**So, here's another chapter! This one will give you guys a little break from the main plotline, but I think it will still be good. In my opinion, this was one of my better chapters, and it's a bit refreshing since it's in Thalia's POV, though some of you will probably find it kind of corny.
ALSO: THIS CHAPTER WAS WRITTEN BEFORE CALEO WAS A THING. THERE WILL BE A FEW CHAPTERS WITH THR SHIPPING I HAVE HERE BUT THATS ALL. SO DONT FREAK OUT.
Also, I noticed that the main critique I was getting from people were that my chapter were too short. I'm not great at writing super long chapter without them getting boring. I tried to make this one longer, but I realize it's still only four pages. Sorry about that....***
Chapter Ten: I Blow Up a Clock
THALIA'S POV
"We're here!" Thalia called to her fellow hunters as Half-Blood hill came into view. They all quickened their paces in anticipation. Busy with their duties as Artemis's hunters, the girls hadn't been to Camp Half-Blood for a long time.
Thalia grimaced as she passed the pine tree that used to be her lifeline, but continued forward to the destination she had tried to reach so many years ago when she was transformed into that tree. Campers looked up at them curiously, some having probably never seen the hunters before. They entered the cabin reserved for Artemis (although she could never have kids, her hunters stayed in it whenever the visited Camp) and stashed their away after claiming beds.
They didn't really have any reason to visit, but while Artemis was away doing her godly business, Thalia figured it couldn't hurt to visit. Although she didn't live their very long, she had to admit she missed the place once and while.
"Can I help you with anything, Thalia?" a small voice squeaked. Jenny Martin was the newest huntress, a nine-year old daughter of Aphrodite whom the group had saved from an abusive father. The little girl had freckles covering her cheeks and bright red hair pulled neatly into two little braids at the sides of her head. She was cute, but she also got on Thalia's nerves. She was sure Jenny had good intentions, but the young hunter could never seem to leave Thalia's side. Jenny was constantly trying to help Thalia, treating her like royalty just because she was the first lieutenant to Artemis. Thalia sometimes wondered if it was really a good idea to take in Jenny- partly because she was annoying, but mostly because she wasn't sure if a daughter of Aphrodite could go without falling in love.
"You can come with me to talk to Chiron," Thalia sighed.
"Thanks!" she squealed. Then, knitting her eyebrows together, she asked, "Who's Chiron?"
"He's a centaur."
"Oh. Why do we need to talk to him?"
"We need to tell him we're here. I'm guessing he'll want to know, plus he can count us in for capture the flag on Friday."
"What's capture the flag?"
"It's a game. Where you capture a flag."
"How do you play?"
"We're here, Jenny," she announced as they arrived at the Big House, ignoring the little girl's question. "Please let me do the talking, okay?"
"Okay."
"Hey, Chiron!" Thalia called as they walked through the doors to the familiar scene of Dionysus and Chiron playing pinochle with two invisible people.
"Thalia!" he looked up from his deck of cards in surprise. "Are the hunters visiting?"
"Yeah," Thalia replied. "Artemis is off doing work, so we thought we'd take a little break here."
"Would you like to participate in our game of capture the flag tomorrow?"
"That'd be great."
"It's nice to see you again,Thalia," Chiron smiled kindly as the two girls left.
***
That evening, after joining the campers for dinner, the hunters retired to their bunks. They didn't really know what to do, as they were used to spending their whole day busy.
Thalia had an idea, though. It wouldn't involve the other hunters, though. Just her and... someone else.
She knew she shouldn't do it. She knew that she was breaking the oath she had made when she became a hunter, but she did it anyway. She walked along the street until she found the house that she knew her brother and his friends lived at, and knocked on the door.
"Thalia?" Jason's eyes widened as when he saw her standing there.
"Hello, brother." She smirked at his surprised expression.
"Come-come in! I... wasn't expecting you."
Thalia shrugged her shoulders. "I don't need anything fancy."
"Did you eat already?"
"Yeah. But dessert's always nice," she hinted, smirking again.
"No problem. These plates will give you anything you want. Just imagine it. Same with the cups." Jason handed her a plate and glass and she set them down on the dinner table. After slipping off her boots, she pictured a huge slice of red velvet cake loaded with frosting, and, ta-da, it was there.
Jason called up to the others, saying, "We have a guest!" before joining her at the table.
"So," Thalia said, licking frosting off her finger,"What have you been up to?"
"Nothing much. Helping Percy teach sword fighting lessons like usual. Why'd you stop by?"
"Wanted to," Thalia shrugged again.
She turned her eyes towards the stairs, which Frank and Leo were making their way down with Hazel right behind them. Leo was rattling on about some machine he was building, and Frank seemed totally lost.
"I even installed a feature that allows it to be controlled by voice or hand mot-" he stopped mid-sentence when he saw Thalia sitting there, his hands still in the middle of doing some sort of gesture from his explanation. He locked eyes with Thalia, and they sat there staring at each other for a moment too long. "Hi," he said softly. Thalia smiled weakly back at him.
Thankfully, if something was awkward was happening, the others didn't seem to notice.
