I apologize for this chapter, it's mainly just a mix of stuff in order to put another chapter in while my brain is thinking up plot ideas that fill in from now until the very end of the story (there's a lot to go).

Over the next few weeks, which were as ordinary as they possibly could be at a camp for demigods, I mastered the crystal balls and had moved onto preparing myself for when the spirit of the Oracle would officially reside within me (as weird as that sounds). Rachel had said that it was vitally important for me to learn what to expect so I could prepare myself, otherwise "you might just do what I did and almost die in front of the whole camp plus a god or two please don't do that you'll regret it the rest of your (possibly quite short) life".

After the increasingly longer and more extensive lessons with Rachel, I always had the rest of my activities with Gopher, Matt, and the rest of the Athena cabin. I loved Ancient Greek and Greek Mythology (taught by Annabeth and Chiron), hated Arts & Crafts (as expected) and climbing the lava-rock-obstacle wall (also expected; as a lifelong member of the Extreme Acrophobia Club, climbing mixed with certain death was not my idea of fun), and managed to marginally improve in Archery. Volleyball was one of the more enjoyable activities, along with unarmed combat, but I avoided capture the flag (since I couldn't be revived with nectar and ambrosia like the other campers) and wrestling (Clarisse continually pestered me to join in but after one hour-long session of getting pummeled into the earth I decided I had had enough).

I also managed to befriend the entirety of the Athena, Hephaestus, Zeus, and Demeter cabins. I had also befriended most of the Poseidon (had only met Tyson briefly but he had seemed to like me), Hades (hadn't had the chance to meet Hazel yet), Iris, Hermes, Hecate, and Apollo kids (because of the Oracle thing). I didn't get along real well with the Ares kids aside from Clarisse, the same for Nike. The Nemesis kids predictably hated me, but I was perfectly content with that because of how they have always treated Gopher. Surprisingly, I had several friends from the Aphrodite cabin including Drew (but not the rest of her paparazzi group, they've never forgive me for what I said that first week). Dionysus disliked me as he did every other camp personnel, but I greatly enjoyed talking to Hestia whenever she appeared to tend the fires. Hera was my least favorite (along with Zeus, but I tend to keep that one to myself), mainly because of what she's done to Annabeth, Percy, Jason, and Liz (just to name a few).

Before I knew it, Thanksgiving had descended upon us. Even though we didn't strictly celebrate the American holiday, many of us gathered together to celebrate and eat anyways. Rachel chose to remain at camp this year so she could continue teaching me. We had decided that if I chose to finish my eighth grade year at Gallagher (I still hadn't decided), it would be wise to get in all the instruction time we could. Matt went home for a few days to visit his parents and younger (mortal) siblings in Oregon, but Gopher always stayed at camp, for reasons neither she nor Matt would tell me. I was happy for the company, no matter the reason. Liz, Percy, Annabeth, Nico, and Leo went to Sally and Paul's in the city so Liz could look at a school for the spring semester (and to, you know, spend time with Sally and Paul). Jason and Piper went to Piper's dad's house in California for a while to visit him, Coach Hedge, Mellie, and Chuck.

Actual Thanksgiving Day had fallen on the 28th this year, so the Holiday Committee was a little stressed, having Thanksgiving and Black Friday, and then having to take those decorations down and put up the Christmas ones (along with Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and all the others) all on the 30th. That being said, the Thanksgiving decorations were still great, even better than they had the year before according to Gopher. There were elaborate hand-turkeys the Athena kids had made in Arts & Crafts, tons of cornucopias spread all around the camp courtesy of the Demeter cabin, there were many needed stolen goods randomly distributed thanks to Hermes, and period-correct magic weapons which the Hephaestus, Ares, and Hecate cabins made.

The meal was absolutely fantastic and had more than I could have ever imagined: a turkey turkey, a tofu turkey, three different types of stuffing, two different types of potatoes and five boats of gravy, squash, sweet potato, yams, four salads, various types of cookies, a few cheesecakes, and a total of fifteen pies (pumpkin - of course - apple, cherry, chocolate, blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, walnut, coconut cream, key lime, lemon meringue, peach, rhubarb, strawberry, sweet potato). They had ALL the pies. Everyone ate more than they had thought possible, and I had to restrain myself from getting seconds of everything. I did try every option and I didn't think this could happen, but by the end of it I was pretty sick of food. I could tell Gopher was too, so we ended up rolling away from the pavilion to lay on the beach, as it was an extraordinarily pleasant night for late November.

