IT HAD TAKEN A FULL WEEK of begging and compromising and bargaining, but finally, Chiron agreed to let Naomi tag along on the Westover Hall extraction mission.
Naomi woke that morning eager for the day ahead. She blamed the boredom that had settled over Camp Half-Blood like snow on the ground. The school year tended to get boring when all the summer-only campers went back to their families, but this year had been a new kind of slow.
Campers were going missing—or ditching, as Drew pointed out in her usual pessimistic way.
Five unclaimed kids from the Hermes cabin, one Hephaestus kid, one Apollo kid, two Ares kids, and even one of Naomi's own cabinmates—Heather Rhodes, a daughter of Demeter who'd only arrived at camp that fall—had all disappeared without a trace.
Because of that, campers were on high alert. Peleus, the newly appointed dragon guard of the Golden Fleece, was still only the size of a regular dog, so Chiron had established a rotating border patrol to keep the camp safe—and, as sinister as it sounded, to keep the campers inside.
As soon as Naomi had gotten dressed, she found Drew on the front porch of her cabin and convinced her to braid her hair before they went to get breakfast.
Afterward, Naomi found herself sitting at the canoe lake with Ethan, waiting for her ride.
"When's Percy's mom coming to pick you up?" Ethan asked, swinging his legs underneath the pier, his worn sneakers dangerously close to the water's surface—and the mischievous naiads who liked to pull pranks about as much as the Stolls.
"Eleven," Naomi said, double-checking the wristwatch Silena had gotten her for her birthday. It was still only nine-thirty. Thirty more minutes until she saw her best friends again. "They have to pick up Annabeth and Thalia from their school first, then me, then we'll be on the road to Maine."
"I still can't believe Chiron's letting you go," Ethan said.
"I may have had to fake tears in order to get him to let me," Naomi admitted. "Sometimes being a crybaby is a blessing instead of a curse."
Ethan snorted. "Just be careful," he said. He scooped up one of his own stones, flinging it across the lake's surface. It failed to skip even once, sinking as soon as it hit the water. "Dammit."
Naomi giggled, throwing her first stone. She watched it bounce once before sinking—not much better than Ethan, but she still smirked at him triumphantly.
"I'm always careful," she told him. She watched him skip his next stone—or rather, throw it, since this one didn't skip either.
"I mean it, Nay," Ethan said, more serious than Naomi was used to him being. "You can't leave me here to deal with Drew on my own. I'll crack."
Naomi laughed. Her next stone skipped twice. "Don't act like you wouldn't love time alone with Drew," she teased, bumping his shoulder with her own.
"Why would I want alone time with Drew?" Ethan asked incredulously. "She'd probably throw me off the rock-climbing wall without you there to convince her not to."
"She's not that homicidal," Naomi said. "And she'd only do that if you annoyed her, so just don't do that and you'll be fine."
"So you're saying I just shouldn't speak in her presence?" Ethan asked.
Naomi snorted. "That's probably the safest bet," she said. "You sure know how to pick 'em."
Ethan's brow furrowed. "What are you talking about?"
Naomi raised her own eyebrow. "Your crush on Drew," she said. "Obviously."
Ethan blinked. "What? I don't have a crush on Drew."
He threw his next rock. It only skipped twice before it sank into the lake, the ripples pitiful looking.
Naomi gave him a disbelieving look. "Everyone our age has a crush on Drew."
"Do you?"
"Well, no—but that's 'cause she's like my sister," Naomi said. "It'd be weird."
"Well, who do you have a crush on?" Ethan asked, watching her skip her next stone. This one skipped four times—still not her personal best, but she was getting there. "No, wait, don't tell me—it's Percy, right?"
Naomi glared at him, her face heating up. "I do not have a crush on Percy."
"Your face says different," Ethan said.
She glared harder. "He's my best friend. That's it."
"Sure," Ethan said, drawing out the 'u.'
"Don't think you can avoid the question," Naomi said. "If you don't have a crush on Drew, who do you have a crush on?"
"I don't have a crush on anyone," Ethan protested, but the flush in his cheeks gave him away.
"Your face says different," she teased. She poked him in the arm before skipping her last stone. Five skips—no personal records beaten today.
"My face doesn't say anything," Ethan grumbled.
"It says you have a crush and you don't want to tell me," Naomi said.
Ethan rolled his eyes, but the blush remained. "Shut up."
"Seriously, who is it?" Naomi pressed. "Is it Miranda?"
Ethan looked at her like she'd grown a second head. "Miranda?"
Naomi shrugged. "You come to the greenhouse a lot—is it to see her?"
"I don't go to the greenhouse a lot," he protested weakly.
"Oh, please, I see you there almost every day," Naomi said.
"I don't have a crush on Miranda."
"Asher?"
"I don't have a crush on Asher, either."
"Well, you have a crush on someone," Naomi insisted. "You wouldn't be getting all flustered right now if you didn't."
"I'm not flustered!"
"Liar," Naomi teased.
Ethan rolled his eyes. "You're annoying."
"I'm right," Naomi corrected. "That's why you're annoyed."
He narrowed his eye at her, but there was no anger in it.
