Chapter Ten: Symbolic

At six o'clock the next morning, there was a loud knock on the door of cabin number two. Awoken with a start Jacob tumbled out of bed and landed with a loud *thump* on the floor, rubbing at his eyes and peering around the semi-dark room.

"Who the heck is that?"

"Nobody!" Thea called suspiciously from somewhere nearby. "You just go back to sleep. – Ah, hiya." Light pooled into the room as the door was pulled wide open. She ignored Jacob's loud groan of protest and stepped out into the early sunlight, glancing around to check that nobody else was about.

Her voice came out low and secretive. "Did you get it?"

Sasha, pulled out a long, thin package from behind her back and handing it to her and said, "Easy-peasy. You underestimate the connections I have. Four drachmas."

Thea reached into the pocket of her dressing gown that was white with black spots, much too big and an old favourite of hers and pulled out four shiny golden drachmas she had put in there earlier. "Sorry for the short notice-"

"No problem. Short notice is my speciality. Later."

"See you."

Closing the door, Thea took a relieved breath and looked down at the box in her hands, surprised that Sasha had actually managed to get it for her so quickly. Nonetheless, she was grateful...after all, it wasn't-

"What's that?"

"...A present."

"What kind of present?"

"A birthday present."

"What kind of-"

"What's with the third degree, Jake?"

Carefully she placed the package onto her bed and sat down beside it; Jacob, whom and flicked the light on and then scrambled eagerly beneath his duvet again, frowned at her for one long moment and asked, "Who's birthday is it?"

"Matt's. I only found out yesterday. I wouldn't have got him anything but he brought me the sword..."

Their eyes both trailed to the Greek-style weapon leaning against Thea's wardrobe. It was celestial bronze and balanced just right for her hands. Matt had brought it for her saying, "Consider it an early birthday present!", and so it was only right she got him one too. It had been Sasha she had turned to, typically knowing that Sasha's "outside connection" would be the only people able to get it to her.

The present was quite simple, a quill. An eagle-feather quill with a small bottle of black ink. Nothing spectacular, but Thea knew that Matt wrote home to his mortal family and friends pretty regularly so he may as well do it with a nice quill.

Plus...it was all she could think of getting him.

"Have you got a pen?"

"A what?"

"A pen. You know, what you write with. Have you?"

"Oh-oh, right, yeah."

After rummaging around in his bedside cabinet for a minute he pulled out a biro and threw it onto her pillow.

"Thanks..."

Writing quickly on the cardboard box she wrote, Did you know the eagle is sacred to Zeus?

Confused, Jacob watched out of the window as she randomly left, taking the box with her, only to drop it quietly on the doorstep of cabin one and then return.

"You're weird," he accused.

"Your hair's a mess," she told him. "Go back to bed."

Oddly enough, he did, and Thea dived once more into that pale blue book. An hour or so later they left for the dining pavilion and ate breakfast as they always did. When they returned, Matthew was waiting for them outside of their cabin, ready to thank Thea for her present. The three of them, though Jacob quite reluctantly, sat on the soft stretch of grass within the Olympian cabins for half an hour, in which time Matt retrieved his favourite present from inside of his cabin to show them. It was a Greek style sword sent from his father, strengthened by lightening so that it was indestructible and strong. Jacob, growing increasingly jealous, found an excuse to leave quite soon after that, which left Thea and Matt alone together for a few minutes...which expanded into several hours.

-x-x-

Thea watched Matt leave without moving, almost frowning, but not quite. Her dark, curly hair, so similar to the colour of chocolate, was tied at the back of her head and she pulled it down soundlessly, her eyes not blinking as she stared after the tall figure retreating into the distance. In her mind, she felt the odd urge to smile through all of her confusion, despite the anxious knot building in her chest and the flush of heat tingling against her face. Slowly, without meaning to do so, she reached up at touched the warm spot on her cheek and blinked once as he turned a corner and disappeared from view.

Around her the air suddenly felt very hot; a rush of claustrophobia washed over her and she took a deep breath, settling herself, knowing that she had never before felt claustrophobic in her life.

The sky was turning from pale to dark blue along the western horizon, she had been sitting outside the Olympian cabins all day without doing anything productive at all, and only now did she realize how hungry she was. They had missed lunch completely.

Almost in a robotic way Thea rose steadily to her feet and started walking toward the dining pavilion, arriving in a few minutes. Stepping inside she spotted the back of her brother's head hovering by the platters of chicken and pork.

Finally, Thea smiled.

"What're you grinning at?

"Nothing," she said in spite of herself, setting her full plate onto their table and taking seat. "Pepsi."

"Pepsi? You're really in a good mood. What about your cranberry juice? You always have it."

