𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐌𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐝𝐲; 𝖺𝗇𝗇𝖺𝖻𝖾𝗍𝗁 𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗌𝖾

Happy welcome party

Ivy was sat against her bed's headboard, playing with the blonde curls of the girl seated between her legs with her back against her chest.

Annabeth had Daedalus' laptop on her lap, one hand on the keyboard and the other caressing Ivy's leg. Just like they had been doing ever since the girl had gotten the inventor's designs.

"What do you think of this one?"

The blonde's smooth voice made Ivy snap back to reality and avert her eyes towards the screen.

"It's good, but I liked last one better. This one looks too old"

Annabeth had been looking through Daedalus' architectural ideas the past days, and she always asked Ivy about which one she liked better. And since Ivy knew nothing about architecture, she simply chose the prettier one every time.

The Athena girl chuckled. "It's classical architecture, V, of course I'll look old"

Ivy shrugged. "Yeah, but why would you want things from last century when you could do something more modern"

Annabeth chuckled again and shook her head as she switched to another picture. "So you like something like this one, then?"

Ivy grinned. "Exactly. See, that one is prettier and doesn't look like it'll fall if you touch it"

Annabeth turned to look at her with a smile on her face, just about to say something.

"Ivy! Annabeth!" Pollux barged into the room.

The boy looked way better now. Castor's death was still affecting him, but Ivy was happy he seemed to be going back to his usual self.

The girls turned to him. He took a deep breath to recover himself from most likely sprinting all the way towards the cabin.

"It's Percy. He's back"

They looked at each other and then immediately stood up, rushing to get out of the room.

They reached the dinner pavilion where a lot of campers were already ready to greet the Poseidon boy and Beckendorf from the mission they had both gone to.

The girls met with Chiron and ran behind him to greet their friends.

But of course, nothing was ever as easy for them.

Ivy instantly noticed the son of Hephaestus' absence and Percy's sad look. Any trace of smile faded away from her face at the realization.

"What happened?" Annabeth grabbed his arm. "Is Luke—"

"The ship blew up," He said. "He wasn't destroyed. I don't know where—"

Silena Beauregard pushed through the crowd with a messy appearance, which wasn't like her.

"Where's Charlie?" She demanded, looking around like he might be hiding. Ivy felt her heart drop as her friend's expression fell, also realizing what happened.

Percy glanced at Chiron nervously and the centaur cleared his throat. "Silena, my dear, let's talk about this at the Big House—"

"No," She muttered. "No. No."

She started to cry, and everyone else stood around, too stunned to speak.

They'd already lost so many people over the summer to either death or Kronos, but this was the worst. With Beckendorf gone, it felt like someone had stolen the
anchor for the entire camp.

Ivy was about to move in her devastated friend's direction, but another person beat her to it.

Clarisse put her arm around the Aphrodite girl. They had started been friends after Silena had helped the Ares girl with something about Chris. It was a rare friendship, but a genuine one nonetheless.