chapter four
the snuffing out of light

DURING FALL, the camp was practically empty. Lennon has nowhere to go when summer ends (or really, nowhere she wants to go) and so she was a year rounder. She'd been at camp for about 6 months now and she was slowly getting used to the life of a demigod.

Lennon stood off by herself, across from a target. She adjusted her arm brace, her bow in her other hand. Unlike her siblings in Apollo cabin, she was not a natural when it came to archery. Lee had assured her that she would get better after time but Lennon doubted that. She was an absolute terrible shot.

"Um, excuse me?"

Lennon turned to see Annabeth Chase. She was a daughter of Athena and had got to camp a year before her. Lennon had never talked to her before so she was confused as to why she was approaching her.

"Could you teach me how to use the bow?"

Lennon froze. She was probably the worst person to have as a teacher. "Uh... sure," She didn't know why she said yes. Maybe because someone was asking her, talking to her.

Most people didn't pay attention to her. Probably because she was young but also she was just another child of Apollo. She was average in most fields. The only thing special about her was her power of light and even that was disappointing.

She explained to Annabeth how to use the bow, racking her brain to remember everything Lee had taught her. Then she stood and held the bow in her arms, to demonstrate for the blonde. She hoped that she wouldn't miss and completely embarrass herself.

However, Lennon did miss. Her arrow shot through the air and stuck in the outermost ring of the target. She turned to Annabeth with a frown.

"Sorry. You would probably be better off with someone else teaching you,"

The girl looked at her confused. "You still hit the target. Every time I try, the arrow doesn't go anywhere near the target. I think you were just nervous,"

"Nervous?"

"Your hands were shaking. Believe you can do it and you will,"

Lennon was dumbfounded. She was supposed to be teaching her and here Annabeth was, advising her. Lennon wasn't mad though. She nodded and took her advice. She raised her bow, her arms used to the weight of it. And drew her bow.

She took a breath and stared straight ahead at the target. Then she let the arrow fly. It embedded itself into the target, a centimeter away from the yellow circle in the middle.

Lennon jumped up, whooping in excitement. That was the closest she'd ever got to hitting the target. She turned to Annabeth, "You're a pretty good teacher,"

The girl shook her head. "I just encouraged you. All of that was skill."

Lennon smiled, "I'm Lennon by the way,"

Annabeth nodded, smiling. "Annabeth,"

They continued their lessons. Lennon gave Annabeth the bow and she wasn't lying, she wasn't the best shot. But they made progress when her arrow finally hit the target.

Annabeth promises to help Lennon with her dagger skills and a friendship is born. They continue to help each other further their skills with weapons.

"Speed equals heat," Apollo advised. "So start slowly, and make sure you've got good altitude before you really open her up."

Thalia gripped the wheel tightly, her knuckles turning white. She looked like she was going to be sick.

"What's wrong?" Percy asked.

"Nothing," She said shakily. "N-nothing is wrong."

Lennon frowned at her words. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Lennon," She pulled back on the wheel. It tilted and the bus lurched upward fast. Lennon held on tight to the seat in front of her to prevent flying back. Percy however, fell back and landed on Grover.

"Ow,"

"Sorry," Percy apologized.

"Slower!" Apollo said.

"Sorry! I've got it under control," Lennon would disagree with that but she knew saying something out loud would mess with her nerves.

"Thalia," Percy started. "Lighten up on the accelerator."

"I've got it, Percy," She said, gritting her teeth. However, her foot stayed on the accelerator, the bus not slowing down.

"Loosen up,"

"I'm loose!" once again, Lennon would disagree with that.

"We need to veer south for Long Island," Apollo said. "Hang a left,"

She jerked the wheel and Lennon gripped tighter to the seat as Percy was thrown back once again.

"The other left,"

Lennon refused to look out the window, knowing they were probably high in the sky.

"Ah..." Apollo spoke. Lennon sensed he was trying to force himself to sound calm. "A little lower. Cape Cod is freezing over."

