I rolled over,wrapping my arms around Alyssa's waist and nuzzled her neck. "I love you princess," I whispered. She smiled and pressed her lips against mine. She snuggled close to me and laid her head against my chest,"I love you too, Trav-"

I awoke breathing heavy and sat up quickly," You have got to be kidding me!"

"No Travis, you have got to be kidding me! Go back to bed!" One of my siblings threw their pillow at me.

I groaned," What time is it?"

"Three in the freaking morning. Now go to bed! We're tired of this."

This was the third time I had woken up in the same night. The two previous times were for the same reason except the other dreams had been a bit more graphic than I'm willing to admit.

"Having fucking wet dreams like I'm twelve..."

I laid back down and squeezed my eyes shut," You don't believe in love, Travis. You don't believe in this bullshit..."

***

"So when are you gonna ask out Alyssa?" Candace had been pestering me since Connor told her about my unfortunate revelation.

I sighed,"I'm not. I'm going to ignore this 'crush' or whatever the fuck it is until it dies. And once it does, I'm going to proceed with my life."

"You're gonna what?! You're not gonna ask her out and fall in love, be happy?!"

"Candace! Stop screaming! No, I'm not. And all 'love' has ever done is ruin things. And I am happy. I'm more than content with how things are, okay?"

"But-"

"I'm not listening,Candace. Oh! And can you help make the cabin look decent? Alyssa's coming over to verse us in poker."

"Right... Just gonna let it die... Sure...Oh! but Travis, I'll only help clean up if you answer one question for me."

I groaned,"What is it,Candace?"

She started giggling,"What was all that moaning in your sleep about?"

I sighed,"Good bye, Candace." Turning quickly, I left the cabin.

I hoped the next few nights would consist of empty thoughts or at least less distracting dreams. I just couldn't deal with it. I'm not one to like people like that and I don't mess with love or whatever it is. I couldn't even remember the last time I had had a wet dream but here I was having them at eighteen. Unbelievable.

"Travis?" I had been so deep in my thoughts I hadn't seen Alyssa walk up.

"Oh hey, Alyssa. What's up?"

"We're still on for poker later, right? Or are you gonna chicken out?" She smirked.

"Me? Chicken out of a game of poker that I know I'm gonna win? Never."

"Little cocky aren't we?"

"Not at all, simply telling the truth."

She laughed,"Alright then. We'll see just how true your truth is. See ya after lunch."

She ran off to catch up with her siblings who were headed for the shooting range. I saw Will look back at me and shake his head at me.

"So you gonna give into your minds fantasies or what?" Connor laughed running up behind me.

"Screw you, Connor."

"Your mind wants you to be scre-"

"Okay! I walked into that one but really back off. I'm not giving into anything. It'll go away soon."

"You better hope it does. My little flower heard Mason likes her."

"Did you just call Katie your 'little flower'?" I quickly pushed away the pang of jealousy that had struck my heart. Even if I didn't want to be with Alyssa, or anyone for that matter, the thought of her being with Mason nauseated me. "Well then Mason can have her. I'm not gonna date her,this crush is gonna die he can do what he wants. It doesn't concern me."

"Alright Travis, but you know how you get and what you do when you can't have something you want..."

"I get angry...and then I steal it..But"

"That's right,you go and you steal it but I don't think stealing a girl is as simple as pick pocketing."

"I don't want her though, Connor. He can have her!"

Connor stopped walking and put his arm out, stopping me as well," Look Travis, you say that about a whole lot of things until someone else has it but I don't think you understand that she's a person, not a toy." He was already waving his hands around like he usually did when he was angry or passionate about something," If you're sure this crush is gonna die, fine. Let it go then. But when she's with someone else, a son of Nike no less, who has never lost anything a day in his life, do NOT! get upset. Do not bring your sadness around me, do not bring it around our siblings, don't even bring it into the cabin because I will do nothing but tell you I told you so and every single one of our siblings will say the same."

I guess I deserved the snapping Connor was giving me since I had snapped at him about something that was he couldn't be more wrong about all of this. Mason Lancaster got whatever he wanted, he always won being a son of Nike and all, so it really didn't matter even if I did want to be with Alyssa. He was gonna have her because he wanted to have her.

"I won't! And you won't be able to tell me you told me so. You know, for the younger brother, you're being really pushy."

He rolled his eyes, "I'm sure my extra four minutes of development is why I know how to actually handle emotions instead of bury them like you do. Now come on, there's a chariot race in two weeks and we're still pretty wrecked from last time."

Connor had finally dropped the subject of my feelings ,or soon to be lack of feelings, for Alyssa. At least he had for now. If it was up to me he nor any of my other siblings would ever bring it up again. Unfortunately, I knew for them it was only a matter of time. But for now, our only focus wasn't which sibling liked who but how could we make our chariot better. Finally, something I understood and had actual answers for.

Lunch came pretty quickly, me and my siblings swarming our table. We usually all ate together but it wasn't uncommon for Connor to sit with Katie or any of my siblings girlfriends or boyfriends or whoever to sit with us. We had a larger table since we still took in any unclaimed demigods even if there were fewer of them now.

