Merrily POV
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I return to camp after saying goodbye to Leo and Nico. Gods, I can't quit thinking about either of them. They're both so different.
Anyway, it's time for my art class. I really enjoy art class because it gives me the opportunity to draw and paint. I can do people really well, but I prefer drawing battle scenes and architecture. I sit down and open my bag to get my colored pencils. I pull them out to reveal a roll of thick, drawing paper tied with a gray ribbon. I unroll it.
I gasp. The picture is beautiful. It's of me, in front of a beautiful wood with a giant half-moon illuminating the scene. I look all over for a name, but I find none. What I do find is a thin strand of black hair. Maybe I'll ask a Hermes child who it belongs to. I heard from Annabeth that they are great at tracking people. Suddenly, a voice snaps me out of my reverie.
"Hey, can I sit here?" I look up to see a girl about my age standing in front of me. She has an adorable, slightly upturned nose with lovely dark eyebrows that perfectly accent her dark almond-shaped eyes. Her deep brown hair is pulled up into a tight bun.
"Uh, sure," I reply. "What's your name?"
"Abigail Feathers, daughter of Aphrodite," she replies. "What's your name?"
"Merrily Evans, daughter of-"
"Athena!" Abigail cuts me off. "I remember you! You were that girl who had blood all over! Yeah, Drew got inspired big time and she's coming out with blood-related clothing!"
I can't really think of a reply, so I smile and nod and go to pull out my colored pencils. Only, they're not there. I look again and realize my picture is gone too.
"Who took my stuff?" I ask aloud.
"Probably Chey and/or Ryan," Abigail frowns.
"Who are they?" I ask. Abigail points me to two desks. The desk behind me has a boy with windswept medium brown hair, dark, short eyebrows and poop colored eyes. To my left, a girl with bushy black hair held back with a rainbow-colored headband, chocolate skin, deep, mischievous looking eyes, and thick eyebrows."Did you guys steal my stuff?" I demand.
"Does it look like I have anything of yours?" the girl, who I guess is Chey, replies evenly.
"Okay, but Ryan has my pencils," I point out.
"You can't prove it," the boy, Ryan says, jutting his chin out.
I frown. "My name is on the box." Ryan scowls and hands me my pencils back.
"Jeez, you're a terrible thief," Chey says to Ryan, grinning. Ryan sticks his tongue out at her.
"Now, my picture please," I say, holding my hand out to Chey. She groans and hands me my stuff back. "Wait, are you two children of Hermes?"
"Yep," Ryan grins. "Ryan James, son of Hermes."
"Cheyenne Brown, daughter of Hermes," Chey smiles. "But you can call me Chey."
"Hey, could one of you tell me who this belongs to?" I ask, holding out the strand of hair.
Chey plucks it out of my hand. "Hmmm, probably, but how much will you pay me?"
"Pay you?" I ask incredulously. "Why?"
"If you want Ryan and I to do this, you'll have to pay a small fee of ten drachmas," she grins mischievously.
"No way!" I shout. "I'm not paying you!"
"You already did," Ryan smiles. Chey tosses him five drachmas and then hands me my wallet back. "Now we should have the results in about a week. See you then!" I simply shake my head and turn to my sketchbook. I grab a pencil and begin sketching, letting my hand draw whatever it wanted.
At the end of the hour, I finally let my eyes really focus on my drawing. It was a picture of Nico and Leo standing back to back. I hadn't colored it in yet, so it was just gray, but in my opinion, it made the picture look far more majestic.
Chey and Abigail lean over simultaneously to peer at the image.
"Dude, that is cool," Chey grins at me.
Abigail eagerly nods in agreement. "Is that Nico and Leo?" she asks me. When I nod, she squeals. "Oh my gosh, like half of the Aphrodite cabin put ya'll in a love triangle!"
"Oh. My. Gosh!" Chey mimics. "Nobody cares!" Ryan laughs behind her and she shoots him a half annoyed, half amused look. Abigail glares at her, and Chey glares right back. I sense a fight about to ensue.
"Listen, guys, it's nothing," I smile nervously. "Let's all go to the lake, huh?"
"Nah, that's fine," Chey shrugs. "Besides, Ryan and I have a few jobs to do."
I narrow my eyes. "What do these jobs involve?"
Chey hesitates. "Nice try, but we've been sworn to secrecy."
"Yeah, the Stoll brothers asked for our help with a few things," Ryan explains. "And unfortunately, we'll probably get kitchen duty if we tell. Bye!" Ryan and Chey slip out of the door silently, which kind of creeps me out. If they decided to sneak into our cabin, we probably wouldn't hear them.
