. Dad doesn't know what he let go of, I suspect most gods don't."

"I agree with that. My father is a good man. Works hard, willing to give someone the shirt off his back if they needed it. He owns a plant and seed nursery called Demeter Acres. I used to work there as well, getting paid like the other employees that were there. Very nice let up. We had everything from honeysuckle to pomegranate trees. We even had a mango tree which I grew myself."I stated a bit proudly. Life back home was pretty darn great. "Yeah, mi padre is pretty great. Supported me when I came out to him." I chuckled lightly and stared down at the bucket. "He even tried to hook me up with one of his friend's sons to demonstrate how accepting he was." I picked the bucket back up and studied Kane's body for a second. His body was rather toned and fit. I walked passed him when I took the berries inside the cabin. Turning back around, my eyes automatically dropped down to check out the goods. Very impressive. "Um...I could make you some weed muffins if you want."