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Lou Ellen Blackstone fucked up. At least she was self-conscious enough to notice that fact.
Her potion she was attempting to brew was all wrong; the instructions said it should be clear as crystal with wisps of smoke emitting in coils. But instead, she was left with this pale green goop that drew squiggles in the air like a child. She tried to think back on what she did, but found herself coming up short.
The original potion had been a play on Amortentia. Lou Ellen had seen it in her potions book and immediately set forth making it, pretending Horace Slughorn was watching over her with keen eyes. It wouldn't make anyone fall in love—Lou Ellen thought those were immoral—but rather just highlight what the smeller loves the most. She had always wondered what it would smell like to her; her father's cologne, maybe? Or a campfire? Or maybe the distinct flowery smell of Billie Ng, a girl Lou Ellen was hopelessly crushing on? Looking back, maybe Lou Ellen's excitement was what caused the potion to go awry.
This green monstrosity smelt of nothing. No cologne, no campfire, no flowers. There wasn't even the acrid smell of burnt umber that normally emitted from a bad potion. The air was normal, just as it would've been if there were no magic.
She ladled the potion into a bottle—she was planning on bringing it to Pollux, who normally helped her dispose of her gone-wrong potions—grabbing a cork stopper on her end table. Just as she put the stopper in the bottle, the door swung open to reveal Cecil Markowitz.
"Oh, Lou!" he sang, skipping into the dark interior of the Hecate Cabin. "Love of my life? Where art thou?"
Lou Ellen grinned. "Here we go again."
Cecil gasped, putting his hand on his forehead as though feeling faint. "How you wound me."
"I could do worse," Lou said as she raised the bottle in her hand, as if in toast to her words.
"You're the worst." Cecil's eyes landed on the bottle, taking in the slight green hue that was prominent through the clear glass. "What's that?"
"A failed potion," Lou Ellen said. "I'm going to take it to Pollux so we can dispose of it properly."
"May I?" Cecil grabbed the bottle before she could answer, making his words fruitless. "It looks like that juice you love to drink."
It did, in some convoluted way, look like her favorite drink—Green Machine, it was called.
"Yeah, I guess."
Cecil grabbed the cork and twisted, popping it open. A normal person would need a corkscrew, but Cecil was the son of Hermes. If there was anything closed in front of him, he could open it.
"Idiot," Lou Ellen scolded. "Now I need to recork it." She turned to go grab a second cork, just in case Cecil had damaged the first one.
It took a minute to realize that Cecil wasn't answering, something abnormal. She frowned, turning around to see a very red Cecil. His normal elfish grin was gone, and the tips of his slightly pointed ears were beetroot.
"Cecil?"
He cleared his throat, shifting around uncomfortably. "Say, you wouldn't happen to know where Ellis is, would you?"
"Wakefield? You hate Ellis Wakefield."
Cecil, somehow, turned more red. "I have to go." He handed Lou Ellen the potion bottle like it was toxic, eager to rid it from his hands.
"He's probably in the Arena!" Lou Ellen called after him.
That was weird. But, Cecil was a weird guy. He liked dung beetles and playing hopscotch over lava. He liked trying Lou Ellen's potions and pissing people off. He liked talking and making people blush.
But Lou Ellen couldn't even count the amount of times he blushed himself. Maybe her potion wasn't as broken as she thought?
She put the cork back in and pocketed it, deciding to go and find out what the hell happened to Cecil.
She didn't get far; on the obsidian steps to her cabin stood a confused Will Solace.
"Hey, Will!"
"Did you cast a spell on Cecil?" he asked, glancing behind him in the direction Cecil ran off in. "He looked uncomfortable."
"It was the weirdest thing," Lou Ellen lamented. "So, I was brewing this potion, and it went all wrong, so I bottled it up to bring it to Pollux. Cecil came, uncorked it, and then turned beetroot and ran off asking for Ellis Wakefield."
"Ellis?" Will frowned. "I thought Cecil hated Ellis."
"I thought so too."
Will looked at her belt, where the greenish hue glittered in the sunlight. "Is that it?"
Lou Ellen grabbed it, and held it up to her eye level. Will, who was a good deal taller than her, had to look down. "Yeah."
"What was it supposed to be?"
"Amortentia."
"The love potion?" Will's eyes widened.
"Sort of." Lou Ellen put the bottle back in its hook. "It's supposed to just smell like what a person loves, to bring it to light, you know?"
"What does it smell like now?"
"Nothing!" screeched Lou Ellen. "It didn't even work on me. It was like it wasn't there! Here, smell!" Lou shoved the bottle in Will's direction, forcing him to grab it, before passing him a corkscrew.
Will opened it, holding up just below his nose. "Lou…" Will whispered, after a moment. He took a deep breath before passing it back.
"What?" Lou sniffed the potion, and again, nothing happened. "It's not doing anything!" She recorked it, and shoved it back in its holder.
