Chapter Six: Tea Party Possibilities

After my lady like outburst all the eyes around the campfire fell to me, I only notice a few though. Gwen looked shocked. Nick just smirked in amusement at my cursing. Then my eyes met Sophia's briefly and they held an anger I couldn't mistake for anything else. Everyone else held a gaze of confusion at my words since they probably didn't know that I'd already deduced who the prophecy was for. No one but a few knew of my new gift, one I still hadn't a clue on getting a grip on. But their eyes pierced me anyway and it was all too much, too much attention. My head felt like it started to spin and a pressure formed quickly between my eyes. It was a pressure I'd only felt once before, but it was already all too familiar. I spun around to make a quick escape when I bumped hard into the person behind me.

"Watch where you're going you reject." a snippy, but familiar voice sneered at me. No not now, let it be anyone else but her. I felt a hand shove my shoulder and I caught a glimpse of a perfectly manicured hand with pink nail polish. "Didn't you hear me you loser, move!"

The pressure was so intense that I couldn't think of anything else, let alone why I shouldn't lift my head up. Against everything my common sense screamed at me (which there was only very little left now due to the pain) I lifted my head and met the eyes of Drew. Her face was scrunched in anger and yet she was still beautiful. A second ticked by and nothing happened.

Then I felt the pressure release through my eyes.

I snapped them shut as soon as I could but I knew in my gut I wasn't quick enough. Drew's screams only confirmed my thoughts. I didn't open my eyes for fear of what I would see, a girl withering on the ground just like the Keres had. But the sound of Drew, a girl I couldn't stand in the least, screaming like that twisted at my insides. And I couldn't stop it. The pain in my head suddenly stopped and it left me feeling numb everywhere. Drew's screams melted away as dark spots danced in front of my eyes. I was only vaguely aware of my legs giving out and was ready to feel the ground meet me. In my last second of consciousness I felt an arm wrap around me, stopping my fall. Too bad I didn't see who caught me, I would have said thanks.

*~Page Break~*

When I came to the pain had gone completely and my body felt normal again. My eye lids felt a little heavy as I tried opening them only to be met with numerous faces.

"You know it's a little creepy watching someone sleep." I muttered rubbing my eyes.

"Morning to you too Sunshine." Nick was the face at my left, his smirk was ever the same, but the bags under his eyes looked terrible. "You know when I normally catch girls it's because they swoon for me. But your welcome all the same."

"What?" It felt way too early to deal with his special brand of humor and sarcasm.

Pollux was at my right. "He means that he caught you from falling last night. Although I don't know why he couldn't be normal and just spit it out." he glared at the dark haired demigod, his eyes looked tired too. Nick just shrugged and leaned back in his chair. His chair?

I bolted upright in a bed that wasn't my own. For starters the thing that covered me was a thin white blanket and not my purple comforter and there was only one pillow beneath my head instead of my usual two. I was definitely a two pillow kind of girl. Now that I was wide awake I quickly looked around. Two more faces came into view. Annabeth and Gwen stood at the foot of the bed looking as tired as the rest of them, but Gwen as her dorky self was smiling. Even if it was a strained smile.

"Hey sleeping beauty, I thought I was going to pour a bucket of ice water on you to wake you up."

I scowled. "You did that in eighth grade and I threw my math book at you."

"Yeah, good times." she said brightly, gods she was such a dork sometimes, but I love her anyways.

Looking beyond my little group I recognized the infirmary and went rigid. They had to put me in here?!

"Wait, morning? You said it was morning?"

Annabeth nodded. "It's about ten, you were out all night. How do you feel?"

"Fine I guess." Then I remembered what brought me here in the first place. "What happened after I passed out?" How was Drew is what I really wanted to ask, but couldn't get the words to form. As much as I hated the girl she didn't deserve what I probably did to her.

They all looked at each other as if deciding if the conversation could wait. In the end Pollux turned to me.

"After Nick caught you the Aphrodite and Apollo cabins swept in and brought Drew here. I had Nick bring you in shortly after. Chiron and Mr. D were summoned and while Sophia and Nick caught Chiron up Mr. D went to work on Drew. She stopped screaming before they brought her here, but she was rambling on and on about nothing in particular. Her eyes were funny too, they weren't focused at all. It took about an hour, but Mr. D was able to reverse the damage. Drew was tired and little confused, but fine overall. She walked out of here on her own feet Sarah. She's fine." His eyes bore into mine, his face pleading me to accept the fact that I hadn't hurt her permanently.

"How did I get here?"

"I carried you here." Nick said still leaning the chair back to where the front legs were off the ground. His feet were resting on my bed. "You're heavier than you look, but lucky for you I'm not a stranger to lifting damsels in distress."

I quickly took hold of his legs and threw them back hard. This caused Nick's chair to fall backwards and he yelped when he smacked the ground. I smirked.

"I'm no damsel in distress and I didn't ask you to carry me. Next time let someone else do it, oh, and never call me heavy."

