This Dark Night ― Percy Jackson & Annabeth Chase¹

―i. naomi murphy, the oblivious romantic

IT HAD TAKEN A FULL WEEK of begging and compromising and bargaining, but finally, Chiron agreed to let Naomi tag along on the Westover Hall extraction mission. 

Naomi woke that morning eager for the day ahead. She blamed the boredom that had settled over Camp Half-Blood like snow on the ground. The school year tended to get boring when all the summer-only campers went back to their families, but this year had been a new kind of slow. 

Campers were going missing—or ditching, as Drew pointed out in her usual pessimistic way. 

Five unclaimed kids from the Hermes cabin, one Hephaestus kid, one Apollo kid, two Ares kids, and even one of Naomi's own cabinmates—Heather Rhodes, a daughter of Demeter who'd only arrived at camp that fall—had all disappeared without a trace.

Because of that, campers were on high alert. Peleus, the newly appointed dragon guard of the Golden Fleece, was still only the size of a regular dog, so Chiron had established a rotating border patrol to keep the camp safe—and, as sinister as it sounded, to keep the campers inside. 

As soon as Naomi had gotten dressed, she found Drew on the front porch of her cabin and convinced her to braid her hair before they went to get breakfast. 

Afterward, Naomi found herself sitting at the canoe lake with Ethan, waiting for her ride. 

"When's Percy's mom coming to pick you up?" Ethan asked, swinging his legs underneath the pier, his worn sneakers dangerously close to the water's surface—and the mischievous naiads who liked to pull pranks about as much as the Stolls. 

"Eleven," Naomi said, double-checking the wristwatch Silena had gotten her for her birthday. It was still only nine-thirty. Thirty more minutes until she saw her best friends again. "They have to pick up Annabeth and Thalia from their school first, then me, then we'll be on the road to Maine."

"I still can't believe Chiron's letting you go," Ethan said. 

"I may have had to fake tears in order to get him to let me," Naomi admitted. "Sometimes being a crybaby is a blessing instead of a curse." 

Ethan snorted. "Just be careful," he said. He scooped up one of his own stones, flinging it across the lake's surface. It failed to skip even once, sinking as soon as it hit the water. "Dammit." 

Naomi giggled, throwing her first stone. She watched it bounce once before sinking—not much better than Ethan, but she still smirked at him triumphantly. 

"I'm always careful," she told him. She watched him skip his next stone—or rather, throw it, since this one didn't skip either.

"I mean it, Nay," Ethan said, more serious than Naomi was used to him being. "You can't leave me here to deal with Drew on my own. I'll crack." 

Naomi laughed. Her next stone skipped twice. "Don't act like you wouldn't love time alone with Drew," she teased, bumping his shoulder with her own. 

"Why would I want alone time with Drew?" Ethan asked incredulously. "She'd probably throw me off the rock-climbing wall without you there to convince her not to." 

"She's not that homicidal," Naomi said. "And she'd only do that if you annoyed her, so just don't do that and you'll be fine." 

"So you're saying I just shouldn't speak in her presence?" Ethan asked. 

Naomi snorted. "That's probably the safest bet," she said. "You sure know how to pick 'em." 

Ethan's brow furrowed. "What are you talking about?" 

Naomi raised her own eyebrow. "Your crush on Drew," she said. "Obviously." 

Ethan blinked. "What? I don't have a crush on Drew."