ALEA IACTA EST ; GRACE

002.

"SO WE'RE ON GUARDING DUTY TOGETHER?"   Jason Grace asked as he approached Philomena Yıldırım, his blending smile ever present and his steps confident.

Philomena nodded, putting her bow over her shoulder. This bow that she was now wearing was the same she had received from her father four years ago and it seemed to grow with her, which she loved, since she never had to go and get a new weapon. 

Jason looked over to her, his smile wavering ever so slightly by her lack of a response.

He knew Philomena wasn't all that interested in befriending him (not like all the other people in Camp who were at the feet of the son of Jupiter) and he just couldn't figure out why. As far as he knew, he had never done anything to upset her.

"How was your day?" He asked, desperate to fill the silence that had spread amongst them as they walked towards the tunnel. He hated silence, after all, it left too much room for interpretation. People could start to think that he's stuck up, boring or simply incapable of human interaction.

Jason didn't want people to think of him in any of these ways, all he wanted was to be liked and respected by his comrades.

The brunette girl shrugged, not really all that interested in having a conversation with him, she enjoyed silence and never found it to be awkward. "It was fine. How was yours?"

"Pretty good. I helped out at the kindergarten today and the kids were fun to play with, it kind of distracts me a bit from everything happening here."

Philomena nodded along to his words, she could understand him, being in the city and interacting with unsuspecting kids who don't know anything about the cruel fate they would have to face one day; it was a wonderful and much needed distraction on most days.

"I get that. I also like the kids there," she responded.

Even if Philomena didn't particularly like Jason, she wasn't a mean person and continued on with the conversation. After all, she knew he would feel bad if she were to ignore him and she doesn't want anyone to feel bad because of her. She had already caused enough pain.

"And what did you do today?" Jason asked, truly interested because he knew that she was being punished for something since he actually should've been alone on guard shift (why the praetors trusted him to do this alone was beyond him, but he didn't dare to ask, it would just be disrespectful).

"Oh, the usual, I skipped combat training to swim in the lake," Philomena told him, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly. "Obviously I got caught and someone snitched on me," her ears turned red as she had to admit that she had been caught, by one of the younger legionnaires (she thought it was just a bratty kid from New Rome that had left the city) no less, which only added to her embarrassment.

At her story, Jason laughed, a loud barking laugh, which made Philomena turn her head over. She had never heard – or seen – Camp Jupiter's golden boy laugh without a care (she hadn't even known that his expression could be anything but serious) and as he laughed on, she couldn't help but let a small smile form on her face.

"That's amazing, I didn't even know there were people who actually swim in the lake, especially now, isn't the water freezing?"

She threw her brown hair over her shoulder as she responded, "I know that I'm amazing, no need to say it." Jason smiled over at her for her response, was this her finally warming up to him? "But really, it's fun to go into the cold water, you should try it sometime. And I figured that I should enjoy my life a bit more, who knows how long I will keep it."

At her last words, Jason's smile faded and Philomena could feel the cheery mood shifting to something more glum, the atmosphere that shone in a yellow color as he laughed dying down to a mix of blue and dark red, the colors that symbolize sadness and anger, with a hint of purple, the color of bravery, which was a color that surrounded Jason on every step he took.