Hey guys! I got my laptop back today, so I decided to give you guys the next chapter. I want to thank you all so much for reading and voting and commentign as this story actually made it onto the lists for adventure and fan fiction! So thank you, thank you, thank you! read and enjoy.

“I think we should go for lip gloss!” Selena suggested.

“NO! Lip stick is definitely better for this occasion!” Rosanne, another Aphrodite girl argued.

“Lip gloss!”

“Lip stick!”

“Lip gloss!”

“Lip stick!”

“Guys! Does it really matter?” Iris asked, she had long ago stopped laughing at the Aphrodite girls, once she realised how serious they were about this and had earned a few death glares for making fun of them.

“Of course it matters! How could it not? What if they have their first kiss? She doesn’t want to leave lip stick on his lips or on her glass, but she still wants her lips to look kissable and not dry! Don’t you?” Selena stated and turned to get my approval.

“Yeah?” I sad but it came out more as a question. I wasn’t really sure what was happening to me at the moment. The girls had been working on me for the last half an hour and you had to hand it to them they knew what they were doing. Iris broke her promise to me, the evil tweezers still found me and she didn’t even try to protect me from them only smirked my way when she saw them.

“I know! I’ve just had the best idea ever!” I won’t lie to you I was secretly hoping that this brilliant idea didn’t involve pain, because I don’t know how much more I could take. “We should use lip stain!” Rosanne squealed.

“OMG! That’s such a good idea!” Selena agreed and immediately they were busy working on my face again.

Within the hour I was ready to go, I had a deep purple dress on that showed off my curves “in all the right places” whatever that meant. I might technically be a part Aphrodite girl and enjoy some of the getting dressed up but I didn’t have a clue what they were going on about half the time. My brown hair was glossy and curled in gentle ringlets, whilst the front parts by my face were swept back and clipped with a silver butterfly brooch. Of course, they gave me heels to wear, but I no longer feared the pain as I had Hermes’ amazing invention, now the only thing I had to worry about was not falling flat on my face, because that would be embarrassing!

I twirled in front of the mirror so as to get a look at the entire outfit and smiled widely, if I had to say so myself, I looked good.

“Thank you guys so much!” I shrieked hugging the Aphrodite girls who were admiring their work.

“Now to the important bit, how to act on a first date.” Selena said, sitting me down. Oh gods! I hadn’t even thought of that! What the hell was I meant to do! Panic was obviously clear on my face as she chuckled lightly whilst putting a comforting hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry, this is what you have us for!”

She then went on to explain how I should listen to what he says and smile the whole time, be polite, not keep the entire conversation on me the whole time. The other girls chipped in now and then, I was feeling overwhelmed with them all shouting hints at me. I knew I wouldn’t remember half of them and instead of making me relaxed they were doing the exact opposite and caused me to start panicking.

Before I knew it, it was five to seven and I had to go. I was literally shoved out of the Aphrodite cabin with wishes of good luck. I know they had been trying to help but their helpful hints had been not so helpful, and only led to making me flustered. Once we were outside though, Iris pulled me to the side and told me

“Forget everything they just told you, if you haven’t already, and be yourself. If he doesn’t like you for being yourself then the relationship would never have worked out anyway.” Iris stated simply whilst shrugging. That was the best bit of advice I had gotten all day!

I smiled at her with a little more confidence before I closed my eyes and thought of Olympus. When I opened my eyes I saw that Iris had followed me but before I could tell her to go away as Connor could be here any minute she had already darted away and was hiding behind a pillar. Confused, I turned back around and saw Connor making his way over to me smiling. He was wearing a nice blue shirt and black trousers, the shirt brought out the vivid blue of his eyes and I’m not going to lie, it made him look really good.

“Hi.” He said smiling

“Hello” I replied, a little breathlessly. He pushed his sandy blond hair backwards off of his face before offering his hand to me.

“Shall we?” he asked grinning.

“Where are we going?” I asked but still taking his hand.

“It’s a surprise!” He said and his grin turned slightly mischievous as he saw my confused face. “Don’t worry, you’ll love it! Now close your eyes.” I obeyed and felt the rush of air past my face as we moved. It was replaced by a gentle breeze and I could feel the warm glow of the sun on my face, even though it must have been setting at about this time.

“Can I open my eyes?” I asked with my arms out so as not to walk into anything as he gently guided me forward.

