Like sister like sister like brother (Demeter Babies)

[Accalia Phillips]

Accalia tried to sneak into the Demeter cabin after her date with Charlie from Aphrodite. It was their first date, and it had gone great. It was late, though, and she knew Harper at least would have some questions. She hoped that she'd be asleep... she was wrong.

She opened the door and slowly closed it behind her, turning around to assess the room. Harper was definitely not asleep. "Hey, Harp..." she greeted, gulping nervously. She thought she'd be ready for the heave of questions but Accalia hadn't dated anyone since Jacob and that was a pretty serious relationship that ended up ending badly. Just with Jacob leaving camp to go be an adult or something like that, but it broke her heart. Not to mention while Harper was gone for months and that broke Accalias heart even more. And Dawn... Accalia shook her head. No use thinking of the sad stuff.

Her dog Frederick uncurled himself from her bed and bounded over to her, jumping up on her and licking her extensively. "Is Rowan home?" Accalia quickly added. Maybe her brother would be some protection to Harpers interrogation...

Harper Jones
Rowan Clay
(I think Harper should probably go first, unless Rowan cuts in somehow

[Harper Jones]

Harper should've been sleeping, but she couldn't. Not in the slightest. Her sister was on a date with Aphrodite guy who was kinda dorky looking in her opinion, but if Accalia liked him then good for her. Except, Harper had a feeling that she really liked him, because Accalia was out late. Not that she gave her a time that she would be back, but Harper excepted her to be back by a certain point if the date went really badly. But yet she kept an eye on the clock and her sister was not home yet. Would she even see her sister before daylight?

But fortunately, Accalia came in before daylight. Harper sat up on her bunk as she smirked a bit. "Sooo...." she said as she raised her eyebrows suggestively. "How was your date?" But Accalia had to ask about their brother and Harper shrugged to that question as she waited for Accalia to answer hers.

[Rowan Clay]

As it turned out, Rowan WAS awake.

Not for lack of trying, mind you. But even if Harper wasn't trying to keep him awake, the raw amount of worry in the room was like a physical presence. And, unfortunately, it was more than a little infectious to a child of the most overprotective mother in mythology. And once again, Rowan reflected that he shoulda took his blanket and slept on the roof.

So when Accalia finally showed back up and Harper's worry bubble popped, Rowan thought he might get some sleep at last, as his sisters initiated conversation. They could giggle and squeal all they wanted, as soon as he fell asleep he'd tune all of that—

“Is Rowan home?”

….no. No he was not, he was out like a light really, dead to the world, deep asleep, happily oblivious to his surroundings. Yep. He just had to stay still and wait for sleep to claim him, Accalia didn't really need him right now.

….

Ah, frost it all.

Rowan sighed and sat up. “Farm boys sleep early, you know. What's up?”

Accalia Phillips
Harper Jones

[Accalia Phillips]

Accalia didn't see Rowen yet, and the interrogation had begun. It started out easy, though, so that was nice. "It was...good," she said, trying not to give too much emotion away. For the past few months Accalia hadn't been the usual happy girl she used to be, and she couldn't completely switch on sudden whims. She had to play it cool, even if her date was incredibly awesome.

Rowan showed himself, after a moment of silence and sighed, sitting up. Cail cringed a little, making an apologetic look at him. "Sorry, Ro," she said softly. Then she glanced back at Harper, then back to Rowan, "I went on a date tonight. I guess, you probably know," she cleared her throat and straightened up, crossing to her bed and taking a seat on the edge of the mattress, "just telling Harper how it went... what time is it? How long was I gone?" she asked, glancing around the room for the clock.

[Harper Jones]

"It was only just good?" Harper asked as she tried to pry into Accalia a little bit more. She knew that Rowan was probably sleeping if he didn't make himself comfortable on the roof already, so she really didn't care if she woke him up or not. This was important information that she needed to extract from her sister. But, of course, Rowan had to announce his presence. He wasn't on the roof tonight.

She rolled her eyes as she glance between her brother and her sister before she looked back at Accalia. "You were gone for almost five hours, Accalia," she said as she raised her eyebrows again. "So what were the two of you doing that would take that long?" She smirked to herself. She was going to get that information out one way or another.

