Light In The Shadows (good god the cover is awful)

Everything Old But Someone New

Two years ago, something happened. Something that nobody had planned on: Luke Castellan betrayed the gods. But nobody really cared about what the gods thought at this point- they ignored all their children anyways.

The problem was that Luke betrayed the camp. He betrayed his friends and family, all because he had some daddy issues. Some people have it worse. Nearly every other camper was going through the same thing. But he just had to go and start something.

But the past is past. There was nothing anyone could do to change that, but everyone was trying desperately to fix it.

Will didn't pretend to understand what was going on when he was first informed. He simply didn't care enough to inquire further. Oh, Luke betrayed everyone in the camp and tried to kill Percy Jackson multiple times, including giving him cursed shoes to drag him to Tartarus? Yeah, sounds like something he'd do. Hey, have you seen my scalpel?

Will had been about ten when that had happened. He was now twelve years old and insanely bored. Nothing interesting had happened since Percy and Annabeth had retrieved the Golden Fleece from that one cyclops guy while saving Grover on that one mission they weren't supposed to go on and revived Thalia. All three of them were gone at the moment for school, but they'd be back for winter break.

Will was only allowed to be on medic duty for a total of ten hours a week. He'd used them all up by Wednesday. He had a lot of free time, but that was just time for intrusive thoughts and feelings. He'd like to just go to bed and sleep them away, but getting too much sleep was unhealthy and he'd already had nine hours the night before.

He liked to sit on the dock and swish his feet in the water– it was too cold for that right now, though– while thinking about people's mental states in his free time– just a hobby. Thinking about how misunderstood mental illnesses are and how inaccurately they're portrayed in everyday life. Things like that.

Everyone assumed he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up. And technically he did– just not for the body. He wanted to get a Ph.D. in psychology and study mental health and help people through their mental problems.

Will sighed and looked down into the water of the lake. The water was a dull gray color today, but Will could see into it pretty well. There were some naiads weaving baskets, but really nothing else of interest was going on.

He looked down at his watch- almost 7:30 A.M. He'd been up for almost an hour. There was nothing better to do, so he stood up, waved goodbye to the naiads, and strolled back into camp. He was planning on sneaking back into the infirmary to help out, but something- someone- stopped him.

"Hey, Will! Come hang out with me!" he heard a familiar voice call. He looked over and saw that it was Selena Beauregard. He grinned and jogged over, sitting down next to her. Thankfully the thin layer of snow had melted away during the night, so the grass was nice and dry.

He wasn't sure exactly how they'd become friends, just how they'd met. Drew and her goonies had been picking on Will for not being able to shoot arrows as accurately as his siblings. He didn't know why he couldn't- it just wasn't his strong point. Selena had stood up for him and invited him to hang out- and it just sort of grew from there.

"Sici, I used up all my time. They won't let me in the infirmary to help out," Will complained, picking at the grass.

Sici, pronounced "see-see" was the nickname he'd given Selena. She always huffed at it, but he knew she secretly liked it.

Selena laughed, her long, black hair bouncing. "You are such a medical freak," she teased. She was the only one allowed to tease him, and the same vice versa because they always knew the other was just joking. They'd never do anything to hurt each other.