Jet

It's been about 3 days since the votes have been announced and so far, everything's been really chill. Nothing insane has happened, nothing dangerous, nothing monstrous, nothing. We're leaving back to Camp Half-Blood tomorrow, which is great, although a part of me wants to say. I don't know why, I just do. There's something about Camp Jupiter that I'm going to miss.

I take a step outside the barracks and breath in the fresh Roman air. Mmm, smells like wine, like it always does. I see Brooke talking to another person, coming this way. They seemed pretty deep into their conversation, laughing and all, because I waved but she didn't notice.

I run up to her and tap her on the shoulder, "Uh… Brooke?"

She turns away from her friends and looks at me, exasperated, "Yeah, Jet?"

"Nothing, just a… have you seen Clint around?"

She snorts, "Oh yeah, he's apparently playing this Mythomagic game with some of the Romans. I don't know, nerdy stuff."

"Is he available?"

"Well he is playing an intense game of Mythomagic."

"Right. Mythomagic — got it."

Before I could even say goodbye, she walks off and continues her conversation. I then start walking alone through the main street in between the Roman camp, walking past barracks and buildings, nobody seemed to notice me. I guess nobody ever does anymore huh? I mean, even Connor's been a bit preoccupied recently. The only one I've really hung out with is… Amelia — Amelia! I should check up on what she's doing.

I begin to jog with a new excitement to see her. I head for the Principia, she usually likes to hang around there. I reach the massive court area outside the building, the hustle and bustle of Roman campers surrounding me. I look around to see if I could find her but the crowds covered too much. There was no way I could spot her through the bodies of people. All of a sudden I hear someone call my name. I turn behind me to see somebody holding a stack of papers, there face covered by the pile.

"Could… you...help… JET."

I move around the pile to discover that it's Amelia, carrying all the sheets of paper.

"Oh, hey Amelia."

"Yeah… HI… could you help?"

"Hmm… I don't know," I say, "you seem to be handling it pretty well."

She scowls at me, "I… will.. Kill you."

I laugh, "Alright, alright Rapunzel. Don't get your knickers in a knot."

"Who the hell says that anymore?"

"I do," I shrug.

I grab half her pile and follow her. We enter one of the identical white marbled, red tiled roof, buildings and I'm greeted by a familiar sight — a library. Didn't know Camp Jupiter had one till now. Well I guess if the Romans had one thing, it'd be a library. She takes a left, going through one of the isles of books then takes another right to a secluded area with one table. She lays down the papers on the table, I do the same. She sits down and pulls out a pencil that was tucked on top of her ear. She begins vigorously writing on her papers.

I started looking around, whistling and swinging my arms back and forth. I get on the table, sitting right across from her.

"So… am I just gonna —"

"Yes, you're just gonna sit there, now quiet."

I sigh, waiting, waiting, waiting. I look at the clock, tick, tick, tick. That's all I could hear, that and the scratching of Amelia's pencil on the papers.

"Alright come on, I'm bored."

"Deal with it, Jet."

"Please, Amelia. Let's do something."

"I'm sorry Jet, but I really have to work."

"That's it."

I grab her by the hand and start leading her out of the library, she

"Jet, let go... I gotta study."

"Why?" I respond, still dragging her.

"If I have any hope of becoming a Centurion or Praetor, I have to work at it. I have to gain their respect, I need to know the system."

"Jesus, seriously Amelia? You work everyday. Can't you let off a little steam."

"I can but…" she sighs, there's no point. I'm practically carrying her now.

"Fine."

"ALRIGHT!" I fist bump the air.

"SHHHH, this is the library."

"Ooh, sorry."

"Where are we Jet?"

"You'll see."

"Why do we have two bowls of wine."

"You'll. See."

We waited on top of the Senate House, on some form of balcony. I sat on the railing, just waiting. Yeah… a lot of waiting today. Soon, somebody walks out of the door. I grab the bowl of wine and get ready.

"Wait, that's Michael Kahale," Amelia says, "What are you going to —"

Then splash, I dump the whole bowl of wine onto the Roman demigod, soaking him completely. He screams in annoyance and looks up to find the culprit. I manage to quickly hide away, whilst trying to keep silent. Which was pretty hard because I was laughing my ass.

Amelia just looks at me in shock, "What are you doing!?"

"What?"

"That's the Centurion of the First Cohort, I can't —"

"Hey! Who was that?" The Roman centurion yells.

Then another one comes out, "What? What's wrong? Why are you covered in wine?"

Before he could answer, another waterfall of wine comes pouring down, this time on the new guy. I look down at my hands. I didn't do that. I look to my left to see Amelia holding an empty bowl, covering her mouth trying not to laugh.

I smirk, "Now, who was that?"