"Thalia!" Piper cried. The last time that Thalia and the hunters had visited camp (after Demigod City was built and the eight had moved in together), Thalia had become good friends Hazel and Piper. She didn't know Frank very well, though, because she had kept more true to her oath of staying away from boys (with the exception of her brother). She had already known Percy and Leo.
As they all settled around the table chatting, Thalia noticed that something was wrong.
"Where's Annabeth?" she asked quickly. Percy sighed.
"She's..." Percy began.
"...alive," Jason finished.
"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"
"It's a long story," Percy said. "But, basically, she took in the power of a goddess. She's in a coma, not getting any worse or any better. She'll most likely be that way until we find a way to get the power out of her."
Thalia's eyes widened. "She took in the power... of a god?!"
"Yup," Percy replied.
"Will she be okay?"
"I hope so."
"And there's one other thing you should maybe add..." Piper hinted.
"Like?" Thalia raised her eyebrows.
"Like she's pregnant," Percy blurted out.
"Oh my gods! She's pregnant? Okay, this is too much to take in," Thalia exclaimed. First they told her that Annabeth was in a coma with a goddess's powers, next they added, as a side comment, that she was pregnant.
Thalia pretended to be looking at the time, a plan forming quickly in her head. Willing a small bolt of lightning to strike the digital clock from the back, she tried to hide her concentration and hoped with all her might that her friends wouldn't realize what she was doing.
The clock burst, sending sparks flying around.
"Oh!" Piper squealed.
As she Thalia expected, Leo jumped out of his seat to examine the remaining wires and circuits. No doubt he had built the clock himself and wanted to see what had gone wrong. Thalia got up too, pretending to be interested in what happened. As she squinted her eyes at all of the jumbled wires that made absolutely no sense to her, Thalia muttered something to Leo under her breath.
"Meet me by the canoeing area as soon as you can," Thalia suggested the first fairly secluded spot that came to mind. Leo looked up at her, clearly startled.
"Just do it," Thalia said, firmly but quietly so as not to let the others hear.
He nodded his head just enough for her to see and said, rather loudly, "I have no idea what happened here."
"Anybody got a clue what time it is, seeing as though that one decided to blow up?"
Leo glanced down at his watch. "7:03."
"I should get back to the hunters, then. Maybe I'll see you guys tomorrow. Are you gonna play capture the flag with us?"
"Why not?" Jason smirked.
"Adios!" Thalia called as she slipped on her boots and left the house.
She had done it. She had asked him to meet her in a private spot at night, despite the fact that she was breaking a sacred oath by doing it. Thalia wasn't planning for this to turn into a big affair; she just wanted to spend a night with him, and she was guessing that he wouldn't object.
She sat down in a log next to the canoes and gazed out at the lake. It wasn't dark out, but the sun was beginning to set as orange and pink streaked the skies. It was a beautiful sight, but it didn't take her mind off what she was about to do.
Finally she heard leaves crunching behind her as Leo Valdez walked up.
"Thalia?"
"That's me."
"Why... did you ask for me?" He sat down on the lot next to her.
"I just... wanted to see you."
He still looked utterly confused. "I thought you hated me."
"I'm supposed to. But I don't."
"Well, naturally, nobody could hate a guy like me," he smirked.
That's what I loved about Leo. He had a joke for every situation, and somehow he managed to make icy situations less awkward instead of the other way around.
"Don't get too cocky, Valdez."
"Really, though, why'd you want me here?" He turned serious again.
"I wanted to spend time with you."
"As a friend? Or..." He trailed off.
"Not as a friend," she said so softly that it was nearly unintelligible.
Leo's she's widened to the size of meatballs. "But-you're-the hunter thing..."
"Calm down, Valdez. Just don't tell Artemis."
"Are you... really risking all of this just to see me?"
"Pretty much," Thalia decided to be straight with him. She didn't like to sugarcoat things, or use five hundred words for something that took a sentence to say.
"I'm better looking than I thought," he put on his trademark smirk to look casual, but Thalia could see the excitement in his eyes. She grinned. "Um, one question though," Leo said.
"Yeah?"
"How come you treated me like pond scum the last two times you saw me?"
Thalia sighed. She knew this question would come. "Well, you know, the hunter thing..."
"What, you're not a hunter anymore?" He questioned, almost hopefully.
"Oh, I'm still a hunter. And yeah, I'm breaking my sacred oath thingy. But Artemis doesn't have to know."
Leo stared at her in amazement and shook his head slowly. "You're even braver than I thought. Why do you suddenly like me now, though?"
"I always liked you, Leo, from when I first met you. Just not enough to risk... not enough to betray Artemis. I did my best to stay away from you when we met last time, and I succeeded pretty well. But I thought about it, and... I just wanted to see you. Even if it's just this one night."
"I hope it's not," Leo smirked again, lightening the mood.
"Me too," Thalia agreed.
And they sat there talking like they were old friends. Thalia explained all about her duties as a hunter of Artemis, told some of her more exciting adventures and filled him in on the hunters and the newest addition, Jenny. Leo told her all about his machines, the high-tech features of his newest ones, and what was happening with the other seven. He relayed Percy's whole story of how him and Annabeth visited Mount Olympus and Annabeth ended up with a goddesses's power.
