ALEA IACTA EST ; GRACE

004.

"GOOD LUCK ON YOUR QUEST,"    Philomena wished Jason. 

He had come to find her, minutes before he and Reyna had planned to go to Charleston to retrieve something important (Philomena had already forgotten what that important thing was).

The boy smiled over to her, which he seemed to be doing a lot when he was with her, Jason had noticed. "Thank you. But hopefully we won't need any luck and will be back soon enough. I mean Reyna and I, we can defend ourselves fairly well."

"A bit cocky, aren't you?" Philomena asked him, a smirk on her face. "And don't miss me too much, even if you're just gone for three days. I know how captivating my presence can be."

Jason shook his head at her joke.

He found talking to Philomnea had become easier. She wasn't avoiding him as much anymore and he found joy in her sarcastic retorts and criticism of his whole lifestyle (though, sometimes he wasn't all too sure whether or not she was being serious or was just kidding).

"And you don't get into too much trouble," he told her, winking at something behind Philomena, which she couldn't see.

"I'll make sure she won't," Alex spoke from behind Philomena.

Philomena and Alex began a friendly banter about sneaking up to the other person. Jason took this as his cue to leave and walked away from them, turning around one last time to take a look at the brunette who was wildly gesturing while angrily glaring at an amused Alex.

He would truly miss her while he was away on the quest.

With Jason gone, Philomena returned to her usual routine. Which was much less exciting than one would think.

She was alone for most of the time, either watching movies on the DVD player she had smuggled into camp or she went swimming. From time to time Philomena met up with Alex, which then led to her being dragged to the Colosseum to train with the sword.

Though, this practice was boring and she preferred her lessons with Jason in which he had her on the floor in less than ten seconds, since Alex just forced her to train techniques with a wooden doll.

Exhausted and with her muscles aching, Philomena then laid down on the sandy floor glaring up at Alex who just stood with her arms crossed over her and handed her a bottle of water.

"You're getting better, Mena," Alex admitted, her gaze shifting to the other legionnaires who were training.

"I can only get better if you're the one training me, right?" Philomena asked jokingly as she got up and made her way out of the arena, Alex always by her side.

"You're probably right," the latina admitted, and threw her curly ponytail over her shoulder.

A silence settled over them as they mindlessly wandered around the camp until they had reached the path that led to the stables and not wanting to continue walking to the stinking horses and pegasi, Philomena sat down on the grass, Alex following after her.

Though, Alex didn't, or rather couldn't, flop down as easily as Philomena, her joints too stiff and aching to allow her to do so.

"Actually, Alex, can I ask you something?"

Looking over to her friend, Alex shrugged her shoulder, "You already did, but go on."

Philomena rolled her eyes before she thought of how to form her question as best as she could, not wanting to hurt the only person in camp (other than Jason) who was willing to spend time with her.

"Do you ever wish things were different? That you wouldn't have to be here in Camp? To live, I don't know, a normal life, somewhere far away from here?"

Alex averted her gaze and looked over to the barracks in the distance. "Of course I wonder sometimes what a normal life would look like, or maybe just a life in which my dad would be a bit ... more easy going," she paused for a moment before continuing, closing and opening her eyes as if she were imagining this kind of life. "But honestly, if he hadn't made me train that hard, if I hadn't destroyed my body through practice and stuff, I don't think I would be the person that I am now. And I actually like the person I've become."

Another silence settled over them in which both girls let the spoken words sink in. Philomena observed Alex and the colorful mix of green, blue and dark red that surrounded her, knowing fully that most of her words were a lie.

Philomena knew that Alex was a self-reassured person and at peace with herself, which doesn't mean that her friend wouldn't want things to be different in many ways, especially when one considers all of the pain and torment Alex had to experience since birth.

"Why're you asking though?" Alex asked.

"No reason, I was just curious," Philomena responded, shrugging her shoulders. What she really meant by that was: I wanted to see if you too want to escape this life, if I am the only one that despises the demigod being so much; you know the edgy teenage-demigod-thoughts that consume one late at night.

"Okay, I'll just pretend to believe that," Alex said to her and laid down on the grass. "Have you heard anything from Jason?"

Philomena wanted a topic change, but not in this direction, because whenever someone mentioned Jason, her thoughts were filled with worry, after all he and Reyna had been gone for too long and nobody, not even the praetors or Terminus knew where they were or if they were even alive.

"Not a word," was all she responded, her tone giving away how much his disappearance was affecting her and Philomena's emotions shifted from sadness to anger at this realization. 

This boy, with his stupid grin, the dumb scar on his lips (that she found herself staring at from time to time) and perfect hair was making her worry about him. 

She didn't want this, she didn't want to care about him, because she knew that he would die, like everyone she had ever cared about and she didn't want to go through the pain of losing someone once again.

"He'll come back, we all know that," Alex tried to comfort her as best as she could, but neither of the girls were good at comforting people, so they just sat in silence with one another and really, that was all the comfort they needed right now.