Hi everyone! This is slightly awkward considering I haven't updated in close to three years, oops? Well, here it is! I feel tremendously guilty to keep you guys waiting for so long but high school kept me busy, ya know? I honestly didn't think I'd ever publish this last chapter, not because I didn't want to but because I couldn't think of a way to end it all, and eventually I drifted away from Percy Jackson and fanfiction altogether so this wasn't one of my top priorities and I'm sorry for that! This chapter has been written over the course of the past 3 years so I apologize if the writing is a little different throughout it! This will be the final chapter to Being 15 is Tougher and most likely the last thing I ever post on here so I just wanted to thank you all, whether you just started reading my stories last month or if you've been around since 2010 when I was 12 and didn't know how to spell 'definitely', thank you for sticking with me and for loving the characters, for leaving reviews that made my day, and for giving constructive criticism that made me develop as a writer. It's crazy to think that I started this when I was 12 and now I'm leaving for college in a few weeks! Okay I'm getting too nostalgic, I'm just gonna get on with the story now. Hope you all enjoy!

Disclaimer: Didn't own Percy Jackson in 2010, still don't own it now.

By the next morning, all of the afflicted campers had woken up; and like true demigods, they just wanted to get out of the infirmary as quickly as possible and return to their regular activities (for the daughter of Aphrodite "regular activities" was just gossiping and applying excessive amounts of lip gloss, but it was still better than spending the rest of the summer in the infirmary). Besides being awfully sore from lying in the same position for days straight, they all seemed completely fine. Persephone's remedy had worked perfectly.

The day after we had come back to camp, I was enjoying my well-deserved sleep when salt water spontaneously began to rain from my ceiling.

That, or Percy had missed having someone to use his famous wake-up technique on and decided that he couldn't wait a moment longer to dump a bucket of water on my head.

"Wake up, sunshine!" he cheerfully said, and pulled the curtains of my cabin open, allowed the cursed sunlight to stream in. I hadn't gotten a chance to see him the night before, so I guessed that his surprise visit was his idea of a welcome back present.

"Go. Away." I mumbled, hoping he could hear me through the pillows and blanket I had stacked on top of my face, trying to hold onto the darkness and silence for as long as I could.

"Why would I do that when we're already having so much fun?"

"I hate you."

"On the bright side, now you don't have to shower!" He smiled proudly at his work. "I saved you so much time. Look what a good cousin I am."

"I still hate you."

"Yeah, yeah," he said, used to hearing this from me, "whatever."

Forcibly dragging me out of bed (ignoring my protests and death threats), he tossed me a pair of pants and my least favorite t-shirt (the hideous orange Camp Half-Blood one, in case you couldn't figure it out). Not bothering to change, I slumped into the comfortable chair that sat in the corner of my cabin and prayed that Percy would go away.

No surprise, I had no such luck.

Dragging me out of my chair and making a comment about how great a day it was, Percy stepped outside and gave me a minute alone to change and then barged back in and pulled me out of my cabin.

"So," he started nonchalantly as we walked away from my cabin, "I hear you and Jill got into a little fight yesterday."

I shot my eyes open and turned to him. "Who told you that?" I was pretty positive there was nobody else on the dock with us the night before, but knowing how sneaky children of Hermes could be (key examples being the Stoll brothers), I couldn't be completely sure.

He glanced over and pointed to the lake, where even from a distance you could see the flirtatious naiads sticking their heads out of the water. They loudly giggled and waved at a group of campers in a canoe passing by. "Must I explain?" he said, "They really are terrible gossipers."

I rolled my eyes and jammed my hands into my pockets. We continued walking in silence, until we were far away from the cabins.

"So," Percy began, "have you apologized to her yet?"

Loudly snorting (earning me a couple of stares), I turned to my cousin. "Why would I apologize?" I asked, "I did nothing wrong!"

Percy gave me a disbelieving look. "Uh, you called her an ugly, bossy cow, and that you would rather kiss Clarisse's armpit after a long day of training than you would her."

"I never said any of that!" I protested, gaping like a fish at his ridiculous accusation.

"Well that's probably exactly what she heard!" he exclaimed, "Girls are just weird like that." We both shrugged, because it was true.

"Well she insulted me too!" I defended. "She called me moody!"

"Nico," Percy said, beginning to laugh in that annoying way of his, "you are moody."

"Am not!"

We passed a group of girls, daughters of Aphrodite and Apollo, sitting nearby in the grass as they sunbathed and gossiped. When we walked by, they giggled and waved. "Hi Percy, hi Nico," they greeted identically, and then erupted into another fit of giggles.

