The Hidden Truth: The Rise [NOT EDITED!]

Chapter 16: Jo

        It was five minutes into dinner before I finally realized what was wrong. . .  Bianca was missing. I hadn’t seen her since she left with Chiron.

        At this point I was starting to get nervous. She better not be dead, because than I’ll have to go through the trouble of resurrecting her ass just to kill her myself.

        After a few more minutes of anxiously waiting for her majesty to grace us with her presence, hoof prints suddenly echoed on the marble floor, causing me to turn around. I saw Chiron trotting in with Bianca standing at his side. Her black hood was pulled up and she was hanging her head down hoping not to be noticed. News flash. When you’re standing next to someone with a white horse’s ass, it’s kind of hard not to be the center of attention.

        I was about to get up and head over towards her, but Chiron glanced at me, giving me a look that said let her be. I nodded slightly before turning my attention back towards my food. What happened to her?

        When Bianca sat down, I looked over at her, but she still hadn’t lifted her head. Her plate was empty and her goblet dry. Now I was really starting to worry. Bianca was always hungry.

        I turned to look at Leo, who seemed just as concerned as I was. He really does care about her. I hope she realizes it soon, that way she’ll have someone else in her life.

        In my mind, I kept replaying my conversation with Leo about who Bianca’s godly parent was. When I stumbled upon how he said she looked like Nico, I turned to face the Hades table.

        Nico had his hood up and his head down as well. I then glanced back at Bianca, comparing and contrasting them in my head.

        They looked completely similar, then again many people looked the same when they wore similar clothes and sat in the same position. So, I’m not sure how credible that is.

        Their attitudes don’t really mimic each other’s. I mean sure they both seemed depressed, Nico more than Bianca, but it’s not rare to find Bianca smiling. She is always happy to have a reason to be distracted from her own thoughts.

        With having no one to talk to, dinner went by at an all-time low. It was worse than sitting at that one traffic light that takes so long to change that you swear you can take a shower. Everything just seemed to be in slow motion. It took too long for everyone to finish dinner. It took too long for the tables to be cleared off. It took too long for everyone to be escorted over to the amphitheater.

        When we finally got there, I sat down away from the Ares campers, not wanting to deal with all of that drama. I went to sit with Bianca or Leo, but I couldn’t find either of them. I ended up sitting next to this girl from the Aphrodite cabin.

        “Omg, you're that girl that kicked Clarisse’s ass the other day,” she said with a slight Spanish accent.

        “The one and only,” I replied.

        “Oh, I’m Athene by the way. You’re Jo, right?”

        “Word travels fast around here.”

        “You have no idea. Especially in the Aphrodite cabin.”

        This girl, Athene, had tan skin that almost match Leo's perfectly. Raven black hair ran down just below her waist in elegant waves. Her eyes seemed to be the size of a puppy's when they pout with chocolate brown irises that shone in the blazing fire. Athene had perfectly whitened teeth that could blind someone if they looked directly at them for too long. She was about the height of the eleven year olds here, but there was no mistaken her age; she was seventeen. Athene had a dancer’s body that suited her gentleness and shining personality.

        She wore a hot pink shirt that had a small stitch of Hello Kitty in the bottom left corner and had on a pair of white skinny jeans. Her sneakers were black felt with light blue sparkles glimmering on the top of the toes and the back of her heal. They seemed to resemble actual sapphires.

        After our conversation, I spotted Bianca and Leo. They were sitting across the theater from me. The two of them seemed to be in an awkward silence for a moment, before Bianca was speaking about a mile a minute to him. What is she telling him?

        When the sing-along had finally come to an end, I got up and made my way over to where Bianca and Leo had been sitting, but when I got there, they were nowhere in sight. That’s just great!

        Before heading back to my cabin, I decided to look for them around the outside of the amphitheater. I wandered around for a while before giving up and heading to the Ares cabin.

        When I got there, most of the other campers were asleep and snoring like pigs. I made my way over to my bed, pulled back the sheet and climbed in. Laying on my back, I began to wonder where they could have gone off to after the campfire. Soon, my weariness got the better of me and I was out like a light.

        In my dream, I was standing on the deck of the Argo II. I turned around, facing the wooden steering wheel and the door to the lower deck. Leo was drumming his fingers on the wheel while humming This Girl is on Fire. I sighed before I heard arguing from the deck below.

        Just when I was about to go and investigate, Bianca and Nico bolted up onto the top deck bickering like two young siblings.

        "Awe, aren't you adorable?" Bianca said as she tapped him on the head. Well okay.

        "Bianca!" Nico shouted as she skipped away. "Stop calling me adorable! And get back here. This conversation isn’t over!"

        He took off after her as she started hastily climbing the net, to get to the crows nest. I turned back towards Leo, who had stopped humming and was now resting his head on the steering wheel muttering something. I’m guessing it’s something like kill me now.

        "Bianca! Get down here!" Nico shouted up at her. What’s going on here?

        "Not a chance, Small Fry!" She called down. Please help me, I thought while looking up at the sky, with me hands pressed together like I was praying.

        I stared at them in complete confusion. Walking over to Leo, I asked, "What are they arguing about?"

        "Who knows what it is this time." He replied. Well that was helpful.

        We turned back to the crow’s nest to see both Nico and Bianca on the net. Nico had a tight grip on Bianca's ankle.

        "Bianca!"

        "Awe, aren't you just the cutest ankle biter ever?"

        Nico sighed in annoyance. "Bianca! Will you stop calling me cute?"

        "Nah, and besides, I think Jo agrees. Right, Jo?" Excuse me?!? Are you looking to get your head chopped off like Marie Antoinette?

        I felt my face go hot. "Bianca, just get down from there before either of you fall." I leaned over to Leo, "Please tell me we're almost there." Almost where exactly?

        "We should be over the beach in a minute." What beach?

        “Awe. Jo’s face turned red,’ Bianca teased me.

        Oh gods. It’s going to be a long night.