Hey everyone!

I'm really sorry about the late update! Rest assured, this story has not been abandoned! I plan to finish each and every one of the stories I start on here, and if I ever am not able to finish something I'll post a update letting everyone know.

This is a bit of a filler chapter as I try to develop her friendships outside of the quests. It's been harder then I anticipated because the only character that he really talks with before the quest is Luke and since I'm trying to stay generally close to cannon with only small changes in the beginning that doesn't give me a huge amount of stuff to work with. Anyway, I really hope you enjoy:) Looking forward to hearing what you guys think of this chapter:)

Enjoy!

Swimming With Mr Sunshine

Monday I started attending the classes that were offered. Ancient Greek, archery, wrestling, I wanted to get a start on finding out who I was.

Once morning classes were over and we had a break for lunch I went down to the water and kicked off my sandals before stepping in and closing my eyes as I raised my face to the sun.

Then I began to run down the beach line in the shallows where no once could see me. Finally I stopped and knelt down with my knees just touching the waterline as tiny little fish came over to investigate. One swam into my cupped hands and rubbed his head affectionately on my thumb making me giggle at the sensation.

"Your so pretty." I whispered as I stared at it's tiny little luminescent scales.

It rubbed my thumb again before doing a flip out of my hand and swimming away.

As I sat at the edge of the water I relaxed completely for the first time since arriving.

"You should smile like that more often."

I gasped and jumped to my feet, whirling to face the person who had spoken. Luke stood leaning against a tree a few feet away. He smiled and walked over its his hands half hanging out of his pockets.

"W-what?"

He came and sat down on the sand next to where I had been sitting and after a beat I hesitantly sat down next to him.

"I said that you should smile more, your whole face lights up when you do."

"...oh."

He gave me a sidelong smile.

"Breath Persia, I'm not here to lecture or torment you or something. I had been walking around in this area when I saw you dancing around and stuff. I just thought it was nice to see you relaxing for once."

I went slightly pink and I ducked my head. I heard Luke chuckle before ruffling my hair slightly.

"Do I make you nervous or something?" He asked after a moment.

"Yes." I answered honestly.

"Why?"

"Because I've never had a guy pay attention to me like this and it makes me uneasy."

I risked a glance to see surprise flash across his face before a sheepish expression followed.

"Oops. Sorry about that. You twelve right? No wonder that would make you uncomfortable."

I nodded slightly. It wasn't even close to my reason but there was no way I was telling him the truth.

"Hey, don't worry to much about it princess. You remind me a lot of someone who was like a sister to me and I want to make sure you aren't alone. I kind of wanted to give you a friend of sorts for as long as you need one. Besides, you interest me. No one else has ever told me on the first day that they didn't want anything to do with their godly parent and I've sure as heck never seen a demigod scrape the most burnt and tiny piece of meat into the fire."

A semi sheepish expression came over my face and he laughed.

"Don't worry, I can't count how many times I've given my dad second best because I was angry with him. I'm certainly not going to judge."

I relaxed as he said that and reached my fingers into the water to pet the little fish that thread themselves through my fingers.

"How are you doing that?"

I looked up at Luke in surprise before shrugging.

"I don't know. I've always been able to do that with the fish at the river or lake. You want to try?"

He nodded and plunged his hand into the water beside mine, making all the fish scatter. I shook my hand and gently lifted his hand out of the water, making sure to leave my other hand still in the water.

"I did that wrong."

"Yeah. Here, I'll guide you."

I waited until the fish were weaving through my fingers again before gently lowering his hand in beside mine.

"Stay nice and still."

At first the fish tried to avoid his hand until I used my hands to heard them towards him. Then they relaxed and started exploring his hands. He inhaled sharply and I jerked my head to look at him.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, it just feels kind of strange."

I laughed.

"But doesn't it feel cool? It's like they are weaving through your fingers the way cats weave through peoples legs."

He nodded and I sat watching with a smile as he watched the fish with wide eyes. A horn blew to tell us that lunch was over and together we stood and headed back up to the main area.

Luke grinned down at me.

"See, there are awesome things here as well."

I laughed.

"I never said there wasn't."

Tuesday afternoon I was a walking down the grass towards cabin eleven when I heard a voice calling my name.

I turned to see Will Solace jogging towards me.

"Hey Persia! You have somewhere you have to be?"

I shook my head, puzzled by where he was taking this.

"Do you want to go swimming with me then? I was planning on going swimming for a bit but it's always more fun when someone else is with you."

I hesitated for a moment and Will held up one of the bags he had.

"I have a blue floaty." He said with a hopeful expression, as if that alone would make me want to swim.

I couldn't help but laugh and nod.

"Let me just grab a towel and my bathing suit and I'll join you."

Will grinned.

"Sweet! I'll see you down there then."

I laughed again and jogged to cabin eleven to grab a swim suit and a towel.

"Going swimming?" A voice asked from behind me, giving me a heart attack as I spun to face it.

Unfortunately I overestimated my momentum and found myself topping backwards. Instantly Luke reacted and caught me, pulling me upright and steadying me.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you."

I shrugged.

"No worries. And yep, I'm going swimming. Will invited me."

Luke smiled.

"That sounds like a blast. Have fun!"

I grinned and started heading back towards the change rooms.

"I will!"

I changed and gathering my stuff up I then headed down to the beach. As soon as I reached the beach I found Will sitting on his towel and blowing up a yellow floaty. I picked my way down to where he was and laid out my own towel before dropping down next to him.

"I can blow up the other one if you like."

Will turned to me with a grin.

"Hey! Yeah, that would be great!"

We sat together for a few minutes blowing up the floats before heading down to the water. We swam for a bit, playing games and dunking each other before climbing up onto the floaty tubes and just sitting there.

"So how do you like camp so far?"

I smiled.

"It's pretty cool. I love having our own lake, it's pretty awesome."

Will nodded and lazily splashed her.

"Except for when the Naiads decide it would be fun to join the water games. One time I was in the canoe and one of the Naiads thought would be fun to overturn my boat."

I burst into laughter.

"Seriously?"

He was laughing to as he nodded.

"I was not to impressed."

I laughed pretty hard before my laughter died down into a giggle.

"That's pretty hilarious."

He nodded with a grin and we fell into a companionable silence. Soon we had to get out and pack up so that we would be cleaned up for dinner.

But today had been a day that I would remember. Other then Luke, Will was the first person at camp to reach out to me.

I would always remember that.

So what did you think? Reviews are welcome! Flames shall be laughed at, posted for others to laugh at, and ignored as I continue the story.