The boy with hair of sun and eyes of ocean was my savior.
"Doctor's orders." It was his favorite. A "must-use" after any command. It got me. Today he uses it for my love.
"Dinner tonight. Doctor's orders." Will's eyes sparkle as he talks, reminding me once again why I love him so. Our three year difference is nothing between us.
"Alright, Will," I say. "Are you teaching prophecy today?" Now that he has endured the war and been at the camp for many years, Will teaches some instructional classes at Camp Half-Blood. Chiron has also allowed me to teach a couple classes though I am only 15.
"Yes," he says, "Are you doing Shadow Traveling?" I nod. Several more Hades children have come after the war and have been immensly curious on Shadow Traveling. When I had told Chiron I'd like to teach them, he was astounded, and willingly agreed.
Will grabs my hand as we part ways for our morning classes. "I'll see you, Death Boy." I grit my teeth, but also bite back laughter.
"You too, Sunshine."
As I walk around camp towards the dark clearing in the forest, I stop to talk to multiple friends. Percy stops me near his cabin, where he's just woken up, even though it's noon.
"Hey, man." Percy claps a hand onto my shoulder, his eyes darting around. "I need help."
I scoff. "Help? From a son if Hades? Alrighty then." He glares at me.
"This is serious! Somethings gone terribly wrong," he insists. I admit, he does look troubled, but I thought you always looked like that after coming back from Tartarus.
"Ok, fine. What?"
"It's that new kid. That new Posiedon son. He- Annabeth- it- just help," Percy cries. I understand. Percy is worried Annabeth will like this boy. I think his name is Cyrus, maybe.
"Doesn't he bunk right on top of your's?" I recall. Percy nodds. "Well, that's going to make things complicated. I got you."
The clearing in the forest holds all six of the new Hades kids when I get there, given the fact I'm late. They're all giddy, twisting their hair or cracking their knuckles.
"Hi, brothers and sisters. I'm your head counselor, Nico. This afternoon we'll be attempting shadow travel cross-camp. I'm going to put you in two groups to see who wins the challenge. It's kind of like a relay.
"One of you from each line will stand in a Celestial Bronze hoop and shadow travel across camp to the pavillion. There, sister Hazel is holding a plate of farturas." A couple of the younglings laugh. "If your shadow travel is successful, you may eat a fartura, then throw a popcorn grenade provided by Bunker 9 into the sky. When I see the popcorn, I will add a point for your team." The kids squirm and smile, farturas are only served on special occasions. And kids like popcorn.
"But if you DONT make it, you have to walk back to the end of your team's line, here. The team with all of their popcorn grenades exploded, wins."
My siblings jump and whoop and ask if they can be first.
"The teams are: Jay, Valery, Damien. Christie, Jonas, and Winston."
The two teams arrange into single file lines and wait for their turns. Jay and Christie make it through impeccably, they are good children of Hades. It takes Valery a little bit to get her conscious to travel, but she eventually sets off her popcorn grenade. Jonas takes about a minute to eat his fartura, so he drops his grenade a bit late. Only Damien and Winston are left, my two worst pupils.
I have to say, Damien WOULD be a good pupil if he would stop picking fights and bullying. Winston is just quite a bit sloppy, so he tends to Shadow Travel only backwards. Huh.
"You wouldn't be able to Shadow Travel a foot without going the complete wrong direction, loser!" Damien shouts from the hoop of the first team. Winston looks offended.
"At least I haven't sent a kid to the infirmary six days in a row!" He fights back, almost leaving his hoop.
"Boys," I say, "Just Travel, please."
"Okay," Damien agrees, "Same time, on three. First boy to throw his grenade wins."
I start to stop him. If they do this, well, things wont be the same for the two of them. "No, you-"
"One!"
"Damien th-"
"Two!"
"If y-"
"Three!"
The boys melt away.
