Demigods

Lacking Trust

JJ

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There were quite a few emotions going through my head. I was worried about the situation I found myself in, angry and Glynn for being incapable of keeping her mouth shut, but mostly I was worried about Liam. We’d had a few happy months together before he dropped the bomb on us about the whole half-blood thing.

Then he had to go and be a stupid hero and sacrifice himself for Glynn and me. The nerve of him. If he was still alive, I was going to kill him. If he was dead, I was going to talk to that girl Mana and see if she could help me get into the underworld so I could kill him twice. Do satyrs go to the underworld when they die? I’m not sure. I’m new to this.

Speaking of Mana, I really didn’t know what to make of everyone. As she walked me to the Aphrodite cabin (sorry, the Aphrodite/Venus cabin), I could tell that I liked Lexis. She was fairly chatty, telling me all about the cool things there were at Camp Half-Blood. Her long black hair was loose and it was comical seeing her have to push the hair out of her face every few seconds due to the wind.

The other child of Ares, Devin, I didn’t think I liked. She seemed kind of rude to me, and that wasn’t what I needed at that moment. The way she had looked at me and Glynn like she was sizing us up? It made me feel almost uncomfortable.

The girl with the really long dark brown hair, her I wasn’t sure of. She hadn’t spoken much in the Big House, but she hadn’t looked at me like I was fresh meat either. I knew Glynn had a problem with children of Zeus, but she had seemed fairly harmless to me.

Mana, I really didn’t know what to make of. She was guarded, that much was obvious. I understood how that felt. She had blonde hair, which seemed a bit odd for a child of Hades, but she was really pale, and she wore all black. There were dark circles under her piercing blue eyes. Another trait that seemed odd for a Hades kid. Clearly she was an authority figure in the camp, despite being probably my age, but that didn’t make me like her any more.

Lexis walked me right up to the cabin, but she refused to go inside with me. Truthfully, I was grateful for her coming that far. I’m not stupid; I know how other demigods view Aphrodite’s kids, especially children of Ares. But she hadn’t treated me like I was some vain, self-centered girly-girl, so that was unexpectedly pleasant.

I can’t say the same for my cabin mates. Some of them smiled at me when I walked in, but most didn’t even glance up from their books, food or mirrors. Needless to say, I didn’t stick around long in there. As soon as I finished throwing my stuff on my bed (which thanks to the flying trip on the bull, I really didn’t have much stuff) I went to go find Glynn. As annoying as she can be, we’ve been best friends since we were kids, and she was the only person I really knew.

It wasn’t difficult to find the Poseidon/Neptune cabin. It was a bit more difficult to get Glynn to leave. There were four kids inside, including Glynn, so their cabin had a lot more space than mine. I thought that was seriously unfair.

Once I’d convinced her to walk with me, we headed down towards the lake. “Well?” I finally asked. “What do you think of everyone?”

She thought for a second. “Not sure,” she admitted. “I don’t like the twins. The looked at me like they expected me to do a flip. I can’t even do a summersault!” It took her a second to get back on track. “Where was I? Oh, right. Aisha, that’s the daughter of Zeus, she seems pretty nice. We talked a bit on the way to my cabin.”

“Yeah, Lexis seemed pretty nice too.” I thought second. “What about Mana?”

“The Hades kid? She looks like a corpse.”

“Oh come on. I don’t think she’s that bad.”

“I think people that live in the North Pole have more colour in their skin than she does. I’ve seen homeless people fatter than her. And she looks like she hasn’t slept for days. Admit it; she looks creepy.”

Personally, I thought that was a bit harsh, but she wasn’t too far off. “Fine. Creepy. But I mean, other than what she looks like. Do you trust her? Do you trust them?”

She shrugged. “Yeah, I’d say so. It seems like they would be willing to help, but I don’t think their idea of help is for the faint of heart.”

“What makes you say that?”

“That boy that Mana was talking to? The one that helped get the bull off of us? I saw him literally jumping from branch to branch up in the trees. These people are crazy athletic.”

“Meaning you’re in trouble.”

“Hey! I can swim!”

“Bravo. The child of Poseidon can swim.”

She glared at me before continuing, “Anyway, I’d say we can trust them. I mean, I trust Aisha. You seem to like Lexis. That’s at least two of them.”

“I guess.” I wouldn’t look her in the eyes.

“You’re thinking about Liam again, aren’t you?” Glynn asked.

Nodding, I snapped my gaze back to her. “Never mind. He’s gone now. Nothing we can do about it. Unless…”

“Unless what?”

“Nothing. We can’t do anything until Chiron gets back.”

This whole conversation felt odd. We aren’t usually so serious, but I guess after everything that had happened that day…no scratch that, everything that had happen that month, it was hard to keep our spirits light.

Glynn managed a smile. “Well, since the person I usually annoy is unavailable right now, how about we see if there’s a camper that I can have fun annoying?”

I rolled my eyes, but didn’t protest as Glynn dragged me back towards the cabins.