"Larry," she says in between laughs, "Centurion of my cohort, kind of a dick."

"You evil, evil Roman."

"Oh… you have no idea."

We sneak around some sort of building, don't know what it is. Amelia just kept telling me, "You'll see." On the other side of the wall, I could hear clopping of hooves and… neighing? We reach the entrance to the building but is stopped by someone standing in the doorway. It was a glowing man, red-tinted to be exact and he wore a wolf's head.

"That's the Lar guarding the stables," Amelia whispers to me.

"Oh… so we're in the stables huh?"

"Shut up."

Amelia thinks intensely for a moment. After awhile she comes to a conclusion and sighs, "We're going to have to find another way around."

"Or…" I start stepping out.

"Wait, Jet stop!" Amelia tries to grab me but I'm already too far away, walking towards the glowing red man.

"Help!" I run up to it, pretending like I've ran across the whole Campus

He frowns, "What do you want, Graecus?"

"I need… help!" I pant, fake pant, "there's a fight going on in the barracks! They won't stop!"

"A fight? That seems highly unlikely."

"Why?"

"Romans are too civilised for those types of things, unlike you… Graecus."

Graecus? Why does he keep calling me that?

"Look, it doesn't matter! There going to kill each other!"

The Lar shifts uncomfortably, not sure what to do. Whether to believe me or not. I keep up the pressure.

"You have to stop them! Please!"

"How… how do I know you're telling the truth."

"OH come on! Why would I lie, just please help!"

He hesitates, still not sure of what to do.

"Ah, to Pluto with it." And he runs off to the barracks to the 'fake fight'.

Amelia steps out from the shadows, clapping.

"Well, I gotta say, Jet. I'm impressed."

I bow, "Why thank you."

"Never knew you're so good at being a whiny bitch," she laughs.

"Wow, ok," I say, trying not to laugh myself, "that was low."

"Aww," she pouts, "did I hurt your feewings."

"Ha-ha. Now, what did you want to show me?"

She grins and walks over to the closed the doors the Lar had been guarding. She swings both of them open and I almost faint at the sight. On either side of the building, were a row of Unicorns. That's right… freaking unicorns. I couldn't believe my own eyes. For some reason, to me, greek gods were more believable than Unicorns.

"This, this is amazing."

"They really are," she says, petting one of them.

"How come I don't see much of these guys outside?"

She sighs, "Well, there only used for medicinal purposes, never for battle or war. It's not that they're hated or enslaved or anything, they just don't get used as much.

"Well, I think they're pretty cool."

She smiles, "Then hop on."

I stop, "wait what?"

Amelia opens one of the paddock doors and gets on one of the unicorns. The unicorn was pure white, including the hair and had a golden horn, probably one of the most majestic things I've ever seen.

"I think that unicorn matches you pretty well, don't you think?"

She rolls her eyes, "Just get on one already."

I look around at all the unicorns, not sure which one to pick. Then I feel a sudden nudge on my back, I face behind me and look to see a unicorn, eyeing me as if to say, "You gonna pick or what?" It had the same white skin as Amelia's but this time with black hair and a shiny silver horn. Well, I think I found my unicorn. I open the door and the Unicorn immediately leaps out and starts licking me.

"Ah-ha… okay… yeah thanks… please… stop."

I hear Amelia giggle in the background, "I think he likes you."

"Oh, I thought he was going to eat me."

I get up and wipe my clothes down, "You're lucky" I say to the unicorn, "This leather jacket wipes off easily."

I then get on the unicorn, which by the way took several attempts of me just falling on my ass and Amelia non-stop laughing. So… once I got on, Amelia started to instruct me on how to ride. I told her I never rode a horse, or anything, in my life.

"Yeah… I can tell"

"Shouldn't we have saddles?"

"Unicorns don't wear saddles, idiot. They don't like them."

"Ok, so what do you do?"

"Alright, so to make them go forward slowly, just gently tap them on the belly with your feet, don't hit too hard because that'll make them go into a full sprint."

"So… like this?" I gently tap the stomach and the unicorn moves forward at a walking pace.

"There you go!"

The unicorn looks back at me and neighs as if to say "Hurry up already."

"Ok, to turn or move backwards, just grab it's hair gently. Don't put too much force into pulling because then it'll just kick you off. You're only using the hair to tell them where to go."

"Can't we just, I don't know, talk to them? They are magical."

"Sure," she says, "If you're a son of Neptune, but you're not."

"Jeez, alright calm down. You sure know your way around one of these things huh?"

"I usually sneak in here when I'm bored."

"Ah… that make sense."

She continues to give me lessons on how to control my unicorn, which I decided to name Flynn, because why not. I think I may have kicked too hard because all of a sudden, Flynn goes into full gallop and bursts through the doors of the stable.

