Sylvia shot out of her bed, barely taking in the sunlight filtering in through the windows (hi, Dad), showing it was around 7:02 A.M. (It's a gift children of Apollo have. Don't ask.)

Ceol? The girl--sounded familiar. Heracles? Why could I only hear them, not see them? Was that a normal dream, or a demigod dream?

She shook her head to clear her thoughts. "Morning, everyone," she greeted, walking over to each bunk and ripping off the blankets like the evil sister she was (actually, it was just a job Lee had given her, since she was usually the first awake).

Speaking of Lee, he groaned, squinted his eyes at the nonexistant harsh light, and pulled his blanket back over his head. "I really regret giving you that job," he muttered.

"Love you too, Lee," Sylvia smiled at him. "Oi, Will, I see you trying to fall back asleep!"

"But I'm tiiiiiired," her eleven-year-old brother yawned. "It's not like anything important is supposed to happen today."

"Doesn't matter. We have master's archery this morning," she told him, and he perked up.

"Archery? D'you think I'll finally get a bullseye?" he asked.

"Maybe." Sylvia shrugged. "If you don't get up, though, we'll never know."

"Okay, fine," he grumbled. "You win, again."

"I always do. It's a child of Apollo thing." Sylvia winked at him.

"Then how come I always lose to you?"

"You're special that way," Sylvia informed him. "And I'm older."

"Only by four years!" he said as he half-fell, half-rolled off the bed, exasperated.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Sylvia winked at him, then walked over to the light switch, avoiding a few instruments strewn around the floor, and turned it on. Her only reward for braving the dangerous floor to provide her siblings with light was twin hisses of pain from Lee and Austin.

"Come on, you guys. Kayla agrees with me, right?" She turned to Kayla, whose bunk was the closest to the window, and sighed when she realized the ten-year-old had gone back to sleep.

Sylvia sighed in annoyance. "Do I have to play the Gummy Bear song again?" she asked.

"No! No! We're up!" Lee said quickly, jumping out of his bunk as Austin did the same.

"Good. Only took you seven years! Gods, I wish Michael was a year-round camper. He's much better at screaming in your guys' ears than I am," Sylvia remarked.

"And that's exactly why I'm glad he's not here," Kayla murmured in a raspy, tired voice.

"Morning, Kay," Sylvia greeted.

"Morning," she said back, her voice already sounding less tired.

Sylvia scanned the room, noting the instruments, sheet music, basketballs, and a few stray arrows on the floor. And the spearheads on the ugly white-and-pastel-yellow couch cushions, which were also on the floor. Those definitely weren't safe.

"I'm gonna have a shower and get ready. After that, we should probably clean up the room before inspections," Sylvia told them, heading towards the bright white bathroom door and turning the golden knob.

"Sometimes I forget you're not the head counselor here," Lee remarked. "I have a feeling you do, too."

"I'm second-in-command, which is close enough,"Sylvia reminded him before closing the door.

***

"Hey, Via?" Lee called to Sylvia, who was currently at the basketball court. It was a little later in the day, around 11:26 now.

"Yeah?" she asked, passing the ball to Kayla and turning around to face Lee.

"There's a new Apollo camper here. Chiron asked me to show them around, but you're much better at it than I am." Lee smiled, his bright white teeth almost blinding Sylvia--and she wasn't even affected by bright lights.

"Sure. Where are they?" she asked.

"At the Big House," Lee told her, and she motioned for him to take her place in the team and ran towards the Big House.

"He--pant--hello, Chiron," Sylvia said, out of breath from running. "Lee said--pant--new camper?"

"Yes, Sylvia. They're right over there." He turned around and motioned towards a kid around ten years old with the trademark blonde Apollo child hair--although it had a few dark green streaks in it. Their hair had piecey bangs and stopped at their chin in a bob. They were wearing a dark blue shirt with the words "I Survived Ziplining in Costa Rica" in white print.

"Hello," Sylvia said. "I'm Sylvia, one of your half-sisters. What's your name?"

"I-I'm Lux," they said quietly, their voice sounding slightly...off-rhythm, which was strange for a child of Apollo, but Sylvia brushed the thought away guiltily, realizing it wasn't their fault they spoke like that. She realized a second later that they had a slight French accent in their words.

"Do you speak French?" she asked curiously.

"Y-yeah," they said. "I used-used to li-live in Quebec."

"I lived in France for a couple years," she told them. "English is actually my second language, although I use it more now, since only children of Aphrodite and two or three other people here know French."

"Coo-cool," Lux smiled up at her.

"But you didn't come here to talk about languages, did you? C'mon, I'll show you around," Sylvia said, reaching for their hand but stopping at the last minute, as if asking if she could or not. They responded by taking her hand in theirs.