[Rowan Clay]

Rowan cringed a bit at Accalia's reply. Great, now he felt like a jerk. “Hey, it's fine. I wouldn't be much of a brother if I put sleep over my sister, right?” he asked, climbing out of bed and moving over to muss Accalia's hair. Despite her being the cabin leader, it was hard for Rowan not to treat the quiet girl like a younger sister. Contrast with Harper, who was more like an older sister to him, even if he had vowed never to take any of her advice ever. He had been vaguely aware that she was on a date, just something he'd picked up on unintentionally earlier in the day. But it wasn't in Rowan's nature to pry. He was a protector, yes, but overprotection was bad.

He listened while Harper informed them that Accalia had been gone for five hours, then began to press for details.

“Oh Hera above,” he said, gripping the bridge of his nose to ward off the sudden rush of stress. “I am not prepared to hear what my sister did with an Aphrodite kid for five hours.”

[Accalia Phillips]

Accalia smiled gratefully as Rowan said it was fine and laughed a little when he ruffled her hair. She didn't really mind being treated like a younger sister even though they were the same age and she was the cabin leader. She wasn't always... but Harper ran away and things changed. Harper came back and basically forced Accalia do take it.

Of course that answer wasn't good enough for Harper. Accalia cleared her throat, feeling her cheeks his warm, "pretty good," she adjusted.

Then Harper answered her question, saying how long she was gone for. Five hours!? It felt like it went by really fast... in a good way, though. Then Rowan chimed in and Accalias cheeks turned even more red, the flowers laced through her hair blooming wildly. She groaned, reaching up to pluck them from her hair as she answered, "relax, guys. He's not like the others. He's... sweet. He didn't try anything crazy," she explained, placing the flowers on the bed beside her. "He's a painter. He painted me. A picture of me," she clarified. "But that was earlier. We had dinner and... possibly fought some monster?"

[Harper Jones]

Harper crossed her arms across her chest as she waited for Accalia's answer, which was only getting delayed with Rowan. "Pretty good?" she repeated as she raised her eyebrows again. She just wanted her answers and she was going to get it one way or another. All she knew so far was that Accalia went on a date with an Aphrodite boy, which meant there was a whole world of possibilities.

But finally Accalia decided to gush on some of the details. "A painter, huh?" she said with a smirk. Oh this was getting good. Really good. "You mean that picture that you have hiding in your room?" She laughed a bit as she shook her head. "I saw it when I was chasing down Pip. The boy really does have a talent, so I guess it's okay you're having an affair with him." But Accalia went into further details and Harper had to laugh. "Dinner and monster fighting? Oh boy. That sounds like would take up some of your time... but not all of it."

[Rowan Clay]

Well, it was good that she'd found someone she liked. He listened through her story and stiffened slightly. Part of him filed away the detail that Harper had already discovered the painting in question, but Rowan was much less concerned with that than the small detail that Accalia had let slip.

“What monster? What did you fight? Where was it?” He knew Accalia could take care of herself. She wouldn't have made it to eighteen if she was easy prey. But it was Rowan's nature to protect others, and he couldn't help but be annoyed at himself for not being there, even though realistically he couldn't have known to be there.

He had a feeling he was annoying Harper. Heck, he might be annoying Accalia. They were both big girls who could look after themselves. But he simply couldn't help it, reaching reflexively for the wooden blade that was normally at his hip and finding only air.

[Accalia Phillips]

Accalia knew there was no point in trying to keep a single detail under wraps, which was why she eventually gave into the explanation. Harper, of course, focused in on the painter thing and how all of her time couldn't be spent doing just dinner and some monster fighting. The word "affair" caused Accalia to choke on her next words before she could get them out. "Yeah, that picture..." she muttered, before Rowan had his say.

Naturally, he focused on the monster situation and... was he reaching for his sword? Accalia held her hands up as if to calm him, "hey, hey, it's fine. We just went into the forest to teach him a little archery," she explained, "we climbed up a tree and I taught him how to shoot. He's a natural," she mused, before clearing her throat and addressing the other issues Harper had brought up.

