How do you ride these things?!

Helena and I walk down to the sunlit path to the stables. I'll have to admit, when she pulled me into a little hug back at our cabin, it sent little shocks that felt like electricity down my spine. I was a little surprised at the gesture. No girl ever even looked at me back home.

The things she said to me at the Apollo cabin were amazing. I'd rather have you than Johnny Depp. I smiled at the memory. Of course, I'd never say this, I didn't know how to without it becoming awkward, but I'd rather have her than Billie Joe Armstrong by my side right now. Did I really just think that?

I really meant what I said. That Helena would go to Orlando with me. Jack Cyrus always keeps his promises. I look at Helena, she seems so out of place here in America. We had a lot in common, her and I. My mother pressured me to come here, to the other side of the United States. I hated it.

I swear Apollo set my dark brown hair on fire because my head is hot. I put my hood over my head and trudge along the dirt path with Helena. There was something odd about her. But odd in a good way. I'd never known a girl like her, and I didn't think I would know one like her again. We both were out of our element here.

We reach the stables. Other campers have already put their protective armor on and were getting ready to fly off into the afternoon sun. Pegasi in all sorts of colors stood in cramped wooden stables. Black, white, powder blue, rose, even rainbow winged horses neighed at Helena and I's arrival.

I swallowed. How the heck were you supposed to ride this things?

"So, uh, which one do you want to fly?" I ask Helena, turning my head towards her.

The walk from their cabin to the stables had been a quiet one, but Helena liked it that way. Just having Jack walking beside her met more than any amount of idle chatter. After all it was the first time she hadn't gone somewhere alone at Camp and the first time anyone her age had even even shown interest in her. Being accepted felt better than watching any movie that would have made her feel good before.

Taking a sidelong glance at Jack just before they entered the stables, she thought about all the things they could do in France. She could show him so many places and even teach him how to made chocolate...then again; she could also picture them getting into a playful chocolate fight and making a mess of her mother's store. A mysterious smile struck her at the mental image.

But it was quickly swapped for a look of surprise as they approached the pegasi. "Oh my..." They looked much larger in person than from a distance when others were riding them. Swallowing a lump in her throat she scanned the Pesasi until a white one with black mane stood out to her, She reached a hand out to touch the side of it's face and then smiled at Jack.
"We will learn to die trying!" She tried to brightly repeat the phase he had said at the cabin, but then after a second it sunk in that she might have said it wrong. "Yes?"

The Pegasus she wss standing beside whinnied at Helena like it thought she was humous. "...Think you could help me get on it? It is a little...tall."

"Yeah, sure." Jack says, not daring to take his eyes off the horse. He helps her up.

She looks so tiny on the giant black and white horse. Jack thought that she would fall off, just by sitting on there. He touched the horses fur. It was like white silk, smooth to the touch. He wondered if Helena's hair felt like that. He quickly diminished that thought from his mind by shaking his head. They were friends, that was all.

After a running start he too managed to get on the horse. Die trying was right. They were at least eleven feet off the ground, maybe higher. The pegasi whinnies and knows we're ready and he shoots off like a snowy comet. We got out of the stables pretty quick after running into a few campers who look very annoyed and angry. Jack muttered sorry and they continued on.

Soon they were up in the air. Jack had never felt this freedom before. The wind whistling through his hair was amazing. He wanted to scream out in joy and put his hands in the air, like he was on a roller coaster back home. But he knew better. If he did that he would fall off the winged horse

Jack thought of all they could do in Orlando. He could take Helena to Disney world. He actually had never been. Jack could teach her how to play instruments just like him and maybe they could start a band. He smiled wickedly at that thought. Maybe they'd become famous.

The pegasi then took a sharp right. Jack was not holding on secure enough and he tumbled off the horse, plummeting to the ground at an amazing speed, right toward the strawberry patches.

"HELENA!" Jack screamed as he fell faster and faster to the earth. He'd never get to go to France or Disney world. This is the end. He thought

After Jack had helped her get up onto the Pegasus, Helena wrapped her arms around the horse's neck nervously. Looking down, she felt like they were already flying before they'd even left the ground and her heart was thudding in her chest. A weak smile in Jack's direction as he mounted his own Pegasus gave Helena the courage to finally ease up a bit on her vice grip to the poor creature.

But Helena wasn't going to think of it as a poor creature for long since the moment the pegasi shot off out of the stable was the single most terrifying thing she had ever experinced. The fact that the creatures stayed close together was the only thing that kept Helena from complerely fainting and falling off her own Pegasus.

