Without You..

New Friends?

~~~Piper~~~

It had been several hours since I had spoken to Nate in the woods this morning.

I saw him a lunch for a little bit but he didn't stay long. He was already done when I got there, in fact he was cleaning up his dishes and then left. It sucked because I wanted to know what table he was sitting at. I didn't bother to look this morning at breakfast. He was not going to make this easy was he? Nope.

I finished my food pretty quickly and headed down the the arena for some practice. I pulled out my sword and headed over to a monster dummy. I practiced my different stances and dodges while hitting the dummy with my blade. I was pretty good, not gonna lie. Though I think I have my dad to mainly thank for that. Thanks dad.

I hit and hit the dummy over and over again. Old memories come to mind as I go. I used to train every day with Jeremy. He was always pretty good at this. And it was fun being able to teach him some stuff. I couldn't make him do too much though, because of his heart condition. But I could teach him some simpler stances. We always had a good time practicing together.

"Oh my gods Piper slow down!" He would laugh, jokingly putting a hand over his heart, "you know I'm weak."

"Your illness won't protect you this time pretty boy- get over here!" I would respond with a grin.

"My illness won't protect me this time... that's a weird sentence but I won't argue with you Pipes. You're the one with the sharp thing after all."

I'd laugh and slap his arm teasingly, "this 'sharp thing' is called a sword dummy. You gotta learn how to use it if you want to live as a part demigod."

The memories make me smile. They make me remember a better time. Much better than our relationship right now.

Did we even have one anymore? I didn't know. He was so distant after that stupid stupid fight. I wish I hadn't told him my thoughts about my dad. Everyone thinks he's amazing, even Forest Grump said he liked him. I never should have brought it up. I probably lost my boyfriend and best friend because of it.

Why am I so stupid?! Why can't I just make relationships good and keep them that way?! I've already scared my dad off, then Jeremy. He's probably off having a blast at the Roman camp with his new girl friend. I hate her. I hate that girl so much.

"Geez, you know we have to re-use that dummy right?" A low voice from behind me says, bringing me out of my thoughts.

I look back over my shoulder and see Nate, standing there with a bow and arrow, looking like he just left the archery area.

My face turns into a scowl, "what do you want?"

"A dummy to shoot that isn't missing an arm... and a head..." he says, studying my very beaten up dummy. He runs his fingers through his hair and wipes some sweat off his forehead.

You know, he might look kinda cute if he actually tried... Then I see his outfit and cringe inside.

Never mind.

"Well sorry but maybe less limbs will make you a better shot. You'll have less to aim at." I grumble, pulling my sword out of the dummy. I walk over to a bench and start packing up my stuff.

"Yeah, thanks..." he says, walking iver to it. He picks the limp arm off the ground, "what'd it do to you to you to deserve this anyway? Eat bacon?"

"Hahaha, very funny... I was just thinking about some stuff while I was practicing and got carried away..."

"Well I hope you don't get paired up with me and get carried away," he says, dropping the arm.

"Get yourself a sword and let's see." I mumble, wiping my forehead with a sweat rag.

"Hey, I'll fight you if he won't." An unfamiliar voice says.

We both turn around to see a boy with dark brown hair and blue eyes. He was really tall and pretty well built. He looked like the type of person you would see working out in the arena all the time but I've never seen him before in my life. He gave me a charming smile, dimples forming in his cheeks when he did.

"I'm Kert," he said, walking over to the both of us.

"Um... hi I'm Piper." I said timidly. I didn't do too well around cute boys.

"And I'm leaving. Bye." Nate said, starting to walk away.

I couldn't help but snort a little when he did.

"Hey dude, why don't you stay? We can all practice together." Kert said, giving Nate a friendly smile.

"As awful as that sounds, I'm going to have to pass. I don't like whacking things with swords until their arms fall off." He said, not bothering to turn around.

"Aw, but Nate that's all the fun." I say teasingly.

Kert laughs, "yeah come on Nate. If you don't like fencing maybe I could show you up in archery."

Nate scoffed but stopped walking, "Well since you're so arrogant why not. It'd be fun to prove you wrong." Nate said, now walking over to the archery area.

Kert smirked and looked over at me, "he pretends to not like having friends so you have to manipulate him to do things with you. Come on, you can learn from me." He said with a grin, starting to walk to the archery area as well.

A small smile formed onto my face. While I didn't like Nate too much I was starting to warm up to him. Maybe it would be good to force him to be my friend. I did need one right now...

"Sure Kert." I grinned, putting my hair into a tight pony tail, "why not?"

I followed him to the archery area.