"Seriously, who is it?" Naomi practically begged. "It's not Silena, is it? Because not only is she way out of your league—no offense, but we both know it's true—she's also like my sister, so, if you have a crush on her, I'm not sure I even want to know about it."
"I don't have a crush on Silena," Ethan said firmly.
"Good," Naomi said.
"Good?" he asked.
"Yeah," she said. "It'd be weird if you had a crush on her. Plus, she and Beckendorf are definitely going to end up together eventually, and he could snap you like a twig."
"Beckendorf could snap anyone like a twig," Ethan protested. "Not just me."
Naomi laughed. "You have a point," she conceded. "Seriously, Ethan. Who is it?"
"I—I can't tell you."
"Why not?" Naomi all but whined. "Ethan, we're friends, you can tell me anything."
"I really can't," Ethan muttered.
"Please?" Naomi begged. "It'll drive me crazy if you don't tell me! Do you really want me to go on a super dangerous quest while I'm distracted?"
"You're just doing an extraction," Ethan reminded her.
Naomi rolled her eyes. "It could still be dangerous," she said. "If I don't make it back, do you really want your last memory of me to be you refusing to tell me who your crush is?"
"Don't say that, Nay," he said, skimming the toe of his sneaker against the water's surface.
"Ethan, please tell me," Naomi pleaded. "I won't tell anyone, I promise! It'll be our secret!"
"You're annoying," he said again, but Naomi didn't believe it for a second.
"I'll stop being annoying if you tell me," she bargained.
"I can't tell you!" Ethan insisted.
"Why not?"
Ethan didn't answer. Naomi was a second away from admitting defeat and dropping the subject.
And then he kissed her.
Naomi had never been kissed before, so she didn't have anything to compare it to. Drew had, though, and she'd gushed about it to Naomi right after it happened. She'd said she felt sparks and butterflies and like she was floating on a cloud when Lizzy from Apollo finally got up the nerve to kiss her.
But Naomi didn't feel any of that. All she felt were... lips.
It didn't last long—probably not even two seconds. Neither of them spoke, the only sound around them the gentle movement of the lake and the birds singing in the trees several yards away. Naomi half-expected the Naiads to poke their heads up and start teasing them, because they'd done that to other couples before (namely Lee and his Ares boyfriend, Jordan, who frequented the canoe lake for their date nights).
But the lake remained still.
Ethan opened his mouth to say something, but someone else spoke first, startling both of them out of their stupor and almost into the lake.
"Naomi, there you are!" Silena exclaimed, marching up the pier with an unimpressed look on her face. "Percy's mom's gonna be here any minute. C'mon, I told Chiron I'd walk you to Half-Blood Hill."
Naomi looked down at her watch—nine fifty-five. "Shit," she mumbled, scrambling to stand up. She grabbed her backpack, slinging it over her shoulder.
She turned to Ethan, who'd stood up as well. Her cheeks felt like they were on fire. "I—I have to go."
Ethan nodded. "Yeah," he said nervously. "Uh, yeah—uh, be—be careful."
Then—because today was surprise-Naomi-with-unexpected-affection day, apparently—he leaned down and kissed her on the cheek before hurrying off the pier, past a surprised Silena, and back toward the Hermes cabin.
"Um..." Silena looked between Naomi and Ethan's retreating figure. "What was that about?"
Naomi shook her head. "I—I don't know."
"Did he finally tell you he has a crush on you?" Silena asked, setting off toward Half-Blood Hill and leaving Naomi with no other choice but to quickly follow.
"What do you mean, 'finally'?" she asked, nervously twisting her ring around her finger.
"He's been crushing on you since you came here, Nay," Silena said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I think just about everyone at camp's been waiting for him to get up the nerve to ask you out. It's obvious how much he likes you."
"It wasn't obvious to me!" Naomi protested.
Silena stopped as they reached the hill. No one was there yet, save for the two Ares kids on guard duty, and Peleus, who was chasing a butterfly around Thalia's tree like a reptilian puppy. They still had another minute or so until Sally was supposed to arrive.
"Nay, I love you, but you're kind of oblivious when it comes to romance," Silena said gently.
"I am not."
"You didn't realize Lee and Jordan were dating until I told you they were dating," Silena pointed out. "And they've never shied away from PDA."
Naomi stared at the grass. "Ethan... he really likes me?"
"Oh, yeah," Silena said. "The question is, do you like him back?"
Naomi looked up. "I—I don't know."
"Well, did you like kissing him?" Silena asked.
"I... I didn't hate it, but... aren't there supposed to be sparks or something?"
"Not always," Silena said. "Love's complicated. Sometimes it can be full of sparks and passions and excitement, other times it's like... coming home to a place you hadn't even realized was home. It can go both ways."
Naomi fidgeted with her fingers. She hadn't felt either of those things—it had just felt like an action, just two pairs of lips meeting for a brief second, then nothing.
"Don't worry about it for now," Silena said as Sally's car pulled up at the foot of the hill. Silena wrapped an arm around her and walked her down. "Do your mission, come back, and we'll talk about Ethan later, okay? And be careful."
Naomi gave Silena a small smile. "I will."
❊
naomi really is percy-level oblivious when it comes to people crushing on her... poor annabeth.