As they sat there laughing, Thalia felt more peaceful and alive than she ever had. Her reason for becoming a hunter was to find peace, a place to fit in, but she realized sadly that she could have gotten that if she had just found a guy that she could trust and be herself with, someone that she knew wouldn't betray her or turn his back on her, someone that could always brighten her mood. Someone like Leo.
After sitting in silence for a few moments, just staring out at the darkening lake, Leo sighed and said, "I better get going. I told the others that I was helping out a Hephaestus kid with some machine he was making."
Thalia didn't want to go back and face the other hunters, who would want to know what she'd been doing, and leave Leo. She wished she could just sit here by the peaceful lake with Leo, not needing to worry about Artemis's wrath or her sacred oath.
"One thing first," Thalia said with a smirk.
"Hmm?" Leo asked.
Thalia leaned towards Leo and gave him a little peck on the lips. His eyes widened again and a giddy grin took over his face.
"See you tomorrow, Thalia," he said happily as he got up off the log they were sitting on. As he was walking away, Thalia thought of one more thing.
"Oh, and Leo?" she called.
"Yeah?"
"D'you think Hephaestus could team up with Artemis for capture the flag?"
She could just make out him grinning in the coming darkness. "Sure thing," he called before he disappeared into the shadows.
***
Thalia told the other hunters that she had just been visiting her friends, Piper and Hazel, daughters of Aphrodite and Hades. She lied smoothly, and they had no reason not to believe her, so at least that part went quite smoothly.
She told them that another friend from the Hephaestus cabin had agreed to make an alliance with them. This gave them a good advantage, as the Hephaestus kids always had the best, most modern weapons with everything from voice control to laser shooters.
***
After breakfast with the campers on Friday morning, the hunters decided to help out by teaching archery lessons for the day. With their bows in their hands and quivers of arrows slung over their backs, the girls headed down to the archery range. Thalia shuddered at the skill of some of the campers; there were small kids with huge bows, arrows flying way above or to the sides of the targets and lots of bad posture. Only some kids, whom she assumed were children of Apollo, were doing well.
Thalia knew she was being picky, but, having one of the best, or possibly the best, archer in the world teaching her lessons, those things bothered her. She could see some of the other older hunters shuddering as a girl shot an arrow way off into the tree.
By the time they all took a break for lunch, Thalia was ready to be done. Although the hunters tired much slower physically, she was getting pretty annoyed with all of the hopeless kids she was attempting to teach. Thalia couldn't help but wonder if she had been that bad before she had been granted her magical archery skills as a hunter of Artemis.
A surprise soon came, however, when she grudgingly marched back to the archery range with her fellow hunters. At first it went the same as before, with Thalia helping camper after camper get the correct position, aim, etc, but without a whole lot of luck.
A familiar mop of dark, curly hair instantly took her attention away from the Aphrodite girl she was trying to teach. She called to one of the other hunters to take over the girl while she sauntered over to Leo.
"Hey," she greeted casually.
"I came for some archery lessons," he said, his eyes twinkling with amusement.
"Sure you did. Grab a bow and come over here," Thalia motioned towards the huge rack of bows and arrows that they had brought over to the archery range from the armory when none of the kids had a bow that actually fit them.
"I'm just warning you," Leo said as he came over with a bow that would actually work, "I suck at archery."
"You won't when I'm done with you."
"Yeah, right," he smirked, set the arrow in its place and pulled back the string. When he let go, the arrow soared right over the top of the target and landed in the grass behind it.
With her heart beating quickly, Thalia stood close behind Leo and positioned him in the right form. She put her hands on his to put his hands in the right places, but she froze. He looked back at her and, for a moment, it was just them in the world.
If it had been a romance novel, Thalia figured that they would have closed their eyes, leaned in, and enjoyed the kiss of their lifetimes. She wanted to kiss him, but she couldn't; not here, not now, in front of her fellow hunters that would surely rat her out to Artemis as soon as they reunited with the goddess.
So she snapped herself out of the trance and began to teach him how to do what she did best-archery.
***So, how'd you like it? Tell your opinion on Thalia and Leo. Also, what do you think I should make their couple name (like how Percy and Annabeth are Percabeth)? I had thought of Lalia (though I"m not a huge fan of that one, Thaleo or Thalio (those two would be the same, just different spellings). Which one do you like best? Or have you got another suggestion?
Comment your thoughts on this and the rest of the chapter below and don't forget to vote if you like it!
Lastly, I wanna thank all of you guys. This is honestly super spectacularily amazing for me that this book has over 2,000 reads and 100 votes. No book on my other account has gotten anywhere near this popularity, and I've posted quite a few. So maybe you could those out? It's @cheruchan262 (you may see me replying to your comments under this account too.)
Yeah, so that was my lame attempt at advertising. Look at them if you want, but, well, don't if you don't want to. Idk. I think I'm just trying to make this longer so it's more pages... sorry about that.
-evelyn***