iv. APHRODITE GIVES HER KIDS FREE MAKEOVERS
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Sitting through another two hours of Ancient Greek linguistics and mythology made Gwen antsy. She felt bad for the poor satyr who had to spend an hour teaching roughly twenty hyperactive kids with the attention span of a goldfish about Herakles and his twelve labors.

One of the Stoll brothers sat down next to her. "You're Gwen, right?"

"Yeah," Gwen whispered. "What do you want?"

"My name's Connor," he said. "I got this for you."

He handed something small and shiny to her. She thought it might have been a drachma, but it was a pin. Her pin.

She glared at him as she pocketed it. "How did you get this?"

"Travis stole it," Connor replied, grinning. "I stole it back from him. Didn't want to be too mean to the newbie."

"When we get out of here, remind me to punch him," she muttered.

He laughed. "Gladly."

The satyr called them out for talking during a lesson, so they both shut up, but Gwen managed a grin. She hadn't been too sure about the Stolls at first, but they seemed like fun, as long as they didn't try robbing her again.

Actually, it was a wonder Travis didn't mess around with her pin and end up turning it back into that ball-and-chain.

As they walked back to the mess hall for lunch, Gwen made sure to punch Travis in the arm. He must have put two and two together, because he grinned and went to harass his brother for snitching. She could hear them bickering even when she ran ahead to join Luke at their table.

He was talking to an unfamiliar boy with blond hair. Judging by his blue shirt, he had to be new. That, or he didn't get the memo about the camp's uniform.

"Hey, Gwen." Luke smiled. "This is Drew. He's new to camp."

"That makes two of us," Gwen said. "Hi."

Drew managed a tiny wave. He looked pretty shaken up. She understood that, since he'd probably just found out that Greek gods and myths were real.

"I know you got here a few days ago," Luke said. "But you already know the ropes, so I thought it would be useful if you let him kind of... Tag along, you know? Be your shadow."

The last thing Gwen wanted was a kid following her around and copying her every move. She didn't exactly make the best decisions.

Most of the Hermes kids didn't say anything about Drew joining their table. They seemed to be used to their cabin being a revolving door for new kids. Gwen actively avoided looking anywhere near him. Just because she got stuck with him didn't mean she had to like him.

Mr. D introduced the new camper at the end of lunch, coincidentally without getting his name wrong. Most of the kids around them craned their necks to get a good look at Drew, who blushed furiously and waved again.

When they broke for afternoon activities, Drew walked alongside Gwen. She stared straight ahead, ignoring the way he kept trying to make eye contact.

"So... Who's your godly parent?" He asked.

She huffed. "I don't know. It's my third day."

Drew nodded. "Do you want anyone in particular?"

"No."

"Do you, um..." He froze under the look she gave him. "Do you have any guesses?"

Gwen shook her head. "Not really. Other than ruling out Mr. D and Apollo."

"I get Mr. D, but..." Drew frowned. "Why Apollo?"

"You don't want to see me with a bow and arrow," she muttered.

Drew laughed at that remark. Gwen did not.

When they got to the arena, Luke had begun handing out practice swords for the sword-fighting lesson that afternoon. While he fixed Drew up with a good sword, Gwen tried to sneak away from her shadow.

Sidling up to Cleo, she said, "So... Who's the instructor?"

"Luke," she answered. "He's the best swordsman camp has seen in centuries."

She said it like Gwen had just asked her a basic addition problem. Like everyone knew that Luke could dominate with a sword and shield. And maybe he could, but Gwen didn't know that.

Luke handed Gwen a sword. It felt heavy in her hands, but he assured her that she'd be fine. "That's what these lessons are for," he said, and grinned. "You have to get used to the feel of it before you start swinging it."

Gwen hefted the sword a few times and frowned. "Yeah, right."

"If you aren't sure, then why don't you practice with me?" He asked.

She didn't like that tone, or the mischievous smirk on his face. A smirk from a Hermes kid usually meant bad news. But she couldn't exactly back out, so she nodded and stepped into the center of the arena with him.

She didn't like how the other campers grinned at her, either. Nice, their grins seemed to say. We get to watch the new girl get pulverized.

