The Labyrinth // pjo

Chapter Sixteen // Until Next Time

 The rest of the summer was kind of a blur.

I spent a lot of it doing the normal camp activities–which was not normal as the last two summers we were on unplanned quests–but it was actually nice to be able to do archery, rock climbing, Pegasus riding, capture the flag (no one went near Zeus's Fist–me included), chariot races, pranked other cabins, etc.

I also spent a lot of it with Will in the hospital wing at the Big House–learning everything there was to know about first aid. We also spent a lot of time singing (this kid knew just about every Disney and Broadway song ever—and he gave me a perfect pitch test and was upset that I somehow did have perfect pitch, which I thought was very funny) and eating ice-cream sandwiches the Stoll brothers snuck into camp (I had to give them like eight drachmas, but it's FINNNEEEEE).

And when I wasn't with Will–I was with Percy and Tyson and Mrs. O'Leary OR with Clarisse and Silena OR with Annabeth as she stared at her (Daedalus's) computer screen for hours (I literally had to make sure she didn't like overwork herself because sometimes she would and it was like she would short-circuit like a computer) OOOORRRRRRR I was sitting by the lake talking (we haven't kissed since that night in the woods, but he had said he had a plan that he was keeping a secret about that–even though I literally wasn't super worried about it) with Ric who would always come by around two fifteen every day.

It was there that Ric told me about his fight with his dad and the dream that he had had.

The fight was about Bianca and Nico. Hades had told Ric at a very young age (which Ric assumed was before the hotel, but his memory was patchy) that he was in charge of his siblings, and if he didn't watch over them, Hades would punish him. The god had yet to act on his threat–but when he explained it to me, I could see his hands shake as he fiddled with a twin skull ring (the other one was with Nico somewhere).

His nightmare was of me. Me falling into a dark pit–taking any light that had surrounded him and me with me. And he had jumped off after me–but he couldn't find me.

He was alone, and I was missing.

His nightmare sounded eerily familiar, but I forced it to leave my head, refusing to believe it would become a reality. I started to furiously beg the Fates and any god that would listen to me to make it not happen.

But when the two of us weren't talking about serious things, we were reading or talking about our hobbies.

I even taught him how to make friendship bracelets–and the next day, when he showed up, the idiot had a friendship bracelet for all of our friends.

Oh, speaking of Ric–Percy found out about our kiss.

And you would have thought Ric had killed Percy's panda pillow pet he protected with his life.

And now, every time Percy found us literally doing jack shit–he would come and sit between us, glowering at Ric like an old protective dad.

I have pushed him off the dock and the Rockwall more times than necessary, but he was being annoying. But there were days I let him hang out with us, mainly because Annabeth was avoiding him and his questions about Kronos/Luke.

And I knew not to say anything to our blonde best friend–even though we reallllyyyyyy needed to talk about it.

But there was no time to talk about it as the last day of camp arrived.

I had just seen Will off with his mom–the amazing woman giving me an enormous hug and inviting me to Texas if I ever wanted to get out of New York–before I ran back to Cabin 3 to get all my shit together and do a last-minute cleanup.