Chapter Eight

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJO or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

James' POV

"Jamie!" I hear Lydia call.

I turn around to see her walking up to me, a bow and quiver swung behind her. She must have just finished shooting targets during her free time today.

"Yea?" I ask.

"I heard about who claimed Adrienne." she says. The tone of her voice sounded somber.

"Okay..?" I say, confused.

"I'm so sorry. I know you probably wanted her to be a granddaughter of Apollo, not the filth known as Hades." she says.

I reel back and say, "Wait, what are you trying to say? That she's a disgrace to my family or something?"

"Well..." she says, looking down at her feet.

"Let me stop you there, Lydia. Hades is a pretty kick-ass god, and if you're saying that Adrienne, as his granddaughter, is a disgrace, then what do you think about my dad, who's the son of Hades?" I ask, crossing my arms.

"Well, it's just Hades was an outcast for so long, he was only accepted amongst the gods on Olympus a short time ago, I just thought you—" she trails off.

"Thought I what? Was embarrassed of my dad? Are you kidding me? Lydia, he's one of the most powerful guys I know, and he's pretty awesome. If you think I'm just going to disown my family just because of their parentage, you're wrong. Let me tell you something, you've only been here for a year. You have no idea what you're talking about, so I'd suggest just keeping your mouth shut." I say, then turn my back on her and start making my way to the lake.

"James, I've been looking for you all over, man." Sam says, sitting down next to me on the docks and patting my back a couple of times.

"What happened between you and Lyd? She came back to the cabin in tears." he says.

I scowl and say, "I didn't mean to make her cry."

"Well, what'd you say to her?" he asks. I could tell that if I didn't tell him soon, he'd explode from curiosity.

"She came up to me earlier and told me she was sorry for me since Adrienne had been claimed by Hades and not Apollo." I say.

"And?" he asks, sensing that there was more to the story.

"So I asked her if she was saying that Adrienne was a disgrace to my family and she basically said that she had been implying that. So then I asked her if she assumed that I thought that about my dad too. She didn't really answer. She just came up with that since Hades has only recently been accepted by the Olympians that I just didn't like my dad or Adrienne." I say, still fuming about the conversation.

"Man, I can't believe she said that to you, of all people." he says, baffled.

"I suppose that's Lydia for you. Always poking into business that isn't hers." I say, shrugging.

"C'mon, man. Lets go eat dinner." he says, standing up.

"I'll meet you there in a few minutes." I say, staring down at the water.

"Alright. See you there." he says.

He walks away from me, heading in the direction of the mess hall. My first year at Camp, mom had brought me down here to the docks and told me she used to spend a lot of time here thinking.

I can see why now. It's very peaceful just watching the naiads weave their never ending baskets; listening to the water lap against the dock; it's quiet.

A couple of the naiads take a break from weaving and look up at me. They giggle, making a few bubbles come up to the surface of the water. I smile and shake my head, then get to my feet.

The sun was starting to set, so I figured I better get up to the mess hall before the Apollo cabin came looking for me.

A/N:

Shortish chapter, but of well. I wanted to make Lydia sort of a snobbish character, and I think I succeeded. You'll find out more about what Sam meant when he said, "'...you, of all people.'" in chapter ten. I think you guys are gonna love the next chapter :3

I'm so excited for you to read it!

Well, today it was just me and the older of the two brothers in class. Surprisingly, it was actually nice. We finished up early and walked down to the café down the street and he ate lunch. Before that though, we played with the tic-tac-toe game that was on our table and we talked and it was just really nice. I was actually able to have a conversation with him without getting insulted or just irritated with him.

And it was really sweet. At one point while we were waiting for his food to come out, he noticed the blue rubber band I have on my right wrist. He asked me what it was for and I just sorta shrugged and said I liked wearing it. Then I opened up and told him that it was actually for my panic attacks that I have every now and then, snap it against my wrist and it (for some reason) calms me down a little. He sorta just nodded and a few minutes later his food came out.

Then when we went back to the studio to clean up our wheels, he was cleaning his and he said, "Do you play any instruments?" and I told him I didn't and he said, "You should. I've heard that playing any type of instrument helps with anxiety, maybe it would work for you."

I just thought it was really sweet, 'cause he sounded genuinely concerned about my panic attacks and he wanted to help.

And I'm getting so frustrated with my friend, the one that also takes pottery with me. I understand being busy and all, but good god. She flakes out on me all the time when we have plans. Like, say we made plans two weeks ago to go to the mall. Well, the day we would be going, she'd call last minute and say she couldn't. Now, I'll forgive this kinda stuff a few times, but this has happened countless times now.

It just makes me so angry, with her and with myself. With her for obvious reasons, and with myself because I keep surrounding myself with flaky people. That's pretty much the only kind of friends I've ever had, people who flake out on me all the time.

And I'm always there for some reason, willing to let them back into my life when they're having issues they need to talk about.

Like, just last week, the same friend mentioned above, called me and asked if she could come over. She claimed that she had had a really bad day and needed to talk to her best friend. So I said yes and we went to the park a few minutes away from my house. As we were going over there, she was telling me that she and her boyfriend had had plans to hang out that night and then he just called her when she was about to head over to his house and he said that two of his friends were spending the night so he couldn't hang out. She got all angry and hurt, and I understand this because that was a bit of a shallow move on his part, I mean, they had plans and last minute he just decided to invite over friends.

But then, as she's telling me about this, she turns to me and says, "You have no idea how it feels to have plans and then have the other person cancel last minute." God, I wanted to smack her so bad and scream, "YES I FUCKING DO! YOU DO IT TO ME ALL THE FUCKING TIME!" I didn't do that, but damn, I wanted to.

Sometimes I wish I could just go back five years ago and still be 10 years old and have my two best friends that lived across the street and just be happy like that again. Of course, that's impossible, going back in time.

And y'know what I just realized last night? Each one of these A/Ns is like a little (sometimes giant) journal entry for me. How I never realized that before, I dunno. Just thought that was...Cool? Interesting? I dunno.

M/A:

Point of Know Return by Kansas is today's song. I mean, it's Kansas, how can a person not like Kansas. It's perfectly fantastic classic rock.

XOXO,

Mrs-diAngelo25