I threw the football to Connor.
"It's been a while since I've seen you, man. What's up?"
He threw it back to me. "Nothing much. You?"
As the ball entered my hands I grinned at the thought of a memory.
"You and Skylar Parker are getting pretty close," I pointed out.
A small smirk formed on the youngest Stoll brother's face. "Oh yeah? Is that what you've noticed?"
I thought of the time when I had caught the two lovebirds kissing the the Big House basement.
"I mean, what I've seen could be wrong," I laughed, throwing the ball at him.
"Oh?" he questioned, "And what have you seen?"
"Oh nothing, nothing really. Hey, did you know they redid the Big House basement? Yeah, it looks really cozy."
The guy's eyes widened in shock and embarrassment.
"You saw that?"
I caught the ball and joked, "Saw what?"
"It wasn't what it looked like," he tried to reason.
I put a hand up to sheild the sun from my eyes. "You guys are together."
He gave a small sigh after catching the ball. "Yeah."
I gave him a teasing grin. "Cute."
"Shut up."
"So tell me," I started, pushing my luck, "what is it that you two do for dates? I mean, we're confined by the camp walls."
Connor grinned and threw the ball back to me. "Who says we have to stay in camp?"
I laughed. "Like you've left camp. You're good, but I don't think you're that good."
A wicked smirk grew on his face and I knew I was in trouble.
"You wanna leave camp tonight?" he asked deviously.
I thought about it. He was probably bluffing.
I mean, I had heard rumors that two campers had left camp boundaries, but I doubted it.
"Sure," I shrugged. "Let's do it. What could go wrong?"
---------------------------
Saying that I wasn't nervous to see what Connor had in store was a lie. There was always the possibility that he was lying about being able to leave camp and instead planned on pranking me.
Then there was the factor of actually leaving the camp. What kind of trouble could we get in for doing that?
I could go on and explain the unexciting and rather empty build up to the moment when I left my cabin, but I'll spare you the details.
I'm not very good with words anyways.
Basically, I was expecting us to go at night, but Connor came tapping on the cabin door after lunch.
"You ready? Let's go."
I stepped out and looked around to see if anyone was watching us. Nobody was around.
"You know, I probably shouldn't be showing you this. The last time I left, my girlfriend lost a leg."
I put my hands in my pocket and followed him towards the forest.
"Yeah, has she tried the prosthetic I made?" I asked.
Connor looked to me. "You made that?"
"Impressed?"
"Yeah, it's great."
"So she's wearing it?"
He gave a hesitant reply. "Skylar is very...determined? She's trying to get herself to live normally with one leg. Once she proves that she can, she's up for a prosthetic."
I nodded. "That's cool. Does she know we're leaving camp?"
Connor gave a small smile. "Yeah. She told me to come back with two legs or don't come back at all."
"Let's come back with our legs."
A grin grew on his face.
"So," I said. "How many people have left camp?"
"Me, Travis, and Sky."
I raised an eyebrow. "Chiron doesn't care?"
He frowned. "Chiron doesn't pay attention to me. The old horse probably doesn't even know my name."
"Me neither," I told him honestly. "I'm just the guy who builds things for him."
"Whatever, man. He won't catch us. You got money?"
I felt my pant pockets. I'd thought I did but it was all gone.
"Give it back," I told the Stoll brother.
He laughed and handed me my money. "You gotta look out."
"Yeah," I laughed. "It's been a while since we've hung out."
---------------------------
"Now that I think of it, I don't know if this was such a good idea," Connor said blantantly.
I looked to him and away from all of the stores around us. His eyes were fixed on something ahead.
By now, darkness was settling in and we were headed back to camp.
I turned my head to the object of Connor's attention to find a girl running our way.
Now, she was only running, but anyone could feel that something was wrong at that moment.
Connor and I froze as we watched her come towards us. Two tall figures came into view, chasing behind the girl.
She must have seen us because once she was about half a block away, she started screaming, "Help! Please! They're coming!"
Panic settled in me and my brain went blank.
"C'mon, man!" Connor nudged me as he started towards the girl.
I shook my head a little and started running towards her.
"No!" she screamed, "Run away!"
The closer I got to the girl the more focus I received.
This was a human, she needed help, I was a demigod, I could help.
Once we were about twenty feet away from her Connor told me, "Take her somewhere else. I have my sword."
Without replying, I stuck my arms out to the girl, motioning for her to follow me.
She caught up to me in no time.
"We can't leave him. That guy is going to get hurt," she told me.
"It's alright. He can take it," I assured her.
"No," she said stubbornly, her pace started to slow down. "We have to help him."
"He'll be fine," I assured, slowing down to match her step.
Then she completely stopped. "I'm going back there."
I came to a stop and laughed. "No way. C'mon, we need to--" but she was already running towards Connor.
I gave a little huff before chasing after her.
Connor was standing in the middle of the street facing two ghost-looking people.
The girl was running up behind him.
I figured this little meet up wouldn't end well, so I took out my wallet and flipped it open to reveal my sword.
It had been a few months since I'd been in an actual fight, so I didn't know how this would end.
I came up to the girl and told her, "Stay back, alright?"
Her eyes got wide at whatever she saw in my hand. "How can I help?" she asked, distractedly.
"Please, just stay back," I told her while Connor was distracting the ghost things.
