The Best Of The Worst

CHAPTER 6

ANNABETH

She was walking back to the cabins, arm in serious pain, when she saw Piper and Hazel. Hazel ran up to her and wrapped her arms around Annabeth''s waist. "I'm so sorry to hear about... Stuff." she said. Piper was smiling faintly behind her. 

Annabeth had never realised just how beautiful her best friend is. She'd recently broken up with Jason, after a major fight between the two, and she decided to change how she looked. She never really felt like a proper daughter of Aphrodite, but she never really wanted to be one. She decided that if she lost the most Mum-approved thing about her- her boyfriend- why not get rid of some other things, too? Like, half a head's worth of hair? She shaved off one side and got blue tips. It looked amazing on her, too. She got random piercings; two on her nose, four up her ear, one on an eyebrow. She looked different, but in a good way. 

Annabeth patted Hazel's head lightly and weakly said "Thanks." 

She didn't really want to be reminded. 

Hazel let go and ran back off to Frank. Piper, though, joined Annabeth and Kayne. 

"Where we off to?" she asked.

Annabeth told her everything that happened. Piper stared at her hand... And her wrist. That had started to turn black, too. It seemed to slowly creep up her arm. 

"So, now we need to see Katie. She better have another trick up her sleeve."

When they got there, a girl that Annabeth didn't recognise was leaning over the small stub that used to be an olive-tree used for choking Lilliana Jones. She had long, pitch-black hair, pale skin, and looked like she might have been Asian because of her facial-structure. She seemed calm and collective, but also quite care-free. And curious. And probably a few other C words. She wore a red flanel jacket over top of her black Fall Out Boy band-shirt, and had white leggings. As she touched the stump, her eyes went piercingly white and small branches came out of it. Slowly, it grew up to the size it was, just without a person inside it.

"There you go, Kayne." she said, turning to us. 

"Th-thanks!" Kayne replied, walking up to it and feeling the branches. "Thank you so much!"

"That's okay. I'm Emma. Emma Truman."

"I'm-" Annabeth went to say before Emma interrupted her.

"Annabeth Chase. And this is your friend Piper, McLean. Katie has told me about everyone in the  camp." Emma replied.

"Impressive." Piper said. "Hey, if you can fix the tree, can you fix Annabeth's hand, too?" she asked, and Annabeth was glad she did, because she'd gotten distracted and forgotten completely about her hand.

"Sure." Emma replied, walking up and touching her finger. It slowly went back to normal.

"Thanks!" Annabeth said, relieved. 

"I'm from Hecate cabin. I know a few spells." she smiled in reply.

"Only the spells needed to take back my magic." Katie said, slumped up against the wall of her cabin, reading. 

"Hey" Emma replied, "You still have some magic." She grinned at Katie, who looked up, eyebrows raised.

"Like?" she asked.

"The magic you used to make me fall in love." Emma said. "I don't have any spells to stop that!"'

Katie smiled and put her bookmark in. "That, for the last time, is not mother-fucking magic, you flirt." she said, putting her book down and standing up. She walked over to Emma and planted a kiss on her cheek. 

"Are you two in a relationship?" Kayne asked. 

"Have been before we came to camp." Katie replied. "In fact, neither of us actually knew Emma was a demigod for a while, so we'd meet up when I went between here and SPQR."

"You learn something knew everyday." Annabeth said with a smile, just before the dinner horn blew.

The 5 of them went down together, talking. They learnt quite a few new things about olives, too; like that the largest type of olive is called a Donkey Olive, and the smallest a Bullet Olive. 

They had dinner at their separate tables, then went their separate ways. But, in heart, Annabeth certainly didn't feel separate from Piper. She felt like they had a moment, there. Maybe not, though.