Thalia tilted the wheel, her face was chalk white and her forehead beaded with sweat. Lennon had never seen her like that.

"You got this Thalia," she encouraged but then the bus pitched down and her words broke off into a scream.

They were heading straight towards the Atlantic Ocean at a thousand miles an hour, the New England coastline off to their right. It was getting hot on the bus.

Apollo had been thrown somewhere in the back of the bus, but he was slowly climbed up the rows of seats.

"Take the wheel!" Grover begged and Lennon frantically nodded her head. She didn't trust herself to open her mouth out of the fear of throwing up.

"No worries," He looked very worried. "She just has to learn to— Whoa!"

Down below was a little snow-covered New England town. Though it was no longer covered in snow. The snow was melting off the trees, roofs, and lawns. A white steeple on a church was turning brown, starting to smolder. Plumes of smoke were popping up all over the town, starting to catch fire.

"Pull up!" Percy yelled.

Lennon watched as Thalia yanked back on the wheel, a wild light in her eyes. Through the back windows, she could see the fires in the town be snuffed out by the sudden blast of cold.

"There!" Apollo pointed. "Long Island, dead ahead. Let's slow down, Thalia. 'Dead' is only an expression,"

Thalia was thundering toward the coastline of northern Long Island. Camp Half-Blood came into sight.

"I'm under control. I'm under control," Thalia muttered.

Lennon nodded and said, "You got this Thalia. You're completely under control," Her words were an attempt to reassure the girl.

"Brake," Apollo said.

"I can do this,"

"You can do this," Lennon said, her hands holding tight on the seat.

"Brake!"

Thalia slammed her foot on the brake and the sun bus pitched forward at a forty-five-degree angle, slamming into the canoe lake with a huge splash. Steam billowed up and Lennon could hear the frightened naiads scrambling out the lake with half-woven baskets. The bus bobbed to the surface with a few capsized, half-melted canoes.

"Well," Apollo started, a brave smile on his face. "You were right. You had everything under control! Let's go see if we boiled anyone important, shall we?"

Though the camp had some type of magical climate control, snow was allowed to fall lightly like it did every winter. Frost covered the chariot track and strawberry fields. Cabins decorated in Christmas lights. She could see Apollo cabin covered in the bright yellow lights they were always decorated with. Lennon noticed Percy gaping at the camp's appearance. She assumes it makes sense since he'd never seen the camp during winter.

"Whoa," Nico said as he climbed off the bus. "Is that a climbing wall?"

"Yeah," Percy answered.

"Why is there lava pouring down it?"

"Little extra challenge. Come on, I'll introduce you to Chiron. Zoё, have you met—"

"I know Chiron," the girl spoke stiffly. "Tell him we will be in Cabin Eight. Hunters, follow me."

"I'll show you the way," Grover offered.

"We know the way."

"Oh, really, it's no trouble. It's easy to get lost here if you don't—" he tripped over a canoe and came up, still talking. "Like my old daddy goat used to say! Come on!"

Zoё rolled her eyes but let Grover go with them nonetheless. The Hunters headed to the cabin. As Bianca was leaving, she leaned over and whispered something in her brother's ear. Nico just scowled and turned away.

"Take care, Hunters!" Apollo called after the Hunters. He winked at Percy. "Watch out for those prophecies Percy. I'll see you soon,"

"What do you mean?" Percy asked.

Instead of answering, he turned to Lennon. "Lennon! You'll walk me back to the car,"

They all shared looks of confusion because the sun car couldn't have been more than 3 yards away. Nonetheless, Lennon nodded, "Um, okay."

She followed behind him, towards the car. He clicked the car keys and it turned back into a sports car. Apollo looked over his shoulder and said, "Later, Thalia. And, uh, be good!"

He gave her a knowing grin then opened the car door. He opened the glovebox which glowed with a blinding light. Lennon blinked from the it's intensity and turned away. What he pulled out was very anti-climatic. A hair tie.

Apollo handed it to her and she looked down at it in confusion. "Um, thank you,"

He chuckled at her reaction. "It's your new weapon!"

