BACK AT CABIN ELEVEN, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for dinner. For the first time, Percy noticed that a lot of the campers had similar features; sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. They were the kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers. 

Luke walked over to Percy, who was sitting on the floor with his Minotaur horn. He had the Hermes family resemblance, too. It was marred by that scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact, "Found you a sleeping bag," he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store."

Percy couldn't tell if he was kidding about the stealing part. "Thanks." He said,

"No prob." Luke sat next to Percy and pushed his back against the wall. "Tough first day?"

"I don't belong here," Percy answered, looking down at his shoes, "I don't even believe in gods."

"Yeah," Luke responded, understanding how the kid felt, "That's how we all started. And once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier."

The bitterness in his voice surprised Percy because Luke seemed like a pretty easygoing guy. He looked like he could handle just about anything, "So... your dad is Hermes?" He asked.

Luke pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and he scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. "Yeah. Hermes."

"The wing-footed messenger guy." 

"That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying Cabin Eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors." Luke explained and Percy figured that he didn't mean to call him a nobody. He just had a lot on his mind.

"You ever meet your dad?" Percy asked.

"Once." The younger boy waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell him, he'd tell him. Apparently, he didn't. Percy wondered if the story had anything to do with how he got his scar.

Luke looked up and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, Percy. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other. "

He seemed to understand how lost Percy felt, and he was grateful for that, because an older guy like him, even if he was a counselor, should've steered clear of an uncool middle-schooler like Percy. But Luke had welcomed him into the cabin. He'd even stolen Percy some toiletries, which was one of the nicest things anybody had done for him all day, besides Selena keeping him company and showing him around.

Percy decided to ask him his last big question, the one that had been bothering him all afternoon. "Clarisse, from the Ares cabin, was joking about me being 'Big Three' material. Then Selena. She said I might be 'the one.' What was that all about?"

Luke folded his knife. "I hate prophecies." He growled,

"What do you mean?" Percy asked, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion,

His face twitched around the scar. "Let's just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests. Selena and Annabeth been dying to get out into the world, away from middle schools with other demi-god children. They pestered Chiron so much he finally told them he already knew their fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn't tell them the whole thing, but he said Selena and Annabeth weren't destined to go on a quest yet. They had to wait until... somebody special came to the camp."

"Somebody special?" Was he the special somebody the Oracle was talking about? That Selena and Annabeth were waiting for? He couldn't be, he was just a kid.

"Don't worry about it, kid," Luke said, nudging him, "Selena wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she's been waiting for. Now, come on, it's dinnertime. "

The moment he said it, a horn blew in the distance, "Eleven, fall in!" Luke yelled,

The whole cabin, about twenty of them, filed into the commons yard. They lined up in order of seniority, so of course, Percy was dead last. Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and Cabin Eight, which had looked normal in the daytime but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down.

They marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined them from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods- and when I say out of the woods, I mean straight out of the woods. Percy saw one girl, about nine or ten years old, melt from the side of a maple tree and come skipping up the hill.

In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads. All going towards the pavilion for dinner.

AT THE PAVILLION, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. 

Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but Cabin Eleven's was way overcrowded. Selena laughed when Percy had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench with half of his butt hanging off.

She was freshly showered and changed into a new pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. Her dark brown hair was still damp and stuck to her clothing, but at least she didn't smell anymore.

Selena smiled at Percy before looking around at her friends and fellow campers. Grover was sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and Castor and Pollux. Chiron stood to one side, since the picnic table is way too small for a centaur.

Annabeth sat at Table Six with all of her blonde siblings, who all were reading or going over war plans at the table,

Clarisse sat behind their table at the Ares's table. She'd apparently gotten over being hosed down because she was laughing and belching right alongside her siblings.

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

Everybody else raised their glasses, except Percy. Selena nudged him in the side and he almost fell off before quickly stabilising himself and grabbing his cup and following suit, "To the gods!"

Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food; grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue! Percy stared into his empty glass and Selena leaned over to speak to him, "Speak to it. Whatever you want, nonalcoholic, of course. Trust me, I've tried to get something stronger before, it doesn't work."

Percy looked at her skeptically before glancing back at his glass, "Cherry Coke." The glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid. He smiled before speaking again, "Blue Cherry Coke." The soda turned a violent shade of cobalt and Selena's eyes widened, why didn't she think if that? She watched as Percy took a drink of the blue liquid before staring at the drink sadly.

"Here you go, Percy," Luke offered from the other side of Selena, handing Percy a platter of smoked brisket.

Percy loaded his plate and was about to take a big bite when Selena stopped him. Everyone got up and began making their way towards the center of the pavilion, "Come on." She urged.

As Percy got closer, he saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest strawberry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll. Selena murmured in his ear, "Burnt offerings for the Gods. They like the smell."

He shivered before glancing over at her, "You're kidding." Her look warned him not to take this lightly, but Percy couldn't help wondering why an immortal, all-powerful being would like the smell of burning food.

Percy and Selena watched as Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes."

Selena was next and tossed a large, dark red apple, "To whoever is up there listening." She muttered but no one heard her.

When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for the campers' attention.

Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin Five presently holds the laurels."

A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table and Selena rolled her eyes. "Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson."

Selena choked on her drink and looked up to see Chiron saying something to Mr. D, "Er, Percy Jackson," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."

Everybody cheered. Selena linked her arm with Percy's and they all headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along. They sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around.

Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and everyone filed back to their cabins. Selena laid in her bed, and she rolled over to see Percy staring up at the ceiling.

"Goodnight, Percy." She whispered.

She wanted to make sure he wasn't alone. He may be confused about where he fit into all of this, but she was going to help him.

Whether he was the chosen one or not.

"Goodnight, Selena."