The Boy On Fire (A Caleo Short Story)

Chapter 7 (I Got Tagged)

               After eating a hearty salad drowned in ranch dressing, Chiron announced that it was time to prepare for capture-the-flag. "Campers!" He spoke to the crowd of demigods. 

               Nobody looked up. Everyone was too busy eating their meals and chatting to each other.

               "Campers!!!" Chiron finally got their attention. "It is time to prepare for capture-the-flag!"

               Shouts of "I thought that we already had one last Monday!" and "Two games in one week! Awesome!" rang out across the crowd.

               "Campers, quiet! I'm not finished!" Chiron continued. "I know you may be confused about why we are having two games in one week, but I have decided that as a special treat we are going to have another game! But there is going to be something special about this game! Instead of cabins allying with each other, we will have two team captains that will chose campers for their team one by one. Since Leo and Calypso have just returned to us, I am going to make them captains! Heroes, to the woods!"

               Whooping and cheering, the campers filtered out of the dining pavilion. Leo got up from where he was recounting his journey home from Ogygia to anyone who would listen, which right now was just Chuck Hedge, the two-month old baby satyr and Gleeson Hedge's son. Leo had talked with the coach earlier and Coach Hedge had told him that he was proud of him and that Leo was still and would always be his cupcake.

               Chuck sucked on his thumb while Leo returned him to his daddy before running outside with the rest of the campers. He had no idea where Calypso was but he assumed that she would be somewhere out here. Some girls had pulled Calypso away from him at the beginning of the meal to chat and Leo had seen her switching tables a few times.

               Leo noticed that Clarisse of the Ares cabin was walking up to him. "Valdez!"

               "What do you want, Clarisse?" Leo meant it in a normal way, but he realized that it came out a bit too rude.

               "Is that how you want to play then?" Clarisse's always present scowl grew darker.

               "No, sorry." Leo tried again. "What do you need?"

               "That's better. I was just wondering why Chiron put a little girlie as team captain instead of me."

               "Don't underestimate her. I admit, she doesn't look like much, but she can do lots if she really wanted to." Leo thought for a second, then added. "And aren't you a little girlie too?"

               Leo walked away smirking as Clarisse scowled at him, but she didn't have a comeback so she just walked back over to her group of Ares kids.

               Just then Chiron called Leo to the front of the group. "Will our team captains please come forward."

               Leo walked up to the front of the group and stood next to Chiron. He saw Calypso, beautiful as always, laughing with a bunch of Aphrodite girls as she came up to stand next to him. Leo noticed that the Aphrodite girls had really decked her out. She had colorful feathers in her hair and it looked like they had done something to her eyes, because their dark almond color shone with almost twice the effect. Wow, she sure is beautiful. Leo wasn't usually a big fan of makeup in the first place but these additions didn't change his girl, it only expressed the traits he loved about her even more.

               Chiron interrupted his thinking. "Calypso, you choose first."

               "Uhh... Leo."