Lpov

As much as I was trying not to assign even more positive qualities to Dex Cartwright after he'd made it clear he thought I was crazy and didn't want to talk to me, even I had to admit, the guy was a pretty damn good athlete. I'd expected our school to steam roller over his team with Jake in the driver's seat, even if they had gone up a division this season, but as it turned out, Dex hadn't made it to the first string on a varsity team merely because of his size.

"Holy crap." Jake said removing his helmet after stepping off the grass when the whistle had blown. "That guy can pack a punch."

I'd made my way down the bleachers to talk to him at half time like I always did, and leaned against the fence that ringed the track.

"He punched you?" I asked in surprise.

The two had, predictably, been pitted against each other due to their similarities in size. Our team, which was usually sitting in a comfortable lead by the half was wining, but only by one point, and having watched Jake play for several years now. I had my doubts as to whether our defense was going to be able to keep that lead.

"Well, elbowed me." He said rubbing his jaw which had clearly taken some sort of impact. "But in all fairness, that was only after I jabbed him with my stick."

"Then don't do that." I said which seemed like the fairly obvious answer if he wanted to avoid future injury, he however, looked at me as if I were nuts.

"That would take all the fun out of it." He said grinning at my expression before being summoned by his coach to join the half time huddle.

I rolled my eyes wondering why so many boys seemed to get genuine enjoyment out of hitting each other, letting my eyes wandering towards the other half of the field.

Dex was in a huddle as well, not doubt looking over some sort of white board covered in arrows and play diagrams, as if the teams were planning tactics for battle.

I was just wondering how much entertainment Dex was getting in his and Jake's clobbering session of the night, when suddenly, I felt as if I were being watched.

I frowned and looked over my shoulder. At this point, it was past nine and the field lights had turned on as the sun had set over a while ago.

I looked past the bleachers but saw nothing apart from the darkness in the parking lot.

Perturbed, nonetheless, I straightened up intending to get a better look in case something nasty lurked in the shadows, when I was distracted by an arrogant voice saying.

"Hey Lorelei."

I closed my eyes and mentally counted to ten before turning to face the two boys that had walked up to me. Both were tall and smirking at me, though the one on the left was blonde and a just the slightest bit more attractive than his friend. It was he who'd spoken.

"Looks like our boys are struggling a bit tonight." He said his smirk growing and crossing his arms over his chest no doubt to subtly flex his biceps.

"Aaron." I said smiling and trying to keep my composure. "Go away."

Aaron was one of the more popular kids in our school, somewhat decent at baseball, with a well-connected lawyer farther that represented half the parents at this school, and no doubt would bribe him onto the team of any private college that would take him with three DUI charges.

"Maybe she can take a page out of her father's book, and straighten the ref out if he starts making too many calls she doesn't like." The second boy, Kevin, his partner in crime said snidely. His dark hair was shorter than Aarons, with patterns shaved into the sides that girls obsessed over on his socials. In person, however, I couldn't help but think he looked kind of like a twit. All those crossing and swirling lines really didn't hold up in harsh, overhead lighting.

"And then team's manager makes the whole thing go away, and you get shipped off to Europe for years in an 'exchange'."

He put finger quotes around the word.

"I would love to be sent to Europe for a few years." I said trying to pretend my blood wasn't boiling. "The boys there are just so much more attractive, don't you think? All those sexy accents and some of them might actually have manners. It would be a nice change."

"Still acting like you're too good for us then?" Aaron said taking a step closer to me and the fence, while Kevin cut me off from the other side. "Even before you were worth noticing with those stupid hair colors, and the stupid little boyfriend from camp you always pretended to have."

"Whatever happened to him anyways?" Aaron asked picking up a strand of my hair, winding it around his finger before I pushed it away. "Is he gone now? You finally admit that he wasn't real?" he asked in a mocking tone stepping closer yet again and gesturing between Kevin and himself. "Because we are."

He reached up to touch my hair again, but froze as an annoyed voice said.

"Is there a reason you keep grabbing at a girl who clearly wants you to leave her alone?"

It came from the field behind us, and I turned, half expecting to see Jake but felt a shock as I realized it wasn't him, but Dex, who was glowering at the two from behind his helmet, and looking fairly menacing as he was holding his lacrosse stick.

The players had obviously returned to the field to start the second half, and he'd spotted what was going on.

