ECLIPSE

Aiden

I watched as the new girl slipped into the weapons shed with Merrily. Someone new would be nice. Someone that hadn't seen my pants fall down in the mess hall two months ago, although I'm sure someone would tell her.

"Who's that?" I ask, cutting off Abigail and Chey's chatter.

"Weren't you listening?" Chey asked irritably.

I scowl at her. She could be infuriating sometimes. "Obviously not."

"That's Jorja Marley, she's new," she replies. "Why, you think she's hot?"

I scoff. "How can I, I've only seen her from twenty feet away." I turn back to my bow and line up another shot. The arrow lands perfectly in the center, not even an inch from my previous arrow.

"Nice shot," Abigail says appreciatively. I flash her a grin. She along with Ryan, Merrily and sometimes Chey were some of my only friends. I honestly made better friends with the nymphs and satyrs, but they had things to do and couldn't venture too far from their trees. I'd gotten in trouble a lot for sneaking off for too long to see them. 

Everyone else thought I was bad luck. And they were probably right.

After practicing for a while, the dinner horn was blown. Looking up at the sky, I realized that it was already dark, which was strange for five in the afternoon. I ran back to the Hermes cabin to put up my bow and hurried to the dining pavilion. I was late, I knew, but I didn't really care. I grabbed a plate of food and quickly sacrificed to whoever-the-hell happened to be my godly parent and not-so-politely demanded that they claim me.

"So, writing absolutely sucks," Chey complained. "I'm trying to come up with something randomly bad to happen to my characters but I'm drawing a blank."

Ryan shoveled chicken and peas into his mouth. "Well, maybe just don't."

"What do you mean?" Chey asked, idly picking the peas out of her pie.

"You already have like ten-thousand words," he pointed out. "If you finish the book and there's not enough action or whatever, then you can think of something."

"Besides," I add, causing Chey to jump in surprise. "If it doesn't add anything to the story, you shouldn't add it."

Chey tilted her head in thought. "Fair enough. Oh hey, Jorja."

"Why do we have to sacrifice again?" she asked annoyedly, staring at the chunk taken out of her pie.

"So the gods don't kill us in our sleep," Ryan said, wiping Taylor's mouth who was in her high chair next to him.

Jorja slid into a seat next to me. "That's... that's great."

"You just have to take extra food," I say, trying to be helpful.

Jorja looks up at me. "That's pretty smart. You're Aiden right?"

"Yeah," I say awkwardly. "And you're Jorja. How is that spelled?"

"J-O-R-J-A," she replies evenly. "How do you spell yours?"

"You're hilarious." I roll my eyes. "So, you doing volleyball tonight?"

She shrugs and takes a bite of food. "Sports aren't really my thing. I do jujitsu, but nothing... nothing really like that."

"C'mon, I'm sure Merrily and her friends will let you join their team," I encourage her.

"Aren't you playing?" Jorja stares at me. "What team are you on?"

"I-I..."

"You don't do sports either, do you?"