Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.
Author's Notes: The original version of this chapter was very clunky, I stg. It's fixed now. ;)
Hope y'all enjoy, and until next week,
~TGWSI/Selene Borealis
~The Finding Home Saga~
~Finding Home~
~Chapter 25: I Make Good On My Promises Pt. 2~
As it turned out, getting Alabaster and Silena together wasn't as easy as I'd thought it would be.
Partially, this was because despite their parents being married and all, the Cabin Eleven and Cabin 10 kids always had conflicting schedules – or so it seemed to me. When the Hermes kids were busy sword-training with Luke in the arena, the Aphrodite kids were busy practicing with bows and arrows in the archery fields with Chiron. When the Hermes kids were busy climbing the rock wall, the Aphrodite kids were busy canoe-racing with the naiads. And etcetera, etcetera. You get the idea.
But, that being said, I could've dealt with the conflicting schedules rather easily, if that was the only reason why I was having trouble getting them together. After all, Luke and I had conflicting schedules except for his one-on-one sword training instruction with me, and we were still able to make it work.
What I couldn't deal with, however, was Alabaster's stubbornness – seriously! For a son of Hecate, the goddess of crossroads and choices and all that jazz, he was incredibly good at dragging his feet in the metaphorical sand. Each time I tried to get him and Silena alone despite their schedules so they could confess their feelings for one another, he always came up with an excuse about why he couldn't talk to her at that time – and his excuses were always lame.
Likewise, each time I tried to convince him to do something nice for Silena, like getting flowers from Katie (she was more than happy to help me in my endeavors to get our two friends together), he always had a lame excuse for that, too.
It was frustrating, this stubbornness of his. No, more than frustrating. Even more so when, by the time the Fourth of July celebrations were about to begin in a few short hours, I still hadn't been able to get the two of them together.
"Oh, Katie, I don't know what to do!" I groaned as I looked at my reflection in the body-length mirror my other best friend had loaned me for the day.
The two of us were standing in my cabin, rummaging through a pile of clothes which had come with the mirror. We were trying to "decide" on an outfit for me for my "secret date" with Luke later that night. The date wasn't going to be all that special: just a small dessert picnic in a spot which I had been assured would be secluded from the beach yet still in an area where we could see the fireworks the Hephaestus kids had made for the occasion. So I had been told by Luke, anyways.
...Honestly, I didn't really see the point in dressing up for such a "date," but. When I had Silena that, she'd promptly given me a horrified look and a five-minute lecture about how wrong I was, before doubling the amount of clothes she was loaning me.
I also knew if I denied her a second time, she would skin me alive.
"What do you mean?" Katie asked. She was looking at the outfit that I was currently wearing, which consisted of a dark blue dress shirt and black dress pants. "No, that outfit is way too formal, I don't care what Silena says. You need something more casual."
"I just can't believe how stubborn Alabaster is I replied, shrugging off the clothes and putting on the new ones she promptly handed to me. "I just...he likes Silena, and he knows that Silena likes him, so I don't understand why he's refusing to ask her out. Like, not even Luke and I were that bad. Is this outfit any better?"
She shook her head. "No, not really...try this one on. As for Alabaster, though...I agree with you. I know Silena likes to say love isn't easy for everyone, but he really does need to get his head out of his ass – or have it taken out of his ass for him."
I frowned, seeing her evil grin in the reflection of the body-length mirror. I turned around so I could look at her properly. "What do you mean?"
Her grin widened. "What I mean is, why have you not considered making Alabaster...oh, I don't know, jealous? I mean, if nothing else works, I'm sure making him jealous will. Oh, and μὰ θεούς, that outfit is great, it's just missing something in particular..."
"You want me to do what?" Charles Beckendorf, the head of Cabin 9, aka the Hephaestus Cabin, asked incredulously.
"Pretend to ask Silena to go with you to the fireworks tonight," Katie replied while I hastily jerked my head in agreement next to her, "so that Alabaster will get jealous and ask her out instead."
