Tidal Wave (Luke Castellan)

The New Kid

 Chiron was probably having the new half-blood talk with the kid at the moment so I did as Luke had suggested. If I was going to give Chiron these seashells that he had so desperately wanted while he was still talking with the kid, I probably shouldn't do it with a sword in my hand. Luke had left me to my own devices pretty soon after I'd come out of the water since he still had a cabin he was in charge of. The main reason he'd come to see me was to tell me the kid was awake. Although he did clarify that he missed me just so I wouldn't make some sort of snarky joke about that.

When I got close to the cabins, I saw Chiron and the kid walking in the same direction. They paused by Cabin 3, my cabin. The kid took a glance inside before Chiron said something and they moved along. Chiron looked over and shot me a look. The message was clear: Don't approach them. Right. So he really didn't want me around this kid for whatever reason. I paused, letting them continue their trek towards Cabin 11 before continuing on. At least the kid didn't see the random sword I was now placing on my bed before he peeked in here earlier. That probably would've freaked him out a little.

Looking around, I tried to see if anything had changed since I'd left. All the other bunk beds were undisturbed. The small pool in the middle of the cabin still had clear water. I wasn't even really sure why that pool was there but that's unimportant. The random stuffed marine animals were still around too. Whoever thought that decoration was a good idea, I'll never know.

I grabbed a golden drachma and a crystal from the trunk at the end of my bed. Creating a small rainbow, I said, "Oh goddess, accept my offering."

I threw the drachma into the rainbow. When it disappeared, I said, "Diana Hart."

It took only a second before the daughter of Aphrodite appeared. She was in her dorm room at college, writing in a notebook.

"Hart!" I called out.

She jumped, her dark eyes darting over to look at me. A wide smile spread over her face, "Well, well, well! If it isn't Cassidy Paige."

After I'd transferred my name to Cass, Diana was the only one besides Chiron that I had allowed to call me Cassidy. Luke and Annabeth both knew my full name, but they wouldn't call me that unless something serious was going on.

"How's it going out in the real world?" I asked, taking a seat on my bed.

Diana took a deep breath, "It sucks. Homework is horrible. Classes are boring. At least monsters have been staying away for now. How's back home? Everything still going well?"

"Yeah, for the most part. We got a new demigod a few days ago. He just woke up today but Chiron's been acting really weird about it. He sent me on a mission to find seashells and when I came back, he definitely did not want me to interact with the kid."

"Huh. Any reason why?" Diana continued writing in her notebook but I could tell she was still listening to me.

"No clue. I was hoping I could get some answers after he handed the kid off to Luke," I realized once I mentioned my friend's name, a mistake was made.

"Speaking of, how is Luke? Are you two still dancing around the obvious?"

"He's fine. And we're not dancing around anything. Because there's nothing to dance around. We're friends."

"Uh huh. I am my mother's daughter, Cass. And I know attraction when I see it," Diana winked.

"Right. How's that boy I caught you with last time I called you?" I shot back.

Diana blushed, "That's different."

"How so?"

"I... I... it just is okay? You're lucky I saw you before he did though. I would've had a lot of explaining to do otherwise."