She pointed out a few areas, like the lake and the forest, and stopped when they got to the basketball court, where Lee, Kayla, Austin, Will, Clarisse, and one of Clarisse's half-brothers, whose name was Alan Tyle, were still playing basketball. 

"That's the basketball court. Most of the people there are our siblings, except for the one with brown hair and the one with black hair. One of them is my sister, and the other is her brother." The confused expression on Lux's face made her laugh. "She's my sister on the mortal side. A daughter of Ares."

"Wait...so, your-yo-your mom...with two dif-different gods...I'm goi-going to stop talking now."

Sylvia laughed. "That was almost the exact same reaction I had. But she has no chance against Lee, Kayla, and Alan in this game. Lee and Kayla are two of our best basketball players--most Apollo kids are really good at basketball--and Alan is very violent, but makes sure to stick to the rules of the game. He'll find a way to hurt her but not get a foul."

"Wow," Lux breathed. "Are there any-any other abi-abiliti-abilities children of Apollo have?"

"Yep. We each get a different way to curse people. Some of us curse others to only be able to talk in rhymes, some can give others sunburns, or mess up their sun tans, some can--although this is very rare--make others can symptoms of different diseases, sicknesses, or plagues for a bit, although it isn't contagious or anything and only lasts for a few days, the truth curse, where people are cursed to tell only the truth for a few minutes--though they can also just not answer the question, and my curse, which is the singing curse. For some reason, I'm the only person who's ever gotten the singing curse, for whatever reason. It makes people have to sing instead of talk."

"Whoa," Lux said.

"Most of us also have healing powers. We just sing a hymn to our dad, and people get healed. It doesn't always work, though. We also just are good with treating wounds and stuff in general. Most of us can sing and play instruments, and almost all of us are really good at archery--and just ranged things in general, hence why they're playing basketball right now. We can also always tell what time it is becaese of the position of the sun or moon. A few of us are good at poetry, but not many of us actually try it."

"I-I'm good at poe-poetry, according-according to my teachers," Lux murmured.

"I don't doubt it," Sylvia smiled at her. "Let's see, did I miss anything...Oh, yeah, we also can't get sunburnt and are usually naturally tan. And we only freckle if we want to."

Lux concentrated for a moment, and a few freckles appeared on their cheeks. "Cool. I always wanted fre-freckles."

"And, if you decide you don't want them later, you can just make them disappear," Sylvia informed them.

"Awesome."

Sylvia turned her attention back to the game, only to realize it was paused, as Lee seemed to be getting an I-M.

"And now someone is Iris-Messaging Lee. I'll show you how that works later."

"Chiron showed me alrea-already," Lux said.

"Great," Sylvia said. "Oh, hey, Lee's coming towards us."

"Hey again, Lux," Lee said, before turning to Sylvia. "You're in charge for a bit. My step-sister's sick with pneumonia. I want to see if I can help."

"Okay. Just make sure the mortal doctors don't get confused," she reminded him, and he nodded and headed in the direction of the Big House.

"Sorry, Lux, I might have to cut this short," Sylvia said regretfully. "Have to watch our siblings and stuff."

"It's okay, Sylveon--I mean Sylvia!" Lux said. "I'm so sorry, my mouth--sometimes I can't speak properly--it's a disorder, ac-actually, a-a-a-and--"

"It's okay, Lux," Sylvia reassured them. "Actually, if you want to call me Sylveon, I'd like that. Kinda like the Pokemon."

"O-okay," Lux said.

"Here, if it's alright with you, I could get someone else to do the tour for me," Sylvia suggested.

"Sure...Sylveon," Lux smiled.

"Hey, Finn!" Sylvia called to her friend, Finn Nakamura, who happened to be walking by.

"Yeah?" fae asked, tilting faer head to the side, showing off faer curly, pastel blue hair.

"Can you show my new sibling, Lux, around? They just got here, but I need to watch my siblings," Sylvia said.

"Sure, Syl," fae said, smiling slightly. "Anything for you."

Sylvia grinned at faer, hoping her blush wasn't too prominent. "Perfect. See ya later--hey, Clarisse, you promised me you wouldn't put anyone in a headlock for a week! You owe me five drachmae!" She smiled apologetically at Lux and Finn, then took off towards Clarisse, hoping Alan wouldn't die before she got there.

Welp, that happened.

Sorry, this is unedited cuz of laziness. 

No QOTD for y'all cuz you already got one.

Anyways, what d'you think of Lux and Finn? Oh and Sylvia. Ig she exists. 

See y'all later

-Eevee