She only replied with a hard look. I didn't want to argue with her so I turned around and stepped up to the monsters.
"...saying, you guys reek," Connor was explaining to the ghosts.
Both of the weird looking monsters turned to me.
"Half-bloods," one whispered.
I looked cautiously over at Connor.
"Listen," he started to say, "leave this girl alone, she isn't one of us."
The two ghosts moved closer us. I readied my sword.
"She knows where he is. You know where he is," the two whispered in unison.
Connor's eyebrows rose like something big had just happened.
"We don't know who you're talking about," I told the two monsters.
Both of their heads whipped to me. I gulped as the taller ghost started gliding towards me.
"Son of Hephaestus," it hissed, "use your brain."
For some odd reason, the insult gave me confidence. I stood up straighter and looked it in the...well where its eyes would be - if it had any.
"Hey!" a voice yelled from behind me. The call got everyone's attention.
The girl. The human girl started hurling rocks at the ghost things. I stopped worrying about the monsters for a few moments to sigh and look at her in disbelief.
She kept throwing these chunks of cement at the two figures - I mean, she nailed them every time, but what are rocks going to do to monsters?
I took a breath and stepped towards her. "Hey," I said, but she kept throwing things. "Hey!" I tried again. She distractedly looked to me.
"Stop."
I watched her eyes travel to whatever was behind me. "Run!" she yelled.
I frowned and whirled around. One of the ghost things was holding a hand out, like it was coming to choke me. I pulled my sword up to make a swipe through the figure. It recoiled and hissed at me.
"Let's go," I mumbled, readying my sword.
All of a sudden the airy image flickered into the shape of a horse, then back to human.
What the heck was this thing? I couldn't remember learning about it.
"What should I do?!" the girl's voice called from behind me.
I groaned and yelled back, "Don't do anything!"
Connor was ahead of me, fighting the other ghost. He seemed to be winning so I turned back to my own fight.
"Alright," I whispered. "Let's get this over with."
It was probably the easiest fight I had ever been in. I took a step forward and two big slashes with my sword, then Poof! The ghost thing was gone.
I looked over to Connor, he was looking at me with a dumb face.
"Where'd they go?" he called.
I shrugged and looked to the girl to make sure she was okay.
Surprise wasn't what hit me when I found her hunched over, picking up more chunks of cement. I couldn't help but laugh before walking over, to congratulate her on saving the day.
"Hey," I greeted, stepping next to her. "You can stop. They're gone now."
She gave a sigh and fell onto her butt with a small smirk. "It was all me," she joked. "Had it totally under control."
A grin started to form on my face as I stuck my hand out to her. She took it with an embarrassed little look.
I laughed as she stood. "Seriously, the rocks totally phased them."
"Yeah, yeah," she complained, brushing the dirt off of her legs.
I looked up to Connor striding over to us.
He nodded to the girl. "Are you okay?"
She gave herself a onceover before replying, "Yep." A frown grew on her face. "Who were those guys? And where did your nunchucks come from?"
Connor raised an eyebrow and looked to his whip. "I um..."
The Mist was so weird. Sometimes it was too hard to try and sort out what people see and what they don't.
"He constantly carries them with him," I cut in. "Doesn't leave home without 'em."
She gave Connor a funny but appreciative look. "Weird."
He ran a hand through his hair and sighed, "Yeah. Anyways, what did those guys want?"
The girl shrugged and started pulling her brown hair back into a ponytail. "I think they had me confused for someone else. They kept asking me where some guy named Luke was. I'm pretty sure I don't know anyone named Luke."
Luke? The only Luke that two monsters would know would be the Luke from the Titan War and he was dead. The thought of him still being alive gave me chills.
Connor must have been thinking the same thing because the kid's face went completely white.
"Did they say anything else? A last name? What he looked like?"
The girl started rubbing her arms slowly. "Uh, maybe a last name? Constellation, Costello, Caleo...something like that."
"Castellan?" I blurted.
Her eyes lit up and she snapped her fingers. "That's it. You know him?"
Connor looked at me with terrified eyes. Obviously something else was going on, because Luke was dead - I didn't see what the big deal was with these ghosts trying to find him.
"This is bad," Connor muttered, his eyes flicking around. He turned to me and whispered, "We need to get her safe. We need to get her to camp."
"Dude, chill. Luke won't be around anytime soon."
"No, that's the thing. We--"
"Did you guys say camp?"
Both of us whirled to her. We didn't say anything.
"My step-brother goes to a summer camp around here," she mentioned.
I raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah," she continued, with wide eyes. "He's kind of special."
What was she getting at? Was her brother a demigod?
"Oh yeah?" I played. "What's his name?"
"Austin Brown. You know him?"
Holy Hades, he was a child of Apollo!
"Yeah!" I blurted. "I do!"
She gave a huge sigh. "Holy cow, you guys are demigods."
Connor and I looked at each other. Do we admit it?
"Are you?" was how I responded.
She shook her head. "Nah, I'm a hundred percent human...unfortunately."
I gave a bitter laugh. She had no idea how badly I wanted to be human.
"By the way," the girl stuck her hand out to me. "I'm Natalie."
"Jake," I told her, shaking her hand. She turned to Connor and did the same.
"Connor," he told her.
"Well," Natalie summed, stepping back, "Jake and Connor, we have a lot to talk about." She looked around. "Maybe we should get out of the middle of the street."