Haunted || Leo Valdez

19 - Leo Meets My Dead Ex-Almost-Boyfriend

When Rebecca fell asleep, Leo almost slammed his head into the wall. He'd been so close. He'd actually had a conversation that didn't involve him annoying Rebecca. He'd even managed to make her genuinely smile. He had no idea what made her stop, but eventually he decided she was probably right to get them back on track. There would be plenty of time for making her genuinely smile as soon as they got back to Camp Half-Blood.

Leo wasn't looking forward to finding out about Nate like he'd been earlier, but he grabbed Rebecca's hand anyway.

Suddenly he was walking through the very ship Beckendorf had died in: The Princess Andromeda. He had a sword strapped to his belt and was wearing a bronze chestplate. A very stoic-looking Rebecca was following him, carrying her armor. They walked past a wall of windows and he caught a glimpse of Nate's reflection. He had brown, shaggy hair and light freckles splattered across his face.

"So," Nate said awkwardly. "What's your name?"

Rebecca answered without looking at him. "It's Rebecca."

"Oh, cool," Nate said. "Do you go by Becca?"

"No," Rebecca replied. "I hate that nickname."

"Boring," Nate muttered.

Rebecca stopped in her tracks. "Well, excuse me for not being as interesting as you were expecting," she snapped. "I'm sure you're so much more memorable than I am."

Nate stopped and frowned at her. Rebecca didn't back down. Then suddenly, Nate grinned.

"Finally, someone who can actually talk back!" He said with a note of excitement. "You and I are going to get along just fine!"

Rebecca frowned. "What?"

"All the other demigods here just whine about how their parents don't pay attention to them and how they've been wronged by the gods," Nate said. "They just mope around. I'm like, 'Okay, we get it, your dad didn't answer your prayers. Now you can take revenge, so stop whining.' They're so annoying. So which god are you taking revenge on?"

Rebecca, who'd been listening with almost amusement, stiffened. "Hephaestus."

"He's your godly parent?"

"No," Rebecca said coldly. "It's Hades."

Nate stopped short and stared at her with fascination. "So you're the daughter of Hades Luke wanted to recruit. Rebecca di Angelo, right? Ethan said you can summon skeletons. Is that true?"

"Yes."

"Man, that's so cool." Nate said. "So cool."

They walked in silence until they came to a stop at one of the ship's cabins. "This is yours. You're sharing with Silena Beauregard, but she doesn't stay very often, so you'll have it mostly to yourself. It's too bad you're a girl, though, 'cause you'd make a better roommate than Ethan. He's whiny and annoying too."

"I think what you meant to say is that it's too bad you're a boy," Rebecca retorted. "But I wouldn't want you as a roommate. You talk too much."

Leo expected Nate to get upset, but he just grinned. "Yeah, I get that all the time. I take pride in it." He stared at Rebecca for a second. "Yeah, you're exactly what we needed. See you tomorrow at training!"

He didn't give Rebecca a chance to respond, because he turned around and left.

Then Leo was standing directly across from Rebecca. They had leather armor on and swords out. Leo wondered what Nate could have possibly done to deserve this.

"Begin!" Someone said. It was Luke, the guy with the golden eyes. He was watching with mild disinterest, like he'd seen too many battles for this one to mean anything.