Breakfast felt slightly awkward for Sasha. Ryan kept glaring over at Nico and Drew, who were sitting at the same table even though it was against the rules. Sasha felt like glaring in their direction too, but resisted the temptation. She refused to give Nico, or Drew, the satisfaction. Instead she just picked at her food, uninterested. 'Besides,' She thought, 'Ryan's only giving them dirty looks because he can't go sit at Aphrodite's cabin with all Drew's sisters.' The thought made her mouth taste metallic, and she sneered at Ryan. He looked at her incredulously.
"What did I do?" He asked, and she shrugged.
"So why'd you fall asleep over at the beach last night?" Percy asked, obviously curious as to what had happened.
"I dunno. I guess I was just really tired. And the beach was a peaceful place to pass out." She said, biting into her bagel.
Ryan didn't look as if he believed her, but he said nothing. Percy, also, shrugged silently. Involuntarily, Sasha snuck a quick glance over her shoulder to where Hades' table was to catch a quick look at Nico, but turned away hastily when she saw him already looking.

Sasha still did pretty bad in archery, even though she was getting better. She still missed the target countless times. But whenever she did happen to hit the target, she got a bull's eye.
"Either all or nothing, I guess?" Jonathan joked, handing her another arrow. She smirked and notched the arrow, leveling it with her eye and focusing. She released the string and the arrow flew from the bow, landing in a shrub of trees about 5 meters away from the target. She cursed and laughed along with Jonathan.
"Wow, Jonathan had told me you were bad, but I didn't know you really sucked." Nico noted, stepping from behind the shrub and retrieved the arrow she'd just shot. He walked over and handed it to her.
"I must ask, though. Were you trying to kill me?" He smiled at her, and she rolled her eyes.
"Had I known you were there, I probably would have been. As it was, it seems I knew what I was doing." She responded, smiling and taking the arrow from him. Behind her, Jonathan stifled a laugh. Nico shrugged.
"Fair enough." He said, and Sasha turned away from him and notched the arrow again. Just as she was about to release the arrow, Nico spoke up.
"You're doing it wrong." He said, and Sasha, distracted, released her arrow at random, lodging it into a nearby tree. The nymph pulled it out of her tree's trunk and yelled at them, making rapid gestures with her hands, then broke the arrow in half and stomped off. Jonathan turned to peer at Nico in disbelief.
"Uhm, excuse you, I know how to teach people archery, thank you very much, and if you should be worried about anything, it's why in the name of Zeus you're dating that disgusting worm of a—"
Nico whirled to look at Jonathan.
"You don't say a word about that." He said, his tone clipped. Jonathan shrugged.
"Whatever. You get out of here, I still need to teach her how to shoot at annoying sons of Hades." Jonathan told Nico, and the other boy smirked, trudging off without a glance back at either of them. Jonathan turned to Sasha, sighing.
"I take it you guys don't like each other?" She inquired, and Jonathan laughed.
"You're spot-on. We're best friends." He said, and Sasha raised an eyebrow.
"Nico, Leo, and I have been best friends for years, and I can't stand either of them." He laughed. "Now focus. We don't need you irritating anymore nymphs."
Sasha did as Jonathan told her and aimed the arrow at the bull's eye. She released the string and heard the air whistle and the arrow flew directly to the center of the target. As she reloaded her bow, she couldn't help but think of how Nico had said 'don't say a word about that' instead of 'don't say a word about her', and she couldn't help but wonder if he disagreed with the name Jonathan had called Drew.

Sasha skipped the rest of her activities after archery. She'd begun to receive massive cramps and had rushed to the bathroom, only to realize her period had come. Sasha knew that not most girls had the massive cramps problem, but was overwhelmed with relief when Annabeth understood why Sasha wanted to skip on the rest of the day. Without mentioning a word about Sasha's menstruation to Ryan and Percy, she managed to convince them to leave her alone. Sasha lied in her bunk, staring up at the ceiling as the little hippocampi twirled around on their strings and the illusion placed on the ceiling to make it look like she was underwater rippled and swayed. Eventually Percy came back to the cabin, carrying with him a tray of food. He set it on the table next to her, handing her a pill.
"Annabeth said that there was a virus going around and that this would help." He said, and Sasha smiled.
"Thanks." She said, tossing the medicine to the back of her mouth and washing it down with the bottle of water on the tray. Percy sat with her making small talk as she ate, and she was glad he was there. He was much better company than Ryan would have been, and he seemed more like a friend than the annoying brother she had expected him to be after living with Ryan her whole life.
"So you had archery today?" He asked her, and she nodded.
"How was it? I mean, I suck at archery, and so does Ryan, so how do you do?"
Sasha thought of her archery class. She thought of Jonathan and Nico and the hurt she'd felt when Jonathan had mentioned the fact Nico was dating, and how she'd nearly felt like shooting both in the gut.
"It was fine. I suck too."
Percy lied down on his bed, which was directly next to hers. He was gazing up at the ceiling, as she had been, and seemed lost in thought.
"Percy, was there ever a time when you wondered if Annabeth didn't like you and was really into someone else and you liking her was hopeless?" She blurted out, the question haunting her. Percy turned to face her, his green eyes boring into hers. He sat up and raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, there was. It was this guy named Luke. Annabeth had known him since she was seven, and he was only a couple years older than her, and I wondered…" He shook his head. "He turned evil and began to work for Kronos. Annabeth always refused to believe he was evil, so I thought she must have liked him. When he died, we began to date. Why do you ask?"
"Do you ever wonder what it would be like if he hadn't died?" She asked, ignoring her brother's question. His eyes darkened.
"Yes, I always wonder what it would be like if he hadn't died. But then I think of the way Annabeth looks at me, and I lose my worry. Why?"
His eyes felt like the lights they shined on a criminal when he was being interrogated. Sasha felt nervous and fidgety under his gaze and shrugged.
"I was just curious." She said, and Percy raised an eyebrow, falling back down so he was once again lying on his back.
"Sasha, Ryan and I both know you like Nico. It's not like you're that good at hiding it." He said, and Sasha stiffened.
"I've liked a lot of guys before. So what?" She asked, her tone icy, and Percy shrugged, his relaxed, laid-back persona suddenly irritating to Sasha.
"Nothing. I was just telling you." He said, and although he didn't seem to be lying, Sasha didn't believe him.

