Hello! I know I only uploaded last week but I just got in the writing mood today so TAH DAH here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoy it. But I wouldn't get used to me updating this quickly if I was you, because it probably won't happen again.
After looking at my schedule for the day, I almost regretted agreeing to let Alex join me today. I had the Aphrodite and Apollo kids for archery first thing. Now I didn’t mind the Apollo kids, they weren’t a problem but I just knew that the Aphrodite girls were going to make comments about Alex. I did warn Alex that that was what was going to happen but he didn’t seem to mind. He only shrugged whilst smiling. I think he secretly enjoyed the Aphrodite kids’ comments, he liked that people knew we were a couple. I guess we didn’t go out to many places and act couple-y all that often because I was always busy, so he appreciated it when someone acted as though we were an item. Either that or he just enjoyed the sight of me blushing.
We hadn’t been at the archery range for more than a minute before the first comment was made. And it was from none other than Silena. I knew straight off that this was going to be a long session.
“Hey Izzy, I didn’t realise it was bring your boyfriend to work day.” She teased, with a small smirk stretching across her face.
“Really? No one told you? Because, by the looks of things, you brought your boyfriend to work with you too.” I said smirking whilst jutting my head in the direction of Phillip, a son of Apollo who was shooting at the target next to Silena’s. I knew that they were a couple, even though they were trying to keep it a secret from me.
Most of the campers tried to keep their relationships hidden from me because if I ever saw a couple together I would ‘aww’ at them and sometimes tease them, which for some reason they didn’t seem to like. I also tended to get some of my mother, Aphrodite’s, traits and I would start ‘helping’ them out in their relationships. The campers didn’t seem to like this either. There was also the fact that if I knew about it, the information would not only at some point trickle through to their parents, which could get really awkward, but also Dionysus who teased the kids worse than I did. So it became a general rule in camp that if you got into a relationship with another camper, you don’t tell me about it.
I often felt like pointing out to the kids that it was useless trying to hide their relationships from me, because I knew everything that went on in camp, but I liked to let them have their privacy so I usually kept quiet. But the opportunity to tease Silena was too good to pass up. The two of them had both gone bright red from embarrassment and had quickly turned back to the archery range.
“I love your mischievous side.” Alex whispered into my ear as his arms snaked around my waist. His breath blew onto the back of my neck, making the hairs there stand on end.
“Well then, you must love her all the damn time then.” Dionysus chuckled whilst coming up the path towards us.
“I do” Alex agreed and I could feel the smile on his face when he pressed a kiss on the side of my neck.
“Nuh uh uh.” Dionysus scolded as he got closer to us. “None of that whilst I’m around, thank you very much. I may be letting you date my daughter, boy, but I don’t want it rubbed in my face. There are some things that a father just doesn’t want to see.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at that. He wasn’t ‘letting’ me date Alex. If he had his way he would have had me locked away in some tower for the rest of my life just so that I would never come into contact with boys. He, and all of my fathers for that matter, had just had to resign themselves to the fact that I was dating, because they knew that they couldn’t force me not to. They didn’t like it, but they knew that they just had to live with it.
“Well, I suggest you close your eyes then, dad, as you’re not going to like seeing what I do next.” I teased as I spun around and went up on my tiptoes, lightly pressing my lips against Alex’s. I made the kiss short, knowing that I was already pushing my luck with Dionysus and I didn’t want to push him any further.
“Are you trying to get me killed?” Alex whispered quietly, our faces still very close together. I smiled at him, nodding.
“It’s much easier than dumping you. That way my fathers do all the hard work for me.” I teased.
“Well, I’m immortal. You can’t get rid of me that easily.” Alex smiled back, knowing that I had no intention of really ending my relationship with him.
“I guess, in that case I’ll just have to keep you around, break ups are just too messy for my liking.” I said pressing my forehead against his.
I was quite surprised that Dionysus hadn’t interrupted mine and Alex’s little moment, but when I looked up, I realised the reason for this. Dionysus had his eyes squeezed firmly shut, his fingers in his ears and he was spinning in circles whilst chanting “la la la la” at the top of his voice. I burst out laughing at the sight of him. He really didn’t want to see me getting romantic with Alex!
