Nikolai Soren Son of Athena

Chapter 8

"Alright Nikolai. It's time to get a weapon," I heard a female voice say.

I must have fallen asleep in the Athena Cabin-My new home. So I got up and was surprised to see Isabelle standing in front of me. She had brunette hair and brown eyes.

"Isabelle right?"

"Call me Izzy. I'm the head counselor for the Athena cabin. So your weapons. What do you want."

"What are my options?"

"Let's go see." She led me to a rather large shed behind the Athena Cabin. She opened the doors and I looked inside and it had quite a bit of weapons. There were swords and knives and I thought I glimpsed a shotgun. "You see, Celestial Bronze is the only way to kill a monster. So pick some weapons. Normally you can tell the type of weapon you want."

The weapons were on shelves around the walls. I started to walk around. There was an isolated table in the center with a bow and multiple arrows. Nope. There were two swords crossed on a shield in the far wall. Nah. Then I walked to the cabinets and started looking in there. The first thing I saw was a a bunch of knives. They were all bronze but each had different colors around the handle. There were silver ones which were throwing knives I guessed. They were the smallest knives. The blade was about 2 inches long. There were about 15 of those. I looked at the next ones which were red. These were longer. About 4 inches. Only 4 of these. They must be used up close.

Then there was something underneath the shelves. It was a plastic tote. I opened it and found a vest that had openings for each of the knives. Or at least I thought. I then realized there was one knife missing. I looked further in the tote and a brown, wooden box was at the bottom. I took the box out and opened it. It was a switchblade. An all black switch blade. The blade itself was 7 inches and then there was the all black handle. The edge of the knife looked as if it was different than the rest of the black blade. It was Celestial Bronze on the outside of the blade, and some black metal on the rest. This was it. These were my weapons.

I came out with the vest and all the knives in a special box, which was styrofoam covered. It kept the knives safe.

"The knives?" Izzy asked surprised. "There's something powerful about you. It's the only reason you'd get the knives. Alright. Well today is an off day. A day where we have the entire day off. Most cabins have it today."

"Alright, so what should I do?" I ask.

"Whatever you want. Practice doesn't start till tomorrow and you missed breakfast."

As I turned to walk away I heard her say one more thing: "Hey Nikolai. We're family now. Welcome."

I kept walking. Drake was the only family I had. And he always will be. But a new family. With brothers and sisters. It appears nice.

"Hey Drake!" I shout to him. He is sitting down under a tree in a prairie. He was staring at his shoes.

Looking up from his shoes he gave a distracted, "Oh. Hey."

"What's wrong man?"

"I asked Penelope out."

Oh crap. Penelope? Penelope hates love and vice versa. This isn't good. "What happened?" I hate asking questions I know the answer to but it's customary.

"She turned me down. She wants to stay friends though. She tried to let me down easy but..." His voice trailed off. I wanted to be mad at Penelope but she's made it clear she doesn't believe in love. It's my fault. I should've warned Drake about Penelope. I should've talked some sense into him.

"I'm sorry man. Come on. Let's go do something. You are Drake Collins for Pete's sake! You walk around because you have rightly earned confidence. You can make near any girl faint if you look at them."

"But that's the bad part! I joke around constantly because I don't want a girlfriend that will like me only for my looks. I want a girlfriend who cares about me! Penelope didn't care about my looks. She still wants to be my friend, which shows she actually likes me, just not as more than a friend."

"Was there anyone who didn't seem to be impressed with you right away? Like when we got here, were there any girls who didn't care about your looks?"

"Just Penelope."

"Are you sure?"

"Well there was one girl. I don't know her name."

"Good! What does she look like?" I pulled out a pad of paper and a mechanical pencil. Never leave home without it.

He told me things about her appearance. This is what I copied onto my pad:

•beautiful
•brown hair
•awkward smile
•likes to read
•usually alone

I realize it wasn't much to go on but I had to try. I asked around. No one got a girl matching her description. I guess being "mostly alone" wasn't helping our cause.

Finally I asked a kid from the Iris cabin.

"Oh yea! That's my sister Kailie."

"You have no idea how much you helped me here. Do you know where she would be?"

"Reading by the lake. Probably."

"Thanks!"

As I was running to the lake I spotted Kelly. I made a slight detour to see her.

"Hey Nikolai," she said giving a slight wave. She was walking towards the cabins, it appeared. "What're you doing?"

"What? Oh sorry. Drake has a girl he kinda likes and I had to track her down. It was pretty tough. Found her though. It's Kailie, from the Iris cabin."

"Cool," she said. As I turned to leave she asked me something that made my heart stop. "Nikolai so there's a camp wide, Chiron sponsored dance party thing going on in about a week. The one were the girls ask the guys, and I was wondering if you would come with me?"

I was shocked. The girl of my dreams asking me to a dance. "That'd be awesome! When is it?"

Her face lit up like a candle. "Next Tuesday! I'll see you there."

"It's a date," I realized how stupid that was. "Well not a date but it's a common thing to say. It's like....,"I looked over and saw her laughing. "I'm confused. Is it a date?"

"It's a date," she said smiling.

I couldn't stop smiling. Then I remembered Kailie. I sprinted over there to find a girl reading under a tree by the lake. "Kailie?"

"Yes?"

"I'm Nikolai. I have a friend, his name is Drake and I thought that maybe you should ask him to the Dane Party thing. The one next Tuesday."

"Isn't he popular?"

"Yea but between me and you, he wants you to ask him."

"Are you gonna pull this trick on me? Make me embarrass myself?"

"It's not a trick! He really likes you." Hey sometimes you need to exaggerate. He might not like her that much but he definitely wants her to ask him.

"Alright, I'll ask him. But if you trick me," she grabbed what looked like a handle of a sword. "I will run you through." With that a rainbow of a blade appeared out of the air.

I gently pushed the blade away from my chest. "Trust me. You'll make him happy. Kailie I wouldn't pull a trick in you."

She put the sword away. "I'll ask him later."

I turned to walk away. "And Nikolai," she yells. "Thank you."

"How'd you know my name?"

"You're the one who fought in the cafeteria. Everyone knows you now."

Whether that was good or bad I didn't know. But at least I got Drake a date and I got the girl of my dreams to ask me on a date. Kelly asked me, out of everyone, on a date. I'm gonna have to not be so awkward for once.