Hpov

Dennis and Thea ran around the gardens for another hour and a half before Adam and I managed to wrangle them to the entrance. Thea had won their thieving competition and while I expected Dennis to sulk for a while, he didn't. Apparently his excitement at seeing his favorite sister out weighed his dislike for losing in anything.

I wasn't exactly sure when this aversion had started, but Dennis was the kind of person who was good at pretty much everything he tried. He'd never played soccer before high school and ended up on the varsity team, this year he was co-captain even though he was only a junior, and he was smart, so when it came to our classes he never really had to try. But it wasn't just school and sports that came easy to him. Because he was a child of Hermes he could persuade almost anyone to do whatever he wanted. He was just one of those people that you couldn't help but want to be around, even if you knew it might mean trouble. I had a feeling the reason Dennis hated losing so much, was that he just wasn't used to it.

They continued to talk excitedly together all the way to the station and while I thought about trying to start a conversation with Adam, I figured it wasn't worth the effort. I didn't know him well and if he wasn't talking to his fiancé, he seemed like the kind of person who was about as chatty as I was, which meant not at all.

Instead, I drifted in out of focus not really paying attention to the others unless someone addressed me directly. If I was completely honest, part of me was a little disappointed that we were riding with Dennis's sister. While I was happy he was happy to see her, I felt a bit awkward as they laughed and caught up. Usually I looked forward to the hours of travel when Dennis and I went to camp together. All we had to do was not get separated or run into monsters, and it was nice to have his undivided attention. He was the kind of person who was always up to something. His brain just never stopped and maybe it was a bit selfish of me, but I'd liked the fact that when we were younger I was one of the few people he'd really ever focused on. But this had changed since we'd gotten to high school. Lately it seemed he was so busy with other people he didn't have a lot of time for me.

I tried not to think about it, but a small, worried part of me was wondering if he might be out growing our friendship.

'Don't be ridiculous.' I thought trying to force this thought into the back of my mind as he and Thea collapsed into fits of laughter. 'He's your best friend.'

They'd swiped a bag of zipties from a station worker and had been running around ziptying people to things as we made our way through Union Station. Their latest victim had been attached to the chair he'd been sitting in by his belt loop and had tried to get up only to crash to the ground taking the chair with him.

"First one to get the security guard gets to skip chores for a week." Thea said handing Dennis a couple of their few remaining ties which he accepted eagerly.

I looked up at Adam wondering if he was going to try to put a stop to it, but he simply looked at Thea amused.

"Try not to get detained."

"You say that as if you think I might get caught." She responded with a wink.

She made to move towards the guard, but jerked to a stop and almost tripped.

"What the-" she muttered looking down in surprise only to see a ziptie around her belt which fastened her quite securely to a bench that had been bolted to the floor. "Dennis!"

"Have fun doing my chores." He chuckled then went after the guard.

She swore, unbuckled her belt and ran after him.

I finally got the chance to talk to Dennis when Thea and Adam stopped at a coffee kiosk before boarding the train while Dennis and I went ahead to get seats.

"You ok Han?" he asked looking over his shoulder at me as we started making our way through the rows of seats. His dark hair was shorter than he'd worn it in previous years and messy in the way that looked as if he might have woken up late, or like it could have been intentional but either way it looked good. His brown eyes were clever and, as always, looked as if they hid the majority of what he was thinking. He was so hard to read sometimes and it drove me crazy trying to figure out what he was thinking.

"Yeah." I said knowing he wouldn't believe me.

"You seem a little quiet."

"Just letting you catch up with your sister."

"Yeah but you could talk with us." He pointed out.

"What would I even talk to her about?" I asked raising an eyebrow. Despite her initially horrible reputation, Thea was widely regarded as one of the better head counselors at camp. She'd gone from being practically driven out and into the Hunters of Artemis, to being pretty much loved by everyone, and though I liked her, we didn't have much in common. I'd only directly interacted with her a couple times, one of which she'd been furious with me after Dennis had run away to start his very first mission.

"Anything." He said shrugging. "She likes to talk."

"Conversation isn't a strong suit of mine."