"We may have kissed, too. Once or twice," she said, looking down at her hands and hunching her shoulders up a little bit.

[Harper Jones]

Of course Rowan was more focused on the monster big. He was probably the biggest fighter in camp besides Achilles. She wondered how her other brother was doing for a moment before she got snapped back into reality. But she took the boy into the forest, into a tree, and taught him out to shoot? There had to be more. There was no way that took up a good five hours of their time.

But then the truth came out. They kissed. And more than the once or twice from the way Accalia was acting. Harper giggled as she fell back into her bed. "ACCALIA'S GOT A BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYFRIEND!" she sang in a sing-song voice before she went on to sing, "ACCALIA AND BOYFRIEND SITTING IN A TREE! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

[Rowan Clay]

Of course she wasn't going to give him details. Oh well. He should be grateful she wasn't angry with him, he supposed. Clearly, she was here, uninjured, so the monster couldn't have been that dangerous. So the Aphrodite boy was talented with the bow, eh? That was good. Rowan was pretty good with a bow himself, but it was his ability to manipulate wood that made him as dangerous as any Apollo kid, not his actual skill level with the weapon itself. When you can alter a shaft of wood to cut through the wind and strike with enough force to pierce concrete, you don't necessarily have to be able to judge wind speed or pick your targets.

Oh no.

Rowan sighed at Accalia's confession of kissing. “Here we go,” he said resignedly, plugging the ear facing toward Harper's bed with his pinky. He didn't know what was going to happen, but he suspected it would be quite loud.

Yep.

[Accalia Phillips]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand there it was. Accalias ears burned red and she lifted her pile of flowers to bury her face in them, it was helpful that they just kept blooming and multiplying in her hands in order to hide her face better. Rowan had been smart in preparing himself by plugging his ear closest to Harper.

"Harper..." Accalia started smally. Then, "HARPER!" she said louder, lowering her handful of flowers. "He's got a name," she turned to Rowan, "it's Charlie. Charlie Webster. Do you guys know him?" she really doubted they would, Charlie seemed pretty shy and her siblings weren't the easiest people to just walk up to. Especially when Ro was in the training arena or Harper was... well, Harper.

[Harper Jones]

Harper kept singing quite loudly as she continued the rest of the song. She got to the part about babies when she heard Accalia's voice screaming at her. She shut up as she sat back up as she raised her eyebrows at her sister expectantly. The boy had a name? Oh... she had to know this... But the name? Didn't ring a bell at all. She scrunched up her face as she tried to remember if she had seen the boy around camp, but either she hadn't or her memory was failing her.

"Charlie Webster..." Harper repeated before she shrugged her shoulders. "Don't know him, but he seems like a nice guy. He brought you flowers so he can't be all that bad... Are you guys going on another date soon?" That was the million dollar question that Harper really wanted to know at the moment.

[Rowan Clay]

Not surprising was that Harper seemed intent on fully finishing her song. Somewhat surprising was that Accalia yelled at her to get her attention. Extra surprising was that it worked. Rowan blinked at the name of the student. Charlie Webster...he didn't know everyone at camp closely, but he had at least passing knowledge of most of them since apparently he gave good advice. “Dark-haired and scrawny? Looks more like a runner than anything?” Perhaps scrawny was a harsh word, but Rowan had grown up on a farm. He didn't look like a bodybuilder, but he was broad-shouldered and muscular as anyone from the Hephaestus cabin. “Scrawny” covered a lot of body types in his eyes.

He suppressed the urge to roll his eyes at Harper's idea that bringing flowers made someone not all bad. That was hardly fair. If a guy was out to get laid, he would take every step needed to seal such a deal. And this was to a daughter of Demeter, where one might realistically expect extra appreciation for flowers. “I don't know him, but I've seen him around. Which means I can find him if he screws up.” Satisfied, he walked over to his bed, patted the wooden sword leaning against the wall beside it, and laid down with the kind of smile he reserved for the promise of mayhem.

[He's not leaving the thread, just laying back down for the moment!]