“Not yet.” He stated, still leading me forward. “Now you can.” I immediately opened my eyes eager to find out where I was and gasped. There in front of me was a table laid out for two on a beach with fairy lights in the trees behind and fire on the end of a few poles stuck into the sand around the table. It was beautiful! I couldn’t believe he’d gone to so much effort for me, this was amazing.

“Oh my gods!” I muttered quietly under my breath but I think he heard it as he let out a small chuckle. Yeah I know it was kind of cheesy having a romantic dinner on the beach and it probably belonged in a movie but no one had ever gone to so much effort for me and I really appreciated it. “You didn’t have to do this for me, you know.” I said looking around still stunned.

“I know.” He smiled gently “but I wanted to. You deserve something special and well, this was the best that I could do!” I didn’t know what to say to that, all of this it was unreal it was like this was a dream, I even thought of pinching myself to check I was awake but I restrained myself, if this was a dream I definitely didn’t want to wake up yet.

We sat down at the table, Connor looking every inch the Greek god that he was, and immediately a waiter appeared from behind the trees and took our drinks orders whilst handing us menus.

“So Izzy, tell me something about yourself.” He asked whilst leaning on the table seeming genuinely interested.

“Um, well . . . I didn’t know about what I was until I was 8 and I came here. That was a shock and a half, finding out that not only do the Greek gods exist but also that I’m related to every single one of them.” I chuckled slightly at the memory.

“Was it hard leaving the parents that had raised you and learning you weren’t really related to them at all?” He asked, looking genuinely curious.

“No, not at all.” I said, not really wanting to go into the whole abusive father thing as it would kind of put a downer on our night.

“Why’s that?” He pushed for more.

“Let’s just say that the man that I grew up with and I never really got along. So I was kind of relieved to get away from there. But I do miss England.” I replied honestly.

“What do you miss the most?”

“I’m not sure, I find myself missing silly things, like the weather. It never rains here, and strangely I almost miss the rain. I also miss the accents. I think I’m losing mine, I’ve been over here too long and I’m starting to sound American.” I guess it was kind of expected, I mean I’ve lived over here for 8 years now, I was bound to pick up the accent.

“No way.” He said shaking his head. “You still have an incredibly cute English accent which I think is adorable.” The voices in my head at this moment all chorused ‘aww’ and I’m sure that my cheeks went bright pink.

 “What about you? How did you end up a god?” I asked curious, I had been too caught up in my birthday and Luke to even ask anyone about him. Also I wanted to change the subject, I had no idea how to reply to that, was I meant to thank him?

 “I used to be a demigod, the leader of the Ares cabin actually. But a long time ago, there was a huge war with monsters who wanted to wipe out the demigods to wound the gods. Well, I was in charge of helping to organise a battle plan. I came up with a good plan, I won’t bore you with the details now but the plan worked and the gods were extremely grateful, but it was still a tough fight.”

 “Can ask you some questions?” I checked with him, I didn’t want to pry where he didn’t want me to. But he nodded his consent whilst smiling. “Ok, how old are you? I know that you look about my age but looks can be deceiving and I know in this case that they are.”

“I’m actually 1,948, so in this case they are very deceiving.” He replied calmly, my jaw dropped, he wasn’t just old, he was ancient!

“Wow! Okay next question. What did Pompeii ever do that pissed you off so much?” I asked when I had recovered from my shock.

“I hadn’t been a god long when that eruption happened, not even a year, and I didn’t know my own strength. I got angry at something and my anger just grew and grew until suddenly Vesuvius erupted and destroyed that town. I felt so bad about it, I had killed all those people.” He said quietly, looking at the table cloth. I immediately regretted asking that question. Stupid ,Stupid Izzy! He’s upset now and it’s all your fault. I reached my hand across the table without thinking and grabbed his hand trying to comfort him, he gave me a small, weak smile in return.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

“No, it’s not your fault. You not bringing up the conversation doesn’t change what I did.” He said not looking away from my eyes. I opened my mouth to say something that I hoped was comforting but I was interrupted by the waiter returning with a bottle of champagne and a basket of bread. “Let’s change the subject before I ruin this night completely, shall we?” He said forcing a smile.

“Sure. You do know that technically in this country, it is illegal for you to be giving me this?” I said trying to lighten the mood as I took a sip of the champagne.

“Oh, well in that case, I’d best take that away from you then.” He said smiling whilst reaching over the table to grab my glass, but I moved it out of his reach.

“Hey! No, it’s too late, you’ve given it to me now.” I said chuckling

“I’m sure I could get it back if I really wanted it.” He smirked.

