Ashlyn's POV:

"Good morning beautiful." A voice said. I opened my eyes to see a blurry figure with short fluffy brown hair and a soft, warm face above me. Rubbing my eyes, the figure became more clear.
"Skylar?" I yawned.
"Nope, it's Peter." The figure laughed. I sat up in surprise and backed away from him.
"What are you doing in my bed?" I said trying to fix my dress.
"Waking you up. You slept past breakfast." Peter was sitting on the edge of my bed, hands in his lap.
"Where's Skylar? Where's my friends?" I asked.
"They're all still asleep in their cabins. I think their counselors are waking them up. Well except for the Hypnos cabin, they pretty much sleep all day." I pushed the heavy fur blankets off me and jumped out of bed. I turned to the mirror closest to me and fixed some stray hairs. After giving myself a quick once over, I started toward the front door of the cabin.
"Hold on, you can't go out looking like that." Peter grabbed my arm and pulled me to a table.
"Why not? I'm going to find my friends." I huffed.
"You're a daughter of Aphrodite, you must have some sort of sparkle on you!" Peter sat me down in the white cushioned chair and started to dig around in the piles of makeup. He picked out a deep red lipstick, some dark smokey eyeshadows, pearl white highlighter, and foundation that matched my skin tone perfectly. He took a total of five minutes to apply it all and then pulled me out of the chair and to one of the racks of clothes.
"Now, seeing as you wore this dress yesterday, you are expected to wear something new. Something stylish, something a little like..." He pulled out a pearl white mini dress with a bedazzled top covered in diamonds. "Something like this," he said laying the dress gently into my hands and lightly pushed me towards a changing partition.
"Go on, try it on for me." He urged. I took the dress to the other side of the partition and just stood there looking at the full body mirror on the wall. I looked a mess. My attempts to fix my hair earlier came undone and my dress was torn and covered with dirt stains. The bottom was torn and small holes found themselves all along the dress. My eyes moved up to my face and I was stunned for a second, not recognizing the beautiful face in the mirror. It looked out of place with my dress and my body covered in deep purple bruises.
"You okay over there?" Peter asked.
"Oh, uh...yeah I'm almost done." I snapped out of my small trance and started to pull the torn dress off my shoulders.
I slipped the clean sparkly dress over my body and did a little turn in the mirror. Stepping out from behind the partition I could see Peter's face light up with pride.
"Wow, you look even better than before!" He exclaimed.
"Now am I allowed to leave the cabin?" I asked putting my hands on my hips.
Peter just chucked, "Yeah I suppose so."
"Then can you bring me to my friends' cabins?" I asked.
Peter fell silent, "Well, I can show you where they are but you can't go inside any of them."
"Why not?" I asked.
"Well...cabin members can't go into other cabins. It's disrespectful to whoever God or Goddess' cabin it is." He explained.
"I need to find my friends, I-"
"It's okay, we'll find them. Don't worry." Peter grabbed my shoulders and looked into my eyes. My face flushed a light pink.
I need to find Skylar.
Shrugging him off, I turned to the door and put my hand on the handle.
"Hephaestus cabin would be in the shop welding if you want to find your red head friend." Peter said. I turned to look at him from over my shoulder and gave him a small smile.
"Thanks." With that last word, I turned the door handle and stepped out into the warm sun.
The rescue mission is on.

After wandering around the sunny valley, I can upon a small shop. The walls were steel and a large chimney at the top billowed clouds of black smoke. I assumed it was Hephaestus' cabin welding shop and I walked up to knock on the door. I raised my fist to the door but before I could knock, it swung open and before me was a tall girl covered in welding gear. She lifted her giant helmet and gave me a toothy smile.
"Hey there! Welcome to the shop!" She said, wiping her greasy hands on her brown leather overalls.
"You're Lily Valdez right?" I asked.
"Yuup!" The girl responded cheerfully.
"Is my friend Julie here?"
"Ah you mean Frost! Yeah she's here." Lily jabbed her thumb over her shoulder. I peered over to where she was pointing and saw someone dressed head to toe in scrap metal and a large metal welding helmet on top with bright red hair poking out. The only part of her that wasn't covered in metal were her hands, which were completely bare. Bright orange-red fire engulfed her cupped hands as she slowly shaped a small piece of metal into a ball.
"Hey Frost!" Lily called, "Use the blowtorch! It gets hotter and it's easier to form metal with."
Julie looked up and gave a fiery thumbs up.
"Can I borrow her for a second?" I asked Lily.
"I mean we're kind of busy right now..."
"Please, it won't take long just a minute." Lily brought her hands to her hips and sighed.
"Alright. Stay here, we have open fires inside and I don't want you to get burned." Lily turned and walked back inside towards Julie. She clapped her on the shoulder and Julie looked up from her chunk of metal. Lily said a few words and motioned towards me. Julie nodded at her, put out her fire, and removed her welding helmet.
"So, what do you need." Julie said, walking toward me.
"We need to find the others and find a way home. I don't know why the portal brought us here but i don't think it's just a coincidence." Julie just gave a small sigh and her eyes turned a dim orange.
"Ashlyn, can't we just enjoy this place for a few days? I'm tired of running and fighting for my life. I'm actually enjoying this camp and all it's activities." I could tell my friend was defeated. She looked tired, with deep and heavy bags under her eyes and the dullness in her fiery appearance.
"Julie you know we can't stay here. We have to go home at some point." Sadness seeped into her eyes as I spoke, and I knew she strongly disagreed with me.
She sighed, "Well, can I at least have a few days to enjoy myself? I'll let you know when I'm ready to leave." Julie turned and slowly shut the door without waiting for a response. I heard the clang of metal and the smell of smoke filled my nose. Shaking my head, I went off into the grassy valley.