Luke started by catching her up on the basic thrusts and parries. It didn't seem too bad. Gwen found jabbing a sword at someone to be a pretty easy maneuver.

Blocking with her shield took a little more coordination than she could offer. She usually couldn't raise her arm in time to block a strike, and Luke ended up whacking her in the ribs with the flat side of his blade.

"Sorry!" He'd say, grinning as he whacked her again. "C'mon, Gwen! What happened to those demigod reflexes?"

Eventually, he let her get one hit in― and she knew that he'd let her because he made a stupid mistake that mirrored hers. Once he called the match off, Gwen stepped away to grab a handful of ice from the drinks cooler.

Luke joined her. Of course. "You did a good job back there."

"Not really," Gwen said. She lifted her shirt just enough to hold an ice cube to her aching side. "You kicked my butt."

He rubbed his sore ribs. "You put a lot of force into that hit, though."

Gwen smiled to herself. "Yeah."

"Don't worry about it, okay?" He poured some ice water over his head and sighed. "Give it a few weeks."

"But I don't have a sword like you," she said, and motioned to the sword on his belt. "I have this."

She grabbed her pin and pushed the surface in, letting it morph into the weapon. Right after doing that, she realized that the arena had gone silent.

Whoops.

Luke carefully took the weapon from her. "You should talk to the Hephaestus kids. They'd have more advice for you."

"What?" Gwen frowned. "This came from my parents. I thought you'd know what to do with it."

He just shook his head. "Sorry, Gwen."

They didn't leave after the hour was up. Instead, a few kids started pulling out some mats, and within a few minutes, a new group of campers filed into the arena. They all looked rough and loud, and Gwen went back to Cleo.

"So...?" She motioned to the group of kids.

"Ares kids," Cleo said. "They always lead wrestling."

One of the girls, who looked to be roughly Gwen's age, had pulled her curly hair up into a bun and wrapped a bandanna around her head. It was the same ugly red color as the Ares cabin. Gwen got the feeling that these kids didn't mess around.

The head counselor of the Ares cabin split everyone into pairs, with some of the Hermes kids doubling up. Personally, Gwen felt like matching the Stolls up would end in disaster, but the head counselor scared her, so she didn't say anything about it.

She wished that she could have gotten paired up with a scrawny Hermes kid, but no, she got the scary girl with the curly hair and bandanna.

"Hey, newbie." The scary girl smirked. "You ready?"

"Ready to wipe that grin off your face, maybe," Gwen retorted.

Scary Girl wasn't smirking anymore. She stepped onto the mat and said, "I'd like to see you try."

Gwen had never wrestled anyone before. Yes, she'd gotten into fights during school, but they didn't help her at all. She couldn't exactly throw a punch if this girl had her pinned to the mat.

The Ares counselor gave some advice, but it didn't really do much. Scary Girl ground her face into the mat five times in the span of an hour.

Even worse, Drew was great at wrestling. He started out paired up with a Hermes boy who wore an eyepatch― which didn't really feel fair, since the kid had one eye― but he eventually worked his way up to wrestling the Ares boys, who were huge.

That just annoyed her. She didn't talk to him much as they left the arena. And his heavy breathing started ticking her off after a while, too.

They had an hour of free time before dinner, so Gwen made her way over to the forge. There had to be some Hephaestus kids there, right?

Beckendorf smiled when he saw her. "Hey, Gwen. How are you liking camp?"

"It's okay," she said. "I had a question."

"Fire away."

She pulled out her pin and activated it. Beckendorf's eyes practically lit up as he watched it transform into a weapon. He looked like a kid getting a puppy for Christmas.

"Can I hold it?" He asked.

Gwen shrugged. "Go ahead."

Beckendorf beamed as he took the weapon. He held it reverently, like an archaeologist might hold an ancient artifact― she thought about reminding him that it was bronze and pretty hard to break.

"Hang on," he said, and dashed into the back of the forge.

He returned with the head counselor of the Hephaestus Cabin, a super buff girl who introduced herself as Abby. She took the weapon, inspected it, and nodded.

"That's celestial bronze," she said. "Where'd you get this?"

"My birth parents," Gwen answered. "What's celestial bronze?"

Abby nodded to an eager Beckendorf, who said, "It's bronze that can wound or kill monsters and humans. Demigods included."

