Andrew Henderson

Stupid life. Stupid step-dad, stupid Russians, stupid pretty girls (forget I just said that), stupid blackbirds, and stupid life.

Stupid, stupid, stupid life.

"Andrew freaking Sanders," I muttered to myself, my fingers running over a bruise on my arm. "You idiot!" I growled. The kid above me in the Hermes cabin stirred and I closed my mouth. I threw myself out of bed as soon as the sun peeked over the horizon.

"I am slowly falling apart/I wish you'd take a walk in my shoes for a start/And you might think it's easy being me/You just stand still, look pretty," someone (as if I didn't know) sang. I turned toward the song and stared at the dark haired girl the words came out of, standing beside the Poseidon cabin, wearing a pair of bright blue Toms I could see from the Hermes cabin, an orange CHB t-shirt, jeans, and holding a black backpack.

"'Dro?" I called. She jumped, dropping her backpack. Something shiny slid out of it and rolled across the ground.

"Jeez, Andy!" she yelled. I ran a hand through my own dark hair, chuckling. "Nice hair, moron!"

It was no secret that my hair looked like a mess in the morning. Andromeda ran towards me.

"You wanna replace Marie?" she asked.

"Not hap'nin', Jackson." The red-head sauntered over to us. "So. You and your boyfriend. You guys in a band, right?"

"We're not dating," we spluttered at the same time.

"You should be." Andromeda blushed.

"Don't be playing matchmaker, Terrence. That's Mia's job."

"Where is Beauty Queen?"

"Hey, ginger, that's mine," some Hispanic dude said walking by us.

"Who the heck is that?" I wondered.

"Oh, that's Leo Valdez. He's retarded."

"No." Andromeda glared at Marie. She turned back to me. "He's pretty cool. Really, really funny. I'm serious. That guy's a riot."

I was over stimulated already.

Stupid ADHD.

"So, I'm guessing Ryan's here too?" I asked. Some part of me was kind of wary of asking that question. Andromeda's face darkened.

"No. Nyx - the goddess of night, by the way - kidnapped him yesterday. Me, Naomi, and Marie are going on a quest to save him."

"Yup. I get to fight monsters with idiots. Should be fun." Marie rolled her eyes and anger flared up inside of me. Why the heck was Andromeda putting up with this chick?

"Hey, Andrew? You wanna replace Marie?" Andromeda repeated. "You know, if you want to put up with a couple of idiots."

"As I've already told you -"

"Does my expression tell you, 'I give a damn what you think'?" Andromeda asked. Marie opened her mouth, but Andromeda cut her off.

"That's because I don't."

I laughed. Sarcastic was totally Andromeda's default.

"God, do the Apollo kids ever sleep?" a familiar voice groaned from the bright gold cabin.

"Hey, Naomi." I waved at her. She waved back sleepily and then did a double take. She ran over to us.

"You wanna replace Marie?" Marie huffed and poked each of them in the shoulders. There was a buzzing sound, and they both jumped.

"Okay. Before we get extra-crispy, we better get out of here." Andromeda sighed, looking in the direction of the cabin with the owl on the top.

"What about Natalie?" I blurted. Andromeda glared at me.

"Think I'm dying to say goodbye to her?" Andromeda's glare dropped. She sighed again, and I noticed it was shaking a little. I realized that, although she seemed sarcastic and tough, she was genuinely scared of this.

And I was kind of scared too.

"Come on, 'Dro." Naomi put her hand on Andromeda's arm. "We gotta go."

"I couldn't agree more. This camp is full of weirdos." Marie shot a pointed look at me.

"I feel like I'm about to commit suicide." Andromeda sighed. "Come on. With luck, Marie, you'll make Asphodel."

And then they left.

XXX

"Why didn't she say goodbye?" asked Natalie yet again.

"I. Do. Not. Know," I muttered. I mean, sure, Natalie was one of the nicest kids I'd ever met, but she was really starting to annoy me.

"But -"

"Natalie, she got up at five in the morning and she had to leave as soon as possible."

Okay, seven. But what is two hours to a three-year-old.

Natalie sat down with a sigh. I felt extremely awkward. I mean, this little girl (who happened to be my best friend's little sister) looked like she was about to cry.

What the Hades was I supposed to do?

"Don't worry, Nat. She'll come back soon." I patted her back awkwardly.

"Why should I believe you?"

"Because I'm your brother's best friend?"

"Well, Andromeda says you're an idiot..."

I huffed and left.

XXX

I turned on my iPod, not surprised when the first song was by Three Days Grace. It was my favorite band and made up about fifty-five percent of my iPod.

If you wanna get out alive

Oh, run for your life

If you wanna get out alive

Oh, run for your life

I grumbled about every single song of theirs relating to my flipping life and switched the song.

Too bad the next one was Over and Over.