Percy gave a small wave as we passed, while I ignored them completely. Percy sighed happily. "Ah, the life of a camp hero, eh?"

"If your head gets any bigger, it just might explode." I warned him, but he just laughed it off.

"Regardless," he said, "you still have to apologize, because she's not going to do it first."

With a groan I realized that he was right. There was no way she was going to apologize before I did. The idea of Jill coming to me and saying sorry was almost comical. "Well, what am I supposed to say?"

"I dunno." Percy shrugged, "Tell her that she's not bossy."

I rolled my eyes at his awful attempt at advice. "What about the 'know-it-all' comment?" I asked.

At this, he turned to face me. "Dude, you called her a know-it-all?" he asked incredulously, and I nodded, "You are so screwed," he said, and began to laugh at my misfortune. "Trust me when I say children of Athena hate being called know-it-alls."

"But they are know-it-alls!" I shouted.

"Yeah, but you don't have to point that out."

"Well what if she doesn't forgive me and I just look stupid?"

"Well then she won't forgive you and you'll just look stupid."

I glared at him. "Thanks."

"No problem, buddy." He slapped me hardly on the back. "Hate to break it to you Nico, but you don't have many friends, and out of the few that you do have she's probably the best one you've got." Just as I thought he was about to say something else insightful, he noticed a game of Frisbee going on near the volleyball courts and took an interest. "Ooh, they're a player short! Gotta go!" he ruffled my hair (much to my annoyance) and then began running towards the game. As he jogged away, he turned back and shouted "Don't be an idiot! Just go apologize!" and then continued to the Frisbee players screaming something about how the "Percinator" was going to dominate.

"Thanks for all your help, 'Percinator'." I muttered to myself, and turned back around in the direction I had come.

Going back to my cabin, I took notice of the freshly printed list of activities nailed to the door. Skipping over the ones I had already missed in order to get my necessary 15 hours of sleep (which, I sadly noticed included lunch), I read:

12:45:

Rock Climbing (Hades, Athena, Ares, Persephone)

I didn't really enjoy having my eyebrows singed off, so I passed on that one.

2:00:

Archery (Nyx, Apollo, Demeter, Hades)

Archery was really not my forte, and considering I knew the children of Demeter weren't too gifted in that area either, I decided to skip and not risk getting an arrow embedded in my thigh.

3:30:

Arts and Crafts (Hephaestus, Hades, Hecate, Ares)

No. Just… no. No amount of money would bribe me to make macaroni picture frames with Clarisse.

I scanned the list looking for something that I actually wanted to go to, but none of the activities caught my interest. I decided that I might as well skip the schedule for the day. I deserved a day off for my courageous behavior, right? Chiron would understand (either that or he would punish me with kitchen duty for a week, but I was just going to hope it would be the first option).

Setting the list down, I noticed my stomach growl loudly. Not wanting to have to wait another couple of hours until dinner (hours could feel like years to a hungry teenager), I decided to head over to the mess hall and hopefully get a nymph to make me a sandwich or something.

I left my cabin and headed across camp, reaching the eating area in minutes. Before I even had a chance to convince one of the nymphs to make me something delicious and filled with bacon, an unfamiliar feminine voice greeted me. "Hey Nico." I turned around and faced the girl, recognizing her from the group of girls Percy and I saw earlier.

"Hi." I said, feeling only slightly bad for not having the smallest clue of what her name was. It was easy enough to realize she was from the Aphrodite cabin though; with her long, dark waves and bright green eyes, she looked just as flawless as any of her siblings.

"Good job on your quest." she said, twirling her hair, "We all missed you sooo much."

I was just about to explain that I had never met her before, and therefore it was pretty strange that she missed me, when she continued talking. "So, I heard you jumped in front of Judy to protect her from one of those harpies."

"It was a gorgon," I explained, "and her name's Jill."

"Whatever." With a wave of her hand, she dismissed her mistakes. "That was so totally heroic of you."

"Uh, thanks." I said, trying to escape from the girl and talk to a nymph cleaning the tables before she finished and disappeared into some tree and left me sandwich-less.

"No problem!" She smiled brightly. "So," she asked, "do you have a scar?"

I wanted to tell her that I obviously had a scar if I was attacked by a gorgon and that she was all kinds of stupid if she couldn't figure that out on her own, but I refrained and just answered with a simple "Yeah?"

Her smile (if possible) grew even wider, "I think scars are totally hot," she gushed, "Can I see yours?"