Gwen thought back to how cleanly the ball-and-chain had passed through Mrs. Giles's foot, and how she exploded into yellow dust. That sounded like a monster's death to her.

"Luke said he couldn't tell me anything about it," she added. "So... I came here."

"You said it was from your birth parents?" Abby nodded. "Are you claimed?"

Ouch. Gwen slowly shook her head.

Abby must have noticed the change in her mood, because she said, "That's fine. It's probably a gift from your godly parent, then."

"How long does it take to get claimed?" She asked.

"I got claimed pretty early on." Abby nudged Beckendorf. "Charlie got claimed at the end of last summer when he made Chameleon Armor."

Gwen stared at him. "Charlie?"

"It's my first name," he said sheepishly. "Don't stress about being claimed, Gwen. Just give it time."

Abby kept inspecting Gwen's pin-weapon. She really was a daughter of the god of craftsmen, because she figured out how to deactivate it in no time. But she kept frowning and mumbling to herself.

"Luke said he didn't have anything to tell you about this, right?" She asked.

"Uh-huh." Gwen paused. "What is it, by the way?"

"It's a flail." Abby shook her head. "Di immortales."

"You're freaking me out."

She just looked at Gwen. "These haven't been at camp in, like, ten years. Maybe more."

"So why do I have one?" She asked.

Abby turned the flail over in her hands again. "I wish I knew. Maybe your parent just made one for you. Maybe you're one of us― that's something Hephaestus would do for his kids."

"Why did they get discontinued?"

Grinning, Abby said, "The head counselor before me, Jack, was around when they got discontinued. He told me they're pretty hard to manage. I think Chiron got tired of kids winding up with concussions."

With that, she nudged Beckendorf. "Walk the lady back to her cabin, Charlie."

He grinned and jerked his head towards the door, and Gwen followed him back to the sunny stretch of land between the forge and the rows of cabins.

"So... How long have you been here?" She asked.

"It's my second year," Beckendorf said. "Really, Gwen, don't worry about the claiming thing. You'll know it when it happens."

"Why?"

He laughed. "Well, usually a glowing symbol appears over your head."

Gwen managed a smile. "So... I guess I'm not a Hephaestus kid. Everyone is ripped."

"I mean, not always―"

"You look like you should be in the WWE or something."

Beckendorf laughed. "I think I'm too young for that. I'm thirteen."

Her eyes just about popped out of her head. "You're what?"

"My mom said I was an early bloomer." He rubbed the back of his neck. "It's fine. You can be a child of Hephaestus and be small."

Gwen elbowed him. "Are you calling me small?"

She didn't actually take offense to that, because she was small. Sure, she was twelve and already five feet tall, but she got the feeling that she wouldn't be growing any more than that.

They held a volleyball tournament that night. Mr. D seemed happy to sit on the side of the sandpit and do nothing. Chiron became the referee― and also the go-to medic for when an Ares kid spiked the ball and accidentally (but probably intentionally) smacked their opponent in the head.

Gwen wished she was tall enough to do that. Luckily, Travis Stoll was tall, and he relished spiking the volleyball with as much force as he could― particularly against the Ares cabin.

Even with all the wily schemes that the Stolls planned, their cabin got eliminated. The final match came down to a competition between the Ares and Hephaestus kids. Gwen knew which side she would take.

And when the Hephaestus kids won, Gwen high-fived Beckendorf so hard that it left her palm red and tingling.

She went to sleep that night with Drew beside her. At least she got to get some satisfaction out of that kid having to sleep on the floor, too. But he also didn't complain, which annoyed her.

Luke promised to steal a sleeping bag for her in the morning, so she resigned herself to one more night using her hoodie as a blanket.

When she went to bed, Drew had turned away from her. When she woke up in the morning, he had curled up against her.

Actually, she woke up to the Stolls howling in laughter and saying how much they wished cameras worked at camp. And then she realized that the newbie had cuddled up to her in his sleep.

"Ew!" Gwen sat bolt upright and pushed Drew away from her. "Get off of me!"

She stormed out of the cabin to take a shower― and wash off any cooties he'd left behind. Not that she still thought that those existed. Behind her, she heard Drew hurriedly calling out, "Sorry! I'm sorry!"