"But I don't even like Silena like that!" he protested.
The daughter of Demeter rolled her eyes. "We know that, Beck," she said. "You aren't exactly subtle in showing how much you like Drew – " here, the son of Hephaestus spluttered even more " – but this isn't about Drew. This is about Silena, her half-sister, and giving Silena the proper date that she deserves for tonight. After all, hasn't Silena been helping you out with trying to woo Drew or something like that? I know she does it for practically everyone at camp."
Beckendorf went back to spluttering.
Personally, I was almost as surprised as he was. While I knew that he didn't like Silena like that, I hadn't known that Beckendorf had liked anyone like that – he didn't strike me as ace like Ethan, just generally not interested in making romance a big deal – most of all, Drew. I tried picturing how that particular relationship would work, but all I could imagine was Drew constantly speaking in that bored tone of hers, even when they were on dates or when Beckendorf gave her flowers or a shiny necklace he'd made with his own hands.
I tried my best not to snicker at the thought.
Apparently, though, Beckendorf must've gotten over his spluttering while I was busy entertaining myself, because the sudden sound of his voice dragged me out of my thoughts. "Fine. Alright, I'll do it," he said. "But you owe me one, Katie."
She smiled sweetly at him in response. "Of course, Beck. How could I not?"
Two hours later, right when everybody was about to go down to the beach to watch the fireworks, Katie and I carefully hid ourselves in the brush right next to Cabin Ten, allowing us to have a good view of all of the insanity which was about to ensue.
After the two of us had convinced Beckendorf to pretend to ask out Silena, we'd also roped Ethan into our plans. At any moment now, the son of Nemesis was going to walk with Alabaster just in front of Cabin Ten, where Beckendorf would be waiting on Silena. Hopefully, this would make the son of Hecate jealous enough to butt in and ask Silena out instead. Otherwise, I didn't know what other tricks I could pull from out of my sleeve in my attempt to fulfill my promise.
"Μὰ θάλασσαν, I hope this works," I couldn't help but mutter under my breath. Thoughts were swirling in my mind about what would happen if it didn't.
Next to me, Katie rolled her eyes and elbowed me in the shoulder lightly. "Don't worry, Percy, it will, I have no doubts about it. But if for some reason it doesn't, μὰ θεούς I will use my vines to tie Alabaster ad Silena up until they confess their feelings for each other..."
"Alabaster and Silena like each other?"
Clamping a hand over my mouth so I didn't shriek and ruin our plants right then and there, I turned around and gave Luke the best glare I could manage.
He grinned at me humorously in response.
What a bastard, I couldn't help but think.
I took my hand away from my mouth. "Really, Luke? Did you really have to go and scare me like that?"
"No, not really," he admitted. "I went to go pick you up from your cabin but you weren't there, so I decided to come and find you. Why are we here, by the way?"
"We're trying to get Alabaster and Silena together," answered Katie before I could say anything myself. Annoyed, I turned to glare at her, but she ignored me, continuing with, "Because Percy made a promise to Silena while we were on our quest to get her and Al together, but Alabaster has proven himself to be...stubborner than Percy was expecting."
"That's one way of putting it," I mumbled.
"Sounds fun." Luke crouched down next to us. "Mind if I stay and watch?"
I shook my head. "No."
Katie gave another roll of her eyes. "Only if you guys don't get disgusting and make out in these bushes," she said. "Seriously. Don't. The bushes don't deserve that."
Luke snickered at that. I shoved Katie with my shoulder. She pushed me back, and we squabbled in the bushes for a good few seconds, up until she caught something in the corner of her eye. Looking up, she exclaimed in a whisper, "Oh, here he comes! Wait, no...here they both come! Luke, get down! You're still too tall! They'll see you!"
"I'm not that tall," my boyfriend grumbled. Still, he nevertheless complied to her wishes and crouched down even further, to where he was pretty much all but sitting on the ground.