"I thought I would be..." Sipping her drink, she thought for an appropriate word, "Adventurous."

"Jeeze, if this is you being adventurous then I'd love to see you drunk... You know, if you don't stop looking so high, people are going to think you've taken something."

"Sorry."

The pavilion was full of life, as usual. There had never yet been a day when Thea had sat down to eat without the sound of talk and laughter loud in her ears.

"Where's your friend?" Nodding toward the nearest table, which was empty in absence of the only resident, Jacob chomped down on his corn.

"He went to train with his new sword."

"Lucky," grunted Jacob into his goblet, "An indestructible sword. That's so unfair. It won't break."

"Well that is what 'indestructible' means, Jake..."

Laughing sarcastically, Jacob rolled his eyes and Thea smiled, admiring in those few seconds the fact she had a brother, somebody she felt she could trust completely.

-x-x-

Early the next morning, both Thea and Jacob were awake and ready for their daily training regime to begin. Together they ate cereal, toast, and in Jacob's case, a large helping of pancakes, too, all the while avidly debating who would win in a fight between Batman and Spiderman.

"It's all about gadgets!" insisted Jacob. "He has the batmobile!"

"So? Spiderman has natural kickass superpowers. He could just webby up the wheels of that car thing and he's won the fight already."

"That is so not true."

"Yes it is!"

"Is not."

"Is too."

A voice from behind them said, "Are you seriously arguing over Batman and Spiderman?"

"Will you tell her that Batman is obviously the winner?"

Matt gave Jacob an amused expression. The low morning light brought out the faint freckles on his nose. "I think you're both missing the point here. Have you forgotten about a little someone called 'Superman'? He's called 'super' for a reason, you know."

While Jacob stared at him in silence, trying to think of a quick counter argument, Matt turned his attention to Thea, whom had been stirring the dregs of her milk simply for something to do and avoid looking at him.

"So I wrote a letter to my mom last night with that quill you got me."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. I dripped ink all over the floor," he grinned, brushing his dark hair out of his face automatically and clearing his throat, "Will you be at the Sound tonight?"

"Sure," shrugged Jacob, picking the crust off of his toast and dumping it onto his plate. "We always come to the Sound. You know that."

Avoiding the temptation to kick her brother under the table, she replied, "Yeah, I think so."

"Okay. I'll see you later."

"Bye, Matt."

And then he was gone.

"What a douche." Starting to stand, Jacob chuckled to himself. "What kind of question was that?"

"Beats me..."

The topic was immediately dropped as Thea brought up the question of who would win in a fight between vampires and werewolves – the debate began once again, both of them believing they were right.

Reluctantly, Thea had to admit to Jacob that he was now a lot better than her at combat: she now found him to be a touch opponent instead of an equal one. They only fought against each other, so neither of them knew what he was like against other people, but she decided that, nonetheless, she had a lot to work on to beat him.

After this they went their separate ways. To the lava wall went Jacob, determined to not have his clothes singed, while Thea left for the stables and tried to ride a Pegasus again. This time showed improvement, she didn't fall off once and despite being uncomfortable, she found the experience rather enjoyable, though never flying higher than the roof of the Big House of out fear of injuries that might occur, if she fell.

It never hurt to be cautious.

Three hours later they had both trained enough for one day and retreated back to cabin two after a quick shower and even quicker dinner.

"I don't get why you're rushing around," Jacob told her in a clipped voice, sitting on his bed while Thea peered closely into a mirror.

Snapping at him, she said, "You're just pissed you couldn't have seconds," and began rummaging in a drawer beside her bed.

"I like my food. What can I say?"

"Does my hair look all right?" she asked, glancing back into the mirror. "Is it too much? Too little?"

Instead of wearing it down like usually, Thea had put her curly hair back into one long plait over her shoulder. Frowning, Jacob said, "You look...I don't know. A bit older."

"Is that good? Bad?"

"I don't know. Good."

"Am I too dressed up?"

"Thea, you're wearing ripped jeans and a band t-shirt. What d'you think?"

"They're skinny jeans, actually, and it's not a band t-shirt–it's just a white t-shirt with a picture of Paramore on the front."

"Is there a difference?"

"Yes."

"Why're you so bothered 'bout how you look all of a sudden? You never usually care."

"Well, today's different."

"Is it because you're suddenly being all 'adventurous'?"

"You could say that, yes. Come on, quickly, before it gets too late."

"It's seven thirty!"

But Thea had already pulled him out of the cabin door and slammed it shut behind them, hoping desperately that she did look decent after all. It was lucky, she decided, that Jacob was so oblivious, else he would defiantly not approve...

"I still think Rex is better than Kong."

