Catching up

It was around 3:19pm when Morgan and I had decided to meet up at the Mess Hall for our weekly get-together. A lot has happened over the past few days and I wanted to tell Morgan all about it as well as hear about how her life is going. I wore a simple green shirt with the words "Cabin 4" printed on it; the letters on gold. I paired that up with khaki shorts and my grey Vans. As I waited for my bestie to arrive, I decided to go ahead and get something light to eat from the table as well as a goblet filled with Sobe water. It was dragonfruit flavored.

The sun was still high in the sky as I scaled the marble steps up to the Mess Hall, carefully stepping over the rip in the ground. I didn't know what had occurred here but it gave me an eerie feeling, like cold water running down my spine.
It wasn't hard to locate Alex, he was the only person currently sitting at one of the tables, the white marble columns casting diagonal shadows across the scene.
I crept up behind him and suddenly hugged him from behind. "Grains!" I sat down next to him, one leg each side of the cold stone bench, and took a glass. At my touch, it filled with dark cherry juice. "Sorry I'm a bit late, I was showing a new girl around after patrol duty. So! What's up?"
I was dressed in one of my orange camp tees and urban camouflage trousers, sword at my side and combat boots at my feet. My ponytail was still a bit messy but I just brushed the rebellious streaks out of my face and tucked them behind my ears.

I nearly jumped out of my seat when Morgan shouted my last name. My salad even seemed to jump when she did it. "Great. Gaia, Morgan!" I exclaimed, touching my hand over my heart. I only should've expected my favorite daughter of Hecate to do something like that. "It's okay, just don't do that again." I exhaled, touching her knee gently. "And I've been good. I'm kind of seeing someone..but we'll talk about it later. Tell me how your week was!"

"No way, you're seeing someone?" I asked with the most mischievous grin I could manage. "I expect all dem details, good sir. And I've been good.... uh... Until Apollo gatecrashed my movie afternoon with Ben," I chuckled. I had been to New York with my close friend Benjamin, the son of Hades, to watch Kingsman. It had taken us some time to get back, let's say.

"Wait, wait. Did you say "Apollo"? Forget about Kane tell me more about your date with Ben!" I inched closer toward her, wanting to know everything. I wanted,, no, needed to know.

"Alright alright first off it wasn't a date, we're friends " I told Alex with a chuckle. "Okay, so Ben and I were just coming out of the theater and stuff and we didn't want to go directly back to camp so I was like, hey how does that abandoned station in Civic Center sound? Cause you know, we also wanted to get away from all the noise and two Underworld demigods generally like hanging out in subterranean areas. In any case we kind of snuck in (thanks shadow traveling) and were visiting the station a bit -- it's a very pretty station by the way. I should take you one time -- when a train arrived out of nowhere and we got sucked in. Carriage was empty except for this one hobo, who turned out to be Apollo. And he freaking asked us -- wait for it -- to go on a mission for him to kill Python."

I listened intensely to Morgan talk about her very interesting night. My mouth dropped open when she stated that Apollo had asked both Ben and her to go on a quest for him. Of course they had said yes! Who wouldn't have?! "Oh my gods, Morgo, that's so exciting! When do you leave for the quest?"

"Uh... actually, we already left. He didn't really ask if we were okay with it or not, he just teleported us to Delphi and left us to deal with the thing," I told Alex, drinking a bit of my cherry juice. "It wasn't really a quest, more like a mission I guess? He said he had other matters to attend and couldn't kill the snake himself, so he did what gods do when they want to act in the mortal world and got himself a pair of demigods."

"Ah, okay, okay. But it's still interesting though." I shrugged my shoulders and took a couple of gulps of my drink. "How did the fight go? I'm assuming you two won or at least wounded Python?" I asked her, cross my legs.

"Yeah... it was long, and really not a piece of cake to say the least," I sighed. "Took us a lot of time and we brushed death more times than I can count. But we did it. Now Apollo is composing a pop single to narrate our actions."

"Well at least you're getting a song dedicated to you." I offered up with half a smile. "But I know it took a lot of magic and strength to defeat him."

"Yayy," I jazzhanded. "It's gonna get in the top charts."

"In any case." I itched closer to him, nudging him in the side. "Who's that secret date mate, loverboy? Spill."

I laughed when Morgan did the jazz hands. "I'll make sure to buy that single when it drops."

I could feel blood feel my cheeks when the daughter of Hecate shifted the conversation to whom my new bae was. "Um, well his name is Kane Connor and he's a son of Dionysus. He's the one who throws those 'cool' parties."