Lennon blinked at him. "A... hair tie?"

"Yup!"

Lennon looked down at said hair tie. It was yellow and golden strands of thread swirled in the yellow.

Apollo picked it up, pulling the hair tie like it was a bow. "Pull it like this, and it'll transform into a bow. As a bow, when you flick it down, it'll turn into a sword."

The brunette gaped. "That's... amazing!"

"I know right,"

"Thank you, Dad,"

Apollo waved it off. "Oh it's nothing," he handed it back to Lennon and she put the hair tie around her wrist, prepared to walk away when Apollo spoke again, "Now, there's something I need to tell you about."

Lennon nodded her head.

"You've been getting cases of deja vu, yeah? Little things in your song lyrics happening in real life?"

She nodded once again. Lately, whenever she wrote lyrics of any song she was working on, some lines would predict things. Once she wrote a lyric saying The sun boy fell and the next day she had watched Julian hilariously trip over air. It started minimally but then she started getting short glimpses in her dreams. An image of the next day's activities or some new achievement of some random camper. She'd started praying to her father, scraping extra food in the fire for an explanation. Looks like she was getting her explanation.

"Curse of Partial Prophecy,"

"Curse?" Lennon echoed.

"It's rare but sometimes my children gain the power of partial prophecy. It's called a curse because every child that's had it has had a life of tragedy. Like Orpheus,"

Lennon gaped at him. Everyone knew the story of Orpheus and he definitely experienced tragedy in his life.

"Orpheus..." she repeated. "Well, that's not good,"

Apollo had a sad look on his face as he nodded. "Yes, it is not."

She had no idea how she was supposed to react to being told she would experience a life of tragedy.

"I'm sorry," Apollo hung his head low but Lennon shook her head.

"It's not really your fault."

Apollo sighed guiltily before his usual shining grin appeared on his face. "However, you have your other power,"

Lennon shook her head. "The light? I'm no good at it,"

"You've never tried to use it." He placed his hands on her shoulders. "Promise you'll learn to use it,"

Lennon blinked. "Um yes..." she noticed the expectant look on his face. She nodded her head. "Yes, I promise,"

He took his hands off her shoulders, straightening up. "Good. Well," he looked behind Lennon. "Looks like your friends are still waiting for you. I'll be off,"

She stepped as he got back in the car and revved the engines. She turned aside when the sun chariot took off in a blast of heat. The sports car soared over the woods, glowing brighter and climbing higher until it disappeared in a ray of sunlight. Lennon blinked once more, taken aback by the information she'd just got. Then she turned and walked back to where the others stood.

After Thalia, Percy, and Lennon told Chiron of the events that occurred on their mission, Chiron turned to Mr. D. "We should launch a search for Annabeth immediately."

"I'll go," The three of them said in unison.

Mr. D sniffed. "Certainly not!"

Thalia and Percy started complaining and Lennon chimed in a few times. She wanted to find Annabeth but she was also wary of arguing with a god. Mr. D held up his hand, his eyes an angry fire of purple.

"From what you've told me, we have broken even on this escapade. We have, ah, regrettably lost Annie Bell—"

"Annabeth!" Percy corrected him angrily.

Mr. D had a weird habit of pretending he didn't know anyone's names. Lennon had been at camp since she was 8 and he still insisted on calling her Lemon Tart.

"Yes, yes," he said. "And you procured a small annoying boy to replace her. So I see no point risking further half-bloods on a ridiculous rescue. The possibility is very great that this Annie girl is dead."

Lennon frowned. "We should at least be positive about it,"

Mr. D turned to her. "You can't be optimistic when you live the life of a demigod, Lemon Tart,"

Lennon started to open her mouth to disagree but thought better of it. "It's Lennon Hart," she mumbled.

"Annabeth may be alive," Chiron spoke, though he was having trouble sounding upbeat. "She's very bright. If... if our enemies have her, she will try o play for time. She may even pretend to cooperate."

"That's right," Thalia said. "Luke would even want her alive."

