"Neeks! Bro! Good to see you!" Jason yelled as he crushed me in a bear hug. He was on one of his visits to the camp.
"That's enough Grace!" I squeaked as he began crushing my ribs. He laughed and set me down.
"You look good bro!" Jason said with a grin. He took a step back and looked me up and down making sure I was back to normal.
I rolled my eyes at him. "Grace if this is you hitting me, I will have tell you the same thing I told Percy........ your not my type."
Jason scoffed at me, " what blonde blue eyes....... cause I seem to recall...."
I put my hand up to stop him from mentioning Will. " No.......all muscle. No brains."
Jason held his hands up in surrender. "So what you up to?"
"Teaching sword fighting. I am heading to the arena to meet the Hermes cabin. Wanna help?"
"Yeah sure" he replied and we headed off together.
As we rounded the corner I was ran over. "What the!" I stood up and turned to........ find Will getting up off the ground. "Will?"
He stood up and we were face to face for the first time in weeks. He looked like he always did lately. Tired and run down. "Dude you okay?" Jason asked.
"Ahhhh yeah. Um sorry. I was running late for music." Will said. He seemed to be looking every where but me.
"Ahhh your cabin already had music, they are over at the stables now." I said slowly.
"Oh...... stables. Right." Will said. I felt my insides twist. The guy I had a crush on seemed vacant and lost. All sunshine seemed gone.
"Hey Will are you okay?" I asked taking a step closer. "I am here if you ever......"
His eyes darted up to mine. Anger seemed to flare in them. "I am fine Di Angelo, I don't need your help." He then stepped around me and stormed off.....in the wrong direction.
"Wow that was awkward." Jason said.
I just watched him walk away.
************************************
2 Weeks later
"Good to be back!" Percy said. "Even if it is just for the weekend."
"You guys just wanted to play my Xbox." I replied as I handed them each a soda.
"Take that Jackson!" Jason yelled.
"Oh come on!" Percy whined. "Neeks distracted me with soda."
I grabbed the controller. "Snooze you loose fish breath!"
We continued to play until Percy decided to bring up the subject I had so far avoided. "Hey have you seen Solace lately........ the dude looks bad."
"Yeah" Jason agreed. "I herd Kyron told him he was over working himself and his siblings. Told him he had to stay away from the healing tent for 3 weeks."
I ofcoarse knew this. As soon as I herd I set out to find him. He was sitting on the beach. I stood there for ages trying to think of what to say. But then I thought I didn't need to say anything cause he didn't want me too. So I left.
"I herd Apollo's still missing in action. I mean none of his kids have herd from him." Percy added. He and Jason shared a look.
"If only he had a friend who could help him." Jason said oh so obviously.
"Shut it both of you." I glared at them both. They in return gave me innocent looks. I rolled my eyes. " He has made it perfectly clear he does not want any help from me."
Percy nodded. "Yeah I know what you mean. I knew this kid once. He was really angry. Like decided to make a huge crack in the earth appear." He gave me a sideways glance, to see if I had picked up on the fact he was talking about me. "He had made it really clear he didn't want me too help him......... but hey he was fiiinnnnnee."
"Oh shut up Jackson!" I threw an empty soda can at him.
"Hey......."he started but was interrupted by a knock on my door.
Jason got up and opened it. "Ahhh Neeks?" he looked at me with surprise on his face. "You ahhh have visitors."
I got up curious and walked over. Turns out the entire Apollo cabin was at the door. Well.......all except one.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"We are here to ask for your help." Kayla said.
"What kinda help?" I asked.
Toby pushed his way forward. "We need you to help our brother."
