𝐅𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒 - jason grace

01. NEW BESTIE ALERT!

𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐀 𝐑𝐀𝐌Í𝐑𝐄𝐙 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐆𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐄. Eight months ago, she lost her closest friend Jason Grace, when he disappeared overnight, without a trace. She knew she couldn't do much to aid in finding him, it's not like the campers would let her, anyway, she'd definitely screw everything up, but she had to do something. The guilt of not knowing what to do was eating her alive. She was desperate.

She'd talked to Reyna so many times, begging the remaining praetor to let her go on a mission to help find their friend. And Reyna felt for her, she truly did, but she knew what would happen if she relented and allowed Maia to go. Everyone did. As much as Reyna wanted to help her friend, she really couldn't put her, or the rest of her campers, in that position. She'd been there for Maia, though, whenever she needed a shoulder to cry on, or a hand to hold. The two had always been close, since before Maia even knew Jason. Reyna meant a lot to Maia, so she'd respect her wishes, even if they weren't what she'd hoped.

The daughter of Fortuna wished she could do something, anything, to find him. If it was her that went missing, she knew Jason would leave no stone unturned in order to find her, he'd probably manage to convince some campers to help him out too, the ones that didn't completely hate Maia. He was that charming.

Without much else of a choice, Maia was left pacing around the Gardens of Bacchus, thinking of Jason. She remembered the first time she'd opened up to him about home, describing in detail her nights at the city, family visits to El Viejo San Juan, and huge family reunions to celebrate Navidad, Año Nuevo, and, her personal favorite, Reyes.

She smiled thinking about how shocked he'd been to realize she and Reyna were cousins, to an extent – the Ramírez family was huge, Maia had so many different relatives she'd never had the chance to meet, it was hard to keep track. She remembered the times Jason had asked her to sing the soft Juanes songs Maia had grown up listening to, or to tell him the stories her grandfather would tell her, like the one of "la ballenita voladora". As silly as it was, Jason had managed to make Maia open up so much that he'd practically be able to write her biography. Of course, he'd shared many of his own stories too, having grown to trust the girl greatly. They were a team, an unlikely one, but a team nonetheless.

Maia didn't even realize she was crying, until Reyna came up to her, and softly asked her if she was okay.

"Prima, you're crying." Reyna cupped her face and wiped her tears slowly. "No me gusta verte así. We'll get him back, I promise." I don't like seeing you this way, she'd told her. Maia couldn't help it, she felt absolutely useless.

"I just," she paused, "I just wish I could do something, anything. But I know I'll just end up making things worse. I always do."

"That's not tr–"

"Yes it is, Rey. You know it is. I'm a jinx."

"You're not, I promise you Maia, it's not your fault. You're not a jinx and Camp Jupiter is lucky to have you, they just don't see it yet."

"I'm not sure they ever will."

"Sure they will. You'll see."

"Sure. If you say so."

And with that, the girls turned to go back to their duties. Or, Reyna did. Maia decided to take a stroll around camp, calm herself down. So far, June 19 was not a good day. She couldn't wait to see how much worse it would get.

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Maia was by the forums when she heard it. The watchtower horns blew across the camp, startling her. She'd tripped and almost crashed into Octavian, who threw a string of curses her way before marching off. She rolled her eyes at him, and took notice of how the campers were rushing toward the camp gates.