"Can't…remember Camp?" Will says, incredulous. "How is that possible?"
"It's a real story," Ally's father – well, step father – says, a sad look on his face. "She hasn't mentioned it at all. She's in such a state of bliss from forgetting, too."
She's happy about forgetting the best place on earth?
"How exactly did that happen?" Katie asks, a suspicious look on her face.
Ally's dad motions for us to come in. "I'd prefer not to speak of it outside," he says in a low tone, barely reaching our ears. "I don't think it's safe."
Whatever you say, man.
We follow him into the den, where we all sit down on brown leather couches. Pictures of Ryan and Ally cover the walls. Both of them on the beach, the sand in their toes. Ryan hugging a Hooters girl while Ally gives him a disgusted look. Younger Ryan and Ally hugging each other, their father and a beautiful woman – who looks just like Ally – right behind them.
"So," I say, drawing my attention back to the task at hand. "Ally?"
Her dad sighs. "So, her mom is pretty close with Aphrodite," he says.
"And…?" Katie asks.
"Aphrodite asked her to be her handmaiden, and she obviously agreed. She's going to be up on Olympus for a long time."
"And this has to do with Ally because?" Will asks, leaning forward on the couch.
"Because Ally was a happy person at camp – she was carefree, active, and surrounded by friends. But then the whole war in Manhattan happened, and she saw a whole bunch of things she didn't want to see. Including her boyfriend," I'm surprised he didn't flinch when he says that, "being killed."
Silence. I reach up to my newest addition to my Camp necklace, wondering which miniscule name is that particular boy's.
"She was depressed and she couldn't take it," he says, looking down. "Aphrodite told us that she would give us something we really wanted in exchange for Ally's mom. We didn't want to see her so depressed anymore, so we chose to give that gift to her-"
"And she chose to lose her memories of camp," I finish up.
He nods.
It takes a moment to really comprehend it. We're going to fail on our mission. She doesn't need to come back if she doesn't remember camp, right?
But what about monsters? She's in danger, whether she knows it or not. She'll figure out something is up and she'll just go through the whole thing again.
"I'm sorry, but there is nothing you can do for her," her dad says, looking up. "This is where she wants to be. You'll have to accept it."
I look at the others. They are still thinking, staring at random pictures around the room.
"We understand, sir," I say before they can say anything. I stand, and they look up at me, eventually doing the same. "We'll be going now," I say before leading everyone else out of the room and getting out of that house in one second.
"So…what are we going to do now?" Will asks, gently brushing his feet against the pavement as we walk off of the property.
"Don't worry, guys," I say, a mischievous smile plastering itself across my face. "I know what to do."
oOo
Ally's POV
"What is the square root of two-hundred fifty-six?" my summer school teacher asks.
A little voice in my head whispers, dekaéxi. I raise my hand and say just that. Only, you know, in English. "Sixteen?"
"Very good, Ally," the elder lady says, smiling a yellow-toothed smile at me.
I can just feel myself squirm.
A few minutes later, we're out of class and it feels like there's a tremendous weight lifted off of my shoulders. "I don't remember you being this good at math," my friend, Tina, says. "Especially at stuff we learned in sixth grade."
"I know my times tables," I shrug, speeding up to get to the cafeteria.
"Then why are you at summer school?" she asks, matching my pace. "If you're so good at math…."
"I felt like I needed to get some help with the concepts we learned this year."
I also need a sandwich. I'm starving.
I suddenly have to go to the bathroom, so I tell Tina that I'll catch up with her later. I turn around and head back down the hall towards the bathrooms.
Let's just say that my school isn't known for their first-class bathrooms.
Upon arrival, I see a girl fixing her hair in the mirror. She must be here for one of the other classes, because she certainly isn't in mine. I think I would have noticed someone with perfectly messy blonde hair, and nice, blue eyes. She has a rope necklace around her neck with eight beads on it, all assorted colors and shapes. She turns to me and smiles, like she's waiting for me. Which, of course, she couldn't be. I mean, I've never met her before.
I see that she has a silver flute with pictures carved delicately carved onto the side. I frown a bit. Why does she have that?
Before I can ask why, she holds up the head joint under her lips and her fingers glide across the keys with ease, lulling me into a nice, peaceful sleep.
oOo
Aria's POV
"I knew there was a good reason for bringing this thing," I say, gesturing to my flute while walking backwards to the car. I'm facing Will and Katie, who are both holding up Ally in a standing position.
"I can't believe that you saw a flyer for summer school on our way out of her house last night," Katie says, looking a bit satisfied with our mission's success.
"Your eyes get pretty impressive when you start at music for hours. You have to notice type of note, articulation, tempo markings…." I trail off, turning to face the car that we stole this morning.
If we're going to kidnap a person, we might as well steal a car while we're at it.
I unlock the car and sit in the front seat. Katie sits in the car and helps will get Ally into the seat next to her. He then comes up to the passenger side and sits there.
"Do you think we should contact camp?" he asks as I back out of the parking space.
I shrug as I turn onto the main road. "We can stop for that if you want. And we need to play more music for Ally until we get to camp or else she'll wake up and not be very happy."
Katie glances at the sleeping beauty next to her. "Yeah….Well, in that case, we're stopping, calling camp, and you're sitting back here with Ally. None of us play the flute," she points out.
"At least, not as well as you," Will, a fantastic trumpet player, huffs.
"Fine by me," I say, eyes locked on the road. I constantly turn my head and check for monsters, but, luckily, nothing is there.
Imagine having to keep a useless body safe while protecting yourself.
That would be great, right?
Several minutes go by, and we're all still intact. No monsters. No interruptions.
It seems like this quest is now going our way.
Oh, American viewers, you flatter me.
Okay, well, I've been in crazily-write-Hunger-Games-story mode for the past two days, so, I'm giving myself props for actually figuring out how to write this chapter! (And, you know, if you congratulate me as well, I totally won't blame you…)
Thanks for reading!