Don't Fade Away: A Solangelo Fanfiction 2

Chapter 17: A Shocking Claim

"Neeks!" Rosemary ran up to Nico at the breakfast table and gave him a big hug.

"I just saw you yesterday, Rosie."

"I know, but I'm so happy to see you!"

Will laughed.

"I have to go back to my cabin now, but I'll talk to you later!" She ran off and sat next to Cecil.

"She really does like you." Will said.

"I was around her age when we were friends, and I'm the only person that she really knows. If it was somebody else, she would feel the same way."

"I'm sure that's not true. You're a likeable person."

Will could tell that Nico almost laughed. "Me? A likeable person? You're just biased."

"People just have to get to know you first."

"Whatever."

"Anyways," Will continued, "I still can't believe that we burned down the freaking Lotus Casino and found a little demigod."

"I should've done that a long time ago."

"It's okay. It's not your job."

"Yeah, but I got out, and other people didn't."

"Well they're out now, aren't they?" Will said. "Anyways, I wanted to talk to you about something else."

"Yeah?"

"I was thinking that maybe it's time to test Rosemary's skills. See what she can do. Maybe she'll get claimed."

"You think?"

"Yeah! I mean, we won't have her do any of the super dangerous stuff. Like, if we want to have her practice sword fighting for example, she can use plastic swords."

"Okay. Do you have any idea who her godly parent could be? A place to start?"

"Not at all. We could start with speed, though."

"Okay. I'll ask her after breakfast. See if she's up to it."

Rosemary was definitely up to it.

"We're gonna find out who my mommy or daddy is?" She said, hopping up and down.

"Yeah. Do you want to start with seeing how fast you are?"

"Okay!"

Will asked Juniper if she wanted to race her.

"The little one?" Juniper asked.

"Yeah. We're trying to figure out who her godly parent is."

"Alright."

Rosemary was young, so Juniper went easy on her. She was decent at running, but not extraordinary.

Next, they tried archery. Will helped her with this one. Though he didn't believe he was very good at it, not as good as a lot of his other siblings, he could still shoot.

Will gave her some plastic arrows.

"I can't have the real ones?" She asked.

"When you get older."

She shot a few times, and she wasn't bad. She shot it a couple of times on the target, but not in the center. They moved on.

They tried some other things throughout the day. They tried plastic sword fighting, they asked her some questions about things she liked or was drawn to, they had her play a couple of sports, and more, but nothing really stood out. She was good or okay at a lot of it, but not great.

"Do we know who it is yet?" Rosemary asked them.

"Not yet." Nico said. "Let's take a break, though. We can continue later, when we have more ideas."

After Rosemary had run off back to the Hermes cabin, Nico and Will sat down close to the woods.

"What should we try next?" Will wondered.

Nico shrugged. "I was never really claimed. Percy and I figured it out at the same time. Then one day, I was just hanging out in the Underworld with my dad."

"I was claimed when there was a camper that had gotten hurt. It wasn't very bad, but I helped clean the scrape on his leg and then I gave him a bandage. Then all of a sudden people were staring at me, well, staring above my head. Chiron was right there, too. He announced it and I was still kind of confused."

"Was this before I came to camp?"

"Yeah. It was summer time. Maybe we should ask Chiron what to do?"

"Or some of the Hermes kids." Nico suggested. "They're used to it. Though to be fair, they assumed Percy was just some kid of one of the minor gods and not the literal son of Poseidon, so maybe not."

"Hmmm. Maybe I could have her sing at the sing along tonight? Then we'll just try some more things tomorrow. I don't usually participate in the sing-alongs unless there aren't enough campers, like the school year after the summer where most of my siblings died. Or the few times that you saw me sing, because someone else couldn't. But I'll sing tonight so that I can help her out if she needs it."

"They didn't stay for the school year? The remaining Apollo campers?"

"Brooke and Riley did. The other three went home. They just wanted to get away for a while."

"Are you telling me only six Apollo campers survived the second Titan war? How many were there to begin with?"

"Thirteen."

"I'm sorry, Will."

"That was a while ago. I'm okay now."

"So you've told me."

Will really was fine. He wasn't, but then he was. He had a lot of support from people. Sometimes he would get sad, but that's normal.

"Anyways, we'll try that out, okay? Then we'll think of more stuff tomorrow."

"Okay." Nico said.

Later that evening, when they were walking from the Dining Pavilion to the Amphitheater for sing-alongs, Will and Nico walked over to Rosemary.

"Hi, Neeks! Hi, Willy!" Rosemary greeted him. Nico had told Will that she had called him that, but he started laughing anyway.

"Willy?" He said.

"Yeah! It's your nickname!"

"Alright, then. I was wondering if you wanted to be a part of the camp sing along today?"

"Okay! Singing is fun!"

"Alright!" He squeezed Nico's hand and told him that he would meet him later.

"I'm looking forward to seeing you sing again." Nico told him.

Soon, Will, Kayla, Austin and Rosemary were at the center of the amphitheater, in front of the fire.

Will made sure Rosemary was standing next to him, and he was worried that she was going to get nervous, but she looked perfectly fine. He then looked at Nico, who was sitting away from everyone else, and Nico gave him a little wave. Will and Rosemary returned it..

The second they all started singing, Will knew.

He looked at Rosemary, and her voice was just beautiful. Then he put it together. He remembered when they had seen her in the Lotus Casino, Nico had lied to her, but she somehow knew. Will had just written it off as she was just good at telling when people were lying. Some people were like that. But after hearing her sing, that meant-

Before Will could finish his thought, a soft yellow glow started to form above her head. It got brighter and brighter until a bright golden sun was visible. Will stared at it in shock and disbelief. He could see Nico was just as shocked.

Chiron spoke up. "This demigod is no longer unclaimed. Rosemary is the daughter of Apollo."