“Oh yeah? Try it!” I challenged. He slowly stood up and walked around to my side of the table as I eyed him cautiously. He then leaned in, until he was only a couple of inches from my face, and once again my mind went blank. Was he going to kiss? But then he moved his head to the side and whispered quietly in my ear “Please can I have the glass back?” He lifted his hand and gently placed it on top of my own, which was holding the champagne. He loosened my unresisting fingers and took the glass away. “Thank you very much!” He said smugly, no longer whispering. That snapped me out of the trance that I seemed to have been in before.

“Hey!” I cried, “That’s not fair!”

“Never said I was.” He replied mischievously. Well, two can play at that game, I thought, as I made the air surrounding my glass which he had placed on the table more solid and harden, and then made it carry my glass back across the table to me. Connor’s mouth was hanging open in shock.

“Well, neither am I.” I said to his stunned face.

“Alright, you can keep the champagne!” He chuckled whilst holding his hands up in surrender. I had a smug smile on my face as I took another sip of champagne.

“A bit competitive aren’t we?” He said still smiling slightly.

“What can I say? I get it from my parents.” I explained shrugging. The waiter came back and Connor ordered for us both, normally I would probably have complained if someone ordered for me but I didn’t. Partly because I didn’t want to be rude but also partly because I kind of liked what he ordered for me.

The food was cooked impossibly quickly, and the waiter was back almost immediately with our order. It was delicious! The steak he had ordered for me was one of the best things I had tasted. We were both silent as we ate, I was enjoying the food far too much to talk. However, when we were done the discussion restarted.

“What made you choose to be the goddess of heroes and training?” Connor asked, when the waiter had cleared the plates away.

“Well, Camp half-blood was my first real home and the people were like my family, I wanted to always be there for them and help future demigods in a way that they had helped and supported me.” I stated, honestly. “Did you get to choose what you wanted to be too?” I asked not quite sure if becoming a god happened differently for others than for me because I was born one.

“Yeah, I chose volcanoes because I had always admired their power and for some reason they made me feel close to my father.” He explained. “Do you want a dessert?”

“Yeah, ok.” The waiter returned once again with menus, but I’m not really sure why because Connor only looked at them briefly before once again ordering for us both, but I didn’t mind so much this time as I now knew he had good taste and also because he ordered one for us to share. Again, the food came back quickly, and we shared a banana split and again it was great! I had to find out who the cook was and then convince him to come and live with me to cook for me every day! I could literally worship this guy! This must have showed on my face because Connor chuckled again.

“Good?” He asked, already knowing my answer.

“Delicious!” I said after swallowing a mouth watering morsel. “Who cooks this, because I would really like to meet them and offer them a full time job!”

“Ah, well then in that case I’ll have to keep you away from him, as he already works for me!” Connor laughed.

“Oh, please! Maybe just a part time job then? Or perhaps a summer job? Please let me just meet him.” I begged

“No way. I’m not going to let you anywhere near him. You’ll offer him double what I pay him, the first chance you get and I’ll lose him to you!”

“There’s only like a small possibility that that will happen.” I said whilst holding my fingers up with only a small gap between them. Okay, that was a lie, I would definitely do it, but the way I saw it was that the food would be worth it.

“Well, that’s a chance I’m not willing to take.” Connor chuckled, seeing straight through my little white lie. Damn it! I thought I had him there. “Before you steal my chef, do you want to go for a walk with me?” Connor asked, standing up and holding out his hand to me.

“Hmm, maybe afterwards.” I joked, but quickly took his hand and pulled myself up. By now the sun had set but we walked down the beach which was lit by more of the lit torches stuck in the sand. The stars and the moon were shinning bright tonight, but there was one large cloud threatening to cover them completely. Looking up at it, I blew gently and the air did what I wanted and carried the cloud away. Connor’s hold on my hand tightened before he pulled me in closer under his arm. The night had gotten cooler and the Aphrodite girls hadn’t given me a jumper or anything to bring, so I was happy about the extra warmth his closeness provided. I was about to heat up the air around us or make a fire when Connor pulled me to a stop and sat down on the sand, so I copied. He positioned himself so that I was sitting between his leg with my back pressed up against his chest and with his arms wrapped around me and I couldn’t help but think how this was so much nicer than a jumper. We sat there watching the waves rolling in for a long time in comfortable silence. After a while a sighed, I should probably be getting back, it was 11:30 and I knew that my parents would be worried. Well my fathers would be worried and I bet Aphrodite was the reason why none of them had disrupted our evening. She had been so mad at them last time, and no one wants to get on the wrong side of Aphrodite, she can be scary! I turned my head to look at Connor, who looked from the sea back to me.