Will looked ready to fight that when there was a soft pop by their side, and materializing in the shadow was Nico di Angelo. Nico looked positively giddy, so much so that even shadow traveling, which normally made him tired, didn't deter his mood.
"Nico? What —"
Before Lou Ellen finished her question, Will surged forward, pressing his lips against Nico's. He attempted to deepen the kiss, but Nico pulled back, a confused look on his face.
"What was that for?"
"Can't a guy kiss his boyfriend?"
"Normally you don't kiss me in public." Nico glanced over to Lou Ellen. "Did you do something?"
"When do I ever?" Lou Ellen retorted.
Will raised an eyebrow as he wrapped his arms around his boyfriend's torso "You don't want me to answer that."
"Is this the same reason Cecil is making out with Ellis Wakefield?"
"He's what?" Lou Ellen screeched. "What the actual fuck?"
"He came to the Arena and basically cornered Ellis, saying that he really wanted to kiss him."
"Any love confessions?" Lou Ellen questioned.
"No, just that he wanted to kiss him."
Will leaned down and pressed a kiss to Nico's collarbone. "Kissing doesn't seem like a bad idea, darlin'."
Nico shifted. "She did drug you!"
"I smelt it too, and nothing happened to me!" Lou Ellen cried. "Will, how do you feel?"
Will paused, resting his chin on Nico's shoulder. "Normal, mainly." He paused to press another light kiss on Nico's collarbone. "Except I want to kiss Nico more than usual."
"Why is Cecil with Ellis then?" questioned Lou Ellen, mostly to herself. "It makes sense that Will's attached to Nico, but what about Cecil?"
"Cecil likes Ellis." Nico stated.
Even Will, in his enamored state, widened his eyes in confusion. "What was that, darlin'?" he asked.
"Cecil likes Ellis?" Nico looked between the two, a difficult task with Will attached to him like a leech. "Yeah, it's obvious."
"He hates Ellis!" Lou Ellen stated.
"That's the oldest trick in the book, Lou, pretending you hate your crush." Nico raised an eyebrow. "Why do you think I bully Will all the time?"
"Because he likes me," Will sang.
Nico's cheeks darkened, but he stood his ground. "Maybe it only works on boys?"
"Imagine finding out your trans from a potion?" Will pondered.
"Not now, you idiot." Nico scolded.
"Awe, babe!"
"No, that can't be it," Lou said. "That's not possible."
"It's magic," Nico stated firmly. "Maybe you should test it?"
It was not the just boys theory. Nor was it the attracted to boys theory that went through her head. Kayla had volunteered to help her test that after seeing her older brother try (and fail) to attach himself to Nico like a barnacle. Cecil wasn't fairing much better—Lou Ellen had informed him and Ellis of the suspected side effects of the potion, but he still clung to the son of Ares. He claimed it made him feel better.
"You don't feel anything weird," Lou Ellen had questioned Kayla after the daughter of Apollo uncorked the bottle. "Do you?"
Lou Ellen felt her heart shatter when Kayla admitted her desire for Nyssa Barrera had increased by tenfold. It wasn't the potion that was broken, she was broken. Which was how she ended up outside Cabin 12, the bottle of sickly green between her fingers the way someone would hold a dirty sock.
Pollux opened the door, shying as he leaned against the frame. "Potion gone wrong?"
"Cecil, Will, and Kayla are all falling at their crushes' feet."
Pollux scrunched his nose. "Come in." He took the vial and put it on a small side table filled with empty wine glasses. "You didn't smell it?"
The question brought to light all Lou Ellen's insecurities and she couldn't take it. She started to cry. It was slow at first, a single sliver of a tear down her cheek. "I did, it smelt like nothing to me."
Pollux gave her a sympathetic look, but instead of comforting her, he went and grabbed a book off of a shelf. "Do you have a crush right now? Maybe that's why?"
"I do!" she cried. "But I don't feel like I have to kiss her now! It's airborne, it should work on me too!"
"I don't know why you're upset about that." Pollux propped the book next to the bottle. "Why would you want to get cursed?"
"It's the principle," whispered Lou Ellen as Pollux flipped open the atlas and began to search for anything that could help. "I thought the potion was incorrect, but then Cecil's all over Ellis, Will's more attached to Nico than usual, and Kayla's obsessed with the idea of kissing Nyssa. So, maybe it's me that's wrong." The last statement came out choked.
"I doubt that," Pollux mumbled. "Wait! I found something that looks like it!"
Lou Ellen furiously whipped away her tears rushing over to the little side table to kneel next to Pollux. The picture his finger was on was identical to the green liquid in front of them.
"Sexual Attraction Enhancing Potion?" Lou Ellen sniffled out.
"This has got to be it," Pollux said as he read on. "All the symptoms are identical to the way Cecil, Will, and Kayla are acting."