After looking for the remainder of my friends for the next few hours, I felt hopeless. No one could be found, except for Julie but she was holed up in the Hephaestus shop. I heard from Peter that Rachel and the rest of Hypnos' cabin was still sleeping, and I was frustrated that I wasn't allowed in the small blue building to wake up my friend. Overhead, a large shadow swooped by leaving a storm of black feathers in it's wake. I picked up one of the feathers and instantly knew who they belonged to. Skylar.

I was out of breath after running all the way to the pegasus stables. I was certain it was my friend up there riding one of the horses. After waiting a few minutes, two large black pegasi landed on the soft grass. On top of the left one, sat my beloved Skylar.
"Ashlyn! What are you doing down here?" He exclaimed with a giant smile on his face.
"I was about to ask you the same thing Sky, so what do you think you're doing riding a flying horse?" my eyes fell on the second pegasus. The rider on the right was none other than Nicole de Angelo herself.
"Or should I say, riding a flying horse with her?"
Nicole dismounted and grabbed her pegasus by the reins, and lead it into the stables without as much as looking at me.
"Oh, Nicole offered to give me pegasus riding lessons this morning. It's so much more fun than using our wings!" He spread his arms and giant black feathery wings sprouted from his back. Small puffs of black feathers fluttered to the ground and Skylar retracted his wings.
"Well I need your help making a plan to get out of this place. Julie is no help and actually wants to stay here!" I shook my head. Skylar's smile slowly disappeared and his eyes found interest in the ground.
"Yeah, about that Ashlyn..." He lifted his hand up to the neck of his pegasus and gave it a small pat. The horse gave a snort as a response.
"Oh don't tell me you want to stay here too." Skylar didn't answer as he slipped off his horse.
"No it's not that Ashlyn, it's just...I don't know...can't we just stay here for awhile? I mean, of course we'll still go home. I just don't see why we have to be in a rush." Skylar couldn't meet my eyes. I couldn't believe what he was saying.
"I can't believe you'd say that Sky. I thought we would work together on this. But i guess I thought wrong." I quickly turned and broke into a sprint, as thick tears started to fill my eyes.
"Ashlyn wait!" he called after me. But i didn't hear him. My friends, my best friends, and even the love of my life has turned their backs on me and our future.

Once I returned back to the cabin, I found that it was empty. I dropped onto my bed and sunk down into the fur blankets. Sitting there in silence gave me a lot to think about. How I can't find all my friends, how the ones I can find don't want to leave, and how Skylar basically told me he didn't want to be with me back home. With hot tears rolling down my cheeks, I turned over and buried my face into the feather pillows. A sweet, sickly scent wafted over me.
Who is spraying perfume?
I picked my head up expecting to see someone else in the empty cabin with me, but instead found a beautiful sparkling red rose sprouting from a small pot on my bedside that wasn't there before.
"Hello? Is anyone in here?" I asked the room. No answer. I sat up in my bed and leaned over to the nightstand. The rose smelled like a field of fresh spring flowers and i assumed was the cause for the perfume smell. I cant explain how the rose made me feel, there were so many emotions mixing together in my stomach. Love and hatred were the strongest. Without thinking, I reached out my hand to grasp the rose. With every inch my hand got closer, those feelings got stronger. At last I grasped the flower around the stem and squeezed. Pain pricked the palm of my hand but I couldn't let go of the flower. I was in a trance. Holding on tighter and tighter, as blood began to drip down my hand and onto the table, a fog came over my mind.
He doesn't love you...
He will never love you...
You can now let go...
A voice was whispering in my head.
"You're right, I don't need Skylar. I don't need anyone." I said aloud. Letting go of the rose, I felt a new found hatred burning inside me. Why did I ever fall in love in the first place? Shifting out of bed, I only had one person on my mind.
My ex boyfriend Skylar.