~ ☼ ~

When we got back to camp, we found everyone running around yet again, carrying broadswords and wearing their armor. Then again, a lot of people always wore their armor, but this was just too intense. Everyone was wearing armor. Like we could be attacked at any minute.

"Halt!" said someone. "Who goes there?"

I jumped, but Alec just laughed. "I thought we disbanded border patrol?"

He walked forward to clap the person on the back in that bro way. Once they pulled away, I saw it was Travis Stoll - or Connor, I don't know. He had on his leather armor and skinny jeans, his curly hair making him look like an East Asian version of Seth from the O.C. Behind him, a pretty girl with freckles was trailing, watching where she walked like she didn't want to step on any bugs accidentally.

"We're just out for a walk," Travis - I think it was Travis - said. Then he dipped his head towards me. "AJ."

I gave him an awkward wave. "Hi, Travis."

He didn't correct me, so I guess I was fine. When the girl, Katie Gardner, finally caught up, she smiled.

"Alec! Hi! What are you two doing out here?"

Alec glanced between me and him, making me feel embarrassed. Not only was I Alec's lame emo friend, but when they saw him on his own, he was wearing normal clothing. Now they saw us together, and we were dressed like homeless kids from the streets of, I don't know, Boston, or something.

"Actually, Katie, you might be able to help us," Alec said, realizing something. "Do you know anything about your mom's sickle? We're looking for it."

I winced, not wanting to play our cards. But, like, what was Katie going to do? Help us? Gods forbid.

Katie frowned. "You're looking for an ancient sickle on Half-Blood Hill?"

"Why not?" Alec asked, sticking his hands in his pocket.

I looked from Katie to Travis, who, meanwhile was looking between Alec and I. Based on the sly look in his eyes, I didn't think he believed Alec, but I didn't want to imagine what he thought was actually going down. Right now, this looked a little suspicious.

So, I said, "Demeter gave us a quest. A small one. She said her sickle was stolen."

Katie drew back, knitting her chestnut brows together. "She gave... you guys a quest?"

"It's a long story," I added. "But yes, she did. I think I was just in the right place at the right time."

"That's not true," Alec said, and I frowned at him. "We went on a quest a couple years ago - the summer of the golden fleece. I told you about it. Demeter helped us out back then, and now she wants us to help her."

Realization dawned in Katie and Travis' eyes.

"Oh, yeah!" Katie said. "The quest with Python!"

Now I wanted to draw backwards. I felt both honored and embarrassed Alec had told them. Honored because it made us and Riley looked cool and forever bonded, and embarrassed because... I don't know.

I guess I just always ignored that Alec had other friends. Maybe because the only other real friends I'd made were either dead or off traipsing the country, forever 15.

Maybe because all I needed was Alec and Riley. It made me feel pathetic and clingy.

"Well, I'm going to go shower," I said to Alec. "I told Riley she and I would pick strawberries together today."

"Oh?" Alec asked, turning to face me, but it was too late.

"Bye, guys. Good seeing you!"

"Bye, AJ!" Katie said.

I walked away, my cheeks burning as they immediately picked up their conversation again. But this time, it was all Katie. Alec didn't say anything. If he was looking at me, I didn't look back to check.

~ ☼ ~

"Yeah," I said. "It was crazy."

Riley sighed. "That's insane. I'm sorry."

Riley and I were indeed strawberry picking. I had lied about promising her we'd do that, but it seemed like a good thing to do, anyway. At least so I would stay awake. If I'd gone back to the cabin for even the shortest nap, I'd have slept away the whole summer like Rip Van Winkle. I was from the Hudson Valley like him.

So once I'd come out of the shower, finding Alec was not in the cabin, I went to find Riley and dragged her away from her stress induced-archery.

"RIP Hemmings," I said, now, doing a sign of the cross. "You were a good pegasus."

Riley gasped. "AJ. Don't be like that. He's obviously going to be still alive. Plus, that's blasphemous!"

"To who?" I asked. "The gods?"

Riley nodded. "Yes. Obviously."

I sighed, rolling my eyes, even though the last thing I needed right now was to be extra offensive. Then again - Apollo hadn't smited me yet!