"You talk to me alright."

"Yeah, well that's you." I said and he grinned in a slightly cocky manner that always made me feel a bit nervous, but smile as well.

"She and I are practically the same person."

"You going to marry Adam then?" I asked and he laughed.

"You know I don't think that's in my summer plans. I'll let you know if that changes. I'll need a best man."

"I'm a girl."

"I stand by my statement."

I rolled my eyes and as we continued walking down the train, I felt a little better until I spotted a couple of girls giggling and trying to catch his eye. I knew they were checking him out and if I was honest, didn't blame them. He was tall, fit, and had gotten as much attention as Adam had since we'd been at the station. It seemed all the hero training he'd gone through at camp had finally paid off.

I tried to ignore the stab of resentment that went through me when one of the girls smiled at him and he gave her his trouble making grin. It's not like we were still dating after all. He could grin at who ever he wanted.

Of course pretty girls were always watching him lately. I didn't know when it happened, but all of the sudden girls just seemed to love him, and Dennis, I guess partly because of who his father was, couldn't help himself. He was a flirt.

I guess it wasn't that surprising. All the Hermes kids were like that, especially Thea who he had so much in common with. But she was engaged and knew not to take it too far. Dennis however…

He winked at the girl then moved down the rows and I could tell he was smiling to himself. I could tell he liked the attention, but then again what guy wouldn't?

I wasn't exactly sure when this surge of confidence around girls had come to fruition, but it was definitely over the last couple of months. One day Dennis and I were doing our own thing separate from the mortals at school, the next, he was extremely popular and his quiet, 'hippie girlfriend', as his team mates had liked to call me, was left behind. I mean, it really wasn't that big of a shock if you looked at it objectively. I'd always thought this might happen. He'd always been attractive and even before he'd realized it, he could charm anyone to do what he wanted, but when we were younger I was the only one who really seemed to notice.

I looked over at my shoulder at the girls that were staring after him, still giggling and felt a hollow disappointment go through me. I guess I wasn't the only one noticing now.

"Jeez Hannah, don't look so bummed." He said falling into a row with two sets of seats facing each other. "I know you didn't want to leave the gardens so soon but you got to see everything."

I didn't answer, mainly because I didn't really want to talk about what was upsetting me, but instead took the seat opposite his. I noticed now that he was in such close proximity to so many people, his fingers were twitching. No doubt his brain had already started thinking about all the things he could have stolen, but was resisting the temptation. Unlike his sister, who loved messing with and stealing from her fiancé, Dennis had never stolen anything from me even when we were dating. I wasn't sure why, he didn't have a problem from stealing from anyone else and I'd never had the guts to ask.

I was thinking about this when I noticed he was looking at me his eyes narrowed. He looked resentful.

"What?" I asked in surprise.

"I hate it when you get all quiet like this." He said moodily crossing his arms over his chest. "You know drives me nuts."

"I'm a quiet person."

"Not around me." He continued stubbornly. "I'm not an idiot, I know something's wrong."

"I'm fine." I said avoiding his eye.

"You suck at lying."

"Well you're good enough for the both of us." I said attempting to make a joke, but immediately regretting it when I caught at his expression. He looked a little hurt but it was hard to tell with him.

I looked away from him again uncertain how to feel. Before we'd started dating he would have laughed at that I was sure. He'd have made a smart comeback and we'd easily move on to the next topic of conversation, but after we'd broken up our interactions were constantly jolted with awkward moments like this. Half the time things were going along great and it felt like it used to between us, then one of us would say something stupid and the other would just completely shut down. I could see it happening with him now, but before I could try and salvage the situation, Thea dropped into the seat next to his and Adam sat in the one next to mine.

"What happened to you?" Dennis asked sitting up straight in alarm when he spotted the burn on Adam's arm and obvious acid holes in Thea's sleeve. Both looked a little roughed up.

"We got coffee." She said holding up the paper cup in her hand as if this explained everything.

We stared at her and Adam clarified.

"We ran into a couple monsters in line." He said shrugging and I was amazed at how casual they both seemed about this.

