Hazel's hands were tied behind her. She sat in a cold, grimy cell. Lamia had brought her to this prison an hour ago. Hazel wasn't sure where she was or how she had gotten there. After Lamia had grabbed her, everything went black. The next thing she knew she was here. With no weapons, no plan, and no way to contact her friends.

So Hazel sat there. She wasn't sure what she was waiting for. A savior that would sweep her away from this horrible place? A friend that could comfort her? Pain? Death?

She let out a sigh, so depressing that it made her feel even worse. She had given up getting her hands out of their binds. The rope was too strong and tightly woven. Her feet were free, so she could stand and walk around, but that was pretty much it. She had investigated the lock that kept her from the world; it was rusty and old and required a key to open it. And she had never learned how to use her toes to pick a lock. They just didn't teach that skill at Camp Jupiter. Her cell had two beds- if you could call two slabs of concrete beds- a bucket that smelled really bad, and a little pipe that had water dripping out of it. The liquid was green, not clear, and Hazel figured Percy would have a heart attack if he saw it. She sat down on one of the beds. Paradise.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At first, they were small. One or two tears would run down her cheeks at a time, and land on her stained jeans, causing a small pool to form on her leg. But then they came more rapidly, clogging her vision, turning her dry face and hands into damp pieces of skin. She couldn't control it. They just kept coming. She had been sitting in her penitentiary for what she guessed was an hour, giving her plenty of time to think about how messed up her life was. And of course, that brought tears. It always did.

She thought about her guilt toward Percy and Annabeth. Her hate towards Gaea. Her loathing towards the stupid quest. Her pain for Sammy and her old life. But mostly, she thought about Frank.

Yes, she had kinda-sorta-possibly exposed her feelings toward him, but that didn't mean she loved him, right?

WRONG

Ok, so maybe she had feelings toward Leo, but she didn't love him. Not at all. She strongly like-liked him. Thats it. No complications. No boyfriendness. Just a crush. A simple, meaningless crush.

Of course, Hazel did still love someone.

She knew she did because every time she pictured his face, her heart did an obstacle course (which included jumping jacks, crunches, and pushups for your information) His smile always made her feel safe. Even if the world was ending-which it technically was- one smile would make all her worries go away. Just. Like. That.

Hazel probably would of continued dreaming about her love life all day, but a crash brought her back to the present.

She stood up and slowly walked over to the bars of her cell. The only light source was from a dim lamp on the far wall, so Hazel had to squint to see. What she saw made her feel horrible and thrilled at the same time.

Lamia was back, but she wasn't alone. She held a new prisoner now, another helpless hostage.

"I brought you a friend dear," Lamia hissed. "So you wont be so lonely."

"Piper," Hazel said. "Are you ok?" Stupid question, of course shes not ok.

Piper nodded and tried for a smile. Hazel didn't say anything, but it was pretty much the worst fake smile in the history of worst fake smiles. Piper's hands were also tied behind her back and she had a few cuts on her arms and forehead, but other then that she looked rather okayish.

Lamia used her claw to unlock the lock, shoved Piper in, and left with a creepy smile.

"So," Hazel said. "Welcome to Hazel's hotel. Where the food is always moldy and the guests always die! Let me give you the tour. Here we have some beds-"

"More like rocks," Piper mumbled.

"Over there is a smelly bucket. This is a pipe with some water, I guess. And that? Oh don't touch that. It was there when I got here and I'm pretty sure it was twitching earlier."

Piper sat on one of the beds. "Thanks for the tip."

"It's what I do," Hazel said, suddenly glum.

"Well, you're not very peppy," Piper noticed.

"And you are?"

"C'mon. Where's that cheerleader spirit?"

"It never existed." Hazel lied down on the other bed. It her hands too much so she sighed in annoyance and lied on her stomach. Which was even worse.

"If they plan on keeping us here, they could of at least brought pillows." Hazel complained.

"Alright," Piper said. "What's wrong?"

"This concrete is too cold, my hands hurt-"

"Not with the bed," Piper said. "With you."

"Oh," Hazel sat up. This could take a while. "Well, I uh, I guess you could say I'm having boy troubles."

Piper raised her eyebrows. Hazel silently cursed herself. Hello. This was the daughter of Aphrodite. The goddess of love. Not the best person to talk to about relationship issues.

"Speak. Now," Piper probably didn't mean too, but she used a lot of charmspeak. Reluctantly Hazel fessed up.

"Ok so I might of confessed feeling towards someone in our crew....."

"Frank?" Piper asked.

"Um," Hazel wanted to yell out Duh! Of course Frank he's my boyfriend! But she couldn't bring herself to lie to Piper. "No, not really."

"Gods Hazel. What did you do? Who did you-" Piper's eyes lit up, like when a cartoon character gets an idea and their pupils disturbingly morph into mini light bulbs. "Leo. It's Leo isn't it?"

