You'll Learn to Love Me

Chapter 19: Connections

Later in the day, Annabeth and Rachel arrived. Annabeth threw herself into Laylana's arms and cried, then threatened to kick the shit out of her for leaving her worried, and then again for basically dying. They made their way to the Big House together after informing the other cabin leaders of the meeting. They entered the rec room where they held meetings. Some people were gathered around the Ping-Pong table and one of the satyrs was serving nachos and sodas. Somebody had brought Seymour the leopard head in from the living room and hung him on the wall. Every once in a while, a counselor would toss him a Snausage.

Laylana sat in her seat next to Annabeth, sending a small smile over to Piper, Leo and Jason as they entered the room. Clarisse, leader of the Ares cabin, had her boots on the table, but nobody seemed to care. Clovis from Hypnos cabin was snoring in the corner while Butch from Iris cabin was seeing how many pencils he could fit in Clovis's nostrils. Travis Stoll was holding a lighter under a Ping-Pong ball to see if it would burn, and Will was absently wrapping and unwrapping an Ace bandage around his wrist. The counselor from Hecate cabin, Lou Ellen was playing "got-your-nose" with Miranda Gardiner from Demeter, except that Lou Ellen really had magically disconnected Miranda's nose, and Miranda was trying to get it back. Rachel Dare, the oracle, sat next to Chiron at the head of the table. Annabeth didn't look so relaxed. She wore armor over her camp clothes, with her knife at her side and her blond hair pulled back in a ponytail. As soon as Jason walked in, she fixed him with an expectant look, as if she were trying to extract information out of him by sheer willpower. Laylana laid a hand over her's, as a way to say 'calm down'.

"Let's come to order," Chiron said. "Lou Ellen, please give Miranda her nose back. Travis, if you'd kindly extinguish the flaming Ping-Pong ball, and Butch, I think twenty pencils is really too many for any human nostril. Thank you. Now, as you can see, Jason, Laylana, Piper, and Leo have returned successfully...more or less. Some of you have heard parts of their story, but I will let them fill you in."

Everyone looked at Laylana, who looked to Jason.

"It was your quest. You tell them." She shrugged. He cleared his throat and began the story. The others chimed in from time to time, filling in the details he forgot, including when Laylana died. She didn't tell the whole story, just that she while she was out of it she was given a choice to come back to life. The silence after was heavy, and for so many ADHD demigods to sit still listening for that long, it was a miracle. Then, Jason ended with Hera's visit right before the meeting.

"So Hera was here," Annabeth said. "Talking to you."

Jason nodded. "Look, I'm not saying I trust her—"

"She killed me, so I wouldn't." Laylana shrugged nonchalantly. 

"That's smart," Annabeth said. "—but she isn't making this up about another group of demigods. That's where I came from."

"Romans." Clarisse tossed Seymour a Snausage. "You expect us to believe there's another camp with demigods, but they follow the Roman forms of the gods. And we've never even heard of them."

Piper sat forward. "The gods have kept the two groups apart, because every time they see each other, they try to kill each other."

"I can respect that," Clarisse said. "Still, why haven't we ever run across each other on quests?"

"Oh, yes," Chiron said sadly. "You have, many times. It's always a tragedy, and always the gods do their best to wipe clean the memories of those involved. The rivalry goes all the way back to the Trojan War, Clarisse. The Greeks invaded Troy and burned it to the ground. The Trojan hero Aeneas escaped, and eventually made his way to Italy, where he founded the race that would someday become Rome. The Romans grew more and more powerful, worshipping the same gods but under different names, and with slightly different personalities."