"After spending almost a year recovering from her horrible accident, we have received word from her Manager that Alex Jackson will be continuing her tour." The News lady shuffled her papers. "The tour, however, will be pushed back until after the Summer season during which Alex will be visiting family in a remote area of Greece. Tickets for the Chicago performance go on sale-"

I pressed the power button on the remote. "Wow," I said. "Uncle Apollo did it."

"Yea!" Jon high-fived his brother. "Go dad!"

"Oh please," Maija rolled her eyes, "Any God could have done that."

"Yeah, but none of them were smart enough to think of it. Not even Athena." Jon smirked, thinking he won, but Maija didn't give up that easily.

"You really believe that? Mom thought of it the second day after it happened. She just couldn't go on with it because-"

"Because," Jon said, drawing out the word. "She couldn't."

"What is my mother the goddess of Jon?" Maija said suddenly.

"Wisdom and Battle-"

"Battle Strategy." Maija finished for him. "Do you know what that is? It's the art of coming up with ways to kill your opponent. Not really the best for healing."

Maija continued. "Do you consider yourself a good student in school Jon?"

Jon, still a bit confused answered "I was a B student."

"He was a C student." James corrected his brother. I had to stifle a laugh.

"When you asked a teacher for help, would they just tell you the answer?"

Jon pouted, "No, they'd give me a tiny hint then tell me to 'figure it out'."

"Exactly, my mother was and is the very first teacher. She wouldn't just tell Apollo the answer. She'd want him to figure it out himself."

"So what," Jon had on his cocky grin again, "Dad thought of it while Athena sat back and watched."

"Uh, dude," James poked his brother, "You just agreed with her."

Jon stuttered, "Uh...I-She-...Grr. Dude your girlfriend is such a daughter of Athena."

"Face it, Athena is the best. Right Mrs. Jackson?" I looked over at my mom, who had been watching with a smirk on her face.

"Oh, Hades yes." The two half-sisters high-fived. It was a little weird seeing my best friend and my mom doing that, but I had to keep in mind they were sisters...nope it was still weird.

"Right Al?" I smiled and agreed. "Zoey? Dylan?"

"Oh of course!" Zoey agreed cheerfully, "As much as I love dad, she is!" I gave her a look of gratitude, I know Zo didn't like Athena. Like, at all.

"James?" James hesitated, looking between his brother and my twin. Maija obviously saw that, and leaned up against him, batting her eyelashes. Which was very unlike her. "Right?"

"R-right." Maija kissed him on the cheek.

"Alright," Mom interrupted what Maija was going to say, "Now that we've get all of you ready for Camp. We leave tomorrow. Get packed." She shooed everyone out and me upstairs. Maija followed me to my room and sat on my bed watching me as I packed.

"Is Jake coming with us?" she asked.

"I don't know." I replied as I folded shorts into my suitcase.

I could feel Maija rolling her eyes, "Did you ask him? Call him."

"You know he doesn't answer numbers he doesn't recognize. Since no one knows our new phone numbers...well you can fill in the blank."

"So just go over to his house!"

"What if he's out on a date with-with Laya?"

"What time is it?"

I sighed and pulled up my sleeve (why was I wearing a long sleeve shirt in June? I have no idea) and looked at my watch. "3:30, why?"

"Isn't that one show on that he like, won't miss, period on?"

"The Ghost Whisperer, yeah."

"Remember," Maija started laughing, "When you sprained your ankle on the way to his house, and he wouldn't help you until the commercial break?" We kept laughing for a good 5 minutes about all the times Jake refused to do something because his show was on.

"Alright! Now go!" She pushed me out the window. Yeah I know, my twin pushed me out a window, she's so nice.

Before you freak out about Maija pushing me out the window, I grabbed the latter/vine thing and climbed safely down. Jake and I installed them under each other's windows when we were 13 to make getting into and out of each other's house easier. Yeah we were crazy kids.

