Annie and I conversed quietly about our mother (she brought it up) and how we could leave camp since the Underworld should exist; a conch shell blew in the distance. I wasn't sure how I knew it was a conch shell since I never heard one before.

"Eleven fall in!" ordered Luke.

Our cabin-mates lined up.

"Order of seniority," said Luke to Annie and me.

I let Annie go ahead of me since she gotten into the camp before me.

We left the cabin, and marched to the pavilion.

Satyrs came out of the meadow, Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake, and a few wood nymphs came out of the trees.

There were probably about a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen or so of wood nymphs and naiads in total.

There were torches blazing around the marble columns while a central fire burned in a bronze brazier that was the size of a bathtub. I hoped that no one was going to get pushed into it.

It looked like each cabin had its own table with white tablecloth trimmed in purple.

Four of the tables were empty, which actually looked sad. I assume it was for Hera, Zeus, Poseidon, and Artemis.

I felt bad for Hades, who didn't even have a cabin and a table. It just seemed wrong.

Even if your family were creepy, they were still family and deserved to be treated with respect; unless they committed crimes against children or murdered someone, then they deserved scorn and misery. But Hades didn't seem all that bad, even if he ruled the underworld.

I'm sorry for your poor treatment, Hades, I mentally apologized to him.

Cabin Eleven was so packed; I practically had to sit half on Annie's lap and half on the bench.

Annabeth was sitting at Table Six with a bunch of athletic kids, all who shared her blond hair. Johanna was there too.

Mr. D was sitting at Table Twelve with two twin boys who seemed plump. Chiron was standing off to the side.

Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor and everybody fell silent. Chiron raised a glass, "To the gods!"

Annie and I grabbed glassed and raised it, "To the gods!"

Annie and I were the ones who finished at the last second.

Wood nymphs came forwards with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and something that looked like meatballs with rice.

"Its soutzoukakia," said Nick.

As hungry as I was, I almost didn't want to eat the food that I couldn't spell, let alone say.

Drinks started appearing in glasses and I looked at mine.

"Speak to it, it'll give you anything you want, as long as it's nonalcoholic," Nick said.

I looked at my cup and got Pepsi Wildcherry. I got my plate and before I could fork a meatball, I saw that others getting up.

"Come on you two," said Luke.

We followed after him; the others were actually dropping pieces of their food in the fire.

"Hermes," said Luke tossing in some strawberries. He didn't sound like he appreciated it much.

Fantastic, I had to sacrifice my food.

"To our dad, whoever he is," Annie said scraping in rice.

To Hades, I thought, tossing in some meatballs.

I wasn't entirely sure I wanted Hades to be our dad, but I felt like even he needed some appreciation from time-to-time. Maybe if he thought I appreciated him, he'll allow me to take our mother from the Underworld.

We sat down at the table and started eating.

When everyone was done eating, Chiron pounded his hoof once again.

Mr. D heaved a huge sigh as he stood up, "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. I should yell you that we have two new campers today: Abby and Adele Johnston."

Chiron murmured something.

"Er, Annie and Addie Jackson," said Mr. D. "That's right, hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire."

We headed down toward the amphitheater.

Apollo's kids lead a sing-along.

Corey and Nick were sitting together, murmuring to themselves. They seemed distracted by something in the sky.

I glanced at the sky. It looked like there were falling stars. It was a little unsettling.

Nick seemed very uneasy at the sight.

"This isn't good," said Johanna, causing me to turn to look at her.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"It's just a feeling," said Johanna.

Chiron stomped his foot on the stone and I whipped my head over to him. He was looking at Nick and I looked back, seeing that a halo of stars around Nick's head was disappearing.

"It is determined for Nick Pearson," Chiron announced.

People started kneeling, so Annie and I did too.

"Asteria, Titaness of nocturnal prophecy, falling stars, and necromancy," declared Chiron. "Hail Nicholas Pearson, Son of Asteria."

The only problem was where the hell was Nick going to go? There was no cabin here for Asteria.

"Well, where is he going to go?" asked Corey.

"We'll take him in," declared an older Apollo girl. She was probably around sixteen. "As co-counselor of Cabin 7, I volunteer to take him in."

A boy maybe a little younger than the Apollo girl stood up. "As counselor, I agree that we will take him in."

"Thank you, Lee," replied the girl.

I tried to remember the myth of Asteria, but I couldn't remember. I think she was the one I kept getting mixed up with Astraeus.

Nick agreed to stay with the Apollo kids.

"What do you know about Asteria?" I asked Johanna.

"She had one child, Hecate," said Johann. "Zeus chased her and she turned into a quail and dove into the ocean to get away. She produced the island, Delos. Asteria's sister, Leto, later gave birth to Apollo and Artemis on that very island."

"Well, that explains why Apollo's kids decided to take him in," Annie said.

"Yeah," I agreed.

As I lay in my sleeping, I thought about today. It was my first day here at Camp Half-Blood. I fought with a sword, I watched someone get claimed, especially after he waited for a year, and I sacrificed my dinner.

I needed a plan to rescue Mom.

What was it that Luke said? That you needed a quest to leave camp? That you needed Chiron or Mr. D's permission to leave camp?

I had to speak to Chiron about getting a quest to leave camp.