"Knock knock," I call as I walk into the Hephaestus cabin and find Leo just finishing what looked like a phone. Leo looks up as he finishes the phone completely and slips it in his magic tool belt. "Hm? Oh hey," he pulls the phone back out and hands it to me. "Piper told me you didn't have one so I made one for you," I turn the phone in my hand and turn it on. "Thank you," I tell him and he just smiles. It runs faster than any phone I've ever used before and when I set the password it required my fingerprint which was called the "Demigod ID" I set it then added Leo's number and he quickly gave me everybody else's number. "You could make some serious money for these you know," I say "And I don't see anybody's name in here from Camp Jupiter," I say, "Sell enough to supply the Legion and New Rome you'd be wealthy in fact." I say. "Yeah well,haven't decided yet. These run on magic so the cell service is free and Harley helped with the magic idea," he says and I let my eyes wander past him and settle onto a workstation where his younger half-brother was working on what looked like an updated version of their new Demigod-Phones
supply New Rome and the Legion and you'd be wealthy, in fact," I tell him "
. "Do you have a name for these yet?" I ask him and turn my attention back to him "Because something like this should have a brand name like…" I think for a second, "CHBBrand? with a little pegasus and some laurels like our logo?" I offer and he grins, "How do you come up with these? Hey, I was going to ask Rachel because I've seen her drawings in her cave and stuff but do you want to design the logo?" he asks and I smirk "Yeah sure, and I'll get Annabeth and Rachel on it with me. What colors do you want? I'm thinking of changing it to a flame design with a hand summoning the fire and oh my gods it'll be so cool! And then the new brand name will be like-"
I realize he's trying not to laugh because I'm beaming like I always do when I talk about something I'm passionate about. I give him a look then go back to talking. " -The brand name could be like…" I gasp as I get an idea, " It could be called 'Son of Hephaestus'!" He thinks for a second then speaks again after a count of five, "Can you draw it out? I can picture it but I need to make sure we have the same idea…" his voice trails off as he walks over to a cabinet and pulls out a painting easel and a punch of different hues of red paint. He leads me over toward his bunk then presses some invisible button. "I'd sit down if I were you," he says. I know that the Hephaestus cabin has a bunch of hidden passages so I sit on the bunk. The air is sucked out of my lungs as we plummet downward. "What the-?" I ask him but he just smirks and picks up the art supplies and I realize that we're in Bunker Nine. "Bunker Nine?" I ask even though he's taken me down here a million times. "Yeah. And, did you find out why Cal went to see Piper yet?" he asks, and my expression changes to that worried expression that belongs only to a mother.
"Yeah, Cal went to ask about charmspeak. She has two broken ribs and fractured her ankle and she magically over-extended herself." I feel bad for laying all of that information on him but then my phone chimes in a cleverly hidden skirt pocket. I pull it out and immediately regret not making a new email account. I'd synced my old email with my phone and Daisy had replied. I must have looked way more angry than I thought I did because Leo takes a step back from me and says, " Selene, you've got that I'm going to throw you to space then blow up the moon just to spite you and hope you get hit by a piece of moon shrapnel look right now." he nods at my phone, "Who is it?" he asks. "You remember my 'friend' Daisy?" he nods and I continue, "Well, there were these rumors going around that I 'deserve to have Dyslexia and ADHD because apparently, I was a mistake," I start dragging the easel to a corner then come back to get the paint and paintbrushes "And don't even get me started on that teacher for the fashion designing class-" Leo cuts me off, "You take a fashion designing class?" he asks and I look at him in that way that says I thought you knew I took a fashion class you dummy, " -Anyways, she's so mean to me just because my skills surpass hers." I look down and notice I went for more of an aesthetic look today. With the knee-high black leather boots, the even higher socks, the short black skirt and the white top with the moon on it, and the familiar skiers-tanned skin and the fedora I can't see but know is fashionably sitting atop my head I look back up at Leo. "I need you to pick a number. One or Two?" I ask him. One means I'll look at the email Daisy sent and I may even reply. Two means I won't look at it, but I don't tell him that. "One," he says, after studying my face, no doubt reading my thoughts as he often does. "Darn it," I mumble and start fiddling with the twin crescent moon rings on my middle fingers, I finally say, "Fine," and open the email and read it out loud.
"Dear Selene,
I wasn't the one who started the rumors. It was Zia, and she told me not to tell you because she knew I would have. She then gave me money In exchange for my silence. I'm so sorry. Can we still be friends?
Love,
Daisy"
"What a gigantic load of Minotaur dung," I say angrily and begin furiously typing back a reply, reading what I'm typing out loud,
"Daisy, you mean to tell me that you wanted to jeopardize a friendship that you've had since you were two years old for some used factory paper? Is that what you're telling me? Since when do we turn our backs on each other? I told you all of my secrets and you blab them to the biggest mouth in the school then proceed to spill more and more. Are you kidding me? No, we cannot still be friends and please, do me one last favor and delete my contact information. You won't need it."
"Selene," Leo says, and I look up and I wipe the tears off my face. No point in trying not to cry. Angry tears were already streaking my face. Leo starts wiping my tears with his oil grease fingers, leaving my face streaked black with soot.
