~ ☼ ~

I awoke in a flurry, like there was moss all over me and I need it off.

But there wasn't - it was just a dream. I wasn't in a labyrinth or black hole, I was laying haphazardly in a sleeping bag next to Kiera and Aria. Outside our tent, I could hear the sounds of early morning: the stream rushing, the birds chirping, the leaves rustling. It would almost be peaceful, if it weren't for how weird I felt.

I'd been dreaming of that woman off and on for months. I hadn't seen her since last June, but even with that amount of time, I still hadn't been able to figure out who she was. And she wouldn't freaking stop acting like I knew what she was talking about! All her "make good choices" BS made no sense to me. It was ticking me off.

I think I needed to get some air. Or IM my siblings. But I needed a drachma, which I did not have.

So I unzipped my sleeping back as quietly as I could and made my way outside. The sun was just rising (meaning, it was early enough that not even the Hunters were up yet), but... Lucas was awake, of course.

He was sitting on one of the logs next to the now-dead fire, lost in thought. I cleared my throat softly, and he looked at me.

"Oh!" he exclaimed. "Uh, good morning."

"Morning." I walked over and sat down on the log next to him. "Here we are again, the only ones up."

"To be completely honest with you, I've kind of been up all night." He rubbed the back of his neck and yawned.

"I'm sorry." Now I felt bad; I was really just here to get a drachma from him. But I swore I would want to talk to him afterwards. So, trying to not feel bad, I asked "Do you have a drachma? I want to talk to my siblings over Iris Message."

"Oh!" He blinked, and I winced. But he fished in his shorts and brought out a drachma, to my relief. "Here you are."

"Thank you," I said. "I'll be right back."

I walked down to the river bank quickly, finding a quiet spot where nobody could see me. Then I threw the coin into the river, hoping it was misty enough, and said, "Oh, Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, show me Alec Thompson and/or Riley Brown at Camp Half-Blood."

It was likely I'd find either of them; both of them were early birds, to my long-lasting chagrin, because by early birds that meant they got up at the crack of dawn to be productive, not at random times to complain about how tired they were. Like Lucas and I did.

Indeed, to my relief, both of their faces showed in front of me. Alec was on the right, in his pajamas - a red and gray baseball tee and flannel pants - and Riley, lovely Riley, already fully dressed. They were both gaping at me.

"AJ!" said Riley-

"Artemis Julia Hood," said Alec, frowning. "Where in Hades are you?"

I held my hands up defensively. "I'm on a quest!"

They both gasped, and I added, "Are you both in the bathroom?"

"It's the men's bathroom," said Alec. "She was waiting outside for me, and I called her in."

"No one else is in here!" Riley said, just as defensive as me.

"You could be here too," Alec added, narrowing his eyes - half joking, I think. "But..."

I missed their faces, golden in different tones like mine. They looked like they had last summer, but a tiny, tiny bit older. Riley's hair was shorter, and Alec was growing his hair into a taller quiff.

I smiled, unable to help myself. I explained to them what had happened, and by the end, both of them had lost their smiles. Slowly, I lost mine, too, not liking that at all.

"What?" I asked nervously.

Riley grimaced. "AJ, 4 people on a quest is bad luck."

"I know that," I snapped. "But that was what Kiera's prophecy said!"

She sighed, as Alec ran his hands over his face and through his hair.

"Um-" said another voice, suddenly. A male voice.

Alec went pale and Riley gasped. "i'm gone! I love you, AJ!"

Then she disappeared, leaving just Alec and I as an uncomfortable Hermes kid passed behind him, shooting a suspicious glance my way. I didn't really want to keep talking if that kid was gonna be taking a leak in the background, and Alec knew it. He frowned at me, still faking disapproval, but then he said, "AJ, this is genuinely concerning."

And I realized it wasn't fake.

"I'm gonna be fine," I said. "I promise you."

He sighed. Glancing at that kid, somewhere off camera again, he said, "Fine. Just stay safe, please? I need another summer with you. I'll die at dinner if you're not there to come up with crazy soda flavors every night."

He shot me one of his signature grins, but I could see the discomfort in it still. Then it was too late; he had ran a hand through the mist and was gone. Just like that, my brother had vanished, and I was alone with some random northern PA river.

I stood there, wishing I hadn't IM'd them at all, because now they were just going to worry about me in a different way. Maybe I should've told my mom to call them, somehow, and tell them I had - I don't know, decided to go to church camp for the first week of the summer or something instead.

No, I thought, That'd be even more wildly suspicious, AJ. That makes it sound like you've been sent to conversion camp.

I shivered. With another sigh, I headed back up to the campfire, where Lucas was still sitting.

"Hi," I repeated, as I took a seat on the log across from him. "How are you?"

"I'm exhausted. How'd you sleep?"

Here was a productive conversation. I wanted someone's opinions on my dream, and if anyone could analyze it, it would be a son of Athena. "Not well. I had this... weird nightmare.  I was underground, in a maze of some sorts."

Despite his proclaimed exhaustion, Lucas snapped his head up. "The Labyrinth. It had to be the Labyrinth. That's where a bunch of campers are right now, trying to find and fight Luke Castellan."

Wait, does that make me psychic too? I asked myself, before remembering almost all half-bloods had strange, all-knowing dreams like that. Dang it, I really thought I was on to another power there!

"Well, that wasn't the entire thing," I continued. "There was this woman. She appears in almost every dream I have while questing. But, she gives me confusing advice. And she wears this really long, glowing dress and has this odd, heavenly aura."

