☾ The Child of Artemis ☾

9. I Get Into Trouble, but Also Am Assigned a Quest

"Nico, McAngelico, did you throw a rock at Nigel?" Chiron asks when we arrive at the Big House.

I am astonished at what Chiron asked. "No," I said truthfully, "Travis and Connor threw one at Nigel last week, and Will Solstice was blamed instead."

Nigel was fake crying and drew a red spot on his arm. (I could tell since he did this to Hunter before, but he was busted.) "Nico, you're lying!" Nigel fake sobbed, or at least I think that's what he fake sobbed, since most of his words sounded like gobbledegook.

"Chiron, would I do such a thing to my brother?" I pleaded.

"Nico...he, he threw a rock at me and, and, he um... called me mean names!" Nigel whined.

"Travis and Connor threw one at you a few weeks ago!" I shouted at my brother.

Chiron called Travis and Connor into the Big House. They entered, glowering at me. "Sir," Connor said, "we did no such thing. We were just minding our own business! Nico is a sore loser, and blamed it on us when he knew he did it!"

"Yeah, Connor is right! Let us go," Travis agreed.

"Nico," Chiron said, sternly.

I never got into real trouble like this before, and was really anxious if I would actually get into trouble. "I — I — I am telling the truth!" I yelled, tying myself in my lasso of truth to prove it.

Chiron looked angrily at me. "Put that away, please," he demanded.

I set my lasso on the table. "Let us go! Let us go!" Travis and Connor chanted.

Chiron thought about the situation for a while. Meanwhile, Nigel complained, "Nico did it! I was the one he did it to! You have to believe me!"

"Go, boys," Chiron insisted. "You are in big trouble, young man."

"Nigel is a liar."

"Go back to your cabin."

I went back to my cabin, but Hunter stopped me. "Nico, did you really throw a rock at Nigel?"

Nigel was with him, so I yelled, "I wish you were never my brothers!"

I stayed in my cabin for the rest of the day, Chiron's orders. I was confiscated of my lasso, resulting in liars surrounding me and having two lying brothers. The next day, I was still upset, so I didn't go to the mess hall for brekkie. Cabin inspections was my loss. I lost my temper and messed up my cabin. Percy didn't complain, though and instead he asked, "So you had a little fun in your cabin yesterday?"

"Um..." I replied.

"Just teasing, bro. My sister is better at teasing than I am."

I spent the rest of the day in my cabin, like yesterday. No one bothered or cared. I opened the cabin door when I heard something about a quest. "I choose Nico McAngelico and only Nico McAngelico to go with me on my quest," Faith told Chiron.

I walked out of the cabin and pretended not to know what he just said. "Do you need me?"

"Yeah. we're going on a quest. A quest to return my dad's trident."

"Where are we going to go?!" I asked, panicked. "I have never been on a quest!"

"It'll be fun. I think I know where Dad left his trident." She looked at me and smiled. "Hey, your new look is quite pulchritudinous."

Uncle Apollo was right, but instead of being called awesome, I was called pulchritudinous. It means that I have great physical appeal, or that I am handsome. "Thanks," I smiled back. "You enjoy using big words, too?"

"Always will."

Chiron proclaimed, "Nico McAngelico and Faith Ford shall go on a quest to retrieve Poseidon's trident!"

"Can we go early tomorrow ?" I begged. "I'm not in the mood to go right now."

"Why not, Nico?! Good idea!"

Soon it was lunchtime and I snuck over to the Apollo table. "Hey, Will, I'm goin' on a quest!" I whispered.

Will looked happy for me. "That's great, Nico!"

"Faith assigned me to go with her on her quest."

"How nice! Is she a friend of yours?"

"Well, she's just the closest mate I have."

The whole day, I couldn't stop thinking about the quest. I was excited and nervous. It was a full free day, Saturday. On a Saturday in Camp Half-Blood, you do anything you want for the whole day. At dinner, I snuck over to the Poseidon table to see my favorite mate. "Hey, Faith, where are we going on our quest tomorrow?"

"The Hoover Dam."

"You've got a dam quest, Faith!" Percy commented.

"And I'm going with my dam best friend!"

"I am kind of dam nervous." I said.

Percy spat out the milk he was drinking and yelled, "You are so dam good at making dam jokes, Nico!"

"You guys are so dam funny," Faith laughed.

After dinner, I had two hours for myself before the campfire sing along. First, I went to the Big House to ask for my dam lasso back. I got it back and practiced tossing it. I wasn't really good, so I decided to keep it in my cabin until Uncle Apollo came back to help me. At the campfire sing along, I sang. I sang nonsense gobbledegook quietly and no one noticed, and if they did they didn't find it funny enough to care or laugh. I ran back to my cabin as fast as I could and slept to make time pass faster.