"Jacob, don't be ridiculous – Kong already defeated Rex, didn't he? I told you that twenty minutes ago-"

"But he's a dinosaur, for crying out loud! Of course he- oh, no."

"What? Did you realize I was right and you were wrong?"

"No...it's her."

Thea looked up in time to see Ellie Raymond walking ahead of them take seat among their usual acquaintances of the Sound, slipping easily into the conversation and laughing at something somebody said.

"I don't trust her," she said darkly."

"I think she's alright."

"Then why did you say 'oh no'?"

"Because I was with her yesterday and-"

"You were what?"

"-She was looking for Kyle so I offered to help her. Don't jump to conclusions, dude! But, yeah, when you were being all pally-pally with Mr. Lightening Sword I bumped into her and she couldn't find Kyle so I offered to help and ended up spending a while with her and she seems pretty cool, but..." Uncomfortably, he shifted. They were getting closer to the crowd on the Sound so they both lowered their voices.

"But? But what?"

"Nothing," he dismissed. Glancing at his sister, he saw she had a troubled look in her eyes. "S'up?"

"Why's he alone?"

"Who?"

"Riley."

Sure enough, Riley sat a little way away from the group, lying on the grass with his arms covering his eyes as usual, completely alone, without even Zeus keeping him company.

"Don't know. He's weird."

"He isn't weird; you just don't like him because he freaked you out with that whole 'blind' thing."

"Don't start defending him, that was the scariest thing ever!"

"Hey, guys!" beamed Kyle. "You all right?"

"Yeah, thanks," smiled Thea.

"I'm aces," nodded Jacob and they both slipped onto the grass beside Dave, the son of Dionysus and Lyra.

"Thea, your hair looks nice," Scarlett said suddenly with a fabulous smile. "It suites you. Why don't you wear it like that more often?"

"Oh-I think I will, thanks."

Scarlett, of course, looked lovely, and though Kyle had casually slipped his arm around her waist, nobody knew yet if they were 'a couple'. "We were just talking about Ellie," she explained, fiddling with her hair. "She's been here for a month now and still hasn't been claimed."

"That must be bad," Thea said to Ellie flatly, not meaning what she said. "Let's hope the gods notice you soon."

"You could be one of the Athena cabin," Lyra commented thoughtfully from beside her. "You're quite smart and you fit the usual description..."

"Hardly," snorted Ellie. "My hair's too light, my eyes have too much blue in them and I don't do well in school at all, even for a dyslexic-ADHD kid. I already thought of that- I've thought of everything."

"What 'bout a minor god?" asked Dave, whom was lying on his back and looking up at the sky with a can of Pepsi balancing on his chest. "Nomos, goddess of law? I can imagine you going all Judge Judy on someone."

"Nike?" offered Kyle. "Victory? You did win Capture the Flag."

Lyssa? Spirit of rabies in animals? Thought Thea spitefully.

"You don't suppose it could be a titan?" thought Ellie, tapping her chin with a long finger. "You know, one who hasn't had a demigod here yet..."

"Probably not. I don't think there are any titans left who haven't had a kid here. Hey, maybe you belong in my cabin, after all! I've seen that shifty look you get sometimes," he winked, to which most people laughed, with the exception of the twins who didn't see what was so amusing.

"What did I miss?"

Everybody turned to see Matt walking toward them casually, his expression pleasant and light.

"We were just talking about Ellie's godly parent!" Dave declared. "Take a seat, man, lemmie get you a Pepsi-or something stronger, if you like-"

Shaking his head, Matt cut him off. "I'm not staying."

"Okay." There was obvious disappointment in Dave's tone of voice, having being cheated out of the chance to conjure something he shouldn't conjure. "If you aren't staying' why're you here, man?"

"Why're you so interested?" he teased.

All eyes were on him.

It was then that Matt did something that sent whispers around camp for days. He took a step back, looked down at Thea and asked, half-smiling, "Coming?"

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Firstly, what did you think of this one? I thought it was abit risky, but, I wanna hear your opinions. And, secondly, I want your opinions: Spiderman or Batman? Werewolves or Vampires? Superman ftw? xD

Oh, and I go back to school on the 2nd, so I'm not sure what my updating will be like over those first few weeks. It's a new school, a big yeah, ect… So, I'm going to be trying my very best to do everything to update at my usual pace, but if I'm a bit slow for a while, do not fear, fabulous readers! This story will not be abandoned. I just love Riley too much to do that.

Speaking of which – I am not Rick Riordan and I do not own anything WITH THE EXCEPTION OF Riley, whom I own completely and therefore if you steal him, you will, indeed, feel my great wrath.

Grr.

Mahousive big "THANKYOU" to everybody who reads, reviews, subscribes or adds to alerts. You guys rock my socks. (Y)