"Well-"

"I knew you liked him! Oh this is so sweet and- Whoa hold up. I just sounded like my mother! What is happening to the world?"

"Gaea's destroying it." Hazel said, glad to have the subject change.

"That's not what I meant. Anyway. Hazel this is serious. Franks going to be really upset when he finds out what you said."

"He already knows," Hazel said shamefully.

"Oh hunny. You've got it bad."

"Yeah, any chance your mom could leave me alone for just a little bit?"

Piper knelt down next to Hazel's bed, so that they're faces were at the same height.

"Sorry," she said though she didn't sound very sorry. "She doesn't bug me anymore. I can't let this opportunity slip. Plus, she considers you and Annabeth her power couples or something. She has a lot of stuff stored for you."

"But-"

"Hey," Piper suddenly sounded annoyed and angry. "At least you didn't fall into Tartarus."

Hazel froze. "Piper, that's-"

"Annabeth's love life is way worse than yours and I haven't ever heard her complaining about it!"

"I know, but-"

"Aphrodite has been messing with her since she was seven, Hazel! She's barely even started with you!"

Hazel shot to her feet and Piper mimicked her movement. "Barely even started?" she demanded. "Barely even STARTED?! How about it barely even started 50 YEARS AGO!"

Piper turned away, but Hazel wasn't done. For so long she had kept these feelings hidden inside, but now she had to let them go.

"Sammy was the only thing I had in my old life! I didn't know my dad, my mom was going crazy, everyone thought I was a freak! Parents would tell their children to stay away from me! I became the which girl because of my stupid curse! Only Sammy was kind to me! He would talk to me without flinching away in fear. He listened to me, and heard what I had to say," Hazel didn't realize it, but her tears were streaming down her face, soaking her shirt. "One day he finally kissed me, and I was actually happy. I thought I might actually have a future with someone! But I never saw him again because of stupid Gaea!"

She took a moment to catch her breath. Piper's anger had been replaced with sympathy and she tried to comfort her, but Hazel just kept going. "50 years later, I meet Frank who is so kind and patient with me. He doesn't care that I was once dead. Or that my curse has already hurt so many others. He doesn't care! He loves me for me, and I thought I loved him too.

"But now Leo's here, who is so much like Sammy it gives me nightmares. And I have feelings for all three of them, but one of them is gone, and the other two are constantly fighting and I...I just...."

She started balling. Piper tried to hug her (with no success) so she just stood there. "Hazel I'm so sorry. I didn't know. I'm a terrible friend."

"No," Hazel said fiercely. "It's nobody's fault but Gaea's. She's the reason I died. The reason Percy and Annabeth are gone! And the reason we're stuck in this stupid prison!" She yelled out the last part with so much anger, the bars of the cell shook.

The two demigods froze, starting at the bars.

"Haaaazel?" Piper said nervously. "You saw that too, right?"

Hazel didn't reply, but instead went over to the metal bars. "My curse" she whispered. You don't think...."

"You have to try!" Piper encouraged. "We need to get out of here!"

Tears started to fill Hazel's eyes. "I-I've never moved something that big.....I would have to make it blow up and I-I can't-I don't-I-"

"Hazel," Piper said. "You have to try. We need to get back to our friends. They need us, Hazel. Please, just try."

Hazel turned back toward the bars. She concentrated and tried as hard as she could, but nothing happened. "I can't," she said through tears. "I'm sorry."

Piper hung her head. After about three seconds she looked up. "That's ok Hazel. You tried. We'll get out of here. Somehow."

That only made Hazel feel worse.

How lame was she? She couldn't even get them out of a cell! Any other hero would of tried again and again and never would of gave up. But Hazel obviously wasn't a hero. Not like Percy or Annabeth or Jason. She wasn't even a worthy sidekick. She would always just be the extra cargo they had to drag along. She didn't belong. She should of just stayed dead.

IM DONE! WITH THIS CHAPTER ANYWAYS!

Sorry it took so long I've been soooooooo busy I thought I was going insane!

Mkay so

THE HOUSE OF HADES COMES OUT IN 4 FLOOPIN DAYS OH MY GODS IM GOING TO HAVE A HEART ATTACK ITS FINALLY HERE AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(RANDOM FANGIRL MOMENT. SORRY)

So i guess ill try to keep writing this story but if you guys stop reading when the real book comes out, ill probably just stop......so yeah

This is dedicated to Dancin4Evah because HER USERNAME IS JUST AMAZING! (i do 6 hours of dance a week so yeah) AND HER BACKGROUND MADE ME LAUGH A LOT!

I'll try to update soon!

Percabeth for life :D

PS: I typed some of this on my moms iphone whi using auto correct so if you randomly read a sentence like "Then he peed on at my food!" and it was supposed to say "Then he poked at my food" just go with it and blame Siri. MKAY BYE YALL