CHAPTER
EIGHT
I WORRY FOR NICO'S SANITY
[slightly better edited but ill also fix it up soon <3]
BREAKFAST WAS DELICIOUS though I assumed that's the 'norm' here. By now I was also trying to make myself believe that the dream was just my imagination but it always failed.
After that, an Athena child, Malcolm, taught Nico and I Greek. Surprisingly we caught onto it pretty quickly. Though, in the middle of the lesson Nico began ranting about mythomagic and Malcolm just ended it there for the day.
The Apollo kids was currently teaching Nico archery, I was kicked out after almost shooting one of them in the eye.
I was still reviewing my dream inside of my head, could the voice be my godly parent? And what did I have to prove? My worth? Or was it just my sub-conscious playing tricks on me. I was still focused on my little debate in my head so I wasn't focused where I was going. Next thing I knew I was tripping over a demigod.
"Sorry! I wasn't focused!" I exclaimed scurrying up.
The camper sighed, "It's fine. You're the new camper right?" She patted the side beside her, signaling for me to sit next to her, so I did and nodded
"I'm Silena, Silena Beauregard. Counselor of Cabin ten, daughter of Aphrodite," Silena introduced holding her hand out.
"Maria di Angelo, undetermined," I said, shaking her hand.
I could kind of tell Silena was a child of Aphrodite. She was beautiful, her hair was a curly black and glistening blue eyes. Her skin was smooth and everything about her looked perfect. "Why are you out here all alone," I questioned, looking around the meadow. All I could see were flowers.
Silena frowned, twirling with her hair, "I got tired of the hunters, I just don't get how they could give up love!" Oh right, Aphrodite is the goddess of love so her children and the hunters probably wouldn't get along that well.
"Your still choosing between becoming a hunter or staying at camp right?"Silena questioned and my eyebrows furrowed. How did she know? As if she was reading my mind she said, "I overheard some of the hunters talking about it."
I nodded, "Ye—""Maria it's really fun at camp, I promise you. It might be weird the first few days but once you make a few friends it's fine. You already have one, me!" Silena stated passionately, "And you can't give up love! What if your soulmate is here?" She grabbed my hands desperately.
Then I realized something. "We're friends?" I questioned, my eyebrows raising.
"Of course! You seem nice!" Silena exclaimed, even though we've only known each other for about a minute now, getting up from her seat on the ground, "Come on, you've only seen the camp video thingy I'll give you a real tour!" She helped me up and before I could say anything I was being dragged around camp
Silena was geniuenly nice and did teach me a lot about the camp. Though there were a few bumps like when Silena had gotten into and argument with a hunter while she was showing me the pegasus stables. I had no idea what it was about because I was busy admiring the pegasi, they were all gorgeous. Next we went to the arts and crafts center.
"That's Charlie," Silena smiled sheepishly, pointing at a boy. He was an dark-skinned African American and had curly dark colored hair. Like most campers he had an orange camp tee-shirt labeled 'CHB' only he had a tool belt and was currently tinkering with something. He glanced at us before looking back quickly.
Then again, he glanced back at us before looking back. A cheeky smile made his way onto his face when he looked at Silena. There was obviously some flirty tension in the air and I would rather not be in the middle of it.
"Hey Silena I think I'm going to go look for Nico now thanks for the tour!" I said, Silena whipped her head around so quickly I was 50% sure she had whiplash from that.
"Oh, okay! But you must come to the Aphrodite cabin later, maybe I could pair you up with one of my half-brothers. Even better, what if you get claimed and you my half-sister!" Silena exclaimed, a bright smile on her face. She seemed pretty adamant on the 'her pairing me up' thing, she'd been mentioning it the whole tour.
I just nodded and waved goodbye before running off. It's not that I didn't like Silena, she was great but I was currently figuring out this whole Nico and Bianca, hunter or camp thing. It wasn't the best time for me to be paired up with a boy. I knew she had good intentions, it just wasn't the best time.
Even more so with my latest dream, what was that about? Was it my godly parent? I shook my head furiously, this dream was giving me a headache.
Plus I'd never really thought about relationships, besides Nico and Bianca I'd never really contacted anyone. I was too busy making sure their grades stayed afloat. Before I wanted to make sure they got into a good high school and then a good college.
Now none of that mattered.
It's crazy how much changed in a mere few days. Now all of those memories just seemed like they were years ago. Sometimes it's like this is all a dream.
I sighed, at least before bumping into someone.. Again. What was with me today?
"Oh, Percy sorry, I wasn't focused," I apologized looking up at him.
Now I'd finally got a good look at him, the last few times I was burning maine, getting kidnapped, finding out I was a demigod, so I wasn't too focused on him. The only time I was, was in the school gym and I was pretty far away from him.
He was about a few inches taller than me which was somewhat disappointing since we were the same age, all the di Angelos had gotten the short heights gene. Besides Bianca, she lucked out and was only a little shorter than Percy. His eyes were a sea-green and moved like actual waves, which made sense since his father was Poseidon. Along with mediterranean skin and unkept brown hair, unlike before he seemed to be upset.
"It's fine Maria, I wasn't focused either," Percy said, half-smiling. He still had the gloomy look though.
My eyebrows furrowed, "Are you okay?" I questioned.
