That night, around three in the morning, the Aethiopian drakon that Austin had seen slithered its way up Half-Blood Hill. Of course, the thing couldn't get past the borders, but merely knowing that it was literally right in front of us was enough to rattle the three of us.

Drakons are much larger and older than their dragon counterparts. For example, Peleus, who easily weighed two tons and was as big as a stretch limo, looked like an earthworm compared to the Aethiopian drakon.

While it couldn't breathe fire, it spewed poison, very similar to one of the hydra heads. And while it couldn't paralyze somebody like Medusa's head, its fierce green eyes gave the impression of a different type of paralysis, the type that made you think oh-gods-that-thing-is-going-to-eat-me-right-now.

Whenever the drakon got too close for comfort, one of us would shoot, but our arrows would bounce off its skin harmlessly. Honestly, our arrows were as effective as if we had grabbed some rubber bands and launched toothpicks at the drakon.

"We've shot twenty arrows, and all we've done is make it mad," Lee said incredulously, nocking another arrow onto his bow.

"I think it's going away," Michael said, relaxing his grip on his bow.

And sure enough, the ginormous drakon slithered off to wherever it came from, its obnoxiously large tail knocking over dozens pine trees in its wake.

"If you guys want to get some sleep, I'll stand guard tonight," I offered, returning my arrow back to my quiver and slinging my bow over my shoulder.

The two brothers looked at each other.

"We can't ask you to do that," Michael said, fidgeting with his camp beads. "You weren't supposed to be out here anyways."

"Yeah, Chiron told us you were supposed to stay away from the borders."

"Is that really what he told you both?" I asked, shock flooding my voice. I knew he was afraid, but I didn't think it had been this severe.

"He didn't tell us much," continued Lee, "but he wants you here under his supervision. Don't know what you could've done to get this much attention from him."

"I mean, Chiron's always been pretty relaxed around you," Michael agreed. "I think he's just on edge with this whole Titan uprising mess."

"I'll have to talk with him later, then. Seriously, though, my offer still stands."

"Nah, I think we'll stay here. What do you think Lee?"

"I'll stay if you stay."

Michael gave me a blinding smile, imitating his father perfectly even if the sun wasn't supposed to rise for another three hours. "You can't get rid of us that easily, Andy."

I held my hands up in surrender. "Fine, but I better not hear any complaints from either one of you tomorrow during training. Now, who's down for some cards?"

"Me!" the two exclaimed happily.

The three of us sat down and played cards until the sun came up, none of us moving from border patrol until we heard the conch shell that signaled breakfast.

Thank the gods. I was already craving coffee, having become addicted to the stuff during the school year. And with the way my internal clock worked, if I didn't have caffeine in my system by nine in the morning, I'd get a headache later.

Ugh, when did I turn into an old lady?

I took my breakfast to go that morning, much to Percy and Tyson's confusion. I waved them off, telling them we'd talk later, taking a bite out of my bagel as I walked over to Chiron, who was calmly sipping at his orange juice.

"We need to talk," I said in a low voice, glancing behind me to make sure that none of the Hermes kids were eavesdropping. Honestly, some of those kids had sharper ears than the satyrs. "In private."

"Can it wait until after my master's archery class?" Chiron said, raising his eyebrows at me as he dabbed at the corner of his mouth with a napkin. "I promised my class that I'd have a surprise set up for them today."

"I'll be at the Big House tomorrow at two-thirty." I left Chiron at his table, ignoring the curious stares from campers, satyrs, and nymphs alike. I took another bite of my bagel, grabbed some coffee, and headed for the lake.

When I reached the lake, I found someone else sitting at the edge of the dock. I took a seat next to him, quietly drinking my coffee as I kicked off my flip-flops, allowing my feet to touch the cold water. He was silent, too, a pensive expression on his face as he blankly stared at the surface of the lake, his reflection shimmering from the little ripples I was creating.

I hadn't seen Luke for some time now, but I knew he had also purposefully distanced himself from other campers after Thalia had joined the Hunters last winter. I still didn't know the full details about what happened, but I knew that they had still been dating when she joined the Hunt, completely shattering Luke's heart.

At least Cleo had done what I asked of her, keeping Luke out of my father's manipulative hands. He was still beyond betrayed, but his broken heart hadn't been enough to turn him to the Titan cause. But he was nothing like the Luke I'd once known – quiet, reserved, moody. I can't remember the last time he genuinely smiled or laugh, something that saddened me greatly.

It didn't help matters that Mr. D forbade Luke from leaving camp by himself. I would've thought that Mr. D didn't care if Luke left or not, but maybe Hermes had threatened him or something, because if it were up to Mr. D, we'd all be kicked out of camp the second we started to annoy him.

