Seeking Shadows

I swear if my brothers don’t stop with this never ending teasing I will be forced to punch both of them in the face. My mom warned me that it would be like this. I started dating Storm a couple days ago and Noah and Odys have yet to leave me alone about it. Sure storm is a year younger than me, but he’s already has more maturity in his pinky finger than Noah and Odys have combined.

Noah naturally has his admirers, none so infatuated as Gia. Aunt Calypso said Noah was all Gia ever talked about at home. Apparently they had Ancient Greek together and she though he was just dreamy. Naturally he was oblivious. He was too busy playing with Neptune. His pet kraken not our grandpa.

Mom taught two out of my five classes and dad taught my basic sword training. As much as I loved my parents I thoroughly enjoyed my two classes away from them. I loved my math class the most. I had it with Gemma who was probably my best friend, other than my annoying twin brother who I had to admit knew me better than anyone.

All of the kids of our families group of friends were called the shadows. We were the shadows of our parents. There’s sixteen of us total and apparently our parents had started the trend of having kids and then staying at camp. Depending on who you’re talking to we were either royalty or losers.

We left school for the day and headed to the muggles hole. It was a really cool store and dinner owned and operated by aunt Piper. I knew for a fact Storm would be there helping out his mom. I walked in and took my seat in my usual U shaped booth in the corner near the old cd’s. It was the largest and could hold about eight people. Usually the shadow crowd split up into two groups of eight. There was the older high school group, Noah, Odys, Storm, Gemma, Chase, Penelope, Gia and I. The younger middle school group would hang out in the woods in some cool tree house built by uncle Leo. That group consisted of Franklin, Lucy, Alice, Aaron, Brick, Tye, Caly, and Julia.

People had started piling in from school but I had my eyes on one person in particular. Storm hopped over the counter and slid into the booth next to me giving me a quick kiss on the cheek. “Hello there beautiful how was your day?”

I was about to answer when my obnoxious brothers joined us. Noah sat next to Storm who was unfortunately his best friend other than Odys and I. “Oh you know she probably read a book or twenty.” Odys slid in next to me and popped a chip into his mouth, “Yeah then she probably rode Octavia for like the hundredth time today.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, “Oh and did she tell you that?” I smiled knowing I was the only one so far who could talk to the pegasi. Odys had come really close one time but he couldn’t quite get the hang of it.

He just rolled his eyes and went back to eating his chips. While Noah and storm went back and forth in who would win in a fight between jaws and Neptune the others came to join us.

Gia wasted no time slipping in to sit next to Noah, who didn’t even acknowledge it. Penelope sat next to Odys. leaving Gemma and Chase to sit next to each other on the near Gia. Gemma and Chase had been dating forever. They were the kind of couple that happened one day when we were like twelve and no one had really questioned it.

Everyone fell into their usual routine. Noah ordering blue food, which was an annoying habit he picked up from dad. Odys munched on his chips and chatted with Penelope about their favorite T.V. show Supernatural. Storm very dutifully split his time between his best friend and me and ordered non-blue food that he knew the others would eat. Gia sipped on her sweet tea and tried very hard to get Noahs attention. She would eventually give up and turn to talk to Gemma who usually leaned on Chase as he ate whatever the special of the day was. He always seemed somewhat bored, but get him talking about swords and the dude lit up like Christmas.

I had been lost in thought when Storm nudged me, “How does that sound to you?”

I shook the daydream out, “Does what sound good?”

He showed me a flyer, “Noah wants us all to go to this tournament this summer in Camp Jupiter. The last time we went we were kids and that was just to watch our dads duke it out. We’re old enough to enter. Do you think your dad would let us go?”

I shrugged, “I’m sure my dad would be fine with it, it’s my mom I’m worries about.”

Chase heard tournament and his interest was grasped, “Isn’t your dad head counselor? Can’t he kind of just do what ever he wants?” Odys and I laughed at the same time.

Odys finished chewing his chip, “Sure, technically. But mom has his balls so tight. If she sad no there’s little chance he’s go against her.

Noah groaned, “Oh stop it Odys. We all know dads a badass. If he wanted to say yes he would. Noah idolized our father and tended to get upset if anyone ever talked and trash about him.

Gia piped in, in an attempt to side with Noah, “My dad said back in the day your dad would be the only one who had the guts to stand up to your mom. He thinks that’s why they ended up falling for each other in the first place.”

Noah turned his whole body to face Gia, “Thank you Gia. At least someone has faith. Uncle Leo definitely knows what he’s talking about.”

Gemma leaned across the table to steal one of Ody’s chips, “Okay so we all want to go to New Rome right? Well we know we cant go without taking the younger shadows with us. And there’s no way sixteen demigods can just travel across country by themselves. Especially when half of them are under the age of fourteen. So we’ll have to take multiple chaperones. If we come about this from the right perspective and have all the details planned, we may have a shot.”

I sighed, “I’ll see if I can pull the daddy’s girl card tonight and win us some points.”

Storm took my hand in his, “This is going to be so much fun!”

Notes