Alex pov~

I woke up to someone sitting on my legs. I probably woke up because she was also slapping my chest repeatedly, not because she was particularly heavy or because she was bothering my legs too much.

"Peggy!" I heard Eliza shout from a little ways off. "Don't bother them!"

Peggy didn't stop though, staring into my eyes and slapping me until I sat up and shoved her off. Peggy rolled away with a laugh, hair in her face.

"Why was she hitting me?" I asked, rubbing sleep from my eyes.

"Why are you asleep in the strawberry fields?" Eliza retorted.

"Reading. Didn't sleep." I explained.

"You were just sleeping, what do you mean?"

"I was reading in the strawberry fields and since I didn't go to sleep last night I fell asleep while reading my book. Happy?"

"Quite."

"Great. Now back to my question."

"The committee—"

"So you, Peggy, Maria, Jefferson and Laf?"

"Yes. The committee—"

"You act like you have power but not even half of you are house leaders."

"That's enough out of you." She glared at me and I was quiet, just to hear what she had to say. "The committee has decreed you are to take on the new kid around."

"The new kid...?" Then I remembered hearing some other campers talking about this new kid who had a funny purple shirt and tattoos that was found unconscious in an alley. "Why did the committee decree this?"

"Peggy found him so she decided you should show him around, and everyone sided with her." She shrugged.

I groaned. "If I'm not part of the committee or under the charge of anyone in the committee, do I have to listen to your rulings? Does that make sense? I have no reason to listen to this decree, why should I?"

She glared at me again. "Because a majority of your friends have come to a conclusion."

I groaned and accepted to take on this new kid. The thing with 'taking on' a new camper is you can't just ditch them when they've seen the strawberry fields and houses. You have to answer their questions and put up with them during swooped practice and yada yada...

"Swear on the Styx?"

"What?"

"Swear on the Styx."

"I- no- why?"

"Cause I told you to."

"No."

"Pinky promise?" Peggy asked, appearing directly behind me.

"Yeah sure." I'd gotten so used to her showing up out of nowhere it didn't even phase me. We connected our pinkies and she beamed.

"Oh, we forgot to ask what pronouns you're using today." Liz gasped.

"He/him." I answered.

Her eyes widened. "I called you they before, sorry."

"'ts ok." I smiled. I couldn't have found better friends. "So, shall we go get this new kid?"

Peggy hopped up and down, somehow still walking alongside Liz and I. "His name's John and he's a child of Apollo."

"Great." I rolled my eyes. "They're my favorites."

"You like Herc."

"He's Herc, how could I not like him?"

"That's fair. Everyone likes Herc." Eliza shrugged.

"Even Reynolds likes Herc." Peggy pointed out. "Anyways so this kid has this tattoo on his right arm and it's funny. I tried asking but he didn't answer. Said he'd rather not talk about it. How do people do that? Like, you're given the chance to talk and turn it down. I could never."

"We know."

"Yeah so anyways he speaks Latin and a bit of Ancient Greek, which is cool. He hasn't left the Big House yet, the committee decided you should be the first one to take him outside. Herc was hanging out with him when he was still kinda dead-like but he's fine now. He's just really hungry. We haven't unlocked the tragic backstory yet, so we have no clue what's up with him."

"How do you know he has a tragic backstory?"

"Every demigod has a tragic backstory. Plus, we found him unconscious, dirty, hungry, cold, sleep-deprived with some pretty bad wounds that looked pretty monster-inflicted. How can he not have a tragic backstory?"

"Fair." We walked through the fields in silence until I spoke up again. "How long've you kept this poor demigod in the Big House?"

"Not that long."

"Peggy."

"Four days. He's only been conscious for three of them though."

"Yeah, cause that's so much better." Eliza said sarcastically and her sister huffed to cover a laugh.

We'd made it to the Big House and Peggy led me inside to where a guy who had to be John was sitting with a sketchbook open on his lap and tapping the pencil against the blank page. He had long blonde hair tied in a ponytail and sky-blue eyes. He wore a faded purple shirt with a gold design on it. It seemed to have random letters on it, but there was a large rip which made it even harder for me to tell what they were than beverage.

Peggy sat down beside him and he literally jumped, dropping his pencil and twisting his head so fast I could see the smear frame that would've been used were he an animation.

When he had grabbed his pencil and shut the sketchbook he noticed Eliza and I.

"Oh... hello." He waved. "I'm John Laurens, son of Apollo. And you are...?"

"I'm Eliza Schuyler, I'm Peggy's sister." Liz introduced herself.

"I've heard all about you." He smiled. "You were the one who was like 'but what if he's mortal', right?"

"That seems to be my line in Peggy's retelling, yeah." She then grabbed me by the shoulders and moved me directly in front of her. "This is Alex, he's genderfluid and he's a guy today. His mom is Athena and he's been here for ages. 12 years. The committee has elected him to answer your questions and show you around."

I wriggled out of her grasp. "I know how to introduce myself, you know."

"Ok but I've seen you introduce yourself, it's nowhere near as good as what I did."

Peggy dragged John into a standing position and pushed him over to me. "Go! Explore Camp! We'll be in our cabin if you need us."

"Why would we need—" I started to ask but she pushed us outside and shut the door. "Lovely."

We stared at the door for a second then I turned to him. "Want to go... 'explore Camp'?"

"Sounds good." John shrugged. "I've only ever seen anything out of the window. Peggy refused to let me out."

"She's a bit much most of the time." I led him out of the Big House and onto the porch.

He looked out across the camp, eyes wide with wonder. "Whoa. This is super cool. How do you... is it... whoa."

"Wanna go see closer?" I offered. "Not just stand here and look from afar."

"Absolutely."