We Three, We Happy Three!

[Thomas Llywelyn-Charmers]

Tom had barely gone three steps out of the Aphrodite cabin when Cate launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around him and practically demanding a piggy back. He'd known it was her, no one else would do that, and besides, she'd squeaked as she did it, that long, high-pitched noise of delight that JoJo called 'squeeing'.

"Tommy! I heard you were back! Omigod! You have no idea how much we've missed you this week! How was cricket," like all americans, she couldn't resist putting on an english accent as she said 'cricket', "and where are the gorgeous guys you promised to bring me back, huh?"

"Nice to see you too, Cate," he wheezed, faking not being able to breathe. She released him, jumped down, and stepped alongside him, linking arms and dragging him towards the mess hall.

"Soooo...how're you? How's Lucy and your parents? How was the flight? How did the cricket tour go?"

"Never mind me!" He countered. "How's your new job?"

"Urgh!" She shuddered. "I don't even want to think about that for another two months! I'm at camp...I'm freeeeeee...Everyting set for you going to Edinbuuuurg?"

"Done and dusted! Dad's bought me a flat, and this guy who's in the First Fifteen's going to rent from us, so it's all cool."

"First fifteen is cricket?"

"No, silly," JoJo, Jocasta Wright, one of the only other brits at the camp, joined them at the Mess Hall. "First Fifteen is rugby. First eleven is cricket. Can't believe your dad bought you a flat. You are soooooo lucky!"

The three of them went to help themselves to steaming piles of food, sizzling in some cases.

"Yeah well, at least you'll be able to visit him!" Cate pointed out. "You two will be hopping in and out of each other's lives, and I'll be all the way over here, waitressing my ass off, missing you like crazy! How did meeting up go by the way?"

Jocasta grinned at him, and he sighed.

"Well, after I got there, it was fine!" He said.

"He got on the wrong train, poor honey had probably never used public transport before! Anyway, I don't know what he brought, but I've still got galaxy, wagon wheels, jammy dodgers and the first series of Outnumbered on my mp3 player...so I say after capture the flag, we have us a midnight feast!"

That was the brilliant thing about Jocasta, she treated camp like a rather hard-core and less racist version of Enid Blyton. Or JK Rowling, he guessed, but with his dyslexia, he'd pretty much missed out on the Harry Potter phenomenon. Enid Blyton, however, had been read to him by Polly every night when he was little.

"Did you hear about Vicky?" JoJo asked Cate, and Tom winced. Vicky. Victoria Cochrane, his girlfriend from school, had dumped him last spring, just before he and JoJo met up in the holidays. "Beeyatch broke up with him!"

Cate gasped dramatically, brandishing a piece of toast.

"So are you going to try and make a move on your mystery crush?"

"It's my last year, Cate," he said reprovingly.

"Yeah," she said, "but on the other hand...it's your last year!"

"Last opportunity," JoJo chipped in.

"One final chance, to ask her to dance, so many ways, to fill your final days..."

"Cate!" JoJo and Tom both chorused an objection, and she stopped her poem and merely shrugged.

"Well, we're here when you need your confidence boosting, and we're here when you need a shoulder to cry on!" She said instead.

"Thanks," he said, sarcastically, "that fills me with confidence. Oh bugger, anyone know what team I'm on? For CTF?"

"North, with me,"Cate looked pityingly at poor JoJo.

"And I'm on South, with Ares...Ares never listens to Athena, there's no point. Oh by the way, have you told him about the new tutory-type people?" She took a bite of her toast, and Cate picked up the gambit.

"Penny Jones and Daniel...something...old campers come back to help. Danny is seriously hot!"

"Totally!" Jo said dreamily. "How did your Alevels go? Mine were rock..."

They spent the rest of breakfast talking about last term, filling Cate in on the whole year, and listening to her talk about her nightmare jobs, and the one bedroom flat she could barely afford in Chicago, that she'd had to give up her lease for to come here for two months. As always, it felt like they'd never parted. But also, it felt a little odd, because they all knew this was their last summer at camp.

[CASSANDRA RUGGIERO]

Cas walked slowly to the Mess Hall. She had been starving since she had been working out so much. she had been practicing her gymnastics and her archery. And since she was such a glutton for punishment; she usually ended up on the ground not being able to move. So instead of pushing the limit as she normally did; she decided to go and get some food.

So she was in her usual outfit. A normal band t-shirt that she had designed so that it was a midriff and ended above her bellybutton while also clearly showing off her bellybutton ring. And also a pair of baggy jeans that fit and stayed snugly on her waist. She had her hair in its usual messy way as she ran her hand through it in a rush. she then sat down on top of a table and drank a bottle of water. She heard chatter and looked up. She saw three people walk into the place as her eyes scanned them; sizing them up so to speak.

