Cam Valdez and the Lost Origins: The Unkown Twin

I'm Intimidated by a Short Emo Boy

Finally! Normal dreams were the only things that visited me the rest of the day. Uh, well, when I say 'normal' I really mean I was stranded on an island with a really hot kid my age. But hey, I'm getting there!

Most of the afternoon I tried my best to avoid all of Will's siblings, but that's harder than it sounds when you are sleeping on a medical cot ten feet from the doorway and obviously don't belong there.

About nine people crowded around me, asking Will questions. I was overwhelmed. I had never gotten this much "good" attention before. The last time I got half this much attention was when I ran away from my last orphanage when I was seven. Oh! And when I accidently blew up my cranky neighbor's garden.

The noise of people all trying to talk over each other was too much. My head started throbbing and I couldn't even hear my own thoughts over the thumping of my brain. I reached up to touch the bump on my head.

I felt like someone had repeditally punched my face. The headache was almost unbearable but I didn't feel comfortable passing out in front of this group of people. I know, I know. It was stupid, not wantinb to pass out infront of people. I never thought about things like that. But most of Will's brothers were, erm, hot. As hot as the sun, some might say. (I'm pretty sure that's what Will said Apollo's the god of--and something about bad poetry--otherwise this would be awkward...)

I shook my head. What was I thinking? This noise was really messing up my brain. I suddenly slammed my hand down on Will's arm. He was annoyingly talking with his hands and it was making me dizzy. Everyone immediately shut up and looked at me. Well, now my stupid brain decided it was a good time to stop throbbing and I passed out.

Again.

I woke up (again) and everyone was doing normal things, like ignoring me. One of Will's sisters who was playing a card game with Will glanced over toward me. Will glared at the girl who hurriedly turned away from me and got back to her game.

This will sound weird but I almost wished just a couple kids would walk over and talk to me. I felt like such an outcast, though that was normal. Especially when I remembered the conversation I had eavesdropped on earlier. What had Nico di Angelo find about me? Did he tell Will? Did everyone think I was bad? Or worse, did they think I was a murderer?

Had he gotten that far into investigations about me to connect all the creepy things I left in my wake?

Had he found out about the lollipop incident...?

I shook my head. There was no way he'd learned about the lollipops. Plus, I was used to being an outcast. Being ignored. It was funny how I thought this place would be any different from everywhere else I have lived. This camp was just another temporary home, with temporary people. I would be on the move again in no time. And being on the move was easier for me, constantly changing scenery and the people I was stuck around.

Yet, I felt like I needed to be here. Not just the Hermes thing and all of his confuzzling things, but I just felt drawn to this place. Okay, yeah, my head was still going crazy though that should pass (almost as much as I pass out.)

My stomach growled so loud and I was worried someone would hear it but apparently no one did. I couldn't remember the last time I ate. It had been at least twenty-four hours since Donut had devoured the last donut. Then I had eaten that weird lemon bar thing. The weird lemon bar thing! I tried to remember which drawer Will had put it in. I was pretty sure it was the drawer by the bunk behind me...

I carefully got up and crawled across the floor. When I first sat up, my head hurt just a bit but there was no pain. I reached the nightstand and carefully pulled open the top drawer. The drawer was filled with crumpled up papers, pens, pictures of Nico and camp, and a single ziplock bag full of lemon bars. I carefully pulled the bag out of the drawer.

Inside there were the magical lemon bars. I opened the bag and my mouth started watering. I hadn't realized before how hungry I was. Hadn't Will said something about too much of the treat would make you sick? He probably meant that eating too much could give you a stomach ache.

I carefully ripped off a chunk off one of the lemon bars, content on making it last as long as possible. There were about five bars in there. Enough to satisfy my hunger. I was about to pop the chunk in my mouth but I felt a cold hand wrap around my wrist. Shivers went through my body and I dropped the chunk of the lemon bar on the floor.

I tried to turn around to see who was grabbing onto me but they were hidden in the shadows. Everyone else was still doing their own things. I counted the campers to try and figure out who was behind me.

There were twelve people that I could see. Had I not met one of Will's siblings? That wouldn't have made sense because there were six bunk beds for twelve people. Did someone sleep on the couch? The weirdest thing was that I had felt this person's cold hands before. My other thoughts vanished and I finally realized who it was.

"Don't make a sound," Nico whispered in my ear in a deep voice, trying to intimidate me. If I was still that twelve year old girl who spent every second with the di Angelos, I would've laughed out loud if I heard 'Nico' and 'intimidating' in the same sentence. Now, things were different. He had changed. He had changed a lot and not just because of puberty, heck, he'd hardly grown two inches since I last saw him.

I followed Nico's command and held my breath. Suddenly, I felt funny. My entire body was filled with a tingling, squashing, suffocating sensation as the world around me vanished. The only thing that felt the same was Nico's hard grip on my wrist.