Chapter 12. Connor: Blasting My Heart.
Chiron should change the Dining Pavilion's name. Gossip Pavilion would suit it better.
I watched as hundreds of eyes followed Alva and me as we walked into the place; their attention drawn by the clip-clop of Chiron's hoofs against the marble. Whispers rang throughout the place about the new unclaimed demigods who had arrived.
Alva's friend, Vanessa, seemed self –conscious. She tugged her clothes and smoothed out her brown hair nervously. She even made a feeble attempt to be friendly and waved at a few people. It struck me how young, no, how naive she looked. She seemed to be around fifteen but her face was young and trusting. Nico, who was walking beside her, glared protectively at anyone who glared at her too openly. I saw the Aphrodite girls paying her special interest. She did look like she belonged to their army of Barbie clones but the honesty in her face and the fact that Alva was actually able to tolerate her made me think otherwise.
Alva was her polar opposite. She walked straight and tall, her gaze passing over everyone as though they weren't even there. Her shifting hair drew the brunt of the whispering. Demigods often looked strange, thanks to the godly side of our family, but none as strange as that. Her eyes were fixed on Chiron and her fists were clenched at her side. As I stared at her, a now familiar tide of confused emotions rose up in me and my breath hitched slightly.
I swung my gaze out to the other campers, my face flushing. Travis was staring at me from the Hermes table, with our other sibling. He pointed at Alva and Vanessa and mouthed "What the hell?"
I sighed and made a mental promise to give a nice kick later.
One hour earlier...
Alva heaved me up and we surveyed the infirmary grimly. The blast had overturned most of the furniture in the room. At least they were still intact. I wondered how exactly had Alva managed to blast a room almost to pieces. She had to be powerful. Daughter of Zeus? I hope not. I didn't have a wish to be struck by lightning any time soon.
"Well," I said, trying to lighten the mood. "It could have been much worse." Alva smiled. Her smile was slow and uncertain but it softens her features. My heart skipped a beat. There was some hope for me after all.
"It could have," she agrees. Suddenly, a sound of horse's hooves from outside the infirmary drew our attention. I groaned. Alva looked at me questioningly and I proceeded to explain.
"Chiron is going to have our heads for this." I waved my arms at the damage around us. That seemed to capture Alva's attention.
"Chiron? The camp counselor?" Her hair shifted colors as though she couldn't decide what to feel. Her bright silver eyes stared at me, surprised.
"Yeah," I replied carefully. I didn't want yet another explosion. "He's in charge around here."
"Indeed he is. He is also very curious about the state of our infirmary," boomed a voice from behind us. I gulped and turned around. Chiron towered before us, as glorious as always. His white palomino body tanned chest and arms loomed powerful and deadly. I heard Alva gasp and suppressed a smile. Most of us had the same reaction when seeing Chiron for the first time, no matter how emotionless they may seem.
Alva opened her mouth to answer, but I cut her off. "Hey Chiron," I managed a weak smile. "Long time no see." Chiron shot me a glare. Taking advantage of his distraction, I pulled out a long thing object hidden underneath my camp T-shirt.
Chiron wasn't angry, he hardly ever was but he could get really grumpy. Right now, he was disapproving. I couldn't remember him being anything else while dealing with Travis and me. "What in the name of the gods happened here?" he boomed again.
"Well you know, Chiron." I waved the object in front of me airily. It was something Travis and I called a Flash Bomb. We pranked Chiron with it once. We took that lame, old prank of having a bucket of water fall someone when they enter the room and converted to this masterpiece. With a little bit of engineering we managed to make it such that anyone who entered a room where we fixed this would be blinded by a huge flash of light. Side effects: headaches and temporary blindness. Chiron had been our test subject. I winced at the memory. "Just pranking the newbie." Alva stared at me, her hair shifting again. I shot her warning look. Don't say anything! Play along!
Chiron sighed. "Do you have to do that?" I looked at him surprise. No lecture about being welcoming and all that crap? Nothing about the spoiled infrastructure? No extra chores? Waving to someone behind him, he continued. "Clean this up, please. And you two," His gaze fell on Alva and I felt her shift uneasily. Her hair darkened and muscled tensed. She reminded me off a captured wild animal, forever ready to attack. Carefully, I placed a hand on her shoulder and braced myself. Nothing happened. Alva looked at me and I smiled reassuringly. At least, I hoped it was reassuring. It probably came out as painful. She relaxed slightly. Chiron continued, oblivious to the fact that I nearly got blasted again, "come with me."
As we followed him, Alva asked in an undertone. "Where are we going?" I had been celebrating the fact that I had touched her without something exploding but her voice brought me back to reality. I cursed myself. Gods, I'm worse than Travis.
"The Big House probably." I pointed. Alva nodded as though she had heard of the place before. I wondered how she had known about Chiron in the first place.
"Why did you do that?" Alva's voice was soft but there was an undercurrent of emotion. I smiled. She looked so…. emotionless but there were pointers everywhere to show what she was feeling. She tugged the Flash Bomb from where I hid it under my shirt. Goosebumps erupted on my skin where her fingers grazed it. I cursed again. Definitely worse than Travis.
"Covering up for you of course. What else?" Alva frowned, as though she found it difficult to understand.
"Who healed me?" The furtive look in her eye had turned to one of curiosity. I took it to be a sign we were making progress.
"Chiron bribed Mr D to help somehow." The frown between her eyes deepened. I fought the urge to smooth it out with a finger.