"You say that like it happens a lot." I said and Thea's eyes snapped onto me. Dennis and I ran into our fair share of monsters, but they spoke about it like it was just a part of their routine.

"I bet it does." Dennis said amused. "His dad's one of the Big Three. I imagine he's pretty much a monster magnet."

"Yeah." He said flatly and Thea looked amused.

"Oh relax, we've had a good week."

"Only minor threats against our lives and minimal destruction caused." He grumbled sarcastically.

"Exactly." She said brightly and though he looked irritated, when she smiled at him, it seemed as if he couldn't help but smile back.

Dennis rolled his eyes.

"You two have the weirdest relationship I've ever seen."

"Well get used to it bro." Thea said ruffling his hair and he pushed her hand away looking annoyed. "'Cuz in a few months," she gestured between Adam and Dennis. "You two are going to be related."

"That's right that is coming up." Dennis said looking at Thea with interest then smirking. "You know you two have been engaged a long time. Not getting cold feet are you?"

Adam raised an eyebrow at him but Thea laughed.

"Yes, we're miserable, can't you see?" she said amused. "But that reminds me."

She reached into her bag and pulled out two white invitations set on heavy, decorative paper.

"These belong to you two."

"I'm invited?" I asked taking the invitation in surprise.

"Of course, I'm counting on you to keep him in line." She said nudging Dennis and he gave her a dissatisfied expression.

"Where is the fun in that?" he asked and she rolled her eyes.

"The last thing I need is for my little brother to be caught stealing from the Olympians at my wedding."

"You know I resent that." Dennis said and we all looked at him in surprise. He grinned. "Adam's family is loaded. They're much worthier of my attention than the gods that don't need to carry money."

"Do you see what I'm talking about?" Thea asked looking at me.

"Yeah." I agreed and Dennis scowled at me.

"Traitor."

I shrugged and he looked out the window while Adam and Thea started a conversation about their next semester at school. I watched Adam without realizing it, wondering how he made a relationship with a child of Hermes work. They were always so chaotic. They couldn't sit still. The train hadn't even left the station and both Dennis and Thea were moving restlessly, Dennis tapping his fingers against his arm rest and her leg bouncing as she spoke, but somehow Adam seemed more relaxed around her. I'd remembered him before they were dating. He'd always seemed to stressed to me and never really smiled but he was laughing now, something I'd only seen him do around her.

I didn't understand it. Being around Dennis was fun, but he was always up to something. He was always getting into trouble and the things he did sometimes, well, sometimes I thought he was crazy. But, maybe you just had to accept that if you wanted someone like Dennis or Thea in your life. They were never truly going to be contained.

As the train started to move, the three started talking about the summer and what they thought was going to happen at camp. Dennis, who'd started going on missions regularly since last summer, was convinced Apollo was going to lose something again while Thea was fairly certain we were over due for a kidnapping from camp.

"You're both wrong." Adam said and they looked at him curiously.

"What makes you say that?" Dennis asked raising an eyebrow. I knew that despite his initial poor opinion of Adam, after several months of pranking him, Dennis had gotten to know Adam better and thought he was alright.

"Because it's been years since we've heard anything from the oracle," he said flatly. "If anything's going to mess this summer up, it's going to be a prophecy."

This was met with an uncomfortable silence. Missions were one thing, but prophecy's always lead to quests and usually quests were when things fell apart. While I'd personally never been on either, everyone at camp knew. Those who were sent on a quest, rarely had a happy ending.

"Anyways." Thea said obviously trying to break the tension this statement had caused. "Make sure you RSVP for the wedding as soon as possible because if you don't, Adam's mom will come charging up to camp demanding your answers."

"Can't we just say we're going?" Dennis asked a little indignantly. "We're right here."

"No." Thea said rolling her eyes. "Nadine likes things to be official."

"She hasn't been that bad." Adam said fairly and Thea looked at him incredulously.

"She gave me a list of appropriate hair styles for late summer weddings."

He looked as if he wanted to say something, but then thought better of it.

"Yeah I guess you're right." He muttered. "But it's not like you're going to follow them anyways."

She grinned.

"You know me well."

