Renegade

Alternate Title: I Kiss a Girl

Griff's POV

That night, my dreams were weird. Like, random weird. At first, I thought that they had nothing to do with anything. But then, after I thought about them, they made a scary amount of sense.
In my dreams, I found myself floating in the back of a room. I saw a figure, cloaked in a black hood, setting up a tripod, or at least what I thought was a tripod. There wasn’t much space between the floor and ceiling, making me think that this place was attic. That made sense, because even though I was in a dream, I could smell a certain musty smell that only comes from one place. The Big House Attic.

The figure kept on placing something down on the floor, and I realized by a feint glint past the hooded figure’s shoulders that he was setting up his tripod thingy in front of a window.

Okay, I thought, he’s setting up a camera. He’s a photographer. But demigods don’t mix well with technology. And no one at Camp is a photographer.

Then, as I kept watching, the figure brought out a long, dark rectangular case, like for a weapon. As it turns out, I was right. The man, as if he was testing out his what now definitely looked like a tripod, brought out a rifle, straight out of a videogame. This sniper rifle was made entirely out of celestial bronze, faintly glowing in the pitch black of the Attic.

“Now,” the figure said in a high-pitched male voice, “which cabin?”

In the dream, my floating position shifted. I saw through the man’s eyes. He was looking down over the U-shaped ring of cabins. In his eyes, he was looking at two specific cabins: Cabin 13, or…

Oh Gods, I thought, he’s looking at Cabin 3. He’s going to shoot Dad!

Then, with a start, I woke. Xavier was in the bunk only a few feet from mine on my right, and Emily was in the bunk directly to my left. Both were completely asleep. I checked the window in front of me, and saw that the moon was still high in the sky. It would be a long time until morning, maybe three or four hours until dawn.

I felt my face, dragging my palms across my cheeks, and realized that I was sweating. Then I remembered.

The Attic! I thought.

I jumped put of bed (as quietly as I could) and ran (as quietly as I could bear) up the stairs to the Attic, grabbing a flashlight on the way. I had no time to be scared of the weird stuff up there, because this was life or death. But when I opened the door and found the only window, there was no figure. No nothing, as far as I could see. Not even a tripod, or the long, dark case for the rifle. Nothing was there.

Maybe the dream was indicating something in the future, I thought, maybe the sniper hasn’t set up yet.

But just to be cautious, as I walked down the stairs at a normal pace, I decided in the morning, I would check out the Attic in more detail. What I didn’t remember to do as I walked back to bed was to be quiet. Before I turned the corner to where the bunk beds had been laid out, a voice whispered into the dark,

“Griff, is that you?”

I jumped at the sound, because I hadn’t been expecting it, and I heard Emily giggle.

“Emily!” I whispered back, “what in Hades! Why are you up?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” she said, her voice a lot closer. I couldn’t bear it any longer. I clicked my flashlight on, and found Emily, as she raised her hand in front of her face.

“Too bright!” She said in a low voice, “my eyes, Griff, jeez!”

“Sorry,” I said, pointing the flashlight at the wall. The light bouncing off the light blue paint gave us enough to see each other.

“I had the weirdest dream, actually,” I said, but when I looked at her, her eyes were pleading with me to drop the subject. She didn’t care; she had other things on her mind.

I realized that Emily was dressed only in a tank top and cotton shorts, her brown hair coming down around her neck. Other people might have thought that she looked unkempt. I thought she was absolutely beautiful.

“Hercules boxers?” Emily asked, staring at my mid-section.

“What’s wrong with them?” I asked indignantly, “Hephaestus TV, season 8. The last season.
They’re a gift from my dad, you know.”

“Oh my Gods, Griff. You know, after only spending a day with him, I actually find that somehow fitting. Your dad would buy those.”

I laughed softly, and for a moment we were both seized with an awkward silence, and I didn’t really know what to say.

“You know, Griff,” Emily started, “I was thinking…about our quest.”

“The cross-Europe trip quest we just got back from, or another quest? Which one are you talking about?” I asked sarcastically.

“Yeah, yeah,” Emily responded, “anyway, I was thinking about the flight attendant, actually.”