If she hadn't been completely humiliated, she might have felt bad for him.

Luke had been laughing. He played it off pretty well, but she saw him grinning as he turned away. Gwen called him lots of not-very-nice things as they walked to breakfast, but he just told her to apologize to Drew, which she called a stupid idea.

She knew she had to apologize to Drew, though. Mostly because Luke dropped his voice to get serious with her, and she realized that she hated getting scolded by him.

As they left the mess hall, she sidled up next to him. "Sorry about how I acted this morning."

Drew flushed. "It's okay. I should be saying sorry―"

"You did. Like, a hundred times."

If it was even possible, his cheeks turned even more pink. "I didn't mean to, um―"

"Cuddle with me?" Gwen finished.

"Yeah." He cleared his throat. "So, um... Are we good?"

She looked down to see that Drew had stuck his hand out. She didn't feel like being kind to him at all, but she didn't want to disappoint Luke, so she nodded and shook his hand.

"Sure. We're good."

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The next few weeks passed without many more incidents. Gwen followed the rest of cabin eleven to their daily activities, and she realized that she could make friends. Kids at camp didn't judge the way that her classmates in public school did.

The Ares girl― who, she learned, was named Clarisse― still terrified her. But she'd befriended Beckendorf, who did a pretty good job of intimidating Clarisse, even if she pretended to be bored instead of scared out of her wits.

According to the Stolls, Beckendorf was a gentle giant. Which made sense, because he didn't make threats or anything to intimidate people― his sheer size did that for him.

She had become close with the Stolls, too, and learned some tricks from them. They usually ended up having their dessert privileges taken away, but at least all three of them got punished. Also, Gwen was very good at persuading Luke to split his desserts with her.

Better yet, she found out that she actually had some skill. She wasn't good with a sword, but she could throw a javelin decently far. She could read Ancient Greek text with only a few missteps. And one time, she almost beat Clarisse in a wrestling match.

The good news? Drew moved out of cabin eleven.

The bad news? He got claimed within a week of arriving at camp.

He didn't even do anything to try and get claimed. The strawberry plants just went wild when he tended to them, and Demeter must have noticed, because she claimed him almost immediately.

Even worse, Gwen had just stopped obsessing over her godly parent when Drew got claimed. That sent her back into a spiral.

"I don't know who my mom could be," she said as they picked strawberries. "Or my dad."

"Maybe you just need to stop thinking about it," Cleo replied. "Maybe you're good at stuff without realizing, but you let your nerves get to you."

"You are pretty good at canoeing," Travis Stoll joked. "Maybe you're a daughter of Poseidon."

Connor elbowed him. "Dude. That's not possible."

"I know some kids think you could be a daughter of Ares," Cleo said hopefully. "You're pretty tough. Maybe you need to beat Clarisse at wrestling and Ares will claim you."

Gwen rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. I'll probably die trying."

Luke had been pretty quiet while they watered the strawberry plants. Finally, he straightened up, wiping sweat off of his face, and turned to her.

"Maybe you're one of us," he said. "A child of Hermes. Jack of all trades, master of none."

"Maybe I want to be a master of something," Gwen said.

Luke shut up after that.

She didn't mean it in a rude way. She just wanted to be able to excel at something for once. Plenty of claimed kids fit the mold of their parents perfectly. She just... Didn't.

Athena? She didn't have the brains. Hephaestus? Too scrawny. Aphrodite? Boys didn't notice her, and she didn't know the first thing about makeup. Demeter? As far as she knew, plants didn't bend to her will. Also, she didn't want to share a cabin with Drew.

Gwen plucked a fat, juicy strawberry from the plant in front of her and took a bite. She didn't really care if Mr. D saw and threatened her with another week of no dessert― the sweet taste made her feel better.

Unfortunately, the twins noticed. Gwen hadn't spoken to them since she got to camp, but she didn't hate them. They mostly kept to themselves.

"You can't eat the strawberries, Gwen," one of them called.

Gwen sighed. "Sorry, uh... Pollux?"

"Castor."

She winced. Not just because it was awkward to get his name wrong, but because she had almost given him a concussion a week earlier.