The three started playing a game where Adam would name something and Dennis and Thea would work out how they would steal it, competing with each other to have the best plan. The ride passed like this for a while, the others talking while I sat lost in thought. I couldn't get what Adam had said out of my head about prophecies and quests. It stuck with me the entire trip, and when we finally crossed the camp boundary, I finally voiced my concerns.

"Do you think it's likely?" I asked when Dennis and I had separated from Adam and Thea. As head of their Cabins, they were supposed to check in with Chiron and the other head counselors before summer activities officially started.

"What?" he asked and I noticed that several girls at the Aphrodite cabin were looking at him with interest as we passed it.

"What Adam said, about a prophecy."

"Maybe." He said with a shrug. "He's right it has been a while. Who knows." He grinned. "It could be fun. It's been a while since the camp has a had a good scare. Maybe a mysterious encounter with the oracle is just what this place needs to liven it up."

"Half the cabins try to kill each other every Friday." I pointed out. "I don't think this place needs anymore excitement."

"Oh relax Han." He said rolling his eyes. "Even if something does happen this summer, we're in a camp full of demigods. What are the odds it will have anything to do with us?"

"I guess you're right." I mumbled. My powers weren't interesting enough to be involved with any sort of supernatural goings on anyways. If something did happen, they'd probably just send other, more experienced Demigods, or pull Adam and Thea out of their 'retirement' from missions. But even as I comforted myself with this thought, an unpleasant jolt went through me when I realized that 'experienced Demigods' now included Dennis.

"So what do you want to do?" I asked him trying to think of something else. Summer activities didn't start until tomorrow which meant we had all of today to do whatever we wanted.

"I actually promised Kevin and Jess we'd start strategizing for our end of the summer prank as soon as I got here." He said apologetically. "We can hang out after dinner though ok?"

"Yeah, sure." I said feeling little disappointed but careful not to let it show.

"I'll see you around Han." He said smiling then jogging off to his cabin where no doubt the twins, who lived here year round, were eagerly awaiting his arrival so they could continue to wreak havoc on the camp as they did over every break.

Part of me wanted to go after him but I didn't.

Instead, I walked in the direction of my cabin, trying not to think of Dennis and the way the Aphrodite girls were looking at him. Thankfully, a distraction came almost at once.

"Hey! Hannah!"

I looked over my shoulder to see two girls running towards me and I felt my mood pick up. Both girls were blonde, but one with sky blue eyes and the other with warm brown ones.

"What's up?" I asked feeling myself grin. In front of me were Laney Baker and Elle Westfield my best friends at camp. Well, if you didn't count Dennis.

"I'm so glad I found you." Laney said and she really did look relieved. "The aloe plants in the infirmary are dying and now that more people are going to be at camp we could really use them if people get burned during training. Think you could help us out?"

She was part of the Apollo cabin and spent most of her free time here in the infirmary helping injured campers, but before I could respond, Elle looked at me her expression heart broken.

"You and Dennis broke up?" she asked sadly, her light eyes growing dark with disappointment and Laney's went wide.

"What?" she asked quickly.

"Yeah, a few months ago." Elle said looking even more upset. "You did, didn't you?"

"Yeah." I said knowing there was no point in lying. They would have found out even if Elle hadn't been a daughter of Aphrodite. "But I don't really want to talk about it. You said you need help with aloe plants?"

"Yeah, we hoped you might be able to tell us what's wrong with them. I mean they get plenty of sunlight and it's not like it's cold…"

She gestured a little hopelessly to the sky where there wasn't a single cloud.

She continued expressing her concern but I tuned her out knowing I'd know almost instantly what they were doing wrong the second I'd seen the plant.

"So." Elle asked under cover of Laney's musings about her dying aloes. "What happened with you and Dennis anyways?"

"I don't want to talk about it." I said with a sigh. I wasn't even exactly sure I knew what happened myself.

"I saw you guys walking in together though. Are you guys still friends?"

I thought about this for a moment, wondering how I should answer.

"Honestly, I'm not really sure what we are."

"Well I think you should get back together." She said looking down at me. "I thought you were a great couple and you really liked him. I could tell."