Oh Gods, I thought, She’s about to kill me, isn’t she? I KNEW she was still mad about that!

“And?” I asked nervously.

“Oh, you’re not in trouble,” she added quickly, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“And I was also thinking about the tour you gave me of the Camp,” she continued, “and I noticed some things.”

“Like?”

“Well,” she said, “you don’t tend to notice it, but a lot of girls check you out. Like all the time. They look at you, and they get this star-struck look in their eyes. I hope you know that, Griff.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” I asked, my face getting red.

I had always been a bit self-conscious, especially when it came to girls. I tried to act cool and suave, like I knew I was getting looked at and didn’t care, but I did care. I just never knew girls actually looked at me that way.

“What has to do with anything,” she continued, “is that with that flight attendant, I was wondering if you had kissed a girl before. I mean, no offense.”

My face flushed even more as I said, “Yeah, I’ve kissed a girl before, but the flight attendant was all frisky. It got weird, and I don’t think you want to know—”

“Do you have a girlfriend?” she blurted out, and I could see the nervousness in her eyes.

“Yeah,” I said, and her face went pale, “she’s from the Roman Camp right now. You might have
met her at Camp Jupiter.”

“What’s her name?” Emily asked, completely deflated. She looked like she was either going to throw up or start crying.

“Emily, what is this all about?” I asked, and she took a big breath in. I realized that I had been holding my hand up so that the flashlight pointed at the wall for a long time, and my arm was getting tired.

“Look, Griff, what I’m trying to say is…I…I like you, okay? I’ve had a crush on you since we ment, and I didn’t want to make it awkward if we returned and I found out that you had a girlfriend, which you do. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel weird.”

She turned away from me, and I could almost feel the tears running down her cheeks. I knew that I was being a total jerk for doing this to her, but I gently grabbed her shoulder, and turned her to face me.

“Emily, I haven’t told you the full story,” I said, grinning like a suave madman, “The night before I left for Gibraltar with Xavier, we got in a huge fight. That’s why she left for a new post at Camp Jupiter, and why I left for Europe, to get away from her.”

“What does that matter?” Emily sobbed softly, trying to hold back her tears, “Gods, why are you smiling so much?”

“Emily,” I explained, wiping her tears with one hand, “we broke up. She’s my ex-girlfriend. Besides. I don’t think I’ve ever met a girl as beautiful as you. Emily, I’ve had a crush on you since Gibraltar. I think you’re funny, smart, amazing and—”

Then, I was cut short by Emily placing her lips on mine. Her lips were so incredibly soft, that I knew I had been right about her in Gibraltar. She was definitely the right type of girl to have a crush on. Keeping my eyes closed, and my lips pressed against hers, I clicked the flashlight off and let it fall onto the carpet softly. Then, I cupped Emily’s cheeks with both my hands. I could still feel the paths that her tears had cut into her skin. I wiped them away started kissing her harder. I thought about all that we had been through, across Europe killing monsters, and all of the moments where I thought either I was going to die, or she was. I realized that there was no one else I would have rather gone on that quest with. I thought about all that while still kissing her. Then, I released, and we looked into each other’s eyes for a moment.

“Griff, I’m going to kill you!” Emily said, “you totally led me on there! Gods, tell a girl you have an ex before you tell her she’s your girlfriend!”

“I love you, Emily Grace,” I replied, and she giggled, kissing me again.

“Apology accepted,” she said, looking into my eyes.

Then, after a moment of staring at each other, both our faces went pale.

“Oh Gods,” I whispered, “our parents are going to kill us!”

“I know,” Emily whispered back nervously, “what are we going to do?”

Then, I realized that I was about to turn sixteen. I could do what I wanted.

“Who cares?” I said, “First, let’s worry about it in the morning.”

“Good plan,” Emily agreed, giggling.

So, we walked back in silence to the bunk beds, all four of our feet floating three inches off of the ground. We both were euphoric.

Notes

OHMYGODS they kissed. I love writing thee chapters, they make me smile and fanboy and get all jittery. UGH, IT'S AMAZING.

Enjoy!
-Grafon