A Shock to the System {Chloe/Open}

[Ethan Alexander Hall]

It had been a long day for Ethan. His activites had left him exhausted, so naturally as the sun started going down, Ethan wandered to the lake to relax. He found a log and sat down on it, just to think. He sighed and looked down at the sword cut on his arm. Oh, well. That's what he got for letting his guard down like a fool. Besides....it would heal. In fact, Ethan had gotten so many cuts like this one it didn't really hurt anymore. It was as if he'd built up a sort of immunity to pain. He began to think about his father, Zeus. Hm.... Not really much to think about, actually. Ethan had met the guy, and he didn't really seem as if he had much personality. The only good thing was that he seemed to be - dare he say it - proud of Ethan. Or, at least, he had no criticisms, which was all the same to Ethan. He started staring off into space, his mind wandering. He really wished he had his mp3. He had "The Good Life" by Three Days Grace stuck in his head. But then again, he always had a song stuck in his head. He really liked music, after all, and was slightly addicted to it. He would fit right in with the Apollo campers, to be quite honest. Or, at least, he was pretty sure he would.

[Chloe Summers]

Chloe smiled as she saw Ethan walk by her. She had followed him, she must say she could have been Related to Artemis. Chloe could see him sitting on a log. She smiled as she watched him from the back. She pulled back her long blonde hair and pushed it out of her face, her body was tense as she crouched behind a shrub. Her legs flexed as she readied herself to pounce. Chloe could see the sun on the verge of setting, not yet on the horizon line. Chloe always thought that Zeus had an influence over the sun too, but she was never sure, it did rest in his home, the sky. Chloe sighed softly as she snapped her attention back to her prey. She felt almost like a cat stalking her prey.

Chloe burst out from under the shrub and pushed all her weight into a flying tackle. Even a gymnast football player would have been proud of her. She managed to spring the few meters and aim to tackle him in a matter of seconds. When she ran she felt the wind at her back calling a soft hello, welcoming her presence. Little did the wind know that Chloe was trying to scare another camper, one the winds knew quite well. Chloe was in midair waiting for impact. She hoped she was quick enough to nail him, serve him right for not paying attention. On the other hand though, she would probably end up sprawled in some kind of weird landing... Maybe the gymnast wouldn't be proud of her, but the tackle was still pretty amazing. Her shoulder has leading and her body slowly spun. She could feel herself smiling with the winds at her face. All she was waiting for was the startled scream of Ethan.

[Ethan Alexander Hall]

Ethan picked up a smooth, oval-shaped stone and threw it at the lake. It went quite far, about twenty feet, before sinking. Before he knew it, Ethan was just flinging stones left and right. He was often like that. He started doing something and he just couldn't stop. Probably his ADHD. Yes, that was it. It made perfect sense. He kept humming "The Good Life" by Three Days Grace. It was really stuck in his head. He'd heard them at a concert, and "The Good Life" was the first song they performed. It was a great song, too, but it was hard to get it out of your head once you got it stuck in there. A lot of really good Three Days Grace songs were like that. Linkin Park songs had the same effect, too. Gods, he wanted his mp3 right now... But he put the thought out of his mind and just kept flinging stones. He loved the rippling effect that the stones caused on the lake's surface. He had no idea why, but he loved it. Just like little kids love Barney without an excuse. Thinking of Barney made Ethan shudder. He'd hated that purple....thing ever since he was one. It had given him nightmares. Same with Teletubbies - Ethan had really disliked that show, too. He'd loved Scooby-Doo, though. Scooby-Doo, in his opinion, was the only cartoon as good as Family Guy. Nothing beat Family Guy in Ethan's opinion. After a few more stones sunk to the bottom of the lake, Ethan heard a soft whoosh! Now, being a demigod, especially a son of Zeus, Ethan had learned that if you hear a strange sound, you better look to see what it is. He saw a blonde blur, and the next thing he knew, he'd been knocked to the ground. "Chloe!" he said, sitting up. "So...not...funny!"

[Chloe Summers]

Chloe felt the impact of his shoulder against her bodies weight on her body check. She felt them both tumbling, Chloe had a huge smile on her face and laughed mid fall as he reconized her. She couldn't stop herself from there and continued her pounce until she felt the rocks beneath her in a very ungraceful fall. She lay sprawled on the rocky ground, she could feel multiple rocks digging into her across her back. She felt his limbs as her body was spread across the cool stones. She laughed as she pulled herself up off the ground and stretched once she stood at her full height. sighing with relief that the small bothersome rocks had stopped pressing themselves into her skin. She shook her hair to get any loose dirt out and chuckled softly. "It was worth the look on your face, it is funny" She said teasing him as she kicked a spray of pebbles his way. She felt the wind on her back as her hair flew into her face. Chloe brushed some of her hair out of her face only for it to go right back to her face. She looked at Ethan and smiled at him. She could see his expression but she held in her laughter with much stain. She was about to say something witty when she saw the crimson blood on his hand. She did a small gasp.

She flooded him with questions. "Are you all right? how did this happen? When did it happen?" Chloe kept pestering him with her questions. She was worried about him, most people didn't joke around when thy hurt themselves, she wanted to kick morew stones at him but decided bruises as well as a cut wouldn't help Ethan.