Lucas cocked his head, and his uncombed curls fell like, I don't know, something that falls in a really pretty way. He narrowed his eyes, then said, "I have no idea who that could be."

Seriously? Even Lucas doesn't know?! I was really hoping he would be able to tell me who the woman was. If anybody could, it'd be him. But no dice, I guess.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry. That could be any multitude of mythological figures." He leaned back and crossed his arms. "But for what it's worth, some gods' advice, as confusing as it may be, is usually worth heeding."

He gave me an awkward smile, and I nodded in response. "If you say so."

If I thought his smile was awkward, I was unprepared for the moments that followed.

The two of us stood there for what was probably 5 minutes, but felt more like an excruciating hour. I twiddled my thumbs; he stared into the distance with those stormy eyes. I wish I could've found something witty to say, but I was an emo who generally didn't talk to people if I didn't have to. In fact, I was surprised I'd made it as far as I had.

"Sooo..." I said.

"So..." Lucas said. He tilted his head up, revealing those beautiful eyes. Sorry I keep mentioning them. "Where did you say you were from, again?"

I blinked, and he said, "Oh, right. I was there."

I couldn't help but laugh as his perfect, Hollister-tan skin went red. It was fun to see a prep go blushy.

"What do you do in your free time?" he asked instead.

"Um..." I said. "I think we already covered that."

I pointed to my converse and the hair that fell in my face. Since they'd caught me on the first day of school, I wasn't wearing a Camp shirt over my cutoff shorts. Instead, I was wearing a Taking Back Sunday t-shirt. All I was missing was some rubber bracelets and, like, the scene haircut I'd had last year. I shivered to think that that was how Alec and Riley had first met me - with a giant fringe of teased, straightened hair covering my brow line.

Lucas laughed softly. "Okay, well, being an emo isn't a hobby. It's a lifestyle."

"Yes," I said. "That's what I do in my freetime. Live that lifestyle."

"Which means?"

He was really curious. I tried not to take it personally, given that he was a Child of Athena, and they were naturally curious about even really stupid things (at least, from what I've heard). But I felt my cheeks go warm anyway.

"I listen to music," I said. "I... watch TV. Movies. I use MySpace."

I imagined in his son-of-a-lawyer Connecticut world, this was a horrible life. He was probably in 8 different extra-curriculars and already applying to colleges. But instead of knitting his brows together in judgment, he looked even more curious now.

"Do you play music, too?" He shook his head. "Another stupid question. Of course you do. You're a child of Apollo."

I wanted to pat his hand and tell him it wasn't stupid at all. "Lots of my siblings don't play music. My two best friends don't. Actually, a lot of Apollo kids would rather be medics."

"Pays more money," he said, and I snickered.

"But yes," I finished. "I do play music."

Lucas grinned. It was the first time I think I'd seen him look something other than awkward, serious, calm, or analytical. The four core personality traits of a child of Athena.

"What instrument?"

I felt my fingers itching as I said, "Lucas. Come on."

I turned to point to my violin case, before I realized I'd left it somewhere - probably in Highland Falls. I frowned, then said, "Never mind. I thought I'd brought it with me. You might've seen when you found me in Highland Falls that I had a violin case."

Lucas grimaced. "I did, but I thought that was just a sword case with a trick of the mist covering it."

"But you're a demigod. Shouldn't you be able to see through the mist?"

Lucas' eyes went briefly stormy - no, tornado-y - again. He looked away, towards the tents where the Hunters slept. "Even us demigods can fall for it sometimes. It's hard to see through. You never really know when something's real or not."

Well that's ominous. I tried not to make a grimace that would be worthy of an online gif, but I think I did anyway.

"Sorry," said Lucas quickly. "Um. Violin! That's so cool. That's my favorite classical instrument."

I raised my eyebrows. "You have a favorite classical instrument?"

Lucas nodded. "What, you don't?"

I stared at him blankly, until he facepalmed. "Duh. You do. Violin."

This time, when I laughed, he laughed with me.

"I love violin," He said when we were done. "I love orchestras in general, but violins are my favorite part. There's just something about that tinny sound they make. Plus they can be converted into fiddles!"

I felt every part of me go warm and red simultaneously. I'd never met a cute boy who also respected the violin. Except for maybe Apollo.

Ew, I thought. Did you just call your dad cute?

Trying to push this image out of my mind, I said, "True! I can't really play fiddle-y music though. No Irish jigs for me."

Lucas snapped his fingers and did a sort of aw, shucks, motion, which made me laugh again. He lifted his head, chuckling softly too, and met my eyes. Suddenly I stopped.

For once it was not awkward. And it wasn't intimidating, either. His gray eyes were neither calm nor stormy - they were sparkling, like stars. He smiled at me in a less polite, more intimate way, like we'd just bonded. I smiled back.

Maybe a quest with some new kids wouldn't be so bad after all.

~ ☼ ~

A/N: I genuinely cannot believe I am writing an A/N on a Percy Jackson fanfiction in the year of our lord 2023. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I just thought I'd left it behind me forever, but here we are :') Shoutout to Chalice of the Gods for reinspiring me!

Not sure anybody is still reading this, but if you are, thank you <3

Positive vibes, stay awesome!

(yes that is my real first name for those who are new here)

(also go read Chalice of the Gods it's actually really good and I love Hebe)

(A/N: do you guys remember when authors would put A/Ns within A/Ns? do they still do that? does the new generation even know what A/N stands for? I FEEL SO FREAKING OLD)

(okay bye bye end of author's note now fr fr)