“I should probably go home. My parents will be getting worried.” I said, voicing my thoughts.

“Really? Are you sure you have to go?” He asked pulling me tighter back into his chest. For a moment my reasons for leaving seemed so small and unimportant. I could stay a little longer, my parents would survive, they were adults and even sometimes behaved like adults. No, they would be waiting for me. I groaned but pulled myself from his arms, so that I wouldn’t forget what it was I was going to do and stood up.

“Yes. I’m sorry. My parents will be waiting for me.” I said holding out my to pull him to his feet, but not letting go of his hand once he was up.

“Alright, if you have to.” He whined, not wanting me to go, which I liked a lot.

“Don’t worry, I’ll see you again at some point I’m sure.” I said whilst laughing and pulling myself into his chest. He wrapped his arm around me as we made our way back up the beach. It was surprising how comfortable I was with him after just one date. I don’t know why but I just relaxed around him and had a good time, I was taking it as a good sign. When we reached the table again I turned to say goodbye, just realising that we didn’t have to come back here to leave, but not complaining about the extra time I got to spend with him.

“I had a really great night tonight. Thank you.” I said whilst looking him in the eyes.

“You’re welcome, I had a good time too.” He said smiling. He leaned in slightly and my brain shouted kiss me, kiss me, KISS ME! I closed my eyes and inched my face closer to his until our lips met. He started moving his lips against mine and I kissed him back. It was great and I didn’t want to have to pull away but my need for oxygen made me have to. I smiled as I looked at his twinkling eyes once more before stepping away, but my eyes dragged themselves on their own accord to stare at his lips, which Selena would be happy to hear, didn’t have any lipstick on.

“Bye!” I waved happily as I closed my eyes and thought of camp half-blood. When I opened my eyes I took in the familiar surroundings of the camp, however, it was completely deserted as no one was allowed out of bed at this time. I raised one hand to my still tingling lips, I had just had my first kiss! And it was with Connor a Greek god! I skipped back to my hut not quite believing how brilliantly my night had gone.

But, when I walked into my cabin, I groaned, there on my bed, reading a copy of The God, The Bad and The Ugly, was Iris. Oh gods! I really wasn’t in the mood to do this now, I was tired and wanted to go to bed, but there was no chance of that as Iris was sitting on mine and I’m sure that there was no way she was going to move until she got the information she wanted.

“Hello Iris.” I said with a sigh. She must not have heard me come in as I surprised her and she ended up falling off the bed. I tried to hold in my laugh when Iris glared my way, warning me with her eyes not to dare to laugh. But I couldn’t help it a small giggle escaped my lips which I had tried to clamp shut. She glared at me as she once again sat down on my bed, but this time I joined her.

“So tell me everything!” She bounced on the bed, excitedly, immediately forgetting her anger. Maybe she was bi polar.

“Now? Really? It’s late I just want to go to sleep, we can do this in the morning.” I suggested hopefully, but she didn’t take it she just looked at me and raised one eyebrow.

“We are doing this now, whilst all the details are still fresh in your mind. By the morning you might have forgotten something important.” Iris said firmly, showing that she was not going to budge on this.

“Fine then.” I sighed, and then told her every detail I could remember of the night. Every conversation we had had, what he was wearing, everything I could think of. But still this wasn’t enough as she fired question after question at me. Where did he look when I was talking, did he yawn at any point during the night, did we have any awkward silences, did we run out of conversation? The questions went on and on but at about 1 AM she was satisfied enough to leave to go to sleep. She had lefty behind her copy of The God, The Bad and The Ugly. I picked it up deciding to skim through it before going to bed but I saw that there was a picture of me on the front page with Connor and underneath it said ‘it’s suspected that the couple will be going on their first date within the week, we here at The God, The bad and The Ugly will be keeping our eyes and ears pealed for them, so that we can get a good picture of that all important first kiss.’ Oh gods! I hope that they weren’t there at our date! That would be so embarrassing to have the picture of our first kiss splashed on the front cover of a magazine. Especially as my parents would see it. But at least Aphrodite might like it, I thought trying to be optimistic, but my fathers would be livid. I guess I’ll just have to deal with that when I come to it, it’s not like I’m the only girl in the world with a father who doesn’t want me to date. But I probably am the only girl with 8 of them, and they’re all gods.