Finally, Luke looked up from the water, sighing deeply as he leaned back on the heels of his hand, basking in the morning sunlight.

"Hello, Andy," he said, kicking his feet to create little waves in the water. "Long time, no see."

"Likewise," I replied, setting my now empty coffee cup aside.

We sat in comfortable silence, watching the sun continue to rise over the horizon. There was really no need to catch up; we both knew enough about the other's life up until now. I pulled out a book and began to read, only pausing when I heard Luke ask, "Why do you like to read so much?"

I looked up, putting in my bookmark just in case. "They're my escape," I answered truthfully. "It's nice to go into another world, where some people's problems are way worse than ours. Sometimes, they help take my mind off of things."

"Like what?"

"Well, if I'm stressed out about school, I read fantasy. If I'm worried about what's going on at camp, I read comedies. Basically, I read the opposite of whatever negative emotion I'm feeling at that moment."

"So what are you reading now?" Luke asked, sitting up, intrigued by my philosophy.

"Looking for Alaska," I said, pausing to glance at the cover. Such a simple cover for such an amazing book.

Luke raised his eyebrows in suspicion. "Doesn't Alaska-?"

"Yes, she does," I cut him off. Just because I know what happens doesn't mean you, dear reader, know the ending.

"Then why the Hades are you reading that book at a time like this? Are you trying to make yourself sad?"

"It's…complicated."

"I'm all ears."

I sighed and set my book aside, brushing a stray hair behind my ear. Of course, leave it to Luke to ask the deep questions.

I told him about my dreams, the ones that involved the death of my friend. He didn't need to know about my other dreams, where I'd become Princess Ariadne and hang out with Theseus and Daedalus on Crete. Well, before Theseus escaped the maze, anyways, because I knew that he would leave Ariadne on the island of Naxos and marry Phaedra, Ariadne's younger sister. Then, Dionysus would find Ariadne and make her his immortal wife.

"So to prepare yourself for the death of a friend, you read Looking for Alaska?" Luke shook his head in surprise. "All you're doing is hurting yourself."

"At least these people are fictional," I argued, feeling my face heat up in embarrassment. I mean, a few years ago, I believed all these people were fictional. Maybe John Green's world existed in some universe. "My friend is real."

"Who is it?"

"I can't say. The Fates forbid it." I bit my lip, trying to suppress those hellish images my mind enjoyed to create while I slept.

I still vividly remember the scent of her blood on my hands as I held her limp body, crying as I tried to heal her despite the fact that I knew she was gone. I remember her pallid skin, which was sticky with her own blood and quickly losing heat, truly making her appear like a corpse. Her eyes were still gazing up at the sky, never to look at the sun and moon and stars ever again.

I remember hearing the sounds of battle around us, but I couldn't make out anything over the sound of my pulse roaring in my ears. Nothing touched us, as I apparently surrounded the two of us in a dome of fire, repelling monsters and demigods alike.

"Then take this piece of advice from someone who's lost his best friend," Luke sighed, running a hand through his disheveled hair. "Don't take any moment for granted. Spend as much time with them as you can before it's too late."

"You're right," I agreed, already coming up with a few plans of things I wanted my friend to experience before she died. "Hey, do you want to leave camp for the day?"

"I can't," Luke said miserably. "Mr. D would turn me into a dolphin if my feet so much as cross the border."

"I thought you could leave if someone else goes with you?"

He shrugged. "If that's true, I haven't heard."

"Well, that's what I've heard, so you're coming with me. No more moping around here."

"I'm not moping!"

"Yeah, right," I snorted, earning myself a punch to the arm as well as a small smile from Luke. "So, you coming or what?"

"Fine, you win."

I smiled and got to my feet, offering Luke a hand up. Before the two of us left, I managed to kidnap Cleo from the infirmary and shadow-traveled us to the Fountains Plaza, an awesome place that had amazing restaurants as well as other activities like bowling, ice and roller skating, an arcade, and a movie theater.

Of course, Pete and Joe had been the ones to find this place, coming across it when their car broke down on the way back to campus after they went to visit Joe's girlfriend. So while they waited for a tow and a rental car, the two of them went bowling. Apparently, Pete threw the ball up by "accident" and caused for a part of the ceiling to collapse onto their bowling lane.

By some miracle, Pete wasn't banned from the bowling alley, and once he and Joe got back to campus, they brought Leah and me along the following weekend. We'd watched a couple of movies before going to the arcade, while Leah exclaimed, "Boys versus girls!" Needless to say, things got pretty heated as we competed for the most tickets.

