Chapter three

A few days after the mysterious chicken finger-in-the-cabbage casserole-of-a-satyr fiasco(Hee hee hee.), i put on my swimming clothes and went for a swim. Nate and Bobby had gone off pranking dad and Bonnie was sword fighting with her dad. That was when i noticed a boy. He was sitting on the dock, his legs dangling in the water. He looked a bit lonely sitting there, everybody else was ignoring him. He looked a bit like Uncle Nico, with his brown hair and brownish- black eyes that reminded me of death. I hadn't seen him before, but he looked to be a son of Hades. He must have popped up during the middle of the school year, otherwise i would've seen him come to camp. I decided to swim closer to him and talk to him.

"Hey." I said conversationally. "What's your name?" I asked. He shrugged. "Call me T. I don't really like my name." He told me.

I nodded. "Mine's Nicole, but everyone calls me Nikki, so just call me Nikki." I told him. He nodded. A man of little words, i see. Hades children are all like that. I like it, since that doesn't get annoying. Not like Amanda from school, who talks a lot and annoys people to death. Well, not literally, but it does get on your nerves a lot.

"My dad is Hades." He told me. I shrugged. "My parents are Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase." I told him. He widened his eyes in surprise. "No way. No freaking way." He said. I grinned at him and sent a huge splash at him before swimming away as fast as i could.

"Hey!" He yelled, before taking off his shirt and swimming after me. I noticed that he was a fast swimmer, although not as fast as me. Poseidon was strong in me. We swam for about forty-five minutes, and then i noticed that he was getting tired.

"You tired?" I asked. He looked strong enough, but he probably couldn't keep this up forever. He wasn't really related to Poseidon. He nodded curtly. What's wrong? One moment we were playing, the next he just.....changes. I swam over to him, and tried to grab his arm to lead him to shore when he pulled away from me and swam over to shore by himself. Frowning, i followed him to shore, where he ran over to the Hades cabin. I walked over slowly to the Poseidon cabin, wondering why he was acting so weird. Did i offend him or something?


I looked around the Poseidon cabin nervously. Good, nobody was there. I pushed the mini fridge Nate and i shared to the left, and it revealed a hole i had made there a few years ago with Nate. It was dusty and was an unpleasant dirt-brown color, about twenty inches tall.. He rarely looked in there any more. You see, Melanie and Melody had tried to steal his radio-controlled-car at that time and he asked me to help him make a hole there so that he could hide it from the clutches of the pesky twins. Mel and Mel the second (That's what i sometimes call them when i talk to someone about them. Mel is Melanie and Mel the second is Melody.) never found it, but one day Nate got bored of it and decided to give it to them after all. Yeah, he always changes his mind about ninety-nine point ninety-nine percent of the time. There i found what i was looking for. My casset player and my tapes. Yeah, call me old fashioned, but i still use tapes. They're pretty handy. I ran to the window to check that nobody was looking and ran out the door, carrying it with me. I ran to the woods and followed a trail to a tree house that Bobby, Bonnie, Nate and i made last year.

Taking a deep breath, i turned on the casset player and put one of the tapes in. You see, i wanted to be a singer when i grew up, and i would practice in secret. Everyday, I'd practice singing, although i was too shy to sing in front of everybody else. I'm not sure if i was good or not. I think i'm okay. Background music started to play and i sang in my best imitation of Kelly Clarkson. ( I suggest you click the internet and go to youtube. The song is called 'Because of you.' by Kelly Clarkson.)

I will not make the same mistakes that you did. I will not let myself cause my heart so much misery. I will not break the way you did, you fell so hard. I've learned the hard way,to never let it get that far. Because of you, I never stray to far from the sidewalk. Because of you, i learned play on the safe side so i don't get hurt. Because of you, i find it hard to trust not only me, but every one around me. Because of you, i am afraid.I lose my way, and its not to long before you point it out. I cannot cry, because i know that's weakness in your eyes. I'm forced to fake a smile, a laugh everyday of my life. My heart can't possibly break, when it wasn't even whole to start with. Because of you, I never stray to far from the sidewalk. Because of you, i learned to play on the safe side so i don't get hurt. Because of you, i find it hard to trust not only me, but everyone around me. Because of you, i am afraid. I watched you die, i heard you cry every night in your sleep.I was so young, you should've known better than to lean on me. You never thought of anyone else, you just saw your pain. And now i cry in the middle of the night, for the same damn of you, I never stray to far from the sidewalk. Because of you, i learned to play on the safe side so i don't get hurt. Because of you, i try my hardest just to forget everything. Because of you, i don't know how to let anyone else in. Because of you, I'm ashamed of my life because it's empty. Because of you, i am afraid. Because of you........ Because of you.

A loud clapping noise ripped through the silence of the forest as I finished my song. I spun around looking for the source of the noise. T. was leaning on a tree, smiling in that crooked way of his. I blushed, i hadn't realized that he was listening to me singing.

"How much did you year?" I asked him, worried about how much he had seen and heard. He smiled. "Not much. Just the whole song." I stared at him in shock. He chuckled. "You're pretty good." He said, continuing. I bushed. "Thanks." He walked over to me and I found my heart thumping painfully in my chest. I found it hard to think of anything except the fact that he was right here in front of me. He smiled at me mysteriously, like he knew something that I didn't. My cheeks were starting to heat up. Oh gods....why am i feeling so.. so weird? Could I be falling in lo- "Nikki, come. Lets get back." He told me. I walked alongside him and i noticed that his hand was very close to mine, just one inch next to each other. If i was daring enough, could i just...

" Woof!" Sparky burst through the forest, barking like he had just seen a monster. You see, last year Mrs.O'leary gave birth to a litter of pups. About five of them, Sparky;Sky;Kiley;Kandy; and Kollie were born. The other four were too wild to keep and had joined the other wild hellhounds. Sparky had remained. Who Mrs.O'leary's mate was was a mystery, and nobody knew. Sparky bounded over to us, it was as plain as a day that he was happy to see us. We walked out of the woods and a few people stared at us. T. nodded to me and walked over to the Hades cabin, while i walked over to the Poseidon cabin. I put my casset player back in it's usual spot and lay on my bed, thinking about my day. I took out my diary and wrote:

Dear diary,

Today I met a son of Hades and talked to him. His name is T. I don't know his real name, he just said that he didn't like it. He has brownish-black eyes and hair and is very mysterious. He has this rude ice-prince attitude and doesn't like to socialize. I love him.

Yours truly, Nikki Aqua Jackson.

With that, my head hit the pillow and i fell asleep.