Dpov

Over the next few weeks, it felt almost as if I was living two different lives. The first I'd grown up in, going to school, practices, and spending time with my nerdy, suddenly expanding, group of friends. The next, I was forcing myself to pretend not to notice cameras while out in the city with Lorelei and her father.

I couldn't believe how managed both of their 'social lives' were, the maintenance of both public images run like a well-oiled machine producing things like staged 'candid' photos and charming, preplanned remarks to whatever someone with a video camera might think to ask. It was a bit disturbing, but kind of fascinating to see the celebrity world from the inside. I'd always thought famous people made life look so easy. They were always so effortlessly cool, as if having the world's attention was nothing to them. However, having spent only a fraction of my time inside that bubble these days, I could now see just how much work was put into it. None of it was simple, and it actually had me feeling pretty sorry for Lorelei.

She couldn't so much as go to a movie without worrying someone might ask what she thought about it while exiting the theater, and I knew that because when I'd invited her to one with me and my friends, she'd told me she'd already been warned by her father's agent it was 'too political'. I had no idea what that meant, seeing as the the main selling point of the movie was robots that exploded, but I found that there were a lot of things Lorelei 'couldn't' do. Theme park? Not without proper planning to avoid crowds. A hockey game Michael had won tickets to? Absolutely not. Her father had a game that night, and even though it was on the other side of the country, there was no way in hell she could be spotted watching another sport while her father played. We couldn't even go to the arcade together at the moment as she kept getting recognized now people realized it was a place she was likely to be, in fact, even I couldn't go there at the moment. Even if I didn't get nearly as much attention, getting swarmed by people asking about Lorelei and her father made trying to beat her record in Tetris significantly less fun. It made it impossible to concentrate.

"It's not always this bad." she said on one of these 'managed outings' with her and her father. We at ice cream shop in Hollywood that celebrities were often spotted at. Not because it was particularly better than any of the other shops around it, she'd informed me, but because it had a good relationship with paparazzi and it had the right 'aesthetic'. Whatever that meant. "The only reason they're here is because of you."

"Because of me?" I asked in shock and she nodded. "What do you mean?"

"Relationships are interesting." she said shrugging, her expression speculative, and I found it almost depressing how matter of fact she was about the situation. "It's gossip. They'll forget about me eventually when people get sick of my face and remember I don't actually do anything useful for society."

"We're in high school." I pointed out. "Not a lot of us do."

She laughed, then surprised me by crossing her eyes and puffing out her cheeks causing an increase of camera flashes while her father's agent glared daggers at her from another table. She shot him a look and stuck out her tongue in a decidedly immature expression. She managed to somehow make it adorable.

"What?" she asked defensively when she spotted my grin. "No one expects me to grow up completely over night."

She poked her spoon at him and raised her voice as she said.

"At least I'm not setting things on fire."

His expression was unamused.

"You know, I think I'd quite like to see that." I said turning back to her with interest and she smirked.

Being so busy, time seemed to be moving in fast flashes.

Being fairly decent at a sport, most people knew who I was around school even before it had gotten out that I knew Lorelei, but it wasn't as if it had made me popular, just that most of my class mates had a vague awareness of who I was or what I looked like. Now it seemed like everyone knew who I was, wanted to talk to me, invite me to things like parties or tips to the beach. I'd gone from classmates barely knowing me outside of 'the giant on the lacrosse team', and having a normal social life, to suddenly never not having something to do.

I wasn't an idiot. I knew it had nothing to do with me that suddenly people at school were far more interested in my life. I was sure none of these invitations would have been happening if they knew there was no chance that Lorelei was going to turn up. Still, it was overwhelming.

I found myself appreciating my friends now more than ever, people who'd decided they liked me before I knew anyone famous and tried to fill up my schedule as much as possible hanging out with them to have excuses to turn down other people without seeming rude.

Priya would have been proud.