I smiled fondly at the memory, grabbed my skateboard (I forgave it for breaking my leg), and rode down to Jake's house.

I took a deep breath and knocked on the door. A few seconds later I was face to face with my best friend.

"Hey," Jake seemed generally surprised to see me, "Why are you here? I told you, you don't have to knock." I gave him a big smile and a quick hug before walking in. "You're lucky it was on commercial or I wouldn't have answered."

"Honestly, sometimes I think you're a son of Hades, not Zeus."

I chuckled and followed him into his computer room (he calls it that 'cause that's where his family's computer is, creative huh?). He sat down on the couch next to...Laya.

"Hey Laya." I greeted her. She gave me a shy smile. I wonder why she refuses to look at me...

"So Jake," I sat down in the computer chair. "Are you going to camp this year?"

"Camp? I don't know Al."

"Why not? Maija's going, Zoey, James and Jon, my parents are staying to be counselors."

Laya spoke up, "What camp?"

"It's a camp for kids with Dyslexia and ADHD," Jake told her, "But I have no reason to. My sister is traveling all the time, so I won't get to see her."

"But you'll have us." I offered. "Maija and I are taking time off my tour every summer from now on to go. All our friends are going, you'll have a blast. We leave tomorrow."

He looked up smiled, "10?"

I smiled. "Mom wouldn't leave any later."

"Alright, I'll go."

"Great! But, can I talk to you privately for a sec?"

"Sure." We walked into the next room over and Jake sat down, but I dragged him upstairs. "Why couldn't we stay downstairs?"

"It's your house, you should know the acoustic effects cause-"

"English please."

"Laya could hear us from that room and you should know that."

"Oh yeah," he chuckled, "We found that out the hard way. So what did you want to talk about?"

"Jake, why have you been ignoring me?"

He seemed generally surprised by my question. "I haven't."

"I only talked to you that afternoon I came back 3 months ago! And then after that only out in public on dates with Laya." I hated how my voice cracked when I said her name.

He looked down, "Alex, I'm sorry. But I felt that if I got too close to you again, it would crush me even more then you leaving the first time."

"That hurt me too Jake, I didn't want to leave so soon, but that was my only chance to make it big."

"You didn't have to."

I didn't really know what he meant by that, "What?"

"You should've stayed." Then he gave me this look, like it was all my fault.

"Jake! That was my only chance! You know how important this is to me!"

"Since when!" He shouted. "You've never liked doing any of that! It was so unlike you and within two days you're a famous singer!" He pased around the room for a second before turning to me again. "You're still wearing that ring." His voice was noticeably quieter.

I looked at my hand and saw the little metal ring, nothing special. It just had the word Sing on it in italics outlined in black. It was simple, but I was in love with it ever since Jake gave it to me back in 2nd grade.

"Yeah." I said equally as quiet.

"Alex, when you left...it hurt. Everything reminded me of you. When Laya came...she was a lot like you. It hurt to just look at her for a while, you know why?" I shook my head. Jake took my hands and looked me right in eye. "Because she reminded me so much of you, Alex. It was like an arrow to my already broken heart. I loved you Alex."

"Jake..." I breathed, speechless. This is what I always wanted wasn't it?

He suddenly broke away from me and leaned against his dresser. "When we were younger, I knew that. I knew I like you. When we were 12 I imagined us at this age, when I would ask you to the Valentine's dance, the Homecoming dance, every single dance until you said yes."

His eyes darted around the room, as if he was looking for something. It seemed like he found it because he turned back to me and took my hands again. "I'm your James Potter. You're my Lily Evens. You've read all those stories, how Lily didn't like James, then James kept asking, and asking, and asking. And after 7 years of asking, she finally said yes, and that's what it's going to be like for us.

"You're Lily Evens, the girl I can't have, but I'm going to have you. One of these days. I will." Jake leaned in and closed the gap between our lips.