A/N- Hey peeps! Next chapter! And thelostterrorist, what does your review mean? Do you want me to redo the story? When you do one word reviews I really can't tell what you're trying to say…
Disclaimer- I've been re-reading the guidelines and I apparently have to do a disclaimer every chapter. D: So, I disclaim. Blahblahblah
Chapter 3: Day One- Drawings and Scars
Erin's POV
"I hate you." I growl.
"I knew that already, oh brilliant one." Lief really likes laying on the sarcasm… "And just so you remember, I hate you, too."
"I know that."
"Oh. I wasn't sure your brain would be able to process that much information." This kid is impossible. I don't know him that well, but it has become very clear that I don't want to. For one thing, he has no sense of humor. None whatsoever. Plus he keeps ragging on me about my pranks. I don't know if I'll be able to survive the week.
"So, Lief, where do we set up camp? Do we even set up a camp? What-"
"SHUT UP, would you?" Touchy.
"I just wanted to know…"
"Why do you think I know?" Lief exploded. We stopped and looked each other in the eye, his cold blue-grey eyes flashing fire. "I'm always expected to know everything, huh? Is that how it works? Well, let me fill you in on something, sweetie. The world isn't all cupcakes and butterflies. Life's tough. I don't know everything there is to know about it, but I sure do know a heck of a lot more then you! You know what? I give up. I've had enough. Go away." I didn't move. "GO AWAY! Just leave me alone!"
"Whoa. Calm down, Lief."
"CALM DOWN! You want me to calm down! Tell me, why should I? What's ever happened to you that's changed your entire life? Huh? Why should I listen to anything you say? You don't know anything about me. Nothing. Who are you to tell me to calm down? Can you tell me that?" Lief ranted. He broke off without letting me answer, swerved away, and dashed into the woods.
I did the only thing I really could. I dashed after him. "Lief!" I called. "Wait up!" he might drive me insane, but he's also the only person I'll see for a week. I stopped and listened for a moment, hoping I'd be able to hear him. Silence. A breaking twig, and nothing more. It occurred to me that Lief probably knew where he was going. He might not be the nicest guy in the world- far from it- but he was pretty smart. I headed in the general direction I'd seen him go.
Lief's POV
I ran through the woods, heading for my favorite spot. I had had enough of Erin. I didn't know her personally, but her reputation preceded her. After about five minutes together, I blew up at her. Don't blame me! She was driving me up the wall! If I had to last the whole week with her, I'd wind up in the loony bin. So I ran. I'd been this way so many times that I barely left a track, much less any noise. Besides, running helped drive the thoughts out of my head. The ones that always crawled back in there if I didn't keep busy.
"Lief! Wait up!" I heard Erin call. I came to a stop at Zeus' Fist. Honestly, it didn't look anything like a fist, even from the angle that people said it did. I sat down on a boulder and took a look at my pack. It was pretty small, but then again, I'd only had two minutes to pack. I was starting to sort through stuff when Erin came bursting into the clearing, puffing.
"Fancy seeing you here," I drawled.
"Never…do that…again, Lief," Erin panted. I allowed myself a quick smirk.
"No promises." Once she had caught her breath, Erin sat down on another boulder and looked at me, her mischievous green eyes inquisitive.
"So, you obviously have been here a lot," she said.
"If you're trying to get me to talk, you are failing miserably. I don't talk unless I need to, want to, or have to."
"Hmm. So, to answer my earlier question. Are we, in fact, setting up a camp? If so, where? How? When? What did you bring?"
"Whoa whoa whoa. Information overload. First of all, we are not setting up a camp in the general sense of the word, meaning that it is not outside. We are staying in a place I found."
"Where is this?" Erin asked, suspicious. I didn't blame her. I would be suspicious of me, too.
"Let me show you." I hopped down from the boulder and made my way over to a crack between a couple rocks. I swatted my hair out of my eyes- note to self: get haircut- and rolled one of the rocks to the side a little, revealing a small passageway. "Follow me," I smirked.
Erin gulped. "Are you sure we have to go in there?" Oh, good. Miss Prankster doesn't like being underground. This could be fun…
"Oh, yes. Unless you really feel like being out in the monster-infested woods. At night."
"Okay. I'll come," she said meekly. I led the way into the passage, not bothering to take out a light. "Um, Lief?" Erin asked.
I turned. She was still standing at the entrance. "What? We don't have all day, you know."
"Do you have a light?"
"Um, no. I know the way, though. Follow me. And push the rocks back together while you're at it, would ya?"
"Fine." The passage darkened.
"Now, follow me."
"I don't know where you are."
"Follow my voice," I said, scowling. I kept talking her down the passageway. "Now, stop!"
"How do you know where to stop?" she asked.
"Because I've been here more times then I can count, obviously."
"Oh."
"There's a door to your left. Go through it." I heard her shuffle towards me and stop. "Okay, now stay there." I reached for the switch and the room was illuminated. We were standing in a room, pretty small, but with a battery-run light -the one I had just switched on- a small table with a chair, and a couple old blankets on the floor.
"Whoa," Erin breathed. I smirked.
"Do I know what I'm doing or do I know what I'm doing?"
"You know what you're doing," she admitted grudgingly.
"Thank you. Now, let's see what you packed." Erin set her bag down and emptied it. A couple changes of clothes, a dagger, about five chocolate bars, a random book, and what looked suspiciously like shaving cream. "Why do you have shaving cream?" I asked.
