Clear blue and unconditional- Lisa 'left eye' Lopes.

I went to meet Nico by the lake late that evening. "The harpies are quiet," I said to catch his attention. He looked back at me. His eyes were hard and cold and completely wrong for a fifteen year old. Steel melted into shame and worry. I shook my head and lifted the thermos and extra cup I brought with me.

We were the same age, I reminded myself but that only made me more disoriented.

"Some one from every cabin blessed this," I told him pouring the cocoa and handing him one.

"The harpies don't care about me but you probably shouldn't be out here Will."

I dropped my bag on the ground and started pulling out blankets. " I know you don't always feel like sleeping in my cabin and well, the Hades cabin would be too much for anyone. Can you help me with this?" I tossed him one of the blankets before stringing a rope between two trees. I threw a second blanket across the rope and motioned for him to repeat.

"How many do you have in there," he asked as I kept taking stuff out of my backpack.

"Are you going to worry about that or are you going to help me make this tent?" Nico shrugged and started tying the blankets down. "Tell me something," I pushed gently.

"You first," he pushed back for a change.

"Leo gave me the bag when he left for the Waystation."

Nico threw me an angry incredulous look while violently tying down a second blanket. "Gaea set a trap for the Seven."

It took me a second but when I gathered my wits enough to say, "That's not true."

"It is true." Nico wouldn't look at me. He unzipped the bag some more and took out a portable DVD. "I wonder what else they have in the Hephaestus cabin." He set it aside. "They just wanted to see what they could get away with kidnapping Tristan McLean. And then I made myself convenient."

"You're not being fair."

Nico laughed bitterly. "Don't they always say that life isn't fair?"

"They do." So I told him, "Michael Yew was alive when I found him. But I'd never healed anyone that badly injured. Actually I don't think I ever will but it was practically my first day on the job and I couldn't save my own brother. Then they made me head counselor and eventually gave me the infirmary. I wonder sometimes if I'd have any of it if he was still alive. But so many people depend on me to do those things."

I was so driven. There was nothing I wanted more than to go to an Ivy League and get my Doctorate. But looking at Nico, I wondered if my life's work was elsewhere. What would happen when I graduated highschool? I had a decade or more just studying.

Nico, on the other hand, had a solid trust fund with Chiron and was free to do anything he wanted. "I was a liability and I realized I always had been. I didn't know what Gaea was planning on using me for. I just knew I had to get off the Argo 2."

I didn't know if it was true but Nico wanted it off his chest so I didn't say anything. We built a fire after two campers, one from Demeter and the other from Aphrodite brought us snacks. I reminded Nico that campers snuck out after hours and raided the cafeteria all the time.

"So the harpies don't really attack campers?"

"Not since Mr.D started raising capybara.

"Oh. Wait what!?"

"Hey they brought us real food."

Nico frowned as he opened the containers. "Lasagna and minestrone."

"Oh that's too bad."

"Will, shut up! Whenever there's a party now someone always brings a lasagna."

"You lived your whole life inside Bridget Fonda's Diary. You can't expect the other campers to know that."

Nico sighed and tossed some sticks in the fire "That's not the movie's name, Will."

"What movie? Anyway I'm starving so can you tolerate another lasagna?"

"Fine." A few minutes later he added. "It's not bad for vegan." And finally, "I like it when those cabins work together."

"Yeah me too." I refilled our cocoa.

He gave me an irritated look. " I was planning on spending the night by myself."

"Sorry to ruin your fun with all this," I said, waving at the blanket fort and food. I went inside and started a movie.

Nico joined me a few minutes later complaining vaguely about the cold. "Yeah it's supposed to be the first snow of the season." I told him.

"Will!" I was woken up by someone trying to get my attention and stay quiet at the same time. The movie we had fallen asleep to was still rolling credits. And Jaelyn Summers from the Nemesis cabin was looking at me. "I'm sorry but my mom won't let me sleep until I brought this to you." He held out a small box. As I took it, he whispered "I'm sorry," again.

My heart was pounding before I even looked. Of course it was that statue. The one that got Bianca killed. Nico grew restless next to me , apparently sensing it in his sleep. I tried leaving the fort without being noticed but Nico murmured "What time is it?" The sky was cast in gray but the sun hadn't risen so I guessed. "Around six."

I went to the lake's edge and threw the statue in before going back inside. Nico was sitting up but half-asleep now. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah. I do early morning stretches."

He made a disgusted noise and rolled his eyes."Something just fell out of your sleeve." I knew it was that dam statue before he even picked it up. "What are you doing, Will," he asked at once suspicious all over again.

"Someone from the Nemesis cabin gave it to me," I explained. I watched as the suspicious expression faded and he looked at it. Several beats passed in silence. "We should bury it."

"Yeah."

"I'm not going to get to see her again," he told me, his matter of fact tone somehow more upsetting. "It doesn't have to be deep." He started scooping dirt with one of the plastic cups Not so easy with the ground partially frozen but I tried to help.

"I'm sorry, Nico."

He just shrugged and said, " I stopped being a kid a long time ago. And we're still going to have to explain ourselves."

Nico sat at the Hades table but I wasn't having it so I sat. Kayla and Austin were the first to join us but the rest of the seats quickly filled up and he only looked irritated for a few minutes. But then he moved closer and slid his fingers between my own. Bold moves for him but the statue never reappeared.