She woke up in the Big House, on a couch in some room that she'd never been in before. A medicine pouch sat on the coffee table next to the couch. No one else was in the room. She tried to sit up, and only managed to groan and move her head.
The sound drew someone's attention, and Kole heard footsteps coming toward her room. A redhead girl stuck her head in the room, saw that Kole was awake, and shouted, "Chiron! She's awake!" Then she walked into the room. "Hey, I'm Rachel Dare. Nico dumped you here about three hours ago. Apparently whatever you fought was poisonous. Oh yeah, and did you do that to Nico? All the mustaches and the sparkles and bananas and stuff?"
"Why yes, yes it was." She grinned maniacally.
"No one has managed to land anything on Nico without getting skeletons set on their tail before!" Rachel laughed. "You got him pretty good!"
"Well I saved his butt after that, so that might be part of it." Kole admitted.
Then Chiron walked in. Kole had seen centaurs before, but most of them were evil, so Chiron was still pretty impressive to her.
"Ah, you awake at last. How are you feeling, my girl?" He asked, crossing the room and picking up the medicine pouch.
"Well I just got launched ten feet off a giant snake into a tree and bitten, but other than that, I'm totally great."Kole said, with a perfect poker face. Rachel stifled a laugh.
"Well in that case, just have some nectar and drink this." Chiron held out a little glass vial.
"Um, what is it? My mom told me not to drink potions from strange centaurs."Kole said, her eyes wide in a fake innocence look.
Chiron sighed. Rachel giggled. "It's an antidote for the poison. Which apparently, even though it normally is fatal, can't even stop you from cracking jokes with every breath."
"Well in that case, hand it over, horse man." Kole held out a hand. Chiron set the bottle in her palm, and she downed it all at once. She made a face and set the bottle down. "Tastes like essence of hydra fart." She stuck out her tongue and wrinkled her nose.
Then Nico stuck his head into the room. "Is she dead yet?" he asked.
"Nope. Takes more than a forty foot snake to take me out." Kole glared at him. "Did you dye your hair? It looks great." Nico's hair was still covered in sparkles and it was sticking out all around his head.
"Very funny." Nico said. "Anyway, all the others are waiting for Chiron to come out and do his hoof bang start the party thing for campfire."
"I will be there in a moment. I just need to make sure this young lady doesn't kill herself." Chiron said, pulling out a plastic bag of ambrosia.
"Good luck with that." Nico rolled his eyes and left.
"He's a real angel." Kole said.
"Give him a break. He's had a tough life." Rachel said.
"Yeah, well so have I. I'm teaching him to have fun. If someone would've done that for me, I would've been a lot better off." Kole said, serious for once. "Anyways, this campfire wouldn't happen to involve s'mores, would it? Cause I freaking love those things."
"As it happens, they do happen to have s'mores." Chiron said. "Follow me. But eat this first." He tossed Kole the bag, and she swallowed the ambrosia quickly, then stood up. She almost fell right back down again, but Rachel caught her.
"You sure you're ready to move?" Rachel asked, concerned.
"If it's moving toward s'mores, I'm always ready to move." Kole said.
Nico's POV
Of course he would never admit it, but Nico was glad Kole was okay. He was still mad at her for the sparkly mustache explosion, but at least now he knew she had a (somewhat) serious side. He had gotten kind of worried when he saw how bad here gaping snake bite was, and the fact that he sensed the death the snake had caused with its poison. But of course, she was fine, because she was a stubborn little-
"WOOOOOOOOHOOOOO!" The entire Hermes cabin stood up and started cheering when Kole showed up and started towards the amphitheater. She grinned hugely and took a bow. Nico didn't know if anyone else noticed her wince. Connor and Travis ran to the front of the Hermes cabin and they each raised one of her arms in victory.
"The best prankster ever!" They shouted. More cheering. Kole was shoved into the front seat, closest to the fire in the center of the amphitheater.
"Campers!" Chiron banged his hoof onto the marble floor. Everyone shut up pretty fast. "As you all know, tomorrow is Friday. Which means-"
"CAPTURE THE FLAG!" everyone shouted at once.
"Yes, that." Chiron smiled. "But for now, we'll have our songs and s'mores." The fire burned bright yellow and huge, because everyone was in a good mood.
After the campfire, Nico went back to his cabin, and again tried to wash the sparkles out of his hair. It didn't work. "Uuuuuhg. When I get my hands on her…." He left his cabin in search of Kole.
She wasn't in the Hermes cabin, so Nico went to check in the Big House next. He knocked on the door, and when no one answered, he just walked in. He heard hushed whispers in the other room and poked his head in to see Chiron and Rachel talking urgently. Chiron pointed into the next room, and Nico went in.
Kole was lying on a couch, wrapped in blankets. She was sweaty and pale, her slim body shaking violently.
"What the- what happened?" Nico asked, coming around and sitting on the coffee table beside her.