Before I could answer her (and I assure you that my answer would've been a very definite "no"), her perfectly manicured hands flew to my arm and latched on. Her pink nails dug into my skin, sending a spark of pain through my body. "Uh, your skin tends to be pretty sore after being torn open by talons, so if you could just not touch it-"

"Excuse me, Lacey." interrupted another voice, this time much more familiar than the one belonging to the strange Aphrodite girl. "I just need to steal Nico for a minute." Lacey immediately scowled and glared at the disrupter.

"Whatever," she said, still glaring. She turned to me and batted her eyelashes. "Bye Nico. See you tonight." With a wink and a wave, she was off.

I whirled around to face whatever wonderful person had saved me from the giggling daughter of Aphrodite and was greeted with a mess of blonde curls and steely gray eyes.

"Annabeth!" Hugs were usually not my thing, but for Annabeth I made an exception. When she threw her arms around me, I returned the gesture with a crushing squeeze (after I made sure there was nobody around to witness, of course) and only half-pretended to be horribly embarrassed.

"Shouldn't you be locked away in your cabin studying or rebuilding Olympus or something?" I asked, partly teasing and partly serious. I was probably more likely to get the "Best Step-son of the Year" award from Persephone than I was to see Annabeth taking a leisure stroll around camp.

"Shouldn't you be sulking and scaring off small children?" she poked at me teasingly, and then further explained herself. "I'm running an errand for Chiron. Actually, that errand is to find you and bring you to the Big House, so let's go."

On our way to the Big House, which was quite a distance across camp, Annabeth asked me about Lacey.

"That lunatic Aphrodite girl?"

Before I could continue, Annabeth laughed. "Lunatic?" she asked.

I nodded vigorously. "She was like, 'Ooh, Nico I missed you so much even though I've never actually spoken to you in my entire life' and 'Can I see your morbid scar, Nico?' and 'I'm really weird, so I'm gonna dig my nails into your arm now'. Pretty strange, if you ask me."

Rather than agree with me and possibly laugh at my attempt to mimic the girl's high pitched voice, Annabeth only sighed and shook her head. "You're just as oblivious as Percy."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means neither of you can take a hint! That girl was practically throwing herself at you and you didn't even notice!"

I let myself ponder it for a minute, before letting out a dignified hmph as my response. How was I supposed to tell if she was, as Annabeth had phrased it, throwing herself at me? I just wanted a sandwich. Not a clingy daughter of Aphrodite (that is, unless she was the one making me said sandwich).

Annabeth laughed lightly at my response, "Face it! You know nothing about girls."

"That's because you're all so confusing!"

"Oh, young Nico," she said, shaking her head, "You have so much to learn."

We walked in silence for a while, besides Annabeth's occasional comments on her plans of Olympus (she repeatedly turned down my idea of building a giant gold statue of me, claiming that it was "unprofessional" and "an utterly ridiculous idea") and other matters that had happened while he was gone. After a few moments of particularly silence-y silence, she brought up the inevitable topic:

"So," she started nonchalantly, "I heard you think my sister is a bossy know-it-all."

I groaned, knowing she was probably about to yell at me. "Let me guess, you ran into the naiads this morning?"

"Actually," she admitted, "it was Percy. He's got an even bigger mouth than they do."

"I see." I said. I would have agreed with her comment about Percy, but I figured insulting her sister was enough reason for her to beat me to a pulp. I didn't need to add insulting her boyfriend to the list of reasons I made her angry.

"I also heard you haven't apologized yet," she said casually, but not being able to entirely hide the disapproval in her voice.

I resisted rolling my eyes. Apparently it was common knowledge that I was going to have to be the one to apologize first. "I'm working on it."

Annabeth seemed satisfied that I didn't argue that she should be the one apologizing or that I was refusing to altogether. "What have you planned to say so far?" she asked.

"That she's not a bossy know-it-all?"

"Okay…" she said hesitatingly, "That's a start."

Just as she was about to give me more helpful information, she realized that we had reached the Big House and pushed me ahead.

"Wait!" I protested, "I still don't know what to say!"

"Percy and I are co-teaching a sword fighting class tomorrow at 8. Come to it and I'll talk to you afterwards!" With this, she turned and hurried off towards the Athena cabin.

Sighing, I realized that was all that I was going to get from her, and continued into the Big House. Stepping inside, the wave of cool air welcomed me as I took a seat. Probably hearing my arrival, Chiron clomped his way in and welcomed me. Realizing that my dreams of getting a sandwich were not going to happen anytime soon, I picked up a bowl of potato chips sitting on the table that Mr. D usually occupies and shoved a handful in my mouth. Mmm… salty goodness in the form of a potato.

