Chapter 3

Day of Capture the flag (Two Days Later)

Elizabeth's POV

Today was my first ever Camp Half Blood capture the flag game, I've been told it's one of the best things to do here. The Blue team consisted of Athena as the leaders, Apollo, Hermes, Poseidon, Zeus, Khione and Aphrodite. The red team was lead by Ares and was made up of everyone else except Hades which was empty for now.

We got our flag positioned on Zeus' fist. Annabeth outlined her plan which was for James to encase the flag in ice, then both Poseidon and Khione's cabins will make sure no one crosses the river with our flag. Apollo campers would then be positioned in the trees to funnel the red team so they had to cross where the aforementioned cabins were. Piper and Drew would be guarding the flag so they could charmspeak anyone into turning around. Everyone else was then trying to get the enemy flag.

Everything was going according to plan until we heard screams and saw some burning trees. When I got there the entire zone was empty, with no red team souls in sight. I was heading back to my original place above James. Everything was quiet, it actually gave off quite an eerie feeling, apart from the occasional howl of pain or clash of metal.

I then saw Leo sprinting towards the river dodging every arrow that was fired at him, an ice wall rose in front of him, but he easily burned through it. He was jumping and as he landed he started cheering. It was only when he stopped that everyone including Leo saw that there was no flag in his hand anymore. Everyone was looking around for where the flag was, it was then I saw the smirk on his face before he began to shout into thin air.

"Very well played Snowflake, I know you have the flag with you somewhere around here." I looked below me and noticed James was nowhere to be seen. But all of a sudden he appeared on our side of the river clutching the flag in his hand, grinning like idiot, a cute idiot though. Stop it Liz you don't mean that. Yes I do. No I don't. I was too busy with the voices arguing in my head to realise that Annabeth had crossed the river with the Red flag or that the guy I may or may not like was standing right below me.

I nimbly climbed down the tree to join him, as we walked to dinner to eat, before we began playing Truth or Dare like we had planned yesterday.

After dinner we all headed to Bunker 9 I believe it is called. When we (Kate and I) got there, everyone was waiting for us there was actually a lot of people here. Jason, Piper, Percy, Annabeth, James, Connor and Travis, Drew, Leo, Katie Gardner, Miranda Gardiner, Nico (who turned up at dinner) and Jessica. We sat down where there was space in the circle.

Jessica spoke first, "Now that we are finally all here I am going first. James, Truth or dare"

"Truth" was his reply almost immediately.

"Good, when we were travelling to camp and we got here, did you have a crush on me."

I already knew what his answer to this would be, "Yes" was his answer. That was the opposite of what I had thought, and I will admit my heart sank a bit as I heard it.

"Right, my turn, Kate, Truth or Dare?"

"Dare"

"Damn it, I dare you to sit in the lap of the person you have a crush on for three turns." She got up and sat it Jason's lap while getting a death glare from Piper.

"James I'll make sure you pay for this. Now, Liz Truth or Dare?" Great no surprise she chose me, oh well let's get it over with.

"Dare, I guess" I know she'll do something that will make me uncomfortable.

"Well you have to sit in your crush's lap for ten turns and they have to have their arms wrapped round your waist." I'm seriously going to kill her the next time I get the chance, but I obliged and sat in James' lap. He then wrapped my waist gently in his arms. I will admit it felt right and actually rather comfortable.

"Jessica, Truth or Dare?"

"Truth, maybe."

"Why do you act the way you do and is it really who you want to be?" I honestly wanted to hear her answer to this.

"Well, I guess when you hang out or date certain people you begin to act more like them. As for the second part, no its not, the person I was when we were headed here just over three weeks ago, the part of me James brought out over those couple of days, that is who I would rather be. It's just if I break up with Adam, I'll have no friends, because no one will forgive me for the things I have done to them." That was not what I had expected to hear, I now actually felt slightly sorry for her. What happened next surprised to hear James' voice speak from behind me.

"Jess, I do not know whether I'll be able to forgive for along time, but, if you honestly want to be that person you were when I first got to know you, I will stand by you." Jess' eyes were wide open in shock and she wasn't the only one, most people were feeling the same way, including me. The only ones who didn't seem shocked were Piper and Drew who look as if some Aphrodite power was telling them there was some connection between them and it made me jealous. I pushed that thought to one side, so to speak and we carried on with the game. Let's just say by the end James was in a lot of pain, because of a dare Leo gave to Kate telling her to fire an arrow at James to see whether he turned into snowflakes by reflex to stop it. Let's just say it didn't work and James ended up with an arrow in his stomach, although Kate looked happy and said they were even now.

