November 12
Will
Will woke up as their train (very high speed, thanks to Hermes) pulled into the station outside of San Francisco. A large bus was waiting to take them the rest of the way to Camp Jupiter. Three Roman demigods greeted them as they got off the train, and once everyone boarded the bus the Romans began explaining the history of the camp and its structure.
The rest of their morning was spent being shuffled from place to place. Reyna and Frank met them after they dropped off their things at the barracks, and proceeded to give a basic tour. The Greek campers had signed up for different in-depth visits to places in the city and at camp the next day, so the praetors just covered the essentials.
Will thought he might be imagining it, but Reyna seemed to glare at him any time they locked eyes. He drifted toward the back of the group just in case she decided to give her metal dogs any ideas.
As they walked through Temple Hill, Kayla fell into step next to Will. "So, how's it going?"
"Hey, it's fine. New Rome seems cool."
"Agreed. You were shockingly uninterested when they mentioned the med program at the university."
Will glanced over at her. "Right, yeah. I guess I wasn't really paying attention."
"Mhmm. So, excited for the mixer tonight?"
"Um, sure."
"Will, you've got to at least pretend to look forward to it. It doesn't really matter to me, but it'll suck for your date if you're distracted and bored the whole time. It isn't his fault that you said yes without meaning it."
"I know, you're right. Sorry. It will be fun. I am excited. See?" He gave her a hopeful smile.
"Ok, now try saying that with more enthusiasm and less of a 'sorry your dog just died' tone."
That made him laugh. "I'm trying! I really am. He's super nice, and it's been fun hanging out with him, I'm sure tonight will be fine. I mean, fun. Really. I'll get over the weirdness of being here soon, I promise."
"Good. And… I know backing out of the date never occurred to you, but pleeease end it with him after this trip, once we're back at camp or something. It's been almost painful to watch you two. He's really nice, and he just keeps trying so hard… and it isn't like you haven't been nice, but I can tell you aren't really into him and it's sort of hard to watch. Worse than you moping around, really. I think you'd be doing him a favor, and it would definitely end my suffering."
"Well, anything for you, sis," Will said as he rolled his eyes but he knew she was right - he had pretended that things were fine for too long, he couldn't keep forcing it. He just had to make it through the next five days of dances and feasts and tours and sporting events and avoiding Nico. No problem.