Leo's vacation was starting to
turn a little sour.

"Um,what?" Leo sputtered,
absolutely confused. "W-what's the matter guys?"

Jason's eyebrows
managed to go further down his face. "Hey, man. It's not you—"

"It'shim." Piper accused,
pointing a finger in Jason's direction.

"No, you're
just being unfair! You were on the other team—"

"And I'm your
girlfriend! You're not supposed to freaking slash me with your dumb
sword!"

"Reyna never
minded. She was a great leader, never letting her fellow Romans confuse her
during battle."

"Oh, so
Reyna's a better girlfriend than me?"

"I never said
that! Jeesh!"

Leo put his arm
between the couple. "Hold on, hold on.Whatin Olympus
is going on? You guys are supposed to be tight."

Hazel sighed.
"Well, it began with the war game…"

Leo's eyes
widened. "Oh man, this doesn't sound good."

Piper growled
again. "No. Letmeexplain it."

"Nuh-uh.
You'll tell it the wrong way, just like a girl." Jason protested.

Piper snarled, and
this time Hazel looked angry too. "What do you mean by that?" They
demanded.

Frank shrugged.
"Well… you girlsdostretch the truth a little…" He
stopped when he saw the look on the two girl's faces.

"Excuse
me?" Piper snapped. She shook her head and turned to more important
matters. "Leo, come with me. Let me talk to you."

Her charmspeak
flooded his mind and Leo nodded. "Yeah, sure."

"Not fair.
Cheater!" Jason spat.

Piper shrugged off
the comment. She grabbed Leo's hand, pulling him away. "Come," she
insisted.

Leo obliged. He
followed her to someplace in Camp
Jupiter, not paying any
attention to where he was going. Jason, Frank, and Hazel (and Calypso) stormed
behind. They weren't going to let Piper do all the talking, especially when
things were this big.

By the time the
charmspeak wore off, Leo found himself in the middle of a field, most likely
the Field of Mars.

Piper turned
around and faced him. "Okay now, listen."

She told the story
with some interjections from the others. Basically, there was a war game in
camp and Jason and Piper joined in. Jason was on one team and Piper the other.
Jason was in enemy territory, almost to the flag. Piper was standing guard
someplace and Jason, being the rule follower he was, went through Piper with
his golden sword to get to the flag.

Piper was mad
because Jason had injured her, and Jason was mad because he just followed the
rules and didn't let whom his enemy was stop him from trying to achieve victory
for him team.

The two wanted to
know on whom's side Leo was. But being both their best friend, he couldn't do
this to them. If he chose one, the other would hate him for who knows how long.

He tried to
explain why both were right. "Well, Jason, sheisyour chick and sheisa girl which means she's alittlemore delicate than we are."

"Delicate?"
Piper snapped.

"Um, no no,
not at all." Leo said quickly. "But Piper, Jasonison the other team, and being a good
team member, heshouldn'tcare who his enemy is. Plus, it's just
a game guys, chill!"

"It's not
just a game! I got sliced by my boyfriend!"

"And you got
taken care of by the infirmary!"

Piper lifted her
shirt up to a little over her bellybutton. "Do you see this scar?!"
But there wasn't one.

"UGH!"
she groaned. "Mom! You aresonot helping! AND AREN'T YOU THE
GODDESS OF FREAKING LOVE LIVES?!"

Hazel looked at
Piper with worried eyes. "Piper, please. Calm down."

Piper took a deep
breath. "Okay. What in all of Hades—no offense, do you want me to
do?"

Hazel groaned and
whispered something in her ear.

Piper opened her
eyes wide and exclaimed, "I am not!" In a quieter voice she muttered,
"Maybe it is. So what?"

Hazel and even
Calypso sighed. "It means you need to calm down!"

"B-but!"
Piper sputtered. "Arg! Fine!" She stormed off toward New Rome
probably to where she was staying and disappeared from Leo's sight.

"Wow."
He said. "What did you ask her?"