"Not gone." I said smiling at the boys brightly realizing that they looked a lot less confident now that Dex was looking at them as if he was capable of homicide. "Just bigger."

Aaron took what looked almost to be an involuntary step back, but Kevin, surprisingly stood his ground.

"Chill out LAX Bro." He sneered nodding towards the field. "It's none of your business. She likes the attention. Everyone knows it."

I felt a stab or rage go through me, but was surprised to see it flash through Dex's face as well.

"Actually." He said stepping closer to the fence, gripping it tightly with one hand, and his stick with the other, both his knuckles had gone white. "I do know Lorelei. And pricks like you going around harassing girls, or anyone for that fact, is everyone's business. Leave her alone."

"Or what?" Aaron said sarcastically, obviously thinking Dex didn't have the guts to hop the fence and pound him into next week.

From his expression, however, I thought he was about to do exactly that.

"Dex." I cautioned but he didn't seem to hear me.

"Or," Dex started darkly. "I'm going to take this stick and shove it-"

"I do hope I'm not missing anything." Said a familiar voice and I felt the tension relax within me a little as Jake came striding into view looking bizarrely similar to Dex in his sports equipment, even if the colors were different. "If there's a good threatening going on I always like to be involved some way or another."

He put his stick over his shoulder and looked expectantly at the pair who were extremely agitated now. Kevin and Aaron might not have known Dex, but they knew Jake. And they knew Jake would not hesitate not just jump that fence, but to tear it to shreds on his way through it to pummel them.

"Alright, enough all of you." I said irritated. "The testosterone levels around here are suffocating. Dex," I said glancing at him. "I don't need you threatening to fight anyone for me. Jake," I said switching my gaze. "If you wanna hit someone, just hit them, you don't have to use me as an excuse. Or take that aggression out on the field, and you."

I turned to Aaron.

"You do realize that your dating app profiles are public, right? And that I have class with your girlfriend every morning?"

That shut him up.

"That's what I thought." I said with a slight smirk as both boys shot me a look of venom.

"Let's go." Aaron muttered quietly.

"Yeah, you're right." Kevin said nastily. "The bitch isn't that hot any ways."

"Yes I am." I said rolling my eyes as Jake called after them.

"Big talk for a solid four and half."

I turned back to Dex and Jake, to see that Jake was still smirking at our classmates, but Dex was looking at me, clearly concerned.

"Are you ok?" he asked quietly and I felt a jolt of surprise go through me.

"I-" I started, not entirely sure how I was supposed to answer that question, but Jake laughed and cut in before I could really figure out how to respond.

"She's fine." Jake said dismissively. "Lore deals with idiots like them all the time."

"How often is 'all the time'." Dex asked with a frown, but at that point, the both boys got a shout from their team as the whistle blew signaling the start of the second half.

"Good luck boys." I said grinning, feeling it falter just a little as my gaze met Dex's. "Try not to kill each other."

"You really want to take the fun out of everything." Jake said shaking his head at me and clapping an approving hand on Dex's shoulder before jogging back to his team.

Dex didn't respond, but he did look at me for a fraction of a second longer before turning and taking his position on the field.

I watched him walk without really meaning to, his question still echoing in the back of my mind.

'Are you ok?'

I was ok. In the grand scheme of things. I mean, yeah it was really annoying to have to deal with asshats like Kevin and Aaron all the time, but I was a child of Aphrodite. We all had to. It just came with the territory.

'Still…' I thought, a jolt of surprise going through me, and my heart skipping a beat as I realized how nice it was to have been asked.

Usually, we were all so good at looking great, no one thought to.

It was a weird feeling.

In fact, it was so alien, that it took me a second to realize that I was smiling. And when Jake body checked Dex for no apparent reason, I didn't feel disappointed for my friend when he didn't go flying. I felt a little proud. Not many people, even another demigod, could have stood their ground against Jake. Especially when it was clear he was finally able to go all out.

I walked back to the bleachers, trying to smooth my expression but not quite able to manage it all the same.

Dex might be a grouch on the surface but deep down, I suspected he was actually pretty sweet. The ball went out of play and I felt my heart rate increase, when his teammate went to retrieve the ball, he looked up and was clearly scanning the stands.

Was he looking for me?

Was he wondering if I really was ok? Or just looking around automatically for me and Jake because we were people he knew.

'Does it really matter?' A voice said in the back of my mind.

It was small, but stubborn, with a certain mix of defiance as well as guilt.