Sitting down with a slice of pizza,I looked over at the Nike table. Drusilla, Raina, Adnan, and Xander. But no Mason. My eyes trailed over to the Apollo table and there he was. I guess Katie had heard right because he was sitting awfully close to Alyssa. I wondered if Mason was Alyssa's type. He was a pale, tall,and lanky kid with blonde hair. He was taller than me by a few inches and definitely towered over her, even when they were just sitting. He put his arm around her and pulled her closer to him.

"Travis?" Becca's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Hm?"

"Are you alright? You've been staring at the Apollo table and gnawing on the same piece of crust for almost five minutes."

I shoved the pizza crust in my mouth and nodded," yeah I'm fine."

She stared at me for a moment before going back to talking to some of our siblings. I had gotten so caught up watching them that I hadn't even paid attention to if I was eating properly.

I didn't bother look back over to them to see if Alyssa had let him keep his arm around her or if she had pushed him away. Either way, I don't think I would've been happy with what I would've seen.

After lunch was over I headed back to my cabin. I set up the poker table, my bag of drachmas, and placed my personal deck of cards on the table. It was one of the only gifts I'd have ever gotten from my dad.

Once my siblings were back in the cabin I reminded them that the usual chaos of our cabin had to be kept to a minimum while the game was being played.

"Dude we get it, you're trying to impress your girlfriend. We'll be good."

I squeezed my eyes shut and calmed down so I wouldn't yell at them,"Okay look, she's not my girlfriend. Now please stop. She will be here in a moment and if you even mention her being my girlfriend or anything else about the idea of me liking her. You will regret it."

I think calm me scared them more than I would have if I had yelled.

They nodded and those of them that weren't going to playing went off to find something to do. Candace and Aidan pulled chairs up to the table.

"Does she really think she's going to beat one of us?"

"She doesn't have a chance. That's Travis's deck,"Aidan laughed.

Candace looked up at me and shook her head,"You're not even gonna beat her fair and square?"

"She challenged a group of Hermes kids. She knows what's she's getting into. And if she does win by some type of ridiculously strong hex. Then she deserves it."

The cabin door opened and Connor walked in with Alyssa...and Mason.

"Look who I found outside!" Connor laughed,"Oh and I said Mason could join us. It's better if we have more people anyway."

I glared at Connor," Are you fucking kidding me?" He didn't say anything but smiled.

"Alright...well everyone grab a seat. I'm gonna get Becca and she's gonna be our dealer. I'll sit to her left so I'll make the initial bet."

I headed to the back of the cabin and found Becca cuddling with her girlfriend.

"Hey Bec, don't mean to interrupt or anything. But we need someone to be the dealer and you know I don't trust too many people to hold my deck."

"Oh uh yeah sure. Rain,I'll be back in hopefully 20 minutes." She kissed Raina on the forehead and stood up.

"Oh and Raina, I'd stay here if you still don't want your brother knowing. He's apparently here to play poker with us.."

Raina nodded and mouthed a "Thank you" to me,"I'll stay here until he leaves. I don't mind if the game takes awhile."

Back at the table, I handed Becca the deck before sitting down and she shuffled it quickly.

She dealt each of us two cards, each of us picking them up.

"Alright, I'll put in six drachmas." I pushed them into the center of the table. Next to me was Mason. Because of my bet, he had to bet twelve drachmas. Becca then placed three cards face up. A 7 of diamonds, a 4 of spades, and an Ace of Diamonds.

Now the game would really begin. No one's faces looked desperate so they either all had good cards or were actually pretty decent at the game. I expected that from my siblings but not from Alyssa and Mason.

Alyssa put in ten drachmas. Pretty big bet for her first in the game. She had to have a good hand. Connor was after her, he put his hand up signaling a check. Candace put in four and Aidan added another six.

Becca then pulled the fourth card face up,"Ten of hearts."

"Fold." Aidan was out. He had a six of clubs and and a 2 of hearts

Connor signed," yeah, me too." He had a 2 of spades and 8 of clubs.

Alyssa, Mason,Candace, and I all made new bets. We just needed for Becca to turn the last card.

"Queen of clubs."

Alyssa and Becca folded.

Mason and I watched each other as we both revealed an Ace. His the clubs and mine the spade. He smirked and revealed his other card Jack of Spades.

I nodded and frowned,"Well...it's almost sad how good I am at this game." I placed down my second card, the king of hearts.

Mason's face dropped as I pulled the drachmas into my bag.

"I guess you were right. But don't worry, I'll beat you someday," Alyssa laughed.

Mason disgruntled at his loss seeing he never lost, stormed out of the cabin. Becca, seeming glad that he had finally left, walked back to Raina. Candace and Aidan went to their bunks and Connor headed out to see Katie but Alyssa stayed to help me pack up the table and chairs.

"Oh! And here's your deck back." She pulled what looked to be my personal deck from her pocket and handed it to me."I guess you're just good at what you do...and lucky. No enchantment needed."

I had actually won my game fair and square, against a kid born to win everything. I smiled,"See, I told you I was good. I knew I'd win."

She nodded,"This was a lot of fun. Thanks for having us and not rubbing it in Mason's face. Not that you had time to since he ran off immediately. I have to go check on him. See ya later,Travis."

"See ya, Alyssa."

I sat on my bunk,passing my bag of drachmas between my hands,"Fair and square...He doesn't even play fair... I won fair and square..."