But while still present at the table with most of the other campers (there were a lot - hence, all the food), I experienced one of the happiest times of my (remembered) life. I'm not really sure what it was, other than no one judged anyone else, even if on any other day you could always be found throwing insults or spears at one another, and that no matter how different we were individually, we all had some common experiences that we were able to relate to. 

There was Jake (Ares) who had five younger step-siblings who he had to constantly watch over, Tanya (Hermes) with her constant and severe stagefright, and even Drew, who we all found out, much to our amusement, once tripped in front of her entire middle school during an assembly. Gopher told us how she once tried climbing the rock wall her first week here and nearly died (everyone around the table nodded in agreement, I guess that's a common occurrence here), while Sammy (Iris) recalled the story of their friend getting sick in the middle of a test, at the same time Will Solace made everyone laugh with the story of the final battle against Gaea (and the Romans) with Lou Ellen and the screeching piglets.

While talking to Gopher, I explained the Gallagher Academy and everything that had to do with it, including Alex, the masquerade ball, the teachers and classes, even how it was a spy school (maybe I shouldn't have, but I felt that if I was going to go there in a month she'd probably want some details). I also explained how I was still thinking about whether or not I wanted to go back to school next fall or continue my training here with Rachel and the rest of the camp. She looked down when I mentioned going away, so I switched the topic back to funny, stupid stories of me making a general idiot of myself (I'm never on a short supply).

She in return told me about the time she met Matt. Apparently it was a couple weeks after she had run away (she clammed up when I asked her why, so I let it be) when he appeared overnight. She was just beginning to feel uncomfortable in the Nemesis cabin with her half-siblings, so she was spending more and more time away from them. It was early in the morning, 6ish she remembered, practicing archery with the targets. Now she's quite good presently, but at the time she was rivaling me for ability (or lack thereof). She was struggling and getting quite frustrated, when a "scrawny kid with long blonde hair decided to show me up," she recalled. He took the bow laying next to her, aimed at his target and hit an inch off of the bulls-eye, hardly even taking aim.

"And you know what this little prat did? After humiliating me in front of the whole world [she exaggerates sometimes, can't you tell?], he sticks out his hand and says 'Matt Brown. Nice to meet you.' Instead of shaking his hand like I probably should have, I took my bow and the arrow I was holding and tried to shoot his hand. I say tried because I missed, which just made him laugh and kinda defeated the purpose a little bit, the purpose being to intimidate him with my super-awesomeness."

Tears were rolling down my cheeks by the time she had finished her dramatic reenactment. Struggling to catch my breath, I managed to say, "Well that sounds like something you'd do, so I can't say I'm surprised."

"Oh and don't get me started," she replied, "about your first few days here, Newbie."

"Oh gods, don't remind me," I groaned, covering my rapidly reddening face with my hands, but not before delivering an elbow to her gut in response for the nickname. "That was awful." Quick to change the subject, I asked, "Are you doing anything for tomorrow? Black Friday, and everything."

"Gods no! I hate shopping in absolutely every single form."

"Same here! I'm actually a little glad Rachel is making me spend all day in 'preparation mode' lessons."

"Well then, I might have to sneak out alone so I can buy everyone presents."

"Presents! I totally forgot about those! Maybe I can convince Rachel to let me out for an hour or two..."

"Better make it five, Newbie, those stores are always more crowded than anything you've ever imagined."

This time I merely sighed in response to the name she has committed to calling me, as well as the knowledge that I was going to have to spend several hours in a store (which I already hated the thought of) with a couple hundred people, which made it all the more unappealing. "You know what, let's just wait a week or so, then the stores won't be as crowded."

"Sure, but that still leaves the dilemma of what I'll do all day while you're being held hostage in the cave."

"Well unless you'd like me to die when it comes time for me to actually be Oracle, I think you'll want me to continue with these lessons."

"I guess that's true. Doesn't mean I'll enjoy it though."

"Neither will I," I replied, laughing. "Wait, what time is it? Do we need to get back to the cabin?"

"You're the one with the watch, Newbie, don't ask me."

"Oh right. It's 11:30, we should probably head back."

"Nah, the harpies don't bother us on holidays. Besides, no one ever comes to this part of the beach. We can stay here for a little while longer." And so we stayed out there for another hour...or maybe 2...or 5. We must have fallen asleep because the next thing I remembered was being shaken awake by Rachel and feeling extremely cold.