Snippet #1571901

The day dawned brightly over Camp Half-Blood. It always seemed to do that; dawn brightly. And it never failed to annoy Nikki. She hated bright light, daylight more than anything. The sun was a constant annoyance to her. If only it were safe to go live in a cave somewhere, she would. But it wasn't safe; the only safe place in the world for her, or for people like her, was the camp on Half-Blood Hill. So that was where she stayed.
Here in the accursed sun, surrounded by damned noisy half-bloods.

She probably would have had no problem with the sun, if she could manage to sleep with it. But without fail, whenever that bright light broke the edge of her cabin windows and fell into the room like a cascade of gold, her eyes flew open, and sleep was done with for the night. She was a nocturnal creature as it was; it took her hours upon hours to get to sleep every night. If only she could have slept during the day; she could have done it if she were allowed to close the curtains. But camp activities occurred during the day, and for some reason she was required to participate. So it was that she slept during the night, and woke with the dawn. Every damned day.

And this day was, naturally, the same as every other day had been. The sun broke through the windows, turning the inside of her eyelids scarlet. And she was awake.

She lay in her bed for a time, staring up at the ceiling. The black stone provided some small comfort, except that it soaked up the sun like a sponge, and in a couple minutes it would be baking hot inside the cabin. That was another thing she hated; the heat.
Oh, why couldn't she just live in a cave?

When the cabin began to get too warm to stay inside, Nikki swung out of bed and seized the mound of clothing she had left in a pile on the floor the previous day. In a matter of minutes, she was dressed in one of those accursed, bright orange Camp Half-Blood shirts, and a pair of remarkably short black shorts. She hated wearing too much clothing. It felt odd against her skin, constricting. Normally, she would have worn as little as was probably legal. But this was camp. Some fools would be scarred by her normal uniform. So she dressed as Chiron said she was to dress, and cursed his name every night when she prayed to her father, Hades.
Nothing could make her put down her Stygian iron blade, of course.

It was the first step out of the cabin which was the most painful. It always was the most painful. The bright light scalded her eyes, and she had to cover them for a moment before she could actually head out into camp. Of course, being able to see was not all that pleasant, either.

It only revealed how very many cheerful faces she was going to have to deal with during the day. Oh, how she wished her brother, Nico di Angelo, were back form his quest. At least she could stand his presence...