(Disclaimer: All of the PJO characters are Rick Riodan's except Theia and Alia)
She had passed out again. Leo sat next to her talking. By this time, I was pissed.
Alia, who hasn't talked to me herself since before Leo came along. Who had been in a coma for three days straight screaming making me a reck was passed out again for me to find her.
And Leo, who I never got to know, the boy my supposed best friend had fallen in love with. The boy who "died" and came back. For me to find with passed out Alia the first time. And now the second time.
And so, I was pissed off. But the mamma bear in me forced me to help them. Even though they made me feel like crap.
I whistled in three short bursts and looked at him.
"Are you okay?"
He looked down at Alia. "I will be. Do you know why.." He waved his hand at Alia.
"Oh for the love of Persephone, Well, if you remember correctly, when you failed to ask her what she was screaming about and then proceeded to stalk us, she said that she had seen her family get murdered, hear her father abuse her mother, watch what Hera did to Percy, and something else but she isn't comfortable sharing yet." I said super defensively. "And now whatever stupid thing you were talking about must've triggered something and caused her to do this. And, oh, lets not forget she is a minor freaking goddess and was shocked alive. And that she is still probably getting over the whole of that bombshell! Oh, also, have you told her about your part in that situation yet?"
"Sorry that I asked, and no. How do you bring that up in a conversation? 'Oh, hey Alia! Your best friend told me to give you mouth-to-mouth because "I dig you" have a great rest of you day!' That just doesn't exactly work Theia."
"Well, then find a smart way to make it work Valdez. She's not a baby, she needs to know what happened" i sneered, turned around angrily and was about to whistle, but then Will came out of the trees. "There you are! She fainted again she was reacting to Leo and I's voices. You should try talking to see if she reacts to yours. Otherwise, I've got nothing else. And Our lover-boy doesn't have anything important to say either."
"Hey!"
"Oh hush. We all know. The whole camp knows. You two are just so oblivious." Will said rolling his eyes at Leo then looking at Alia. She didn't react to his voice, but her hand moved towards him, so that could've been something. "Lets get her to the infirmary."
Will told me to carry her again. I did it. We went to the infirmary again. I put her down. She started crying again. But I don't cry with her. I just left.
I went sit in the woods, with my bow. I shot leaves off trees. Only to be yelled at. So instead I wander to a stream. Where I sit and watch the water flow. Alone with the nature spirits.
My heart told me to do something. So I sang. Sang about being only a helper. Being only the best friend. About wishing to have comfort with my skin. About my arrogant wish to be the main character in a story.
The nymphs and naiads surrounded me. Watching as I continued my song. It then came to an end. Tears streamed down my face.
A pretty nymph dried my tears with moss, "that was beautiful miss."
"Thank you," I told her. "I've been having a rough time."
"That is understandable," a naiad spoke out. "Your song brought tears to my eyes, your stories, they must hurt to lock up."
"They do," I said, then think of Alia, "oh my gods I'm so selfish!"
"Why ever do you say that?" The moss nymph asked.
"My friend has been through way more than I have! I should be there for her!" I started to get up, then slumped back down "but she never talked to me."
"Aw," the naiad said, "it's okay, you can vent to us. Everyone needs to let it out sometimes, we completely understand." They all nod.
"Thank you," I told them again, "Can I know your names?"
"My name is Lillieona." The naiad told me.
"And I am Steliople." The nymph said after, "who are you."
"My name is Theia."
"A beautiful name for a beautiful girl." Steliople said.
"Thank you."
"You're very welcome."
"Theia," lillieona started, "tell me, why do wish to be the star of a story?"
"Well," I paused, "for me life is basically survive and do what you are told. And I do it. And recently my friend has been having some crazy things happen to her. And she's the star, she's the one everyone loves and is routing for. Then there's me. Her friend who tries her hardest to protect her, then gets no recognition. Like, believe me, I love her and will risk my life to save her. But when I do, no one sees."
"My advice," Steliople said, "is to be there for her, do your best. And talk to her, about this, tell her how you feel. She will understand."
The conch horn rings in the distance.
"Oh," I said, "I guess it's dinner."
"Yes."
"Thank you both," I told them, "you are amazing listeners, I'll talk to you soon okay?"
"Okay," they both yelled to me as I started running to camp. I got there just in time.
It was only Austin at my table. Alia, Leo, and Percy were also not in sight. Which meant nothing had gotten better.
I sat down.
"Hey Thee," Austin said, "I heard that Alia is reacting, I guess that's good right?"
