If I Could Tell You (Percico)

Chapter Twenty Four

Alex

I missed this dork way too much.

We headed back to this place that he had like restored here at camp called Bunker 9 and he showed me around and showed me what he's been making and he's still a dork. And I still love it.

Probably more than I should. But that's okay. He was being really sweet with me, and I wasn't sure what to think.

Because that might be normal for him. But I also doubt that it was.

"What?" Leo asked me, catching me stating. "Do I have oil on my face or something?"

"No!" I insisted. "You're just a dork still."

"Whatever." He tried to play it off like he was a real cool guy and fell over because he tried leaning on air.

This is what I mean. He's a dork. A bit of an airhead. But a dork.

"Little bit of an airhead, too, apparently." I remarked as I helped him up. "It's okay. Percy is, too. He calls himself stupid more than he probably should, too. But oh well. Either way, you're still a dork."

Leo

We were called down to campfire, and there was a shrine set up at the campfire. For a demigod, I imagine. But not one I recognized.

His name was Luke Castellan. And as Annabeth was talking with Clarisse, she was just about in tears when she saw all of this. Talking with Clarisse and Percy.

"What..." The daughter of Athena asked as we arrived at the campfire, I joined my friends with my friend. Percy, Clarisse, and Annabeth were right behind us. "What is this?"

"He never had an official funeral," Percy explained to his ex-girlfriend. He's sweet to everyone, I swear. "And Clarisse and I figured with you and Thalia here. Grover, everyone that kind of knew him, that'd we'd throw together a little shrine and what not for campers to look at and put stuff down for Luke, for the next few days."

"Seriously?" Annabeth asked.

"Well, it's not like anyone talks about him." Clarisse reasoned. "No one talks about anyone that died. We thought we could slowly set up shrines one by one. But as you're only here for the weekend before you go home for the holidays and what not, it only seemed right to start with Luke and just work backwards. Plus, it's sort of important to at least some of us that people are remembered and what not."

Annabeth cried for half of campfire, and Thalia just supported her. Thalia seems like a really good big sister. Especially when it comes to Annabeth. How that happened, I'm not sure I want to know.

"Who was Luke?" I asked Jason, confused.

Jason shrugged.

"Beats me." He told me. "I can't read that from here, I've never heard of the guy. Ask Percy. He probably knows. He set it up."

Alex managed to get Percy's attention for me, and the son of Poseidon looked over at all of us.

"Yeah?" Percy asked.

"Who was Luke?" I asked. "I probably wasn't paying attention when you told me."

"No, we just never said anything." Percy assured me. "He um... He was the leader before I was. He left Camp after my first summer and made some choices, not exactly good ones, and he died the summer before you guys showed up. He was really close to Annabeth and Thalia and he just never got anything more than a burial after he died. So yeah. There's more on the poster, too. About when he showed up and stuff."

"So you knew him?" Alex asked, as if all of us were normal and hasn't watched at least somebody die.

"Yeah!" Percy confirmed. "He was my mentor my first year here. An amazing swordsman, I could never catch up to him."