The two remaining
girls looked down and blushed. "Um, nothing."

He looked at Frank
and Jason who both shrugged. At least Jason looked calmed down.

"Okay
bro," Leo said to the son of Zeus—Jupiter, whatever. "Are you
alright?"

Jason shrugged
again. "Yeah. Just a little stressed about things, being the ambassador
for both camps. I don't feel like I belong in either. I'm Roman, but in some
ways I like the Greek style better. Definitely not very Roman…"

Frank put his hand
on Jason's shoulder. "It's okay, dude. I think you're a pretty great
Roman. You were made Praetor here too. That counts for a lot."

Jason sighed.
"Yeah, you're right. We're just over-reacting."

Leo grinned.
"Yeah, you two were. No go kiss her and make up."

So Jason followed
Piper's path back to the main area, leaving the four behind.

Calypso snorted.
"That was fun." She said sarcastically. "Nice start to a
vacation."

Hazel gasped.
"Oh no, you're right! I'm so sorry! If only we had dealt with them
earlier-!"

Leo shoved Hazel
playfully on the shoulder. "Hey, don't worry about it. I'm sure Sammy
would have turned this into something hilarious."

An awkward silence
followed at the sound of Leo's great-grandfather's name. He was also Hazel's
almost-boyfriend when she was alive the first time.

"Um, I'm
sorry."

"No, it's
alright." Hazel straightened herself up. "Let's show you to our
place." She took Frank by the hand and walked off to New Rome, Calypso and
Leo tagging behind.

Frank and Hazel
shared a small place in New Rome, near the collage. It had three bedrooms, one
for each and a guest.

"You can take
the room." Leo told Calypso.

"No, it's okay.
You can have it. I'm small enough to fit on the couch just fine." Calypso
insisted.

Leo shook his
head. "You need your privacy, and I'm tough," He pretended to puff up
his chest. "I can manage one stinky little couch.

"Hey,"
Frank sniffed. "I picked out that couch!"

"Not what I
mean, Frank."

"Oh,
right."

Calypso giggled.
"Oh, fine. I'll take the bedroom. But don't complain when you can't fit on
the couch."

"I thought I
was too scrawny."

"Well, maybe
you aren't."

Leo grinned and
slung his arm across her shoulder. "Since when wasn't I?"

Calypso blushed
furiously. "I don't know. And that matters why?"

"Oh, nothing.
Maybe it was the day you started crushin' on the Leo?"

She turned ever
redder. "I am not 'crushing' on you. Whatever you decide to call it is Minotaur
bull."

"Come on, I
know you want me! Team Leo for the win! I'm the hot stuff!" Leo joked.

Hazel snorted.
"You sound the sane as when you were trying to get those crazy nymphs to
like you. And do you remember Echo? She was nice."

Leo froze. He
could feel Calypso tensing up underneath his arm.

"Oh?"
She asked in a hard voice. "That sounds like an interesting tale. A whole
crowd of pretty Team Leo nymphs."

"Um, did I...
say something wrong?" Hazel squeaked.

That was the wrong
thing to blurt out. Nothing like a bad-move than to tell a girl the guy she may
or may not like that he was trying to get other girls to like him.

"Um,"
Hazel stammered. Frank was sitting on the couch, awkwardly watching the little
scene. "Actually, they were all still on Narcissus's side. We just needed
them to like Leo better so Narcissus wouldn't look at himself. He was there and
Echo was trying to help him not die again."

"Mm-hm."
Leo winced.Not really going
so well,he thought.And right when I was almost there
too."They were
all in his favor. Team Leo consisted of just me and Hazel. We just were there
to get the celestial bronze away from Narcissus."

"Yeah. Sounds
like a fun story. You should tell me the juicer detail sometime later."
Calypso forced a smile and walked to the guest bedroom. "I'll put my stuff
away. If you need me to cook or something, just ask."

Leo's vacation
trip with Calypso was off to a pretty bad start.