"Jet!" I hear Amelia call out from behind, her voice getting farther and farther away.

I see the Lar I had tricked return to the stables only to see me riding around on one of the unicorns. His face, turning redder than his glow.

"Holy crap, Flynn! What are you doing?" I see Flynn just roll his eyes and shake his head.

He continues to run past buildings and through courtyards filled with Roman campers. We gallop past one of the barracks, with my friends just sitting outside, their faces in complete disarray.

"Jet?" One of them says.

"Yep!" I scream back, unsure if they could hear me.

Flynn continue to wreak havoc on poor campers.

"Come on man! Work with me." And Flynn just neighs, almost like he was laughing. No, he was laughing.

"Yeah, ok. Thanks for nothing, you useless unicorn."

If this keeps going on any longer, I'm gonna be in serious trouble. Alright, here we go. I grab Flynn's hair gently and pull it in the direction I want him to go. Surprisingly it works, Flynn looking back at me with what looks like a smirk, "took you long enough." At least that's what I think he said. I lead him to the Bath House were I snatch a bucket of water from one of the Romans there. I think I know exactly what I'm going to do with this. I then turn back to the barracks where I last saw my friends. I come back to still see them in shock. I spot Malcolm in the distance. I prepare the bucket of water and do a drive-by splash on him. He was completely drenched. As I gallop away, I could hear the screams behind me. Flynn utters a neigh as I start laughing, almost falling off.

I decide to take him outside into the fields, into the open space. We continue galloping at full speed and the adrenaline overwhelms me. This feels great. It feels like nothing could stop me, all my problems were going away. I spread my arms out and start whooping in triumph.

Soon enough Amelia joins my side with her unicorn, galloping next to me.

"You having fun there?"

"You have no idea, Rapunzel. I think I'm getting the hang of this too."

She grins, "We'll see about that! Finish line is Temple Hill! Hyah."

She starts zooming ahead of me and I instantly know what she's trying to do.

"Oh it's on."

I run after her, trying to catch up. There was a good distance gap between us but that gap started getting smaller. We raced through the hills, hooves thundering on the grass. We sped through the sunflower fields, where I almost touched her but she was still ahead.

"Come on, bud, let's do this."

Flynn whines.

"I know, I know you're trying but just pick up the pace."

"What's the matter, Jedediah? Getting tired?"

Wow, ok using my full name. Not cool.

"Oh you're so going down."

We continue riding and soon, we start getting closer and closer to Temple Hill. I know it would be bad to just wreck the place but I didn't care, I was here to win.

"Ok, here we go bud, show me the meaning of haste." Yeah, I know, using a Gandalf quote, ew...

But it seemed to work, Flynn started to speed up and was gaining on Amelia. Amelia turned around to see the shock of me almost surpassing her. She tries to increase her speed but I already zoom past her.

Almost there... almost there... Temple Hill was right there, so close. I was about to cross the finish line until Amelia, somehow, overtakes me and crosses first.

"No way," I say in disbelief, I think Flynn was too.

She circles back towards me and gallops beside me.

"WOO! That's how it's done, Roman Style!"

"You, got lucky."

"I'm always lucky," she smirks, "daughter of Fortuna remember?"

"Unfair."

"What about you? Mister Athena child."

I feel offended, I put my hand on my chest, "Excuse me? Athena isn't the god of winning unicorn races."

Amelia starts laughing and I do too. I honestly didn't care that I lost, I'm just glad that I'm here... with her.

But suddenly the laughter dies down and Amelia's face turns into panic.

I didn't know what was happening until I turn around to see somebody walking up to us. It was Reyna, and she was pissed. Next to her was the same Lar that was guarding the stables.

"Amelia Gerda Brunhilde," Reyna yells across the field.

Amelia get's off her unicorn, "please Reyna, I didn't mean to..."

"Not. Another. Word."

I try to intervene, "Wait, Reyna, it's not her fault —"

"That includes you, Jet." I shut up

Reyna then looks at Amelia, "If you want to become a Centurion, or anywhere close to a Praetor... you better start acting like it."

"Reyna, I can —"

"ENOUGH!"

The yell alone causes the whole field to fall silent, even the unicorns shyed away.

"You're coming with me," She says, "And Jet, bring the unicorns back to the stable."

Reyna starts walking away with Amelia, who wouldn't dare make eye-contact with me. I wanted to tell her that I was sorry, but I couldn't.

Come on, seriously Jet. You blew it, you screwed up... like you always do. Because of you, she's now on Reyna's naughty list. And you might have just blown her chance of becoming Praetor.

I look back at Flynn, "There I go again, huh, bud? Messing things up, always the inconvenience, every time."

I sigh, "Every. Single. Time."