Percy could not seem to get over the fact that their Latin teacher was part horse.

He trailed behind the Centaur silently gaping, and nudging Sophie to make sure she was seeing the same thing. When his elbow met her ribs for a third time, she lightly smacked his arm and hissed, "Percy, he's 3 feet in-front of me. Yes. I see the horse-man."

They continued the tour and passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers stared at them. Thankfully, most of them were looking at Percy, since he carried the Minotaur horn, but the few that did look solely at Sophie made her slightly uncomfortable, as if they expected her to do a flip or something. She could flip them off. That was the only flip she could do.

Percy looked back at the farmhouse. It was four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. A shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable caught his eye. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and Percy got the distinct impression he was being watched.

"What's up there?" He asked Chiron.

Chiron looked where he was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic."

"Somebody lives there?"

"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing. Come along."

As they drifted further from the big house, Sophie became increasingly more worried for Grover.

"Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" She asked Chiron.

Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Sophie. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper, or in this case campers, and bring them safely to Half-Blood Hill."

"But he did that!" Percy argued.

"I might agree with you," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there's the unfortunate...ah...fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you two dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part."

Sophie felt annoyed. Clearly none of this was Grover's fault. But they continued on in silence, until Percy asked another question.

"Chiron," he said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real..."

"Yes, child?"

"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"

Chiron's expression darkened.

Sophie'd take that as a yes.

"Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now...until we know more...I would urge you to put that out of your mind."

"What do you mean, 'until we know more'?"

"Come, Percy. Let's see the woods."

Sophie groaned at his annoying need to act mysterious.

As they got closer, Sophie realized how huge the forest was. Its tall and thick trees took up at least a quarter of the valley.

Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."

"Stocked with what?" Percy asked. "Armed with what?"

"You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own swords and shields?"

"My own sword?" Sophie asked hopefully.

"No," Chiron said. "I don't suppose you do. I think a size five and four will do. I'll visit the armory later."

As strange as this place was seeming to be, a summer camp with an armory sounded pretty cool to Sophie.

Finally, They arrived near the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. However, they looked nothing alike. Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at. They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops. Percy's mind briefly went back the courts at Yancey.

Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles, lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.

"Zeus and Hera?" Percy guessed.

"Correct." Chiron said.

"Their cabins look empty."

"Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."

Percy stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three. It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. He peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!" Chiron put his hand on his shoulder and said, "Come along, Percy."

Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers. Number five was bright red—a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists. The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, were arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She had a larger, muscular frame. She zeroed in on Percy and Sophie and gave an evil sneer.

"So Chiron..." Percy said, "Did you really train Hercules."

"Yes, Percy, I did," said Chiron.

"But, shouldn't you be dead?"

Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about should be. The truth is, I can't be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish...and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."

"Doesn't it ever get boring?" Percy asked

"No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring."

"Why depressing?"

Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again. "Oh, look," he said. "Annabeth is waiting for us."

The blond girl from the Big House was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven. When they reached her, she looked the pair over critically.

"Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have a masters archery class at noon. Would you take Percy and Sophie from here?"

"Masters in archery?" Sophie said "Cool. I want one."

"Yes, sir."

Chiron put his hand on Sophie's shoulder "One day young hero."

Sophie smiled at him before realizing what he said. Young Hero?

"Cabin eleven," Chiron told them, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home."

This cabin seemed to be the most standard, but also the most run down. Sophie peeked inside to see it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread out all over on the floor.

Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.

"Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck to you two. I'll see you at dinner."

He galloped away toward the archery range. Percy stood in the doorway, Sophie peeking out from behind him. The kids were staring at them, sizing them up. It reminded Sophie of how she felt on her first day at Yancey.

"Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on."

The two of them walked into the cabin as all the other kids looked over them.

Annabeth announced, "Sophie, Percy, meet cabin eleven."

"Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked.

Everybody groaned.

A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward. Sophie thought he looked familiar, and then recognized him as one of the faces she saw when she was briefly conscious in the healing center. "Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, you two. Percy, you can have that spot on the floor, right over there. Sophie, you're welcome to take the spot next to it."

The guy was about nineteen, Percy thought he looked pretty cool. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.

"This is Luke," Annabeth said, and Sophie instantly heard her voice raise an octave. She made the mistake of sneaking a glance at her face, and Annabeth gave her a subtle glare in return. "He's your counselor for now."