There was one person, however, that was an exception to the pre and post Lorelei friend circle at my school, that I found I actually did enjoy spending time with now that everyone seemed to know who I was. Mostly, because I was pretty sure she was the one person on the entire coast I was convinced didn't care about the name Ellis.

"What I don't get." Amber said as we walked away from the practice fields after school, athletic bags slung over our shoulders, in a particularly brutal afternoon heat. "Is why your girlfriend stopped playing soccer. You know there's still some footage online of when she played. She was actually pretty good." she frowned. "With her dad's connection and her resources, she could have easily gone pro."

"That doesn't mean she wanted to." I pointed out and her eyes narrowed, as if she couldn't fathom why anyone wouldn't want to play soccer professionally.

Then again, maybe she couldn't.

"Wish she went to our school." Amber muttered, glancing back at the field, her expression slightly wistful. "We could use someone with a good first touch up top in striker. She's tall too. I could have made her join the team."

"I don't think anyone can make Lorelei do anything." I said frowning. Summer weather was really starting to set in as the end of the school year approached, and after only two practices in this heat wave, I was about ready to drive to the coast and jump into the ocean. "And why were you looking this up anyways?"

"I have zero impulse control and almost constant internet access." She said shrugging. "Her dad told me he used to train with her on weekends." Her expression went thoughtful. "Do you think she'd transfer?"

"No." I said with a laugh and was surprised to see Amber look genuinely disappointed.

'Gods.' I thought.

This girl really did have a one-track mind.

The girls team had done extremely well this season, their most recent win, in which Amber had scored two of the three goals, had secured their spot in the play offs and this time, the school had taken notice. Not only were they hosting a pep-rally later this week for the team, but had offered to organize transportation to students wanting to support the girls in their post season games.

"What are you doing for prom?" she asked unexpectedly as we hit the student lot and I felt a jolt of adrenaline go through me, momentarily horrified as she continued. "A few of the girls from the team and I are getting together before hand, a few of them are going with your teammates, I thought we could go as a group you know? Invite Jenny and your club friends."

"Oh." I said a bit surprised at the offer, feeling relief flooding through me. I'd been afraid she'd been about to ask me. But unable to see an issue with the suggestion I added. "Yeah, sure I'll ask them."

"Great." She said brightly. "Your girlfriend coming?"

Anyone else and I would have thought they were asking because they were interested if a celebrity was going to turn up, but Amber had asked like she would have to anyone who was dating someone at another school. Knowing her, that was probably exactly how she thought of it.

"She should be."

"Cool." She said then smirked. "Maybe she can get one of her dad's teammates to go with me."

"You don't have a date?"

She shook her head and let out a defeated sigh.

"Believe it or not." She said sounding a little irritated, but a bit dejected as well. "Not a lot of guys are super eager to ask out a girl who's too busy with practice to go on dates and can kick their ass on the soccer field."

"I dunno about that." I said frowning.

Plenty of girls on the team had boyfriends, but now that I thought about it… they were dating other athletes. Then again, athletes dating athletes could just be a compatibility thing.

"Must be my personality then." She said with another sigh, though over dramatized this time, and I grinned. "I guess I'll just be destined to be single."

"You know you could ask someone, right?" I asked and her brow furrowed in a skeptical expression.

"I dunno," she countered. "I thought guys weren't all that thrilled about a girl taking the lead on that sort of thing."

I scoffed.

"And you called me sexist." I said trying not to grin when I saw she was considering the suggestion. "I can think of at least one."

"You can?" she asked her eyebrows darting up in surprise.

I glanced over my shoulder towards the equipment shed that Cole was stepping out of after practice, no doubt making sure everything was ready for our game tomorrow.

She turned, clearly wondering what I was looking at, and it was as if I could see the gears starting to turn in her mind. Connecting the dots as to why Cole seemed so shy around her, as well as that he was a nice, smart guy, with cool friends and obviously liked her.

"Am I an idiot?" she asked to no one in particular.

