The weeks passed, and winter turned to spring, with only a few IM's from Nico. Very brief ones at that. Most relationships improved, but one definitely worsened. Roxanne, or Roxy, as she preferred to be called. I call her Roxanne just to annoy her.

Roxy is a runt of a kid, who's 13 but looks about 8. She's one of Aphrodite's kids, and is always made up like she's about to become a mime. It's scary. She hasn't been at camp for long, maybe 2 months. She arrived a week before Nico left. For some reason she picked me and Tash to target her bitching towards. And we were over it. That's why we'd challenged her to a duel.

10 past 2 on Tuesday, that's what we said. It was now 2pm, and Roxy was a no-show so far. Tash and I practised our sword fighting for a bit, while people floated in, and with 3 minutes to spare, Roxy sauntered in, Tomas in tow. Tomas was one of the Hephaestus kids, and was 3 years older than us. The only reason she could get him to fight us was because she had promised to kiss him if he fought with her. Stupid boys, always enchanted by the barbies.

"So," She said. "You two had the courage to turn up."
Tash scoffed. "Shouldn't you be saying that about yourself, seeing as there's two minutes to spare when you rocked up."
"It's called fashionably late." Roxy said, hold her hand out to Tomas, who put his hand in hers. "No doofus, my sword." She scolded as we tried to hold back our laughter. Tomas grabbed her sword out of his bag, and pulled it out of it's cover.
"Problem?" Roxy said to us, hands on her hips as we burst out laughing.
"I… It's… It's pink!" I managed to say.
"And covered in jewels!" Tash spluttered, holding onto me to keep herself upright. "How do you expect to fight with that?" She said pointing at the abomination.

Chiron sauntered into the arena, and we all quietened, except for Tash, who continued her laughing, unbeknownst as to who had just arrived.
"Tash." I whispered, trying to stop her. "Tash… Tash! TASH!" On the last one I whacked her arm. Hard. But it worked, she stopped her crazy cat laugh and turned around, and nearly screamed.
"Oh, hi Chiron." She said, red creeping up her face.
"You two have challenged Roxy to a duel. Is this correct?" He said, poker face in full effect.
"Umm… Yeah?" Tash said, face scrunched in apprehension of our punishment.
"Just checking. You have to go through with it, you know? No student of mine ever backs down." He smiled.
I smiled in return, and swung my sword around, turning back to Roxy. "Well, it's game on. We win, you have to stop annoying us. You win, you can annoy us to no end, and we can't complain."
"Wait, I don't agree to that last one…" Tash said to me as Roxy agreed to my terms.

"I swear on the River Styx." I said.
"I swear on the River Styx." Roxy seconded.
"Really?" Tash looked at me. "Fine. I swear on the River Styx." She huffed. "Now is it time to attack her demon sword?"

Chiron counted down from five, and we all attacked on zero. There was loads of grunts and battle talk from us, and cheering and useless advice from the crowd. I tried to narrow in on Annabeth and Percy's voices. They had been training us for this, secretly of course. They'd been our little spies, 'practising' their own fighting when Roxy was practising hers, and finding out all her moves, and then teaching us them. We didn't know that part until today. Well, I didn't, apparently it was Tash that told them to.
"Fake left, then fake right quick and slash left." I heard Annabeth say. I did as she said, and ended up slicing Tomas's leg slightly.
"Nice one!" Tash said and she cut the arm off of Roxy's shirt.
"Thanks." I replied, twirling around and catching Tomas's neck between my body and my sword. "You're dead." I said into his ear, then kneed him in the back of his knee, making him collapse onto the ground.
"You're out, Tomas!" I heard Chiron call over the mixed cries from the crowd.
I turned my attention to Roxy, attacking her from behind, which would have worked if her whole cabin hadn't called out for her to look behind her… Our swords clashed, and we fought for control over the other's. Tash moved in to get Roxy, but Roxy sent her leg flying out, roundhouse style, and split Tash's lip open, and knocking her to the ground. I instantly grew more furious at Roxy, and swung my sword at her, which had to be one of the stupidest thing's I have ever done.