He smiled, this time fully but it didn't seem really genuine, "I'm fine, just a little worried about Annabeth but Artemis will figure this out," He answered, again, didn't sound really genuine.
But I let him walk away, saying a quick goodbye.
Once dinner came Nico went to Travis and Connor, they had become pretty good friends. Bianca was enjoying her time with the hunters. I was once again sitting uncomfortably between two random Hermes campers. The food was fine but once again, I was uninterested.
I ate the food, mostly because I would've felt bad for waisting it.
Right after was capture the flag.
Since I got so focused on my thoughts I forgot to visit the Aphrodite cabin, so now I had to be right beside Silena. I didn't mind it, besides her whisper threats about the hunters. Once Percy came into view her eyes widened, "Oh Maria, I have to go.. Erm... Help one of my half-siblings put on their armor. Percy, can you help Maria?"
Before he could answer she had already said, "Thank you!" And for some reason winked at me?
"I'll help," Thalia murmured, following Silena to help some Aphrodite kids get their armor on. If on cue, Nico ran in, his appearance made me almost burst into laughs.
His armor and helmet were definitely too big for him, then I looked down at myself and realized I looked the same way. The only difference is I hadn't put my helmet on. "Maria!" Nico exclaimed, realizing I was here.
"You look so cool!" He said in awe. Which made both Percy and I sighed happily. I took of Nico's helmet and ruffled his hair, ignoring his complaints.
Then it looked like something clicked in his head, "Try yours on!" Nico snatched the helmet I was holding and placed it on my head. It covered half of my vision.
I heard Percy snicker and I couldn't help but smile. I adjusted the helmet, now it only covered a third of my vision. "Oh! Maria you look amazing? Doesn't she look amazing Percy?" Silena smiled, appearing from behind me and placing her head on my shoulder. Then she turned to Percy and Nico, showing me off.
"She looks awesome!" Nico exclaimed and Percy nodded in agreement. Silena just smirked and patted my shoulder before walking away.
Once Silena left Nico looked at his sword questionably, then raised it, "Do we get to kill the other team?" My face dropped and Percy looked surprised.
"Uh..." I started, slightly concerned for my brother's sanity. I looked at Percy.
"Well.... No," Percy answered, shrugging his shoulders towards me.
"But the Hunters are immortal, right?" Nico asked. Once again, I was a bit concerned of Nico sanity.
Percy looked at me and I just shrugged, he turned back to Nico, "That's only if they don't fall in battle. Besides—" Nico cut him off.
"It would be awesome if we just, like, resurrected as soon as we were killed, so we could keep fighting, and—"
"Nic—" "Nico, this isn't a mythomagic game," I interrupted both Percy and Nico.
I ruffled his hair, "Real swords, real battles, real death, besides, I wouldn't let you kill someone," I told him.
Nico groaned but listened. "Now I have to go to Silena but listen to Percy, don't get maimed, don't get killed, or else I'll do worse to the person who hurt you," I smiled. Percy looked a bit surprised again.
I ran over to Silena who was smugly smirking about something, "Yo—" She was stopped by Chiron's hooves.
"Heroes!" Chiron began . Our attention immediately went to him."You know the rules! The creek is the boundary line. Blue team—Camp Half-Blood—shall take the west woods. Hunters of Artemis—red team—shall take the east woods. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. No intentional maiming, please! All magic items are allowed. To your positions!"
Magical items? I glanced at Silena who shrugged before cheekily smiling again. "You and Per—" Again she was cut off.
"Blue team! Follow me!" Thalia announced. I had raised an eyebrow when Silena dropped her shield by accident. I would've cheered and followed with the rest of them but instead I helped Percy, who tripped over Silena's shield, up.
He muttered a soft "Sorry." Before we continued with the group. The group set the flag of some kind of fist structure. I ignored most of Thalia and Percy's speech, focusing on straightening Nico's helmet.
By the time I finished, everyone had already spread out. "Oh," I said, before climbing up the fist structure (which was starting to look like a stone poop pile to be honest) with Nico.
"What's happening," We asked in unison. Once I finally got up I saw a large batch of trees, a few clearings, and some hunters/campers fighting.
"Can you guys hold the fort?" Percy asked, his eyes stopped analyzing the playing field (which to be honest, it was cool how focused he looked) and turned to Beckendorf.
"Of course."
Percy skillfully jumped off the stone, "I'm going in." He began running off into the forest, his speed was the fastest I've ever seen.
"Percy!" Nico cheered. "Go Percy!" Travis exclaimed.
We all began cheering, or atleast until we couldn't see him anymore. "So, how's the weather?" Connor asked awkwardly.
All of us looked at the sky before looking back down. "So let's get back to your attack po-" Nico began, looking at Travis. He was cut off by an arrow, flying through the air, scratching his left ear slightly.
We all turned to Beckendorf, who'd already had an arrow stuck in his shoulder. It must've made him tired because he was currently snoring, loudly if I might add.
When Zoë Nightshade walked out of the shadows we knew that we were in big trouble.
NOTE.
tbh i made maria's age confusing— it's even confusing me
so to clear it, in this book she's 14 turning 15.
15 in battle of the labyrinth
16 during the last olympian
it's really confusing so i just made this note for me.
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