AN: So I know I said I'd have this up a lot sooner, but I've been in and out of doctor's offices and hospitals for the past three weeks with severe pneumonia. I've wanted to work on this fic, but it's been really hard to concentrate with a fever and being loaded up on meds. I'm finally beginning to feel better, though, and I've been able to get to work on this fic. Enjoy. -dmac

Disclaimer: I do not own PJO.

1. Getaway

Bored. I was bored out of my mind, and if I was going stir-crazy, then the other 150 campers that had ADHD were going nuts.

I'd heard of slow summers at Camp Half-Blood, but this was the first time I'd actually experienced one. It was the middle of August and not a thing had happened all summer: no quests, no attacks, no Rebellion stirring up trouble. It was boring, and Jason being gone out looking for his son the whole summer made it even worse.

Russ was filling in for Jason as trainer, which kept me out of the arena a lot. Russ wanted to kill me after what happened last summer. He blamed me for Lexie breaking up with him for reasons I still can't figure out. Lexie said he was jealous of our friendship, and with jealousy being Russ' fatal flaw, that made it easy for him to put the blame on me. Whatever, it wasn't my fault.

"Focus, CJ," Lexie said as I aimed an arrow at a balloon that was swaying in the light breeze.

"I can't focus if you keep distracting me."

"Do you honestly think that in the heat of battle a monster is just going to stop and let you concentrate for a minute before you shoot?" she asked.

"Do you honestly think I'm ever going to carry a bow into battle? I mean, seriously?"

She rolled her eyes, pulled three arrows from her quiver, knocked them, then fired, popping three swaying balloons while never once taking her eyes off me. Damn, that girl was good. She made the best archers at camp look like beginners. Chiron said she was the best archery student he'd ever had, and that's saying something. He'd been training heroes for thousands of years.

"Cheater," I said.

She put a hand on her hip and asked, "How did I cheat?"

"Apollo's your dad. It gives you an unfair advantage."

After archery lessons, I was off to train with Noah, which had pretty much been my daily routine this summer: training, lunch, training, supper, bed- with the occasional chariot race or game of capture the flag thrown in. It was a lot like school, going to the same classes at the same time everyday. Actually, I was sort of looking forward to going back to school. At least there I had baseball, but then again, school meant seeing Nic everyday, too.

Things between me and Nic had been awkward since the incident in Marathon last summer. We weren't close like we used to be, which sucked, but I guess I could understand her apprehension with me. I know being kidnapped then rescued by me when a bomb blew up a bank freaked her out.

Every time I thought things were getting better between us, something would happen: I'd see something through the Mist or she'd catch me talking to myself (which was usually an IM) then she'd draw away from me again. By the end of the school year, I'd come to the conclusion that I'd lost any hope of having any kind of relationship with Nic. It upset me, but surprisingly, not as much as I thought it would. I think Dad might've been right about a certain young lady at camp holding more of my attention than Nic did.

"Well, tell me this, hypothetically…" I began.

Noah side-stepped my sword that I'd jabbed at his shoulder and groaned, "Oh, I feel a nightmare coming on."

"It's not that bad, and it's only a hypothetical."

"Fine," he grumbled. "Spill."

I told him my plan.

He held up a hand, pausing our sparing match. "You're not serious?" he asked.

"Don't I sound serious?"

"CJ, we can't just leave camp and go on vacation because you want to impress Lexie. It's against the rules to leave camp without a quest, anyway."

"I'm not trying to impress her," I insisted.

"Listen, I know you like her, but she's already had her heart broken. I'm not sure if she's ready for a new relationship yet."

I rolled my eyes, "Thank you, counselor."

"If you want, I could ask around camp," he offered. "I'm sure I could get you a date with someone."

"I don't want you to get me a girl, Noah. What is this? Vegas? And seriously, this isn't about Lexie. I'm bored with this mundane routine, and I know you are, too. Think about it: me, you, Morgan, and Lexie having fun on the beach at Montauk for a couple of days. Even if it is against the rules, where's the harm in it?"

I spent most of the summer in the archery range and spear range training with Lexie and Noah. And when I wasn't with them, I spent time with Jade since this would be her last summer at camp. She'd gotten a scholarship to play basketball at the University of Tennessee.

Jade left camp on the third day of August, a few weeks earlier than the rest of us would, so she could spend some time with her mom, then get settled into her dorm on campus. It was hard to say goodbye to Jade, especially when she broke down crying like a baby. She was the closest thing I'd had to a sister, and I was just getting used to the clutter in cabin three, and now she was gone. I had a clean cabin all to myself, and I hated it.

I changed into some clean clothes and kicked back on my bunk for a few minutes, waiting for dinnertime. The one thing I couldn't get out of my mind about the summer was the lack of the Rebellion trying to cause some sort of ruckus. It was odd considering they were our greatest foe at the moment, and they were notorious for their brazen moves against not only Camp Half-Blood, but the Roman camp and other groups of demigods, as well. I was just waiting for the shoe to drop, waiting for their surprise attack…which, now two weeks until the end of the summer, still hadn't happened.

"I heard a rumor," Morgan said as she strolled up alongside me as I walked toward the dining pavilion.

"Oh, and what would that be?" I asked her.

"That you're wantin' to play hooky this weekend."

"That's not true," I lied, only because I get great satisfaction in annoying the little twerp of an oracle.

"The hell it ain't," she said. "I know damn good and well you are; Noah done told me. And I'm goin', too. I sure as hell ain't gonna let you pull a great escape without me."

"I didn't think Noah wanted to go," I said.

She rolled her eyes, "Oh, come on. Noah will follow you and me anywhere. He's like a puppy."

