The Forbidden Four

I

It was a regular day at Camp Half-Blood. Naiads were teasing satyrs. Archers were practicing. Ladon was protecting Thalia's pine tree. Each cabin minding its own business, everyone doing their job.
Cameron, Ashley, and Jen were sitting near the strawberry field. Cam and Jen chatting and Ashley just casually listening to them.
"Sooo, how's josh?" Asked Cam. "Uh what? Oh, yeah he's fine. He's...uh out of town for a while. Vacation." Jen stammered. "When did you last talk to him?" Ashley raised a brow. "Not sure...two weeks ago, I guess?" Jen said. "Kinda weird. You guys talk everyday, right?" Cam asked "yeah yeah he's just....busy now." Both Ashley and Cam nodded.
"I talked to my dad yesterday." Ashley said. Cam's heart sank. Things never go well when Ashley talks to her Father, Hades.
"And?" Cam asked, hoping it wasn't bad. "Like usual. He wants me to stop talking to you, Cameron. Like literally. He doesn't even want me to get near you in anyway possible." Ashley gritted her teeth and balled her fists. Her eyes showing so much anger and hate. The ground under her feet cracked.
"Woah! Hey! Hey! Ash! It's cool. It's okay. Calm down." Jen said. She held Ashley's hand trying to calm her friend before anything bad happens.
Cameron stayed quite, just staring and the strawberry field.
"I hate this." He said "why does it have to be like this? Just because our parents had a stupid fight or like being jerks, we're not gonna be friends? Annabeth and Percy are dating. Their parents don't like each other so much as well, but no one is stopping them!" He hissed.
"Guys...they're gods. We can't control or change how they are...you think mine is so good?..." Jen said then stayed quite. "No offense, Jen. You're mom is Iris. She's the rainbow goddess, she's usually nice, right? Cam asked. "Yeah sure." Jen snickered.
A horn blew down at the Dining Pavilion, signaling it was time for lunch.
"C'mon let's get some food." Jen said and left first.
Ashley was looking at the ground, thinking. "Ash?" Cameron said quietly. No reply. "Dude!" Cam shouted playfully. "I want to leave." Ashley blurted out. "What..?" "I want to leave. Let's leave. Let's go out to the world. We can survive on our own. We'll be better off without our stupid godly parents. Please. I don't want to deal with this anymore." Ashley said. Cameron looked at her, stunned she'd say something like that. "Ash...I-I. Look, we'll talk about it later tonight. Just you and Me. At the sword arena. Now c'mon let's get some food first." He gave her his hands and they walked to pavilion. And of course before they reached it they had to separate.

Cameron walked to the Hecate cabin tables, Jen was at the Iris table and Ashley sat with her brother, Nico, at the Hades table.

"How was your chat with dad yesterday?" Nico asked, picking the food on his plate, not paying it any attention. "Yeah what an amazing welcome to lunch greeting, Nico. Plus why the Hades were you there! I told you to stay out of it!" Ashley said gripping her fork. Nico chuckled. You're my sister, so technically I have to be part of it. Take care of you, make sure you're okay blah blah blah. All that. " Nico said, meeting Ashley's eyes.
"You don't even care about me." Ashley said, her voice breaking. "And who told you that?" Nico said, confused. "No one had to tell me, Nico." Ashley said. "You know what, I don't want to eat." She said and stormed out of the Pavilion. Nico sighed.
Meanwhile at the Hecate table, even Cameron was not interested in the plate of amazing looking pasta that sat in front of him. He thought of what Ashley said, she had a point. Their lives are messed up, they have to follow strict rules. They have to listen to whatever their godly parent said, even if it was something as stupid as not allowing him to be friends with Ashley daughter of Hades.
From across the table he looked for Ashley, she wasn't there. Nico sat there alone staring at the distance. He looked around for her, but no luck at finding her. He then got up to look for her.

Jen was sitting at the Iris table chatting with her half sister, Lucy, just casual talk. In her mind, Jen kept playing her mother's words. She tried to put them aside and kept talking.

Cameron was still looking for Ashley, she usually doesn't go to her cabin unless she was going to sleep. So he looked for her at the sword arena.
There she was, sitting in the dark. (Cam got used to her sitting in the dark like some chameleon because anyone rarely sees her).

He walked over to her and sat next to her. They both sat there in silence.
"What do you think?" Ashley asked. "About wh- oh. I-I." He sighed. "Look, Ash. You do have a point. Yes our parents are jerks, yes we hate them, but we can't just leave. There are monsters out there, they'd love a nice demigod for lunch. We need to stay here because this place protects us." He said calmly.
"Protect us but take our freedom to do anything?! Is that what you want Cameron? To follow some god's orders go on quests and do their dirty work for them!? How many times did your own mother send you on quests to find her the stupidest of things? You had to fight monsters didn't you? They DO NOT care about us. We might as well die but they'll never notice." Ashley said her voice breaking.
Cam held her hands, "things will work out......boo" Cam smirked. "Don't." Ashely warned. She stood up and backed up slowly. "Cameron I swear-"
She didn't have time because Cam summoned a bunch of teddy bears and started throwing them at her.
"Cameron! Stop!" She yelled trying to avoid the flying pink and yellow teddy bears. "I'll throw you at the depths of Tartarus myself! End this!"
"Nope!" Cam shouted playfully. "I'm cheering you up, boo. Stop being grumpy!" He said and threw a small dolphin stuffed animal at her. Ashley grabbed a shield to defend herself. "I hate you!" She shouted from behind the shield. "I know you mean love!" Cameron shouted back, summoning more stuffed animals.

A while longer after a lot of shouting and more than a dozen teddy bear attackers, they both lay down against a tree. "I hate you." Ashley said. "Shut up. You don't." They both laughed.

"Thank you, cam." Ashley said and looked at Cameron. "For what?" "For being the stupidest and cutest person I've ever met." She smiled warmly. "Aww you're welcome...boo." Ashley nudged him playfully.

"Ash....I want to tell you something..." Cam said nervously. "Yeah?" Ash replied. "I-I.."
He didn't complete his sentence. A storm of purplish bats came and took him away.

"Cameron! Oh gods. Cameron!" Ashley shouted trying to chase the bats. She threw rocks and arrows but nothing worked. Cameron was gone.

When he was thrown on the ground Like a rag doll, Cameron woke up and looked around him. He was in a cave. There were potions and other things he'd seen a lot before. He knew where he was. He was at Hecate's cave, he thought. But the place was different. It felt different. Like something was wrong, but he didn't know what it was.

"Welcome boy."