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“C’mon Kayla, we’ve got arts & crafts now!” Will shouted across the dining pavilion to her, but Kayla wasn’t paying attention: she had her focus completely set on a certain daughter of Hecate who was sitting a few seats away, engulfed in her own conversation with Cecil.
Kayla waved Will off, “Yeah, yeah, I’m coming mom!” (Kayla was most definitely not coming, but she had to stall for time, Will could wait.).
“I’m serious Kay, you’re gonna set us all behind on time just like yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that, and-” “Alright, Alright! Fine, I’m standing. Happy now?” She stood up and flipped him off, not even attempting to hide the annoyed grimace on her face.
“Yes, actually, very happy.” Will gave her a smug smile as she turned to walk over to him and Austin who had been in his own world, not bothering to get involved.
Just as Kayla was about to start walking though, she caught a part of Lou and Cecil’s conversation, “Don’t you call me basic for liking blue, your favourite colour is red and I’ve caught you listening to Taylor Swift before!” Lou yelled, tugging his ear hard.
Cecil grabbed his ear and pleaded for Lou to let go, making a bunch of half baked apologies about never disrespecting her alt, witchy aesthetic again.
Kayla laughed, trying to not make it known that she had been eavesdropping as she finally walked over to Will.
Will smiled and ruffled her hair triumphantly, “glad you’ve finally decided to join us instead of eavesdropping on my friend’s conversations.” He smirked as Kayla frowned, caught red handed: at least Will still had no clue about her little (HUGE) crush on Lou ellen.
She would’ve never heard the end of it, especially considering how bad she still teases him for his obvious crush on the son of Hades. She could deal with Austin’s occasional jabs, but Will was way too (unintentionally) loud for his own good (and hers).
As the trio began to walk to the arts & craft room, an idea sparked in her head. Lou Ellen's favourite colour was blue, and she had been itching for a reason to dye her hair anyways, she just couldn’t settle on a colour. So really, who was she to argue with this reasoning and impeccable logic?
Kayla had her mind set, and now she just had to figure out where the hell she was gonna get the dye from. She could go to the Aphrodite cabin.. Wait, no way. They would figure out why she was dying her hair way too quick for her liking.
Could she go to the Hecate cabin and ask them to magic her hair blue… no, that would be a bit dangerous and Lou might catch on. What about the Hermes cabin.. Cecil would be there but it’s not like he’s on supply runs.. PERFECT!!
All she had to do now was go at a time that Cecil wasn’t in his cabin, and ask Connor or Travis to get her some blue hair dye. Now she had a plan and all she had to do was go through with it. Wait, she has to go to cabin activities and then she has an infirmary shift: shit.
So Kayla went along with Will’s planned activities, trying and obviously failing to make time speed up in her mind. After lunch, she knew she had an infirmary shift and she didn’t want to wait a whole day to ask: so at lunch she wandered over to the Hermes table.
Luckily, Cecil was over at the Hecate table arguing with Lou once again so she didn’t have to worry about him snitching on her. “Heyyy Connor, Travis,” she greeted each of them, they both turned to her, confused but intrigued.
“Wassup Knowles!” Connor greeted, while Travis gave a polite wave and an interested look. “So… your next supply run is right after lunch, right?” The two boys looked at each other and then turned back to nod at her in confirmation.
“Okay, so would you guys mind getting me some blue hair dye? I’ll give you guys access to the Apollo cabin to pull whatever prank you want on Will if you do.” She smiled at them, assuming her victory: the Stoll brothers had been itching to get a kick out of Will for weeks.
“Oh yeah sure, we actually have like two boxes of unused blue hair dye already in the cabin since Cecil chickened out.” Travis offered, smiling at her - the wheels already turning in his head of how he was gonna get Will. Connor smiled at her smugly and gave her a handshake to seal the deal.
“Okay thanks, I’ve got an infirmary shift after lunch so could you just bring it to dinner and I’ll give you a spare key to the Apollo cabin. You guys are giving it back straight after you pull your prank, if you try to copy it or keep it for more than a week, you’ll be singing your words for a month.”
And with that, Kayla left back to the Apollo table with a polite nod at the Stolls. Back to admiring Lou Ellen - the coolest, prettiest and smartest demigod ever.