"You might be."

She laughed, adjusted her bag, then started jogging in his direction.

His eyes went wide behind his glasses when he realized she was coming to talk to him and I looked away, feeling a sense of satisfaction that was redoubled the next morning, as he stepped into the workshop, clearly still stunned.

"What's up with you?" Ellie asked over the screen of her laptop as she looked over what was hopefully the final design for the build we'd start next week.

"Nothing." He said putting his bag on one of the benches, but he was still smiling a bit like an idiot as he continued. "I just… I have a date to prom."

He sounded as if he honestly couldn't believe it.

"I didn't know you were planning on asking someone." She said brightly. "Who are you going with?"

"I didn't." Cole said his grin widening. "Amber asked me."

"The captain of the soccer team?" Michael asked incredulously and Cole let out a laugh.

"Yeah. She invited all of us to go with her and her team."

A surprised silence followed this as we all just sort of stared at each other.

"I thought we were geeks." Ellie said frowning, her expression troubled as she looked around the group. "Did we fall into an alternate universe or something? At what point did we all start getting dates and get invited to things by the jocks?"

"I blame Dex." Michael said with a smirk, putting his arm around her shoulder and she beamed at him. "We stuck to the nerd pool. He was the one who went out for sports."

"And went and made friends with the rich kids." Cole pointed out.

"Friends." Ellie snorted. "Right."

"Oh shut up." I said and the grin she directed at her laptop as she resumed typing was possibly the smuggest I'd ever seen. "I don't want to hear it. She's helped us a lot recently."

After the table saw incident, the club had needed a lot more money if we wanted to go to competition this year. Lorelei, in between working on both her and Ellie's dresses for prom, had spent the last several weekends helping us make an ungodly amount of baked goods we'd been selling before school and between classes. It had been shockingly effective.

Not only did we make enough money for the build this year, but we'd also probably raised enough for next year too, and it looked as if there was a lot of interest in people joining the club when sign ups rolled around next semester. Some had even started coming to meetings, Michael and Ellie teaching them the basics of coding and programing, as he was the club president and she would be taking over next year.

A couple of the underclass men that had joined us this morning looked up at this point, and figuring it was best to get the topic away from Lorelei, I said.

"But speaking of that, are we ready to submit the schematics? The competition deadline is what? Friday?"

"I'm sending it over tonight." Michael said. "So everyone should look it over by what? Ten?"

"We have a game tonight." Cole said gesturing first to himself and then to me. "We're going to be out late."

"Ah that's right, I forgot."

"We can look it over during study hall. You don't have anything you have to do, do you?"

Cole shook his head.

"Great." Ellie said brightly. "What time is your game anyways? If we finish the submission early enough we could come watch."

It didn't end up happening.

Cole and I found a fairly significant design flaw in one of the bot's axels that we were trying rapidly to fix, Michael delaying our submission for as long as possible while we scrambled to figure out a solution.

I'd just had a brain wave after the game, and had convinced our coach to let me into the school so I could check something in the shop, when a sense of unease washed over me the moment I stepped through the door.

Battle sense buzzing, I narrowed my eyes and scanned the room.

It was dark in the shop, heavy equipment casing eerie shadows in what little light filtered through the windows across the room.

Frowning, I reached for the switch I knew was set into the wall next to me only to freeze when a familiar voice whispered.

"Dex?"

Lorelei.

Instantly forgetting the lights, I turned following the sound, seeing something shift a head of me, retreating to the darkest corner of the room.

I followed, feeling my stomach tighten anxiously with every step.

"Lore?"

She didn't answer.

Something was very wrong.

What was she doing here? How in Hades had she gotten into the school? And why was she just standing here in the dark?

But the questions were driven from my mind she spoke again, her voice panicked this time, causing my blood to freeze.

"Dex? Where are you? Where-"

She screamed, whether in pain or terror I wasn't sure, but it felt as if someone had reached through my chest, grabbed ahold of my pounding heart, and started to squeeze.

