OUTSIDE/CASEY POV

Casey never showed up when Artemis arrived. She had gotten a canoe, paddled herself to the middle of the lake, and just sat there. She was so still that there were no ripples in the water from her boat.

Thalia wasn't surprised that Casey decided not to go through with the initiation. She knew that Casey was just desperate for a chance to get out and try to find her brother. Thalia was the same way when her own brother first went missing. She walked out on her mother, but her mother was nothing like Casey's. Casey had a loving family. She had Nathan.

Before Thalia had even thought of joining the hunters, she thought they were just stuck up pricks. How could they just not love anybody? Thalia had thought that love could never betray you, no matter what kind of love it was. She gave her life to protecting Annabeth and Luke because she loved them and they loved her.

But Luke had betrayed her. He'd betrayed everybody. Love wasn't as straightforward as the fairy tales pretend. Thalia knew now not to throw away what you have. She never would have joined the hunters if Luke hadn't betrayed them. Thalia didn't want Casey to join when she still had everything to lose. At this rate, she was going to spend the rest of her life chasing a ghost.

So Casey didn't join. The hunters left that morning to track down Labyrinth. She saw Thalia wave at her from the shore before they left, but Casey didn't wave back.

Would Jase have been mad at her for turning down an opportunity to find him? Would he have been disappointed? Casey knew he wouldn't have, but he wasn't there to confirm it so her mind could tell her whatever it wanted.

"Nate seems to think that you can hear me, like your soul or something. I think that's a load of minitaur crap," she said, avoiding her reflection in the water.

"Then why am I sitting here talking to waves?" she continued. "I don't know. But you're not here so you can't judge me for it. I wish you were here though. I miss you. Adora keeps asking me to tell her some bedtime story you always read, but I can't find it anywhere and I'm pretty sure that you just made the story up." Casey didn't cry this time as she spoke. "Gods, Jase!" She threw her arms into the air and angrily fell back in the boat, causing ripples to run through the waves.

"I don't know what to do! Just this once will you do what I ask you and be alive? Tell me what I should do right now! Should I try to be like you, help all the kids at camp and be the stupid perfect everything? Not everybody is perfect, idiot! No, I take it back. You're not perfect, you know that? If you were perfect you wouldn't have jumped into that gods-forsaken pit in the first place!" She slapped the water with her palm as if she was whacking her brother upside the head.

"This whole thing is stupid," she whispered. Casey wasn't sure who exactly the words were directed to. "Octavian is stupid and the hunters are stupid and my parents are stupid and Nate is stupid and Jase is stupid and everything is just stupid. I wish nothing had ever changed."

She drew her knees to her chest and rocked side to side. Casey wished she had her grandfather's powers over the water so she could just sink to the bottom of the lake and watch all the fish swim around her. But she didn't, so she settled for pouting on the canoe. She considered jumping in anyway. Octavian said Jase had drowned in his own blood. The water looked so calm, she tried to pretend it would be a peaceful way to go.

Nobody believed her when she said Jase was alive, and now that they had proof nobody was doing anything about it. Why didn't anybody just listen to her?

Then Casey realized that somebody did listen. Somebody did believe her. Nathan Gardner believed her. Casey paddled as quickly as she could back to shore.

Once the front of her canoe hit the sand, Casey leapt out. She didn't even bother securing it. Part of her assumed that her dad would get it later and another part of her really didn't care

She ignored people asking if she was ok. She ignored her crying mother as she passed the big house. She was running so fast that the wind forced tears from her eyes, or at least that's what Casey would blame them on.

Nathan was at the pavilion leaning against a table as he spoke to some friends. He stood straighter when he saw Casey barreling towards him. Was she mad at him for being so harsh earlier? His lips were already forming the words to apologize.

Casey skidded to a stop, sniffled, then fiercely wiped the tears from her eyes. She marched up to Nathan, who was trying to decide if he should be running or not, and took his cheeks in her hands.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

Then she kissed him. Long and hard, and with enough force to make his friends back away in awkwardness; long enough for Nathan to question whether or not it was actually happening.

"What's wrong," she said, pulling away. "Is that I like you. I like you a lot."

Nate smiled. He had been wishing for this moment for so long that he nearly forgot what to say. During the school year when Casey was away from Camp, Nathan used to imagine what he would say if she ever said she liked him, but now that she actually did, Nathan abandoned every romantic phrase he had thought of.

"I'm really glad you didn't join the hunters."

She kissed him again.