Leaning down, I picked a strawberry. While Riley's basket was full, mine was basically empty. Even our strawberries were suffering this summer, making me not want to pick most of them, because they either were half eaten by bugs or already rotten. I didn't know how Riley was having better luck than me. Maybe it was Demeter trying to warn me. Maybe I was making excuses.

"Do you ever think about Lucas and Kiera?" asked Riley, suddenly. I paused.

"Of course I do," I said, standing up straight. I turned to face her, but her back was to me. She was wearing her favorite outfit, a CHB orange camisole and a paisley silk bandana holding back her curls. She and Alec both, with their leather and hemp cord bracelets, had a vaguely boho vibe to them.

Unlike me. My only boho thing was my necklace. I reached up and touched the beads on them, thinking of Kiera, who I'd been so similar to... and yet, with whom I hadn't had quite as much fun. But maybe that was me being picky. I don't know.

I was kinda having a crisis about my social life right now. And my entire being.

"AJ?" Riley asked, turning towards me. "You okay?"

"I'm okay."

"You are not." She frowned. "Don't lie to me. You know I'm psychic."

She set her basket down, then came over to stand before me, grabbing my face.

"I thought your powers weren't working as well," I said, awkwardly, because, you know, she was grabbing my face.

"I still know my sister."

The reminder that she was my sister - my sister, MY BIOLOGICAL SISTER!! - never failed to make me feel better. Then again, there were so many half-bloods out there, so having biological siblings didn't really mean anything. After all, Luke Castellan was the Stoll Brothers' biological brother, and he'd still betrayed them and the rest of his cabin.

"I'm sorry to bring that up," I added. "Your powers not working."

Riley sighed, but it was a sort of happy sigh, like she had just gotten a note from a secret admirer. "It's obviously not accurate anymore, so whatever."

I was glad that she'd found a silver lining in an otherwise sort of scary moment. Then again, she'd wanted her powers back so badly that if anything, the seizure she had was more of a dark lining on an otherwise entirely good thing.

"I still can't believe I had an actual vision," she said. "Maybe I'll replace the Oracle."

"Will we still need the Oracle after the war?"

Riley shot me a look. "Our parents will still be our parents."

"I thought you didn't want to blaspheme then."

She winced, glancing upwards at the sky briefly. Luckily, Apollo didn't appear to take away her powers.

"In the war, I can do stuff too. I could foresee battles - help Annabeth and Malcolm and Geoff get along by telling them what strategy to use. I helped you after all." 

She paused, immediately looking contrite, even though I didn't know why.

"Sorry." Her voice was quiet. "That feels mean. I didn't mean it like that."

It took me a minute to realize she meant with Lucas. She'd warned me about him the first time we'd met - when she'd found us outside, before the sun rose, together. And she'd told me he gave her a bad feeling. 

It did feel mean, but I pushed the pain aside, where it soured into my stomach. 

"It didn't work, anyway," I grumbled. "I didn't listen."

That didn't negate that she could've helped. I was the problem there, not her. Riley frowned, setting down her basket.

"I don't blame you. You had nothing to go on besides a warning from someone you'd just met. I didn't even give you a reason."

"Yeah, but I knew our dad was the god of prophecy. I should've known you'd be right."

"You didn't, really." She shook her head. "You might've known it, but you didn't get it. I didn't, either, my first month or so here. You're lucky you had the quest so you could make the probation period go quicker."

Uncomfortable, I didn't look at her, even though she was focused entirely on me. I bent down, wishing for one good strawberry so that I could be properly distracted and not have to reply to her. I found nothing, and eventually I had to stand back up and face her again. For a moment, we just looked at each other.

"Hey, what did I say last summer?" Riley then put her thumbs at either end of my lips, then stretched them upwards. "Smiles for Riles."

"Ah!" I yelped, moving away, as Riley burst into laughter. "Gods, you're like a puppeteer!"

I laughed too, while Riley bent over. "I have to do what I have to do, okay? I'll be a puppeteer if that's what it takes to make you smile."

"You should've known when you took me in that you'd never accomplish that. I am not a smiler."