"Wait, Kane Connor, the guy with the snake?" I asked, raising my eyebrows in surprise. "No way! He's at every freaking party here. How did you guys, um, come to meet?" Listening to him, I finished my glass, which immediately refilled, this time with sparkling water.

I chuckled lightly. "I, uh. Well, he came to the Demeter cabin asking for me to grow some..." I leaned in closer to her. "Weed." I leaned back, crossing my arms over my chest. "And then I kind of attacked him with it, after that he somehow made me feel confused and things. It wasn't off on a good foot."

"Weed?" I laughed. That was the funniest thing I heard all day. "Guess you Demeter kids kind of count as Camp Half-Blood's stoners -- I mean, who grows grass on their roof?" I chuckled a bit more before draping an arm across Alex's shoulders. "I'm just teasing you bro. So how did you guys... get along?"

I was kind of shocked. "Wait, is that what the rest of camp think of us? As stoners and hippies?" I asked her, placing a hand over my heart, being dramatic. "And after that little hiccup, we got along pretty good. Actually I think that we might be going to the prom." I blushed more, biting my lip. Even thought of him made me all bubbly inside.

"I said I was teasing you, bro," I repeated, taking his arm. "Oh, you are? That's great! Do you already know who you're going to comes as?" This year's theme was Superheroes, a really great theme in my opinion though the Time Travel thing was great too... Well, maybe another time. I had an idea who I might come as, I just wasn't sure if to go or not...

I chuckled lightly. "Yeah, I know." I smiled a bit at her before playfully rolling my eyes. "I probably go as Black Panther." I answered, biting my lip nervously. "I have no idea what Kane is going as though." I shrugged my shoulders before taking another sip. "Wait, why wouldn't you go?"

"Black Panther? Funny, for a second I pictured you as genderswapped Poison Ivy," I mused. "But Black Panther suits you too." Drinking some more of my juice, I frowned. "I never said I wasn't going to go..." But I realize he must've seen my hesitant expression and gave a sigh. "Well you see, prom's only fun if you have a date. And I'm not in love with anyone right now so I can't really go out there and ask someone. I mean, I do kind of have a crush, but it's not the same as being in love, right?" I asked, biting my lip. I was a bit scared to talk about that crush because truthfully, he was one of the most unattainable guys of camp. Plus, I wasn't the only one crushing on him and that sucked. You should probably forget him and just stay friends, I told myself.

Gender switched Posion Ivy? I hadn't really thought about going as that...hm. Maybe I need to rethink my prom outfit. "Prom can be fun, Morgo, with or without someone you love. Heck, I don't love Kane and I'm going with him. And I thought that you and Ben were a couple." I looked at her with my brown eyes that shone a bit of concern. Maybe it's the Demeter in me, but I felt the urge to bring the daughter of Hecate into my embrace and comfort her.

"Who said anything about Ben?" I asked, then sighed and rubbed my eyes. I'm done. "Y'know what? There's no point trying to hide stuff from you." I lowered my voice so that the nymphs that might be lurking around wouldn't hear us and said: "We're not a couple. He's fun, he's smart, he's sarcastic and he kicks ass. But I don't know, I'm afraid to try something .. I don't want to mess our friendship up, you know? We got really close these last months."

"I-I just assumed..." This lunch date wasn't going as planned. I never meant to upset Morgan by asking her such personal questions about her love life. I leaned in closer to listen to her speak, keeping my eyes lowered so I could not only listen, but understand. After she was done, I sighed. "I do understand where you're coming from, Morgan. Honestly I do, but you won't know until you try. Then again, you don't want to push or strain your current relationship with Ben."

I shrugged. "I'll just wait it out. Others have crushes on him too, there was this one Aphrodite girl, I heard. But anyway." I grinned and got back to my usual cheerful demeanor. "A friend of mine got me into K-pop, now I can't stop listening to it," I chuckled. "Mainly EXO and SNSD. What have you been listening to lately?" Maybe we could go to a concert one day; I had only been to one rock concert in my life and I had been alone, which had pretty much sucked. Sure, the concert had been fantastic and I still have a poster from it stuck to the back of my bunk bed along with my ticket, but I just wanted to enjoy that stuff with one or two really close friends.

An Aphrodite girl? Of course. Why am I not surprised. I thought to myself, biting the inside of my cheek. "K-Pop? I've heard of it, but never really got into it. One of my friends back home listens to K-Pop as well. That's the only reason I know about it." I chuckled lightly, rubbing the back of my neck. " I, uh. Lately I've been listening to The Kongos, X Ambassadors. Bands like that." I smiled warmly at her. I, myself never went to a real concert so going with my best friend in camp would be amazing beyond measure. "I would love to go to a concert with you."