Apparently I wasn’t the only one to find this sight funny as all of the Aphrodite and Apollo kids were in hysterics too. One kid was actually rolling around on the floor laughing. Wow, an actual ROFL. I was slightly surprised that Dionysus hadn’t noticed everyone laughing at him, but I guess his intention had been to block out noticing everything and apparently he was doing a very good job of it. But seeing as it was technically my fault that he was making a fool out of himself I decided that I should probably be the one to put a stop to it.
“Dad?” I called, hoping that he would hear me. But he obviously didn’t. “Dad!” I tried again, but that didn’t work either. “Dionysus!” I shouted loudly, but still nothing. I sighed, deciding to take a different approach. I held up my hand and shot water at him. That worked. He stopped mid step and peaked an eye open. Once he saw that the coast was clear and that Alex and I weren’t making out right under his nose, he stood up straight and fully opened his eyes.
“That wasn’t nice, Isabelle.” He said sternly, using my full name to try and sound serious but I knew that he could never be really angry at me. A fact which I often took advantage of.
“I don’t know, I thought it was actually very nice. What about you, weather boy?” I turned back to Alex grinning.
“I know I said I liked your mischievous side, but I think I’ve changed my mind.” Alex groaned and buried his head in my neck. “You really are trying to get me killed, aren’t you?”
“Don’t worry, weather boy, I’ll protect you from my mean daddy.” I laughed, whilst patting his head consolingly.
“You’d better! I’m relying on you to back me up, when I get ambushed by all your dads.” He said, only half joking. I winked at him before once again facing my dad.
“Was there a reason you came up here, or did you just want to interrupt my PDA with Alex?” I asked teasingly.
“Yes, actually, there was a reason. Chiron wanted your help, with a disciplinary issue.” Dionysus said, whilst shooting a glare at a group of Aphrodite girls who were still giggling over his childish actions.
“Really?” I asked confused. Chiron was always better at dealing out punishments than I was, I was usually too soft on them because I found whatever prank they had pulled hilarious, and Chiron always told me off for it. It was strange that he was asking for my help now.
“Yes, I believe it involved Clarisse and that new boy, Piers.” Dionysus said, purposefully getting his name wrong.
“Percy.” I automatically corrected. It made sense now. Chiron obviously wanted to talk to me about what had happened with Percy. Maybe he had done something interesting again. This kid sure was going to keep us all on our toes, he hadn’t been awake for more than two hours and he was already causing trouble. “Okay, I’ll go find him. You can take over here.” I suggested much to everyone’s annoyance.
Dionysus hated having to do anything for the campers here, especially when he had to directly interact with them. I secretly thought that it was because when he was around them for long periods of time it became hard to hide his liking of them behind his grouchy facade, but then that was just my opinion. The kids didn’t like it when he took their sessions either, because he was always mean and grumpy and picked at everything they did. I knew it wasn’t a popular decision, but I didn’t have much choice as I didn’t want to leave them alone because some of the kids were quite young and I knew from experience that young kids being left unsupervised with bows and arrows wasn’t a good idea. So as much as they didn’t like the situation, they were all stuck with it.
“You know, I could take the session for you.” Alex suggested, causing a cheer to erupt from the campers.
“Are you sure? You would be okay doing that?” I asked uncertainly. He was really helping me out by offering, it meant that I wouldn’t have to listen to both the kids and Dionysus complain for the rest of the day, like I knew they would if I left my dad in charge.
“Yeah, definitely. I told you before, I actually like the kids here.” He said smiling.
“Really? Why? They’re awful.” I joked, knowing that it would get a reaction out of the eavesdropping kids.
“Hey! I resent that. I’m not awful. You should be grateful that I’m around. And if you don’t take that back, I’m never helping you get ready for one of your dates ever again!” Silena shouted indignantly. I knew that she was probably only joking about never helping me out again as she loved to play dress up with me whenever I came begging for help, but I wasn’t prepared to take that risk. I relied on the Aphrodite girls to help me every time I knew Alex was taking me out somewhere, I didn’t trust myself to do it right on my own.
