Nico

I walk down to breakfast, rubbing my eyes and running my hand through my messy hair. My jeans are wrinkled and my black shirt is ripped from battle and survival, but at least I’m out. It’s not like I’m trying to win a fashion show here.

“Nico!” Oh, great.

“Hi…” I turn around slowly, and avoid making eye contact with the sea-green eyes I know are there.

“Where have you been? I saw you for, like, five seconds yesterday, but that was it. I almost thought you had left.”

“Oh yeah? And why didn’t you?”

“Didn’t what?”

“Why didn’t you think I left?” I see her fidget her hands.

“I don’t know.” She says after a pause. “Whatever. Let’s go eat! Unless… Are you going to sit on the side like you did last time?”

“Depends. Are you going to insist on sitting with me?” I say, mimicking the sarcastic tone I always hear from her. When I finally look up, Lila looks offended.

“Not if you don’t want me to.” I don’t respond. “Then no. I won’t.” Her face, and voice, hardens.

“What happened to, ‘you can’t get rid of me’?” I suddenly ask. Why, why, why would I ask that? I’ve been waiting for the day Lila would leave me alone.

“You happened. If you’re so set on being stubborn, then fine. Don’t accept my friendship. I’m sorry I tried to shine a little light on your stormy parade.” Lila walks past me and to the fire pit, where Percy, Annabeth, Jason, and Piper are waiting. That’s where she belongs, anyways.

Instead of joining for breakfast with the rest of them, I lean my back against a tree, a few feet away. I ignore my growling stomach and start to close my eyes when I hear,

“Hey! Nico, right?” My eyes shoot open with annoyance. Well, at least it’s not persistent Lila. The kid who called out to me walks around the tree to stand in front of me. I make no motions to greet him. Who the hell is he, and why is he bothering me? His stance, friendly smile, and boyish look doesn’t make me immediately hate me, but I have the feeling his next few words will. “I’m Adam.” He waits for a response that probably won’t come.

“Hm.” I grunt in acknowledgement.

“Anyways, I heard you’re the one who brought Lila here to camp, in order to save her life. That’s so cool, man! I mean, it’s really great you did that.”

“Hm. You’re really interested in her, aren’t you. And I didn’t know anyone else was aware of my… Heroic deed.”

“Well, Chiron told me.”

“Not Lila herself? Awkward.” Adam shuffles his feet.

“Well, I would have asked her myself, but I feel awkward talking to her, much less talking to her about her… Amnesia.” Adam leans in and whispers ‘amnesia’, as if it’s the biggest secret in the world and his life would end if anyone else hears. I roll my eyes before Adam can see, and nod earnestly when he does look up.

“Just ask her. I’m sure she’ll be happy to tell you all she knows. Which is basically nothing.” I close my eyes.

“She’s really something, isn’t she…” Adam trails off with the eyes of a star struck kid.

“She’s something alright. Just not the something you’re thinking about.” I open one eye, and watch Adam’s mouth drop, then close, jaw slightly clenched. Man, I love messing with people.

“Oh?” He looks offended. I feel so bad. “How well do you guys know each other? I mean, how do you guys know each other?” Adam’s so awkward. What do girls see in him? There’s only one of Apollo’s kids that I actually like, and that’s Will Solace. Adam is as far from Will as I would let my mind imagine.

“I barely know her. But since she’s made up her mind about me, I’ve made up my mind on her.”

“What does that mean? What does she think about you?” What he really wants to know is what she thinks of him, but there’s no way I could know that.  

“I don’t know. I just don’t think she likes me very much anymore.”

“Oh. Sorry to hear that, dude.” He’s not sorry at all.

“Whatever. No loss. Anyways, if you’re so interested, why don’t you just go down there and talk to her yourself?”