Chiron stood in front of me, and began to talk. "First of all, on behalf of the entire camp, I would like to thank you for retrieving the cure for the campers and delivering it safely back to Camp Half-Blood." I didn't know whether or not I was supposed to say "you're welcome", so I was glad when he spoke again. "I apologize that we didn't get a chance to thoroughly discuss your quest last night when you returned, but I was hoping that we could talk about it now."

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about this with Hailey? She's probably better at explaining things than I am."

"I've already talked to Hailey yesterday," surprise, surprise; when does that girl ever give up an opportunity to talk? "But as quest leader it's your job to report to me. So, why don't you start with the beginning and go through the quest in chronological order." He made himself comfortable, moving over to a wall and leaning against it. "And please," he added, "try not to leave anything out."

And so, for the next hour or so I described in vivid detail (or at least as vivid as I could remember) every catastrophic event that we endured through the duration of our quest. This includes, but is not limited to, getting attacked in the middle of Detroit, jumping off of moving trains, spontaneously falling into the Underworld, and nearly getting decapitated by Mr. Mistero.

Chiron stared at me for a moment after I had finished, and I really couldn't tell whether he was going to congratulate me on my success or reprimand me for all the stupid mistakes I made, but soon he smiled and said, "A job well done, Nico."

"Now," he said, "for the prophecy."

Knowing that he was about to ask for it, I spit out the prophecy as quickly as I could before I forgot it:

"Wisdom shall be found in the Wolverine State,

Since a mother saved her daughters' fates.

The heroes will find the missing and the cure,

But only death can open the door."

"Do you understand the prophecy, Nico?" Chiron asked me as soon as I had finished, and I quickly nodded. "Good," he said, running his fingers through his hair, "Now, why don't we go through it together."

Together, we came up with the meaning for each of the lines; except neither of us could quite figure out the second line. I threw out numerous suggestions, most of which he either ignored completely or turned down. While I didn't really care too much about the questionable line, considering we had all come back successfully with minimal damage, it seemed to drive Chiron crazy. While I wasn't really even a part of the conversation (as I said earlier, all of my suggestions were either ignored or turned down), he kept me there for at least another hour pondering the possibilities. He jumped back and forth between whether the mother was Demeter, who was famous for being Persephone's mother, or Athena, who was the mother of the girls, or even Gaia, who was essentially the mother of all.

"Perhaps I should consult with Mr. D…" he wondered aloud more than once.

Finally dismissing me to go back and spend the day relaxing after realizing what time it was ("Oh, good heavens! It seems time flies when you're thinking, does it not? We'll put an end to this for the night; go ahead back to your cabin, Nico"), I happily followed his advice and headed back to my cabin and contemplated whether or not I would go to the sword-fighting class. On one hand, that class wasn't something I particularly (or even slightly) wanted to attend, and waking up at 8:00 was one of the worst ideas anyone has ever had; on the other, that was probably my only chance of talking with Annabeth before she locked herself away into her cabin for another of her 72 hour architecture-design-thingy sessions, and if I didn't have her advice, I would have to listen to Percy's and that would probably end up with me doing something very stupid and regretting it for the rest of my life.

As much as I hated to admit it – as much as the very thought burned like fire in my brain – I didn't want to lose Jill as a friend (even if she was a bossy know-it-all), and if I wanted to stay on friendly terms with her I was going to have to apologize. And if I was going to apologize, then I needed Annabeth's help; and possibly Percy, if he was having one of his brighter days (and not one where he spent all day trying to teach fish how to do a synchronized dance underwater).

And so, with a groan, I set my alarm to 7:45 for the next morning and prayed that it would be worth getting up at such an ungodly hour.

You know when you get an idea in your head, and even though it's an awful idea and some tiny little piece of your brain is screaming at you to forget about it and go back to whatever you were doing, you for some reason convince yourself that it's a good idea? A great idea, even; an idea so wonderful that you become slightly angry at yourself for not thinking of it sooner.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

I got one of these ideas as I was eating my dinner that night (I always come up with my best, and worst, ideas when eating barbeque. It's both a blessing and a curse).

I don't know what possessed me to try to take matters into my own hands, after I just spent all that time convincing myself that I needed Annabeth's help; but nonetheless, I found myself walking back to the Athena cabin rather than my own after dinner that night.

I mean, really; it was just one apology. One teeny, eenie little apology. Two words: I'm sorry. How hard could that possibly be? Surely not as hard as fighting gorgons, or a whole skeleton army, or even having a simple conversation with my father. Everyone was just exaggerating; she would be totally okay with a simple apology. Anything that proved she was right and she would be all too happy to forgive me.

