Peri's POV

"...and then Piper's all 'Leo, that's Snow White!'" Leo finished his story. Our entire table exploded into laughter. I clutched my sides as I laughed my head off. Leo was too funny.

"I can totally imagine Piper saying that!" Frank managed to say between laughs.

As the laughter died down, I took a sip of my iced green tea. Peering over the lid of the cup, I spotted Reyna a few tables away. She was staring me down hard as some blonde boy whispered in her ear.

I put my glass down slowly, Reyna's eyes still trained on me. She turned her head slightly and murmured something in the boy's ear, all the while keeping her eyes on me. The blonde boy nodded once before abruptly rising from his seat. He began making his way over.

Oh crap!

I jerked my head back to my own table. Staring at my plate, I said to my friends. "Okay guys, don't look now, but some guy is coming over here."

Everyone's heads swiveled in the blonde boy's direction.

Everyone's heads.

"I just said 'don't look now!'" I hissed at them, and they all quickly averted their eyes.

"Everyone, just act natural." I heard Percy say.

"Moo!" Leo mooed lowly. I burst into laughter.

Annabeth sighed. "That's about as natural as we're gonna get."

The blonde boy sauntered up to our table. He was tall and had a lanky build under his purple camp shirt. I found this strange though, because most everyone here was pretty athletic and fit.

He glared at Percy, and Percy glared right back.

"Do you two know each other?" Leo asked slowly.

"He murdered my pillow pet." Percy growled.

Leo gasped sarcastically. "The heathen!"

"What are you doing here?" Percy spat.

The boy rolled his eyes. "Well, it's nice to see you too, Percy!" He scanned the faces of our table, coming to rest at me on the end. "I only came to formally introduce myself to our star demigod here."

I smiled proudly, sitting up a little straighter. "Star demigod, huh? I like the sound of that!"

He stuck out his hand. "I'm Octavian, a legacy of Apollo."

I truly am sorry.

I couldn't help it.

I laughed in his face.

"Octavian?" I said between fits of laughter. "You're name is Octavian?! I am so sorry for you, dude!"

He narrowed his eyes at me. "And what, pray tell, is your name?"

I smiled. "I'm Peri!" I loved my name. It was unique, just like me.

He smirked. "Perry? You have a boy's name?"

I frowned, irritated. "No, not Perry. P - E - R - I, Peri! Short for Periwinkle. My name is Periwinkle Storm."

He visibly paled. "St-Storm?" he stuttered out.

"Yes! I'm very glad you know how to repeat someone!" I said sarcastically.

I was officially over this guy. I waved my hand at him dismissively and rolled my eyes. "Now, please leave. I'm starting to lose my appetite!

Octavian huffed loudly and spun around on his heel. He stormed off back to his table. As soon as he was out of earshot, everyone burst out laughing. I turned to them, smiling slightly.

"Wow, Peri!" Hazel said to me, wide eyed. "Nobody has ever really stood up to Octavian before!"

I furrowed my brows in confusion. "Who would be afraid of that punk?"

"Well, Octavian has the gift of prophecy," Frank spoke up. "So, everyone has always been a bit careful around him."

Leo snorted. "Pfft! I could take that guy with one hand!" Everyone laughed loudly again.

"What?!" Leo asked in mock outrage. "Are y'all saying I couldn't do it?!"

I chuckled softly and turned to look for Octavian.

I spotted the gangling boy speaking urgently with Reyna once again. Hazel must have seen the same thing I did, because she gasped loudly.

"Oh no!" She cried. "Octavian's telling Reyna!"

I shrugged my shoulders and laughed. "And? Reyna can't tell me what to do!"

I turned again and saw Reyna stand. She walked towards our table. Everyone turned to look at me.

I shrugged my shoulders again and took another sip of iced green tea.

Reyna stood at the edge of our table in all her commanding glory.

I grinned and waved at her cheerily. "Hi, Reyna! It's me, Peri! Do you remember me from this morning? Where are your dogs? Don't they need food? Oh, wait they're made of metal, right? So I guess they don't eat much, huh? Are metal dogs heavy? I wish I had metal dogs! That'd be awesome! How was your day?"