“Because she’s not there.” Adam turns around and looks down at the dining area. He’s right. I can’t spot Lila anywhere. Adam looks at me one more time before going down to join the rest of the camp. He doesn’t say goodbye, doesn’t invite me down. But I’m glad he didn’t; I don’t know what I would say if he had. I close my eyes again. I can feel my stomach growling. Shut up, stomach. There’s no way I’m going down to join the rest of the camp. You’re just going to have to deal.

“If you’re so hungry, then just go down.” I hear a very quiet voice somewhere behind me, and I nearly jump out of my skin. Instead, I turn around in shock.

“Holy Hades! Don’t sneak up on a guy like that, you scared me half to-” I quickly shut up when I see who spooked me. Lila is leaning on a tree, a few feet away from me, with her arms crossed, and head down. Similar to how I was standing moments ago. “How… How long have you been standing there?”

“I went back to my cabin to get something, and on my way back down I saw you hunched up against the tree. I wanted to say something to you, but I remembered how hostile you were. Then Adam came up, and there was no way I could make myself present at that point. So here I stayed.” Her voice is so quiet I have to strain to hear it.

“Oh,” is all I say.

“So. ‘I don’t like you very much’? ‘No loss’?” I don’t say anything. “Whatever. I get it. You’re probably going to leave to be on your own soon anyways.”

“Yeah? Why are you so interested? Why’d you stick around to hear my conversation, when you could’ve just left the other way? Why are you still here?” I start to get angry and defensive, even though I really don’t need to be. That’s the kind of stupid thing this girl does to me.

“I couldn’t care less about what do you, who you talk to, and how you think of me. Leave. Drop off the face of the Earth. Chat up a storm with the camp, gossiping about me, perhaps. I don’t care when you’re leaving, I’d just like to know how.” What? That took me by surprise. I mean, yeah she got mad at me and said stupid things, but that caught me off guard.

“How? What do you mean?”

“It’s a pretty straight-forward question, numb-skull.” There’s something about her using that nickname that nags at me. Reminds me of how… friendly she was to me just a few days ago. Reminds me of how we first met.

“Probably shadow-travel. There aren’t many ways a kid could leave camp without being detected, or caught.”

“I know that.” Lila mutters under her breath.

“Are- are you thinking of leaving?” I ask after a while. Why would she do that? She has everything here.

“There’s nothing for me here.” Oh… right. “Percy’s here, but other than that I have nothing. No one. I need to get out of here to find my lost memories, and possibly to find out who took them from me.”

“So you need a way to leave.” She nods her head, making eye contact with me for the first time during this whole conversation.

“Is there any other way I could slip out of here, without anyone noticing?”

“Don’t you think Percy would notice? Annabeth? Jason, Piper, Chiron?”

“I don’t care. I need to leave, don’t you get it? I need answers. What was your reason to leave? Aside from the fact that you like to keep to the shadows and be on your own, why’d you leave? You’re a hero. You helped save the world. Why wouldn’t you stay?” I shake my head, until I catch something she said.

“I’m no hero, but how’d you know-”

“Percy and Jason do remember you, numb-skull. All of them do. They’ve told me all kinds of stories about your adventures together, good and bad. You’ve done some pretty good things, despite whatever you think.”

“I’ve done horrid things, too, you know.”

“But that doesn’t make you a horrid person.” She sighs. “I’m leaving tomorrow morning. I would leave via the ocean, but I would need a boat and some supplies…”

“There’s a pretty small chance of that working.”

“I know, Nico!” Lila practically shouts at me. “I know.” She repeats, in a quieter voice. “There are too many variables, too many questions, and too many lies in this whole thing, but I have to do it.”

“I wouldn’t think you’d have any trouble with the lying part.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? I’ve never lied to you, not even once!” I don’t take back what I said, but I never realized the truth of that statement. She’s never lied to me. Huh.

“I guess, I get the vibe that you’d make a good actress when you need to. You could think on your feet.”

“I may not have charmspeak, but I am pretty good at convincing people.” She agrees.

“So?” I prompt. “How are you going to leave?”

“Leave? Who's leaving?” Lila and I both jump as a new- angry- voice enters the conversation.