Shrieking in the most undignified manner as they took off, her scream turned from one of fear into one of exhillaration. "This is so incredible!" She cried out, not worried of what the other campers might think of her. She could see the same sense of freedom she felt reflected on Jack's face and in that moment everything felt like it would be okay--no, not just okay, perfect.

She had found a companion at Camp and all that loneliness had been banished in the time they had spent together.

But perfection quickly shattered into a frightening reality as the Pegasi turned and Jack was no longer on his own steed. Helena's heart froze, but she couldn't just let him fall. Paniced, the girl pulled back on her own Pegasus and then tapped it's sides with her heal as she tried to direct it down. "Vite! Vite!!" She yelped, urging the winged horse to go fast in french. And boy did it ever as she too plummeted with the help of the Pegasus. She nearly fell off the Pegasus herself as they sped downwards, all the arrows falling out of the quiver on her back and causing a deadly rain on the campers below who were so calming picking straberries.

A slew of greek curses were directed at Helena but she didn't even have a second to worry about it.

Once they were able to get under where Jack was falling, Helena reached out, nervosuly letting go of the grip she had on the Pegasus and praying that she could catch Jack.

"I will catch you!!" She cried to him.

A look of pure fear shot through Jack's face when he saw Helena's arms outstretched. What if she fell off too? He tried to land in her arms. Jack thought he looked like an ungraceful bird. He reached out his hand to Helena's, desperately trying to grasp it. He managed to do it, but his hand was sweaty and he could not hold on for long. He heard Helena scream. Jack wanted to be with her, on the winged horse.

Jack heard the other campers down below marvel at this sight. They were running left and right, like chickens with their heads cut off. The campers were A) Trying to find something to cushion Jack's fall or B) Run away from the scene of the crime. Jack thought B was more likely.

He continued to fall, wind streaking through his hair. He closed his eyes and curled himself into a ball, remembering the time when he jumped off the big diving bored at the pool. It's just like that, Jack. He tried to reassure himself. You're just gonna hit the water.

He hit the ground with a bone crushing thud. Shouldn't I be dead now? Jack thought. Stains of red had appeared on his clothes, but it was the strawberries, not blood. Maybe Apollo had saved him, because there was not bright light to go to. Next time Jack ate, he would give some of his food to his father.

Jack wanted to get up, to run to Helena and hug her like she hugged him back at the cabin. But he could not. It was like his blood had been replaced with lead. Helena ran to Jack, tears cascading down her face.

Black spots swam before Jack's eyes. He managed with a trembling hand, to stroke her cheek. He wasn't going to die. He knew that.

"Helena..." Jack whispered. He tried to say more but then the darkness swallowed him up and he could not see Helena's face anymore, or hear her laugh, like bells tinkling in the wind.

A breath that had hitched itself in her chest escaped as Helena caught Jack's hands, everything would be alright, everything could be alright, she had done the right thing and managed to save him--

"NO!!!" The girl screamed as he slipped from her grip, she was too small, too weak, she couldn't keep holding onto him and he wasn't able to pull himself back up. Commanding her Pegasus to swoop down into the fields, Helena was sure that some Demeter campers would kill her later for the wild Pegasus trampling all their beautiful berries, but Helena didn't care.

Tears forced themselves out of her eyes and she could only remember the last time she had cried like this was the night she had failed to speak to her surrogate father. A lump caught in Helena's throat as she slid to her knees, jeans and shirt stained with red strawberry juice, Helena embraced Jack the way he wasn't able to hold her.

"You cannot go! Jack!" She cried his name but he couldn't speak, just a soft brush on her cheek and Helena's tears got all over his weak hand. "Jack! Say something! Jack...Jack!!" He wasn't there, he wasn't saying anything and Helena paniced. She lookined up at the sun with desparation. How could Apollo have lead her here and then hurt the one person she could speak to.

Helena knew that children of Apollo were supposed to be fantastic healers, but she had never found that gift in her list of talents and yet not of all times she needed it more than ever. Holding Jack's head against her shoulder Helena rested her cheek on the top of his head and murrmered softly.

"...If you are there Apollo, let me heal just once. Let me heal just this once and I will never say anything nasty about you again. I will be a good camper. I will always give you half my meals..." Biting her lip Helena had no idea what to do, what to promise to make her father listen.

"I will never ever watch another movie with Johnny Depp again..." It seemed a strange thing to promise but it was a strong one and Helena choked out a sob as she looked down at Jack's face. "Come on, come on, come on Jack...look at me, open your eyes." She muttered to him, trying to find even an iota of healing power in her body. "Please..."