He leaned up rubbing the back of his head. "Noted."

"Why didn't you guys just take me back to my cabin. I wasn't the one screaming."

"Yes but you were the one who passed out and looked like you were dead. Seriously, I could have kicked you in the side and you wouldn't have twitched at all." Gwen explained as she dug through a small duffel bag. Taking out some clothes I realized were mine she handed them to me. "I did run and get you these. You were sweating all night and I thought you might want to change."

Taking notice of my sweat soaked clothes I nodded. "Thanks." Then I noticed something else that should have been more obvious. I looked at Annabeth. "Where's Percy?"

The tan girl smiled at the name. "He left before you woke up to I.M Nico. We thought you would want him to know."

Nico had left some time ago to go back to the Underworld to perform what ever duties he had there. We had discussed his time schedule and it didn't bother me much that he preferred to spend more time in the Underworld now than out of it. Apparently he and his dad were getting along better these days, minus the whole incident when we broke into one of his vaults. Nico still hasn't told me how his dad reacted about that. I still have the yellow stone back with the rest of my things at the cabin. I hid it under a floor board that I loosened and stashed it there with a few more of my valuables. The stone in question had the power to grant the holder the ability to see souls. Thanks to it me, Gwen, and Sophia had managed to track Nick down earlier this summer. I wasn't planning on giving it back to Hades anytime soon.

"Yeah thanks I appreciate it."

Silence took the room and it bothered me. I've never really liked total silence.

"So what does the rest of the camp know about what happened?" I had a feeling that my reputation took a big hit.

"Everything basically." Nick stated bluntly.

"Seriously?"

Annabeth nodded, looking serious again. She ran a hand through her messy blond curls. "People started talking after we took you guys away from the campfire. Because you're Mr. D's kid there was a theory quickly made that you drove Drew mad." Way to hit the nail on the head. Maybe demigods weren't too distracted with their ADHD to put their brains to work after all.

"Then when Drew got better she confirmed it. However, she does what she does best and twisted it to make it sound like you did it on purpose. Not everyone believes her, hardly anyone does, but it does make them a little...hesitate to be around you right now." Pollux tried to say gently. I knew what he meant.

"So they're scared of me now huh? Afraid I'll make them crazy and throw a huge tea party in Wonderland right? Because I'm the Mad Hatter and it's what I do on purpose." I bit out part sarcastic and part bitter.

"Now I wouldn't mind going to that. It would be hilarious!" Nick joked trying to lighten my mood, but I wasn't having it.

"Did anyone try set things straight and tell them what really happened? Did Sophia? And why isn't she here?"

Gwen fiddled with a bracelet on her wrist. "We did tell some people, the Hermes cabin mostly. Oh, Travis and Connor want you to come by when you're up for it."

"Sophia had some things to take care of." Annabeth interjected quickly.

"Princess is worried about containing the rumor mill in her cabin, but she did ask about you before she left with drew last night though."

That stung a little. I knew that has head of her cabin that Sophia would have to take care of them first, but she completely left me to go with Drew, who everyone said was fine, and left me here unconscious.

"Were you guys here the entire night? Because I say this with love, except for Nick (Hey!), you guys look terrible."

They all nodded and that lifted my spirits a little. So I had good friends who wouldn't abandon me.

"Chiron was going to kick us out, but we argued. In the end dad said if it would shut us up we could stay. But if we woke you he would turn Percy into a dolphin." Pollux explained as he got up. "How about you get up and changed and we'll walk over to the volleyball courts and play a game until lunch. Chiron wants you to take it easy until after you eat."

"Sounds like a plan. Give me a minute and we'll go."

They all filed out and I quickly swapped outfits. Gwen had brought me a pair of jean shorts, a dark green shirt with sleeves that came to my elbows, and my black and white tennis shoes. After I fixed my hair and scrubbed my face with a wet towel I was ready to go.

The rest of the morning was spent playing volleyball and getting stared at by campers passing by. They would make no attempts to hide it and stare or point at me, whispering as they do so. I could just imagine what was said. 'Hey there's the freaky girl who can make us coo coo for coco puffs or fruiter than fruit loops if we look at her wrong.' Yeah that didn't help my mood at all. My mind kept drifting off and I knew at some point today I would have to track down Rachel and talk to her about this new quest. It didn't sound like it had a time clock on it, but I knew the sooner I started the better. The only question was who I was going to involve this time around?

Gwen was my first choice, even if this prophecy hadn't gave a clue who to take this time. She was my best friend and I trusted her and her abilities to come through in troubling times. That and I knew she would never let me leave without her. Then there's Sophia and right now I'm not sure if I trust her. Hell, I don't even know if she still think of me as her friend! This was just way too much to think about right away. First off I needed to get this power of mine under control and to do that Alice and I needed to have another talk. This time though, I wasn't leaving until I knew for sure how to deal with it.

I couldn't afford not to.