Okay, I know I've been gone for awhile, but I've managed to put out another chapter. If there is still enough interest in the story, I think I might have a few surprises in store for this if I can keep the writer's block away. Any suggestions and idea could possibly give me a bit of a boost and PMS and reviews are quite welcome. It's been awhile since I've done anything, but it feels pretty good to be back. Any feedback, except for flames and negativity, which is different from constructive criticism, are greatly appreciated. Love ya guys, Bolts and Trees. :D
It took days of Luke convincing Lee Fletcher that he wasn't crazy to finally get him released from the infirmary. Travis and Connor grinned at him as he walked up the front steps of the Hermes Cabin, which was as worn and beat down as he remembered it. Sleeping bags and mats covered the floor, Percy Jackson sat on his own mat in the corner, capping and uncapping his pen, a bronze sword appearing and disappearing as he did so. Luke shuddered slightly as he remembered what Riptide was capable of, and plopped down onto the worn sofa that sat next to Percy's mat.
"Where'd you get your sword?" Luke asked, even though he already knew the answer to the question.
Percy looked up at him and shrugged, "It appeared in my pocket when I got here, after I dunked Clarisse in the toilet."
"Right, that did happen, didn't it?" Luke asked.
Percy nodded, "Yeah, I don't even know how it happened, Clarisse was just covered in water. I guess my dad is the god of toilets."
"Come on man, that's not a thing. You could look at it as being a kid of a water god, like maybe Poseidon." Luke shrugged.
Percy scoffed, "Poseidon, I thought he wasn't supposed to have kids? That's what Grover told me."
"Zeus wasn't supposed to have kids either, he had Thalia." Luke pointed out, for a moment he swore he saw a flash of hope light up the kid's eyes. Percy hadn't smiled much since Luke had appeared at camp, but Luke figured the kid hadn't done much smiling anyway. He could see a couple of scars poking out beneath the hem of Percy's camp shirt and figured the kid didn't have the greatest home life.
"My mom always told me that she met my father at the beach in Montauk, we go there every summer, just my mom and I." Percy muttered.
Luke patted Percy's shoulder, "I have a feeling you'll find out who your parent is pretty soon, I have a good feeling about it."
"Annabeth said she was hoping that I wasn't a child of Poseidon, you know the feud with her mom and all." Percy frowned, staring at the pen in his hand.
"Look, Annabeth is your friend now, right? I don't think your parents, whoever they are, will keep you two apart. This is the closest I've ever seen Annabeth get to someone other than Thalia and me." Luke chuckled. Travis and Connor popped up at either of Luke's sides with matching grins. Luke had the hardest time telling them apart, especially when they were sitting down, because they both had the same mop of light brown hair, mischievous blue eyes, the same wiry frame, and Travis was only about an inch taller than Connor, which made them seem like twins, despite the fact Travis was about a year older.
"Is it true that you and Thalia are dating?" Travis smirked, waggling his eyebrows at Luke. Luke would definitely remember if he was dating someone like Thalia, but last he checked they weren't dating.
Luke raised his eyebrows at the pair, "Where would you get that idea?"
"I heard that she kissed you a couple weeks ago at he fireworks, Drew Tanaka swears by it." Connor piped up. Percy rolled his eyes and smirked at Luke who couldn't help but smile at the kid. He always felt bad for what he did to Percy, so maybe he could patch things up between the two of them.
"Who kissed who?" Thalia popped up in the window with a wicked grin on her face. Travis and Connor's faces went white as sheets and they started mumbling nonsense in the presence of Thalia, who seemed rather amused with the idea. She hoisted herself up and managed to climb through the window, smirking at Luke before winking at Percy and sitting on the other side of Connor.
"Apparently, Drew claims that you and I were caught kissing at the fireworks last week." Luke shrugged, looking at Thalia, hoping that they weren't telling the truth. Thalia was quiet for a moment, feigning thought as she scrunched up her face comically.
"I think I'd recall kissing my best friend. Maybe you two shouldn't believe everything Drew says." Thalia suggested. At this point Travis and Connor were halfway out the door of the Hermes cabin muttering apologies and promises to keep away from Drew Tanaka and her gossip.
Thalia turned her attention to Percy who was watching Thalia and Luke curiously, "I heard that Annabeth was looking for someone who to spar with in the arena, you should go practice with her."
Percy smiled, like he didn't need to be told twice to spend time with Annabeth. He happily obliged and sped out of the cabin just as fast as Travis and Connor had a few moments before. Luke turned his attention to Thalia who studied him with concerned blue eyes.
"Wanna take a walk?" She asked, looking at him hopefully. Her blue eyes sparkled in the setting sun, a hopeful smile played at the corners of her mouth. He had nothing better to do and he figured the less he thought about his bizarre situation, the better. Everyone in the commons stared at Thalia and Luke as they walked past toward the beach, and even Luke felt a bit uncomfortable under the hawk-like stare of the other campers. Thalia didn't seem to notice, or if she did she didn't let on.
They walked down the beach to a spot far away from prying eyes and ears, Thalia stopped and plopped down in the sand, patting the spot next to her. Luke obliged and sat next to her in the sand, he had always wanted to enjoy a sunset with Thalia, and under most circumstances he would, but at the moment he was trying to grasp the idea that everything he remembered never happened. Kronos had never risen, Luke had never poisoned Thalia's tree, Thalia was never a tree. Apparently Thalia must have noticed something was wrong because she forced Luke to look at her, her blue eyes laced with concern.