Pulse racing, unable to breathe I started to run, trying to catch up with the figure that was backing further and further into the dark. Desperate to see her, to know she was ok, I lifted a hand, flames bursting to life in my palm.

Light flooded the room, and she turned, deep blue eyes wide with fear, tears glittering in the firelight. But when I reached out, she vanished.

"What-" I started confused, only to hear a savage hiss.

I dodged just in time to see a shriveled hand slashing at the space I'd been just moments ago, strong digits ending in razor sharp claws.

Not bothering to look behind me, I ducked under a work bench, the glow of the fire dying as the creature struck a second time. I stood, launching the bench at the monster before it could catch it's bearings.

There was a shriek of pain as it stumbled back into a drill press, both it and the equipment toppling to the floor.

Several crashes and the sound of splintering wood announced to me that the monster, whatever it was, was back up as I sprinted towards the supply closet in search of a weapon.

I wrenched open the door and scanned its contents, a broom, shop vac, scrap metal from old projects that might be usable, and a massive stack of containers with things like drill bits, screws, as well as various other tools we used regularly.

The hissing grew louder now as the creature began to close in, a blurred shadow in the darkness moving at a rapid pace.

I grabbed a heavy looking metal bar and reignited the fire in my palm, curling my fingers around it so the metal grew red hot.

A flicker of moment caught my eye, and I turned ready to strike only to go rigid, horrified when again, I saw Lorelei. She threw up her hands to defend herself, and the moment of hesitation was enough.

The creatures hand shot through her image, dispelling the illusion, reaching for the weapon only to shout in agony as it came into contact with the scorching metal.

It staggered back into a patch of moonlight and only when I drove the metal through the monster, did I see what it was.

Snake like green eyes, their pupils slit, glared at me as long pointed teeth barred together in pain and hatred, lizard like claws still scrabbling towards me feebly as they lost their strength.

Lamia.

I stared at her in complete shock.

This didn't make any sense. Lamia was a major monster. What on Olympus was she doing here? What did she want with me?

Almost as if she knew what I was thinking, she snarled, grinding her crocodile like teeth, and in a last, spite filled gesture, the image of Lorelei flashed in front of me, wounded on the ground, clutching at the bar I was still holding, a dark stain spreading across her shirt.

Horrified, I reeled back as the figure let out a ragged, spiteful laugh and erupted into dust, taking the illusion with it. The bar clattering the floor.

The laughter echoed in my mind as well the image of what I'd been forced to witness.

Unable to move, I stood there for several seconds before I realized I was shaking.

I leaned back against the wall just as my knees gave out and I slid to the floor, glancing at the metal as slowly, it's glowing tip dimmed, then looked back at my hands feeling sick. Like I might actually throw up.

'Don't be ridiculous.' I thought, trying to force myself to breathe though a fog of panic that was swelling inside my chest. 'It wasn't her. She's fine.'

It hadn't been Lorelei, I knew that, but an illusion. But that didn't stop me from wincing when I glanced at the pile of dust, my head jerking away instinctively as if, even on a subconscious level, my mind was trying to protect itself from what it had seen.

I couldn't look at it.

'She's a magic user.' I reminded myself. 'She was angry. She'd just lost a fight. She was being cruel.'

But no matter how often I repeated those words to myself, it didn't help.

I put my head in my hands, trying my best to think of something, anything else. Unbidden and unwelcome, the image of Lorelei, lying there, pain and surprise in her expression continued to assault my mind.

I wasn't aware of reaching for my phone before it was already in my hand, trying to connect the out going call.

'She's fine.' I assured myself, anxiety pooling within me as the line continued to ring, feeling as if my nerves had been stretched to their limit.

But a new wave of fear rolled over me as the line went to voicemail, frantically, I redialed the number.

Lorelei almost always answered her phone, at least when I called. Hell, she'd answered it even in detention.