Unsurprisingly, Leah and I won, meaning that Pete and Joe had to buy our coffee for a week. In return, we used our tickets to get the biggest prize available, which was this large box of Nerf guns that came with a hundred-fifty darts. It was totally worth the Saturday school we had to attend after accidently shooting the track and field coach in the face during one of our Nerf wars.

"Andy, are you okay?" Cleo asked, jolting me back into reality as she shook my arm. "You have a dumb smile on your face."

I smiled even wider. "I just have a lot of really good memories here. So, what do you guys want to do? There's an arcade, bowling, roller or ice skating, and a movie theater. And the restaurants here are really good if either one of you are hungry."

"Ooh, can we ice skate?" Cleo asked excitedly, her sky blue eyes lit up with unbridled joy.

"What do you think, Luke?"

"Anything you want, kid," he replied, the corners of his lips quirking upwards. "But let me warn you now, I suck at ice skating."

"Then you'll get one of those walkers," Cleo suggested, causing me to snort as I tried to bite back my laughter. I could imagine Luke holding onto the walker for dear life, scowling as he tried to skate forward while other children skated past. "What's so funny?" I laughed even harder, eliciting an annoyed sigh from Luke.

"Oh, nothing," I said, catching my breath as Luke continued to glare at me. "Come on. Ice skating it is."

We spent the entire day at the Fountains Plaza, much to Cleo's enjoyment. Luke had finally started to have a good time the second he could stand on his own without the walker when we were ice skating, finally smiling genuinely as Cleo grabbed his hand and started to drag him along while she laughed like a maniac.

I had skated behind the duo, waiting for the inevitable moment when they'd crash. When they crashed, it wasn't because of Cleo's insane speed or Luke's clumsiness, no, it was the fault of one of the workers who tried to talk to them by standing in front of them, causing for the three of them to land in a heap on the floor.

I chuckled to myself as I helped Luke and Cleo up, persuading the worker to leave us alone for the rest of the time that we stayed in the ice rink, which turned out to be another three hours.

After ice skating, we went to the arcade, where we found out that our demigod abilities were extremely helpful in certain games. While Cleo wasn't the most skilled at archery, her accuracy was almost perfect in anything that required shooting – skeeball, basketball, you name it. I guess arcades weren't demigod proof.

Luke was pretty good at things that required speed. I'm pretty sure he almost broke the whack-a-mole hammer at one point, managing to take out six moles before they sank back down into the machine. Luke also excelled at this one game where you wanted to hit these buttons that lit up, managing to rack up over a thousand points every time he played.

For any game that had water, I used it to my advantage, pushing the little ducks through the doors with the water gun. I could also use shadows in certain games, but I had to be a little more discreet if I did that, because people would notice arcs of darkness guiding balls into their hoops or goals if I did it too often.

Eventually, after we used up all our tokens, we joined our tickets together to get some of the bigger prizes. Cleo ended up with a large tie-dyed teddy bear, Luke got a tub of cotton candy and some Airheads and Jolly Ranchers, and I got a stuffed wolf and a pack of M&Ms.

By the time we'd finished playing at the arcade, the sun was already starting to set. Once I was sure both Luke and Cleo were ready to leave, I shadow-traveled us back to camp, giving the three of us barely enough time to drop our stuff off in our cabins and high-tail it to the dining pavilion.

Word had spread about a training activity that Quintus had wanted to try out tonight, so I could practically feel the excitement in the air as I took a seat at the Poseidon table, deciding to sacrifice a portion of my meal with my own fire. Hey, I just sat down, and I didn't feel like getting up again right now.

"To the gods," I whispered under my breath as my grapes and a bread roll turned into smoke. I then grabbed my shish-kebob and took a bite.

"Where have you been?" Percy demanded, his arms crossed over his chest defiantly.

"Out."

He rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Yeah, but where? I've been wanting to talk to you all day."

"I went with some friends to Fountains Plaza for the day. We needed a break from camp, so we left."

"Does Chiron know? Or Quintus?"

"Nope, and I plan on keeping it that way," I said, giving Percy a pointed look. He made the motion of zipping his lips and throwing away the key. "So, what did you want to talk to me about?"

Percy winced, casting a glance in Annabeth's direction. The Athena cabin had stopped eating, placing their plates on the benches as a map of the forest took up the entire length of the table, each one of the brainiacs writing something down. Annabeth was talking with Malcolm, her half-eaten roll in one hand while a pencil was in the other.

If Percy had been looking to Annabeth for reassurance, he wasn't going to get any right now.

"Not here," Percy decided, pushing the rest of his food around with his fork. "I'm not hungry," he mumbled, standing up and scraping the rest of meal into the bathtub-sized brazier before sitting back down, putting his head in his hands.