During last week's game of capture the flag, she had been defending the flag when Castor ran up and tried to grab it. He was taller and stronger, but Luke had taught her to use her size to her advantage. She knew how to get up close and personal with her enemies... And when she swung her flail at him, she dented his helmet.

It wasn't a big deal in the end. Chiron fixed up Castor's cuts and she apologized for almost concussing him, but Mr. D was not happy. She got hit with a week of cleaning the pegasus stables since she'd technically maimed him.

Gwen finished off her strawberry and managed to shoot Castor an apologetic smile. He didn't seem to care― Mr. D was the one who really took offense to people eating the strawberries.

"Do you think they get lonely?" She asked. "I mean, it's just them in cabin twelve."

"I don't think so." Connor broke into a grin. "Gods, I wish we were around to see them get claimed."

Travis laughed. "I bet it was crazy."

Gwen tried to imagine how that might have gone down. The mental image of Mr. D reluctantly calling the twins his sons made her grin, and she picked another strawberry, shoving it into her pocket before anyone could see.

She nudged Luke as they left for the archery range. "Sorry about what I said earlier."

"It's alright," he said, and smiled. "I know how it feels."

"Do you like being claimed?"

He shrugged. "It's pretty cool to be the head counselor of a cabin."

Gwen decided not to point out the fact that he had completely avoided answering her question.

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They had sword-fighting lessons the next day. After about a month of getting her butt kicked in every form of combat that camp offered, Gwen was happy to see that Cleo got picked to be Luke's partner― or punching bag― to finish off the lesson.

The best part of their duel? The smack talk.

Cleo jabbed her sword at him and said, "Careful, Luke. You wouldn't want your siblings to see you get knocked to the ground, right?"

"Don't get cocky," Luke shot back, parrying the strike. "You're rude when you lose. Wouldn't want them to hear anything they shouldn't."

"Maybe it's because you fight dirty."

He grinned and took a swipe at her. "I would never."

"You know, one of these days I'll beat you," Cleo said. "Maybe even today."

Cabin eleven had assembled in a half-circle around them. A few kids struck up a bet. Most of them just watched. It was pretty mesmerizing to see two skilled swordsmen going at it.

The Ares kids had joined them for wrestling, which meant that Luke and Cleo had gone over their allotted time for the sword-fighting lesson, but the Ares kids didn't seem to care. Even Clarisse seemed impressed by how well Cleo could hold her own against Luke.

"Don't get your hopes up," he said, and brought his sword down over her head in a powerful swing.

"Oh, come on, Luke." Cleo blocked his sword and gave him a sweet smile. "Just drop the sword already."

Luke should have laughed in her face and swung at her again, but he faltered. He brought his blade up in a halfhearted swipe, faltered again, and then let it clatter to the ground.

The crowd of thirty demigods began to murmur amongst each other. Not many people ever beat Luke in a fight. Cleo looked stunned, too, even as she pointed the tip of her sword right at his heart.

Luke held up his hands in a mock gesture of surrender, but all he could say was, "...Cleo?"

A thick red haze had begun to envelop her. Gwen took out her pin, ready to turn it into a flail if need be, but Clarisse nudged her, and she put it away.

When the smoke cleared, Cleo had completely changed. Her camp shirt and denim shorts had been replaced with a baby pink chiton and gold bands around her upper arms. When she turned, the skirt of the chiton moved, revealing a long slit up the side and some matching golden sandals. Her curly brown hair had been braided with gold strands, and she was wearing makeup that seemed to bring out all of her features perfectly.

She looked like a goddess. Like she'd been ripped straight from the pages of an ancient myth.

"No, I―" Cleo's voice sounded a little strangled. "This is not―"

She stopped. All of the campers had focused on a point above her head, where a glowing emblem had appeared in the shape of a dove.

Luke and the head counselor for the Ares cabin knelt first. Gwen didn't know why, but she didn't have much time to think about it. Once the campers started kneeling, Clarisse grabbed her elbow and pulled her down to her knees, too.

After a minute of silence, hooves sounded on the floor of the arena. Gwen tore her eyes away from Cleo to see Chiron trotting over, a knowing smile on his face.

"It is determined," he said. "Goddess of love and beauty. Lady of the doves. Hail, Cleo Hanover, daughter of Aphrodite."