Jennifer's P.O.V.
"Jennifer, I really think we should be getting back to training by now," my best friend, Courtney Webb prodded my shoulder. "Mr. D is gonna be pissed if he catches us again."
Courtney has been my best friend since I came to camp 3 years ago. She had deep brown eyes and curly dirty-blond hair. She's really nice and pretty cool most of the time, but when it came to breaking the rules like this, she is always totally paranoid.
"Yeah, if he catches us," I turned over on my towel, sat up and looked at her. "You can go if you want."
"Come on, you know I'd never have the guts to do that." She rolled her eyes.
Courtney and I were tanning on the Long Island Sound at Camp Half-Blood. I'm a daughter of Aphrodite. Courtney's mom is Hecate.
I had decided at the end of 8th grade that I wouldn't always go to training every day, instead, I'd lie on the Sound and get my tan on. I honestly saw no reason to keep training anymore.
"What's even the point of me going anyway? Let's face it- I am not made for this whole 'demigod' gig. Like seriously, I'm stupid, my reflexes suck compared to everyone else, and I can barely hold any sort of weapon without it wobbling out of my grip!" I had been so PO'ed at myself for 3 days straight. I needed to let this out. "I mean, Chiron tries to make me feel better by being all like, 'you'll get it when your time comes' and I'm just over here like, 'I'm sorry but 'my time' is NEVER'. I don't see why he wastes his time with me." I put my head in my hands and groaned.
Behind us, a twig snapped under someone's shoe. Within a split second, Courtney was up and in a battle stance, ready to murder whoever was eavesdropping on us. I suddenly felt very exposed in my bikini.
"Gods Arthur, get a life," she huffed, sitting back down. "Don't you have anything better to do?"
Arthur McCabe stepped out of the woods, grinning like an idiot, "Haha, nope. And Jennifer, I am so telling Chiron everything you just said."
"Go ahead. See if I care. I meant every word of it. I hope you had fun playing Super Snitch." I turned around to face him and sat on my heels.
"Seriously Arthur, go step on a LEGO or something." Courtney rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her chest.
He face palmed us and laughed, "Wow, that is the best you could-"
"You," I interrupted, pointing at him and charm-speaking weakly, "are dismissed."
Courtney and I watched as Arthur trudged back through the woods, making sure he didn't try to slip behind a tree and continue stalking us. Of course, he flipping did.
"Go rip that perv apart." I flipped around and looked out onto the ocean, totally done with that boy.
"Already on it," she stood up and cracked her knuckles before slowly creeping up on him. Courtney had always been the stealthy type.
As I stared across the ocean about 5 children of Poseidon ran across the water. After Gaea had been defeated by Jason, Leo and Piper over 20 years ago, the Big Three had decided it was a good time to 'get back in the game'. I know right? Ew.
Anyway, I was surprised by just how long I had been out here; it was almost 2:00 so everyone was on a break. As I watched the Poseidon kids playing Jesus, one of them noticed me sitting on the beach. He waved.
I smiled and waved back. He turned and said something to his siblings then started jogging over to me.
As soon as he was in earshot, I called out to him, "Hey, Alex!"
I met Alex Davis two summers ago. He's about 5' 11 and has these incredible green-blue eyes that people would kill for. His naturally blond hair is wavy and swept to the side and he has serious flow. In short, he's super cute. He's nice to anyone (who deserves it), funny in the right places, pretty much the whole package. Over last summer, we had become really good friends and were partners in training whenever we could be. Too bad I barely train anymore. Susan Carter, this girl in my cabin, keeps saying that he's 'totally into me' to try to get me to go. I guess I should really take her advice more seriously because Susan can tell who someone likes just by looking at them. I had only thought about him as a friend until like last week, so I wasn't too surprised when I heard my heart thump just a little harder as he approached.
"'Sup Jenny?" He said, sitting down next to me.
"Nothing," I absentmindedly traced circles in the sand at my feet. The thought of Arthur tattling to Chiron about what I said was starting to worry me a little. Like, what if Arthur wasn't totally bluffing? Gods, I'd be screwed. I must've done a terrible job at hiding my worry.
"C'mon, even you know that's not true. What's wrong?" He put his hand on my shoulder.
I turned to look at him. His eyes looked playful, but slightly concerned. I took a deep breath and stammered, "I-I'm, I feel like.. I feel like I'm worthless." I tore my eyes away from his and looked back into the sand as quickly as I could.
"Jennifer, what are you talking about?" Alex pulled me up by my shoulder so I could look him in the eye. "You are the farthest thing from worthless."
