Heart Pierced - Kayla Knowles (1)

XV. a. We Get A New Sword Instructor With An Unusual Pet

(A/N: Summer's here.. neither of them realize it.. but they can't outrun their feelings for much longer. Some more Belle in here eventually.. so for -JASONSGRACE , here's another shoutout to you. Anyways, let's dive into things, shall we? Also, this chapter also functions as a list of the Apollo siblings around in this universe, so there's going to be quite a few references to fanfics made by other people in this too.

Also, since this chapter will be really, really long.. I'm splitting this into a couple of parts. The "a." in the title just signifies this will be Part One. I'll probably post this chapter as the full version on Fanfiction and AO3 once I'm done with this.)

Summer 2008
June 2nd

After the hellhound attack in January, things had been way more tense around camp, even more than when Tantalus had been around. You could see it everywhere you went. Even my sister looked more on edge than ever before.

The attack had shaken everyone up, believe me. Michael and I probably were the only two that hadn't suffered as much as the other campers, because in the months since then, much to his frustration, we were the ones having to calm down many of the other younger kids since we seemed to be among the most stable of the campers, with Charles Beckendorf just below us.

Michael and Jake Mason, from Beckendorf's cabin, are a couple apparently. He let it slip that they had been dating for a few months now, I was honestly happy for the two of them and wished them the best. I became friends with Michael not long after he told me that, which was a couple weeks after the hellhound attack.

But anyway, the signs of stress were everywhere. Kayla seemed to take comfort in me holding her hand more again, Silena was a bit of a nervous wreck after the hellhound attack and suffering from a bit of PTSD - Beckendorf was helping her the best he could and she's doing better now. Travis and Katie seemed to have grown a bit closer as the result of the attack, as have Sherman and Miranda. What that means for those four, I have no clue of knowing.

As winter faded into spring and spring eventually turned to summer, things seemed to improve. The edgy tempo of things decreased, and although a lot of people, especially my siblings, were still on high alert - I for one was taking longer and longer patrol shifts than normal as a precaution, as suggested by Clarisse - things were seeming to return to normal. The fact that we still hadn't found that labyrinth entrance yet was part of what kept us on edge in the Ares Cabin.

Clarisse, Sherman, Annabeth, and I had combed over the woods multiple times since the hellhound attack and we still hadn't found a thing. It was frustrating, honestly, more so to me and Clarisse. Speaking of my sister, she and Chris have been going steady for a few months. Despite being older than Travis and Connor, Chris let them keep being co-counselors of the Hermes Cabin and took over as an assistant head counselor of the Ares Cabin. Ares himself visited a couple of days after Chris took over in the role, which was in April, to officially declare Chris as an honorary son of Ares, which came with the blessing of a couple of Ares' powers to Chris. My sister could never have been more happier, even if still on edge.

Anyways, as the seasonal summer campers started trickling back in on May 30th, you could get a sense that things might heat up once more this summer. A few new kids had joined the ranks in the months between January and June, but along with that came an apparent reported increase in monster attacks in the region. Much of it was concentrated in the NYC area, but reports had been trickling in from nearby Newark and from Philadelphia and other cities in the region. It was concerning to say the least. A couple of the attacks had occurred close to camp as well, shaking up some of the new kids in the process.

In the intervening time, I had gotten to know the kids of the Apollo Cabin - Kayla's siblings - and believe me, they may be scared of snakes because of their dad's past with Python, but god damn it, they are some of the sweetest kids and teens to ever bless this earth.