It shouldn't. I reasoned with myself. In the end, it didn't really matter what any boy thought of me, well, except Jake. I shouldn't care what Dex was thinking about me, just that he did. I could work with that.

Dpov

The game ended up tied.

"I'm not going to lie," Jeromy said removing his helmet, his red hair stuck to his forehead in places with sweat. "I didn't expect this school to be so good."

"They were ok." Drew said dismissively grabbing a water bottle from the row on the benches. "They just have an attacker from the 9th circle of hell. We're lucky we had Dex for him to run into."

"Do we still have Dex?" Cole asked grinning slightly as I sat on the benches, wincing slightly as I took off my shoulder pads. "Is he still alive after that?"

"I am." I said trying not to sound sore, and not entirely sure I managed it.

I'd faced Jake and plenty of the Ares siblings in the arena before, and had done pretty well holding my own. But not for an hour. And Jake had a weapon he was wielding, and one of mine to avoid. He didn't usually his body as a blunt force object of raw Ares agression. Today, however, that had not been the case.

"Guess your new lady friend's boyfriend got pissed." Alex, a defender that usually played opposite me said with a smirk, nodding across the field where Lorelei was talking to Jake by their teams water bottles. "Though, it seemed like you already knew each other?"

The question at the end of this statement was obvious, but I chose to ignore it.

Jake had come up to me after the game to say goodbye and give me what felt like a congratulatory clap on the back. It was as if he was proud of me for spending the entire game allowing him to try and kill me, but the Ares kids were weird that way.

He probably did think better of me now for what it was worth.

"Either way, you should make sure to ice tonight." Our coach said glancing up from his clipboard. "I looked up his information, that kid's stats are, mildly put, insane. Luckily this is the toughest game we should be playing for the next few weeks. Go get changed." He nodded towards the locker room at the end of the field meant for guest teams. "Bus leaves in fifteen."

We made our way towards the locker rooms, and sore, I was moving slower than the rest of the group. I was the last one to leave the locker room, telling Cole to go ahead and he didn't have to wait for me when he offered.

Just as I stepped out of the door and spotted my team filing on to the bus across the parking lot, I was distracted by an unearthly screeching.

I dropped my bag going for the first weapon I could find, my lacrosse stick, when, in a whirl of wings and talons, the creature was smacked out of the air with…

"A heel?" I said, in astonishment, but barely had time to register the absurdity of the weapon when the second fury was on me.

This time, expecting an attack, I managed to hold the creature's talons at bay.

Suddenly, there was a hiss through the air like sizzling metal, and a bronze blade slid through one of the creature's leathery wings.

It screamed in agony but erupted into a yellow dust at the contact with the celestial bronze.

"You know." Jake said sounding a little out of breath putting his axe back over his shoulder, as Lorelei, barefoot and carrying a single pointed shoe in her hand, rushed up after him. "If there's going to be three of us in one area, we might have to start coordinating contingency plans for increased monster activity."

He handed Lorelei her heel which she immediately drove into the neck of the first fury.

Jake, who apparently thought of this as normal behavior, spared her no more than a glance before looking at me.

"You alright Hammerhead?"

"F-Fine." I said looking at Lorelei in shock. "Did, did you just kill that thing with a shoe?"

"A stiletto," she said brushing some of the dust off of it, and to my complete astonishment, turned it over to show a bronze spike hidden along the inside of the heel. "They're not named after daggers for nothing."

"Does she do that a lot?" I asked looking at Jake, frankly stunned, as he helped her to her feet and allowed her to use him for balance as she strapped her shoes back on.

"Not all the time." He said with a shrug then grinned. "Sometimes she wears wedges."

It was then I noticed that there was a claw mark on his neck and Lorelei's arm was bleeding. Clearly, since I was in the locker room, they'd taken the brunt of the initial attack.

"Well, thanks." I said glancing at the pair as Lorelei straightened back up. "I guess I owe you one."

"Technically you owe us two." Jake said grinning. "But you let me tackle you all night, so I'll call it even."

Involuntarily, I looked at Lorelei who was frowning at a tear in her shirt where it looked as if one of the furies had tried to grab her and missed.

"It'll take the number of a quality seamstress if you've got one." She said and then caught my expression. "What?" she asked raising an eyebrow. "I like this shirt."