“I’m sorry!” I cried out dramatically whilst falling to my knees in front of Silena. “Please, don’t forever lock me out of your make up box! Silena, I need you. I didn’t mean what I said. Please take me back.” I pleaded, clutching onto Silena’s knees, trying not to laugh and by the look on her face she too was trying her best to fight off a smile.
“I don’t know if I can forgive you. What you said really hurt me.” She said turning away, stifling her giggle.
“No! Baby please. You know that I need you. You’re the only one I can turn to.” I grovelled.
“Izzy please, I need some space. You only come to me when you want my help. It’s never about me! I feel used.” Silena said, bringing the back of her hand to her forehead.
“But baby you’ve got to understand. I rely on you. Don’t turn your back on me now. I’m begging you.” I said, still crawling in the dirt.
“Okay, I will forgive you. But this is your last chance. If you screw up again, don’t come crawling to me when you want to look pretty because I won’t be there.” Silena said turning back to face me. The grin that had been fighting its way onto my face throughout that whole scene finally broke through.
Two strong arms appeared under my armpits and pulled me to my feet.
“I feel strangely jealous about your proclamation of dependence on somebody else.” Alex admitted, causing me to chuckle.
“Don’t worry weather boy, you’re the only one in my heart.” I said truthfully, pecking him on the cheek.
“Good. And you know you don’t have to get all made up to go on a date with me, right? I think that you’re beautiful just the way you are.” Alex told me, kissing the tip of my nose. I couldn’t help my insides from melting at that comment, even though I felt like we were slowly turning into characters from a sappy romance novel with the way we had been acting today. But strangely I couldn’t bring myself to care that much, I loved all the things he had said to me today, even if the majority of them were cheesy clichés, I loved them. And I loved him for saying them.
“Hey, thanks kid. You’re really saving me here.” Dionysus said coming up and patting Alex on the back.
“It’s no problem, Sir.” Alex grinned as Dionysus walked off.
“You’re sucking up to my dad aren’t you? That’s the reason you’re doing this! You want to get in his good books.” I said, suddenly realising Alex’s ulterior motive.
“No, I’m doing this to help you out. The fact that it earns me a few points from your dad isn’t a bad thing. I mean, come on, it couldn’t hurt to have one of your dads on my side and not wanting to kill me at every opportunity he got.” Alex shrugged, whilst smiling guiltily.
“Ok, well I better go. Good luck. And keep an eye on Greg down the end there, he tends to run out into the range to collect his arrows without really thinking. Oh and Daisy, she hasn’t got the best aim. Somehow last week she managed to shoot at a Pegasus that was flying a little too low. Luckily it only grazed the horse and everyone was ok but you need to watch her.” I called out as I was backing away down the path. I could see Alex’s smile wavering as he took in this information, but he’s a big boy I was sure that he could handle it.
I found Chiron Surprisingly quickly, he was sitting in his office, with Clarisse on the chair in front of him. I was taken aback when I saw her because she was dripping wet. Huh? What had happened here?
“Dionysus said you wanted to see me?” I asked as I walked in to the cabin.
“Yes. Clarisse, you will be on washing up duty tonight for what you did. You may now leave.” The girl scurried away quickly. Probably wanting to get changed into some dry clothes.
“What did she do?” I asked.
“She tried to stick Percy’s head down the toilet.” Chiron muttered whilst rubbing his temples, indicating that he was tired and getting a headache.
“Then why is she the one who is soaking wet?” I was confused, this didn’t make any sense.
“Because somehow Percy managed to make all of the toilets sinks and showers malfunction so that Clarisse and her gang got drenched.” Chiron explained.
“No way! You mean that he’s . . . that means that he really is a child of . . .” I trailed off trying to get my head around this.
“Yes. I believe that it is very likely that Percy is a child of Poseidon, a child of the big three.” Chiron said, completing my thoughts.
“Wow. I know that we were expecting something like this but still . . . it’s just wow. It’s a big deal. What in Styx’s name is going to happen in Olympus now?” I sighed, resting my head on Chiron’s desk.
“That is a very good question Izzy. I guess we are just going to have to wait and see.”