Noah,
"Three mojitos and two waters," the waitress put a mojito in front of each of us at the table and the two waters in front of Kate and me, "I'll give you a minute to decide."
I opened my mouth to say that we didn't have time to eat, but Apollo cut me off.
"Just dessert actually. Crème Brulee for the lady," Apollo smiled at Kate, "Red Velvet for him. And that double-chocolate cake for me."
Apollo smiled seductively at the waitress, and she blushed as she turned back to put in the order.
"Thank you, Apollo," Kate smiled at Apollo.
It was hard to think that, a year ago, I was actually friends with Apollo, though he often brought up embarrassing stories from when I was a child.
But, as I sat here today, I almost hated him. It wasn't that he was perfect, as a god should be. It wasn't that he could get anything he wanted. It wasn't even the fact that he could do anything without consequences, except for the fact that he still had a cabin full of kids at Camp.
It was the fact that Kate was in on it.
Things were different when we were kids.
Kate was always adorable. She was fun and a little crazy I'll admit. She was the kind of kid who wanted to wrap up in a hug and never let go.
Now, she was beautiful. She was confident but not mean about it. And she was still the person who wanted to wrap up in a hug and never let go…
And Apollo was noticing…
I wasn't exactly sure why it ate me up, but it did.
And it wasn't helping that Kate blushed at everything he said to her…
"Cheers to old friends," Apollo held up his mojito, and Kate and I both held up our glasses.
He was about to take a sip when he stopped.
"Wait, are you old enough to drink?" Apollo shook his head, "You know what? Never mind, drink up."
I shrugged and decided I needed a drink.
When Kate and I put our glasses down, Apollo leaned back into his booth, holding the glass merrily as he looked between the two of us.
"I still can't believe you're so grown up. It feels like yesterday, Noah, that I was taking you to a soccer game when your father was having tutoring after class. Do you remember? You were four or five then," Apollo smiled.
"Uh, yeah, you had some girl with you."
"Girl…" Apollo knit his eyebrows as he thought about it, "Oh, right, Alexis. After that, we didn't see much of each other. I think it was because I had a thing for Annabeth… Your dad didn't really like that, but, I mean, I didn't do anything when she was dating your father. Just when she was dating Henry."
Apollo shrugged, taking another sip of his drink.
I just kept staring.
"Oh, wait, you two didn't know about that…" Apollo smiled apologetically, and he quickly waved over another waitress and pointed towards his almost empty drink, which she understood.
"So, Apollo, we need to ask you something-" Kate began, and Apollo sighed.
"What is it with you Demigods and working so much?" Apollo finished his drink, "Alright, alright. I understand. You are here for work, I suppose. Now tell me all about it."
Kate looked to me, telling me that it was my story to tell.
"Well, it's about Charlie," I began, and Apollo's fun-loving, calm eyes got softer.
The waitress arrived with the drink, and Apollo smiled weakly as he took a long sip.
"It's time."
I nodded.
Apollo sighed but nodded.
Charlie was hated by some, such as Hera. But he was adored by Apollo, Aphrodite, Hestia, and many others.
Apollo especially adored her, which actually made my father pretty nervous about whether his grandchild might share the DNA of Apollo when Charlie grew up, but it was actually pretty cute to everyone else.
Apollo had kind of been there in my life, usually coming in to be the "Great Uncle Apollo" to impress women. Apollo kind of faded out when my dad started dating Annabeth again, and he didn't show back up until Charlie was born, which was only a year later.
For crying out loud, Apollo had decided that he wanted Charlie to marry one of his sons, though my father still worried that he was going to go after her when she was an adult.
"You said she's at the house, right?" Apollo asked.
I nodded.
"Well, Aiden will take care of her. He's my son, you know, of the Roman form. Great kid, I wanted to spend some time with him. So I brought him here… Relaxing, don't you think?" Apollo smiled, and I tried to get him back on topic.
"So, do you know what we need to do?"
"Her name is Olympia, no one knows of her. She never had any stories. Never known. I only know of her because I was after her at some point, but, as a priestess, she could not. And she refused me," Apollo waved that off, "She was beautiful, smart, and very important. In fact, she was the high priestess of Athens."
