There's birds tweeting in my ear. When did I change my alarm to the 'wildlife' setting? I groggily open my eyes, reaching out to smack my alarm clock until it shuts up, but it's not there. I hit a... Rock?
Ah, right. Camp Half-Blood. Being unclaimed. Sword fighting and such for two weeks. Sexy Connor. That all happened.
Still, the rock doesn't make sense. I open my eyes all the way.
I'm looking up at the sky, and there's tall trees coming up from every direction. My neck aches. I must have slept at a weird angle. I glance down.
Or maybe I slept on a ROCK.
Last night comes back to me. Yelling at Emma. Emma yelling at me. Connor grabbing my arm. Running into the woods. Climbing a rock. Right.
I glance around to see if there's an obvious way down, when I see Connor. He's stretched out like he wanted to do something, but then he fell asleep. His shirt hem is up above his belly button, and I spend about three minutes just analyzing it. God he's sexy.
GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF ALYSSA.
I reach out and tap his shoulder, and he rolls over. Oh god he's about to fall off of the rock -
I grab him around the waist to anchor him, and his eyes snap open. He glances at me, and I can see him realizing what happened last night and when he was asleep.
He yawns. He YAWNS. I'd be stuttering and awkwardly blushing if it was reversed. Maybe you get used to it when you're sexy.
"Morning. Sorry about this." He rolls gracefully to his feet and stretches, displaying his abs even better than he did when he was sleeping. He glances down at me and smiles.
"Enjoying the view?"
I glance around at the trees. "Yes, quite scenic, actually."
He smiles and offers me his hand, which I take, obviously.
"Sorry about yesterday. I shouldn't have done that." I look down at my feet awkwardly, but Connor just laughs.
"It's fine. Your friend got corrupted by Drew, and that's bad enough, but then she was claimed and you're still stuck in the Hermes cabin, and you now have no friends here other than Juniper. Anyone else would have slapped her." I feel more blood rush to my face. Right. I did slap her.
I look up at Connor, and he's giving me the sexy sideways smirk again. Time for a dramatic exit. I do have a thing for those.
I jump into a half-back tuck, catch myself in a handstand, and let my feet fall, landing in a perfect crouch on the ground. I hear Connor gasp, and then laugh and drop down next to me.
"Beautifully executed! Nine out of ten." He announces it like a judge in a gymnastics tryout.
"NINE out of ten?" I complain, pouting. "Where did my extra point go? That was a total ten."
Connor laughs yet again, and it hits me why he's sexier than Travis.
Because he smiles like he means it, and he really does mean it.
"You got a penalty for scaring the living shit out of me, but otherwise perfect."
"Close enough."
We walk the rest of the way in comfortable silence, just enjoying the walk. When we arrive at the edge of the wood, Connor stops me.
"They might be scared out of their minds, so let's do our best to increase it." He reaches out and pulls my hair tie from my hair, messing it up. He smiles appreciatively. "Perfect."
He turns to walk out, but I grab his wrist and pull him down to my level so I can mess with his hair. I shove a leaf into my masterpiece, and we're ready.
We're about to step out into the open when growls erupt behind us. I don't have time to watch for Connor - he's experienced. I'm not.
I don't know how I know, but I'm sure I'm supposed to front roll into the field. I do so, and with a fancy turn I raise my fists.
They're big, black dogs, and I know immediately that they're hellhounds. How do I fight them without a weapon? I'll die in six seconds.
A sword flies from nowhere and into my hand. Connor. I'm sure that it was Connor.
I don't have enough time to spare to care.
I slide between the paws of one, slashing up and cutting his ribcage open. Instead of falling down dead, it turns to dust. I don't bother to brush myself off before launching myself at the next one.
I've killed six when I see Connor. He's killed more than I have, but was apparently not being careful enough and now he's surrounded. Instead of killing them from the outside of the ring, I somehow vault over them and land with Connor, back to back. Instinct tells me that they would have trampled him if I hadn't done so.
We fight together like we've done it for years, slashing and smashing and killing, and suddenly all that's left is monster dust.