Riley stopped laughing just to scoff. "What? AJ, you smile all the freaking time. What are you talking about?"

Did I? I felt heat come to my cheeks, making me stop laughing, too. I scratched my neck, then said, "You think so?"

"I know so," she said. "I've known it since I saw you sit with Aria and Kiera the first night at dinner."

Now I was genuinely embarrassed. I'd noticed her smiling, then, too. Children of Apollo loved to smile, I guess. Sunshine and all that.

"I always thought it was nice," she said, as she turned back to her strawberry picking. "An emo girl who still thought stuff was funny, you know? When I first saw you walk in with Alec, I thought you were another Hot Topic girl."

I felt the embarrassment pool into something adrenaline-inducing in my stomach. It made me want to run, thinking of her seeing me for the first time. She'd probably thought I was pathetic, but nooo, turns out I wasn't as pathetic as she thought! I frowned, biting the inside of my cheek so I didn't say something stupid.

You're being stupid, the voice in my head said. You know that, right?

I did, logically. But the worry hung in my head, anyway. Riley was so, so nice, and Alec had initially been my medic and tour guide; sometimes I wondered if they weren't friends with me just to try to fix me. Because they felt bad for me.

Because when I looked at them, I definitely saw something much better than me.

~ ☼ ~

A week or so passed without much change. It hardly felt like the summer I had wanted. There was this cool thing for the older campers, starting when you were 16, where you could leave camp for a day, once a month, if you wanted to, I don't know, go to the city or something.

I'd always looked forward to it, mostly because I wanted to be a cool, older camper who took public transit and brought back Magnolia Bakery cupcakes. I'd seen someone do that last summer, and dang, did the nymphs in the woods at camp love those cupcakes.

But this summer, no one was taking advantage of it, except, really, for Percy Jackson, who seemed like he kept disappearing. I think he had a reason to, because after all, he was training super hard. I, on the other hand, was not. I think it was the guilt of that that kept me at camp.

Then, one night, the tone changed. And by changed, I meant somehow, got even worse. Dinner that night was a rush of news about the war. Percy Jackson did this, Nico di Angelo - whoever the Hades that was - did that, Annabeth Chase was the greatest person ever, et cetera et cetera.

(I did agree with that last one. I never met her personally, but every time I'd seen her from afar, I'd always thought she looked really freaking cool.)

(Then again I lost my mind for those gray eyes.)

"AJ?" Alec asked. "You seem like you're out of it. You okay?"

He too had gotten a shower and changed his clothes, of course, since earlier. Now, his hair fell down over his head in a messy flop. I guess the stress of seeing hipster Brooklyn had made him too tired to do his normal quiff.

"I'm okay," I said. "Sorry."

"You're good," he said. "You don't have to be sorry."

He had gone to check on the stables, too, with Katie. He'd said there was no sign of Hemmings, which was insult to injury.

Alec was eating a bacon burger, while I was moving around my baked beans gloomily on my plate. Michael Yew had come up with an idea to keep our spirits up: themed dinner nights, every Friday. Even though we could technically choose whatever we wanted, the plan was for all of us to eat the same thing on those nights, in the spirit of camaraderie. Tonight was backyard BBQ night.

I had a feeling it was just to keep our spirits up not in the greater Titan War, but in the battle against the Ares Cabin, which was increasing. Michael was now looking for a real mark to paint on Clarisse's back. So far, we'd talked him out of firebombing the Ares cabin altogether, but his next couple ideas were not much better.

"Maybe he should just put up with Clarisse being rude," I said to Alec, putting my chin in my hand. "This isn't worth it."

"Yeah, but that sets a precedent," Alec said. "That's giving in to a bully. You gotta stand up to them."

I sighed. "Why are you always so mature?"

Alec chuckled. "It's a result of my titan heritage."

Then he paused, his eyes going wide as if he'd just realized what he'd said. Awkwardly, I shoveled some baked beans into my mouth, but before either of us could say anything, there was suddenly the sound of a conch horn.

All of us in the dining pavilion, except for the Hermes Cabin, who had a tendency to talk and fool around no matter what, turned towards the platform where Chiron and Mr. D sat. Tonight, they had Beckendorf up there with them. His skin was sallow beneath his dark eyes.

