Equilibrium

Chapter 8: Luka's POV

It was the day after I'd arrived at Camp Jupiter, otherwise known as New Rome, and I was feeling a little better. Stuff was finally starting to make sense. Yay. Well anyways, now I was being shipped off to the other camp to meet this girl, Jackie (I already hate her and I haven't even met her. Great), and go on a quest that the whole world's lives depend on. Very believable. But I really didn't have a choice.

"Luka, you ready?" I heard Frank's voice calling me from outside the cabin I had stayed in. The other campers had told me it was for the "Fifth Legion", whatever that meant.

"Hold on," I called back

I picked up my backpack, that I had repacked with stuff that would apparently help me survive. Ambrosia, nectar, a bow and arrow. Ok that last one was kinda cool though. Yesterday Frank had taken me to the shooting area and shown me how to do it. It came naturally to me. I could shoot the bullseye without even thinking about it too much. Hazel told me that it was an 'Apollo thing' and I honestly didn't mind. It was pretty cool.

I picked up the bag after stuffing it with my personal stuff that I would never leave here: My poetry book and the picture I had of mom.

I missed her so much.

But no time to dwell on the past, right? I had to go meet... Jaquelin Elway. I was already trying to decide what she would look like. A blonde maybe? Redhead? Would she flirt with me like almost every other girl on this planet? I sure hoped not.

"Luka!" Frank sounded annoyed this time. Oops.

I walked out of the cabin wearing the same purple SPQR shirt as Frank and Hazel were wearing.

"Sorry, I'm here," I murmured, not really in the mood to talk too much.

"It's ok Luka, we know how scary a first quest can be," Hazel said smiling at me sweetly. "Frank is just being a bum, don't mind him," she shoved him playfully. Cute.

"Let's go," he said shaking his head and smiling at his girlfriend.

All of a sudden I heard a big swoosh from above. As I looked up, I saw a big black horse with... wings?

"That's our friend Percy's Pegasus, his name is Blackjack," Frank said grinning at the creature. Cool. A horse with wings is just what we needed right now.

Blackjack landed and Hazel immediately went to pat him and feed him what looked like a donut, but I wasn't sure. Are you even supposed to feed horses donuts? Maybe horses with wings, Pegasi I guess, are allowed to have them?

I heard a noise behind me and glanced back to see another Pegasus, but this one was gray. Wait, where did Frank go? I looked back at Hazel, confused.

She grinned, "That's Frank if you were wondering. He's a shapeshifter."

Oh? Well another crazy thing to add to the list of things I didn't understand.

"Come on!" Hazel exclaimed, hopping onto Blackjack's back. I got on right behind her, trying not to hold onto her waist too tightly, because I mean, if that gray horse really was Frank, I don't think he would appreciate me holding onto his girlfriend. But I didn't really have a choice when Blackjack swooped so fast into the air I darn well almost fell off. Welp, sorry Frank. We flew through the air, zooming through the clouds and into the blue sky. It was probably the most thrilling thing I had ever done. Mom and I didn't have a lot of money so we didn't really get to do a lot of exciting things. We soared through the sky, over many different cities and towns. It was beautiful up here. I knew that we were going to New York, so I was expecting the ride to take a long time, but before I knew it Blackjack had already started to descend, Frank in horse-form right next to us. As we broke through the clouds I saw that we were heading straight towards a pine tree with a girl slumped next to it. When we finally landed, Hazel easily slid off the horse like she had had years of practice. It took me a little more effort and I'm sure I looked stupid.

The girl who was sitting by the tree jumped up and spoke when she saw us.

"Hey, Hazel!" She was grinning widely.

"Oh hey-" Hazel was cut off by Frank who had turned back into human form and tackled her with a hug. He gave me a quick sideways glance as if to tell me to back off. I was just trying to stay on the horse and not die gEEZ. Frank pulled away from Hazel.

"Hey Jackie!" He ran over and gave her a small hug. They started talking, but I quickly interrupted them.

"Jackie?" She was beautiful, to say the least. Wow. Great. Just what I needed right now, to find her attractive. Her brown hair had caramel highlights in it and was blowing around her face crazily, and her freckles were almost glowing in the sun. Also, there was this look in her eyes... mischief maybe? Disgust? Hard to tell, could be both.

"Uh, yeah that's me. Jackie Elway. And... you are?" I looked her up and down. I hated her already. She looked so smug, like I was a small obstacle that she could easily crush.

"Luka. Luka Del Rosso." I stuck out my hand to shake hers... Gotta be polite with the mean ones, ya know? She didn't return the favour. Great. This is awkward. Frank and Hazel looked miffed, like they knew we were probably going to fuck everything up.

"Right, um. Ok then." I muttered as her hazel colored eyes pierced right through me and her lips quirked into a challenging little smirk. Cute. No. I can't think that. I stepped back, feeling myself blush. Crap, crap, crap, not now, shit. Hazel said something, but I didn't fully absorb it to be honest. I was so embarrassed. Something about going to the big house, whatever that was? I just nodded and followed the three of them wherever they were going, keeping my eyes glued to Jackie. The way the sun was glancing off her hair made it look almost red and gold. Suddenly, she whipped around and caught my gaze. Crap. She gave me a little smile that said "caught ya!" like she knew I was watching her. What even?? Then she sidled up next to me and bumped me with her shoulder. A seemingly friendly gesture, but suddenly I found myself getting nervous.

"Sooooo how's New Rome?" She asked, smiling. I looked at her, puzzled. Why was she being nice now, when not even two minutes ago she wouldn't even shake my hand? I answered by telling her what had happened within a day of me getting to camp. She called me LUCKY for getting a quest so early. I was confused, I thought we were supposed to steer clear of danger? She told me that she was a year round camper that had been here for 6 years. She was 16 just like me. I asked her about her family and why she was staying at camp all year round. Her answer kinda shocked me.

"Yeah well my dad is Hermes and mom is an abusive drug addict so... nope. I've been stuck here.

Oh. That sucks. A lot. My mom was dead but I was still grateful that she loved and cared for me, I couldn't imagine what that would be like for Jackie. Also... why would she tell me that? We don't even know each other.

"Oh... I'm sorry." It was all I could think of, what else was I supposed to say? She looked up at me and blinked, seemingly surprised at something. The fact that I was genuinely sorry for her? What had this girl been through?

"Whatever, it's fine." She looked at the ground and kept walking. Just like that, she shut down. I felt like trying to say something to her but I couldn't think of anything, so we just walked on in silence. We reached a big house, which, I'm taking a wild guess here, was probably the big house. Hazel and Frank, who had been walking behind us, deeply engrossed in their own conversation, finally glanced up and realized that we had reached our destination. Jackie led us up the steps of the front porch, still not meeting my gaze.

"Chiron, they're here!" She yelled banging on the door. A man in a wheelchair wheeled out onto the front porch. All of a sudden he stepped out of the chair, revealing his bottom half which happened to be a horse. I went pale. What the hell? A centaur? Could this day get any weirder?

"Hello, Jaquelin! Hazel! Frank! So nice to see you again. And you must be Luka, I presume?" He put out his hand for me to shake, and since I'm not rude like Jackie, I shook it back. "Nice to meet you," I said, my voice shaking a bit. The rest of the conversation was a blur. I couldn't believe my eyes, really. This was all too much to absorb. Before I knew it, Frank and Hazel had left us and Chiron had started walking in the other direction. I was alone with Jackie now. Great. This was going to be a real nerve calming exercise.