Falling in Between the Cracks

I

Paige twirled her wand between her fingers lazily as she sat in Reyna's tent. Today was the day the decorations in the mess hall needed to be changed, and the praetor had decided to let Paige do it because she was the most creative demigod at Camp Jupiter. Not to mention, she thought to herself as she stared at her wand, I can do it with a flick of my wrist. She was the only demi-witch at camp, and only her close friends knew of her secret. In fact, it seemed that she was the first demi-witch in nearly three millennia. Unfortunately, her situation made her an outcast amongst the citizens of New Rome and most people avoided her at all costs. There were a few people who were scared that Paige would curse them or their family if they upset her. It was always awkward in the forum when people walked into her accidentally. They would apologise profusely and beg for her forgiveness. What made her situation even worse was that her mother was Minerva, the goddess of wisdom and creativity. Paige frowned and her thoughts drifted to her mother. Because she was a virgin goddess, it was considered to be a scandal for Minerva to have any children and everybody knew that vows of virginity had been taken seriously by the Romans. The Vestal Virgins were buried alive if they broke their vows. Paige shuddered at the thought. At least her mother was immortal. Really, Paige was just a scandal - the daughter of a wizard and a virgin goddess.

Her heritage was a partial cause in her lack of friends. Only a handful of people accepted her; Reyna, the praetor and Nico di Angelo, the son of Hades. When Percy Jackson had arrived at camp, he had seemed willing to pay her some attention to. She liked Percy. He was loyal and sweet like she was sure an older brother would have been, if she had one. There had been another person too, but Paige quickly pushed all thoughts of him aside. He was too painful to think about. For an outcast, Paige had an extremely odd personality. She was fiercely loyal, always standing up for her friends and what she thought was right, however, she lacked confidence in herself and her abilities. Constantly, she found herself doubting what she was capable of and was usually quite surprised when she managed to do things well. Furthermore, she was very sarcastic and had a short temper at times, which she was sure was difficult for people to handle. As her ADHD acted up, she decided to busy herself by looking around the room. Almost immediately, she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror hanging on the wall and stared at it. She had dark locks that hung to her jaw in loose curls and she had grey eyes. She was also a lot paler than many of the other demigods present at Camp Jupiter but she decided that was because she had always spent the winter and the end of the summer at her wizarding school, Ilvermorny. Gods, she missed her school, but she had missed Camp Jupiter more. Her teachers had even offered her a job there as a History of Magic teacher at the end of last year, hoping that she would stay. Politely, she had declined, deciding that the gods needed her more. Honestly, she wasn't sure that was the case. But, she had been sure she would be safer at Camp that at the school for witchcraft and wizardry.

She paused, holding her wand between her index finger and her thumb before she let the smooth wood fall into her hand. Flicking her wrist, she made purple sparks to fly around the room. At first, she smiled at the colour, but her grin faded quickly as she thought of the boy who had gone missing several months ago and who she usually pushed all thoughts of aside; Jason Grace.

Paige had never been sure what to call her relationship with Jason. They had become friends almost instantly, and they had both been at camp for twelve years. The dynamic of their relationship had changed slightly when they were fifteen. Jason and Paige had been close - extremely close - and many people had speculated that the son of Jupiter and the daughter of Minerva had been more than friends. He was one of the few people that had accepted her and her heritage without asking any questions, which Paige had been grateful for. Although Paige had known she had feelings for him early on, she had decided that he would never feel the same way, so there was no point wasting her time. But she had realised she had more than a simple crush on Jason Grace when he had gone missing. She loved him.