Chapter 2: Frank
Repairing Camp-Half Blood was a long and painful process. I was continually called back to Camp Jupiter to carry out my duties as praetor too. This made the repairs go slower as barely any Romans could help with the reconstruction and the absence of my shape-shifting abilities also slowed down the process. Now? I was a gorilla. Using my maneuverable limbs and my strength to easily lift wood and stone to help repair the Hephaestus cabin. I had just put one of the last stones in place when I heard three familiar voices behind me. My amazing girlfriend Hazel was grinning up at me (as a gorilla), Jason and Piper had their hands around each others waist but were still smiling up at me. I was so excited I forgot that I was ten feet above the ground and automatically changed back into myself. The result? I think you can guess what happened. Yeah. I fell straight down on my face. Stupid Frank, you're still clumsy.
"Urgggg." I groaned as I heaved myself to face my friends. Their grins instantly melted into an expression of concern. Hazel immediately sprinted over, her golden eyes paled with shock and she looked extremely worried.
"Frank, are you okay?" She whispered, after giving me a short kiss.
"I think so, I doubt anything is broken," I said, my voice laced with pain
"You should sit down for a while," Piper said, charmspeaking me to compel her order
"Yeah I think I should," I grunted. I plopped down on the spot and Hazel sat to my left, while Piper and Jason sat to my right.
"How has it been making shrines to all the gods, Pontifex," I said, giving Jason a look of admiration. He started smiling and said
"It's been a long and tiring process and I still have hundreds of shrines to go, but I'm proud of what I've done."
"Is Kym being honoured now, and did you follow up on that action figure promise?" I asked inquiringly. Jason immediately looked sheepish.
"Well, she was the first shrine I built, but I haven't got around to getting the action figure. Funnily enough I had a dream about her yesterday and she thanked me for giving her, her shrine." He said with a look of superiority. " That's enough about me, how has it been at Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter?
"We've spent the best part of these two months repairing all the damaging Gaia did to camp, we're almost done," Piper said, matter of factly.
"Hazel, Frank, how is Camp Jupiter?" Jason asked.
"It's mostly the same, War Games, sentry duty and everything else. Only difference is that some campers from Camp Half-Blood sometimes come over." Hazel replied from next to me. Jason nodded his head.
"GUYS! I MISSED YOU!" I saw a scrawny boy with an impish grin staring down at us. Leo Valdez ran towards us and engulfed us in a hug. All of us stood up, and embraced Leo aswell.
"We missed you too Leo!" we all echoed. After Leo went back to Ogygia and rescued Calypso, they wandered about looking for Camp for about two months, he had only returned two days ago, Piper, Percy, and Annabeth had all punched him and murdered him for scaring them, but Hazel, Jason, and I hadn't met him yet.
"Don't you ever dare scare us like that again Leo!" Hazel screamed.
"If you disappear again I'm going to kill you Leo!" Jason shouted.
"Valdez, if you ever pull a stunt like that again, I'll transform into a rhinoceros and send you into the canoe lake!" I shouted. Leo just stood there grinning at all the attention he was getting.
"Oh guys, I know you really love me. By the way, Chiron wants you all at the Big House.
"Oh no, we just finished the war with Gaia, if we go on another round the world trip…" There was no need to finish my sentence, it was implied that I would be severely annoyed.
"Anyway I need to find Percy and Annabeth. They're probably in the same bed, sleeping…" Leo said. Without another word, he ran off towards the Poseidon Cabin.
"We should probably go to the Big House." I muttered. The others nodded in agreement. Jason smiled and shouted
"Race you to the Big House!" he shouted. The Big House was about half a mile away (800m) and we started to run without doubt. Jason decided it would be fun to cheat and summoned the winds to whisk him away at breakneck speed. Piper's choppy brown hair was swinging around her face and she shouted
"Get back here you cheater!" She poured charmspeak into her voice and Jason hesitated then shouted in return
"You can't charmspeak me Pipes!" Piper snarled in anger and if Jason was cheating, I was like why the hell not and shifted into an eagle. I don't know why, it was just the first bird that was quite fast that came to my mind. I soared above the ground and caught up to Jason. We were cruising and he decided to mess with me
"Catch this Zhang!" He shouted and sent a gust of wind that knocked me off course. I regained altitude and completed the race in second, just behind Jason. Piper and Hazel were neck and neck running towards us. Just before they both finished, Hazel summoned a huge bar of gold and tripped Piper up. She finished third and Piper, grumbling came in last place. I gave Hazel a short kiss on the lips. Jason picked Piper up and followed my example. After a minute we decided we might as well go into the Big House. As we entered the main room, we saw Chiron and Mr D. huddled around the big centre table.
"Ah, John Green, Penelope Maclown, Fred Zhong, and Holly Levescruel (These nicknames are horrible I know.) you finally decided to turn up. We realised that it was long past that we could correct him about pronouncing our names wrong. We knew he did it on purpose.
"Well don't you have something to do?" Piper said. Mr D.'s eyes flickered with annoyance.
"I would love to leave you alone and do my own thing, but I have to wait Leonard, Peter and Anniebelle." He said, with a bored voice.
As if on cue, Leo walked through the door, his hands and face caked with soot, grinning is mischevious grin.
"Hello guys, Bad Boy Supreme is in da house!" He bellowed.
"Oh Leonardo Valdox…" Mr D. muttered. Leo didn't dare joke at Mr D. as he didn't want to be a dolphin.
"What are we waiting for?" Leo whispered, in a secretive tone.
"We are waiting for Percy and Annabeth." Chiron replied.
We waited in silence for ten minutes… Atleast, we did. Leo of course, didn't. Leo got extremely bored and started tinkering with his tool belt, creating minature cars that zoomed about the room. Even though we were all ADHD except for me of course, Leo was the most ADHD demigod ever and they ended up fidgeting in the first thirty seconds. Overall, it was a relief when Annabeth and Percy walked through those doors, looking quite nervous. I saw Leo stop fidgeting and we engaged in an awkward silence. The tense silence was broken by Mr D.
"Wow, you're finally here Peter Johnson and Anniebelle Chance, Chiron here has an important announcement to make. I'll be on my way now," and just like that our Camp Director walked out the door. Percy raised his eyebrow at Chiron, but his face was impassive.
"Gather 'round children, I have a very important quest for you"
This chapter was more a filler and I really wanted to develop the relationship between Frank, Jason Piper and Hazel. Next chapter I promise will be Leo as I really haven't developed him much and we will find out the details of the quest!
~RedGods