Two Weeks.
It's been two weeks since the quest. It went well, I suppose.
A short relay of what happened before, during and after the quest:
Percy, Grover, and I fell asleep on a bus. We took a little detour and ended up entering Tark-O's Gym and Exercise Equipment. The "Tark" on its signboard had an arrow signaling to the left above it.
Tsk, tsk. We had entered the abode of the personification of strength, Kratos. (Get it?) Now, you wouldn't want to mess with this guy. He's big, he's buff, he's plain scary. And you could see the sense of blood lust in his eyes. He hurled his treadmill at us just because Grover puked at his feet. Despite gaining the spirit of the Lord of the Wild, he still has his moments. The stench there was overwhelming. Gym shorts and sweaty socks and loads of perspiration odor. Percy was in a hurry so he just slashed through Kratos's chest, only inflicting minor damage. We had to run for it. He threw a 50k barbell at us which crashed straight through the wall, earning police sirens and distress calls from the neighbors.
After that, we made it to the school. The cyclops janitor was named Animatros, meaning "bloody"? I didn't quite catch it. The cleaning closet was bigger than I expected. As in, huge. Really huge. Huger than huge. You get the point. There were mops and brooms, but the Mist that clouded it had faded, so you would actually see bone clubs, blood-stained silver swords, monster teeth and stuff and so. It was a disgusting display of ancient artifacts.
"Percy, what do we do? I can't see the kids." They weren't dead yet. I would know if that happened. It's a son-of-Hades thing, you wouldn't understand.
"Yeah, well, why don't we split up?" Great, Percy. Just great. Now, if someone got hurt because of your plan, I blame you.
Grover gulped. I shrugged. Percy flipped his hair. The split-up plan was followed reluctantly by both me and Grover. Percy went straight ahead, Grover wearily trotted to the left side, where the weapons were. I had to check the shadows. To the dark side, I thought to myself.
I couldn't sense the cyclops's presence anywhere, though I could have sworn I heard a kid crying for help. I went further into the darkness. And finally, I saw the twins. Piece of cake. Who knew rescuing kids were so easy? But then again, this was a quest. Anything could go wrong.
I took the children, the girl was crying and said she wanted her mommy, the boy, instead of comforting her, said she was a scaredy-cat of all things. The normal things kids do. I asked them who their parents were. Their mom was a mortal, and their dad was Hephaestus. For little kids, they seem to know much about their parentage. We headed off to look for Percy, only to find that Grover was bound by ropes and a hungry cyclops, Animatros, eyeing his newly found lunch.
"Nico!" Grover bleated. "Percyyyy! Somebody, help meeee!" I covered my ears as Grover's scream pierced my ears. Even Animatros was surprised that something so small can be deafeningly loud.
Never mind that, Animatros probably thought, because he immediately lunged over Grover like a kid chasing his ball. Good thing Grover leaped away just in time.
Drat. I told the kids to hide and unsheathed my Stygian Iron sword (a little disenchanted with the fact that it doesn't have a name; seeing as Percy had his Riptide/Anaklusmos) and went for the kill. As soon as the cyclops saw me rushing towards him, he grabbed one of the nearest bone clubs and started swinging in all directions possible like a savage viking. I didn't get hit, but Grover did, despite the fact that he had been trying to dodge all the strikes. Grover flew across the room, and smashed trough the wall. He lay by the floor, unconscious.
And then I suddenly remembered:
"Take care of Grover, 'kay?" Said a fierce looking Juniper. "Or else.. or else, I'll..." She trailed off, lost in her thought.
"Don't worry, nothing bad is gonna happen to him." I replied, staring at her elfish green face. We were by the creek, me and Juniper, discussing about the coming quest.
"I'll turn you into a daisy!" She exclaimed. I knew she was just playing around, but I couldn't help but notice the determination in eyes, seeming as if she was going to turn me into a flower. Could nymphs really do that?
Juniper is going to kill me.
Back to the action: How was I supposed to attack this thing? Then Percy came along, striking Animatros by the thigh. The thing screamed as monster blood dripped from the wound. No doubt Percy was using me as a distraction, a decoy. I won't settle for second best. The cyclops knelt in agony, and I took the chance. I jumped on his knee and climbed up to his head. It wasn't an easy feat; he gnarled and swung around, desperately trying to loosen me up from my grip on his thick, calloused skin.
"Your efforts are futile, Animatros!" I roared as I stabbed my sword on to his shoulder, causing him to stumble down and writhe in pain. More blood. Percy then climbed up and took all the glory from me, not bothering to pause for a moment, as he stabbed Riptide into the cyclops's eye. Merciless, I thought. How would Tyson feel if he found out that Percy did this to his kin? Ignore the thought. The cyclops exploded into sandy yellow dust, making me fall from where I was standing and onto the ground. Percy held out his hand for me to help me get up, but by my being stubborn, I refused.
Got up and dusted myself off. I sighed. Percy was the hero again. The kids would be eternally grateful to him. Oh, shoot! Grover! I rushed to where his limp body tangled through with stone and rubble. He was still breathing, thank Hades.
Soon after we bundled up, said a prayer to the gods, got lost in the city, boarded on a bus, we finally emerged back at Camp. It has only been two days. Great. Two days could change anything. Any-freakin'-thing. The scent of strawberries enveloped the air. Birds chirped. Kids playing around. Satyrs with their reed pipes. The clang of swords hitting each other. It felt good to be…home.
