After dinner, Percy showed me to cabin three and let me pick whatever bunk I wanted. When I joked around, saying I’d take his, he shot water at me and told me to pick another. I dried off and plopped down on the bunk across from him, climbing to the top because I’ve always wanted the top bunk.

“If you wake me, I’m going to make sure you find all the beds in the lake.” I warned him before falling asleep.

“Where would you sleep?” I looked at him and saw he had a cocky smile on his face. I rose my eyebrows at him and got the perfect idea.

“I’m sure Leo wouldn’t mind.” When Percy’s smirk fell, I exploded in fits of laughter and he relaxed in his bed.

“Never do that again.” I laughed harder and he threw a pillow at me. I threw it back and we ended up throwing the pillow back and forth for an hour until Jason came in and hit us both with a pillow saying we were keeping him up and shocked us. Literally. We went to bed when he left still laughing and he told us to shut up.

When I woke up, it was six am. I looked over at Percy’s bed and saw him softly snoring. Knowing I wouldn’t be falling back asleep, I walked out of the cabin to see if anyone was up. I ran into Piper and she looked me up and down.

“You need clothes.” I looked at her blankly and nodded my head slowly.

“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”

“Sarcasm doesn’t look good on you.” She grabbed my hand and lead me to the Aphrodite cabin.

“Why am I here?” I asked when we got threw the door.

“Clothes.”

Piper went to a chest and opened it. She shuffled through it for a few minutes and pulled out a pair of black skinny jeans, silver Vans, a black short-sleeved hoodie with silver designs, and a midnight blue top that had straps you could tie in any way. The clothes came flying my way and I caught them before they hit me.

“Um…”

“Put it on. You can keep it by the way.”

“Thanks.” I smiled at her and headed to the bathroom. I put the clothes on, tying the shirt to wrap around my chest and tie behind my neck. I stepped out of the bathroom and Piper turned around.

“I do wonders.” Piper said and straightened the shirt.

“Thanks. How’d you know and have my size?”

“Leo made me the chest so I’d have any size and clothing I wanted and I knew it because it’s an Aphrodite thing.”

“That’s cool. We should probably head to breakfast though.” The conch horn blew and Piper and I laughed walking to the Mess Hall together.

As we walked, Percy, Annabeth, Jason, and Leo joined us. When we were almost at the pavilion I saw a large scar in the ground. I looked at it for a bit and wondered what could have caused it. I made sure to step over the strange mark and sat down at my table with everyone else.

“How’d that scar get in the ground?” I asked them and everyone eyed Percy.

“Four years ago, Nico got angry and discovered his powers. He summoned an army of the undead by accident.” Annabeth answered.

“Why’d he get mad?” I questioned. I felt the air get cold and I knew I had crossed an invisible boundary.

“Percy’s the only one who knows…” Piper trailed off and I looked at Percy.

“I don’t talk about it.” Percy snapped and everyone was shocked. My guess is, Percy doesn’t snap at people a lot.

“Um, okay. So, is there anything I should know about Capture the Flag?” I asked trying to change the subject and it gladly worked.

“Don’t go in there unless you have training and armed with weapons and armor.”

“Don’t underestimate anyone.”

“The Hephaestus cabin always has something up their sleeve.”

“The Stoll brothers will try anything.”

“Always have a plan.”

As all of the people at the table tell me their own vision of advice I try to keep up. After I reply to everything they said in my mind I nod and go back to eating. I heard footsteps coming around and I looked up. Walking into the pavilion was Nico di Angelo wearing all black, hands in his pockets, head down, and frown on his face. No one seemed to notice him but I saw him crystal clear. I understood him. I used to be him. I stood abruptly and tried to walked over there when Jason grabbed my hand and I turned to see all of them looking at me.

“What?”

“Where are you going?” Leo asked.

“To the Hades table.” I said in a ‘duh’ tone.

“Why?” Percy asked.

“Because no one should ever be alone. Even though Jason and Percy are the only children of Zeus and Poseidon, they weren’t alone. Nico is.”

“Did you ever stop to think he wants to be alone?” Leo asked and I looked at him like he was crazy.

“No one ever chooses to be alone.”

“Why do you care so much?” Percy asked suddenly and I glared at him.

“Because I used to be him. I used to be the loner. I used to be the one sitting alone completely isolated.”

“He pushed us all away.” Leo said softly.

“I pushed everyone away! I pushed my friends away. I pushed family away, for Zeus’ sake! I still wanted someone. I wanted anyone to show up but every time someone came by, I thought that they held fake concern. I didn’t think anyone actually cared! Everyone stopped trying to help me after the first try and ignored me because they thought I wanted to be alone but I didn’t. I needed someone.” I let a tear fall and walked off to Nico whipping the tear away.