"You should probably head out." Jake said nodding towards the bus that was clearly waiting for me. "Before they leave you. And before Lore can guilt you into financing a tailoring spree for her wardrobe."

"I wasn't going to make him pay for it." she said throwing her hands up in exasperation.

She'd already started walking away, and, chuckling fondly, Jake went after her shaking his head.

"See ya at camp Hammerhead."

"See ya." I said watching them walk off, then, when I remembered where I was, made my way after my team to the bus that would take me back to our school.

"Why do birds hate you so much?" Cole asked as I slid into the seat opposite his on the aisle. Being one of the last few to sit, we were up front.

"What?" I asked confused.

"I saw that flock of seagulls just like, attack you out of nowhere." He said. "It seems to happen to you all the time."

It took me a second, but then I realized what he was talking about. Cole was a mortal and because of this, he wouldn't have actually seen the monsters that were attacking me through the mist. Clearly, he'd thought it was something else.

Running into two other demigods tonight had seemed to have momentarily bridge the gap between my mortal and my camp life. I found it a little jarring.

"I saw your girlfriend hit one with a shoe." He continued laughing a little as he said it. "She's got good aim. You'd almost think she'd done it before."

"She probably has." I muttered remembering what Jake had said to me back at camp during the capture the flag game in one of the few moments I'd seen him without her around.

'She's not some delicate flower that needs a caretaker, none of them do.'

I thought about the way the stiletto had whacked the head of the fury before it plummeted to the ground and, now that the shock had worn off, realized how funny the situation actually was.

I grinned.

Without really meaning to, my mind was already clicking away with ideas for weapons hidden in things like handbags and suit liners, interested in a new facet of smithing I hadn't before considered. Deadly fashion.

"I didn't expect her friend to want to help out either," he said pulling from my revelry about Tasers in cufflinks. "Considering how hard he was wailing on you tonight. But maybe he's just one of those people who just gets super into the game."

"Jake is alright." I said with a shrug. "So is Lorelei." I added surprising myself with the statement, but trying not to smile again, remembering the way she'd thrown up her hands as she stalked off and Jake just laughing at her.

"I thought you said she was crazy?" he said raising an eyebrow.

"She is." I said. No demigod in their right mind would choose a pair of heels as their weapon of choice, but she had led me to the trainer before the game, and I didn't think I'd met a girl who could stand in the middle of four angry boys, each who were much bigger than she was, and put them in their place as effortlessly as she had earlier. "But she's alright."

For all her hair flipping and child of Aphrodite vibrato, Lorelei was actually pretty tough, and as self-centered as, what I was now started to suspect, she was often pretending to be, she could also be pretty kind.

Usually, I tried to get some homework done on the ride back to school after a game, but I found I was distracted. I couldn't help but think back over the past few weeks since Lorelei had shown up to my cabin and introduced herself. Yes, her plan was a terrible one, and yeah I thought I had a right to be shocked by it, but I really hadn't been all that nice to her, even before I heard what she'd been planning to do. In fact, she'd been a lot nicer to me than frankly, looking back, I'd probably deserved. And now, she and Jake had just saved me from being ambushed by a flock of Furies.

I remembered the scratch on Jake's neck and the blood trailing down Lorelei's arm. I'd been too shocked to notice at the time, but the cut must have been pretty deep. Was she alright?

She'd seemed fine as she'd stormed off, but the thought preoccupied me as we stepped off the bus and as I dropped Cole off at his house, only broken when I stepped through my front door to see a note on the dining room table.

'Hope the game went well, left some food for you in the fridge. Be back on Monday, love you. – Mom'

Usually, my mother went to all of my games, even the away ones located at other schools, but she'd had to go out of state for the next few days for work. I wandered over the the kitchen to see that, she had in fact, left a huge bowl of chili as well as some smaller things like prepped veggies, some breakfast burritos, an impressively hefty meatloaf, and had clipped several coupons for a few of the restaurants we often ordered take out to the freezer with magnets.

Grabbing some chili, my mind went back to Lorelei again, still wondering if she was alright and wishing I had a way to check when I froze, half way to sticking the bowl in the microwave.

Lorelei had given me her number over the break. I hadn't thought much of it at the time, let alone that I was going to keep it, but had I ever actually thrown it away?

At the time I'd told myself that I would, that I didn't want to deal with the trouble a girl like her would inevitably bring upon me, but I didn't remember doing it.

