Victorious

Alex

Alex packed his bag.
This was his first quest. If he messed up, he'd be the laughing stock of the fifth cohort forever.
Hey! Two of the seven lived to have a kid and he's a complete dork! He doesn't even belong in the fifth cohort!
And then some dirtbag would be like WHAAATTT?
And the story would still be going around when 4,000 years from now a new band of heroes would be fighting Gaea and they'd be like at least we're not like him lol.
So Alex has defiantly thought this through thoroughly.
He threw in his knife and a bunch of mortal money and a twix bar.
"Hey Alex!"
Alex groaned. He turned around to face the son of Apollo, better known as the most annoying person in the fifth cohort.
"What Colin," Alex said, sipping up his bag. "What do you want?"
"I'm just hoping you know that your girlfriend became centurion last night."
Alex frowned. He slung his backpack on his back.
"Dude, shut up. She's not my girlfriend." Alex started. And frankly, I don't think we'll ever be. She scares me. And everyone. "And I'm hoping that you know that. Given you are like, centurion of this cohort, and you were at the meeting, I'd be a little worried if you didn't know."
Colin shrugged. "Whatever. Well, since I was at the meeting yesterday, I did hear Cleo say that she wanted you to be ready at 8."
"What? She never said that."
Alex was done talking to Colin. He walked out of the door of the barracks and ran to Cleo, who was conveniently standing right in the middle of the loop of barracks. Cleo smiled, which he didn't think was possible.
"Why did you request we meet at 8?"
She frowned. "I never said that. I said nine."
"Typical. My centurion told me 8."
"Well, it's 8-" she looked at her watch. "46, so I guess you'd just be late anyways."
They stood in awkward silence. Cleo kicked around the grass at her feet, and then looked at the barracks. She seemed to always have the same look on her face- a hard, blazing look that meant she could accept anything. Even though Cleo was twelve, she was fit for a leader. She was wearing her centurions pin on her Jean jacket and her camp Jupiter t shirt. Her long brown hair was braided to the side.
"So, centurion huh?"
That's usually something someone would gush about, but she just shrugged.
"Yeah. I didn't understand a lot of it, to be honest. They sat me down and pressured me like, your mother was praetor! You're the leader of the quest! Boom! Here's a centurion pin!"
Alex smiled a little. "Well, it's not as complicated back when our parents were around. The Romans have adapted to a bit of the Greek culture and they've adapted to ours."
Cleo frowned. "I've noticed that. I've read a little bit about Ancient Rome and it isn't the same as I thought it would be."
Alex shrugged. His father told him the evening before he was sent to the wolf house that Camp Jupiter wouldn't be so different from Camp Half-Blood. He even said that he would've made a lot of changes after he spent a year at Camp Half-Blood. His father told Alex he wanted him to have the same experience.
"Yeah. I actually like it this way. My mom told me Camp Jupiter was really intimidating until they changed their ways."
Cleo raised an eyebrow at me like she would say, really, man? Are you that much of a wimp?
Surprisingly, that's exactly what he heard.
"Really, man? Are you that much of a wimp?"
Alex laughed and turned around to see his best friend Carter. His smile looked more crazy than usual. Alex was afraid that Carter had lit the 3rd cohorts barracks on fire again or had just placed an array of timed fireworks that would go off during dinner.
"No. I'm just saying I like it better this way. Clearly, your father didn't. He blew it up."
Carters face went dark and his hand started to catch fire.
"It wasn't my dad, it was an-"
"Whatever, Carter." Alex laughed.
Cleo shook her head. "So pointless. When you two are done arguing about nothing, can we please discuss how we are going to start our quest?"
"Where are we going anyways?" Carter said, pulling out a bunch of random pieces of metal and a gear.
"South. That's all I can tell you." Cleo answered.
"So do we just go south?"
"That was my plan, yes."
"Not much of a plan."
"Do you have a better one?"
"Who told you to go south anyways?"
"Look, I know stuff. Trust me."
"How do you know?"
"Because I know Carter. Don't ask stupid questions."
Watching them fight was like watching Ron and Hermione unfold. They hate each other, then they date each other. Alex was already betting money on when they would start dating. Thanks to his mother, he inherited that weird Aphrodite like trait that made him weirdly interested in other people's love lives.
"Look. Why don't we just take a cab as far as we afford?" Alex asked.
"We could ride Festus!" Carter said enthusiastically.
"Festus?" Cleo snorted.
"No Carter. We are not riding your fathers rusty old dragon." Alex complained.
"Do not insult Festus." Carter said firmly.
Cleo rolled her eyes. "Really? A bronze dragon? Look. I like Alex's idea. Let's just do that."