The dinner bell rang and since we were already there, we just sat at our tables.Well, mostly. Nico just sits by me most of the time even though we're not related. (Thank the gods, cause then we couldn't be together) I, myself, am a certified healer of the Apollo cabin, and Nico just loves to shadow travel to the point where he passes out. So naturally I became his designated doctor and field medic. He also decided that he has a weird mood disorder where when he sits at his own tables undead soldiers and skeleton warriors attack the campers and he can't help it.
So when he sits by me he's 'cured' of his mood disorder. The campers fill in excitedly and the kitchen harpies and dryads serve the food. Today's dinner is lasagna with American cheese and garlic bread with any drink of our choice. Nico wrinkles his nose and pokes the lasagna with his fork. "Ugh, lasagna. They never do it in the traditional Italian way," Nico grumbles "Well, they aren't Italian, so they don't know they're doing it wrong." I reason. Nico is Italian on his mom's side, from Venice and when he and Bianca were younger they moved to the U.S. Nico still remembers it so he takes offense to things like that. "I mean yeah but still. Trade you my lasagna for your garlic bread,"he offers. "I guess," I say.
I pick up my silverware and pick Nico's lasagna off the plate using my knife and fork. He simply plucks the garlic bread off the plate. "Hold up," I say and take the garlic bread that Nico was only inches away from biting. I take a huge bite and hand it back to him. "Okay there you go," I say. He takes it and bites the uneaten end. He Isn't mad though. We have a running joke of eating each other's food. He leans over and takes a sip of the Diet Coke I was saving until I was done. "Really?" I mumble "Yep. But hey," he playfully punches my shoulder, "You can always re-fill it." he tells me. "Yeah, true but-" I was cut short by the sound of the conch horn and Chiron's hoof against the pavement to get our attention.
"Heroes!" Chiron calls. "We have been issued a quest from olympus! We must act on it quickly. Three specific heroes must go. And one specific demigod must lead it. Please stand up, Selene Solace, Nico Di Angelo, and Leo Valdez." He says. I stand up but I have to resist the urge to sit back down and slink under the table. "Selene, you must lead this quest. Nico, Leo, you must assist her. We will discuss more at length at the war council tomorrow morning. But for now, we will...erm, celebrate the Hunters of Artemis' arrival and capture the flag as a tradition!" He says. "Head counselors! Attend to your cabin mates. You have ten minutes to form your alliances. Selene, I know we banned you after you went against the camp solo and won, but, Nico has got you back in the games as long as you are on his team." Chiron says. I look at Nico for conformation. He just winks. "Lets go," he smiles "And you're welcome, Shiny Eyes," he says. I roll my eyes. "Technically, they're silver. Thanks though. And don't call me that unless you can make it sound better," I say. I start jogging out of the amphitheater and Nico has to sprint to catch up. "You are so...just ugh-" Nico says. I raise an eyebrow and turn to him. "I'm sorry, what?" I ask, slightly annoyed. "You just- look, sometimes, it's okay to be soft. You don't always have to have that annoying punk rock facade. You just act so...bossy, angry. You're acting like Clarisse, Sel. I really don't like it. Maybe you should… spend more time with someone who will accept you for being who you really are. Like, me…?" He says. I drop the angry face and just look at him, my expression saying aww you are so cute. "Nico Di Angelo, are you being direct?" I ask. "Tch. Nah, I didn't say I wanted anything, so no," He says, as we meet up with the Apollo Cabin, Percy, and the Athena Cabin. "Right! Glad you guys could make it!" Percy says with a sly smile. "Chiron let us know that we are doing partners instead of teams,"Percy says. "Exactly, so, pick your partners, you have five minutes," Annabeth joins in. I turn to Nico and he turns to me at the same time. "Partners, then?" I ask. "Always," he grins. Annabeth hands us these weird leg things. "For the three legged death race tomorrow," she explains. I nod and walk over to the battle armor tables. The thing about the camp armor, is that anybody can use yours unless your godly parent gifted them specifically to you. I pick up my armor and put it on, adjusting the straps perfectly.I turn to the mirror connected to the tables and check my straps. The silvery glow around me thickens as I put on my helmet. The armor itself is silver and had the same ancient greek words and swirls as my bow on the torso. My helmet is almost a regular one but it has a crescent moon on the forehead part and its magic. And if I wanted to I could take the crescent moon off and it would become a metal dagger. My hair fames my face and I hate it but I leave it. Since I had turned my bow back into a hat and took it off so I could put my helmet on, I pick it back up and it turns into my bow. I sling it over my shoulder and make my rounds to help the younger campers with their armor straps. "Head counselors! We are starting! Grab your partners and follow Annabeth to the start line," Chirons says. The campers cheer and run after Annabeth who was already jogging to the line. Once we all got there Annabeth stood at a table that had magically appeared in front of her. ""Teams! Pick a color!" she yelled. I glance at Nico and simply pluck the thought from his head. "My team chooses black!" I yell back. "My team chooses pink!" yells a camper "We're blue!" says another "Green!" "Orange!" "Purple!" "Gray!" "White!" "Red!" more campers yell. "Alright, Alright! Selene and Nico come forward to get your color," Annabeth says. We walk to the table and I almost gag at what she offers us. She gives us black little Naruto headbands except decorated with little hearts and a cupid in the middle instead of the regular symbol. I look up, disgusted. "What in the Hades is this?" I demand. Annabeth shrugs. "Well, we knew you guys would get black so we decided to have a little fun," Annabeth says. "Check the team name on the side," she says excitedly. I turn the headband and almost lose my dinner. "LOVEBIRDS???????" I ask, incredulously. "Yup, y'know you aren't very secretive about being together," Annabeth says. "W-we aren't together," Nico lies. "Yeah, you've got your facts mixed up," I say. So you're probably wondering why one of my closest friends didn't know about Nico. I'm not an open book. You have to really nag at me to get the slightest bit of information unless you are important to me. "Yeah, yeah dirty liars," Annabeth mumbles. "Dirty liars? Annabeth, I'm not the one who watched for almost 3 years as the guy I liked became closer friends with a different girl. I'm not the one who waited five years, Annabeth. If I want something, I get it. End of story." I say.