Luckily for me, I caught her on her way back from dinner, and didn't have to knock on her cabin door and announce it to everybody. She was walking with two girls that I didn't recognize, probably both her sisters, and I picked up bits of conversation about nuclear fission versus nuclear fusion. Not knowing what either of those things were, I walked up to them and turned my attention to Jill. She didn't seem especially happy to see me.

"Jill, I need to talk with you."

"What is it Nico?" she asked, not hiding her annoyance.

Glancing at the other two girls, who seemed very interested in the conversation that was about to pursue, I gestured for Jill to follow me away from the cabins. She got my hint, and turned to the girls with an annoyed sigh and a roll of her eyes. "You guys go on ahead. I'll be back in five minutes."

With that, she left her friends to discuss some dead guy and a telescope as they retreated back to their cabin.

Okay, this is it, Nico. This is what you've been preparing for. Just one short sentence, and this will all be over. Be a man, Nico.

I chanted encouraging words to myself until we were a safe distance from the cabins, eliminating the risk that anybody would overhear and I would be forced to flee the camp from embarrassment and move to Venice where I would spend the rest of my life as a gondola driver named Raffaello. When I was sure that nobody could overhear, I quickly spit out the words already forming in my mouth, "I'm sorry that I called you a bossy know-it-all." The words came out so quickly and jumbled together that I would be surprised if she could understand me; but when I was finished, the look on her face wasn't confused in the slightest.

I sighed afterwards, relieved that it was finally over.

That wasn't so bad, right?

She stared at me blankly, "Is that it?"

I apologized, right? Thinking back, I was very sure that the words "I'm sorry" had come out of my mouth. "Uh… yeah?"

She turned around and began to walk away.

"Hey!" I shouted to her retreating figure, "Where are you going?!"

She didn't turn around and look at me when she answered, but continued walking towards her cabin, "I have better things to do than stand around and listen to your pathetic excuse for an apology."

"Look," I shouted, my relief and confusion quickly turning into anger, "I said I was sorry!"

She continued walking, not bothering to even turn around and face me.

Well, maybe apologizes are harder than they seem.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Somebody up on Mount Olympus really had it out for me.

I've come to this conclusion after experiencing several strokes of really awful luck. For example, the time I accidentally stepped on a bee hive in the ground, resulting in me having to run around camp screaming like a little girl while a swarm of wasps chased me. Another of my favorites was the time some guy mistook me for the person he saw his girlfriend making out with in some parked car, and tried to assault me with a baseball bat until I managed to hide under a parked car until he was clear out of sight.

And so, whoever has made it their mission to wreck havoc on my life (I'm betting it's Persephone, or possibly Zeus himself) decided that waking up in the wee hours of the morning wasn't a bad enough way to start my day, and therefore something else catastrophic needed to happen to me as well.

Someone, somewhere, has decided that that catastrophic thing previously mentioned should be running into (and I mean literally running into, seeing as I was still half asleep on my way to the class, and half asleep people aren't known for their observant skills) Jill and Hailey while walking to my sword-fighting class.

"Oh, hi Nico!" exclaimed Hailey, enthusiastic as always, from where she laid on the ground after being knocked over by yours truly.

Jill, who I hadn't even noticed until she let out a string of irritated curses, was lying next to her friend.

I jumped up, brushed some dirt and grass from my shirt, and held out a hand to Jill. She ignored my offer of help completely (also ignoring my eyes), and stood up on her own, striding over to Hailey afterwards and pulling her up as well.

"Sorry-" I began, but Jill had already began to walk away, dragging Hailey with her. The brunette turned back around to face me as they walked away.

"Bye Nico!" she called out, waving happily towards me. I waved back.

Jill didn't appreciate this exchange. "Hailey!" she yelled impatiently, and yanked her friend by the arm.

Hailey glanced at the blonde, and then back to me, "Oh, right." she shot me a glare, and then turned her nose up and followed after Jill, but before she disappeared out of sight she turned around and gave me a smile and wave.

I don't know why I didn't assume that the two of them would be in my class, seeing as they walked in the same direction as me and they were both up and out at this cruelly early hour, but when I walked into the class and saw the two of them bickering in the corner I was still rudely surprised. Jill seemed equally surprised, and even more annoyed than I felt.

I didn't pay much attention during the class, for a few reasons. One was that at eight o'clock in the morning, I couldn't really pay much attention to anything, besides maybe how much I wanted to go back to sleep; another was that I wasn't there to learn, I was there to get some advice that I only half wanted after running into Jill earlier.

Annabeth and Percy were both annoyingly awake as they taught the class, showing the disarming move we were being taught a few times before allowing us to split up and try it on our own.