"I don't know. I just stuffed stuff in the bag." I emptied out my bag. Six apples, a change of clothes, my bow and arrows, my sketch pad, a box of colored pencils, and a couple bottles of water. Not much. Hey, I only had two minutes. "How did you find this place, anyways?" Erin asked.
"Oh, this place? You've heard of the Labyrinth, right?"
"Yeah. But what does that have to do with this?" she asked.
"When Daedlus died, the Labyrinth collapsed. Well, actually, most of it did. Some parts couldn't entirely collapse without bringing a lot of stuff down with them. This was one of those parts. Everything but this room and the passage collapsed. I was exploring around here during Capture the Flag, saw the crack in the rocks, and decided to investigate," I explained.
"Whoa. That's cool."
"Isn't it?" We were, for some reason, acting like I never had blown up at her. I was kind of grateful for this, because when Erin wanted to know something, she usually had…methods…of getting her information.
"How come you got so mad at me back there?" Forget what I said about acting like I had never blown up at her.
"I don't know. Just leave me alone." I grabbed my sketch pad and a couple pencils and sat down in a corner, trying to draw. Erin came over and tried to look at what I was drawing. I pushed her away.
"What was that for?"
"What I draw is private."
"I just want to know. It's not like I'm going to insult you or anything."
"It's private. My. Personal. Property." I tend to be a bit protective of my art. Mostly because…No. Don't think about it. If you don't think about it, it didn't happen.
"Whatever you say, Doom and Gloom." Hmm. Doom and Gloom. I didn't half mind it. Summed me up pretty well. I started in on the shading.
"That's right, Bomber Girl. Whatever I say." Hey, if she gives me a nickname, I give her one.
"Yep. Hey- Bomber Girl? Really?"
I smirked. "Really."
"So you'll let me see what you're drawing now?" She never gives up, does she?
"No. My art is my own." I added a finishing touch to my drawing and put my pencil down. It was pretty good for a quick sketch.
"Come on, Lief. I just want to see it."
"Fine. Whatever. But then you can't keep asking to let me show you anything else."
"Okay." She came over and I tilted my drawing down so she could see it. It was a quick sketch of Erin and Matt, standing together and laughing their heads off. They were in their pranking clothes, Matt was holding his hat, and Erin had a hand on her dagger hilt. It scares me sometimes, how I can draw somebody or something in a few quick lines and yet capture their personality.
Erin stared at it for a moment before I closed my pad. "Can I see the others?" she asked.
"No." I snapped. My drawings to me are like what music, or pranking, or talking to dead people, or dancing, what those are to other people, my art is to me. Nobody really understands me. I think they're afraid of me, and that's how I like it. Plus, I'm afraid of trusting anybody. Well, not really afraid. It's more like I don't want to- Stop. Don't. Think. About. It.
"You don't have to be so mean."
"Mean? So I'm mean, huh? Is that how it is? Well, Parman, I may seem mean to you, but if I do, that's because you don't know. You haven't ever been out there. Out in the real world. It's hard and cold out there. It'll chew you up and spit you out unless you get hard. So that you can't feel anymore, there's nothing left for you to care about. That - that - is how it was for me. You know, Parman? You don't know me. You don't know my past. You don't know who I am. All you know is that my name is Lief Harrison, I'm a son of Apollo, 15, and as sarcastic as anybody could be." I set my drawing pad down and leaned my head back against the wall, closing my eyes. My hair slid back out of my face, revealing the scar that stretched across my hairline, down my right temple, back under my ear, and down the side of my neck. I heard Erin gasp, and keeping my eyes closed, continued to talk. "See? You didn't know that was there, now did you?"
"No. but I know that you like depressing music, you despise pranks, you draw a lot, and that you're always hanging you with those twins from Nemesis. Who are they? Tia and Noel?"
"No, you idiot. It's Theo and Noah."
"See. I know some things about you, don't I?"
"Ah, but you only skim the surface. Those are all superficial things." I rubbed my neck, "What time is it?"
"Noon. Can we eat?"
"Have an apple and half a chocolate bar. We don't want to run out of food too quickly."
"What about you?"
"I'm not hungry." And it was true. I wasn't hungry. All of a sudden, I wasn't sure I should have told Erin about my scar. Nobody else knows about it except Theo and Noah. Ah, well. What's done is done. I wonder what the rest of this week is going to be like.
"Just for the record, I still hate you," Erin said.
"Back at you," I replied, smiling slightly.
"Did I ever tell you how absolutely honored I am to have someone like you hate me?" Erin asked.
"No, you didn't. Nice thing to know, though. I wish I could say the same, but it's not exactly an honor to be hated by a child of Hermes." Same as it always has been. Then why am I suddenly wary, just in case Erin…STOP, Harrison. Don't. Think. About. It.
A/N- And there you go. What's Lief hiding? How'd he get his scar? What is he so afraid of? Why am I asking these pointless questions? Review? Please? I'll bribe you with the next chapter…Not really. I'll update anyways, but reviews are always nice…
Oh, yes, and a quick thing. A challenge, so to speak. It's called: Guess the State! The rules: PM me with your guess as to what state I live in. Guesses in reviews are not accepted. Two guesses per person. Winner gets…A MYSTERY PRIZE! (really, did you think I'd tell you?) Guess away!
-smartone101