"Mr D… Dionysus?" I nodded and was about to continue before I was interrupted by a brown and blue hurricane.
"Alva!" shrieked the hurricane. "What happened? We heard a bang and then I saw the infirmary all thrashed up and I thought you had ... um." The hurricane turned out to be a girl. She looked to be a year or so younger than Alva. So that made Alva about the same age at me. Alva stared at the girl, her hair turning gold.
"You thought I ran away?" Alva raised an eyebrow and the girl squirmed uncomfortably. She smiled shyly.
"Sorry. Severe foot in the mouth disease," she replied meekly. I laughed. This girl wasn't that bad after all. She looked at me curiously. Alva caught the look.
"Vanessa, Connor. Connor, Vanessa." Alva's voice was dry. I smiled at the both of them. Vanessa looked from me to Alva and back, something brewing in her eyes.
"I see." The two syllables dropped from her tongue, dripping with hidden meaning. Alva shot her look. I was about to demand to know what was going on when Chiron called us again.
"I trust you already had the tour of Camp?" We stopped in front of the Big House and looked up at Chiron once more. He smiled at Vanessa welcomingly. She grinned back.
"Yep. Nico showed me around." That raised Chiron's eyebrows. Nico, Campers-make-me uncomfortable-Nico? The I-don't-do-socializing-Nico? I couldn't help laughing and Chiron shot me a look, which I ignored of course. Nico showed this chirpy girl around. How exactly did that happen?
"Oh so that Underworld-brat is making friends then? Wonderful. Can we get down to business then? We still haven't completed that card game, Chiron. And you still have a few more crates to go through. Now, what is this emergency you called me out for?" Dionysus said out of nowhere. He looked like he always did. Chubby cheeks, hair the color of raven feathers, bloodshot eyes and a bright tiger print shirt. Alva looked him up and down. She smiled softly. Did she find him funny? Gods, why was I analyzing her?
Vanessa's eyes lit up with curiosity. "Crates?" she asked. Mr D laughed and Chiron shot him a dirty look. "What crates?"
Mr D looked at Chiron gleefully. "He didn't tell you? Well that's not fair isn't it, Chiron?" He leaned back in his chair.
Chiron looked like he was contemplating murder. "These demigods are unclaimed, Mr D. Perhaps we could get down to the point?" Mr D looked Vanessa up and down.
"So that means another long, dull, boring meeting with the mighty gods, eh?" Thunder rumbled across the sky and he rolled his reddened eyes. "Fine I'll go. Verana -"
"Vanessa," she interjected.
"That's what I said. Verana and what again?" He shifted his gaze to Alva... and promptly burst out laughing.
"Unclaimed you say? I highly doubt it. Brats like her always know their parent. But we'll give a try. Alva, you say? Yes, we'll give it a try." Still laughing, Mr D began glowing and disappeared in a flash. Chiron looked at Alva, his eyes clouded. She met his gaze steadily. I sensed that Chiron already knew she wasn't giving up any information looked from Alva to Chiron, confused. I sat back and decided to just enjoy the show.
"Unclaimed?" Vanessa asked.
"That means we don't know who your godly parent is yet," I said helpfully. That only confused her further.
"But...Ow!" Alva stepped on Vanessa foot with an audible 'crunch!'. "Oh yeah I forgot sorry." She blushed and looked down uncertainly. Chiron sighed.
"If you do not want to tell me that, at least explain what happened when you came here." Alva raised her chin defiantly. I admired her nerve. Not many half-bloods go against Chiron. Only Annabeth, Percy, Annabeth and Annabeth dared to do that.
I wondered if it was safe to ask Alva how she came to Camp. It would be nice to get the truth. Will she tell me? Can she tell me?
"I'm sure that Underworld brat will happily tell you that," Alva said defensively. Vanessa looked at her annoyed.
"Do you have to..." she mumbled.
"Yes," came the reply. Vanessa rolled her eyes.
"But how did you transport yourselves here?" Chiron pressed on.
"Who said I did that?" she shot back. "Vanessa could have done that." I highly doubted that. One look at Vanessa's face was enough to confirm that Alva's powers went far beyond blasting things. Teleportation. One word. Awesome. Chiron, however, seemed to have had enough of Alva.
"Why are you so angry? This is the only safe place for demigods. We healed you, we took care of you. Why do hate us?" His voice was terse and controlled and all the more dangerous for that. I stared at Alva's bright red hair.
"I thank you for all that. But I never wanted to come here. The only reason I'm staying is because of her" She pointed at Vanessa. "and him." I stared in surprise as she raised her hand and pointed at me. Vanessa grinned. "I owe him one."
Chiron stared at her speechless. Alva glared right back. They looked like opponents in a fight, each determined not to back down. Vanessa looked form one to another unhappily. I couldn't take my eyes of Alva although I cursed myself every single millisecond for it. The staring match went on. Finally I closed my eyes and listened to the raging battle in my head.
I can't help it.
You're just gonna get hurt.
No, I won't.
You sound like Travis.
I do not. And she doesn't seem to mind me too much.
How sure are you?
Uh...
Thought so.
Do you have do be so pessimistic?
I can't help it!
I was rudely interrupted by a Vanessa's voice.
"Oh my gods Nico. What have you done?"
I opened my eyes to see something that I would probably never forget.
Nico Di Angelo was half carrying, half dragging Jenna St Croix towards the Big House angrily. He had is short,dark sword out and man, did he look pissed.
These were the times I wished I had stolen a camera.
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