"That's mean," I said.

"What?" she shrugged. "I like puppies. Puppies are cute."

"You're comparing a son of the titan Prometheus to a puppy?"

"At least I didn't compare him to a possum." She looked me up and down. "You're more like a possum."

I stopped in my tracks. "How am I a possum?"

"Well, for starters, you play dead every time you even get near Lexie."

"I do not! I was just training with her earlier."

"But that's all you ever do is train. Ask the girl out, kiss her, do somethin'. You like her. I know you do, you know you do…we all know. Balls-up and get the girl."

"It's not that simple," I sighed. And it wasn't. Lexie was my friend, and like Noah said, she might not be ready for a relationship yet. It would be awkward to ask my friend out or kiss her if she didn't like me back like that. With my luck, I'd just screw up our friendship, and I didn't want that even if it meant I'd never get the girl.

I sat alone at my table in the dining pavilion dodging peas that Morgan was flicking at me with her spoon. That was her way of pestering me into going through with my plan to get away for the weekend. Morgan wasn't one for rules, only for breaking them, and this little plan to sneak away from camp was right up her alley. I also knew it'd be right up Lexie's alley, too. Her fearlessness wouldn't let her back down from it. All I'd have to do was tell her about the plan, and she'd be on board in a heartbeat.

I caught up with Lexie as we walked toward the amphitheatre for the nightly campfire and sing-along. "Hey, I wanted to ask you something," I said to her as we walked.

"What's up?" she asked.

"I was thinking about going to Montauk this weekend," I replied.

"With your parents?"

I shook my head, "No, I was thinking just me, you, Noah, and Morgan could go."

She smirked, "I see. You want to sneak away from camp."

I returned her smirk, "You in?"

"Of course, I'm in."

"Good," I smiled. "We'll meet at the van shed at six in the morning."

When I got back to my cabin after the campfire, I packed a bag and tried to get some sleep. My excitement and nerves kept me awake, though. I was nervous, because it was against the rules to leave camp, and I didn't want to get busted before we even got out. I was also excited about going to Montauk. I hadn't been to our family vacation home there in two years. I missed it. I had some really good times there in the summer months with my parents when I was growing up. Mom and I used to pitch horseshoes while Dad grilled steaks. Dad taught me how to sail on a little catamaran in the bay when I was barely old enough to attend school. And one of my favorite things was building elaborate sand castles with Mom on the beach while Dad used his power over water to fill the moats around the sand castles. It was all very Lifetime now that I really think about it. The occasional monster attack on the beach wasn't even enough to tarnish those good memories. I have to admit, I've had it pretty good in my life, even though that life is tainted by the gods.

My alarm rang at 5:30 a.m. I'm not usually a morning person. As a matter of fact, I'm never a morning person. I like my sleep. That morning though, I was ready to go. I quickly threw on my board shorts and a t-shirt, grabbed my pack, Mets cap, and sunglasses, then headed out the door of cabin three. I eased my way through camp, sticking to the shadows to stay unnoticed as I made my way to the camp's border. Not many campers are up before six a.m., so it was easy to make it to the van shed without being seen. When I got there, Lexie was already there waiting, which was no surprise. Unlike me, she is a morning person. Family curse, I guess.

She certainly looked like she was ready for a vacation. She wore a pair of cutoff jeans and tank over her bikini, flops, and a pair of gold-rimmed aviator sunglasses that looked almost too big for her face. Her army-green pack sat at her feet and her trusty bow in hair-pin form was holding her hair up in a loose bun. Did I mention she was gorgeous?

"Where's Noah and Morgan?" she asked as she looked at the sports watch on her left wrist.

"We're here," I heard Noah's voice over my shoulder.

I turned to see Noah and Morgan strolling toward the shed. They were dressed for the beach, too.

"CJ," Morgan said. "You didn't tell me we were also gonna steal a van or I woulda got here early to hotwire it."

"Sorry, Morgan, but we're not stealing a van," I said.

"Damn," she sighed. She's definitely a granddaughter of Hermes.

"What are we taking then?" Lexie asked.

I walked three stalls over in the shed and pulled a green tarp off an automobile. It was my Jeep.

"Where did you get that?" Noah asked wide-eyed.

"It was my sixteenth birthday present. I drove it to camp this summer," I explained.

Morgan, Lexie, and Noah looked over the old navy blue Jeep my parents bought me.

"I thought your parents were rich," Morgan said. "They couldn't afford to get you somethin' nicer?" She's such a charmer.

I'd already destroyed Mom's Volvo last summer, and she ended up having to get a new car because of it. She thought it was practical that I just got an old, cheap, clunker for my first car, because- her words: "He's a teenager, and he's just going to wreck it anyway." My dad agreed, and statistically, they were right. So, I ended up with a Jeep Wrangler that was nearly as old as I was.

"What?" I shrugged. "It's a classic."

"Does it even run?" she asked.

I grinned, "Like a scalded dog."

"I like it," Lexie smiled. "Can we take the top off?"

I had the soft top on it because it was raining the day I drove to camp, but now there was no reason for a top. I nodded to Lexie, and all four of us began taking the top off of my Jeep.

"Shotgun!" Lexie called as we began piling in.

Noah was in the backseat buckling his seatbelt when he said, "I hope you guys realize how much trouble we're going to be in when we get back."

"Oh, it won't be that bad, Noah," Lexie said. "We'll probably be on dish duty for the rest of the summer, but that's only two more weeks."

"And besides," Morgan nudged Noah's shoulder with her own. "It's easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to get permission."

I looked at Morgan through the rearview mirror. "Is that like your motto or something?" I teased.

She grinned, "Words to live by, CJ. Words to live by."