She tried to understand what the hell they were saying but they used some words that she was unfamiliar with. She had basically just learned English or the United States' version of English last year and was still a little rusty with it. Spanish was the language she was raised on and it was the easiest she knew. So she got tied of listening and got out an apple. She cut it into slices and peeled the skin ff of it. She then looked over to them as she set it down. "You guys are kinda loud. Do you guys think you can keep it down a bit? I have a slight headache?" she asked in a kind voice. But since Cas had been thinking about home with her Dad and older brother she had kinda transferred into Spanish. So the whole conversation that she had spoken to the group of people had been in Spanish. She had no idea that she had even done tht

[Thomas Llywelyn-Charmers]

There was a pause.

Thomas looked at Jocasta.

"Don't look at me!" She objected, putting her hands up. "I did german!"

She was dressed the way many american girls dressed. Scantily. He just hoped that later on, she wouldn't regret that piercing. He'd heard those things caned when they were ripped out, and Capture the Flag wasn't exactly slow-paced and gentle. The best thing to wear was lightweight body armour and make sure there was nothing that dangled, trailed or made you sweat.

In fact, the loose hair, the baggy jeans and then of course, that top...not exactly the logical attire.

"No hablo espagnol," Cate said apologetically. "Cassandra, right? Guys, this is Cassandra Ruggiero. She's the new Artemis camper."

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," they chorused, and then Tom did the think he'd been brought up to do, got to his feet, and reached out a hand toward her.

"Hi, I'm Tom, Aphrodite cabin, welcome to Camp Half Blood." Which probably didn't make sense given that he'd only just got back, so she'd been here a week or so before he'd turned up! But he accompanied it with his friendliest and most welcoming smile.

"Hi!" Added Jocasta, and Cate waved too, since she thought she might have met her once already.

"Sorry," Tom continued. "I don't speak any spanish. I speak a bit of french, and JoJo speaks German." He said this as if he thought it might be helpful somehow.

[CASSANDRA RUGGIERO]

Cas just tilted her head in confusion. She didn't really understand much of what they were saying. She finally understood when the girl near the boy said that she doesn't speak Spanish. "Spanish?" she asked the open air. She then heard herself and realized that she was peaking Spanish. She ran her hand through her hair and smiled widely.

"Yea, I'm Cassandra. But I prefer to be called Cas or Cassie even. It's nice to meet you Tom" she spoke with a smile as she took his hand and shook it. "I"m sorry, I had no idea i was even speaking in Spanish. I guess that's a little bad habit of mine. I was....raised in Mexico so ...English wasn't my first language. And is still a bit hard to...understand at first" she explained with a blush as she scratched behind her head in embarrassment

"Um, is something wrong with my outfit?" she asked as she went over it with her eyes and dusted herself off a bit. "Cuz, you're kinda looking at me like either I'm crazy for dressing like this or...you're checking me out" she added with a slight smile and light laugh.

[Thomas Llywelyn-Charmers]

"Oh God no!" He exclaimed, quick to reassure her, "oh, I wasn't checking you out at all!"

Voomph, it hit him! Just how harsh and unnecessary that was! Fantastic! Nice one Charmsy! Poor kid's probably mortified or something.

"You'll have to excuse Tom," Cate said from behind him. "He's got a classic english disability...foot in mouth disease! No tact at all! What he means is that he's far too much the gentleman to 'check a girl out' unless he's in a nightclub. Not that he wouldn't check you out!"

He looked heavenward - or Olympus-ward - for a moment and then smiled at Cassie again.

"It's true! It's just that today we have a game of capture the flag, you know? So really the best thing to be wearing is something comfy, that you can get blood on, and that covers your skin in case of poison ivy or accidental maiming. Your outfit is fine, probably even fine for training, aside from the piercing because, gods, I cannot imagine how much that would hurt if it got caught on a buckle or something!"

He shrugged.

"It's really your call! A lot of campers wouldn't say anything because, to be honest, we quite like other people making a fool of themselves, it gives us something to focus our teen angst into, right?"

He wondered if she'd catch any of that. It was intimidating enough coming here, but not speaking the language that most people knew as their first must be pretty hard. The only person he knew for sure spoke spanish was Alison, a New York socialite's daughter who had a spanish maid, and somehow he thought taking Cassie to her and saying: "I say, old thing, would you mind awfully talking to this girl, she has a spanish maid, you must have so much in common!"

Well, hispanic. Di Immortales! America never stops being tricky!

[CASSANDRA RUGGIERO]

At his comment Cas blinked a couple of times. Ouch...she thought as she rubbed her hand against her arm slowly. When Cate tried to explain she laughed at his foot in mouth disease. "That's alright, I was just curious as to why you were looking at me so intently. And don't worry about it, you can check me out anytime you want. It's not like I'm getting any attention from other guys" she muttered the last part to herself as she ran her hand through her hair. She pushed these thoughts from her head and concentrated on following the conversation

"Yeah, Capture the Flag" she spoke softly as she sighed. "That sounds like a blast. But to me; there is nothing more fun or relaxing then running and spending time through the forest. I guess it comes with the territory of your mother being the Goddess of the Hunt." she joked lightly. "But there is one good thing about the whole situation: duct tape" she spoke as she gestured to her piercing. "I'll just tape it up before we actually start doing anything serious" she explained