My thumb hovers over the send button and Leo speaks, after contemplating what to say, "Send it. Nobody messes with my best friend and gets off easy." Leo says, clearly very angry. We've known each other even longer than Daisy and I have. Our families lived next door to each other, and Mom used to live in Houston,Texas before she moved to Austin where she met Apollo. Mom would send me over to Esperanza's house when she was working so Leo and I go way back. I remember one day I was playing with Leo and we were at the park and he got mad because this kid had pushed me off of the rock wall. And Leo would have fought the bully if Esperanza hadn't pulled him and me away.I remember crying because I'd broken my arm and when I'm stressed it starts to hurt again. I hit send, and I'm shocked that I have no regrets about a word that I said. I square my shoulders and put my phone back in my hidden pocket. I walk to the easel with the paintbrushes and lay everything out then remember I need paper and a pencil, "Can I get some paper and a pencil please?" My voice sounds hollow and quiet and I don't like that, so I clear my throat to lose the sad voice, and repeat myself. Leo nods and brings over some drafting paper and three sharpened pencils. I start sketching a phone shape and draw the hands summoning fire, but I draw the phone In the flames. I'm not satisfied with my work but Leo looks amazed. " How….?" his voice fades as he watches me add some extra details to the flames and to the cell phone. Suddenly my whole drawing is 3D so It looks like the hand is holding out the flaming phone. " That," he says, still entranced by the drawing and how quickly I was able to draw it, "Is incredible. Could you recreate it on the easel? He asks, " I want to hang it by my bunk," he says and then I pick up a different pencil and draw the exact same things, my mind simultaneously calculating where I should put the lines.
I finish drawing the whole design and look for an M3 brush. I walk to a large rolling cabinet and rummage through it until I find black paint. I then sit on the floor and line the flames with black, using the M3 brush. I pick up a brown that Leo had mistaken for burgundy and line the hand creases with it. " Leo, I think I saw a tan color in the cabinet. Can you get it for me?" I ask with a paintbrush in my mouth and my eyebrows frown as I concentrate on the painting. "Yup," He jogs over to the same cabinet and picks up a tan, careful to read the label this time. "What other colors do you need?" he asks, " 'Cause I don't wanna get up again and again." he says and I smile a little bit. "Yellow. Like a brownish-orange and a shiny oily black." He searches through the whole cabinet until he finds those then brings them over, "Do you need more brushes?" he asks and I start opening the tan paint.
"Nah I'm good, thanks though," I reply and start painting the flames. I finished the painting and I must say I'm surprised at my own work. I realize I'm still frowning in concentration and un-scrunch my eyebrows. I study the very large 10 by 5 painting. I look at the painting and remember I forgot something. My name. I pick up the same M3 brush I used earlier and write my name in the bottom right-hand corner.
Selene Solace
I get up and my knees buckle because my legs went numb. I stumble very embarrassingly but thank the twelve Olympians I don't fall. I just lurched forward and caught myself with my left foot. Leo coughs, obviously trying not to laugh, "You alright?" he says, trying with his whole being to retrain himself from making some witty retort or joke, "Yeah, fine," I mumble. And walk over to a room with a bunch of modern creations. I search the room until I find two huge fans and put them on a roller and drag them out. I'm in the middle of walking back to my space on the floor when my phone chimes. Again? I'm contemplating while I'm walking when it chimes again. It wasn't the same noise it made when I got that email. I make it back to my placemat and pull out my phone to check the message. It was from Piper, this time. Get Leo and get here NOW. I'm confused until I see the second message, It's Cal, she's not doing well AT ALL. then my phone chimes again as I quickly turn on the fans and turn to Leo with a panicked look on my face. "We need to go to the Aphrodite cabin. NOW," I yell as I run up the stairs then turn to Leo's bunk, now in Bunker Nine, and start climbing the ladder along the pipe that allows you to go into Bunker Nine. I got up about 50 feet before it all went downhill. My foot slips and I topple over and fall almost 20 feet before I can grab a rung. If I'm being honest I was screaming the whole way down. My rings shifted into twin scimitars and I was able to hook on to a rung without cutting it in half.
I will my swords into grappling hooks and swing myself an extra 30 extra feet upward. I land gracefully on the Hephaestus cabin floor just as Leo was coming up. "You alright? That looked like a hard fall," he says and I realize I'd been scowling fiercely and try to tone down the glare. "Yeah. Fine," I grumble and touch the points of my swords together to turn them back into rings. "Let's go. Cal needs me and I'm not about to waste time." I say, storming out of the cabin. I run into the Aphrodite cabin and find Calypso on the floor shaking violently.
"Cal!" I scream desperately and make my way to her and kneel over her. "Come on Cal you're fine you're fine," I say, chanting it like I could help her by simply believing it. Piper screams at me, "HELP HER! DON'T JUST STAND THERE!" she yells, charm speaking me and jarring me from my shock and making me mad, simultaneously encouraging me to work quicker. I roll Calypso on her side as one should do when another is having a seizure.
I look at Calypso studying her state and place both of my hands on her arm and think one command. Heal. I've never tried this before and I'm terrified of the effects that it could have on both of us. To my pleasant surprise, it works. She stops seizing and exhales, relaxed. I roll her on her back and see I worked my job a little better than I thought I did. She looks as if she was never injured. Her face glows with gold light. I look at Leo completely exhausted. He had a worried expression on and tears in his eyes. My head droops and my eyes roll up into my head. Then everything goes black and the last thing I remember is being in lots of pain.