Abigail and I step outside and head down to the beach. It's a bright, sunny day when I hear Will scream at the top of his lungs.
"Will?" I call, rushing into the infirmary. "What is it?"
Will runs his hands through his golden blonde hair. "Nico!" he cries agitated. "He left! He didn't say goodbye and he's injured!"
"Listen, Will," I say placatingly. "He looked fine when he left this afternoon. I'm sure he's fine. Right, Abigail?"
"Yeah," Abigail agrees. "Nico will be fine." I can tell there's a bit of charmspeak in her words (Piper taught me what that was) because Will hesitates.
"Well, I suppose," he murmurs. Suddenly, an Iris message pops up in the corner.
"Yo, Will!" It's Nico.
"Nico!" Will shouts angrily. "Where are you?"
"On my way to Seattle," Nico replies evenly. "I'll be living okay, and don't worry, I'm fine. How're things back there?"
"Good," I say, cutting Will's lecture off. "Quick question. What do you know about Cheyenne Brown and Ryan James?"
Nico grimaced. "Those two are on track to be the next Stoll brothers," he explains. "Cheyenne's okay, she likes to steal people's wallets a lot. She's more of a petty thief, but she's good at it. Ryan's the one you've got to look out for. There's rumors that he likes to get high on ambrosia and nectar. And occasionally Kool-Aid. Don't ask me why Jason decided to introduce him to Dakota."
I process the information while Will talks to Nico and Abigail checks her reflection in the mirror. Suddenly, I hear screams from the Ares cabin. Will and I say a hasty goodbye to Nico and rush out of the door to see what the matter was.
I stop and stare. The Ares cabin looks like a mini replica of the Aphrodite cabin. All of the weapons had either been broken, stolen or blunted. The Ares campers themselves were covered in an array of silly string, neon paint, and icing. To my left, I could have sworn I heard snickering, but I wasn't sure.
"Stolls!" Clarisse shouted. "I know you did this!"
"Listen Clarisse," Travis says. "I swear we didn't pull this one." From the sheer look of surprise on his face when he'd gotten to the scene of the crime was enough for me to belive him.
"Who do you think did it?" Abigail whispers to me.
"I have a pretty good idea," I mutter wryly. After the crowd around the Ares cabin had dispersed, I tug Abigail and the Stoll brothers to the bush where I heard the snickers. However, when I pulled the branches back, there was nothing there. "Connor, Travis, how good are you at tracking people?"
Connor shrugs. "Pretty good," he replies. "Why?"
"Can you tell me where Cheyenne Brown and Ryan James are? I believe they are your siblings?" Travis and Connor nod and begin poking around the bush. After a few minutes, they seem to find something that I can't see and they hurry down to the training arena. There we find Chey whacking at a dummy with a long part steel, part Celestial Bronze sword. Connor gasps.
"That's Luke's old weapon!" he whispers.
"Who's Luke?" I ask.
"A Hermes child that went bad a while ago," Travis explains. "That sword can harm both mortals and monsters alike."
"Why would she have it?" Abigail asks aloud.
"No idea," Connor replies nervously. "C'mon, let's go talk to her." We approach the daughter of Hermes from behind. I tap her gently on the shoulder.
"GAHH!" she yells, swiping at my head. I duck and the weapon slices through thin air. "Oh sorry," she says apologetically. "Don't sneak up on me like that."
"It's fine," I say in a small voice. "Anyway, I have a question for you. Did you prank the Ares cabin?"
"No," Chey replies. "I don't have a death warrant. Ask Ryan."
"One more," I say. "Why do you have that weapon?"
"No idea," Chey says. "I know it can harm mortals, but that can be useful, you never know. Why?"
"That weapon belonged to Luke Castellan," Travis interjects.
Chey pales. "Oh. Well, this is the one I like," she frowns, getting on the defensive. Connor and Travis back away.
"All right then," I say. "I'll leave you to it then." After that day, Abigail, Chey and I became good friends. The summer moved by quickly. We never did figure out who pranked the Ares cabin, but that was okay. For the next few weeks, I was able to forget about Leo and Nico and just have a good time. New demigods showed up from all over the country, but we never actually got to see anybody.
Some new developments included that Ryan got a girlfriend, Brianna Aadmot from the Nike cabin. Chey started dating Josh Taltan and Abigail managed to stay single. I spent most of my time with her and her OTP's changed every ten minutes so that I was constantly asking, 'Who've you shipped me with now?' Whenever Chey was with us, every five minutes I was requesting my wallet back and Abigail usually had some shoes or makeup that mysteriously went missing and then randomly appeared on the Things for Sale bulletin that Connor and Travis had come up with.
