Something isn't right.
The sun is high in the sky, lighting up the entire island I appear to be looking at. There are tons of trees everywhere with a nearby garden and a small house. Everything looks really organized, but in a messy and familiar way.
A girl in jeans comes running out of the small house. She looks really angry, like steam could be coming out of her ears. Wait, steam is coming out from somewhere.
Leo Valdez comes running out of the house, drenched in water. "I had it under control!"
"No, you did not," she shoots back, "that's why you are all wet!"
They continue to bicker back and forth, jumbling over each other's words. The fighting doesn't end right away. It becomes a little dance with Leo taking a step forward and the girl taking a step back, but when the girl takes a step forward, Leo doesn't move. Eventually, they become face to face with each other. It is complete silence as they stare at one another.
In the blink of an eye, the two teenagers are kissing.
In the middle of that mess, I wake up gagging and feeling very gross. I don't know what the hell I just watched, but it gave me a very uneasy feeling. That was Leo Valdez. He died. Hazel and I felt him die. End of the story.
I gag again thinking about Leo making out with some random girl, so I decide that my best bet right now is to take a shower. This would not only help me get rid of that image in my bed, but give me time to think before getting my schedule from Chiron. I'm supposed to start my new routine as a Camp Half-Blood camper and counselor of cabin thirteen. The only camper of cabin thirteen.
There's not a lot of people at breakfast when I arrive, which in my opinion is good. It gives less people to stare at me. Chiron comes by to my table to hand me my week of camp activities I would be doing. I try to smile nicely at him, but it turns into a scowl as soon as he leaves.
"Sunshine, why so mad this early in the morning?" Will says, plopping down on the other side of the table with a cup of coffee in his hand. I would say I'm surprised, but I'm really not.
"Because it is early and the morning," I reply with another scowl. Will's head turns in confusion like a puppy, an adorable puppy. Did I just compare Will to an adorable puppy? Oh Gods, I did. "That and I had an uncomfortable dream."
"Do you want to talk about it? That usually helps me and my siblings when something weird happens."
"No."
Will shrugs his shoulders, obviously not going to pressure me to say anything, thankfully. If I was talking to Percy or Annabeth on the other hand, they would do anything to make me talk about my dreams and nightmares. Just because the three of us have been to Tartarus and back does not mean we have to share everything about each other!
"Nico," Will shakes his hand in front of my face. I look up at him very confused. "You zoned out on me, want to try this flavor of coffee? It's not like the other two, I swear."
The mug is placed in front of me. It is the same mug he used last time, but the liquid definitely smelled different compared to French vanilla and hazelnut. I bring the cup up to my mouth, taking some of it into my mouth, then deciding to spit it out into the grass beside me.
"Damn, I really thought you would like caramel swirl. Thanks for not spitting it back into my mug." Will sends me a pleasing smile as he takes the coffee back from my side of the table. I'm wiping my mouth on the sleeve of my jacket on the other hand. "So, what are you planning on doing today?"
I shrug my shoulders. "Whatever is on my schedule that Chiron gave me. I-I've never done this before, so it is something that I should start getting used to for the rest of my life."
"Don't say that," Will says, "you aren't going to stay here forever. You, Nico di Angelo, are going to do so many great things in your life."
My face turns pink at his comment. Why does Will have to be so optimistic? It is getting so much harder to hate him.
Will quickly leaves after our conversation, telling me that he has to get started on his own activities with his cabin. My own schedule doesn't say much for my first activity: strawberry picking. It says that I can start it whenever I feel like it and it ends at eleven thirty.
Even better, I'm doing this with the Hypnos kids.
Even better, most of the kids at Camp Half-Blood have gone home for the school year, leaving even less people at camp. I would leave too, but I'm basically an orphan.
On the bright side, I get to sleep in as long as I like as long as I do some strawberry picking before lunch time. This is the best things the camp has ever done for me.
At the strawberry fields, Hypnos kids are already looking for the red fruit in the fields. I follow their lead, grabbing a small basket and going off by myself to pick some strawberries. No one even tries to bother me during this quiet this activity. Am I actually having fun? I think I am.
Before I know it, it is lunch time. On my way down to the dining pavilion, Percy and Jason are already sitting at my table waiting for me.
