Daughter Of The Moon

Chapter 20

Luna

"Gods, I wish I'd seen his face." Laughs Zack as I finish telling my story of capture the flag. "He must have look like a cat that got dunked in the sea."

"Yeah, he wishes he got dunked in the sea." I agree, taking the last bite out of my apple and throwing the core far out into the forest. "Then maybe he would have had an advantage over me."

"I hate to say it, Luna, but he already did." A small frown creases Zack's sunny face, and he gazes at me curiously. "He's the best swordsman at Camp, head of his team, son on the Big Three, and about twice the size of you."

"I guess..." I mumble, turning away and suddenly acting very interested in the laces of my boots, while crazy thoughts whirl around my head:

Did he see me glowing?

Should I tell him about me glowing?

Should I add in the bit where Kai called me beautiful?

"No." I say forcefully to myself, to absorbed in my thoughts to even catch the puzzled look from Zack. Something about Kai calling me beautiful and Zack saying a similar thing two nights before don't mix well in my head, and suddenly -for the first time ever since coming to Camp- I feel the need to talk to an Aphrodite girl about my situation.

Not that it's in anyway romantic... I think hastily to myself. Friends call each other beautiful all the time, right?

To test my worried theory, my socially awkward mouth spits out that very theory.

"You're very beautiful, you know." I say seriously to Zack; much to seriously for it to sound in any way jokey. His cerulean-blue eyes widen abruptly, and he stares at me as if I've suddenly caught on fire. But then his face relaxes, and his usual easy smile takes residence on his face again.

"Well that's a first." He chuckles, and he puts an arm around me, hugging me to his side. "You're also very beautiful, Luna Night." He whispers, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear. The lack of his usual joking tone makes me nervous in a way that I can't decide whether it is good or bad, so I just blush and gaze, unashamed, at him.

There's something about his face that makes my statement true, I realize. Something about his smile, his fine-boned face, his sandy hair and his sky-blue eyes make we want to pull on a beret, set up an easel, and paint him even though I haven't the faintest clue how to paint.

Good nerves. I decide. Definitely good nerves.

"Luna, I..." Zack starts, sounding oddly choked up. But that just happened to be the moment I finally ripped my eyes away from his face and I jump to my feet as I see somebody running towards the clump of boulders Zack and I are sitting on. This person looks rather out of breath, but still incredibly smug as she halts at the foot of the clump and shouts up at us.

"Luna! Chiron wants to see you, so you'd better come quick." She calls, tossing her golden curls over one shoulder in a vain sort of way.

"What for?" Asks Zack on my behalf, that weird choked quality to his voice gone as quickly as it came and replaced with his usual good-natured tone.

"No idea." She replies, and I finally notice by the roll of her malicious bright green eyes that it's the Aphrodite girl I fought with during capture the flag.

"Okay then, we're coming." I tell her, and me and Zack begin climbing down the rocks. As soon as we are both on the ground, Aphrodite-girl sets off at a brisk pace through the woods and towards the Big House. Being his usual polite and social self, Zack tries to strike up conversation, but it is stunted quickly by the tension between me and the love goddess' daughter as we stomp down the forest floor, kicking up leaves as we both speed up our paces to try and catch the other out. Immature, I know, but this girl is really getting on my nerves.