"In which case, I'm afraid she'll have to be smart enough to escape on her own." Mr. D said.

Percy stood up from the table and Lennon glanced at him wearily.

"Percy," Chiron spoke, his voice full of warning.

"You're glad to lose another camper, you'd like it if we all disappeared!"

He stifled a yawn. "You have a point?"

"Yeah," Percy scowled. "Just because you were sent here as a punishment doesn't mean you have to be a lazy jerk! This is our civilization too. Maybe you could try helping out a little!"

Lennon gaped at his outburst, the only sound being the crackle of the fire. Mr. D had a sinister look on his face and he opened his mouth to say something. Probably a curse that would mean the end of Percy Jackson.

Then Nico burst into the room. "So cool!" he gushed, holding his hands out to Chiron. "You're... you're a centaur."

Chiron managed a nervous smile. "Yes, Mr. di Angelo, if you please. Though, I prefer to stay in human form in this wheelchair for, ah, first encounters."

"And, whoa!" He looked at Mr. D. "You're the wine dud? No way!"

Mr. D turned away from Percy and gave Nico a look of loathing. "The wine dude?"

"Dionysus, right? Oh wow! I've got your figurine."

"My figurine,"

Nico went on to explain the game he played, Mythomagic. He also told him about how everyone thinks he's the lamest god but he finds his powers sweet.

"Ah," Mr. D seemed truly perplexed by the complex. Nico bursting in probably just saved Percy's life. "Well, that's... gratifying."

"Percy," Chiron said quickly. "You and Thalia go down to the cabins. Inform the campers that we'll be playing capture the flag tomorrow evening."

"Capture the flag? But we don't have enough—"

"It's a tradition. A friendly match whenever the Hunters visit."

"Yeah," Thalia muttered. "I bet it's real friendly,"

Chiron jerked his head toward Mr. D, who was still frowning as Nico explained defense points in his game. "Run along now,"

Thalia and Lennon glanced at each other then Thalia said, "Oh right. Come on, Percy."

She hauled him out the Big House— Lennon following along behind them— before Dionysus could remember that he wanted to kill Percy.

They had split up and Lennon went off to Apollo cabin. When she entered the cabin, she was met with the sight of a fairly clean cabin. Everybody's respective instruments were put up and on their stands in the corner of the room, the large bookcase that spanned across the wall was neat and someone had turned on the festive fairy lights. However, the cabin was also empty, the only person in there being Julian.

"Lennon you're back!" He sat on his bunk crisscross. In front of him were a book, pen, and highlighter.

Lennon moved further into the cabin, setting her backpack down on the bunk she shared with Emelee, her sister. Unlike Julian and Lennon, she only came to camp in the summer.

"Where is everybody?" She glanced once again at the empty cabin. Though it was winter and most of her siblings were away, there were still a handful of people staying at camp.

"Wow, no love for me, huh?" Julian faked a frown.

Lennon only rolled her eyes. "Hi, Julian,"

"Well, hello dear sister. Now, what was it you asked..."

"Where is everyone?" she took a seat on his bunk, observing the book he was reading.

"Lee took everyone on some bonding hike,"

"Why didn't you go?"

"I was just getting to the interesting part of my book,"

Lennon looked down at his book. He was reading The Giver. Lennon nodded, "Oh, understandable."

Julian hummed in agreement. "So how was the extraction?"

How was the extraction? There were loads of things she could tell him about. Even more when she added her previous interaction with her father. She avoided his eyes, instead, she looked around the cabin as she said, "We're playing Capture the Flag tomorrow,"

Julian pondered this. "The Hunters are here?"

Lennon nodded. "Kinda ran into them on the extraction,"

"So then, the extraction went... good? Bad?"

Lennon played with the sleeves of her now dirt-covered sweater. "I saw dad. He gave us a ride back to camp."

"He... wait so did the extraction go bad?"

Lennon frowned, still playing with her sweater.

"Lennon?" Julian pried more.

Before she could avoid his questions even further, the cabin door opened. Lennon's other siblings— Micheal, Lee and Gemma— filed in.