"For now?" Percy asked.

"You're undetermined," Luke explained patiently. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."

Percy looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given him. He had nothing to put there to mark it as his own, no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bag. Just the Minotaur's horn. And he didn't want to set that down. Sophie seemed to notice his predicament. She tossed her duffle bag with her hockey stuff onto her space. She didn't really worry about it's contents being stolen. All that was inside was her hockey stick, her gear, a spare hoodie and ten dollars.

"Hey." A boy said from Sophie's right. He hard black hair dark chocolate eyes, a small scar going across his noise and a blue shirt. "Your Sophie?"

She looked behind her expecting too see another girl but when there was no one she looked back to him "Yes." She said slowly.

"Neat." The boy said rolling around and looking at her upside down "I'm Ethan."

Sophie smiled deciding she liked him. He seemed like the type of person to rob a store with her. "I'm Sophie."

Ethan held his hand out (upside down) and Sophie shook it. She heard laughter from around her but ignored it. Somone probably made a joke.

"So who-"

Annabeth snapped "Sophie. Come on were going to see the volleyball court."

"We've already seen it." Sophie shrugged obliviously.

"Come on." She grabbed Sophie's wrist and dragged her outside. Percy scrambled to follow, ignoring the laughter he heard from cabin 11.

When they were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "You are gonna have to do better than that."

"What?" Percy said, defensively.

Sophie looked up at her confused "I can't talk to people?"

She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you would amount to something."

"What's your problem?" Percy said, angry now. He grabbed Sophie's other arm, to halt Annabeth who was still dragging his friend.

"All I know is we killed some bull guy—" Percy said tugging on Sophies arm.

Annabeth tugged on her other arm "Don't talk like that!" Annabeth said. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"

"To get eaten?" Sophie blinked as Percy pulled on her arm.

"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?" Annabeth tugged again.

Percy shook his head. "Look, if the thing we fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories..." Tugg.

"Yes." Tugg.

"Then there's only one." Tugg.

"Yes." Tugg.

"And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So..." Tugg.

"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die." Tugg.

"I'm not a tug of war rope!" Sophie hissed as Percy tugged again "If one of you pull my arm one more time I will set you on fire."

Annabeth looked at her perplexed "How?"

"Her lighter." Percy said letting go of her arm.

Sophie shook her arms off checking that she actually still had her lighter "Okay. So back to monsters being killed."

Annabeth rolled her eyes at her. "They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they re-form."

Percy thought about Mrs. Dodds. "You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword—"

"The Fur...I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad."

"A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?" Sophie asked.

Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her. "You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all."

"Look, isn't there anything we can say without it thundering?" Percy whined, and even though his tone could be seen as justified, Sophie couldn't help but want to laugh. "Why do we have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."

He pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth shook her head. "You don't just choose a cabin. It depends on who your parents are. Or parent."

She stared at them, waiting for them to get it.

"My mom is Sally Jackson," Percy said. "She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to."

"I'm sorry about your mom. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."

"He's dead. I never knew him."

Sophie looked towards Percy sympathetically. Although she wondered- would her life have been better if her mom had been dead?

Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids. "Your father's not dead, Percy."

Percy did not. "So what? You're saying you know my dad?" Percy challenged.

"No, of course not," Annabeth crossed her arms.

"Then how can you say—"

"Because I know you. Both of you. You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."

"You don't know anything about us." Percy said angrily.

"No?" She raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them. Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too. Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD—you're impulsive, can't sit still in the
classroom. That's your battle-field reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."

"Did...did you go through the same thing?" Sophie asked.

"Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur. Face it. You're a half-blood."

"Well! A couple of newbies!" The muscular girl from the red cabin was sauntering toward them. She had three other girls behind her, all big and mean looking, and all wearing camo jackets. They were the most intimidating possé of mean girls Sophie had ever seen.

"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"

"So I can run it through you Friday night?"

''Erre es korakas!" Annabeth said, "You don't stand a chance."

"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. She turned toward Percy and Sophie. "Who're these little runts?"

"Percy, Sophie," Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."

Percy blinked. "Like...the god of war?"

Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"

"No," Percy said, and Sophie could tell he was getting brave. "It explains the bad smell."