"Yeah," I said and stared down at my plate. I didn't know what I was expecting. For me to come back and not have every conversation I have be about Alia.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah," I looked up at his concerned face. "I'm fine."
"Now, I know you pretty well." He told me, "you are not fine."
"I'm just lost in thought."
"Uh huh," he sarcastically said, "like I believe that."
"Austin. Stop." I told him using my mother voice.
"Oh, Theia. I-I" he stumbled, "I'm sorry"
"It's fine," i said. "I've been having a rough few days, I don't want to deal with crap right now."
"Okay."
We ate the rest of our food in silence. I felt bad for shutting Austin down like that, but I didn't want to risk spilling all of the secrets.
At the end of dinner Percy came out of the big house and told me to relive Leo from his position. I knew what that meant. I got night shift.
They had probably thought that the time that I was out I was sleeping. Nope, now I know I'm going to be exhausted.
I went into the infirmary and told Leo to scram. He told me to talk to her, tell her stories. And he left.
I pulled up a more comfortable chair than what Leo was sitting on, and decided on a story.
It was the story of the crazy crap I had done with Willow my first training summer.
Theias First Training Summer
"Where are you bringing me?" I asked as Willow drove us up a dirt hill. We had been driving for a few hours.
"We're almost there," She told me. Then we finally saw it. A shooting range. And a paintball course.
"Oh my gosh." I said.
"This is where I got one on one training from my mentor." Willow said. I had known that she was a trained fighter in the military, but i hadn't known that she was one on one trained.
"That's so cool!" I had been so naive back then. The idea of fighting seemed so interesting to me. Nowadays, not so much.
Willow got me started with an easy target and her easiest gun. I got the hang of it super quickly. So she moved me up a difficulty, that I got immediately. I kept moving up through guns when we got to her hardest.
"Well," she said, "you've gotten the hang of shooting. Let's make the targets move." Willow then brought me to the track. "Your job now is to run the track and hit these targets. But the number one thing, is to not tough the targets." She explained and held up a target of a zombie. "They're going to chase after you, once you hit them they'll stop."
"Okay," I said and got into position. Willow got off the track and went to the lever.
"Three! Two! One! Gooooo!"
I sprinted like my life depended on it. My plan was to get as far ahead as possible and shoot them. I got a little bit ahead, turned around and saw them right behind me.
And then it hit me.
Not an idea, the zombie board.
I fell on my face and was ran over by the zombie machine. Willow ran up to me, "Well, That didn't work."
"Yeah," I said, "No kidding."
"Try keeping pace and shooting while running." She told me.
I went back to the start and Willow got the Zombies ready. When she let them go I did as she told me. It still didn't work, she then told me a new way to take them on. I tried that. We tried so many different tactics. So many times, so far from the zombies. All of them didn't work.
The sun was going down. We still haven't found a way that worked. Willow and I laid in the grass. "I think we're done." Willow said. She got up, picked up the stuff, and started walking towards the car. "I'm going to get our bags from the car and set up camp."
"Okay," I told her, "I'm gonna try this again."
"Alright," she smirked, "I like your determination."
She walked off and I got started. All of the tries Willow suggested had me being far away from the zombies. This time, I was going to try going right up next to them.
I pulled back the lever and got running. The zombies came up on my 6. Instead of speeding up, like I always did. I slowed down. I came right up next to the zombie and shot them point blank. It powered down and stopped. The next came right after. I went to their level and shot. I took down one after another. Leaving the last one. I took it out with ease.
The machine stopped. I laughed, I was victorious!
Something rustle the bushes. I looked over and saw glowing eyes. I reloaded my gun, and walked closer. I heard a growl. Nudging the bush aside I saw what the thing was. It was a GINORMOUS dog.
Honestly, I wish I hadn't screamed like I did. Yeaaahhh, I screamed like a banshee. Giving the dog even more reasons to kill me. Yay!
So I ran, Trying to get away from that dog thing. Running from a dog is a terrible idea. It ended up tackling me and growling at my back. I screamed some more when a shot rang out above me. The weight of the dog vanished. I looked up, Willow was rushing over to me.
"Are you okay?" She practically screamed at me.
"Yeah." I told her, "I'm fine," I looked around, the dog was nowhere to be seen. "Where's the dog."
"It ran into the forest," Willow said quickly. She pulled me up off the ground and brought me swiftly to our cabin tent thing. The rest of the time Willow would not let me be alone. But I learned a lot.
