Alex
I missed this dork way too much.
We headed back to this place that he had like restored here at camp called Bunker 9 and he showed me around and showed me what he's been making and he's still a dork. And I still love it.
Probably more than I should. But that's okay. He was being really sweet with me, and I wasn't sure what to think.
Because that might be normal for him. But I also doubt that it was.
"What?" Leo asked me, catching me stating. "Do I have oil on my face or something?"
"No!" I insisted. "You're just a dork still."
"Whatever." He tried to play it off like he was a real cool guy and fell over because he tried leaning on air.
This is what I mean. He's a dork. A bit of an airhead. But a dork.
"Little bit of an airhead, too, apparently." I remarked as I helped him up. "It's okay. Percy is, too. He calls himself stupid more than he probably should, too. But oh well. Either way, you're still a dork."
Leo
We were called down to campfire, and there was a shrine set up at the campfire. For a demigod, I imagine. But not one I recognized.
His name was Luke Castellan. And as Annabeth was talking with Clarisse, she was just about in tears when she saw all of this. Talking with Clarisse and Percy.
"What..." The daughter of Athena asked as we arrived at the campfire, I joined my friends with my friend. Percy, Clarisse, and Annabeth were right behind us. "What is this?"
"He never had an official funeral," Percy explained to his ex-girlfriend. He's sweet to everyone, I swear. "And Clarisse and I figured with you and Thalia here. Grover, everyone that kind of knew him, that'd we'd throw together a little shrine and what not for campers to look at and put stuff down for Luke, for the next few days."
"Seriously?" Annabeth asked.
"Well, it's not like anyone talks about him." Clarisse reasoned. "No one talks about anyone that died. We thought we could slowly set up shrines one by one. But as you're only here for the weekend before you go home for the holidays and what not, it only seemed right to start with Luke and just work backwards. Plus, it's sort of important to at least some of us that people are remembered and what not."
Annabeth cried for half of campfire, and Thalia just supported her. Thalia seems like a really good big sister. Especially when it comes to Annabeth. How that happened, I'm not sure I want to know.
"Who was Luke?" I asked Jason, confused.
Jason shrugged.
"Beats me." He told me. "I can't read that from here, I've never heard of the guy. Ask Percy. He probably knows. He set it up."
Alex managed to get Percy's attention for me, and the son of Poseidon looked over at all of us.
"Yeah?" Percy asked.
"Who was Luke?" I asked. "I probably wasn't paying attention when you told me."
"No, we just never said anything." Percy assured me. "He um... He was the leader before I was. He left Camp after my first summer and made some choices, not exactly good ones, and he died the summer before you guys showed up. He was really close to Annabeth and Thalia and he just never got anything more than a burial after he died. So yeah. There's more on the poster, too. About when he showed up and stuff."
"So you knew him?" Alex asked, as if all of us were normal and hasn't watched at least somebody die.
"Yeah!" Percy confirmed. "He was my mentor my first year here. An amazing swordsman, I could never catch up to him."
"And he's dead?" Alex went on.
"Yeah," Percy repeated. "I mean, he's not the only person that died. There was a lot of people that died."
That put the fear of God's in him for sure.
"What?"
"Oh, yeah!" The son of Poseidon went on, as if that was a normal teenage things. "I mean, the reason you train is because of monsters. They will come after you. I've killed many monsters because it's kill or be killed, you know? Bianca died, Rachel almost died, I saw Pan die. Castor, Zoë Nightshade, Lee Fletcher, Daedalus, Charles Beckendorf, Silena Beauregard, Michael Yew, Ethan Nakamura, Luke Castellan, Bob, Bryce, Octovain, Kinzie, Phoebe, Naomi, Celyn, Leo technically should be dead, but he..."
"I'm stubborn." I explained. "And have my ways. Point is, people die. You just kind of learn to move on. Hopefully nobody dies this year."
"Were not that lucky here." Percy promised me.
Jason
While on the topic of death, Piper nudged me to bring it up. I never as the guts to around Thalia. But Percy probably knew. He seemed to be better friends with Thalia than any of us.
"Hey, Percy," I remarked, earning his attention. "I doubt you'd know. But I have a question."
"What is it?"
"My mom," I explained. "Thalia never talks about her, and I get they probably didn't get along or something. Thalia's never gone home, after all. But would you know where she is?"
I saw the pity and realization hit him and I must've been a homeless puppy to him or something. He looked so sad.
"Jason..."
Percy stopped and walked over to sit next to me, and I knew this couldn't be good.
"I never met your mom," Percy assured me of that, which I already knew. "But um... We got word quite a while ago. 5, 6 years ago now. I was brand new to camp. Thalia was still a tree and um..."
I thought that worst case scenario, my mom was in the hospital. She was famous. That's what I was always told. A movie star. Beryl Grace. I never had the guts to find out if that was the truth or not.
"Your mom got drunk at a party," the son of Poseidon explained to me. "And she got on the road, and she crashed. If memory serves, she was airlifted and died before they landed. We haven't told Thalia just because every time someone brings up your guy's mom, she isn't open to talking about it. They had a bad relationship. Thalia ran away at the age of 12."
He let me take that in.
"My mom's dead."
