Chapter Three: Word Through the Grapevine

I blinked. "What?" I figured that my brain was still a little off from my impromptu visit inside my own head, I must have heard him wrong.

"You heard me. What's going on between you and Winters?"

Nope, still the same question as before. His face was serious, not a single twitch to his lips that could tell me he was trying not to laugh, it was an honest question.

And it pissed me off royal.

"What the hell! There is nothing, and I mean nothing,going on between me and Nick. We're friends and that's it!"

For a minute Pollux just looked at me, I could see the wheels in his head turning, thinking. Then his face relaxed and he unfolded his arms. He looked appeased.

"That's really good to hear. I really didn't believe there was something going on because, well, I've seen you and Nico together." his face went a little red and his eyes adverted away.

I rolled mine. "Pollux. You walked in on us once and we weren't even doing anything except kissing. Geez you're worse than Mr. D. You act like we were throwing down on the floor."

His face went a little redder and it took the edge off my anger. Just seeing him uncomfortable was a little funny. "Please don't ever say that again, you'll give me nightmares. Anyway, like I said, I didn't really believe it. You're not the type to cheat on you're boyfriend."

"Then why did you have to ask?"

He shrugged. "Just because you know something isn't true doesn't mean you don't want to hear it confirmed."

Okay, so he had a decent excuse. "Who even told you that? Everyone at this camp knows me and Nico are together, hell, we're the main gossip around here most days." Much to my displeasure.

"As much as people like to gossip about the truth, they love it more to spread lies. What can I say, people are stupid when they're bored. And I'm pretty sure that the gossip came from the Aphrodite cabin."

It took a second for my brain to process his words.

"WHAT?!"

He nodded. "Helena from the Athena cabin told me and she heard it from Kenny of the Demeter cabin who heard it from an Ares kid and then-"

"Please" I cut in, not wanting to know exactly how many people this had gone through. "just tell me who started it."

He looked at me with a 'I can't believe you haven't figured it out yet' look. " Drew."

That one name set my anger through the roof. Drew Tanaka and I never got along. Tall, beautiful, and a power to bend others to her will (especially guys), the Asian girl and I had been enemies from day one. We met due to a chance meeting after I talked to Gwen one night, she threatened me after I didn't fall for her charms and I returned the threat. Only difference is that I was fully ready to punch her lights out and she easily backed off. It was the same night I met Sophia for the first time and we became friends. It gave Drew more of a reason to hate me. When I asked Sophia to go on the quest against the mean girl's wishes it made things worse between us. But since I got back we hadn't crossed paths that much. So what the hell did I do to set the drama queen off? Or was the silence just the calm before the storm?

I got to my feet and stomped towards the door. "I'll be back later."

When I grabbed my sword Pollux walked towards me. "Sarah, stop to think for a minute. Just calm down."

"Calm down? Never tell a girl to calm down, men always tell us to calm down and it just makes us angrier!" My voice rising slightly at the end. Was I furious? Not really. Annoyed. Oh yes. Was I really going to run my sword through Drew? No, but she didn't need to know that. And neither did Pollux.

"Just don't do anything stupid." he sighed in defeat. I gave him a smirk.

"I'm a lot of things Pollux. Clever, smart, an incredible sword fighter, a kick ass player of Pac Man-"

"Not to mention humble." Pollux said with a grin.

"And the list goes on, but stupid I'm not and never have been."

I walked out the door into the night, my sights on the Aphrodite cabin.

~Page Break~

The Aphrodite cabin always hurt my eyes to look at. It was overly pink and reminded me strongly of Barbie's dream house minus the pink convertible. A white fence lined the cabin and sweet smelling flowers littered the ground. To the naked eye it appeared to be sweet, charming, and harmless to approach. It made my stomach churn just looking at it. I decided to just get it over with and quickly made it to the door and knocked rapidly. The door swung open.

