Nico di Angelo has always been a bit of a loner when it comes to the demigod camps, so he didn't expect much of a difference when he decided to stay at Camp Half-Blood. Which is fine! It just made it that much easier to keep hidden the secret residi...
"That's so cute." I gush over the ring. It's a heart, one half blue, the other red, with a white gem at the bottom on a gold band with s sort of shapes on it, maybe meaning infinite.
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"Yeah. Rikki figured it would work perfectly since we're like fire and ice. Her being the fire, me being the ice." She says with a giggle. I give a smile at her. Girl friendships are so much more sentimental then boy friendships.
"Ooh, we're here!" She exclaims grabbing my hand and pulling me towards spot under a big tree with a picnic basket underneath sitting on a checkered blanket. The two of us collapse on the blanket, Rikki and Nico following our actions. "Alright, so I brought cute mini sandwiches and if people don't like that, I brought Chinese food." I laugh at that.
"Yes because we all know Holly is just a people pleaser." Rikki says with a half smile. Holly looks at her with fake offense.
"I am not!" She exclaims, though can't stop the giggle that comes in right after that.
"Sure, sure." Rikki retorts as she goes in for a sandwich from the basket, resulting in getting her hand slapped away by Holly.
"No! We aren't eating yet."
"Why not?" Rikki whines.
"We're going to do a sort of get to know each other exercise." Rikki rolls her eyes. "So this is how it's going to work. Since I already know Will, and Rikki, you obviously know Nico a lot now, I'll get to know Nico and you get to know Will."
We all nod our heads and disperse our little group towards the playground, leaving the food where it is. Holly is at first skeptical of the idea of leaving food unattended but Nico seemed to calm her down somehow. Though of course, once we're at the playground, I glance over to see a man standing by our food who's dressed as a chauffeur.
"So, Will," Rikki snaps me out of my trance, "what do you do in New York? What's summer like with the city?"
"Me and my friends go to this summer camp back in Long Island."
"Oh that's cool! What kind of camp?"
"Oh, well..." I pause to think for a moment. "It's sort of a sleep away camp."
"I've always wanted to go to one of those. What do you do there?"
"It's very... diverse activity wise. They teach us to play to our strengths. Plus we all do combat training."
"Bet you need that in New York." She laughs. "But um, what're your strengths?"
"I'm mainly a healer. So I mostly work in the infirmary." Rikki gives me a sort of pitying look. "Oh! No no no I actually enjoy it. That's the whole play-to-your-strengths thing, you know? It's pretty... well, not fun but it's nice to help people."
"I get it." She nods. "Hey, you know my family is going to be traveling sooner or later so maybe I could go to that camp."
"Oh, well it's more of a family thing."
Rikki seems to think that over for a moment before her cheeks burn bright red. "I thought you said you and Nico met at that camp."
"Yeah we-" I cut myself off, realizing what it must've sounded like. "Yes..." I trail off, not too sure how to finish.
"Aren't you two dating though?"
I feel all the blood drain from my face. My whole body goes numb for a moment as I try to assess her tone of voice. "Um... No?"
"Oh!" Rikki blushes once more, this time in embarrassment. "My bad. I just assumed..."
"It's... it's okay..." I say slowly, feeling my way through the dark of the lie I just told.
"I mean, that makes more sense then." Rikki rationalizes for herself. "You know, since you're related 'n stuff."
My eyes widen and I feel something in the back of my mind crack a little. My entire body seems to cringe at the inquiry. I often try not to think of the bloodlines of Olympians, especially when it comes to Nico and I. Suddenly, I'm being forced to think of the way our family lines move and intersect in weird ways that would technically make us... Second cousins?
I shivered a little bit.
"No, no, no, we're not related." I say anyway, because we're really not. Ichor and mortal blood are very different things that don't even really combine! We're not related. "It's more like... it's like the owners of the camp are very removed or far, whatever you wanna call it, right? And sometimes it's just barely any relation to begin with- it's hard to explain but me and Nico are not related in any sense."
She nods her head, obviously confused by my wording, but accepting it nonetheless. "Alright, good to know."
I feel my cheeks heat up, feeling like she doesn't really believe me which causes me to doubt myself. "Think of it as the Greek myths. Like, the demigod children weren't related, right?"
"Debatable."
"Point being, it's somewhat like that. The only relation me and Nico have is that we're Greek."
"So you do have a relation."
"Can we please stop this conversation?" I groan as Rikki laughs at me.
"Whatever you say, city boy."
"OKAY TIME FOR FOOD!!!" We hear Holly's voice ring over the playground.
"Guess it's time for food." I say as I quickly speed walk over to the basket and blanket and notice that Nico's zombie chauffeur is gone. Though the smell of rotting flesh hasn't completely subsided. Faint, but still there.
