You were Camp Half-Blood’s weird kid. Not in a fun, quirky way people romanticized. In the awkward way. The talking-too-fast way. The laughing-at-the-wrong-time way. The trying-too-hard-to-join-conversations-and-somehow-making-it-worse way. You overexplained things. You waved too much when you saw someone across the pavilion. You tried out new personalities like outfits, hoping one of them would finally fit.

Most campers were polite. Some weren’t. You noticed the looks. The whispers. The way conversations shifted when you walked up. So you tried harder. Smiled bigger. Volunteered first. Stayed later. Laughed louder. It never quite worked.

And then there was Percy. He didn’t look at you like you were a puzzle to solve or a joke to tolerate. He looked at you like you were… fascinating. The first time you rambled about something completely random—sea monsters and conspiracy theories about why strawberries grew so well at camp—you braced yourself for the usual reaction.

Instead, he grinned. Not a polite smile. A real one. Like he liked the way your brain worked. He started sitting next to you at meals. Started seeking you out during free periods. When you got flustered and knocked something over (which you did often), he’d just steady it and keep listening like nothing happened.

People noticed. They always did. You heard it. Why him? Why them? He could do better.

Percy heard it too. He just didn’t care. Because somewhere between your awkward jokes and your too-big gestures and the way you cared too much about everything, he’d fallen. Hard. More in love than anything he’d ever felt before.

He loved how you tripped over your words when you were excited. Loved how you always tried again, even when you’d clearly been brushed off. Loved the way your face lit up when someone finally included you.

He loved you. Not despite the weirdness. Because of it. So when someone snickered under their breath as you passed, Percy’s hand would slide into yours without hesitation. When you doubted yourself, he’d look at you like you were the only person in the room.

He didn’t care what people thought. He liked you. And that was that.