So, I have a three day weekend ahead of me.
How fun. Anyway, you know I'm not Rick Riordan.
Oh, and if you like seeing Apollo and Callie together, you get to see that a lot in this chapter and possibly the next.
I was seriously confused. We went all that way... for his sister? Don't get me wrong, Artemis is awesome and everything but I didn't understand what we were doing here.
"Uh, Ap-"
The sun god completely disregarded my question and continued. "I see you have your girls with you." He looked from Artemis to the huntresses in the background. "Hello ladies." He said suavely waving to a giggling few.
I rolled my eyes and blew a stray piece of hair out of my face.
"Do not flirt with my hunters," The goddess warned. Not, made the air grow a bit colder. "Or I'll get Hephaestus to wreck that car of yours."
"Can't." He smiled. "It's missing and Callie here is helping me find it."
I grabbed his wrist right before he could mess my hair up again. "My hair is already messy, I don't need your help making it even worse."
"Pouty." He grinned and looked back to Artemis. "So, I was wondering-"
"I hate him." I said turning to Shane and Sterling as the two gods talked.
"And?" Sterling asked, subtly glaring at one hunter. "What do you want me to do about that?"
"I dun-"
"Hey kids," Apollo intterrupted. "We can stay here for the rest of the day."
"But like I have said before, brother. You do not talk, flirt, or touch my hunters." The word not struck another chord of uneasiness in my very core. "If you do, and I find out-"
"I got it, baby sister. I'll behave." The sun god smiled then pointed to Shane with his thumb. "I'll also make sure he behaves too."
"You had better." The goddess gave me an unsettled look and said, "Come."
I looked to Sterling for help, but she was still looking at narrowed eyes to a huntress. I elbowed her to get her attention and we followed Artemis to the last tent. It was amazing. Animal pelts on the wall, and(insert other amazing crap here). I stared a bit in awe as I sat Indian style next to my friend.
"Tell me about your journey." Artemis said in minor demanding tone. "Start from when you met my irresponsible brother."
"Well," Then I was off in a sort of stammer. Telling her everything (except my dreams, and other odd things) with the daughter of Aphrodite interjecting a detail or two every once in a while. "And from the train, we arrived here."
The goddess nodded and took everything into account. Then turned to Sterling. "You're very valiant." A grin tugged at the corner of her lips.
"Thank you, Lady Artemis." She bowed her head in respect.
"Do you know why you're here?" The moon goddess asked.
I shook my head, a bit sad because she didn't compliment me but she's a god. She can compliment whoever she wanted. "Ap- er, Lord Apollo didn't tell us anything after the train."
She nodded again. I could tell she expected that of him. "Thank you for the story. Please send in the boy and my brother next."
When we were out in the open air, I let out a deep breath I had been holding in since I was done talking. Talking to a 12 year-old-looking girl with disturbingly old eyes was a bit to much for me.
"Shane you loser get over here right now!" Sterling demanded as soon her eyes locked onto his dirty blond hair. Shane did as she demanded.
"So, what's up? How'd it go?" He greeted happily.
"Lady Artemis wants to see you." She said, disregarding the question. "And Apollo."
"Where is he by the way?" I added, just a bit curious. Shane shrugged and told us he really didn't want to go in there alone, but Sterling pushed him in anyway, ignoring his protests.
She took out her sword(once part of a pair) and looked at it as if she had lost someone very dear to her. She didn't look at me. The demigoddess just put the weapon away and walked off.
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"To kill something." She called back.
I took a deep breath as I left the campsite behind and headed into the trees. I headed to the sound of rushing water, ending up at a nearby, very wide creek. It looked about knee deep with dead moss sticking to the rocks and fish quickly swimming by.
"Calixte!" I looked up to see across the way was Apollo waving to me.
I returned the favor and called, "Your sister wants to talk to you."
"What?"
He was ten feet away. How could he not hear me? So, I repeated myself.