I stopped eating, concern controlling my actions now. I mentally went through the books, cursing silently when I realized that this was something unwritten. I really didn't have a clue what had happened between Percy's conversation with Blackjack and the beginning of Quintus' evening activity.

"We're talking later tonight," I said, my voice holding a tone of finality to it, like I was daring Percy to argue with me.

"Okay," he said in resignation, angrily tugging at his hair.

I looked around, hoping to find Tyson or Grover, but neither one of them were to be found. Maybe Grover was visiting Juniper, or Tyson could still be in the forges. But that didn't make any sense, since they were partners for tonight's evening activity, even if they didn't know that yet.

I stood up from my side of the table and took a seat next to Percy, giving him a side hug as well as pulling his hands away from his hair. He'd give himself a headache if he kept pulling that hard.

Percy sighed and leaned into my chest, shutting his eyes as he relaxed. I started to wonder about what had happened to him this past year. I hadn't seen Percy since December, unable to catch a break from school to visit him as often as I used to. He said he understood, but I could tell he was disappointed that our interaction had basically been reduced to only seeing each other during the summer.

Once it was clear that we had finished eating, Chiron dismissed us, telling us that we had ten minutes to suit up in combat armor and return here for further instructions. Percy and I returned to the Poseidon cabin and suited up. We had found Tyson in the cabin and told him to suit up, too. Apparently, he had been working in the forges with James to make more weapons and recently found out about tonight's evening activity.

The three of us returned back to the dining pavilion, where I found Grover standing next to Annabeth. His armor seemed to be made of wood and vines (no nymphs or dryads were hurt in the making of said armor), and a wooden club about two and a half feet long was in his hand. I bent down and picked up a few blades of grass, sticking them into Grover's armor before causing them to weave together like a quilt, strengthening the armor's durability and maximizing comfort.

"Thanks, Andy," Grover said, shifting uncomfortably as Tyson approached.

Percy was standing next to Annabeth, his right hand fidgeting nervously as he glanced down at Annabeth's hand, which was mere millimeters away from his own. I smiled knowingly at the son of Poseidon, before turning my attention to Quintus, who was standing on top of the head table.

"Right," Quintus said, gaining everyone's attention. "Gather 'round."

He was dressed in black leather and bronze. In the torchlight, his gray hair made him look like a ghost, which I guess, he technically was. Mrs. O'Leary bounded happily around him, foraging for dinner scraps.

"You will be in teams of two," Quintus announced, causing for people to instantly move to grab their best friend. Then he yelled over the sudden commotion: "Which have already been decided!"

"AWWWWW!" everybody complained.

"Your goal is simple: collect the gold laurels without dying. The wreath is wrapped in a silk package, tied to the back of one of the monsters. There are six monsters. Each has a silk package. Only one holds the laurels. You must find the wreath before the other teams. And, of course…you will have to slay the monster to get it, and stay alive."

Everyone began tittering in excitement. The instructions were clear enough, and hey, we'd all slain monsters before. It's literally the only reason we trained. Well, it was before Kronos decided to rear his ugly face, but you know what I mean.

"I will now announce your partners," Quintus said. "There will be no trading. No switching. No complaining."

"Aroooof!" Mrs. O'Leary buried her face in a plate of pizza.

Quintus produced a big scroll and started reading off names. Beckendorf would be with Silena Beauregard, which Beckendorf looked pretty happy about. The Stoll brothers, Travis and Connor, would be together, which wasn't all that surprising. Those two did everything together. Clarisse was with Lee Fletcher, a really good combination of a strong melee and ranged fighter.

"Andy Collins and Cleo Russo," Quintus said, causing for the two of us to meet up and give each other high-fives.

Luke ended up getting paired with James Turner, Percy with Annabeth, and finally, Tyson and Grover.

Grover just about leapt out of his fur when he heard who his partner was. "What? B-but-"

"No, no," Tyson whimpered. "Must be a mistake. Goat boy-"

"No complaining!" Quintus ordered. "Get with your partner. You have two minutes to prepare!"

Tyson and Grover both looked at Percy pleadingly. He tried for an encouraging nod, gesturing for the two of them to move closer together. Tyson sneezed. Grover began nervously chewing the end of his wooden club.

"They'll be fine," I heard Annabeth say to Percy as Cleo grabbed my hand, dragging me towards the forest.

"You ready?" Cleo asked, adjusting her bow and quiver so they weren't digging into the side of her neck.

I smiled down at the daughter of Apollo and ruffled her hair, something I knew she detested. She complained, but I laughed, saying, "As ready as I'll ever be, pip-squeak. Let's win this thing."

"Hades, yeah!" she cheered, dashing deeper into the dark forest. I rolled my eyes and chased after her, preparing myself for tonight's discovery.