I spit some out I my mouth.
"Well, that was disgusting," I say. "Do they always explode into sand?"
"Yes." He's panting too. I plop onto the grass, and soon he's sitting next to me. We catch our breath together.
Suddenly, we see Chiron galloping towards us. He drags himself to a halt, looking desperate. He sees the monster powder.
"What were they? How many?" He sounds as calm as ever, but his eyes day otherwise.
"Hellhounds. About twenty." Connor stands and pulls me up behind him. Chiron looks shocked.
"Twenty hellhounds? And you lived?"
"Yes."
Chiron looks down at our hands, which are still latched together, with a raised eyebrow, but he doesn't say anything.
Percy, Annabeth, Piper, Leo, and a blonde guy come barreling down the hill. They look ridiculous. I giggle a little, and Connor smiles. Not at them, though. He's looking at me.
He smiled at my giggle. Oh my god.
Percy, seeing that we're okay, reaches out and trips the blonde guy, who falls into Piper who smashes into Annabeth, and Leo, feeling left out (I can tell from here that that's what he's thinking) jumps into the front so that he's tumbling down with them.
They arrive by our feet and untangle so quickly that it's amazing. They must do that often.
"You two are DATING?" It's Percy, and he looks so evilly happy in an adorable kind of way that I have to fight back a smile, but it comes out as a smirk. Oops.
"WHAT? They are!?!?" It's the blonde guy. He looks so shocked, like he just found out that everyone from Pompeii are coming back to life. My smirk widens.
"Jason! Shush! It's adorable!" It's Piper. She nudges him with her side so casually that I immediately know hat they're dating. So his name is Jason. Good to know.
"ADORABLE? Excuse me but I thought that we had something. Connor you terrible, terrible person!" It's Leo. I'm trying so hard not to laugh. He starts crying tears of flame, and Annabeth rolls her eyes.
"Leo. We all know that those flame tears are almost as fake as the love you have for Connor. And I say almost because they actually are fire. Just not tears."
I get the feeling that I don't want to know how she knows that.
Somehow I get it anyway.
"Juniper found that out for us. Leo wanted something and he started crying and she was all 'oh, you poor baby," but then she touched his face and she had burns for a week." It's Percy, and he's clearly trying not to laugh at the memory.
Leo blushes. "Well, I really DID want the new part, it would have been perfect for Festus, and that was the only way to get it really-"
"Uh-huh," says a pretty blonde girl, walking down the hill towards us. "You couldn't have just ASKED."
Leo turns an even deeper shade of red. "Hey, Calypso."
"Don't you 'hey' me. You burned my hand! You could have stopped the flame tears, or just MOVED them around my hand, but NOOO, you just let me get burned. They would have scarred if I hadn't used my garden plants, and trust me, your life would have been much worse if they did."
Leo laughs nervously, and Piper shoves him towards Calypso. "Go. Shoo. Both of you. Hash it out somewhere else." Leo, looking frightened, walks away, a storming Calypso beside him.
Piper giggles. "Those two..."
Percy nods. "I'm glad that she got someone she deserved. And Leo, too. They both needed someone."
Annabeth gives him a little smile, and they walk away, leaving us with Piper and Jason.
Jason looks at us again. "Are you actually dating, or are you just messing with us?"
Connor pulls me so his arm's around my shoulder, and I snuggle against him. "We are now."
I hadn't even thought about it. We are dating. What's dating like? I've never had a boyfriend. I just wasn't that girl. But Connor is sexy and funny and kind. Also mischievous. I get the feeling that a lot of people have been subjects of his pranks.
He'll be a perfect boyfriend. I can tell.
I've never kissed.
What if I'm a bad kisser? What if he doesn't like girls like that? What if he wants to go ALL THE WAY?
I clear my head of what-ifs. Connor won't ask for any of that unless I'm ready. And he likes me for me.
Piper's giggle snaps me back to reality. "You two are the cutest couple."
I didn't fully understand the concept of blushing until right now.
Piper walks away.