CHAPTER 20

Regrettably, there were no open seats in the cafeteria by the time Casey got there. Students were scattered across the floor and in the corners of the room and a few by the trash cans if they were unlucky enough. Casey thought of joining them, but saw Jared waving from the other side of the room. The guy was persistent, Casey could say that for sure. She took a deep breath and walked over to the table.

There were a few people that Casey recognized. Kaitlin Reed was a girl on Jase's mathlete team, Harris Podelnyk was a friend of Jase's from the swimming team, and Asher Lauren was another friend of his. Then there was Jared, Jase's close friend since sixth grade. The last person at the table was Rose Underwood from Camp. What was she doing at Casey's school?

"Hi," Casey said shyly. The group parted to make a seat for her, sprouting different greetings as she sat down.

"So nice for you to join us, Jackson," Rose mocked jokingly.

"What are you doing here?" Casey asked in disbelief. "I thought you were still at Camp?"

Rose shrugged. "Mr. Brunner suggested I come here to keep an eye out. Plus, I gotta graduate somehow, right?" she said with a winked. Casey rolled her eyes and tried to resist a smile.

"So, how did you like your first day?" Asher asked.

Casey shrugged. "Pretty boring. Mr. Johnson seems cool though."

"Oh yeah! He's the best. He is Jase's favorite teacher," Harris blurted.

Is. Casey went silent. Should she correct him? If she corrected Harris, that meant she'd be accepting Jase's death. And they wouldn't want to be friends with her after she told them their best friend was dead. So she said nothing. Casey went back to picking at her lunch. Nobody felt particularly hungry after that. Casey seemed to cast a dark cloud over the group, but it wasn't like they could kick her out. She was Jase's sister for God's sake! Plus, Rose was sending death glares to everybody who looked unsurely at her friend. Casey didn't participate much in the lunch conversation. Everybody continued on, pretending that Casey didn't look like they were making a plan to kill them. Part of her really did want to make friends, but she also really just wanted to mope and pout.

"So, I was thinking about doing another study group on Mondays like we did last year. What do you guys think?" Asher asked. Jared nodded in agreement as he sipped his bagged chocolate milk.

"Mathletes is on Monday," Kaitlin mentioned.

"So is swim meet," Harris added.

"Thursday?" Jared suggested The group mumbled their agreements and went back to their food.

"Where are we going to meet?" Kaitlin pointed out. They used to meet at Jase's house, but it really didn't seem like that was going to be an option anymore. Casey thought back to what her mom had said that morning about making friends. Annabeth wanted to her try to reach out? Fine.

"You can come to my place," she said dryly. Even Rose looked surprised at this suggestion.

"That's great!" Jared was the first one to speak, his cheeks slightly tinged. Rose gave him a suspicious look and squinted her eyes. Casey ignored it.

After lunch, school went by slowly. Most people avoided Casey because she looked like she would kill anybody that came near her. The few people that spoke to her were mostly Jase's old friends or people that heard rumors that she was Jase's sister and wanted to know what had happened. She politely glared at most people in the second group.

When the final bell rang, Casey pushed her way past everybody to get her things from her locker. Through the day, Casey had earned herself a reputation as somebody not to mess with. She was pushing the large glass doors to the school open when somebody stopped her. It was Ms. Peach, the school counselor. Casey had been avoiding her all day.

"Hi honey, I just wanted to reach out to you, introduce myself," she said.

Casey sighed, wishing she could just go home. "Cool. Bye," she cooly said.

Ms. Peach caught her gently by the arm as she left. "If you ever need somebody to talk to you, you can come to my office. It doesn't matter if you're in class, I'm always available if you'd like to speak or just need a quiet place to sit."

Casey forced a slightly sarcastic smile. "Thanks." At least now she had a free ticket out of class. She looked away from the shining smile Ms. Peach threw towards her and jogged out the doors. Jason would have been on his way to pick up Oscar and Adora, but Percy was going to pick them up now. Rose was outside leaning against her car, waiting for Casey.

"Jackson! Over here!" she called. Casey ducked her head to avoid stares as she ran to Rose's car and hopped in the passenger seat without saying a word.

"How was your first day of school, darling?" Rose asked.

"I want to go back to Camp," Casey responded dully. She wanted to help Nate finish their plan and protect the borders.

"So, not great?"

"No, Rose. Not great."