The campers had gathered around to watch. Annabeth's face is red but I can't tell if it's from anger or embarrassment. "At least I'm not dating a guy who was rejected by both the Greek and Roman camps. I'm not dating a social reject. The son of Hades. Pulled out of time in the 1940's. And guess what, Selene the whole camp knows. Goodluck trying to hide it. And no, it wasn't me who told them, in case you're wondering," she says angrily. She tries to walk off but I grab her arm. "If you're going to verbally attack my boyfriend, expect to get hit, Annbeth. I'm gonna give you a five second head start before this Celestial bronze sword happens to find a chink in your armor," I warn her, my voice deathly calm. She has the audacity to laugh. "Yeah, there you go," she says. "You just admitted it, Selene. And I didn't mean anything I said, I just had to draw you out," she says. I'm too angry to control myself. I lurch forward, jump up and punch Annabeth on the way down. I swing my swords toward her head but she dodges. She catches my next strike on the hilt of her dagger. She stumbles back, clutching her cheek where I super-punched her. Percy runs over and glares at me with one arm holding Annabeth back. They retreat to the Athena cabin as a nasty purple bruise starts to form on her face. Nico looks over at me. "Selene," he says. I realize I'd summoned my swords and flick my hands outwards and they shrink back into rings. "What?" I ask. My voice drips with absolute hatred. "You...you actually hither," he says. "Of course I did,"I say. He points to a small trail footprints. "Y-you did," he replies. "Maybe she deserved it then. Things happen for a reason, Sunshine." I say. I march off to the starting line and notice my vision is glowing red. I don't think much of it so I turn to the campers who we gathered a bit farther back as if they thought I would hurt them. "Campers! This is the starting line. Start or go back to your cabin in shame for quitting," I order. Somewhere in the back of my head I can sense this isn't me but the angry side of me overpowers it. Nico glances at me uneasily. The campers mumble and inch forward. Chiron picks up his black and white checkered flag. "Demigods! The first team to seize the most flags wins! Normal rules! No maiming! No unnecessary violence! If any fights break out your whole cabin will suffer. The Athena cabin has already volunteered for kitchen clean-up duty and bathroom cleaning duty. Who's next?" He challenges. "And a certain child of Leto has been granted permission to help with both tasks," he says. "Now! Demigods! GO!" Chiron waves his flag downward. Nico and I race into the woods, the other campers hot on our tracks. I press a button on my helmet as I'm running and my armor shifts into a thinner layer of metal and large silver wings sprout from the back of my armor. I kick upward and fly through the air closing my eyes. I open my eyes and see Nico running below and see him about to get attacked by a few Ares campers since he was less than five feet away from their flag. I take a sharp nosedive and land in a somersault. Clarisse, head counselor of Ares charges at me with a loud guttural cry. I side step her strike then return with a feint to her gut. Using my other sword I slice at her shoulder, injuring her sword arm. She screams angrily and drops her sword. She tries to charge again and I slam the hilt of my sword onto her helmet and she collapses. I look around for her cabin mates but Nico had it handled. He sheaths his sword and grabs the flag. "Sel, catch," he says, and throws me the flag. I snatch it out of the air and take it off the pole then stick the piece of cloth in my back pocket. "Wings?" he asks, pointing to my back. I smile. "Little gift from a certain son of Hephaestus," I say. He nods, knowing I'm talking about Leo. "Well then, mi amor lets go," I say. I take off scouring the woods until I find seven more flags rinse and repeat. We make it back to the start line with every flag including our own within 10 minutes. "Well! We have winners!" Chiron exclaims surprisingly. I take my helmet off and shake my head a bit to kind of un-do the serious case of helmet hair I just gave myself. "Yeah." I say In an unusual nonchalant tone. Nico glances over with an eyebrow raised. "You good?" he asks. "Yep," I say, undoing my armor straps. After all of my armor is off I sit at the table and twirl my knife on the table like one of those spinny tops. "You sure?" he asks. I look at him, "Course I'm okay. There's no reason for me not to be," I say. "Well, after the other teams realize the flags aren't there, we'll call a war council to discuss your quest." Chiron says. I glance at him and study his ancient eyes. He looks like a regular middle aged man with his pale skin and curly brown shoulder-length hair. His eyes though, you would think he was from the stone age. Millenia of pain are trapped there. The other campers fill in looking angry.