Percy came before the class, with not even a drop of sweat on him regardless of the fact that he must have showed the move at least ten times, "Everyone get into partners!" he ordered, winking at me in a knowing way before walking off towards Annabeth. Not understanding his wink (though I was slightly disturbed by it), I moved off to find a partner.

Jill and Hailey moved to pair off together, but Percy came out of nowhere and grabbed Hailey by her arm before they could even pick up their swords. "Oh, no," he started, smiling at the pair before looking around the room, "Hailey, why don't you work with Jamaal over there?" he gestured to a boy practicing the move by himself.

"Because I don't want to?" she replied, but he was already dragging her away to her new partner. Jill threw her hands up into the air dramatically and glared at Percy. It was nice to know that I wasn't the only one who could make her so angry.

Percy moved back to the center of the room before the class, "Everyone have a partner?" before awaiting a response, Percy glanced at Jill and me, who were deliberately as far away as possible, "Oh, nope! We'll have to assign some."

I moved towards Kyle, a kid I knew from the Apollo cabin who wasn't quite as terrible as some of his siblings, and who was also without a partner. Before we had a chance to begin practicing, Percy shouted out in a particularly obnoxious voice, "Oh look! Two people still don't have partners!"

"Look at that!" Percy noted, "Jill and Nico! You'll be partners! That's a good idea, right Annabeth?"

"Actually, that's not really-"

"Good idea? That's a great idea!" he exclaimed with delight, cutting Annabeth off before she could disagree with him. I shot him a murderous look, and he winked back.

"Uh, that's an awful idea," I told them.

I waited for Jill to agree, but when she did say something it was more of a challenge than an agreement, "No, he's right," she said in a falsely sweet voice, "If Nico's too scared to fight me, he shouldn't have to," she gave me a look of fake compassion, "Don't worry; it's nothing to be embarrassed about." She casually leaned against her sword, challenging me with her words and her glare.

She left the bait, and like the fool everyone accuses me of being, I took it.

Ten minutes later we were both glaring at each other, striking metal against metal, slashing and lunging and desperately trying to beat the other. We had gotten the disarming down quickly, before most of the other partners, and now we were just both too stubborn to put down the sword first.

As expected, it wasn't much of a friendly fight.

Jill was always, and had always been, an okay fighter.

Decent.

Kinda good.

At best, she was talented.

Maybe a little bit great (but only the teeniest bit).

Not better than me, of course. But still, she was pretty good; for a daughter of Athena, that is (not counting Annabeth, who could have me on my knees with a blade on either side of my throat in under a second).

And while I have just grudgingly admitted that she is a pretty good fighter, I was more than surprised that our fight lasted for as long as it did.

You see, I've seen her fight dozens of times: fight monsters, fight fellow campers, fight Hailey once when she wouldn't stop singing some ridiculous song she came up with about a friendly dragon who loved to ice skate. I've fought her too, but never to this degree.

Jill was angry. And when people are angry, they get violent. And Jill with extra violence in her isn't really the Jill I would have chosen to fight. But as my pride was at stake and I couldn't deny her challenge, we slashed and lunged at each other for what seemed like an eternity; sweat dripped down both of our faces and my head throbbed from when she hit it with the butt of her sword, but neither of us were willing to give up yet.

After a few more minutes of trying to impale each other, most of the anger had drained from both of us, leaving us with only exhaustion and our own pride to keep us going. We fought desperately, trying to win the seemingly endless fight.

She slashed, and I ducked.

I stabbed, and she stepped out of the way.

She lunged, and I parried.

We were evenly paired in this fight, her determination making up for any strength she lacked physically. The fight went back and forth, like a game of tug-o-war. Neither of us had an advantage. And so, we continued to fight after all of the others had stopped.

I could tell that Percy was probably rethinking the intelligence of his plan, which was mostly likely hoping that having us fight would get rid of our anger, but neither him or Annabeth seemed too keen to try to step in between the clashing swords and break up the fight. I was vaguely aware that some of the kids were beginning to leave. Others stood and watched the fight.

At some point, I was able to kick out Jill's feet from under her, sending her flying to the ground. The tip of my sword found its way to her chest, and the fight was officially over.

"HA!" I exclaimed, raising my sword into the air to announce myself victor. Jill climbed up angrily from the ground.

"That wasn't fair fighting!" she protested, throwing her blade to the ground furiously.

"Oh, you're only saying that because you lost," I said, waving her complaint off.