"Sasha!" Andrea shrieked, running up and embracing Sasha in a hug. Sasha squirmed under her best friend's hold, finding it difficult to breathe.
"And just why the hell do you think you can disappear off the face of the freaking Earth without one word of warning to me? Hmm?" She asked Sasha, releasing her grip and averting her eyes to glare at her, slapping her on the arm slightly.
"You couldn't have called, or texted, or even emailed me?" Andrea asked. In truth, over the past few days Sasha hadn't even thought of Andrea, and the guilt was killing her. She'd left her phone off and had stashed it away in one of the drawers in the table by her bed, and had out of sheer luck found it while searching for pads. Upon turning it on, her phone had buzzed in her hand like crazy from all the messages she'd received from her best friend over the past few days. She'd replied immediately, apologizing and telling her to meet her at Red Mango, Andrea's favorite fro-yo place in New York.
"And I also tried Ryan's phone and he wouldn't answer either! I tried your house phone several times every day and no one ever even picked up the freaking line, and the one time your mom answered her cell phone she said you guys were at 'summer camp', which made no sense, considering the fact that it's mid-October!" Andrea continued, and Sasha couldn't think of any way to explain anything that had happened to her recently to her best friend.
"Sorry?" Sasha tried, and Andrea glared at her like she wanted to rip her throat out.
"Sorry?! That's all you've got to say to me? And where on God's green Earth did you get that cast!?" She screeched, and Sasha turned to look down at her foot. She did, indeed, still have the cast, but she'd grown so used to it it wasn't uncomfortable and didn't make her walk awkwardly anymore.
"And how the hell are you walking on it? Shouldn't you be using crutches or something?"
'Shit. What the hell am I supposed to tell her?' She mentally cursed herself for not thinking up a story in advance. Andrea looked like she was about to say something but stopped short, looking at something behind Sasha.
"Well well well, return of the stalker." She muttered under her breath. Sasha's eyes widened and she turned to see Nico and Ryan walking towards them.
"Since when does Ryan like hanging out with emo's?" Andrea hissed under her breath, steering Sasha into the direction of the far end of the restaurant. Sasha rolled her eyes at her friend.
"He's not emo, just incredibly annoying."
Andrea glanced back towards the boys, who were ordering yogurt. A flash of annoyance passed through Sasha when Nico turned to them and smiled and waved.
"I'll say."
They began to walk towards them, fro-yo in hand.
"Hey Andrea." Ryan greeted her, smiling. Andrea tilted her head and raised an eyebrow.
She stuck her chin out, turning away from him. He took a seat next to her, Nico sliding in next to Sasha.
"Ryan, Nico, can you please tell me why the hell you are here?" Sasha asked, and Nico shrugged, handing her a cup of frozen yogurt. Sasha shoved it away, despite the fact that it was her favorite.
"We wanted ice cream, but Percy said that this place has amazing fro-yo, so we came here."
"Percy?" Andrea asked.
"Our brother." Ryan informed her, taking a bite of yogurt. He swallowed it and his eyes widened. His mouth formed an 'O'. "Cold! Oh God, Brain freeze!" He said, and Andrea rolled her eyes.
"Oh, look, Percy's here too." Nico said, pointing over to the door, where Percy was just walking in. He smiled and scooted into the booth next to Nico, so now Sasha was squished against the wall.
"Andrea, meet my brother, Percy." She said through grit teeth
Andrea turned to look at Sasha.
"Your brother?"
"Yupp." Percy said, grabbing Sasha's yogurt from where she'd shoved it away and taking a bite out of it.
"But how?" She asked.
"Longggg story. It has to do with why I have a cast and no crutches, why Ryan's even more annoying than usual, why Nico and Ryan are friends, and why I feel like punching Nico in the face and ripping his throat out."
"Hey!" Both Ryan and Nico said in unison.
Andrea smiled. "I'd love to hear it."