The Daughter of Apollo

Chapter Fourteen: My Conversation with the Ghost King

Chapter Fourteen-My Conversation with the Ghost King

After dinner that Aunt Sally had brought over, I laid in bed, staring at my ceiling. Not thinking at all, just staring. I guess I was sort of thinking about what had happened earlier. The whole 'healing-Nico-with-weird-powers' thing, and then about what Nico said after dinner.

Nico followed Aunt Sally into the apartment as she delivered dinner to us. We were just sitting, finishing up our homework. Well, Lana and I were. Meg finished all her work in class, and was now trying to read a book. Sally set the plates on the table. I had told her we could go over there and eat, but she insisted on making us feel like royalty and deliver the food to us.

After she had set down the plates full of food, she dusted her hands off, and smiled at us.

"Is there anything else I can get you girls?" Aunt Sally asked, smiling and happy as always. She rarely ever got mad, and when she did it wasn't for long, even when I....broke a couple things. My mom on the other hand, yelled at me to no end.

"No, thanks, Mrs. Blofis," Meg smiled. "I think we're all set here!"

Aunt Sally laughed, "No need to call me Mrs. Blofis. It makes me feel old. Please, call me Sally."

Meg smiled and nodded her head as she went back to her book. I snuck a peak at the title. It was Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. This was...what? The fifth time she's read it? And she hasn't even read a single Harry Potter book, yet she reads the same book five times!

I looked up from my homework as Aunt Sally started to leave out the door. Nico still stood there behind us. I went back to working on the math problem that was set in front of me. The problem read 'Find x and y if point A is 48 degrees and point B is 65 degrees. What type of triangle is this?'

I raised my eyebrow at the problem as Nico coughed. I sighed in frustration and looked back at him.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Could I talk to you a minute?" He said, not waiting for a reply as he started to walk to what we deemed 'the living room'.

I sighed again as I left my frustrating math problem at the table and got up to follow Nico. When I entered our little living room, he was sitting on the couch, lounging back without a care in the world.

"He likes you," He stated, plain and blunt.

"What? Who? What?" I was confused. The only thing going through my head was What?

"Connor. Crush. You. Understand?"

"Connor's going to crush me?" I joked, smiling a little at the pathetic attempt at a joke.

Nico hit his forehead and mumbled something inaudible under his breath. "Connor has a crush on you. He didn't want me to tell you, but I had to anyway. That and since I did, Travis is going to give me fifteen drachmas. Now the question is...Do you like Connor?"

My eyebrows rose in surprise. When Nico said he needed to talk to me, I definitely didn't expect this.

Another reason, Connor liked me? I honestly didn't see what was so great about me, I was just....me. That was all anyone really needed to be. Themselves, nobody but themselves. At least, that's what my dad-who's-not-really-my-dad had told me when I was little and Audrey Plow had moved into town. He had told me that if I'm myself, then I'll always be popular, just not in the way that I was thinking.

I now know what he meant by not the same as what I was thinking thing. Yeah, sure, I'm popular, in a way. I'm popular for being different then other girls like Audrey and Hallie, and that's not always a good thing. Especially since that always makes you their target.