Jill practically had smoke coming out of her ears; her face was bright red with a combination of anger, exhaustion, and probably quite a bit of embarrassment. "You arrogant little son of a-"

"Jill, why don't you go clean up?" Annabeth interrupted quickly before her younger sister could identify just exactly who I was a son of (I doubted her sentence was going to end with "Greek god of the Underworld"). With a huff, she grabbed her sword from the ground and stormed out of the arena, dragging Hailey behind her. I was left to enjoy my brief victory.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Just as I was enjoying my victory swagger over to breakfast, somebody came up behind me and smacked me on the back of my head.

"Hey!" I yelled, turning around to find Percy glaring at me. "What was that for?!"

"For being such a complete idiot!"

"Now, if we're talking about who's the idiot here, I think you take the prize-"

"Come on," he grabbed onto my arm and pulled me aside, away from all the other campers on their way to breakfast.

"Where are we going?" I asked, very annoyed that Percy was leading me away from my well deserved victory breakfast, "Breakfast is over there!" I pointed in the direction of all the campers, but he continued to pull me away towards his cabin.

"If you're going to ask me to help you redecorate, which would be a good idea since the whole aquarium thing is a little overdone, now is really not the time," I said, growing more and more frustrated that Percy took this opportunity to turn into a raging lunatic and try to deprive me of food. He pushed me into his cabin, where Annabeth sat waiting on one of the many unused beds.

"Guys, I'm sure this will be a fun chat, but breakfast is calling my name," Percy rolled his eyes, "No, seriously!" I told them, "Can't you hear it? They're saying, 'Nicooo, Nicooo! Come and eat us! We are so lonely! Please let us come live in your stomach!'" Neither of them found this slightly amusing.

"Oh, Nico," Annabeth said, sighing sadly, "Poor, poor Nico," she turned to Percy, "I don't even think he realizes what he's done."

I looked around exasperatedly, waiting for somebody to clue me in one what terrible deed I've done. "Okay, so since you're obviously torturing me by keeping me from my much deserved waffles and syrup, what did I do wrong?"

"Do you seriously have to ask what you did wrong?" Percy asked unbelievingly.

"Well, considering I just did, yes?"

He shook his head incredulously, "Dude, you beat her in a fight, and then rubbed it in her face!"

"Is it my fault that I'm just an awesome fighter?"

Percy became so frustrated that he just made strange noises and began to speak a few times before he could come up with a sentence, "You were supposed to let her win, you idiot!"

"Well why would I do that?"

Annabeth sighed dramatically from her spot on the bed and turned to Percy, "I told you your plan wouldn't work."

Percy ignored her with an annoyed look, then yelled at me some more. "So she got some superiority over you and wouldn't be nearly as mad!"

I stared at him furiously, "How was I supposed to know that?!"

"Uh, common sense?"

"It looks like we both lack that if you actually expected me to be able to come up with that idea on my own!"

"Well," Annabeth said, breaking up the fight between me and Percy, "it looks like you're gonna have to step up your apology a few notches, Nico."

"Look," I said, dreading the conversation about to happen, "I already apologized, okay?"

"You did?!" they both asked, mouths agape.

"Yes, I did. Thank you very much."

"Well…" Percy started, waiting for me to elaborate, "What'd she say?"

"She said, 'is that it?' to which I replied, 'yes', and then she walked away." They both groaned.

"What?" I asked, "It's not like I didn't try."

"You might as well have not!" Annabeth exclaimed, before falling onto a bed and rubbing her temples. "Look, Nico," she said, "I live with Jill."

"So…?"

"So I listened out for anything she might say about you, and I happen to know that if you were to properly apologize she would have no problem forgiving you!"

"She said that?!" My apology was about as proper as they got, so I wasn't sure what exactly she was expecting. A cake with 'I'm Sorry' written on top with icing? Not likely to happen. Mostly because I don't know the first thing about making a cake.

"Well… no, she threatened to beat you with a calculator until you cried if you tried to talk to her again, but I know deep down she doesn't want to fight."

"That's tremendously comforting, thank you so much for that information, Annabeth."

"Just try again, okay? Children of Athena are stubborn, but not that stubborn."

I begged to differ.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Walking back to my cabin after that tremendously helpful advice session, I noticed a certain daughter of Athena sitting at the end of the dock. I debated whether or not to go over. On one hand, she was unarmed, which meant she most likely couldn't impale or maim me. Most likely. On the other, she could very easily push me into the lake, which would mean having to walk across camp soaking wet which would be entirely less than enjoyable.

In the end, I decided it would be better to be pushed into the lake now with no witnesses than to be pushed into the lake sometime tomorrow for the whole camp's amusement. With a sigh, I made my way over to her.

"I think we should talk."

