Things were going well. Leo Valdez had asked Shannon to hang out, she finally got to the top of the climbing wall (without ruining her shirt), and there was nobody in her favorite practice spot.

So life was perfect, right? Wrong.

Shannon was never noticed. She was always the loser, unsociable child of Nike who stayed far out of the way of the popular demigods. Leo Valdez, superstar son of Hephaestus and magical fire… dude was not allowed to mingle with a loser, according to some magical rule.

Shannon wasn't really sure where it was in the pamphlet, but it existed somehow.

Girls swarmed her at every chance, telling her to screw off and go back to where she came from. But seriously? He just asked her to hang out, it wasn't like he asked her to marry him or something.

And then, the pranks began. Shannon would wake up with her hair blue, or clothing two sizes too small, or her sword would only hit the ground and not anything else. She didn't even trust food anymore since the last camp fire, where someone put a potion in her soda that made her dance on the picnic tables.

And to be honest, Shannon hated it.

She was about ready to pack up and leave. She groaned again as yet another arrow missed its target, and she decided to pack up for the evening. And maybe there wouldn't be frogs in her bed sheets tonight.

Just as she was about to pass the Poseidon cabin, she heard shouts from the camp fire. Shannon crept closer, hidden in the shadows of the Ares cabin. She wasn't sure what she expected to see, but it wasn't this.

It was Leo yelling at a bunch of kids- the kids that were pranking her.

"You have no right! If I want to spend time with her than I can! You don't have control over me!" As he got angrier and angrier, his hands burst into flames, licking up his forearms.

And gods did those kids run.

Leo sighed exasperatedly and extinguished himself, and started walking away. Right towards her. Shannon squeezed her eyes tightly, hoping he'd walk right past her hiding place- "Shannon?"

There was a colorful array of Greek words swimming through her head.

"Uh, hi Leo. Sorry I was just walking by and uh…" Hades. She was a bumbling mess. Leo stared at her, something alight in his warm brown eyes. "Did you… did you hear all that?" Shannon nodded slowly.

Her heart pounded in her chest as he drew her in for a hug. He smelled like vanilla shampoo- and machine oil.

"I'm sorry I got you into all of this… If I had know I would've not-" Shannon shushed him. "It's not your fault. I wouldn't have accepted if I didn't know what I was getting into."

Leo's face started flushing. "Yeah, sorry… I'm kind of protective about these sort of things…"

Shannon buried her face in his shoulder, hiding a grin. Maybe these pranks were worth it after all.