A/N- Hey everybody! Sorry for the late update. My sister and I had a friend over, so I couldn't update. It's 9/11 today. :`( Anyways, here's your chapter. And Silents-in-the-Library, yes, that was because of Ellery and Travis. ;)

Disclaimer- I'm a girl. Enough said.

Chapter 5: Jay- to the Rescue?

Jay's POV

I slid down the climbing wall toward Naomi. My thoughts were racing. How- what happened? What did Drew do? If Naomi gets hurt, I'll…I went into a long mental list of things that I would do to Drew. None of them were pretty. I won't bore you with it. Naomi was getting closer to the lava. I started to move faster. I had to get there before Naomi. The last time someone fell like that…let's just say that they were in the infirmary for a very long time. How do I know? Okay, okay, fine. It was me. I was in there for a month. I rarely go on the climbing wall anymore. If you want to know how it happened…you really don't want to know. It's a long story. And a painful one.

I was so immersed in my thoughts that it took me a moment to realize that Naomi had snapped out of her fall and grabbed a rock. It looked pretty loose, though, something I realized even more acutely when the rock started to shift. I suddenly discovered that I was too far to the left. I started picking my way over to the right while attempting to control my descent.

I reached a point directly above Naomi and slid a little more slowly, not wanting to dislodge the rock she was grabbing while her feet tried to find some purchase on the slippery rock beneath them. Just when I had almost reached her, an earthquake shook the climbing wall and the rock slipped farther down the slope.

Naomi's POV

I clung to the rock as if it were the only thing between me and a painful death. Which it kind of was. Well, not really a painful death. More like a painful month or so in the infirmary. Jay had told me his story late one night. Although, I'm pretty sure that most of the Apollo cabin simply refused to treat him, thereby prolonging his stay. Why? Because he was running away after putting a huge stink bomb in their cabin when he slipped and fell. The stink bomb still went off, resulting in a lot of very angry Apollo kids and one very injured son of Hermes.

I suddenly realized that the rock had shifted again. A tremor shook the climbing wall and it started to roll. I quickly let go and jumped to the side. It's too bad that I didn't remember that the climbing wall dropped off on that side. I found myself falling for a short distance and then rolling for the lava faster then ever. I was bracing myself for impact when I hit something soft-ish that winced on impact. Huh? There was nothing between me and the lava, so who- or what- is this?

"Can you- get- off?" a voice grunted from underneath me. Definitely Jay. After a little accident with a couple Hephaestus kids, he generally didn't take kindly to being squashed. But that doesn't make sense. Jay was at the top of the hill, so how could he be down here? "I said- GET OFF! You're turning me into a JJ pancake here!"

"Sorry," I said, moving over to the side, still trying to keep my balance so I didn't go sliding down again. I looked over. Jay was on his side, facing the lava, which was about six inches from his face. His right sneaker was half-melted and the bottom of his blue jeans was singed. There was ash in his hair. He turned toward me and I saw a scrape down the side of his face. I realized that he must have thrown himself between me and the lava and that I must have landed on his back.

"Hey," he said nonchalantly.

"Thanks Jay," I said, slightly in awe as I realized exactly how close Jay had come to either killing himself or ending up back in the infirmary.

"Don't mention it."

"You- you saved me."

"I said: don't mention it. Just- don't. 'kay?" Same old Jay. "Now, let's get out of here. The walls are going to crash together in about-" he paused to check his watch, "-thirty seconds." He scrambled to his feet and pulled me up somewhat roughly. "GO!" Jay pushed me forward. I started moving for the entrance, since there clearly wasn't enough time to climb to the top. "Hurry!" Jay was clearly getting impatient. I felt another shove from behind and stumbled forward to safety as the walls moved together. Jay wasn't so lucky. I heard him cry out in pain and turned. He was on the ground, his right foot caught between the walls, which then moved apart again.

"What happened?" I asked, running over.

"I…shoved you out…tried to get out…didn't quite make it," Jay gasped. I heard footsteps behind me and turned to see Michael, Khristi, and Travis hurrying down the hill towards us.

"What happened?" Michael asked, coming to a halt.

I tried to explain as well as I could. "Jay pushed me out in front of him. I think he was diving for the exit and his foot didn't quite make it. Is there anything you can do?" Michael and Khristi pulled Jay a little farther from the climbing wall. Michael pulled off Jay's half-melted, squashed shoe. He started to pull off his sock, but it didn't work. He tried again with the same results.

"We need to get him to the infirmary," Michael said seriously, looking up from Jay's foot. "Most of the bones in his foot are probably broken from the impact of the two walls, his foot was badly scorched, and I think the inside of his sock might have partly melted into his foot."

"Ouch," Jay said with his usual touch of sarcasm. I smiled slightly despite the fact that he was hurt. Michael, Khristi, and Travis picked Jay up gently and walked toward the infirmary. Drew's words to me on the wall rang in my head.

"He owes me 175 drachmas now," Drew's snide voice came from behind me. "Look where your little mistake got you, traitor. Now Jay's hurt, and it's all your fault."

I turned, ablaze with fury. "You- you- you're the one who's responsible for this!" I yelled. "You were the one who made me fall. If you hadn't been making your little comments, I would never had fallen. Jay wouldn't have come after me. He wouldn't have been hurt."

Drew's face remained twisted in a sneer. "Let's not go pointing fingers. After all, you have no proof, do you?"

"I have my word. And a man is only as good as his word, Drew."

"Then you must not be very good. After all, you lied to the whole camp for a year, so your word is obviously not trustworthy. And you never heard anything. Nothing at all. You tripped. I had nothing to do with it." the last part was layered with power. I could practically feel it taking hold in my mind.

