"So Alana..."

A group of new preteen girls had just come to camp, and Alana had been their first training partner. There were four of them, unclaimed, and they were pretty annoying. "How did you get claimed by Artemis? I mean it's not like you're actually her kid, you know?" The oldest one asked.

"Well," The huntress started. "It's kind of a long story."

"What about before you were here? Someone said you lived on Olympus, but there's no way that's true."

"Did your parents just leave you here as a baby or something?"

"Omg what's Olympus like?"

"Did you talk to the gods?"

"How did you end up here?"

"When did you end up here?"

"Is that why everyone likes you?"

"Do you have blackmail on everyone?"

"Is your mom nice?"

"Back to Olympus, cause I'm really curious about that."

Alana's eye twitched as she tried to keep up with the pestering. She could barely hear what they were saying, but everything she picked up on was something she didn't like talking about. The archer was starting to panic when she heard whistling through all the voices. Whistling. That meant-

She felt a hand rubbing up and down her back, before moving to her arm and squeezing it. "Lana," the person whispered.

The daughter of Artemis let out a breath of relief and leaned into the person. "Risse, thank god."

The new campers stopped talking and looked at the best friends. She wasn't answering their questions then was paying attention to another person? How rude. One of them opened her mouth to ask another question, and probably be rude about it, when Clarisse cut her off. "That's enough out of all of you. I need to steal her for a second," the taller girl grabbed Alana's arm and pulled her to where the group couldn't see them.

"What-"

Clarisse interrupted the archer. "I don't need anything, I just knew you wanted to get out of there."

Alana's face softened and she smiled at the curly haired girl. "Thank you. They're really pushy."

The daughter of Ares closed her eyes and hummed in agreement as she wrapped her arms around Alana's shoulders from behind, leaning on her lightly. "I know you don't like questions about that stuff when it's new people. I heard them and came to save you."

The huntress moved to be able to see the side of her friend's face and snorted lightly. "Saved me? Alright knight in shining armor."

Clarisse smirked to herself then opened her eyes. She quickly grabbed Alana and picked her up bridal style, resulting in a squeal from the smaller girl. "Always, Princess."
(A/N: It's actually so hard to play off that they're not dating when they act like this)

"Man, Grover got really old. How long have we been here?" Percy said, looking off into the distance.

"You have an old tree friend?" Alana asked, cocking her head to the side innocently.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and looked at Percy. "I can't do stupid Alana. She tutors all of us, that's how you know she's smart. I'm fixing this." She turned back to her best friend and smacked her right across the face.

"Ow! Annabeth what the hell?!" The huntress screamed, putting her hand on her cheek.

The daughter of Athena narrowed her eyes at the older girl then told Percy, "Well at least she knows my name?"

"What?" Alana questioned harshly. "Why would I not know your name? Annie, you're my best friend, don't be stupid."

Annabeth noted how obviously pissed she was, but chose to ignore it. "You forgot who Grover was."

"I forgot-" Alana stopped as she remembered what happened in the last hour, or what she thought was an hour. "Oh shit."

"Yeah 'oh shit'"

"Ok guys, we really have to find Grover," Percy interjected.

Annabeth nodded and started walking toward the older satyr, but Percy grabbed Alana's arm and kept her from following. "Hey," he smirked to himself, confusing Alana. "I heard what you said to that girl. Isn't that what you call Clarisse?"

The daughter of Artemis turned bright red and looked away from him. "No. I- uh... I have no explanation or excuse." She finally admitted. "I mean she called me Lana, and only Clair calls me that. So that's probably it."

They started following Annabeth while talking. "But dude," Percy started, "I may not be an expert in this stuff, but I think practically moaning her name while making out with someone else is a big deal."

Alana just turned more red. Everything felt hot at the thought of that. Would she want to make out with Clarisse? What? Why would she think that? But then Alana imagined Clarisse's muscular arms holding her waist as their lips connected. Knowing Risse, Alana would either be pushed against a wall or laying on the ground with the taller girl on top of her. Either way Alana liked the thought of it.

Oh gods. How could she think that? Is that why she felt so weird when Clarisse said she loved her the first time? Oh no. Alana knew she had to focus. They were on a quest for gods sake! And here she was, thirsting over her best friend. Her best friend that could possibly be the worst thief of the century.