[Ethan Alexander Hall]

Ethan stepped aside as Chloe kicked pebbles at him. "Not cool," he told her, "these are my favorite jeans, and now they've got sand all over them." Ethan brushed the sand off of his jeans, now slightly irritable. He sighed, glad that none of the pebbles had hit him. But now, he was kind of irritated at Chloe. The tackle and the projectile pebbles weren't exactly necessary. He just watched in amazement as she started cracking up. Sisters. Would he ever understand his? Probably not, he rationalized. He could understand most girls pretty well. But Chloe, as his sister, was a completely different case. He didn't understand her that well at all, no matter how hard he tried to. Oh, well. Since when where siblings meant to be understood, anyways? And, of course, she had to notice his swordcut. "I got it about fifteen minutes ago, sparring," he explained. "I lost my focus, and I paid for it the hard way. Oh, well, serves me right for dropping my guard, right?" Ethan was pretty upbeat about his injuries. He'd gotten plenty of injuries before. He had an eleven-inch-long scar running down his chest to prove it. He winced involuntarily, thinking about his scar. It had quite a story behind it, one he didn't quite enjoy thinking about. He hadn't told anyone about it, except Chiron. In fact, no one had even seen his scar before. And personally, Ethan preferred it that way.

[Chloe Summers]

Chloe cursed as she rolled her eyes at him. She was in a great mood and the sunset was making it better. She looked up at Ethan and gave him a cold glance. "Lighten up, you are starting to sound like our father." Said Chloe. She wanted to slap in on the back. Boys! She thought as she weighed his words. She almost laghed again as she thought of a joke she had been told through out the soon ending day. "Your a workaholic, Yes, I know, the whole danger thing, but I know as well as you do that with a sword in your hands..." Chloe paused, she really had the urge to hit him, or kick more pebbles at him but decided it wouldn't be the wisest choice she could make. "How distracted can you get if some actually hit you?" Chloe had a knew revelation.

She walked to the log and sat upon it. She pulled out a piece of yellow fabric from her jean pocket. She motioned for him to come closer so she could bandage it. The color was Zeus color, but Chloe didn't really care what the jack ass had to say. She knew something was up with Ethan, he is really skilled with a sword, it is his weapon. It didn't add up to Chloe, Yes, people make mistakes, but not when you are doing something Ethan could do blindfolded. Chloe showed no sign of what she suspected on her face. Something was bothering Ethan, that was for certain. She could see the dim glow of the sun retreating behind a cluster of mountains, it edged slowly, but still didn't touch the peaks. She knew Artemis was on her way soon. Chloe sighed as she waited for Ethan to come over so she could deal with the stupid wound.

[Ethan Alexander Hall]

Ethan smirked. "Me? Sound like Dad? What are you smoking, Chloe? Whatever it is, it requires an immediate intervention," he told her jokingly. After all, he didn't think that he sounded like Zeus at all. Nor did he particularly want to. His father was way too serious, so it would be a bad sign if he was starting to sound like him. "A workaholic, eh?" he asked. That kind of got under his skin. He didn't want to seem boring, like all he did was train for battles. And for some reason, Chloe had this wierd expression on her face...like she wanted to hit him or something. Just in case, he got ready to have to dodge some pebbles. "Uh...well.... I don't know," he lied, trying not to sound guilty. After all, he didn't want anybody to know. It would just worry them. So, he just put the thought out of his mind. Ethan noticed that Chloe was beckoning him to come over to her. He noticed she was holding a yellow cloth. He realized Chloe was telling him to come over to her so she could bandage his wound. Wow....Chloe could be up-and-down sometimes. One moment she's tackling him, the next she's being...well...a really good sister. Ethan wondered if all sisters were like that. Oh, well...he doubted he would ever know. He didn't know anyone else with a sister, so....

[Chloe Summers]

Chloe smiled at him. She grasped his hand wordlessly and slowly wrapped the bandage around his palm effortlessly. She pursed her lips as she bandaged it, trying to think about something of importance, but she came up blank. Chloe pulled hard on the cloth as she tied the not that held it in place. She pulled it harder on purpose, he kinda deserved it. Chloe looked at his hand where the yellow bandage seemed to finish Ethan's look. She didn't want to sound like his mother, it wasn't her place, but she did want him to be happy. She sighed as she looked up at him from the log. All I am saying is you need to take a break, relax and maybe have fun. Depend on how much of a stiff you want to be." She teased. She pulled him to sit next to her so they could talk. She wasn't about to forget that she suspected something was up with Ethan, but Chloe wasn't about to bring it up.

Chloe remembered when she was first brought to camp, how couldn't she. She was dramatized, scared and most of all, she felt guilty. She had taken to the street with two other half bloods. She arrived at camp by herself, the other two had perished on their way to camp, the came close but the monsters were closer. Chloe shuddered and tried to hold in her tears for her long fallen allies, and friends. She had never told anyone but Chiron, and she never would. Chloe didn't want to ask Ethan about what was wrong, many of the halfbloods at camp had gruesome stories of how they arrived or stories of past quests. It just wasn't her place to ask, but she felt the need to. "Do you know when the next capture the flag is?" She asked trying to make small talk, she doubted he would take the training vacation.