Sophie mentally face palmed. And whether it was from the quip itself, or that Percy's move to anger this girl, who could easily bench press both of them, was so stupid. Either way, Sophie couldn't contain a laugh. She tried to cover it with a cough. Didn't work.

Clarisse growled at both of them. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies."

"Clarisse—" Annabeth tried to say.

"Stay out of it, wise girl."

Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it. Percy quickly handed Sophie the Minotaur horn, as if to inform the daughter of Ares that she was not apart of this. But as soon as he turned back around, Sophie handed the Minotaur horn to Annabeth instead.

Percy held up his arms awkwardly, seemingly ready to fight, but Clarisse had him in a headlock before there was anything he could do about it.

Sophie stepped forward to help and one of the other girls made a move towards her, but Sophie ducked under her. She wrapped her hands around Clarisse's arm, trying to pull her off, but the girl's arms were like iron. While she was realizing how screwed they were, one of the other girl's grabbed her, pinned her arms behind her back, and leaned back to lift her off her feet. Sophie tried twisting making Clarisse struggle a tiny bit. She was hoping playing hockey would make her stronger, apparently not.

Percy wasn't really paying attention. He was too busy trying to punch his way out of Clarisse's headlock. He'd been in a decent amount a fights before, but he had absolutely no chance against this girl. They were dragged into the girls' bathroom. There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other.

Clarisse pulled Percy by his hair into a stall. But for some reason, he heard the stall door next to them open too. Percy crossed his fingers that Sophie was standing behind him holding the Minotaur horn. But his wish did not come to fruition.

"C'mon guys, swirlies? It's the 2000nds." he heard his friend complain from the next stall over. He internally groaned.

Clarisse's friends were all laughing, and Percy heard Sophie get shoved onto the tile floor.

"Like he's 'Big Three' material," Clarisse said as she pushed Percy toward one of the toilets. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking."

Her friends snickered. Sophie was leaning back, trying to keep her head from nearing the toilet as a girl stood over her, pushing her down. Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers.

Think think think. Her head was slowly being lowered. She clearly couldn't fight against the girl's hand that was pushing her head downward. So quickly, and suddenly, Sophie jerked her head to the side, and the girl above her fell forward, her hand landing in the toilet.

Sophie scrambled away and made it out of the stall, but there were two other angry girls waiting for her. Before she could even think about how to get around them, the one on the left leapt forwards grabbing her. Sophie quickly dodged to the side- like she'd do in hockey. But Then the other girl grabbed her shoving her down on the floor her arm on Sophie's back. But then, the plumbing rumbled.

Clarisse's grip on Percy's hair loosened and water shot from the toilet in an arc over his head. It hit Clarisse straight in the face, knocking her off her feet. Percy landed sprawled out on the tiles while Clarisse was pushed backwards into a shower stall, struggling and gasping for breath. Percy laid on the ground looking under his stall door to see the three other girls practically on top of Sophie.

Then the other toilets exploded.

Six more streams of water blasted the mean camo girls. The child of Ares got up, and her and her friends fled the bathroom. Sophie crawled under a sink, trying to avoid the toilet water.

Momentarily, the excitement stopped, and the bathroom was left flooded. Percy looked out of the stall to see that Annabeth and Sophie hadn't exactly been spared. Both girls were looking at Percy with varying levels of shock. He looked down and realized he was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room.

Percy stood up on shaky legs and walked toward Sophie holding out a hand to help her stand up. She just looked up at him.

"Did you tell the toilets to do that?" she asked with a tilt of her head.

Percy shrugged.

He shook his extended hand, indicating for her to take it, and this time she did. They turned and saw Annabeth still by the door.

"I don't know," he said simply.

They walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. She gave a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, newbies. You are totally dead."

Sophie felt good quitting while they were ahead. Percy apparently didn't feel the same way, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse?" he said smugly. "Close your mouth."

Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.

Annabeth stared at Percy. She was either angry, grossed out, or shocked. Probably a mix of all 3.

"What?" Percy demanded. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking," she said eyeing him almost warily, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag." 

Dionysus loves Nico and Will (Don't we all?). That's the only thing he does right (and choosing coke over pepsi)

Who's your fav artist? mine is Kate Bush, Chapell Roan or Paris Paloma.

I love running up that hill and army dreamers 🏃🪖

Also do you guys like Sweet tooth on netflix? They just released another season. Its so good.

Bye ✌