I instantly knew where this was going.
Charlie was the child who shouldn't have been born.
Our grandparents were enemies and had been since Athens. Athena and Poseidon both wanted to be the god of the city, and Athena was chosen. Ever since, they hated each other…
It had angered Athena when Annabeth started dating my father, and my grandfather was happy for the two of them, though he still didn't like Athena. It wasn't until Charlie was born that they had some sort of truce for the sake of their granddaughter.
"She chose Athena," Apollo nodded, "Poseidon was angry, he banished her to the stone underworld. She ate the food and got trapped forever. There's more to the story, I just don't know it. I'm guessing she wants Charlie because she hates both of her grandparents."
Kate and I stared at Apollo.
It was a lot of information.
Yes, we wanted it.
But, since Charlie was seven and was first contacted by the woman, we had been wondering all of this.
And now here it was, all on the table.
It was too much to take in at once, and I suddenly felt like drinking more.
I took a long gulp of the mojito and nodded for him to continue, and Kate leaned into the table.
She was about to say something when a waitress arrived with a tray packed with three desserts.
We pulled away for her to put away three plates, and our food looked delicious, especially my red velvet cake, which happened to be my favorite dessert. But I was thinking about too many things to focus on how good the cake looked.
Apollo seemed to be the only one who still had an appetite, taking a big bite of his double chocolate cake.
"This is delicious. Are you guys sure you don't want to taste this? You'll love it. I think I might want another actually," he took another big bite of the cake.
"Apollo," Kate crossed her arms.
"Eat your dessert. You are staying with me tonight, all four of you. Aiden will be excited, he's been with his old man this entire time, you know. We can finish talking about business later. For now, eat your dessert. Finish your drinks. And then we are heading home."
Charlie,
I looked at the text from Kate for the millionth time.
Found Apollo. Eating with him. He wants to talk. We're coming to the house afterwards.
-Kate
I got the text about thirty minutes ago, and we already been sitting here for fifteen minutes. It wouldn't have been as awkward if it hadn't been for numerous factors.
Sam didn't seem to like Aiden that much, saying to me that he didn't trust people as easily as I did, and he was often fidgety about why Kate and Noah were taking so long.
Aiden didn't know what to say, and he didn't seem to take a liking to Sam either.
And I had to admit I was a little mesmerized by the interesting Aiden.
Though I still didn't know how old he was, I saw up-close that he was closer to my age than I thought. When his hair was dry, it was more sandy blonde than my golden blonde. His eyes were navy blue, but they shimmered in the light.
Then there were the tattoos…
The tattoo on his arm for being a roman showed that he was the son of Apollo with what looked like eight years under his belt, but I couldn't tell exactly how long because he had put on a shirt since coming straight from the shower in jeans to the door. But he couldn't really hide the tattoo on the nape of his neck.
Like the tattoo of the Romans, Aiden's tattoo was set into his skin, more of being branded than getting a tattoo. It the shape of angle wings, and it was an amazing copy…
Aiden was different from people I had met before, and, having demigods and even the eccentric billionaire through my mom's work, I knew some pretty interesting people.
"So, you play soccer, right?" Aiden asked.
Sam looked up from his cell phone.
"How do you know that?"
I rolled my eyes. Sam had been acting like he was under interrogation since we got here.
"My dad. He was talking about the party that night. He met some girl, Cheyenne, at the game."
"My ex," Sam nodded.
"Did you go to the game?" I cut in before we could have another awkward silence.
"Uh, no," Aiden nodded towards me, "I was in California. I only got to the East Coast last week. So I wasn't around for the game. But Apollo hasn't stopped talking about it."
They're pretty close, I noticed, but I didn't say anything. I didn't want another awkward silence.
"California?"
"New Rome," Aiden nodded.
"Oh," I nodded as well.
"Where are you two from?"
Before Sam could ask why, I answered.
"New York City."
"By Olympus."
That was probably the first time I had ever heard anyone bring up Olympus when I said New York. Usually, you heard about the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building or something iconic like that.
I could tell immediately that he had spent a lot of time in the Roman Camp, not New Rome.
My parent's best friends had kids over there, and they were as close to normal as demigods could get. Aiden, on the other hand, I didn't know.