"I can't hear you! Why don't you come on over?" He replied. "It's a little slippery."
"Fine." I said loud enough for only myself to hear. I threw my bag down and slipped my shoes off. I rolled up my capri's and put my foot in.
The water was cold and the rocks were slippery, but I was able to make it half way without slipping. The moss made it hard, and the fish made it even harder. Every time I saw one(which was every time one swam by), I'd freak out and almost fall. Two more steps and I'd be on dry land. I found a sturdy rock and took a step, but when I saw a crawfish. I thought fish were freaky, but when I saw a crawfish, I would like say I didn't freak, but I absolutely did.
"Yaaahhh!" I lost my balance but landed in Apollo's arms.
"You're so quirky." He laughed.
My face went red and I grinned. "Yes, yes I am. Now let me down."
"Are you sure you didn't 'slip' just so I could catch you?"
"Yeah. I'm prett-" I began to argue, but as usual, the immortal just kept talking, disregarding my words.
"I knew I was charming. You're in love with me I'm so good-"
"Just let me down!" I yelled, absolutely full of it. He let me down onto the grass and chuckled.
The sun god shrugged his shoulders. He muttered something and what my heightened ears caught were, "So in love with me."
Now I wanted to strangle him, but I kept my cool.
"Your sister wanted to see you by the way. Shane's in there and I'm hoping she didn't turn him into a jackalope yet." I informed him, worried that he would be turned into an animal.
"Nah. He'll be fine. As long as he doesn't do anything to my baby sister's girls, he'll be fine." I was amazed by his calmness on the subject.
"Fine, but make sure you go see her." I stepped back into the creek and started wading again to my stuff on the other side.
"Hey, you want to hang out?" He asked catching up to me, our strides matching. "It could be fun. You look in dire need of it." The sun god seemed like he studied the bags under my eyes.
"I don't need fun, thanks much. I need to sleep." I hurried my pace, leaving him there in the water.
"I'll be here if you need anything!"
I rolled my eyes and didn't stop as I picked up my stuff and hurried back to camp.
"You're traveling with Lord Apollo right?" I was approached by a girl with a silver circlet in her black, spiky hair. "I'm Thalia-"
"Yeah. I know you. " I said with a smile. "You were that gorgeous pine that I ran into just the other day." She raised an eyebrow. "I mean, I ran into the tree your were once. There was this whole thing with Apollo and- I'm just going to stop talking now."
Before the huntress could open her mouth, another, far from us, called," Thalia! Hurry up!"
"One second!" She snapped, calling back. Then she turned to me. "You want to come? We're going hunting."
"Really?" I asked, a little to excited. "I'd love to!"
Sadly, my hunter days didn't begin well. It went something like this:
win
win
win
EPIC FAIL
Shooting deer to be brought back to life is fun and I was told I was pretty good. They let me do the honor of shooting the last one and I would've gotten it if I hadn't been interrupted by the flirtatious god.
"Steady," Thalia said. "Don't concentrate so much. Relax your grip."
I took in a deep breath and as I was about to let go, "Hey Callie!"
"Yah!" I squeaked in surprise, letting the arrow fly and pierce the tree right next to a hunter's face. She look at me in surprise and then glared at the, and I quote, "boy" in our presence. "Are you freaking kidding me?" I snapped. "Seriously? You just had to interrupt me right then and there?"
"I was just saying hello." Apollo said matter-of-factly. "Well, see you later then."
I could feel the steam coming out of my ears. "Get back here, so I can murder you!" I said chasing after him.
"Once again, I'm immortal!" The sun god sang.
"I can still bash your face in, now stop running!" I didn't care the hunters were watching and neither did I realize.
As I got closer, I jumped, tackling him to the ground and proudly sitting on his back as I pouted. He pretended to die as I rolled my eyes and blew another stray piece of hair.