'What was going on?' I thought anxiously as the line continued to ring. 'Had she run into something? Why on earth was Lamia lurking in the workshop of my high school?'

Surely, she had better things to do. More interesting demigods to torment. It wasn't as if I was particularly well known outside of the forge. Sure, I was a decent fighter, but it wasn't as if I got sent on missions. No, I was just the person the heroes she'd really want to go after wanted making their weapons.

And how, out of all the demigods in the camp, had she known to show me Lorelei?

I shook my head as the image flashed again in my mind, trying to clear it. I mean, even if the mortal world wouldn't shut up about us, Lorelei and I had spent hardly anytime together until recently, and I couldn't imagine that was of much interest to anyone in the mythological world. Besides, it wasn't as if monsters spent their time scrolling though celebrity gossip sites. Not human ones at least.

All these questions, however, were driven from my mind when the call connected, and I heard.

"Hey." A flood of relief went through me as I heard her voice. She sounded fine, cheerful even. "Sorry I missed your call. How was the ga-"

"Where are you?" I asked quickly, cutting across the question.

There a pause in which she was clearly caught off guard, and I could hear what sounded like people in the background.

"Uh, at dinner with my dad." She said and I could tell she was confused. "Why? Did something happen?"

"No." I said automatically, but it felt like a lie. "I mean, I had a run in with a monster."

"Are you ok?"

She sounded alarmed.

"Yeah," I said, honestly this time. "I- I just…."

I glanced at the metal bar, glinting dully in the moonlight and forced myself to look away.

"I wanted to make sure you were."

I heard her father's voice ask something in the background, in French, probably because they were in public. The habit must have been rubbing off on her because when she responded, it wasn't in English.

"Je reviens tout de suite."

I hadn't picked up enough of the language to understand it, but the noise in the background dimmed as the clicks of what I assumed were high heels sharpened into focus. It had me thinking that where ever she was, she'd stepped out to take the call.

"Are you sure you're ok Dex?" she asked uncertainly. "You sound upset."

"I'm fine." I assured her and when she hesitated, I could tell she was debating if she wanted to challenge the statement, but decided against it.

"You seem to be having a lot of bad luck lately."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Jake's truck almost killed you, and then you almost got run over on the board walk. Ellie's Instagram threw you into the public's consciousness, and now seems like you can't so much as play a lacrosse game without getting attacked."

"Yeah, now that you mention it," I glanced across the room at the work bench that had been recently replaced. "That saw blade that came loose and buried itself into the table nearly took my hand off."

"Jeez," she muttered sounding a bit disturbed before asking. "What did you do to piss off the universe?"

I grinned as I got to my feet, suddenly feeling much happier as I responded with.

"Could be that it's just trying to balance things out."

"How so?"

"Well." I said remembering the conversation my friends and I had had earlier today in this very room. "I've got a pretty cool prom date."

"Michael?" she asked and I laughed.

"No. He dumped me for Ellie, can you believe it?"

"What an ass." She sighed.

I hadn't realized I'd been walking until I'd stepped into the hall.

"Amber asked Cole."

"To prom?"

"Yeah I'm pretty sure he's still on cloud nine about it."

"I'll bet." She said and while her tone was calm, I could tell she was grinning.

"She told me she wished you'd gone to school in our district."

"That's quite the change in attitude."

"She said you're a good soccer player from what she saw, thinks she could have convinced you to join the team."

She scoffed.

"You don't think so?"

"No. But it hardly matters." She said casually. "I'll let her live in that fantasy if she wants."

Not for the first time, I realized just how naturally it seemed to come to Lorelei to make everyone like her. Even the people determined not to.

She made it look so easy, taking all of the personalities and motivations people projected on to her, and making them into whatever she wanted them to see.

But it was the person I saw in flashes as she shifted between these caricatures that I liked being around the most, and with how crazy life had been lately, how visibly she was currently forced to remain in the public eye, I'd seen less of that person recently than I'd gotten used to.