-After the game was finished-

James' POV

I was headed back to the cabins with Lizzie, now that we had finished and I have to say I wish her dare was for the whole game. It felt comforting to have her close to me as if I didn't have to worry about anything and I was just a normal seventeen year old. But honestly right now, the way she looked, her dirty blonde hair flowing down her back, framing her exquisite face and those eyes, don't even get me started on her deep blue eyes.

Before we got out of the forest, Lizzie pulled me aside, and she looked angry, honestly I had no idea why. I am sure however that she was going to tell me.

"How could you choose to help Jessica after what she did to me, although with you liking her I can see why. You know, after that kiss I thought maybe we could have something together, but now I don't think we can." She started to walk away from me but I impulsively grabbed her arm, pulling her into a kiss. For the first few seconds she kissed back but then she pushed me away and ran off.

I walked back towards the others and caught up to Jess and whispered ten words into her ear "You better be telling the truth about wanting to change."

I headed back to my cabin to sleep. It was the only way I could think of to shut what had just happened, with losing the girl I have liked for years without her even letting me explain anything at all.

I awoke the next morning to a thumping on my door, I slowly dressed and walked to my door, opening it groggily. I found it was Jess at my door.

"There you are, we are all worrying about where you are. It's lunch already!"

"I bet not all of you are bothered, are you?" I knew the girl who had stolen my heart wasn't there bothering about where I was or how I felt right now.

"I'll admit for some reason, Elizabeth" I winced at the name, "didn't seem too bothered. James are you OK, did something happen between you two?"

"No I'm fine, nothing happened, she probably just thought I had slept in." I didn't know who I was trying to convince more, Jess, or myself.

"I'm sure that is all, you should hurry up and come get some food while you can."

"You head off, I'll catch up to you." I didn't feel like seeing Lizzie's face today but she was right I needed to eat so I trudged up to the pavilion, sacrificed some of my food to my mom, quickly ate my food and walked off. I headed down towards the beach and followed it along to my right until I got to my little beach, nestled between two rocks complete with a hammock. I flung myself into it and tried to think why things had to go so wrong.

I must have dozed off as the sun was lower in the sky and Jess was blocking my sun. I sat up, then climbed out and went to sit on the sand. She followed and sat next to me, for a while we just sat there in silence staring out at the vastness of the lake. It made me feel like I was a normal kid, doing something normal. But alas it was not to stay that way, she eventually broke the silence.

"I broke up with Adam today and you know what he said, he told me that he never liked me and that he could get a hotter girlfriend within the hour, because I'm just an ugly slag." I shuffled over next to her and wrapped my arms comfortingly around her while she cried, I looked at her face and saw her make up running down her face. I took off my T-shirt and melted ice onto it until it was saturated. At which point I lifted my top to her face and gently wiped off all of her make-up. She mumbled a thank you when I was done.

I slowly lifted her head so she was looking at me, "Listen to me Jess, you are not a slag nor will you ever be as for the ugly part, you are stunning without any make-up on. I honestly don't get why you cake your face in it when you look better without any on. To me you are in the top three most beautiful girls here at camp."

"Really? Where in the top three, I'm going to guess third behind Piper and Elizabeth" her eyes seem to have lit up from what I had told her.

"Nah, you are second, you are ahead of Piper, but I guess it doesn't matter how beautiful Lizzie is, it all gone to shit anyway." her face smiled even brighter at the first half but turned to a frown by the end.

"I doubt very much that it has after how cosy you two were together last night." she replied trying to lift my spirit

"Believe me, she made it pretty clear that, she didn't want to be with me because of last night. If that wasn't bad enough, I kissed her and she pushed me away."

She looked at me with genuine concern. "What happened last night to make her give up on you?"

"The reason why isn't even true, not that she would let me explain that. She thinks that I'm only helping you because I want to be more than friends. The thing is, yes, I had a crush on you that's it and I've liked her for at least five years and it has amounted to absolutely nothing at all. I'm just a failure, and that is all I ever will be." I started crying a lot but quietly, so no one heard.

"James, why are you making it snow, well thats not important. Hey, look at me." I raised my head to look at her. "You are amazing, you brought out part of me that I thought had been lost forever. You killed not one but two, fricking hell hounds and just happened to be saving my life in the process. You saved Elizabeth from that stone that Adam threw at her head, which may have saved her life. Oh and you stopped Leo from winning captured the flag, so I am pretty sure that makes you nowhere near a failure. Please stop putting yourself down, it won't help."

"That is the thing, I can't help it, it is just how I feel about myself." I told her looking back at the sand.

"You doubt yourself and how much you mean to other people, maybe it's that your fatal flaw is self doubt. Even if it is, I want you to know I care about you and will always be here to help if you feel low. Don't forget that" After that we laid in the sand just casually chatting and saying what clouds looked like.

So what did you think?

All comments welcome. please review.

This is A.F.S signing out...