"Alana! Come on!"

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"Hey! We're looking for our friend, a satyr. Have you seen him?" Annabeth yelled to the older satyr. He looked at them, stunned and Percy stepped in.

"Where is he?" The son of Poseidon yelled. The unknown satyr turned and started running. "Wait!" The demigods bolted after him, chasing him through the casino, until they got to the game area, where Alana had been earlier. "Where is grover?"

Alana saw him with a headset on, playing a game. She quickly tapped her friends' shoulders and pointed to the younger satyr. Percy walked over to him and started convincing him to come with them.

Annabeth stood next to Alana, watching the boys. "You were really making out with a random girl?" She asked.

The huntress sighed and looked at her little sister. "I couldn't remember anything, you can't blame me."

"Sure sure, but like-"

Percy ran over to them with Grover, cutting Annabeth off. "It's really time to go," Percy told Grover.

"Of course." The satyr nodded. "Where are we going?"

"You don't know who we are, do you?" Alana deadpanned.

"Yeah. No, I don't. Have we met?"

"Percy. Annabeth. Alana." The blonde said, pointing to each of them. "We're your best friends."

"Really?" Grover grinned.

Alana sighed and looked at Annabeth. "Should we just smack him like you did to me?"

Annabeth shook her head. "Nah I'd feel bad."

The archer scoffed and nudged her. "So you didn't feel bad about smacking me in the face?"

The daughter of Athena laughed. "Nope. But it's also you. Things are going to work differently on a demigod than on a satyr."

Alana nodded. "Fair enough."

"Oh, boy. Grover, we're on a quest. We can't do this without you. We're short on time, and we gotta go. Right now," Percy explained.

"A quest? That sounds amazing! But is it dangerous? It's not a deal-breaker, I'm just curious. Also, I'm sorry, what was your name again?"

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The demigods and satyr were now wandering the parking garage, trying to find Hermes' car. Apparently, Annabeth had stolen his keys.
"Okay, god of travelers. What kind of car does the god of travelers have?" Percy questioned as they walked.

"Guys, I gotta say, so far, this quest is really exciting. Really hoping we find that car," Grover grinned, causing Annabeth and Alana to send each other looks.

"Finding the car isn't the quest," Alana told him.

"There's more?" The satyr questioned.

"Jeez. We'll explain it to you on the way. We're in a bit of a hurry." The son of Poseidon explained. The boys kept talking some more as they walked, Alana eventually tuning them out.

"Guys!" Annabeth yelled, catching Alana's attention. They all looked at a yellow cab with an envelope on it. The daughter of Artemis looked over the younger girl's shoulder to get a better look at it.

"Hermes drives a cab?" Percy questioned.

The daughter of Athena nodded. "And left us a note."

"How do we know that's for us?" The blonde asked.

Alana snorted to herself as she read the words on the envelope. "To the dumb kids," she read aloud.

"...Nice." Percy commented.

"Should've known the god of thieves noticed his pocket getting picked." Annabeth said before she opened the letter and started reading. "Back door to the Underworld, magic word, map in the glove box. And he says we'll become travelers once we're on the road. And then the car will take us wherever we wish to go."

"So, one of us just has to drive it out of the garage." The younger demigods looked to Grover, he was 24 afterall.

"Oh, I'm still not 100% sure what we're doing here, which seems disqualifying," Grover argued.

Alana quickly spoke up, being the second oldest. "I could-"

"Allie." Annabeth said simply.

"Alana, have you even seen a car before?" The blonde asked.

The huntress opened her mouth to protest, then closed it, and clicked her tongue. "Fair point."

"Yeah. Yeah, sure, I mean... I killed the Minotaur on my first try, right? How hard could this be?" Percy decided.

It was hard. After multiple near death experiences, and lots of yelling from both girls, they eventually made it out of the parking garage.

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A/N: hey guys!! I'm sorry this chapter took me so long, it's been quite a week lol

But I just finished the internship I was doing and I only have two weeks left of school so the next few chapters leading up to the kiss should get written pretty quickly :) (no promises tho)