Jill didn't bother to look at me. "We already talked," she replied as she went to stand up.

"No, really," I said, grabbing her arm before she could get on her feet, "can we talk?"

She looked at me with all of the annoyance I would expect. "I'm listening."

It was in this moment that I hated Percy and Annabeth the most. Why hadn't they given me some sort of apology method I could use? Now that it was time to say something thoughtful and apologetic, I realized I had absolutely nothing. Nada. Zip. And so naturally, I spit out the first thing that came to mind. "I would rather kiss you than Clarisse's armpit!"

For a moment, all of the annoyance was wiped from Jill's face, replaced with surprise and mostly confusion (which was a rare occurrence for her). "…Okay?" she asked, some of the annoyance returning to her expression, "Is that supposed to be a compliment?"

"Yes!" I exclaimed, "No… I don't actually know," I said sheepishly, "I'm not normally on the giving side of compliments." In retrospect, this was probably not the right thing to say. Jill thought so too, because she stood up and started walking back towards camp.

I jumped up and followed her. It was too late to go back on this apology, no matter how awful it was turning out to e. "Wait, Jill!" I shouted after her, but she kept walking, "I just think there was some miscommunication, okay? Can I just explain myself?" I felt like an idiot running after her along the dock, trying to not fall into the water all the while, so I was relieved when she finally stood still and turned to face me. "Look, you are a bossy know it all, but-"

"Excuse me?!" she shouted, clearly not hearing what she had expected.

Now, my friends, let me tell you about Nico's Three Step Award Winning Apology Strategy. This method has since saved me countless times, whether it be to teachers, fellow campers, or florists who don't appreciate how all their flowers die while I walk by. "Let me finish." Step one: start off with an insult, lower the expectations so that steps two and three will really come as a surprise. "You are a bossy know it all." Step two: throw in some compliments. Kill 'em with kindness, you might say (note: don't actually kill them, that's just an expression – killing them would be counterproductive to earning their forgiveness). "You're also brave, freakishly smart, caring, determined, and so much more." "And if you weren't all of these things, including a bossy know it all, then you wouldn't be the Jill Mistero that I've come to grow and love, now would you?" Step three: actually apologize. This is maybe the most important step, right after the insult, "So I'm sorry that I offended you, or whatever."

And this, ladies and gents, is Nico's Three Step Award Winning Apology Strategy. Use it wisely.

Jill was silent for a long time, long enough to make me feel so incredibly awkward I debated jumping off the dock to escape. When she finally did speak, it was not at all what I had been expecting, and the urge to jump off the dock grew stronger than ever. "Love, huh?" she said with a smile so smug it could only belong to a child of Athena.

I, of course, couldn't see my own face in this moment, but I could only imagine that comparing it to the color of a tomato would be an understatement. "I just meant, uh," I stuttered, desperately searching for words that wouldn't make me sound more idiotic than I already felt, "that, uh, you're a cool person and-"

And then I wasn't saying anything because her lips were on mine and it's slightly hard to form words in that situation, considering your mouth is otherwise occupied. And there was also the small fact that my brain had suddenly stopped working and I probably wouldn't have been able to remember the English language if I had tried.

When we broke apart, I stared at her in confusion. "What was that?!" I exclaimed, the taste of her cherry chapstick still on my lips.

Jill's face began to grow red to match my own. "It's called a kiss," she shouted back at me, "have you never heard of it?!"

"Yes, I'm perfectly well aware of what a kiss is, thank you very much. But if I'm remembering right, a kiss is normally between two people who like each other, not between a girl and someone who is supposedly, and I quote, the 'most obnoxious, idiotic, moron that has ever walked the earth'."

She grew redder, beginning to ramble and basically reverting to the state I was in moments before. "I didn't really mean that you were the most obnoxious, idiotic, moron that's ever walked the earth. It's estimated that around 108 billion people have ever lived, which really is a lot of people, so logically the odds that you're the most obnoxious-"

She was cut off by my laughter. "What's so funny?" she demanded, her hands flying to her hips defensively.

The sight of her red face was still in my mind, her words tripping over her tongue and her eyes darting side to side nervously. "You just look cute when you get all flustered," I said, immediately kicking myself once the words had left my mouth. I stared at her face for a reaction, feeling as though maybe now would be the best time for a quick dip in the lake.

She smiled back at me, the smugness returned. "So now you love me and I'm cute?"

"Stop doing that!" I shouted at her, trying my best (but ultimately failing) to hide a smile.

She laughed, brightening up her face. "Stop doing what?"

And as we walked away from the lake, bickering like nothing had changed, her hand found its way into mine and I knew that everything had.