Frowning, I set the microwave to heat up my food and walked to the stairs, up to my room, trying to ignore how bruised my body felt with each step, cursing Ares and his demon spawn of a son.

I stepped inside my room and immediately found my camp bag that my mom had been reminding me to unpack for what felt like forever, in a chair. I pulled out the first pair of pants I could find, turned out the pockets, and was disappointed when nothing but a gum wrapper and a few nails that must have wormed their way out of the shop fell out.

I tried another pair, then a third, until finally, a torn piece of pink paper fluttered out of the back pocket of the fourth.

I bent to retrieve it, unfolding the paper as I straightened out.

Above the string of numbers, in neat hand writing was the name 'Lorelei'.

'Gods.' I thought shaking my head.

She'd even dotted the i with a heart…

"I can't believe I'm doing this." I said entering the number into my contacts, and making my way back down stairs.

The microwave beeped right as I stepped back into the kitchen, and I was about to hit the call number when I hesitated.

No one answered a number they didn't recognize these days.

Instead, I grabbed my food and walked towards the table and started a text message.

'Hey, it's Dex. You ok after tonight?'

There was a moment where I waited for a response, wondering if this was a stupid idea, and after which I was absolutely certain that it was.

Why would she want to talk to me? I'd basically told her she was crazy every chance I got. I'd rejected her when she'd all but asked me out, and she didn't seem all that excited when I'd run into her at her school.

'I shouldn't have sent that text.' I thought, wishing I could take it back. 'What was I thinking?'

I was just about to put my phone down after waiting what felt like an eternity, when it pinged, and all anxiety over my own stupidity, was replaced by total shock as I realized that, incredibly, Lorelei had texted me back.

I quickly opened the text, curious as to what she'd say only to feel anxiety grip me again when I read the response.

'Needed some stitches, but I think it should be alright.'

I felt my eyes go a little wider at that, but the panic was morphed into irritation as a photo came through, and I saw her shirt resting on a blanket next to a sewing kit, a needle and thread sticking out of the half-mended tear it had sustained during the monster attacked.

Was she serious?

What was the point of getting me all worked up thinking that she'd been injured? Or did she really think ripping her shirt was that important?

I spent a full thirty second trying to figure out how I was supposed to respond to that, when she sent another text.

'Holy Hades Dex, I can practically feel you seething through the phone. It was a joke. My arm is fine.'

She sent another photo holding up her arm to reveal a long scratch that had almost completely healed, and I realized she must have had some divine food on hand. Jake was in the back ground, with a headset on, looking at a large TV but sticking up his middle finger to the camera.

I was surprised to see him in the photo, it was nearly eleven on a week night after all, but then again, they were almost always together at camp so why, if they went to the same school, would the mortal world be any different?

She must have gone to his house after the game, though why Jake had a hot pink gaming chair was beyond me. But, then again, Jake had always liked what he liked and was unapologetic about it. I'd learned not to question it.

I paused for a moment then realized, though I'd been starving since the bus ride home, I hadn't eaten any of my food. I'd almost forgotten it was there.

Taking a bite, I reflected, not without some incredulity, that I hadn't thought this much about what to text to a girl since I was trying to figure out how to ask Heather out.

But with Heather it had been different. She'd been my first girlfriend, the first girl I'd ever really liked. In any serious manner anyways. I'd thought she was way out of my league, the coolest, funniest, prettiest girl on the planet. I thought the sun rose and set on her shoulders.

Lorelei, on the other hand, probably actually was way out of my league, and I was always assuming the worst of her.

I frowned for a moment, wondering if maybe I'd been too hard on her. And maybe, even if I didn't want to be a part of her stupid revenge of the exes plot, that didn't mean I had to ignore her.

If she and Jake really did live in the area, maybe it wouldn't hurt to have some demigod friends nearby.

So with that in mind, I carefully deliberated over what I wanted to say, then sent the following text.

'Glad your shirt didn't succumb to its injuries. How are your shoes?'

Again there was a pause, and I wondered if I'd surprised her with the question before she responded.

'Locked and loaded, ready to any monster or fashion emergencies that come my way.'

She accompanied the text with a series of weapon emojis along with a pair of heels.

I laughed at this and continued to eat, pondering what I should send next.

I was just about to resort to some sort of gif out of desperation, when, suddenly, I remembered how I'd ended up running into Lorelei earlier today and before I even realized it, started typing.

'How did you end up in detention?'