So back to the present, I definitely felt normal. Although, I don't think I look normal. My hair is a shaggy black mess, the bags under my eyes seemed bigger and darker, and a scowl seemed permanently etched to my olive face. I've been like this since we got back from the quest. Jake and Janie (the twins) were happily welcomed to the Hephaestus cabin, Percy renowned as a hero once more, Grover being in Intensive Juniper Care, me being ignored. The usual things proceed.
And then there's this weird feeling in me, because the first time I saw Vivi after the quest, she was in Jasper's arms, sneakily hiding away from the bonfire sing-a-long after dinner. It was dark that time, so I couldn't tell what her expression looked like. I. Shouldn't. Care. I. Don't. Care. Never. Never. NEVER.
For two weeks, I've been ignoring her, making myself busy so thoughts of her wouldn't invade my head. I piled myself with rigorous sword fighting, heavy archery training, exasperating races with the dryads, and a whole lot of dog walking with Mrs. O'Leary. I was tired at most, but it helped. I forgot all about her. I concentrated then on making myself stronger.
But for what reason? There never seemed to be any concrete answer to whatever questions I had. I sighed. I was by the beach, letting the waves caress my tired feet. I found a conch shell. I threw it as far as I could to the sea. I grabbed a fistful of sand and mussed it through my hair. Now I look like a retard. And I hated myself for feeling this way.
And then the most unexpected voice came from behind. It could only be: a) Rachel - she was visiting right now, b) Annabeth; or c) Clarisse - we've been on good terms since my individual training sessions with her. Come on, guess.
If you said A or C, you're wrong. It was Annabeth, acting all motherly and such. Her curly blonde her was tied in a ponytail, and her stormy gray eyes seemed to look at me quizzically; She might be assessing what kind of mood I'm in right now, or maybe it was just the particles of sand in my hair. Why was she here?
"What do you want?" My voice came out harsher than I had actually intended.
Annabeth didn't seem to mind. "Well, if you're done sulking, you might want to come with me. Let's take a walk through the forest."
"The forest?"
"Yeah, you heard me. The forest."
"Ah, the forest."
"Oh, just come on." Annabeth rolled her eyes at me. I forced down a laugh.
Now I had been wondering. Annabeth doesn't usually spend time with me, given that she has other projects like being the official architect for Mt. Olympus (her greatest achievement), teaching Ancient Greek, and she has a boyfriend. Annabeth must want to talk to me about something.
"Why are we here, again?" I asked. The forest floor was littered with scraps of diet coke cans and tissue paper, like someone had been partying here a few days ago.
"I need you to help me pick up the trash. The satyrs are busy with the construction."
"What construction?"
"The Satyr Station. They'll be serving ice cream. Isn't that great? Now we have something to cool ourselves off in the summer heat. The idea came from the Aphrodite, Apollo and Iris cabins. Plus, since it's being run by satyrs and nymphs, I'm pretty sure it'll be organic."
"That's…cool." Oh, joy. Yes, it's cool. It's ice cream, duh.
Annabeth and I started picking up litter from the creek, me getting occasional glances from Annabeth. I had been sulking the whole time we were doing the job. Of course I wasn't enjoying the task. But since we were helping Mother Earth, might as well do so.
Man, my back hurts after finishing the dull work. Annabeth thanked me and went on her way. I decided to take a shower back in my cabin.
The water felt chilly as it ran through my bare skin. Stayed in the shower much longer than expected. I have pruny fingers.
Let me sum it up. Things have changed after two weeks.
1) Vivi comes up to me once in a while. I ignore her because…Just because.
2) Grover asks me to test-run the Satyr Station. I serve grass flavored ice cream.
3) Clarisse accidentally cut through my thigh because of a love quarrel with Chris. She apologizes and leaves me bleeding.
4) A girl named Megan Glendale from the Aphrodite cabin found me and patched me up.
5) Not all Aphrodite girls are beauty-conscious. Megan doesn't care about beauty.
Megan Glendale is this girl from the Aphrodite cabin (as I may have mentioned above) who is apparently different from what is expected. Megan is smart, outdoorsy, and doesn't care about breaking a sweat or getting mud on her dainty ballet flats. She's comfortable even without make-up and knows how to strike up a conversation. Not an ordinary chick.
As Megan and I started hanging out together, summer seemed to be better for me, She had this interesting quirk. She makes funny faces at you when you're not looking. She doesn't care about how her face gets scrunched up when she makes a fish mouth with thin slits for eyes.
After the shower, I got dressed. The usual black. It's easier to blend into shadows that way. I went out to get a breather and saw Megan reading a book at the front porch of cabin ten. I came up to her and asked her if she wanted to spend some time with me.
"Sure. Why not?"
Off we went to the strawberry fields. Megan loves this place because the scent of strawberries were so much better than the DKNY perfume she got from her mom last summer.
"Nico, what do you think of me?" Megan asked, looking at me with honest curiosity. Why can't she have asked "Do I look fat?" or something? It's an easier question for me to answer.
"Well, I think you're normal. As normal as it could get as a half-blood." I thought it was good enough to be considered as an answer.
"I see. Well, what would you want to talk about?"
"Just ask me something." I really didn't care.
"Do you like Vivi?" I am caught off-guard as soon as I heard that question.
A/N: Hey. This is the revised edition of Chapter 4 because somehow, FF.N kind of mixed it up with another chapter. Hi, hello. Review?