"That hike was pointless," Micheal said to Lee.

Lee only shrugged. "It's sibling bonding,"

"Getting lost and passing Zeus's Fist a bunch of times is not bonding,"

"Agree to disagree,"

Micheal huffed in exasperation. Lee and Micheal had this thing where Micheal acted like he couldn't stand him and Lee was hilariously unbothered by it. Both of them had been at camp before her so she had no idea how their dynamic had started or long it'd been going on.

"Lennon you're back?" The person that brought attention to her existence was Gemma, her younger sister. Her orange hair was pulled up in a ponytail and her face flush, probably from all the walking.

"Yeah, I just got back,"

Lee looked over, "Lennon, how was the extraction?"

Before she could even get a chance to say anything, Julian interrupted her. "She won't say,"

They all glanced to her and she shrugged, smiling uneasily. "Um, I saw dad, and uh, we're playing Capture the Flag tomorrow,"

"You saw dad?" Micheal asked. "Does that mean it went bad?"

"That's what I said!" Julian threw his hands up exasperatedly.

"Or did it go well?" Micheal asked again.

"Guys," Lee silenced them. "If she doesn't want to talk about it, she doesn't have to,"

Lennon frowned, "It's not that. It's just... I'll tell you all later, just not now."

They all nodded in understanding. They all knew Lennon wasn't the type to just outright say how she felt, emotional things made her uncomfortable. It was something she was constantly working on.

"So you said we're playing Capture the Flag?"

Michael plopped down on his bunk and groaned, laying on his back. "Does that mean the Hunters are here?"

Lennon nodded, "Yeah,"

Gemma sat down on the bunk in front of Julian and Lennon. "It's not that I don't like their whole girl power thing," she made air quotes. "I mean really, it's quite empowering but their hatred for boys can be a bit unbearable." Gemma was only 10 years old but she had an intelligence double her age.

"You can say that again," Micheal agreed.

"We do have it easier though," Lee said.

Next to Lennon, Julian shrugged. "Yeah, because they find our archery skills good enough to be subtly praised."

"Well, regardless of the outcome," Lee began. "We won't be hostile. We'll be nice and civil and—"

"I think you should be telling that to the hothead over there," Lennon glanced at Michael.

"Oh, shut up Len,"

"You shut up first, Mike," she grinned as she said the nickname he hated.

He sat up from his laying position, glaring at Lennon. "Stop calling me that,"

"Why not Mike?"

He groaned in annoyance, throwing the middle finger at Lennon and laying back down.

She smiled. "Love you too, Micheal,"

"Okay..." Lee sighed exasperatedly. "Please, let's just relax until dinner later."

While they waited for the dinner bells to ring, Lennon had decided to play her guitar in hopes of clearing her mind. Though all she could think about were her father's words.

A life of tragedy. What did that mean? Practically every demigod experiences tragedy so how much worse could it get for her? Her power (or was it curse?) of partial prophecy hadn't really caused her any problems. Just the opportunity to win bets against Micheal.

And her power of light. Why did Apollo make her promise to learn how to use it? It never seemed to be particularly special. Plus, it set her apart from her siblings and made her seem odd. Why couldn't she have gotten the power to heal with hymns like her siblings?

Her problem had always been that she was overlooked but if people saw the light she could create, they would shun her. She'd be seen but she'd be labled as different. As an odd aberration within her siblings.

That's why she never tried to learn her power. She wasn't good enough for it. She hid the power away and pretended it didn't exist. It was ironic that she could hide light away. That she could stuff it in a corner until it's radiance and burning blaze died out. After all, if she could control light, she'd control it to stay put and away from her.

AUTHORS NOTE:
annabeth and lennon are besties and it's disappointing we won't see them together in act one :( anyways, lennon has a curse! yayyy very exciting!! also mr.d calling her lemon tart is so funny to me. one more thing, i love julian benetiz!!! that's it bye
don't forget to comment and vote, please don't be a ghost reader or else lennon will be very disappointed in u