"I know, I mean... thanks... it's just... gods, I said that way too bluntly," I gave him a nervous laugh. "What I mean is, I'm not made up to be a demigod who actually gets out into the world and does something. Like, let's be real here, if you were offered a quest, who would be your first pick on people you could take with you? A child of Ares? Sure. Zeus? Not even a question, yes. Hephaestus? You better. But Aphrodite? Just... no! Like, what could I do? Hair flip a monster to death? No! It's just..." I put my head into my knees and groaned.
"Well," Alex seemed at a loss for words, "Didn't Piper McLean charm-speak Gaea into an eternal sleep?"
"Yeah but—whatever. I mean sometimes it's cool to be Aphrodite's kid because you're really pretty. And it's fun like, seducing guys every now and then but—"
"Wait what?" Alex stared at me. "What do you mean 'seducing guys'?"
If he really wants to know... I thought playfully, why not show him? I giggled, and locked his eyes with mine. "I have no idea what you're talking about." I said, making sure I sounded like a total bubblehead.
See, 'seducing' is pretty much charm-speak without actually saying what you want the person to do. Instead, you can send strong vibes through your tone and expressions. It's like Charm-speaking: Level 2. Its not as direct or obvious, so I've always liked it better.
I batted my eyelashes and gave him a runway smile. I really hope this works, because if it doesn't, I'd just look like a total idiot in front of half the Poseidon cabin.
Suddenly, Alex grabbed the back of my neck and kissed me. I heard lots of 'oooooh's' coming off the ocean as I pulled away slowly.
"Like that," I smiled coolly even though my heart was beating a mile a minute.
"You made me do that?" Alex's cheeks were flushed a bright pink as he glanced back at his siblings.
"Oh please, I'd only be able to make you really want to do anything. Your secretly wanting to kiss me was the only reason you did." I grinned smugly.
Alex's cheeks got even redder. "Oh," he mumbled.
"But don't worry," I added quickly, turning a little red myself, "I wouldn't have made you if I didn't want to myself."
He smirked at me, and I felt a little better. He took a deep breath, "I guess there's no better time then now to ask you... Will you go out with me?" Alex held his breath.
"Um, uhhh—"Okay, I admit, I freaked a little. I would've totally said yes, but I didn't see it coming somehow, so here I am blubbering and stuttering like an idiot trying to formulate words and at the same time, absolutely ruining his self-confidence. I don't know what exactly I was thinking. I mean I was the one who just made him kiss me is front of a bunch of his siblings. Gods I must look like some shallow, Aphrodite attention hog. I was about to say yes when he interrupted me.
"Whatever," he shook his head. "Forget I asked. But Jennifer, I have a serious bomb to pick with you. Why aren't you showing up to training? I mean, I get that you don't think it's worth it for you, but you are the only person at this camp who thinks the closest thing to that about you."
"Then I'm the only person at this camp who doesn't lie to themselves about me." I turned back to the sand and continued drawing in it. Like it wasn't awkward enough that he just asked me out and I wasn't even able to respond, now he's really pressing me on why I have low self-esteem. Honestly, it was probably the snotty bitches in my cabin. Most of my siblings were usually nice to me, but then there's those three people that are so freaking annoying.
Alex groaned. "You're impossible." He shook his head.
"It's a flaw," I admitted.
"No, I mean yeah, but you've just got this terrible image of yourself in your head and it is definitely going to come back and hurt you," he turned my head so I would look him in the eye. "And no one here would ever want that to happen."
"Gods, why do you have to be such a good person?" I gave him a little smile.
"Because," he smiled back, "you're way too hard on yourself."
"Whatever," I laid back down on my towel.
Courtney finally came out from the woods and sat down on her towel. "Well," she said, "we won't be seeing Arthur for a week after he gets out of the infirmary." She giggled.
"Up top," I laughed, holding up my hand for a high five. She smacked it. Hard.
"'Sup Alex," she smirked.
"Hey Court," he nodded. "So, what did Arthur do this time?"
"Pshhh everything." Courtney said and I laughed. "He was watching us while we were tanning."
"Like, ew." I commented.
Alex knitted his eyebrows and nodded. "That's low, even for him."
"I know right? Like, which god is his parent again? Whoever it is, I feel sorry for them."
Alex laughed. "I think it's Pheme, goddess of fame and gossip," he shrugged.
Courtney laughed, "That makes sense."
I pulled on my orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt and a pair of shorts that I had left folded next to my towel. "I'm going to go get lunch. Do you guys want to come?"
"I'm in," Courtney raised her hand stood up. She already was in her Camp Half-Blood attire in case Chiron or Mr D happened to creep up behind us she could make a quick getaway.
"Sure," Alex said, brushed the sand off his jeans. "Let's go."
We walked to the mess hall and split up to go to our tables.
I was about to sit down when a voice came from behind me and said, "Jennifer Moore, can I speak to you for a moment?"