"Nico!" Percy shouts with his obnoxious voice.
I give him a timid smile as I sit down. Percy starts right away talking about his morning with Jason. The two of them challenged each other to a race on the obstacle course with the lava wall, resulting in a trip to the infirmary.
"So, what about you?" Jason asks, placing his hand over Percy's mouth to get him to stop talking. "What have you been up too?"
"Strawberry picking," I say quietly.
Percy rips away Jason's hand. "No way, that is so cute!"
"Shut it, Bone Head," I snap.
Thankfully, Jason and Percy stop asking me annoying questions. We talk about other things like Jason's new shirt he tie dyed and Percy's messy cabin. Clearly, he hasn't cleaned it in a couple of days and Annabeth isn't going to hesitate to make him clean the Pegasus Stables.
Somehow, my schedule goes from a peaceful strawberry picking to shooting arrows with the Apollo and Dionysus cabins. This could possibly be the worst idea ever.
The son of Hades doesn't shoot arrows. The son of Hades uses his Stygian iron sword and raises the dead. What am I to do with a bow and arrow?
At the beginning of the activity, I try to stay out of everyone's way and sit off to the side. Then, some stupid Apollo camper came over to me and told me I had to try shooting an arrow at the bullseye.
I get up from the ground and make my way towards the archery range. It doesn't take long for some of the campers to make a clear passage in front of the boundary line, knowing I'm heading straight towards them. I take a deep breath and pull back on the bow with the arrow in place. In a split second, the arrow goes flying right into the ground.
Anger quickly washes over my face. It doesn't take long for me to take the bow in my hand and snap the plastic in half. A frustrated scream escapes my mouth as I throw the broken bow to the ground. I don't need to know that all of the Apollo and Dionysus campers are all staring at me and my sudden outbreak. I don't even need to know that they are watching me stomp all the way to my cabin and slamming the door closed.
My cabin is nice, but I still can't believe someone thought put coffins in here as bed. Nobody except for a dead person, which I am not dead, would like to sleep in there. I could care less about laying in a coffin at the moment. I'm tired and irritated with everything at the moment.
Someone knocks very loudly at the door to my cabin. I try to ignore it, but it is quickly followed by my name being shouted out of his mouth. "Nico!"
"Go away!" I shout back.
The door opens anyways, much to my disapproval. I watch Will Solace walk to my bed and stare down at my face. Unlike my hard glare, Will is smiling with his eyes wide and teeth shining, which is strange for being in such a dark cabin.
"I wanted to come check on you after that whole outburst." Will continues to smile, "So, how are you doing?"
I roll my eyes at him, rolling over in my coffin bed to face the wall. "I'm doing just fine, I'm just tired."
Will is silent for a second, but he takes the time to sit on the edge of the bed I'm laying on. "I'm tired as well. Probably for a different reason, but if I'm going to be honest with you, I've tried to get out of archery practice so many times. Chiron says that everyone needs to learn blah blah blah, but as Apollo's son who only knows how to be a medic and a musician, archery is kind of pointless."
"Archery is gross," I sigh, turning over to look at Will. "Maybe I can request more times to take a nap during the day."
"You didn't hear it from me, but if you fake an illness while I'm working in the infirmary, I'll let you take a nap in my office." Will says looking away from me. From what I can tell, Will is blushing, but it could be a glare from the angle I'm laying at.
I sit up in the bed, "Can I use the my blanket that you wouldn't let me take?"
He looks back at me with a goofy grin on his face. "That's why I kept the blanket, in case you injured yourself again, or in this instance, a desperate need of a nap."
"Thank you," I say shyly, laying back in the bed and facing the wall again.
"Would you like to come to the infirmary now? I'm heading to there anyways."
"But I'm already in my cabin in my bed, why do I need to move across the whole camp to sleep?"
"Because, if we get caught in here, people are going to think we are skipping our archery activity." I hear Will take a deep sigh and get up from the bed. "Come on, Death Boy."
I grumble. "Nobody cares about me anyways."
Will stands over me again, except this time, he takes my shoulders into his hands and shoves them again the bed. We stare at each other for a couple seconds. "Nico di Angelo, I care about you. Now get up, or I will personally drag you into the infirmary."
"Haven't you already done that, Smiley."