ENTRAPPED ₂

4

ETHAN ATE DINNER AT THE HERMES TABLE WITH MADELEINE'S BROTHERS. Connor and Chris had both been looking into colleges, and Travis was already attending one, but all three of them had dropped everything once they had learned Madeleine was missing. Ethan didn't have to be a resident of the Hermes Cabin anymore to know that there were a lot of sleepless nights.

They had recruited a new kid, too: Cecil Markowitz. Ethan thought Madeleine would have liked him, because she loved all of her brothers fiercely. It was the loyalty to family in her. So Ethan remained neutral on the new boy, because Madeleine wasn't dead.

He shoveled food into his mouth as quickly as he could, then went down to the beach with Drew, Lee, and Clarisse to smoke a blunt. There was no way he was going to go to the sing along or go to the campfire sober. Maybe with Madeleine, but that was the fucking problem, wasn't it?

When Ethan and his friends finally resigned themselves to the campfire, they made their way to sit with their cabins. Ethan had no siblings, so he usually made himself comfortable with Annabeth. Tonight, she was sitting with Jason. Just Ethan's luck.

He made his way down to them. Jason looked at Ethan warily, but Ethan ignored him in favor of giving Annabeth a marshmallow. "For s'mores," he told her over the roar of the song.

She smiled at him, her curly hair framing her face, and patted the space next to her. Ethan sat down and grabbed one of the metal roasting sticks. He put his marshmallow on it and put it into the fire, letting it burn up.

Jason was still watching him. Ethan turned to look at him and jutted his chin. "What?"

Jason looked away. Ethan looked back at the fire. Annabeth sighed and put her head on Ethan's shoulder. If anyone else had done this, Ethan probably would have slitted their throat on the spot. Unfortunately, he liked Annabeth Chase.

The song ended with rowdy applause. Ethan spotted Rachel and the new girl walking in. He felt moderately annoyed because he didn't like his friends hanging out with people that he didn't like. Not that he was replaceable, but still.

The other new boy, Leo, was sitting with his siblings in Hephaestus, looking out of place. Ethan had no particular fondness or disdain for the children of Hephaestus, and ignored them without a second glance.

Chiron trotted forward, brandishing a spear with toasted marshmallows. "Very nice! And a special welcome to our new arrivals. I am Chiron, camp activities director, and I'm happy you have all arrived here alive and with most of your limbs attached. In a moment, I promise we'll get to the s'mores, but first―"

"What about capture the flag?" someone yelled. Grumbling broke out among the Ares kids, who sitting under their red banner with its boar head emblem.

"Yes," Chiron said. "I know the Ares Cabin is anxious to return to the woods for our regular games."

"And kill people!" one of them shouted.

"However," Chiron said, "until the dragon is brought under control, that won't be possible. Cabin Nine, anything to report on that?"

He turned to face the Hephaestus campers, and Ethan withdrew his marshmallow from the fire. It was burned almost all the way through. He handed off his stick to Annabeth and placed the marshmallow in his mouth.

"We're working on it," Nyssa called. She was a muscular girl, wore an army jacket and a red bandana. Ethan had a moderate amount of respect for her but no desire to get to know her any better.

There was more grumbling. Someone from Ares demanded, "How, Nyssa?"

"Really hard," the girl replied.