"Uh, I got attacked by a freaking fifty foot long snake." She said.
"But I thought you were okay? You seemed fine at the campfire." Nico was confused.
"Yeah, well." She couldn't really shrug, but she tried.
"So, um-" Nico shuffled his feet awkwardly.
"Oh yeah, here's the glue remover stuff. Come here." Kole waved him over. Nico stood beside the couch. She grabbed his jacket and pulled him down, then dumped the bottle out on his head. His hair fixed itself automatically, and Kole ruffled it. "See? All better." She said. "Although, I gotta say, you look pretty good with sparkle hair." Kole grinned.
Chiron walked in, holding his medicine pouch. "Sorry Nico, I need you to leave." Chiron said bluntly.
"Oh. Okay." As Nico left, he whispered to Chiron, "You can fix her right?"
"I hope so. I really hope so." Chiron said solemnly. That didn't make Nico feel any better.
He went back to his cabin after that, but it took him a while to get to sleep. He would never say it aloud, but he was kinda worried.
The next morning at breakfast, Kole was nowhere to be seen. Nico wanted to go to the Big House and see if she was okay, but he didn't want to seem to attached to her. The last thing he needed being teased for a nonexistent crush. He was reassured, though, when later that day the Stolls came out of the Big House covered in blue mustaches. But then again, just because she was still pulling pranks didn't mean she was okay, as proven by the campfire.
Finally, during free time, Nico went to find Chiron at the archery range. "So, uh, is Kole okay?" He asked.
"She almost died last night while I was trying to get out a shard of snake fang, but she seems to be better today. She needs to be in bed for another day, but somehow I don't think that will happen." Chiron shot an arrow straight through the bull's eye. "You might want to go check on her."
"Why me?" Nico asked.
"I'm giving you an excuse because I know you don't want to seem to attached to her." Chiron looked Nico in the eye.
"Oh." Nico fought down a blush, then ran off.
He found Kole lying on the couch, throwing Skittles into the air and catching them in her mouth. "Having fun?" he asked. She jumped, and her orange Skittle hit her in the eye and bounced off.
"Ow. And yes, I am having so much fun. Sitting here in bed all day and drinking hydra farts? What's not to like?" She smiled sarcastically.
"Oh good. I thought you might be bored." Nico said, faking a relieved expression. "Chiron sent me to check on you. He said you almost died last night."
"What? Yeah, I almost die all the time. It's a favorite hobby of mine." She threw another Skittle.
"I can't believe you haven't tried to sneak out yet." Nico said, totally honest.
"Oh I did. That's why Rachel and Argus are watching me. I think they have people guarding all the exits." She rolled her eyes. "Will you shadow travel me out?" She smiled and fluttered her eyelids.
"Yeah right." Nico noticed some Mythomagic cards spread on the table. "You play?"
"What, Mythomagic? Yeah I play that. I was attempting to play alone, but that didn't really work." She waved a hand at the cards.
"Wanna play?" He pulled out his deck.
"Sure! I mean, better than doing nothing, I guess." She tried to look casual, but he could see excitement sparking in her eyes. Kole sat up, holding her side.
"You okay?" Nico asked.
"Psh like you care, Death Boy. I'm perfectly fine." She didn't look at him.
-An hour later-
"Ha! My Fates have taken out your monster armies with a single snip!" Kole shouted, slamming down a card.
"But can you Fates stand up to Zeus?" Nico put a card on top of hers.
"Can Zeus stand up to Hyperion?!" Kole triumphantly covered Nico's card.
"Um, can Hyperion defeat Porphyrion?" Nico played his last card.
"But Tartarus swallows all!" Kole played her own last card. "And the crowd goes wild! Wooooo! Woooo!" Kole grinned hugely. "In yo face, Death Boy!"
Nico couldn't help but smile at her display. "I'll give you this one, Pranky Pants."
"Pranky Pants? Really? That's the best you can do?" Kole raised an eyebrow.
"Better than Death Boy." Nico shrugged. The dinner horn rang through the valley.
"Ooh food yay." Kole tried to stand up. She succeeded, but she had to lean on the couch.
"You cannot walk all the way to the pavilion." Nico said, watching her.
"Yeah huh. I can walk wherever I want." Kole said stubbornly.
"Chiron said you have to stay in bed for another day."Nico crossed his arms. "Which means you can't go to dinner. You have to get back on that couch and stay there."
"You can't make me!" Kole said, exasperated. She tried to walk towards the door, but it didn't work too well. Nico managed to catch her, though. He pulled her up to her feet, awkwardly avoiding her eyes. Once she was steadied, he stepped back. "Um, thanks?"
"No problem."Nico shoved his hands in his pockets and studied the floor. He watched Kole walk away, each step careful. She hugged her ribs, trying to keep the wound in her side from painfully shifting. He followed after her, ready to catch her again, all the way to the pavilion.