It was an image I would've laughed at, because it looked a little ridiculous, had I not been so focused on the forms of both Beckendorf and Ethan and Alabaster walking by Cabin Ten. Alabaster was woefully oblivious and Ethan was doing his best to play a similar part. Beckendorf was wringing his hands nervously and threw a non-discrete glance our way, as if he knew that we were there, watching him.
...Well, watching the son of Hecate more like it, but you know. Tomayo-tomahto, or whatever.
Apprehensively, Beck knocked on the door of Cabin Ten, since Silence and all of her half-siblings hadn't come out of the cabin yet. At first, there was no visible reaction from inside the cabin, but there definitely was one from Alabaster. With what he probably presumed to be subtleness, he turned to look at the cabin as his walking slowed so he was barely even moving. Next to him, Ethan slowed down, too, although not before casting a careful, one-eyed glance towards where we were hiding.
Way to almost ruin it, Beck, I thought.
Suddenly, the door to Cabin Ten opened. The door itself obstructed our view so Luke, Katie, and I couldn't see who was answering the door, but we could all hear the voice of Silena exclaim, "Charlie, what are you doing here? The fireworks are just about to start?"
Despite the darkness, I could make out the flush on Beckendorf's cheeks which appeared at the nickname – no one called him "Charlie" except for Silena and Drew. In fact, everybody else usually called him Beckendorf or Beck, like Silena had earlier.
"H – hey, Silena," he greeted her tentatively. "I was just wondering if you..."
Beckendorf abruptly lowered his voice, making all of us unable to hear what he was saying.
I quelled the urge to groan. "What's he saying?" I whispered to Luke instead. If there was any of us who would know, it would probably be the son of Hermes...not to be stereotypical or anything.
But my boyfriend only grimaced. "...I don't know. I can't see his mouth. And even if I could, I'm not as good at lip-reading as Travis and Connor are. If only they were here..." He trailed off.
The door to Cabin Ten came to a close, revealing Silena in all of her glory. The daughter of Aphrodite's face was flushed, and she was looking at Beckendorf with wide, disbelieving eyes. With actual subtleness, her eyes flitted over to where we were sitting in the bushes just like Beckendorf's and Ethan's had, and I knew then that he had let her in our plans.
...Which wasn't awful, I supposed. It could be worse, albeit the lack of a surprise wasn't nearly as romantic as I'd been wanting.
"Oh, how sweet of you, Charlie!" Silena exclaimed. She was giving him a wide smile, right as the flush vanished from her face. "Of course I'd like to watch the fireworks with you!"
Quickly, I angled my head towards Alabaster, and hid my grin with my hand when I saw his reaction. The son of Hecate, who had long-since stopped in his place, was looking at Beckendorf and Silena with wide, misty green eyes. A horrible blush was on his cheeks, too, making his face look tomato-red, and his hands were clenched into fists at his side.
Briefly, I felt kind of bad for him. This plan of ours was, admittedly, kind of cruel.
But then I remembered how much hell he'd been giving me ever since I'd gotten back with Luke, and the past few days with my attempts to get him together with Silena. All of my guilt vanished.
Sorry, Alabaster, I went to myself. But you kind of deserve this.
"...me a moment to get my cabin in order," Silena continued rather loudly. I blinked, being stirred out of my thoughts, and turned back to look at her. "And then I'll be ready, okay?"
"Okay," Beckendorf agreed easily.
Silena opened up the door to her cabin and walked back inside. None of us could see what she was doing after that, but we could see what Alabaster was doing. He was slowly walking towards Cabin Ten with an expression which looked to be halfway through casual and scowling. Ethan was trailing behind him at an even slower pace, and I thought I saw him mouth Alabaster's name, but I wasn't one-hundred percent sure.
"Hey, Beckendorf!" Alabaster called out.
Beckendorf faced him. "Oh, hey, Alabaster," he said with a strained smile – everyone knew the children of Hecate weren't fun to be around when they were angry, between their freaky magic powers and turbulent auras. "What are you doing here?"