Jack wanted so much to open his eyes. To tell Helena that it was going to be ok, that he was fine. He just could not find the strength. Then he heard her say that she was never going to watch another Johnny Depp movie again. That caught his attention.

His eyes opened halfway. Even that was terrifyingly painful. The green of his irises finding the blue of hers. He smiled weakly, and pain shot through his body.

"You won't even watch Rango?" Jack whispered, his voice cracking with pain and exhaustion. He hoped his weak attempt at a joke make her laugh, or at least smile. Then he grimaced in pain and took a sharp intake of breath, his lungs filled with air. He looked at Helena, her face tearstained. Jack searched for her hand blindly, not wanting to take his eyes off of his savior. He squeezed her hand very lightly with all the strength he could muster.

"It's ok, Helena, I'm fine... At least I think I am." Jack says softly.

Campers from Demeter started to gather around us. Usually he'd take this opportunity to sign autographs and take questions, because really, who can ignore Jack Cyrus Byrne? But he does not want to today. Jack just want to be alone with Helena.

"No..." Jack says weakly, burying his head in Helena's shoulder, away from the sun that is burning into his eyelids, and away from the world. "Make them go away, Helena." He whispers. And thats when the tears start to come. Tears of pain and tears of joy.

Helena went silent and in Jack's own silence it felt like her heart had stopped. There were no pounding Pegasus hoofs around and the sun only seemed bright in a harsh, burning way that made Helena feel like she was being scorned.

But the moment Jack lifted his eyes to meet hers, Helena's own eyes which were misty light blue from her worry and sadness flickered to a bright ocean blue as she gasped in surprise. She couldn't be sure if it really had been a healing, if her promises had any power at all but Jack had fought and came back for her sake.

A mournful laugh escaped her lips as he made that small joke. She shook her head and pressed her and Jack's foreheads together. "Only if we watch it together." Helena smiled. "Oh Jack, you are taking this dying thing too seriously." Another weak laugh came forth before the Demeter campers came over.

She would have explained, but as Jack shrank away from them, Helena protected him by wrapping her arms around the young man and looking up at their fellow campers.

"No...please, leave us alone..." She said soflty, before turning her attention back to Jack.

"...It is okay, I will protect you. We are okay as long as we are together Jack..."

Jack could hear the campers walk off, mad about the two kids who trampled their strawberry plants. Then he lifted his head off of Helena's shoulder.

He wrapped his arms around Helena, hugging her. Strength was returning to his body at an alarming rate. Jack didn't really feel the pain anymore, except for his left arm, which was bent at an odd angle.

"Thank you, Helena. You saved me." He said, looking into her pretty blue eyes. Jack ignored the pain in his arm for now. That could wait a million years. This could not.

"You're more than a friend to me." Said Jack. "More than a best friend, actually. I think I'm.... I think Im-" He tried to finish the sentence, but couldn't. The risk was to great. Jack admitted defeat and looked down at the ground, trying to move his left arm. No use. It was broken.

The golden rays of the afternoon shone down on the campers. And though Jack was fine, minus a broken arm, he just wanted to lay there in Helena's arms. He smiled at the thought of him playing the damsel in distress, when it was usually the girl. He didn't mind, being hurt, because he knew that there was somebody out there who cared for him. That person was Helena. Jack cared for Helena as well. As long as they were together, nothing could come between them. Not Billie Joe Armstrong, not Johnny Depp, not even Hades himself.







ooc- Should we start a new one or continue with this one?

(OOC: I think we should probably start a new thread. Maybe continue it after Jack gets his arm fixed? Maybe they could swap stories back at the cabin? They could be at Dinner maybe or even playing music somewhere off where no one would hear them?)

As Jack spoke so softly to her, Helena felt that maybe the sun wasn't so harsh, that it's rays were warming her face and that maybe things between her and Apollo weren't as bad as she thought. Maybe she would keep her promise about giving him half her food at meals, after all he had come through when she needed him the most.

Looking down at Jack she smiled, turning her head only for a moment to wipe away the tears in her eyes as she continued to hug him, there in the strawberry patch where everyone could watch. But Helena didn't care, she only cared about that moment and she knew that the sweet scent of strawberries would have a significance to her forever and ever.

"We need to get that arm fixed..." She said softly, brushing her hand along the length of Jack's left arm.

"Camp is going to be seeing a lot of us from now on Jack..."

https://camphalfblood.forummotion.com/t13230-confessions#261219

There is the link!