After lunch, she had her infirmary shift: it was long and boring. Aside from a scraped knee and a small burn from the lava wall, all she had to do was some paperwork (which she didn’t do), and organise the supply cabinet (she actually tried on that but got distracted almost immediately). Eventually, she was freed from infirmary prison and finally skipped her merry way down to the dining pavilion, eager to get her hands on that blue dye.
She scarfed down her dinner and rushed over to the Hermes table, waving Will off as he yelled at her to at least finish chewing before she left the table.
As she arrived at the Hermes table, she realised that Cecil was also there and just happened to be sitting directly next to Connor: who - to her surprise - actually had a box of bright blue hair dye. Kayla couldn’t wait though, she just hoped Cecil was oblivious enough to not connect the dots, and headed straight to Connor.
“Connor~” She called in a sing-song voice, “I see you have something there for me.” She grinned at him, awaiting his response. “Ah why yes, it seems that I possess something you require, and I assume you have your end of the deal in hand, fair lady?” He replied, in a playful tone, looking down to her hands in search for the keys to cabin 7.
She dangled the keys in front of him and played into his tone, “Ah yes, as I have what you desire, I suppose we could exchange our valuables, good fellow?” Connor giggled but held out both his hands, one with the box of blue dye and one empty: awaiting the keys to Apollo cabin. Kayla happily obliged, handing over the spare keys and grabbing the hair dye.
As she made her exit from the Hermes table, she turned to curtsy at Connor, who, in turn, made a motion of tipping the non-existent hat on his head. Kayla laughed as she skedaddled back to her table, hiding the box in the back pocket of her cargo pants (definitely didn’t steal those from Will).
As she sat back down at the table, Austin gave her a sideways glance and Kayla simply shrugged in response before Will started one of his lectures about eating healthier food that isn’t just mac ‘n cheese for dinner. Kayla and Will argued throughout dinner, Austin watching and sometimes interjecting to side with one of them and ragebait the other.
After dinner, Kayla practically sprinted back to the cabin, eager to try out the hair dye - Lou was gonna think she’s so cool. Unfortunately, she couldn’t start the process right away as she fought with Will to not go to the campfire for one night. Eventually losing and being dragged along anyway by Austin who had sided with Will because, “If I have to participate in another sing-along, then you do too.” ugh.
The campfire was exhausting and the only thing getting her through it was seeing how beautiful Lou Ellen looked in the dark with the bright flames of the fire casting perfect shadows and highlights on her face. But if Kayla had to hear one more parody song about her dad (Apollo, not her mortal dad) again, she was seriously gonna go insane.
She was just glad when it was over, because now, she finally got to test out the dye that Connor so kindly gave her (ignoring how she basically gave up her brother’s dignity for a box of dye). So with a mountain of determination, a bit of guilt, and heavy tiredness that she would not let seep in just yet, she locked herself in the bathroom and took the dye out of the box.
Now, Kayla had never done this before, but she had seen Will give himself orange tips before (horrible hair choice but the dude somehow didn’t look horrible - how unfair.), so she was pretty much a pro (famous last words). She didn’t even bother putting on gloves, because surely it wouldn’t stain or at least not that bad if she was quick, right?
So she squeezed out all of the blue dye directly onto her head and began to mix it in as if it were shampoo. She mixed until it looked about fully covered and set a timer for 30 minutes, stealing the watch off of Will’s hand.
As she waited, she thought about how surprised Lou’s face would be, and how she would probably think she’s cool enough to hang out with! Kayla was so excited that for once, time seemed to speed up in her favour, and the alarm went off.
She shut off the alarm and bowed her head under the short tap on the sink, turning the faucet on and trying to wash all of the excess dye out. The dye dripped down her face and into her eye, preventing her from seeing, but that wasn’t gonna stop her. She continued to rinse her hair, now blinded by blue dye. Eventually she had to grab a towel because she couldn’t see if the water was clear or not - RIP Will’s white towel.
She waited until the water ran clear, dunking her head under once more to make sure she didn’t leave any excess. With her hair fully rinsed, she used Will’s towel once again, figuring that it was already ruined enough that it would be a disservice to the towel to not use it for her hair again.
She drooped her hair over the towel and brought the towel up with her hands, vigorously drying her hair: eager to see the results. When she couldn’t dry it herself, she left it damp and brought the towel to her pillow to sleep on - fine, she would just wait until the morning to see the results then. And with that, she crashed onto her bed and fell fast asleep.
-
Kayla was woken up the next morning by an angry Will - everyone’s least favourite thing in the world.
