Only Time Will Tell (Solangelo)

5

"Don't say that," Will says, "you aren't going to stay here forever. You, Nico di Angelo, are going to do so many great things in your life."

My face turns pink at his comment. Why does Will have to be so optimistic? It is getting so much harder to hate him.

Will quickly leaves after our conversation, telling me that he has to get started on his own activities with his cabin. My own schedule doesn't say much for my first activity: strawberry picking. It says that I can start it whenever I feel like it and it ends at eleven thirty.

Even better, I'm doing this with the Hypnos kids.

Even better, most of the kids at Camp Half-Blood have gone home for the school year, leaving even less people at camp. I would leave too, but I'm basically an orphan.

On the bright side, I get to sleep in as long as I like as long as I do some strawberry picking before lunch time. This is the best things the camp has ever done for me.

At the strawberry fields, Hypnos kids are already looking for the red fruit in the fields. I follow their lead, grabbing a small basket and going off by myself to pick some strawberries. No one even tries to bother me during this quiet this activity. Am I actually having fun? I think I am.

Before I know it, it is lunch time. On my way down to the dining pavilion, Percy and Jason are already sitting at my table waiting for me.

"Nico!" Percy shouts with his obnoxious voice.

I give him a timid smile as I sit down. Percy starts right away talking about his morning with Jason. The two of them challenged each other to a race on the obstacle course with the lava wall, resulting in a trip to the infirmary.

"So, what about you?" Jason asks, placing his hand over Percy's mouth to get him to stop talking. "What have you been up too?"

"Strawberry picking," I say quietly.

Percy rips away Jason's hand. "No way, that is so cute!"

"Shut it, Bone Head," I snap.

Thankfully, Jason and Percy stop asking me annoying questions. We talk about other things like Jason's new shirt he tie dyed and Percy's messy cabin. Clearly, he hasn't cleaned it in a couple of days and Annabeth isn't going to hesitate to make him clean the Pegasus Stables.

Somehow, my schedule goes from a peaceful strawberry picking to shooting arrows with the Apollo and Dionysus cabins. This could possibly be the worst idea ever.

The son of Hades doesn't shoot arrows. The son of Hades uses his Stygian iron sword and raises the dead. What am I to do with a bow and arrow?

At the beginning of the activity, I try to stay out of everyone's way and sit off to the side. Then, some stupid Apollo camper came over to me and told me I had to try shooting an arrow at the bullseye.

I get up from the ground and make my way towards the archery range. It doesn't take long for some of the campers to make a clear passage in front of the boundary line, knowing I'm heading straight towards them. I take a deep breath and pull back on the bow with the arrow in place. In a split second, the arrow goes flying right into the ground.

Anger quickly washes over my face. It doesn't take long for me to take the bow in my hand and snap the plastic in half. A frustrated scream escapes my mouth as I throw the broken bow to the ground. I don't need to know that all of the Apollo and Dionysus campers are all staring at me and my sudden outbreak. I don't even need to know that they are watching me stomp all the way to my cabin and slamming the door closed.

My cabin is nice, but I still can't believe someone thought put coffins in here as bed. Nobody except for a dead person, which I am not dead, would like to sleep in there. I could care less about laying in a coffin at the moment. I'm tired and irritated with everything at the moment.

Someone knocks very loudly at the door to my cabin. I try to ignore it, but it is quickly followed by my name being shouted out of his mouth. "Nico!"

"Go away!" I shout back.

The door opens anyways, much to my disapproval. I watch Will Solace walk to my bed and stare down at my face. Unlike my hard glare, Will is smiling with his eyes wide and teeth shining, which is strange for being in such a dark cabin.

"I wanted to come check on you after that whole outburst." Will continues to smile, "So, how are you doing?"

I roll my eyes at him, rolling over in my coffin bed to face the wall. "I'm doing just fine, I'm just tired."

Will is silent for a second, but he takes the time to sit on the edge of the bed I'm laying on. "I'm tired as well. Probably for a different reason, but if I'm going to be honest with you, I've tried to get out of archery practice so many times. Chiron says that everyone needs to learn blah blah blah, but as Apollo's son who only knows how to be a medic and a musician, archery is kind of pointless."

"Archery is gross," I sigh, turning over to look at Will. "Maybe I can request more times to take a nap during the day."

"You didn't hear it from me, but if you fake an illness while I'm working in the infirmary, I'll let you take a nap in my office." Will says looking away from me. From what I can tell, Will is blushing, but it could be a glare from the angle I'm laying at.

I sit up in the bed, "Can I use the my blanket that you wouldn't let me take?"

He looks back at me with a goofy grin on his face. "That's why I kept the blanket, in case you injured yourself again, or in this instance, a desperate need of a nap."

"Thank you," I say shyly, laying back in the bed and facing the wall again.

"Would you like to come to the infirmary now? I'm heading to there anyways."

"But I'm already in my cabin in my bed, why do I need to move across the whole camp to sleep?"

"Because, if we get caught in here, people are going to think we are skipping our archery activity." I hear Will take a deep sigh and get up from the bed. "Come on, Death Boy."

I grumble. "Nobody cares about me anyways."

Will stands over me again, except this time, he takes my shoulders into his hands and shoves them again the bed. We stare at each other for a couple seconds. "Nico di Angelo, I care about you. Now get up, or I will personally drag you into the infirmary."

"Haven't you already done that, Smiley."