"Luke, you know you can talk to me about anything, right?" She asked, her blue eyes made contact with his and he desperately wished that she would believe him; he wasn't supposed to be there. He thought back to his dream in the infirmary, the one where Zeus told him not to screw up his do over. Thalia dropped her eye contact and turned her attention toward the setting sun, pulling her legs up to her chest. Luke felt helpless, but something led him to believe that Thalia was hoping for him to do something, like she was waiting for something. He was extremely tempted to kiss her, but something in the back of his head stopped him from kissing her.
Luke nodded, "I know, you're my best friend Thals, I'd trust you with anything."
She didn't say anything, but she nodded and rested her chin on her knees. Luke also felt like she was hiding something, he knew his best friend and he could tell when something was bothering her. She got quiet, she didn't want to speak, and Luke knew it was best to giver her space. She'd eventually tell him and when she was ready to, he was ready to listen. He held out his arm and hoped Thalia understood the gesture. She must have because she scooted closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder, allowing him to wrap his arm around her. The desire to kiss Thalia still nagged at him, but he managed to resist it long enough until Thalia pulled away and decided it was time to head back. Their walk to their cabins were awkwardly quiet, but Luke walked her all the way to the Zeus cabin where he was shocked to find her arms thrown around him.
"Goodnight Luke." She muttered into his chest before releasing him and disappearing into her cabin before he had the chance to say goodnight.
"Goodnight Thals." Luke whispered. He couldn't help but feel like she was still hiding something from him. He figured she'd tell him when she wanted to and he trudged toward his cabin. Percy and Annabeth were sitting on Percy's mat, Annabeth was busy with a sketch pad and Percy was talking excitedly with his hands.
"What are you two up to?" Luke asked, plopping down on the floor across from the pair. Their heads shot up and Annabeth blushed, pushing her blonde curls out of her gray eyes. Percy smiled at Luke and then looked over at Annabeth as if waiting for permission to explain, Annabeth answered with a firm nod as she tried to act busy over the sketchpad again.
Percy grinned, "We're making plans for capture the flag, we weren't going to show them to you yet, but since you're here, we might as well clue you in."
He listened while Percy and Annabeth went over their elaborate plans and winning strategy, Annabeth firmly stating that she planned on keeping their winning streak. She wasn't about to let Clarisse beat her, as Clarisse was a bit of a sore winner. Luke listened contentedly as Percy and Annabeth added to their plans and sketched away on the sketchpad. Annabeth looked up at Luke, waiting for Luke's final judgment call on the plans.
"Sounds great, but who is the captain?" Luke asked.
Annabeth rolled her eyes, "Do you have amnesia? You and Thalia are co-captains of the blue team."
"Right, well I like the plan but I think you should talk it over with Thalia, she'd want to hear about it too before we run off and leave her out of the loop." Luke replied, faking a smile but he was sure Annabeth had him figured out.
She nodded and turned to Percy, "Do you want to make a trip over to the Zeus cabin before curfew?"
Percy shrugged, "Sounds fun, why not?"
With that the two were out the door before Luke could even tell Percy to be back before curfew, his mind drifted back to the idea that Thalia was hiding something and he prayed she wasn't hiding something dangerous. She would definitely tell him if she were in some kind of trouble, right? He found himself walking toward his bed, Chris Rodriguez was scamming a couple Ares kids who looked to be dumb enough to fall for it.
"Rodriguez, let them walk away with their dignity." Luke sighed, giving Chris a warning look. Chris smirked and dismissed the blank stared Ares kids, catching up to Luke. For an unclaimed fourteen year old, Chris Rodriguez was by far one of the most manipulative kids he knew. If Luke had to pick a god to be Chris's parent it was definitely Hermes, kid could convince anyone to play a rigged game of poker and walk away with several months of allowances, expensive watches, weapons, and of course the coveted junk food, which of course he turned around and sold triple the price.
"Aww, c'mon Luke, do you always have to ruin my fun?" Chris asked, a wicked grin spread across the kid's face. For a long as Luke could remember, Chris was never claimed and it kind of pissed him off that his father blatantly ignored the kid, who was so clearly his own. Chris was shuffling the cards in his hand, whistling as he did so, but Luke didn't recognize the song. Ethan Nakaumara walked in through the front door, another kid who was claimed but didn't have an actual cabin.
"You know I'm shocked those kids haven't come to their senses about playing poker with Chris Rodriguez." Ethan smirked, plopping down on his bunk and relaxing with his arms behind his head. Ethan didn't have an eyepatch, just two brown eyes that were a bit unsettling.
Chris shrugged, "Not everyone is a child of Athena."
"Get to bed you two, Chris stop scamming people, Chrion would put us all on clean up if he caught word of what you're up to." Luke tried to sound firm, but his heart just wasn't in it.
Ethan snorted, "Something go wrong between you and Thalia? You only ever get in a shitty mood when you and Thalia fight."
Another person under the assumption that Luke and Thalia were an item? Chris looked over at Ethan, shocked that he would bring something like that up, apparently Luke had a bit of a temper when it came to business between himself and Thalia.
"No, nothing happened between me and Thalia, why is everyone under the assumption that Thalia and I are a thing?" Luke asked, he wasn't doing too great with this who 'not crazy' business. However it was hard to seem sane when everyone had ideas about him that weren't true. He had no idea what was going on in his life until he opened his eyes in the woods.
Ethan smirked, "You're jealous because she's been hanging around Lee Fletcher a lot, aren't you? You never did ask her out officially after the fireworks, did you?"
"We never kissed, stop listening to Drew Tanaka." Luke rolled his eyes, sulking off to his bed, which thank the gods was in its own room. He guessed their were perks to being head councilor of the Hermes cabin. He heard Chris and Ethan greet Percy as he walked through the door and Luke managed to drift off to sleep around one in the morning.