“KAYLA. Wake up! You stained my only white towel blue!” He screeched, a soft glow began to emit from his body, only aiding in disturbing Kayla from her once peaceful slumber.
“Dude calm down, just ask the Stolls for one on their next supply run.” Austin grabbed his pillow over his head as he pleaded with Will. He had had enough of their bs for the week already and it was only Tuesday.
“Yeah Will, c’mon. It’s just a towel, you can get a new one.” Kayla tiredly rubbed her eyes.
“It’s not about the towel, it’s about you taking it without permission and staining it!” He argued, clearly not willing to drop this.
Something clicked in Kayla’s mind, she remembered how she had dyed her hair last night - the reason for the towel being bright ‘electric blue’. She stood up and shoved the towel at Will’s face, rushing towards the bathroom and locking herself in.
She was practically buzzing with excitement as she finally turned to face the mirror and- what. Her eyes widened as she looked at her once auburn hair, now green. Definitely not what she imagined when she put blue hair dye on it.
Was this some trick from the Stolls? She was so going to get them back for this.
What could she do now though? Maybe Will would let her just stay in the cabin today? “Hey Will, so like I know you’re mad right now and I’m sorry about your towel but can I stay at the cabin today? I uh feel sick.. *cough*” Gosh she was a bad liar - thanks Apollo.
“No Kayla, ya gotta participate, you’re the worst liar.” Will called through the door, clearly annoyed.
“What if I just worked in the infirmary today? I’ll take over both of your shifts!” She reasoned, and judging by the quiet pause on the other side of the door, it was a pretty convincing offer. She held her breath and prayed to Apollo it would work.
“Alright fine, but only because you’re actually doing work-” “and you wanna have free time to hang out with Nico.” Kayla added. “Don’t make me change my mind.” Will warned, that was sure to shut Kayla up.
Kayla unlocked the bathroom and stepped out, making a zipping motion over her mouth and putting her hands up in surrender. They all got ready and headed to breakfast - Kayla just grabbed an apple and sprinted to the infirmary: the less people saw her hair, the better.
Ignoring a few shouts from Will, she made it to the infirmary and waited. She was bored out of her mind and seeing if she could make a catapult out of bandages and splints when the infirmary doors opened.
Drew Tanaka walked through the door holding her wrist tight, face a bit red and sweaty.
“Drew, what happened?” Kayla asked as she rushed over to sit Drew down on one of the infirmary cots.
“Just a slip up in archery is all, nothing exciting but I think I sprained my wrist or something.” She held up the wrist she was clutching that was now swollen and purple.
“Okay just eat this and I’ll be right back, okay?” Kayla gave her an ambrosia square and ran to get a wrist brace.
When she came back from the supply closet (she regretted not just organising it yesterday like she was meant to), Drew was looking a lot better and sitting up straighter - though still clutching her hand.
“Okay, you’re looking a lot better. Now just give me your hand, I’m gonna just put it in a brace since it’s draining to use our healing powers and this isn’t too bad of a sprain. It should heal in 2-3 days.” She took Drew's hand and began to help her with the brace.
“Thanks Knowles, also, since when did you dye your hair green? And did you have to choose that atrocious shade? It’s assaulting my eyes.” Drew was looking at her hair in mild disgust and confusion.
“Well if you must know, I was trying to dye it blue but I kinda forgot the bleach.” Kayla kept her eyes focused on Drew’s hand, not wanting to look her in the eyes.
“You know I could help you fix it in the Aphrodite cabin if you’d like,” Drew offered, surprisingly earnestly, “like of course I can’t make it the blue you’d like, but I could make it a less hideous and more suiting shade of green.”
Kayla considered this for a moment, what did she have to lose? Maybe her dignity and the Aphrodite kids finding out about her crush, but honestly, they were gonna find out soon enough anyways. They always do. “Okay then, thanks Drew.”
She finished wrapping Drew’s hand and stood, both getting up to leave. Kayla wrote a small note and stuck it to the door of the infirmary, it read ‘Be back in 30 minutes, if it’s urgent, find Will and/or eat a block of ambrosia!’.
The two of them left the infirmary and headed towards cabin 9.
Once inside, Drew took Kayla over to the big bathroom in the back of the cabin. Everything was neatly organised and everyone’s stuff was easily recognisable by their own individual and distinct styles.