"But what about me? Shouldn't I be stuck to Billie?" She was too distraught to realize she just admitted her crush to the son of Dionysus. "I like her, I know I do! I want to go on dates with her to go strawberry picking and dance in the rain and give her a kiss goodnight as we part ways."
"What about sex?"
"What the fuck, Pollux?"
"Do you want to fuck her?"
Lou Ellen actually pondered that. Now that she thought of it, she realized that it never once crossed her mind. The idea wasn't repulsive, per say, but not something she'd actively seek out. "I mean, if we were together and she wanted to, why the hell not? But, I'd rather just go on dates."
"What about anyone else? A celebrity maybe?"
"I'm not sexualizing people," Lou Ellen said aghast. "I don't imagine having sex with people in general."
"There's your answer." Pollux shut the book with a slam to accentuate his point. "You're probably somewhere on the ace spectrum."
Lou Ellen knew of the ace spectrum, of course, but she never thought about it in terms of herself. For Hecate's sake, she had crushes, she couldn't be not attracted to people. But, everything Pollux said was lining up.
"But, Billie?" Lou Ellen tried to refute.
"You're probably just romantically attracted to her."
"I've got to go."
Lou Ellen didn't have the brain power to think of that right now.
She didn't hear Pollux calling after her about the antidote.
She locked herself in Cabin 20. Her half-siblings, bless their hearts, brought her food after meals. Pollux had given Cecil, Will, and Kayla an antidote he made at dinner that night, so at least her friends weren't aggressively falling at their partner's whims. Cecil and Ellis actually got together after the whole fiasco, as did Kayla and Nyssa, but Lou Ellen couldn't find it in herself to feel happy for them. Call her heartless, she couldn't give a shit.
They had tried to come talk to her, individually and together, but she avoided them like the plague until they left. She had her siblings give them false cheery letters to say that she was safe and healthy and eating and prayed to all the gods that they'd listen.
On day three, the gods decided to ignore them.
Will marched into the Hecate Cabin, a set expression on his face, his bright orange t-shirt and cargo shorts oddly intimidating. Cecil wasn't far behind.
"Lou, we need to talk." Will said sternly.
Lou Ellen looked up from where she laid on her bed. "Go away, William."
"No," he charged forward, plopping himself on the foot of her bed. "If you don't want to talk right now, fine, but I have things to say."
"When do you not?" Cecil mumbled under his breath as he sat by Lou Ellen's head, his fingers finding his way to his hair.
"Like you're one to talk," Will spat back.
Lou Ellen swatted at Cecil's hand. "What do you two want?"
"We don't blame you, you know?" Will began. "You didn't know what potion you had accidently brewed."
"And if anything it's my fault," Cecil added.
"I know that," Lou Ellen said. "Cecil's known for mucking things up."
"Hey!"
"I'm not avoiding you." Lou Ellen realized that was probably a stupid thing to say after it left her mouth. She had been hiding in her room the last three days. "I'm not mad at you, and I know you're not mad at me."
"Could've fooled us," Will said.
"I'm not," Lou Ellen insisted. "I'm just not feeling good."
"Then you should've come to me!" Will exclaimed, "I could've helped."
"Not physically, Will," Lou Ellen stated. "Mentally."
Cecil linked his arms under hers and pulled her into an awkward embrace. "We're always here for you, you know?"
Lou Ellen could feel the tears coming, and just as that dam broke, the one holding back her words broke too. "The potion turned out to be a sexual attraction enhancing potion, and Pollux thinks the only reason I'm not affected is that I'm on the asexual spectrum."
"Oh, Lou." Will rubbed his hand up and down her calf. "You know, being on the ace spectrum isn't a bad thing?"
"But now Billie won't like me!"
"Did Billie say that?" Cecil's words were tough as stone. "I'll beat that Demeter girl up."
"She didn't have to! What person wants a broken partner?"
Will gave her a comforting squeeze on her thigh. "Lou, you're not broken."
Lou Ellen couldn't get out any more words as the sobs took over.
Neither Will nor Cecil said anything. They just let her cry.
It wasn't immediate.
Lou Ellen was in denial for a while longer, thinking the uncanny relation between her own feelings and those on the asexual books Will had inconspicuously borrowed from Austin were coincidences. But, after months and months of pondering, she could no longer deny the obvious.
She was asexual.
The first time she said it outloud, Will legitimately had started crying tears of pride. An embrace had never felt so warm.
A month after that, Billie Ng had approached her with a bouquet of the finest flowers, grown by her own hand. Lou Ellen grinned and accepted, and gave Billie a peck on the lips, just as she had imagined many times before.
"I have to tell you something," Lou Ellen said during a date with Billie, one where the two had just picked strawberries (another thing she had long dreamed about). "I'm asexual."
Billie gave her a grin, teeth stained with strawberries. "That's fine."
Lou Ellen giggled. "I love you."
"I loved you too."
Maybe she wasn't fucked up after all.