Will Solace kept shooting basketballs at the hoop. He wasn't angry, sad or happy. He was mixed with feelings, no, he was slightly terrified to see the scary faces of his siblings when they found out that one of their most prized possessions were stolen.

Of course they would get suspicious when Will was the only one who didn't get anything stolen. But did it matter anyway? He was going on a quest, so they didn't have time to kick his sorry butt.

He shot another basketball. He got slightly better when it hit through with ease. Basketball was easy, almost as easy as shooting an arrow. He smiled to himself when he remembered teaching Alexis archery. Even though she was one of the worst archers in the demigod history, she was perfect. Not actually perfect. She was snappy, sarcastic, sometimes rude, reckless and very good to fight, so if he ever insulted her, he would have bruises that would last even more than the hairsprays experience date.

But still… she was perfect for him. She was the most beautiful girl in the world. The first time in Olympus, he saw Aphrodite. She was of course stunningly beautiful, but Alexis was so more. He loved her hair, he usually preferred blondes, but she had that perfect bronze colored hair with blonde highlights. She would probably be the prettiest girl in the camp without the blessing, but the blessing was just something that belonged to her. He wasn't sure which type he liked best. Maybe curly? It fitted her most.

At first she was a little bit distant and she had that adorable lost expression in her face, but afterwards she got more open and her eyes were sparkling more than ever.

He took up a basketball and looked at it. For some weird reason he saw his dad's face, which was of course ridiculous since his dad wasn't near looking like a basketball. He wasn't close to his dad, well none of the gods kids were. Will respected him and his duties, but when Alexis came up from the beach with her white t- shirt with the bikini top showing and her ripped shorts. She had that startled look in her face that no one could get without being in a gods appearance. He knew that she met him, she had slightly dreamy look in her eyes that girls usually got when they met his dad.

He frowned. Of course it was the Apollo charm, even Will inherited some of him which was of course logical when his cabin is known to be players like the Aphrodite cabin. He had several girlfriends but they only lasted some days, but he wanted a relationship with Alexis.

There, he said it. He had feelings for her and scolded himself for saying that they had to act like friends.

When she agreed it felt like someone ingested poison in his heart. But again… it wasn't his idea.

He remembered the day right before he was going to apologize to Alexis after the volleyball incident and suddenly Apollo appeared in an IM. He remembered his words: Do you love her? Aren't you too early? I don't want her to break your heart.

It wasn't necessarily in that order but those lines were actually the lines that mattered for him. And why does everyone think he's a player? He only dated one girl in camp, but of course with his stupid luck he was always there when a girl ran away crying. Boom! There was a new fake reputation of him being a heartbreaker made. Now someone probably spread the rumor about him to Alexis, and she agreed to be friends.

He wanted to slap himself. He was thinking like a lovesick idiot, he was a son of Apollo for god's sake, he shouldn't act like that. Every time he was with Alexis, he would blush and stutter like an idiot. Well… he was an idiot. An idiot for letting a girl like her go.

He was about to throw the basketball until someone else's ball hit through. He looked at the direction where the ball was thrown and he almost gasped at the sight. Alexis stood there in an oversized green hoodie and black basketball shorts and her blue converse. Her curly waist long hair was pulled up in a messy ponytail and she looked like she just woke up. Will thought she looked absolutely beautiful.

"Hey."

"Hey," she said holding into a basketball.

Will hoped he didn't blush, if he did he was afraid that his face was going to stay permanently red of all that blushing he did when she was around.

"What are you doing up so late?"

"You're the one I should ask," she said. "You know, child of the sun god. Always asleep in the night."

"Oh." Absolutely stupid, what kind of person is he? She walked over to him with her highlights shining. She pulled down his hood and he was thankful to see her face. She usually looked woken and happy, but if he looked deep inside her eyes he could see hidden sadness. He knew that she wanted a real family, a person that loves her and would take care of her. He immediately knew that she missed the feeling of coming home and her mom would smile giving her a snack and ask how her day had been.

But that was almost half of her life ago. She didn't come home seeing her mom smile and say that she was proud of her. No, instead she struggled on the streets or came home to a place where they didn't love her, but was mean to her.

He wished that he could take that pain away, but he couldn't. He wasn't a mother wearing an apron holding a tray of cookies, but he wanted to make her as happy as he could. Her beautiful voice jarred him out of his thoughts.

"Why are you up so late?" He wished she at least would stutter or blush, but she didn't and his self- esteem took another blow.

"Pranked my cabin. I'm safer out here than in my cabin. Plus I couldn't sleep." Nice one Will, he at least said a sentence.

"Because of the quest?" Her hair bounced up and down. He wanted take the ponytail out and see hair shiny hair fall down.

Will nodded and lied down. "I feel like I'm not going to do any good."

Alexis lied down and Will wished that he could wrap his arms around her and touch her hair. But he didn't want to scare her.

"Of course you're gonna do good, Will. I'm the one who's messing it up."

"What?"

"I'm the new one. I'm the stupid leader that is going to fail us all."

He didn't believe her words, how could she fail? Before realizing what he did, he yanked her so he faced him. Her breath smelled like cinnamon and vanilla. He looked at her eyes. They were sparkling but they also looked sad and desperate.

He wanted to hug her or maybe even kiss her, but how can he? She would think he was crazy.

"No you're not. I need you. We need you. Don't say that."

"But-"

"No. You will do good in the quest. Trust me."

A smile graced on her pink angel lips. She had the most amazing smile; Will thought her smile could make the galaxy white instead of black. If he looked close enough in her eyes he could see small specks of deep blue in them.

She looked up, and said, "It goes fast doesn't it?"

"Huh?" Will knew what she said but he was so distracted by her face that the first word he could think of blurted out. He was fascinated by her long bold black eyelashes that framed her eyes. He never noticed that she had beauty marks on the right side of the face.

"Life," she said. "I came when I was 13, and now I'm already 14."

"Wow, I never thought like that. Hey, now were both 14. Cool isn't it?"

"And then you're turning fifteen." If he ever survived the quest.

"But that's like 3 months to."

She laughed her beautiful laugh. It was probably the most beautiful sound in the world. "Yeah."

Will looked up and suddenly her small but warm hand touched his. He could feel that she was slipping it away but he grabbed her hand. It fitted so perfectly that he couldn't believe it. Just by touching her made his skin tingle and send sparks in his veins.

His grin formed into a smile. He wished that she would curl into him, both of them together facing the stars.

Apollo's voice echoed in his head: Just friends…

But no… he didn't want to be friends. She was too special.

He wanted to stay like that forever, he realized how close she actually was to him and he could smell the scent of roses, raspberries, fresh blossoms and sea breeze. The scent fitted her so much and it just smelled her.

He was in heaven until he heard squawking and cursing. No… not now.

Alexis looked at him with her sea- green eyes widening.

Will widened his eyes. "Harpies," he whispered.

The trace of disappointment was showing in her face. It made him feel better that she enjoyed being with him too. "Oh gods."

"We have to go. I don't wanna be eaten." He didn't want to be eaten, but he wanted to be more with her. Maybe they could hide in the forest until he realized how stupid that idea sounded.

She tugged on his hand. "Bye," he whispered.

"Bye," she whispered back. The moon shined on her and she looked like a shining goddess.

She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.

She ran to her cabin and Will stood there like a doofus touching his cheek grinning dreamingly. She kissed him, and this was real, not like a guitar lesson bill.

He heard more squawking and Will ran quickly to his cabin, but he was considering the plan about going to the forest.

He was a lovesick idiot for sure.