Chiron had to deal with an outbreak of drugs. Chey told us that most of the stash was coming from Ryan's deal with David Geltz. However, she had sworn us to secrecy, assuring us that she had it under control and was planting little hints as to where the source was.
As for the picture, Chey and Ryan had gone digging and found that the hair belonged to none other than Nico di Angelo. Ryan questioned why I had a strand of his hair, but I kept on avoiding his questions like the plague.
Now, it was finally the end of the summer. I had signed up to stay through winter and so had Chey and Abigail. Anyway, the three of us are sauntering through the forest when we heard the sounds of laughter. Rushing towards the sound, we come upon Percy, Piper, Annabeth, David, Leo, and Nico and some others.
"Guys?" Abigail says, surprised. "You're back!"
"You're back?" Chey asks dejectedly.
"You're back?" I ask, surprised.
"We're back," Percy grins. Abigail drags us back to the camp where everyone practically dogpiles Percy, Piper, Annabeth, and David. I notice that Leo and Nico are standing slightly off to the side. Then I do a double take.
Leo and Nico have shot up a few inches and gotten broader. All in all...
"Nico and Leo got hot," Chey comments offhandedly.
Abigail giggles. "Total game changer! But honestly Merrily, you've changed a lot too."
Chey nods. "I agree with Abigail. You might not have gotten taller, but your features have sharpened." I have no idea what they're talking about me having changed, but they're totally right about Nico and Leo.
"C'mon," I say. "Let's go say hi!" I rush up to both Nico and Leo and bring both of them into a giant group hug with Chey and Abigail. Both of the boys hug me back and practically smother me. "Can't! Breathe!" I gasp.
"Sorry," Nico grins embarrassedly.
"So?" I demand of them. "How are you?"
"Pretty good, I guess," Leo answers. "Who're they?" he asks, gesturing to Chey and Abigail.
"Oh, this is Chey Brown and Abigail Feathers," I say, gesturing to my friends. I can tell, both boys' faces fall. I'm not sure what's that's all about, but I'll find out later. I wave goodbye to Chey and Abigail and take Nico and Leo down to the beach. "So," I say after we sit down. "How was your summer?"
"Pretty eventful," Nico says, tilting his head. "Fought some monsters, saved some demigods, regular life."
"Yep," Leo smiles, but it's pained. "I ran into some old friends down in Texas." I notice his already faint Southern accent has gotten much stronger.
"Who?" I inquire.
Leo scratches the back of his head. "Uh, it's nothing." For once, Leo isn't wearing suspenders. It was a pretty chilly day, for mid-August. Instead, he's wearing a long sleeved red shirt, jeans, and red Nikes. He looks... normal. Which is not normal at all.
Nico, on the other hand, is the really not normal one. He's wearing a long-sleeved, blue shirt, black jeans, and white converse. Just.... what? I don't comment on his clothing and decide to wait and ask the opinions of my very wise and non-currently-hiding-in-a-bush-two-feet-away friends.
After Nico and Leo leave, I turn to the bush. "Chey," I call. "Abigail. You can come out now."
Abigail bursts out of the bush. "Ohmygoodness!" she squeals. "I can't decide! #Meo or #Nerrily? What do you guys think?" Abigail turns to startled, but excited looking Chey and Brianna.
"Team Nerrily all the way!" Chey exclaims indignatly. "I'll make T-shirts!"
"No way!" Brianna protests. "Meo!"
"Nerrily!"
"Meo!"
"Nerrily!"
"Meo!"
"Nerri-"
"STOP!" I shout. "Nobody's shipping anyone with anyone. And I might have something to confess."
"What?" Abigail gushes.
"I kissed Leo at the beginning of summer." And the camp exploded. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but not much. Abigail starts squealing and jumping up and down. Chey starts begging me for details and Brianna just gapes at me. "Listen, we haven't really talked since," I mutter.
"What?" Chey yells. "Go talk to him! Actually go kiss Nico. I'll bet he's much better than Leo is."
"No way," Brianna counters. "I'm pretty sure Leo is a much better kisser than Nico."
"Leo!"
"Nico!"
"Leo!"
"Ahh I can't decide!" Abigail squeals.
"Leo!"
"Nico!"
"Can't decide!"
"Leo!"
"Guys, it's getting late, let's discuss this more tomorrow." Everyone reluctantly nods and returns to their cabins. I toss and turn in my bed, thinking. When did my life get so complicated?
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What did you think? I thought it was good, but if you guys could give me some feedback? Anyway, again, not too depressing, although what caused the clothing change, hem, hem?
Please vote and comment!