When I got to the Hades table, I took a deep breath and sat down. Nico looked up and saw me sitting across from him. His eyes widened slightly and he just stared for a second until his shocked look turned to his usual cold stare. Feeling uncomfortable with his icy gaze locked on me, I started to unconsciously bit my lip. After three minutes of silence, I realised he wasn’t going to talk first and everyone at Percy’s table were watching intently.

I sighed and said, “I like your jacket.” Stupid, but it snapped him out of his staring contest with his pancake.

“I don’t think you wasted your time to come over here to tell me you like my jacket. Why are you here?”

“I saw you sitting alone and I wanted to come over.” I told him truthfully.

“Maybe I like being alone,” he tested.

“You might fool everyone else but you can’t fool me.”

“Why’s that?”

“I used to be you, Nico. I know what it’s like to feel like you don’t belong. Everyone around me tried to help but I pushed them away just like you’re doing now.” I saw his eyes soften and he gave up his act.

“Meet me behind my cabin after dinner tonight. I’ll explain somethings to you then. I need some time to think so, you should go back to Percy. Don’t mention this to anyone though.” I nodded at his warning and his cold eyes returned but I smiled anyway. I got up and walked back to Percy.

“How’d it go?” Piper asked.

“It went.” I replied and finished my food.

After breakfast I walked to the lake and met up with Leo. As I walked closer, I took the time to examine him. He was skinny but had obvious muscles, his skin was naturally tanned  making me think he was Latino, and he had curly brown hair. As I got closer I saw that he had great features, warm brown eyes that held an interesting light like he was trying to figure out how every part of something worked, and a mischievous smile. I had to admit, Leo Valdez was extremely attractive. Like, hot.

Leo waved me over and I walked over to him. He didn’t say anything and he signalled for me to be quiet. I obeyed him and he walked into the woods. I hesitated but Leo grabbed my hand and dragged me in causing me to giggle and him to glare playfully. After walking for about ten minutes, we came to a dead end.

“Um, Leo? This is a dead end.”

“Oh, but it isn’t.” I looked at him confused and he put his hand a the wall like rock. It glowed a fiery red and revealed a large door, large enough to have giant machines come in and out of.

“Oh my gods.” I stared in awe as Leo smiled at me.

“Better than the Hades cabin?”

“Much.” I sighed and followed Leo inside, looking around at all the blueprints and unfinished machines.

“This…” Leo threw his hands up and paused for effect, “is Bunker Nine.”

“It’s amazing.”

“I found it here maybe, two years ago. So far, only kids of Hephaestus can get in. I built the Argo II in here, fixed my dragon, Festus, in here, and I’m currently trying to rebuild Festus’ body.”

“You have a dragon?”

“Kind of. Back when I found this place, Festus was an out of control metal dragon and I fixed him up. Jason, Piper, and I ended up taking him on a quest where he did us tons of good but, he over-heated and crashed. The only thing left intact was his head. I ended up building the Argo II and put his head on it. After the war with Gaea, I came back and had to fix Festus up after somethings were taken care. I was even dead for a little bit.” I looked at him and saw that his usual carefree smile wasn’t there and I realised that Festus meant the world to him and he's had one interesting few years.

“You’ll get it. You’re obviously extremely talented.” After I said that, his smile came back.

“You know, I could make you a sword.”

“Actually, I think I already have one.”  Leo looked at in confusion and I showed him my necklace.

“A necklace?”

“When I was last at school, I’m pretty sure that Poseidon came to me. He told me to use my necklace well. I’m guessing that if I pull one of the pendants off, it’ll change into that weapon.” I looked at the necklace and pulled on the sword. The charm slipped off and it grew into a sword.

“That’s awesome.”

“Yeah.” I tried it with the bow and it did the same. I then put the charms back and pulled the shell. It morphed into a large, shell shaped shield with an engraving of a dolphin in the middle.

“Wow. That is an epic shield. How’d you figure that out?”

“I don’t know. It just came to me.”

“What’s with the dolphin?”

“Well, dolphins protect people from enemies. I think it’s supposed to mean that the sea is protecting me.”

“That’s interesting. I’m starting to think you’re actually a daughter of Athena.” I laughed at Leo and we heard the conch from far off.

“I think we should go.” I said and attached the shield back to the necklace.

“One question.”

“Shoot.”

“What’s your favorite animal?”

“A dog. Why?”

“Nothing. Catch you later!” I watched Leo run off and I looked down at my necklace smiling.