Why was I wondering about him so much?
"Yeah."
"So, how are you guys…?"
"Godly?" Sam raised his eyebrows.
"Yeah," Aiden nodded.
"My grandmothers are Demeter and Athena's. Charlie's grandmother is Athena, and her grandfather is Poseidon. We're second generation."
Aiden's eyes met mine, which made my heart stop for a brief second.
His eyes were pure energy, pure electricity.
"You're the Daughter of the Mind and Sea?"
"Yes," I answered, though my voice was guarded now.
"That's why you're here…" his voice seemed to fill with pity and some sort of respect.
Did everyone know about this except for me?"
"You know? I didn't know that it had traveled to New Rome," I rubbed my arm.
"Praetor Jason. He talks about you all the time, always says that it was seeing you that finally convinced his wife to have their daughter, Thalia, and little Thalia convinced them to have Roman," Aiden looked down, maybe embarrassed from being too much on a touchy subject.
I loved little Thalia, and I adored Roman. Thalia was eleven, and Roman was almost nine. Uncle Jason always told the story about how he had basically wanted a baby since he said "I do" but that his wife hadn't been on the same page due to their unsafe past and enemies who might want to hurt the child. He always smiled and kissed the top of my head, swooping his children into his arms, as he said, "And then she saw Charlie and saw that it really was possible for us."
It was kind of cute, I had to admit.
"Yeah, Uncle Jason never shuts up about it."
I glanced towards Sam, to see he was staring at us like we were crazy, as if I was "getting friendly with the enemy" as he had once told Kate on a quest and had never lived down.
I was about to try to change the subject when the door suddenly opened.
"Aiden?"
I could recognize that smooth, seductive voice anywhere.
Apollo.
"I picked up a few friends," Apollo walked in to the doorway, "And I hear you did, too."
He winked, and Aiden blushed at his father.
"Aiden, this is Noah. I knew his father, and I used to babysit Noah," Apollo patted my brother's back, "And this is Kate."
He delicately put a hand on Kate's back and smiled at her.
Noah steamed, a dead giveaway to the fact that he had been in love with her for years. Luckily, Sam was steaming, too, and didn't notice.
"She has grown up to be a vision," Apollo's smile widened, and Kate blushed.
Noah's jaw tightened.
Apollo moved over to me and set a hand on my back.
"And this is my little Charlotte. She's Noah's little sister, well half-sister technically. But can't you see the similarities. Of course, Charlie looks a lot like her mother, too. Her mother, Annabeth, is gorgeous as well. You know, I once had a thing for her, but she was always in a steady relationship. I guess I can understand Percy Jackson, but those boring business men she dated when they took a break? She chose them over me?"
"Um, Apollo," I cut him off, and Apollo suddenly seemed to realize we were still there.
"Oh, right, sorry. This is Charlie Jackson."
Sam let out a cough.
"Oh, and that's Sam, Kate's brother," Apollo brushed him off as he walked over to his son, "Everyone, this is my son, Aiden. He's Roman, a big military figure over there. I am very proud of him."
Aiden looked down, probably embarrassed by his dad.
"Now that we all know each other, let's get settled," Apollo called over a servant, and Sam looked to Noah and Kate.
"Settled?"
"Apollo has insisted we spend the night," Noah raised his eyebrows to show it wasn't a choice.
"Well, why not? I have enough room, and you have a long journey to LA."
"LA?" I asked.
"No, business now, Charlie," Apollo held up his hand, "Business talk requires drinks."
I was about to say something, but a servant quickly coming in cut me off.
"There you are. I want this young man in the Magnolia Room," he gestured to Sam, and Apollo precided to give everyone room assignments, leading down to me, "And Charlie in the Maple Room."
Kate,
When I got to my room, I found out why Apollo had told me not to get my bag. Everything I could ever need- and quite a bit more-was there, in the giant room I was supposed to call my own for the night.
It was absolutely amazing. I had the view to the back, looking at the small but beautiful courtyard that held roses and magnolia trees and jasmine, making the most delicious smell I could ever imagine. The windows were all open to the heat, but I only felt the gentle breeze instead of the burning weather. I could feel the sea air, and I doubted I would be able to get myself to leave.