"Just walking down to the beach." Alabaster shrugged. "You?"
"Oh," Beckendorf hummed noncommittally. He reached a hand up to scratch at the back of his neck. "I was just asking Silena if she would like to watch the fireworks with me...as friends, of course!"
The son of Hecate's face scrunched up. "'As friends?'"
Beckendorf nodded, a bit too enthusiastically to be believable. But, whatever.
Before Alabaster could say anything else, the cabin door opened up once more, and out came Silena and all of her half-siblings. Drew looked just as bored as she usually did, Laurel was giving a small smile as she twirled a lock of her honey blonde hair, and Mitchell and Lacy looked downright ecstatic. Obviously, she'd let them all in on the plan.
"Alright, I'm ready!" Silena told Beckendorf breezily, only to purposefully blink. She turned to look at Alabaster. "Ally, what are you doing here?"
At the usage of his nickname, Alabaster flushed brilliantly. "I – uhm – Silena – " he stuttered out.
"He was just wondering about what I was doing, that's all," Beckendorf supplied. Smoothly, may I add. His amber-gold eyes were alight with amusement. "I told him I'd asked for you to watch the fireworks with me."
"Oh," said Silena. Her eyebrows furrowed. "Why, Ally?"
"Okay," whispered Katie, holding back laughter. "Now she's just being mean."
Luke snorted. "You've got that right."
"Shut up!" I hissed at both of them. "We're getting to the best part!"
Alabaster shifted uncomfortably. "I – I just – "
Suddenly, he leaned in close to Silena, and lowered his voice. None of us were able to hear him.
I groaned. "Oh, come on! You can talk louder than that!"
Luke snickered at me.
A few minutes passed by. Alabaster and Silena kept talking to each other quietly, but fervently. Neither of them noticed how Beckendorf slowly backed away from them, a small and gentle smile on his face. He threw a glance our way once again. "You owe me!" he mouthed, before he walked up to Ethan.
The son of Hephaestus and the son of Nemesis grinned at each other, obviously finding the whole situation rather hilarious. Then, they started off towards the beach.
"Note to self," Katie muttered as we half-watched them leave. "Do something nice for Beck, like making him some flowers to give to Drew or something like that."
Silently, I nodded to myself in agreement. I was going to have to do something nice for the son of Hephaestus, too, no matter how the idea of him and Drew being romantically involved was still too hilarious to seriously comprehend. Maybe I could find a nice rock at the bottom of the lake he could make a necklace out of for –
Before I could finish my train of thought, two things happened at once. The first was that Alabaster ad Silena started to lean in towards one another, their faces flushed and their eyes wide – they were about to kiss. Finally, after days of trying to get the two of them to face the music (which wasn't nearly as long as Silena had been rooting for me and Luke, but still, it felt like forever), they were going to do it. My goal had been reached, my promise to Silena had been fulfilled. Now, it seemed like I was going to see the fruit of my labors.
...The key word here being "seemed." Just as Alabaster and Silena were about to kiss, I felt Luke pull me up from where I was sitting next to Katie, his arms wrapping around my waist.
"Hey!" I quietly squawked. "What are you doing? They're about to kiss!"
"They are," he agreed humorously. "But the fireworks are about to begin at any moment, and I'm not going to let you miss out on seeing them. Bye, Katie."
My best friend waved at us, her green eyes swirling with amusement. "Bye, Luke. Bye, Percy."
Luke began to lead me away from the scene, despite how I was still protesting quietly. Of course, I would have protested louder, but I knew if I did, the moment between Alabaster and Silena would be ruined.
However, that being said, even as he did and even as I protested, I still craned my neck back to look at my two friends. Just in time, I caught the moment the two of them locked lips. It was a beautiful sight.
Finally, I thought with a sigh of relief, my shoulders slumping. They're together. My work is done...and just in time for my date, too!
Word Count: 3,148
Next Chapter Title: My Perfect First Date