A somewhat tall girl stood in the doorway, her tan skin and golden hair seemed to radiate light. Her skin was flawless and even in her hello kitty pajamas she was still effortlessly breathtaking, this coming from someone who was so not into girls that way. Sophia Gilmore, however, was more than just looks. In the short time we've known each other she proved herself to be not only beautiful, but impressively intelligent. Not to mention deadly with the right weapon. The Princess of the Aphrodite cabin smiled as she realized I was there.

"Sarah! What brings you by?" she asked as she stepped out of her cabin and closed the door.

I crossed my arms. "Oh I don't know Sophia, why don't you tell me. Or better yet, you can tell someone else and it will eventually get to me, once the entire camp knows first." I snap. Yes, I know Sophia isn't the one responsible for the gossip, but it seems that she wasn't putting a stop to it either.

Her body sagged and she leaned against the door. "Who told you?"

"Pollux." I try to keep calm, not wanting to vent my anger out except on the one person who deserved it. "Had the nerve to ask if I was cheating on Nico."

Her eyes snapped into focus. "He did?"

I nodded. "He didn't believe it anyway, he just wanted to ask me to be sure. But what I want to know is why this happened in the first place. What did I do to piss off the royal bitch?" Before coming to camp I never swore so much. Then again, before coming here I'd never been so emotional or open.

She shrugged. "I'm not sure, you'll have to ask her yourself. She's in the bathroom now, yanked poor little Tilly right out of it with half of her make up still on."

What? "Why is she still doing that? Shouldn't you stop her?"

"I can't."

"Yes you can! Tell her to knock it off, you're the head of the cabin now aren't you?" I say as if it were obvious.

Here at camp we have different forms of leadership. After the first war Percy became leader of the camp, something that no one, not even the Ares kids protested. Even still, the cabins have their heads, usually it's someone who's either the oldest, been here the longest, or the one who's been on the most quests. Drew being the oldest one in the Aphrodite cabin was the leader (dictator) by default. However, since Sophia went on our quest and came back alive, she had a right to challenge Drew for it. I thought she already had.

"I know I'm the leader." her eyes lowered to the ground. "The day, no, the very hour Gwen gave me the go ahead on my arm I walked right up to her and challenged her. She didn't even try to fight me, she just gave me a glare and submitted. Drew knows I can beat her, so instead of being humiliated in a fight she handed over the leadership with only a few choice words."

"So what's the problem? You are in charge now, go tell her to drop the attitude."

Sophia shook her head. "Sarah, you don't understand."

"Then make me understand!" I yelled and I didn't give a damn if the whole camp heard me, let alone Drew.

Her next words I barely heard. "My mom told me not to interfere. Not with Drew."
Her mom? Aphrodite.

"She said that it was alright to take leadership of the cabin, but to not get in Drew's way. She said that it wasn't my job to do it."

"That doesn't make any sense! As leader of a cabin, that very title makes it your job to deal with your siblings. She told you a major contradiction."

All she did was nod. "I know that. However, she is my mom and I will listen to her...for now. I trust her even if she's being vague."

I scoffed. "Do you really think listening to her will work?"

It took only a split second after I said it to realize that I shouldn't have. Sophia's head snapped up and her eyes glared into mine.

"Just because your relationship with your parent is horrible doesn't mean that mine would steer me wrong Sarah."

"That's not what I meant." I tried to back track, but she wouldn't have it.

"Yes it is. Just because you and your dad have a crap relationship, because you can't trust what he tells you, doesn't mean the rest of the gods and their kids are the same!"

She turned on her heel and opened the door back up, she stepped inside and threw me one last hateful look. "The world doesn't revolve around you, you know. The rest of us have lives too."

The door slammed in my face.

Crest: And there you are folks! This chapter might not be very good, but I needed it out of the way for the next chapter and how it needed to be set up. I really want to thank all of you who have reviewed/favorited/followed the story so far. I know you guys have lots of questions left over from the first story and I do intend to answer them over the course of the story. Please be patient with the timing of my updates and keep reading!