I stood outside, tapping my finger on the hilt of my sheathed dagger to the beat of a song that was stuck in my head, a song by KALEO. I wore a black sweater, black jeans and a pair of black boots. A strong wind blew by, my hair blew to the left past my shoulder. It was around three in the afternoon, I looked down at camp from the hill with the willow tree and frowned softly.
"Gods, Peck, why are you so gloomy all of a sudden?" Juniper asked coming from behind me.
"I'm just tired," I said.
"Is that all?" Juniper wrapped her arms around my stomach hugging me.
"Yes, Sunshine." I smiled softly.
Juniper wore a soft yellow sweatshirt, black jeans, a pair of brown boots and a yellow ribbon in her hair keeping her braid together. Her golden eyes shimmered softly.
"You haven't given me those two drachmae, remember? When we made that bet about who Juan's godly parent would be? I guessed Aphrodite, you guessed-"
"Apollo," Juniper cut me off. "Yeah, I got your drachmae right here." She took it out of her jean pocket and handed it to me.
Juan had been claimed a day ago, during a game of Capture The Flag. The symbol of Aphrodite appeared above his head after he'd walked out from where he was hiding and said.
"Hey, uh, this thing has been glowing over my head for the past twenty minutes. Do you know what it is?" He'd asked.
"Gods, uh you remember me telling you about the gods right?" I had responded in a quiet voice.
"Uh-uh." Juan had nodded.
"Yeah, that's Aphrodites symbol." I had said." Now shut up and go back to you're hiding spot."
I chuckled softly. "How he responded about it was hilarious, you should've seen Connor and Travis's faces. They were having so much trouble trying not to laugh."
"I bet, we still won." Juniper smiled.
"Only because Clarrise made you fake an injury and that was not fun. I was worried that you were actually hurt."
"I know, and it won't happen again."
***
Several hours had passed, I'd trained with Alex for a while, had dinner, then he arrived with bad news. The first I'd heard about it was after Nico had disappeared from camp and had been claimed as my brother.
"He just ran off and you didn't stop him!" I had snapped at Percy Jackson when he explained what had happened.
We stood near the Big House, the baby blue gave off a pale yellow as the sun continued setting. No one was around to hear me yelling at Percy.
Percy was wearing a blue sweater over a camp shirt and blue jeans. He had short-cropped black hair and sea-green eyes.
"Gods, just don't tell anyone he's your brother," Percy said quietly.
"Why shouldn't I?" I snarled.
"Peck, if he knew there was another kid of the big three he'd probably try to kill him, or me, or you," Percy said.
"What about Bianca, is she getting help from the Apollo kids or something? Where is she?" I asked.
Percy's sea-green eyes darkened.
"Jackson, where is Bianca di Angelo?" I asked.
"I'm sorry but she's gone that's why Nico ran away," Percy said quietly.
"She's gone? Like missing or..." I couldn't finish the sentence.
"Gone." Percy stepped back.
Pain swelled in my chest, I didn't even know this girl but I knew her brother. I knew Bianca had a brother, I knew Bianca had raised Nico, but gods, I knew nothing of her! I didn't even get to meet her and she was dead!
"I don't blame you and I won't run away like Nico, I'm just sorry." I turned from him and walked back to the Hermes cabin.
As soon as I entered I made sure no one was around, curled up in my bunk and cried into my pillow in anguish. I'd lost two siblings in the past few days. I sobbed quietly not daring to make a sound until finally, I couldn't cry anymore. A few Hermes kids came into the cabin and I quickly wiped my eyes and pretended to be asleep.
"Thalia's a Hunter of Artemis now? Wow, that's amazing, to be immortal." A girl named Harper said.
"I heard that boy, Nico ran away, poor kid. I bet he misses his sister." A boy said.
I shut my eyes tighter.
"Anyways, the campfires starting soon." Harper paused. "Should we wake her?"
"What if she turns us into skeletons or something?" A different boy asked.
"Peck wouldn't do that, plus Juniper was looking for her. So, I'm going to wake her." Harper said.
"No need, I'm already awake, wheres my girlfriend?" I stood up.
"Right, uh, Juniper's at the campfire," Harper said taking a step back.
"Thanks." I shadow travelled out of the cabin from the shadows of my bunk to the shadows of the Amphitheatre.
I saw Percy Jackson, Annebeth Chase, Juan and some other kids hanging around the fire. I noticed Juniper sitting with Alex and August separate from most of the campers talking amongst themselves. I jumped up onto the row they were sitting on and walked over.
"Peck, hey, where did you go?" Alex asked.
"I- I went to get some sleep." I lied.
"Did you hear about Ni-"
"Yeah, I heard about Nico." I cut Alex off. "And I heard about Bianca."
"Are you alright?" August asked.
"I'm fine," I replied, my voice slightly breaking.
"Come, sit down," Juniper said taking my hand.
I sat down and Juniper wrapped her arms around me. She let me rest my head on her shoulder.
"You sure you're ok?" She asked.
"I'm worried about Nico and I'm tired," I said.
"Nico can take care of himself, I'm sure of it," Alex said.
He's my brother! I don't know where he is nor when I'll see him again and Bianca's dead and it's all Percy's fault! I wanted to shout, instead, I kept my promise to Percy. "Yeah, he can take care of himself." I blinked and a single tear rolled down my cheek, I quickly used my sleeve to wipe it away.
For the rest of the night until we had to sleep we sat, watching the fire flicker, singing along to the campfire songs that were played, and just had fun, as kids should instead of feeling in danger all the time like we normally did.