After grabbing a mint chocolate from the bed and feeling the silk comforter, I went to the closet, biting my tongue as I imagined the revealing outfit Apollo had laid out for me.
When he sent us to our rooms, he told us that we each had an outfit laid out for tonight, and I had instantly dreaded going up stairs to see what I would have.
Instantly, I imagined all of those barely-there dresses you saw the women wearing who were on his arm like an accessory if you saw him out partying.
I had to admit that I did like the attention from Apollo, especially with how little I got from Noah, but I knew it was just attention. Apollo was the god of the guys who don't call back, and I was perfectly fine to stay away from that for the foreseeable future.
And I liked to see Sam get made like that…
And Noah… If I wasn't mistaken, Noah almost looked jealous.
I wondered what their reaction would be when they saw the most-likely horrible dress Apollo had left for me. Would Sam get angry or laugh? And what on earth would Noah do?
After what felt like forever of staring at the door leading to the closet, I finally got up the nerve to open the door.
In the doorway to the walk-in-closet full of clothes that were all my size and all amazing, there was a single dress.
It was… actually amazing.
I mean, it reminded me of Gone with the Wind, but in a good way. It was the color of the green of the lake back of camp, and the taffeta fabric was formed in a sweeping mini skirt. There were buttons from the top to bottom, stopping at the waist where it left a plunging neckline, where I knew I could put something under it.
Who picked this out? I wonder to myself, running my hand over the beautiful dress.
But I didn't care who picked it out, as long as it was now mine.
I smiled, noticing the nude pumps beside it, and I noticed the door to the bathroom.
I knew I hadnt been on the quest long and that I had been much, much dirtier before, but looking at a bathroom as tempting as that, I suddenly started trying to talk myself into a long relaxing bubble bath…
"He said we have an hour," I smiled wide, stripping as I walked into the bathroom and turned on the water.
As I slid into the hot water, I let out a relaxed moan, and I let my thoughts drift out of my mind for a moment.
But, as a granddaughter of Athena, it could only last a moment before I started thinking again.
But not about Charlie or the quest or even Apollo.
No, SoccerGuy18. And Noah….
I was caught between a guy I had never met and a guy I could never have…
Quickly, I dried my hands off with a towel and reached for a cell phone as I began to draft an email.
To: SoccerGuy18
From: PixarRules4
Sorry, I've been kind of busy. I had to leave Camp with my brother and Green and his little sister. A family visit, I guess. We've been on the road, and my brother is a horrible driver.
I am stuck with Green on a big road trip, but it doesn't feel like I'm stuck. I mean, we're getting along. Today, I felt like we were normal, and I don't think I can handle that.
The last time we were "normal", I ended up crying on the night of his senior prom as I realized that I would always be his little sister and that I had to move on. I have more to worry about I guess, but its all I can think about.
-Pixar
I pressed send, and I leaned back in the tub.
I finished up my bath, and I was drying my hair when I noticed my phone was blinking with an email.
I almost broke the hair dryer in my mad dash for the cell phone, and I hurriedly read through, praying to the gods it was a message from SoccerGuy.
To: PixarRules4
From: SoccerGuy18
Oh, it's no problem. We've been on a family road trip, too, I guess. It's a camp excursion, but my uncle, who runs the camp, only wanted Dianna, Nat, my little sister Lucy, and Dianna to come with us.
There is this guy, Adam. He has a history with being a womanizer, and he's starting to flirt with Dianna all the time. I mean, I know nothing will happen because she is smarter than that, but it is eating me up. I don't know what to do.
I thought I had moved on from that stage, that maybe we could be okay again. But I don't think we can…
My little sister, Lucy, isn't helping. She wants me and Dianna together, and she knows how I feel about her. It's not that she says anything, but it's that look. That "Man up, Big Brother, and do it!" and I know I should. But I can't…
I thought Nat being here would be easier for me and Dianna, but he can't know how much I like his sister. It would kill him… no, he would kill me. So I feel like I have to act even more…
Wow, aren't we downers today?
-SoccerGuy
So, you got some IMing. And more Aiden and Apollo/Kate/Noah. And I also dragged it on to another chapter.
But what do you think of Aiden?
AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!
