Jɪɴx ➪ 𝙡. 𝙫𝙖𝙡𝙙𝙚𝙯

Nico's Uber Distant Cousin

chapter one; Nico's Uber Distant Cousin

JINX FREAKED out, wringing her hands back and forth inside of her pockets.
She was only half aware of what the boy was doing as he waited for his friends.

So, she did what she did best. She froze time.

Jinx screamed so loud she could have sworn something shattered. She paced, deep in thought. How would she explain herself?

"Hi, I'm Jinx di Angelo. I'm looking for my distant, distant, distant, super distant, uber distant cousin. We might not even be cousins anymore." Jinx practiced in front of the boy's face.
"No, that's not right."

She shook her head, "hello. I am the daughter of Khaos, I can manipulate time and do super cool things. I accidentally travelled to Germany in 1801, during the war."

They don't need to know that, she scolded herself.

Jinx wiped at the sweat that collected on her upper lip, she was tiring, in a little bit the seconds would start moving again.

She plopped back down on the haystack, letting go of time and letting it run its course. Next to the dark skinned boy, kids barged in.

"Leo, what-?" A boy with blond hair said, his striking blue eyes going back and forth from the boy named Leo and her.

Soon enough, there were seven demigods standing in front of her and a faun.

The dark skinned girl with curly reddish brown hair stepped forward with recognition. "Hey! I know you. We've met."

Jinx took a quiet breath of relief. She remembered the girl. Her name was Hazel. Nico had taken the time to explain to her what she was. They were half siblings.

"Nico's family." Hazel said, explaining to her friends.

"Distant. Almost thrice removed. Not even family anymore-" she piped in.

The girl next to the blond haired boy stepped forward, she squatted down in front of Jinx.
"What's your name?" She asked.

And she felt compelled to answer. Like she had to.
But Jinx knew better than to do that, she knew about the girl's kind.
"Charmspeak." She said with disdain. Jinx abruptly stood, making one of the boys - the one with an odd looking pen out- match her movements.

"Jinx di Angelo." She pulled out a piece of hay from her hair. "I'm too aware of your charmspeak for it to work successfully."

The girl awkwardly stood, moving to the back of her group.

"Jinx was brought in by Nico. But she normally spent her time on quests, which explains why Percy never met her. And Frank was too frightened by her aura." Percy nodded and Frank looked away bashfully, "but then she came back, and Nico offered her to go looking for the Doors of Death together. You went with him right? Maybe you could tell us where he is?"

Jinx averted her gaze. She didn't remember anything. Well, that's not entirely true.

She remembered who she is, what she can do, and where she came from. In fact the last thing she remembers is Nico pulling her hair up as she spilled her guts onto a sidewalk after shadow traveling. And the argument she had with him, telling him that they were better off traveling her way.
After that her memory is wiped.

"No." She admitted. "I don't remember any of that."

The faun whispered to a blond girl with gray eyes, "so, we can't kill her?"

Jinx glared daggers at the faun as the girl with gray eyes herded them to the mess hall.
They all took seats, Hazel urged her to take on by her side.

"I don't remember what happened during our trip of playing hide and seek with the monsters or whatever," she started. "But I woke up in here."
Jinx twisted the truth. "I haven't seen Nico in a while."

She actually woke up in Camp Jupiter and became a stowaway on the ship. Something told her it was the right course of action.

"So that means it's true." Hazel frowned, her eyes becoming watery. "Nico only has five days left until he dies."

Leo watched as the girl named Jinx tilted her head in confusion.
"Dies?"

Piper, despite being oh-so obviously embarrassed by her, explained to her how Nico was captured by the giants. He has only five days left thanks to Persephone's seeds, other than that he's dead meat.

Literally... the giants'll probably eat him.
Leo shook away the thought.

"So now it's only more set in stone, we've got to save him." Hazel said, staring at Leo and Jason, daring them to make a comment like they did this morning.

A lot had happened this morning, Leo noted.

"This is Buford." He announced. After much planning and decision making, the seven decided to set sail to Charleston and leave a decoy for the Romans that were on their trail.

"You name your furniture?" Frank asked.

"You wish you had furniture this cool."

Jinx stared at it, unimpressed. "It's a three legged table."

"Correct." Leo patted the table, "Buford, are you ready for Operation End Table?"

The table responded to the name, splitting into four and growing wooden blades.

"A helicopter table. That's cool." Percy admitted.

Jinx looked at the bag it carried as it flew away. "What's in the bag?"

Leo felt a small smile creep up, willing himself to keep a neutral look. "Dirty demigod laundry." He looked to Frank, "hope you don't mind, Frank."

Frank's gaze went back to the helicopter table, "what?"

"It'll throw the eagles off our scent."

Leo watched as Jinx nodded, muttering, "that's pretty smart."

"Those were my only extra pants!" He wailed.

Leo told him that they'd hopefully be laundered and folded on its trip. He then gave everyone a grin, "I call that a good day's work. I'm gonna calculate our detour route now. See you all at dinner!"

Jinx awkwardly sat at the head table in the mess hall. The faun had insisted on keeping her in his watch, threatening her every time she shifted.

"I'm watching you, cupcake. Don't think for a second that-"

"Coach, a match is starting right now!" Hazel said as she walked into the room.

She gave Jinx a wink, settling to the chair next to her. Coach gave her a hesitant look, but Hazel shooed him away.
"I'll watch her, don't worry."