"Boys and girls and anything else," Chiron said, swallowing. "As I'm sure some of you have already found out, I have... sad news to confirm. We've been waiting on the results for a while, but - our own Alexia Cassidy has been officially confirmed dead."

I felt like the wind had been taken out of my chest.

I know what you're thinking - What? Who the Hades is that? - and I get it. Alexia was a daughter of Hephaestus, not really a close friend of mine, but someone everyone knew. She was like the Stolls, Silena Beauregard, Will - she was nice to everyone and pretty popular. She'd made a few little clockworks that had helped Alec and the other medics in the infirmary, like those robot waiters from Japan.

She'd been poisoned last summer by one monster or another in the Battle of the Labyrinth, and we'd been waiting for an update on her condition ever since. They'd actually taken her to an infirmary on Olympus, because the poison was so bad. I guess even Aesclepius couldn't do anything.

I looked around for everyone else's reactions. Alec and Riley were as shocked as me, but some people looked like they'd already heard it through the grapevine, sniffling or nodding with quivering lips. I looked over at the Hephaestus Cabin table, where Beckendorf had sat again and was now sniffling into his girlfriend's shoulders. I didn't know what to say.

"In honor of Alexia," Chiron said, "We will be burning a shroud for her tomorrow afternoon. Until then, please try not to... fire bomb each other too much."

He grimaced in our direction, making Michael Yew look back at him in offense. A few kids from the Ares cabin table chuckled in their grunting, Francis from Fairly Odd Parents sort of way, but Clarisse LaRue, their counselor, hit the table and made them shut up.

Chiron dipped his head in a nod at us, but said nothing else. He left the dining pavilion, and I watched as Percy Jackson got up from his lonely Cabin 3 table and quickly followed him. I wondered if he ever had any fun, or if he was just forced to be a little 15 year old general constantly.

For a moment, the dining pavilion was still completely quiet, but then the talking came back. This time, though it was subdued. The Hermes cabin was not laughing as loud, the Hephaestus cabin focusing on comforting themselves. I could see one girl's head on the table, her black hair spread out around her like a funeral veil. I had to hold back my own tears.

"That's so stupid," said Michael, loud enough that I could hear him even though he was a couple people away. He stabbed a piece of watermelon with a fork. "I don't know why he had to mention us."

"That's not really the point, Mike," Brynn said.

But I could see in his eyes that he was taking this worse than he was showing. I could see in the weakness of his grasp on the fork, the slowness he took on as he set down it down and put his head in his hands that Riley had been right. This was just a distraction. A bad way to cope.

I pulled back, sighing. My eyes roved over the dining pavilion, looking for just one smiling face. Instead, at the next table over - since, after all, we were Cabin 7 - the Athena kids were trying to figure out a plan or something. I don't know. My focus was on the person who was focused on me. Lacey Gonzaga. She was staring me down like she was going to stab me with a fork, too.

I blinked, then said, "Alec, come with me to the bathroom?"

"Me?" He asked. "Don't girls usually go together?"

"I want you," I said. For one, Riley was distracted, helping Will Solace in making Michael Yew feel better. Plus, I don't know why, there was something about having a guy with me that made me feel better when we walked past Lacey. I felt like I was saying, "See? Don't mess with me. I've got a big tough guy on my side."

Then I looked at Alec and realized no one was ever gonna believe that.

Not that Alec couldn't be intimidating, but I felt like Riley and I were the only ones who got to see that. Most people just saw his lankiness and his laughing. I'd heard someone call Will a golden retriever once - I think it might've been an insult, but he'd taken it with pride - and if that were true, I think Alec was a a yellow lab. Basically the same thing, but with shorter hair.

I, of course, was a cat. Liked to lay around and prone to do anything for food. Not that you would've guessed tonight; I really wished it was a normal summer, just so we could have a campfire that night and I could get a s'mores.

It's stuff like that that you have to hold on to. But it had already slipped away before I could even try to grab it.

~ ☼ ~

A/N: On behalf of those of us who were in the PJO fandom before the year 2010 even hit, I believe in Tratie supremacy and I always will