Drew walked over to the sink and opened the second draw from the top, revealing several boxes of hair dye and hair products. This whole bathroom was like an extensive beauty salon. Drew pulled out a box of lime green dye and showed it to Kayla, looking for her approval. When Kayla gave a small nod, Drew closed the draw and patted a chair to her left, beckoning Kayla to sit down.
Kayla obliged. As she sat down, Drew pulled a bleach stained towel over Kayla’s head and onto her shoulders from behind.
“Okay, so since we’re dyeing your whole head, I don’t really see the need to section anything off. I think this lime green would suit you much better than… that. So let’s get started!” Drew Announced as she put on clear gloves and opened the tube of dye.
She wasted no time scrubbing the dye around, making sure to get every single hair. Once it was all mixed in, she clipped Kayla’s hair into a short bun and put a hairnet over it, setting a timer for 30 minutes just as Kayla had the night before.
“Okay great, now all we have to do is wait 30 minutes and then rinse it out!” She declared.
She paused for a moment, just looking at Kayla before speaking again, “So… any particular reason you wanted to dye your hair..? Any particular person..?” This caught Kayla off guard and she began coughing violently.
“I’m gonna assume that I was right based on that reaction,” she smirked, “so c’mon, tell me, who is it?” She questioned eagerly.
“I’m not just gonna tell you, you’re an Aphrodite kid, you’re just gonna tell your whole cabin and then it’s gonna get out to the rest of camp until she knows.” Kayla rambled, slapping her hand over her mouth at the piece of information she had just given.
“Okay so she’s a girl. That narrows it down a bit.. But I promise, I won’t tell my siblings. And you said it yourself, I’m a daughter of Aphrodite, which means I can help you!!” She tried to be convincing but Kayla wasn’t too keen on trusting Drew.
“Are you just gonna stay silent the whole time? You know we only have about..” She checked her timer, “25 minutes left, right? That’s a long time and especially for two kids with ADHD.” She waited for a response that didn’t come.
“Ugh fine, what if you just gave me one hint! I’ll even tell you who I like!” Drew offered, she saw that this caught Kayla’s attention.
“C’mon, this way, you have something you can use against me if it gets out, and I’m literally helping you out right now with your hair!” She reasoned, Kayla sighed and accepted defeat.
“Fine, but you go first and I’ll know if you’re lying: Apollo kid power y’know?” It absolutely wasn’t an Apollo kid power - or at least not one of hers - but Drew didn’t need to know that. “Okay!! Well I like Nyssa from Hephaestus cabin, see? That wasn’t so hard, now who do you like?” Okay, that was a quick answer from Drew, who was eagerly staring at Kayla now, awaiting a response.
“Wow uh okay, I um… I kinda, sorta have a crush, and only a tiny crush! On Lou Ellen from Hecate cabin…” She rushed the last part out and covered her face with her hands, incredibly embarrassed and horrified that she actually confessed that to someone - much less Drew Tanaka!
“Oh my Gods!! I knew it! I’ve seen the way you look at her from across the dining pavilion!” Drew cheered in delight, quickly following it up with, “but don’t worry, I haven’t told anyone and I won’t unless you want me to!” She smiled widely at Kayla.
The two talked until the timer to rinse Kayla’s hair finally went off. The conversations mostly consisted of Drew pestering Kayla and Kayla mostly refusing to answer, although letting some stuff slip.
They rinsed the green out of Kayla’s hair until the water ran clear once more, and Drew blow dried and styled it for her. Even though it wasn’t the blue that Kayla wanted, she actually really liked her new hair and began to consider keeping this a permanent thing. Kayla was extremely grateful and kind of glad that she had someone who could help her with this love stuff now (she would never let Drew know that though).
She finally left the Aphrodite cabin, giving a quick wave and ‘thank you’ to Drew as she left. Kayla rushed back to the infirmary, only to get screamed at by Will for leaving the infirmary for ‘way over 30 minutes!’ (It was only 45 minutes, calm down Will). They argued all the way to dinner, only stopping as they reached the table and Austin yelled at the both of them and she noticed that a few people were beginning to stare.
One person in particular being a certain child of Hecate. She smiled and waved at Kayla, pointing at her hair with a huge grin and thumbs up. Kayla smiled back and waved, feeling faint from the sight of Lou’s beautiful smile that was directed at her and her hair!
Kayla was too busy in her own world swooning over this to notice that Lou Ellen was staring at her with the slightest hint of blush on her face.