It wasn't like how it had been before the photo on Ellie's profile had blown up. We couldn't just walk down the board walk or stay out on the beach after hanging out at the arcade with friends. No, these days everything she did was being watched, and, when I was with her, I was too.

I realized, with a jolt, just exactly how much I missed hanging out with her with out having to worry about other people. How much I missed... her. The real Lorelei, the gorgeous geek who laughed at her friends and horrifyingly bleak internet humor. Locked couples in closets who I then had to rescue, who got jealous, and insecure, and wasn't so terrified to be vulnerable for once, she'd even manage to let herself cry. Admit to both herself and to me, that she wasn't always all that happy.

Everything about her life was so meticulously planned out at the moment, I knew there was no chance in hell being out in public with the 'real' Lorelei was happening anytime soon. And out in public was where everyone wanted her these days.

"She's not the only one." I said quietly glancing back at the school building lit by the lights of the parking lot. "That wishes you went to school here."

I'd made it back to my car and was leaning against it, knowing I should probably stop dragging out the call, not just because of the increasing likelihood it would attract more monsters, but because, eventually, she'd have to go back to dinner with her father.

"You don't know what you're saying." She said sounding amused. "Cameras are one thing, but imagine having practice every day with Jake."

"Might be worth it."

She laughed.

"He's a maniac, Dex."

"I know. I stand by what I said."

She didn't answer straight away, but when she did, I could hear the smile in her voice.

"That might be the sweetest thing anyone's ever said to me."

"That seems like a pretty low bar."

"Jake hit's people very hard."

"Yeah, I know." I said emphatically and again she laughed.

"I should probably go." She said regretfully. "My dad's probably wondering what's taking me so long."

"Alright." I said quietly.

"Are you sure you're ok?" she asked.

"I'm fine." I said, but when she made a disbelieving noise I continued. "Seriously, I'm alright. I wasn't hurt, I just... wanted to talk to you."

"You must really like me then." She said softly. "Because you hate talking to people."

"Yeah, I do."

There was a pause in which clearly this response had surprised her, before she answered.

"I like you too Dex."

"Good to know." I said, almost sure she could hear my smile as well. "You're right though, you should get back to your dad. Tell him I say hi."

"I will." She said. "I'll talk to you later."

"Bye Lore."

I ended the call and unlocked my car, going through the usual motions, pushing in the clutch and turning the key in the ignition, and as the engine roared to life, an idea occurred to me, no doubt born less from the conversation I'd just had, but who I'd been talking to.

My mom was already asleep by the time I got home, a note left on the my door saying she'd watched the game and I'd done well, but when I showered, I didn't fall into bed, but the chair at my desk, firing up my laptop and opening the shared schematic we had for the robotics club, making several suggestions for changes to our design and texting the group chat to take a look.

Predictably, it was Michael who responded first, no doubt working just as late on fixing the design flaw as I was.

'Are you insane Dex? We need to have our final schematic submitted in LESS THAN 48 HOURS!'

Ellie was next.

'It's an interesting concept, but we have no idea if it will work. And we don't have anytime to test it…'

'I can make the adjustments before the deadline.'

No one really seemed to know what to do with this statement, and I was sure Michael and Ellie were scrambling in a conversation on the side, the two senior members of the club trying to figure out how to tell the most experienced of the group he'd lost his mind.

Luckily, Cole answered before either of them.

'I trust Dex. If he says he can get it done he can. If he doesn't, we'll submit the original design. The rest of us can work on the axel issue for now.'

Both Michael and Ellie reacted with a thumbs up, and I let out a sigh of relief before grabbing a pen, a pad of graph paper, smiling a little when my eyes landed on another design I'd been perfecting over the last several weeks, that I intended to start working on the moment I got back at camp and had access to the sort of equipment I'd need to really do it justice.

Still smiling, spurred forward with a sudden restless sense of energy, I put the pen to paper and got to work.