"I- I didn't hear anything," somebody said. I realized it was me. Did I actually hear anything? I questioned. Then I happened to glance over at Jay's melted, twisted, charred shoe. I thought of Jay, his foot twisted and burnt. And I knew.I did hear Drew. There really was no other option, nothing else that could have happened. "Don't try to charmspeak me," I growled. "I know what I heard, and I heard you say-"

A voice from behind me cut me off, "She didn't say anything, liar, so stop accusing her." I turned to see Skylar and Connor emerge from behind the wall. "We were watching the whole time," Skylar continued, "and we didn't hear Drew say anything, did we, Connor?"

Connor paused for a moment before shaking his head, "Nope. Nothing at all."

I could literally feel my rage growing. Connor paused for a second. He knows what happened. Not that he's going to take my side. That'll never happen, I thought. "You know what happened," I said, my voice cold as steel and tight with suppressed anger. "You know, and I know. It was Drew's fault. That's all there is to it."

"It was your fault Jay got hurt," Drew said. "I had nothing to do with it. You turned around on the wall. You started to kick some rocks at me, but you lost your balance and fell. Jay came down to save you. You jumped the wrong way, which made Jay have to dive over to save you. It was completely your fault. Isn't that right?"

Skylar nodded, "That's what I saw. Connor?"

Connor agreed. "You're just making up something, Naomi."

Now I was angry. "I was winning, fair and square. Drew shouted out, 'You're nothing but a little traitor who'll never amount to anything!' I turned around to see if she had really said that. I lost my balance and fell. Falling over the wrong edge was a complete accident. I didn't even expect Jay to come after me."

"Lies!" Skylar sneered. "I saw what happened. Connor saw what happened. It's our word against yours. And who's going to believe what a traitor says?" That was the last straw for me. I lashed out, a red haze clouding my vision. I heard someone fall to the ground and I assumed that I had hit my mark. Then I turned and ran to the only place that I felt safe. The woods.

Khristi's POV

Travis and I paced up and down the infirmary. Michael refused to let us in to see how Jay was doing. Finally, he exited the cubicle, his face grim. "How is he?" Travis asked hurriedly.

"Well, there's a few broken bones in his foot. Those should heal, but he'll have to use crutches until they do." I almost smiled at the mental image of Jay on crutches. He'd hate them.

"What else?" I asked.

"I think there's a couple burns. Again, those should heal. The part that has me worried is that part of his sock is fused to his foot. I cut off as much of the sock as I could, but there's a layer that's attached to his foot. It might come off eventually as his skin falls off, but there's really no way to tell."

"Will it affect him? Like, how he moves and stuff?" Travis asked.

"No. I don't think so," Michael said. We all breathed a sigh of relief just as Chris came running into the infirmary at top speed and crashed into the wall.

"Hi Chris," Travis said.

Michael scowled, "You should be more careful in here. It's a good thing you didn't break anything."

"Sorry," Chris said sheepishly, "I just wanted to see if Jay would be okay."

"He'll be fine," Michael said. "Now, get out of here, all of you. Jay needs to rest." He shooed us out the door and came out after us, closing the door behind him.

A thought suddenly occurred to me. "Where's Naomi?" I asked.

"I don't know," Michael said. "She didn't follow us to the infirmary. I think she stayed back to talk to Drew." I groaned. Naomi never was any good at confrontations. She always let her feelings and instincts get the better of her. I should have stayed back.

"That might not end well," I stated. "Naomi never was very good at confrontations. I should have stayed back to help her."

"Who ever said you were any good at confrontations, either?" Michael said teasingly.

"I'm an Athena kid, that's how I know. You have to use a bit of strategy if you want to be successful." We continued bantering back and forth while Travis and Chris looked on amused. We reached the climbing wall and looked around. Drew, Skylar, and Connor were talking. Naomi was nowhere to be seen. I ran down the short slope and approached the group. "Where's Naomi?" I asked.

"Why should I keep track of where she is?" Drew sneered.

"Oh, I don't know," Travis said, "Maybe because you were the one responsible for her falling. Maybe because you're the reason Jay's hurt. Maybe because you were the last person she was seen with. Maybe that's why." If I didn't know better, I could have sworn Jay was standing there, because that was exactly the kind of comment he would have made.

"On the contrary," Connor spoke up, "Naomi was responsible for her fall. Jay is the reason he is hurt. If he hadn't gone after her, he wouldn't have been hurt. Personally, I don't see why he went after her. It would have been better if he had just stayed at the top and let Naomi fall. And nobody ever saw Naomi with us."

"But," Michael said, "Naomi fell because Drew said something to her, causing her to turn and fall. Jay went after her because that's what any sane person who has even half of a heart would have done. And maybe nobody saw Naomi with you, but we see evidence that she was. Look at Skylar." I took a closer look and saw a bruise forming on her jaw and grass on the back of her shirt. Naomi had obviously been there.

"I tripped and hit my jaw," Skylar said.

"No, you didn't," Michael contradicted. "Look at the shape of the bruise. It's the exact size and shape of a human hand. Now, where is Naomi?"

"We don't know," Drew said sullenly. "Stop asking us."

"Okay, we will," I said. "I already know where she would have gone, anyways."

"You do?" Michael asked.

"Think, Michael. Where does Naomi always go when she's confused, angry, sad, or just needs time to think."

Michael's face lit up. "Oh, yeah. That's where she is." The four of us, Travis, Chris, Michael, and I, moved away from the other three.

"Travis, Chris, you two stay here. Cover for us if anybody notices we're gone." A plan was forming in my mind. "Michael, do you have your bow?"

"Don't I always?" he said.

"Then let's go. Follow me." I started off towards the woods, Michael at my back.

A/N- 'kay, there you go. How'd you like it? Review!

-smartone101