As I swung for her arm, Roxy brought her sword straight down, cutting my shoulder open. My sword fell to the ground, and I forgot about the fight altogether, leaving myself open for Roxy to leave a slice up my leg. My vision came in and out of focus, as Sofia and Annabeth pulled me out of the ring.
Tash got up with a roar, blood streaked across her face from where she had attempted to swipe it away. She kicked out, her foot colliding with Roxy's stomach, sending her a few steps back and winding her. Roxy had just stood up, sword in hand, when Tash's fist hit her face, and a crack filled the now silent arena.
Roxy cried out, clutching her nose, blood running down her neck. "Bitch." She managed to spit out.
"We win, 'bitch'." Tash said as she grabbed Roxy's sword and stabbed it into the dirt floor. She walked over to me and sat down next to me, huffing. "Why are you always the one to get attacked? And why am I always saving your ass?" She said with a weary smile on her face.
"Remind me never to get on your bad side." Annabeth said, before yelling out. "Oi! Can I get some help over here? My sister's been mauled, and the fight's over! Who cares about Roxy? So get your asses over here, and save Ellie from dying!" The Apollo kids rushed over, congratulating us on our win, and stuffing my face with ambrosia.

"Just let me go, I'm fine now." I asked Lee Fletcher, Tash's older brother.
"You got sliced like salami, I wouldn't exactly call that fine, Ellie." He said as he grabbed another bandage to wrap up my leg.
"I'm still alive, and I'm about to miss something! And anyway, I'm bandaged up, I'm not bleeding anymore, and I've got ambrosia in my pocket, and I can scream really loudly, so at least you'll know where I am if anything happens." I was bouncing up and down, in anticipation of my IM with Nico. I had 15 minutes to get to my cabin, get a drachma, and get out to our spot.
"Fine, But I want you checked out by someone before dinner, and you're back here after dinner to be looked over by me. Deal?" He said, securing the end of the bandage.
"Deal!" I exclaimed, jumping up off the bed and knocking over a table. "Oops… Well, see ya!" I took off out the door, striaght to my cabin, grabbing a drachma off Annabeth's bed, and running out the door again, leaving Annabeth and Percy gobsmacked. I ran into the forest, where I found Tash.

"Hey… sorry, can't chat. Gotta go!" I said, trying to worm my way around her.
"Hun, there's no way you can keep THAT from me. I know all! I am the prophecy kid." Tash said, arms crossed.
"I thought that was Percy…"
"I mean my dad's the prophecy god. I have inklings, that are normally right. And I had an inkling that you'd been talking to Nico. And I noticed you escaping into the woods and my stash of drachma's growing smaller. So I IM'd him. He thought it was you. Busted. And I was fine with it. But you have a little surprise now." As Tash was talking, she had been dragging me closer and closer to mine and Nico's clearing. "Now get your injured ass in there." She said, pushing me through the last barrier of trees.

"Nico!" I cried as I saw my best friend sat on the tree he had knocked over.
He ran up and hugged me. "I missed you so much."
"Me too, Nico. Never go that long again, hey?" We pulled away from each other, and sat down on the tree, still holding hands. "So where the Hades have you been?"
"Trying to get in there. Apparently dad doesn't want me there, or Persephone won't let me or something. I don't know. I've just been walking around heaps. You can't tell anyone this, but I think I found the labyrinth."
"What?" I exclaimed. "Wait, THE labyrinth, like Daedalus and Ariadne's string and stuff? Where? How?"
"I found a crack in a backstreet building, just big enough for someone small to fit in if they were escaping from some muggers, per say. Turns out it was deeper than I thought, and I turned up in Minnesota. I was in New Jersey… I took another couple of go's. Even ended up in Australia. Turns out there's not just kangaroo's there… there's a lot of flies. And I figured it must have been the labyrinth. Anyway, Tash contacted me today, and told me about the fight and what happened, which you neglected to tell me about, and ordered me to 'get my dead ass back to camp'. So I did." Nico smiled at me, before hitting my arm lightly with his elbow. "Now what in Hades happened to you? And why did you not tell me you were taking on the Roxy-saurus?"
I told him everything he'd missed, and we sat and talked nonsense for a while afterwards. Eventually Tash came in and joined us on the tree.