She ignored me. In fact, she didn't even look at me. Weird, seeing as she wouldn't stop staring earlier. Instead, she addressed Jason.

"She cannot stay here." Reyna said in a monotone.

"What are you talking about?" He asked, a confused look on everyone's face.

"Peri cannot stay here."

"What?!" We all exclaimed in unison.

Percy pushed himself up off the table, outraged. "What do you mean she can't stay here?"

Reyna blinked at him. "Is your hearing impaired? She is not welcome."

I opened my mouth to say something, but Hazel stood up abruptly and cut me off. "Why ever not? Peri's a demigod, just like the rest of us!"

Jason rose to his feet as well. "Reyna, why are you saying these things?"

Reyna's expressionless face broke its hold. She glared at Percy as she spoke. "Peri is a danger to camp, and I refuse to have my home destroyed a second time."

Percy looked away guiltily, and I sensed a drama bomb about to go off.

Leo hopped out of his seat, surprising me with his loud tone of voice. "What is wrong with you Romans? First, she barely makes it into camp alive, and now you're trying to throw Peri back out!"

Reyna narrowed her eyes at Leo, but he didn't falter. "Know your place, Graecus!"

Leo growled and got all up into Reyna's face. "We're supposed to be heroes, right? Well then it's our duty as heroes to help those in need!"

I really didn't want things to get physical, especially not with me in the line of fire. Looking around, I noticed that people from other tables had begun tuning in to the argument unfolding right before our eyes. I opened my mouth to say something to calm the both of them down, but Reyna's retort cut me off.

"Heroes are supposed to know how to make sacrifices!"

What happened next through us all for a loop.

Leo switched tongues on us and started speaking partly in Spanish. "Dat loco sacrificios!"

But what really got me was when Reyna went right along with him. "Dat loco?! Culo estupido!"

I watched them go back and forth, and it was a lot like watching a tennis match. I didn't know what they were saying, but seeing their facial expressions and tone of voice, I could tell they weren't complimenting each other.

I heard Leo say the word puta more than a couple times, and even I knew what that one meant.

Honestly, it's a lot less exciting watching people argue when you don't know what they're saying. I decided to give them a taste of their own medicine.

Smirking, I jumped from my seat in between the two, pushing them back from one another.

In Japanese, I yelled, "Oi!Oi!Oi! You two stop it right now! Nobody even knows what you're saying! And now you don't know what I'm saying! I'm saying poop! Poop! Poop! Poop!"

Everyone looked at me, dumbfounded. It was completely silent at our table. Reyna and Leo had stopped bickering, so mission accomplished with that.

"Peri, you can speak Japanese?!" Frank asked, his eyes widened.

I grinned widely. Winking, I spoke to them in English. "Yup! These two aren't the only ones bilingual!"

I turned to Leo and Reyna seriously. "Now, calm down so we can handle this maturely!"

Slowly, Leo sat back down next to me, glaring at Reyna.

Reyna turned and faced the rest of the mess hall. Apparently, everyone had stopped what they were doing to watch Leo and Reyna go at it.

"Everyone, please leave the mess hall immediately." She scanned the crowd, looking at everyone, yet no one.

A Roman girl stood up. "But, Reyna it's only 8:30!"

"I didn't say you had to go to bed. Go to that party tent of yours or something!" She waved her hand dismissively. "I don't care what you do, just go!"

The girl paled. "Y-y-you knew about that?" Murmurs sprang up throughout the crowd.

"Of course I knew! What kind of praetor would I be if I didn't know what went on in my own camp?" She narrowed her eyes at the crowd. "Just. Go. Now."

The Romans cleared out of the mess hall faster than I'd ever seen a group of people move. They stumbled over one another running for the door, and I hoped nobody would get trampled. When the dust cleared, I could see a lone figure standing in the mess hall.

Octavian.

He gripped a thick, dusty old book close to his frail chest.

How does he hold that with those skinny little arms?

He slowly walked to our table. He placed the tome on the table with a loud boom. We were now the only ten people in the mess hall, and it felt incredibly empty.

Nobody said anything for a while, and it was eerily quiet.

Jason was the first to break the silence, to my relief.

"Reyna...What's going on?"

She turned to him. "I believe Octavian can answer your question..."