"Yeah." I said with a sigh and looking back over at Cabin eleven where I couldn't see Dennis, but knew he and his siblings must already be plotting. "Well I guess things change."

"Yeah, I guess." She said but she was frowning.

"What?"

"I dunno." She said shrugging. "I just thought, out of all the couples I've seen around here. I thought you guys had a shot of making it."

"Why?" I asked.

We might have been best friends but in many ways Dennis and I were very different, but she seemed to know what was on my mind.

"I always thought you made each other better. I mean, I know he can be a bit all over the place and you're kind of shy, but you seemed to make each other happy."

"We were." I said honestly.

"Well, what happened?"

"I don't really know." I said frowning. "One day everything was fine and then it wasn't."

"Did you talk to him about it?"

"No." I wasn't sure when things had gone wrong, but it felt like things had just gone from bad to worse, and then before I knew it, it was over.

"Well how are you supposed to fix things if you don't talk to him?"

"I really doubt he wanted to fix things." I said quietly.

"What makes you think that?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I figure if he wanted to he would have said something by now." I said with a shrug and she gave me a shrewd look.

"Did you give him a chance to?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked as we passed the volleyball courts, but I was surprised when Laney, who must have picked up on the conversation, was the one to answer.

"Because you don't like to talk about uncomfortable things." Laney said looking back over her shoulder at us. "You avoid them, and if someone tries to bring it up to you, you completely withdraw."

"I do not."

"Yeah you kind of do." Elle agreed.

"Name one time."

"Well, we're two of your closest friends and we didn't know you broke up with your boyfriend of two years until Elle figured it out." Laney said and I felt my stomach contract.

"You're right." I said eventually. "I don't want to talk about this."

"But-" Elle started but Laney shook her head.

"It's no use Elle, she's not going to talk about it."

"Well I still think you should try and work it out." Elle said stubbornly. "Apart from his sister, you're the only one who has any sort of control over that guy. I can only imagine what this summer is going to be like if he's let completely loose."

We stepped on to the porch of the Big House and through the front door after which Laney lead us to the infirmary.

I walked over to the window sill where several aloe plants were positioned so they would receive plenty of light. Instantly I saw that she was right, the plants were dying, but strangely, I couldn't seem to figure out why. I looked at them, trying to gain a sense of what I was working with but was strangely drawing a blank. I felt myself frown. This had never happened before.

"How much are you watering them?" I asked taking one of the spiny stems and letting energy flow through me into the now glowing plant.

"No more or less than usual." Laney responded. "We've been doing everything according to what you suggested before you left last time. They only just started wilting a few days ago."

"That is weird." I said frowning. "Have you talked to any of my siblings?"

"Yeah, they've no idea what's going on either. They said to ask you."

"There's gotta to be a reason." I said frowning and moving on to the next plant. It had the same sort of negative feeling it as the first plant. "It's almost like they're losing their vitality, like they're sick. Are you sure you didn't over water them or something?"

"I don't know what to tell you." she said with a shrug. "We haven't changed anything we've been doing to them. If you don't know what's going on I certainly don't."

"But nothing just gets sick for no reason." I muttered sadly looking at the plants. I might be able to help heal them for now, but if they were sick and whatever the source was wasn't eliminated, I wouldn't be able to keep them going forever.

"I'm sure we'll figure it out." Elle assured me when she caught my expression.

I knew most people might think it was ridiculous to get upset over a couple of dying plants, but she and Laney never made fun of me for it.

"Yeah, maybe we'll get lucky and this will be the worst of our problems this summer."

"Yeah. Maybe." I said moving on to the third plant, but I felt my stomach shrink a little.

"I'm not sure I can save this one." I said looking at it's dried and brown edges. "It's almost dead."

"I'm sure you can." Elle encouraged and after a moment's hesitation. The leaves started to glow.

Both of them were smiling at me, but I felt my confidence waver. Something was seriously wrong with these aloe plants, and I wasn't sure what it was. I couldn't help but let my mind wander back to what Adam had said about prophecies. What if something did go wrong?