"Sorry to interrupt, but you're not the only one who missed Nico." Tash said, head cocked to one side.
"Aww, Tash, didn't know you had a heart!" Nico jibed.
Tash ignored him and continued with what she had been saying. "There's no one else that I get quite the same reaction out of when I annoy them."
"There we go! There's the Tash I love to hate!" Nico patted her on the hand, as I snickered.
"Get your zombie cooties off me!" She joked, pushing his hand away, smile wide on her face. I could tell she was glad to see him. I looked up at Nico who smiled at me and squeezed my hand. I smiled back at him before turning back to Tash, who had a knowing look on her face, and I could just tell she was going to grill me as soon as we were out of earshot.
"Hate to break up the party, but it's nearly time for dinner, and there is no way in Hades that Lee woulda let you out without a million check-ups, which means you're gonna have one before tea, then after, then every five minutes after that." Tash must have noticed the scared look on my face. "I kid, it's actually every 6 minutes. Anyway, that means we gotta get out of here. See you later, kid." She said to Nico. "Two minutes." She aimed at me, before turning and leaving the clearing.
"You're only 10 months older than me!" Nico called to Tash, laughing. "This is nice, you know. It's so much better than being alone. Underground too. That kinda sucks, although I am closer to Dad."

"I know what you mean," I said as Nico slid his arm around my waist, pulling me into him. "It's like, if I jump, will I be closer to Mum?" I leant back onto Nico. "Why can't they just be like normal parents. Actually, why can't we have normal parents as well? Every one else has at least got their mortal parent alive, even if they don't get along with them. Your Mom died years ago, and I never met my dad. Where's the justice in that?"
"That's why we gotta stick together, El. We've got no one except for each other." He said.
"And Tash. Even if she doesn't totally get the orphan thing, we've still got a good friend in her."
"We do." Nico sighed before continuing. "Your two minutes are about to be up. Which means I should be heading out of here."
"Don't go for so long again, yeah?" I said as we stood up.
"Promise." Nico pulled me into his arms. "Love you, miss you, all that."
"You too, kid." I smiled at Tash's nickname.
Nico pulled away. "Really? You're three months older than me, and you call me kid?"
"Hey, I think it's a cute nickname. Now go. Love you, miss you, all that." I laughed.
"You too, Pops, you too." He said before disappearing into the shadows.

I walked out of the clearing and met Tash. And sure enough, she started with the questions straight away. "So what's up between you and Nico? He didn't let go of your hand the whole time I was in there, and you two were sitting pretty close together…"
"We're like siblings. We've both gone through heaps, and only the other one can relate to it. It's like a lifeline, a second chance."
"You both know you've got me, and thank you for that mention." She said as I stopped still in my tracks.
"You heard that?" I asked, appalled.
"Yeah, but at least I had the decency to not call out to you." She said, still walking.
I ran to catch with her. "So you keep eavesdropping?"
"Naturally," She shrugged as I laughed.

After being checked out by May, a 16 year old daughter of Apollo who threw a tray at Tash, when she wouldn't stop talking, we headed over to dinner, joining in with the masses.

"What'd I miss?" I asked Annabeth.
"There's a new camper, one of Demeter's. Girl your age. I think her name was Cassie? Was it Cassie?" She asked Percy, who shrugged.
"All I know is she had a name…" He said.
"Good work there, Kelp Head. Anyway, her name started with a C at least." She said as we took our seats.

The chatter died as Chiron stood up to make his usual announcements. "Good evening Campers. Today was an exciting day, wasn't it! A duel, which was fought brilliantly, I must say. Congratulations to Tash and Ellie, even if you did get attacked, but hey! You survived, and hoorah to that! We also have a new camper! She's one of the lucky one's who got claimed first day. Would you stand up please?"
Chiron gestured over to the Demeter table, where a girl around my age with long brown hair stood, waving awkwardly. "Mine." Tash leant back and whispered to me from the next table.
"Shut up." I said, whacking her arm and turning my attention back to Chiron.
"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. I hope you have a good time here, and I also hope you don't get mauled too badly." He said with a smile. Damn, I thought. Guess I missed her name…

A/N: Hey guys! Guess what? I actually updated on time! And I didn't have any interwebs as well! You may be all like, then how'd this get up here? But thanks to one of my amazings friends, attackwhale, I have this up now! and it's a big one too! hehe I haves to go now, but I WILL get another chapter up next week! Elena xxy