"Don't you pretend to die on me." Then I sneezed, which caused him to buck me off and stand up proudly and triumphantly announce,"I told you that you were sick! I'm a genius!"
This caused another argument. Lately, I just couldn't stand him and I couldn't tell if it was because the lack of sleep, I was easily angered, or he knew how to push my buttons enough to annoy me. Whatever he did, I couldn't help but want to kill him. Only on occasion does his charm work and only on occasion I find him sweet. This one went on and on. By the time we arrived back at camp, I was so PO'd I couldn't concentrate on anything, so I took a really long nap. Then I realized I hadn't seen Sterling or Shane since I had walked off.
It was dark when I woke up and my nose was stuffy. When I rolled over under the small blanket, my legs hurt. I guessed that's what I got from not stretching after a run. Sterling was sound asleep next to me. She was a deep sleeper so I got up and crept out of the tent. The moon was up and it was quiet around camp (I guessed that the hunters went out at night too) and almost dead, except for a fire in the near distance.
For protection, I brought my charm bracelet with me and stalked off to see what it was. It wasn't a far walk. From behind a bush, I could see Shane leaning against a tree, sound asleep(he too is a deep sleeper) and Apollo staring thoughtfully at the fire. He looked a bit lonely, so I walked over and sat next to him. He didn't seem to notice, so I greeted him with a friendly hello.
"You're up late." He said.
"Am I?" I looked at my watch. Midnight. "It seems so."
"This isn't a healthy lifestyle you're living. Staying up late, ignoring the beginning signs of a cold." The immortal made a tsk, tsk noise and shook his head like he wasn't proud of me or something.
"I'm just a bit restless." I rubbed my nose(which was still uncomfortably stuffy still). "And I haven't been able to sleep since you told me you needed my help."
"I believe the term is 'insomnia'. Pronounced, ɪnˈsɒmnɪə. Meaning chronic inability to fall asleep or to enjoy uninterrupted sleep." He informed me.
I smiled a bit. " I don't need a dictionary definition. I know what it is. I'm going into my sophmore year for crying out loud."
Apollo chuckled at my response while I zipped up my jacket. It was unusually cold for summer especially when there's was a fire going right in front of me. I coughed in the silence between us and sniffled a bit(I reeeally hate runny noses). That continued in a pattern until I sneezed. And to my surprise, the sun god said nothing. I just gave him an odd look.
"I can't be irresponsible and immature like my sister says all of the time." He explained.
"So, half of the time." My guess made him laugh. And his laugh made me smile.
And what seemed like the first time ever, we were having a lovely conversation about, well, anything. It was mostly me talking about my family and how my father moved to New York because he wanted to see me more often than he did when we live in Santa Barbara, California. It was like talking to a new, very close friend.
I already knew about Apollo's family of Olympian Gods, but I let him talk too about all the adventures he'd had. And when I would talk, he'd interrupt me with a fact related to what I was talking about or with a question. He laughed when I told him about my first chariot race and how I caused all others to crash. Then, in the end, we had no more to talk about.
"Aren't you tired?" He asked with concern.
I sniffled and cleared my throat. "No. I'm downright perky. I'm to restless to sleep."
"Just relax." He said. "This is a trick I learned a while ago."
Trusting him, I took in a deep breath and then let it out as I adjusted myself. Then closed my eyes and relaxed. The last thing heard was the snap of his fingers, and I could feel my head tilt back as I drifted into another dreamless, dark sleep.
Oh, this chapter is an epic fail. I guess that's what you can expect from an eighth grade writer. Now, it's my turn to sleep, because I feel like poo. Not a fun feeling, let me tell you.
So, like I said so many chapters ago, the only pairing that I'd like to put together are Sterling and some other dude because personally, she needs to start believing in love and stop rejecting every boy that comes in her direction. And, I apologize for Apollo being somewhat OCC. Didn't mean to.
Review, then be off to your better lives outside the computer. And then tell your friends. :)
