Jake Mason and the Human

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Sitting on the edge of my bed, I had blueprints and pencils surrounding me. I was staring at the floor of the cabin trying to figure out what I had to do to fix my latest invention. It had the slight issue of frying my off.

So, I sat there with clumps of my hair missing and my brass hat in my grip. The contraption looked up at me with a mocking gleam that I didn't want, so I threw it out the window.

Not long after, there was a knock at the cabin door.

"Come in," I called. The rest of my cabin was out at the archery station, but Leo could tell I needed time to mess with my weapon and let me stay back for the day.

The door slowly creaked open to reveal Hannah, a daughter of Aphrodite. When she saw me, she gasped and rushed over to my bed.

"Oh my gods what happened?"

I didn't know what she was talking about, so I kind of scooted away from her reach. "What?"

She gently put her hand on my arm. "I, I saw whatever it was fly out of your window and now this!"

I looked around the cabin. "What?"

"You're hair!"

"Oh." I sighed and ran a hand through what was left of my hair. "Small fire."

"You need to fix this," Hannah stated, pulling me up with her. "Let's go."

"Listen, Hannah. I'm not too concerned," I admitted, but she continued to pull me towards the door.

"Oh, I'm not asking," she laughed. "If you're going to be walking around camp, I won't have you scaring everyone off."

I couldn't help but smile at that. "You're honest."

She gave me a nice smile and whipped the front door open. "C'mon. Let's go."

After the Aphrodite kids fixed my hair, I almost didn't recognize myself. I hadn't really ever paid attention to what I looked like, so my hair had always been the same length. Now, it was short and fuzzy.

I thanked them for the fix and made my way to the archery range to catch up with my cabin. After walking to the opposite side of camp I found the stations empty. With a huff I made my way to the dining pavilion to get a better look at the grounds. Maybe I'd be able to see them from the highest point at camp.

The only thing I found, though, was Connor and Skylar. The two of them were casually sitting back on the dining tables, not talking, just thinking.

"You guys aren't making out are you? I have a habit of walking into that," I teased with my hands covering my eyes.

Connor laughed and I took my arms down to join them.

"Nice hair, man," he laughed.

I rubbed my hand over my new head and complained. "Ah, shut up. Aphrodite kids claimed me as their new play doll for the day."

"I think it looks nice, Jake," Skylar put, sitting forward and stretching a little.

With the biggest look of triumph I could muster I looked to Connor and said, "Thanks, Sky."

He just shook his head and mouthed, "She hates it."

I rolled my eyes and sat down in front of the two. "What are you guys up to?"

"Avoiding cabin agenda," Connor answered.

Skylar rolled her eyes at him. "Connor is avoiding responsibility, I got dragged into it."

Connor grinned at that. "Not dragged, just nudged."

"Okay, buddy."

I watched them bicker like a married couple and grew more and more aware of a sick feeling that had settled in my stomach. I didn't want to think about what it was because I knew what it was and I had been trying not to think about what it was that I was thinking about.