Annabeth showed them a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the arts-and-crafts room, and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough. The less than smart part of Sophie's brain really wanted to give the wall an attempt. But they continued on past.

Finally they returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.

"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."

"Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets."

"It wasn't my fault!" Percy defended.

"It kinda was," Sophie pointed out.

Annabeth looked at him skeptically, and Percy realized it was his fault. That he made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. He didn't understand how. But the toilets had responded to him. He had become one with the plumbing.

"You need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said.

"Who?"

"Not who. What. The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron."

Sophie was trailing behind, deep in thought. She momentarily glanced down at the water and thought she saw-

She did a double take, and stepped on the base rail of the pier to get a better look. There, sitting 20 feet below the surface of the water, were two teenage girls. Their long brown locks floated loose around their shoulders, while tiny minos swam around them. They looked up at her, smiled coyly and waved their fingers in greeting. Sophie waved back.

"Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned her, making Percy turn around to see what his friend was doing. "Naiads are terrible flirts."

Percy walked over to Sophie and followed her line of sight downward. He gave a noise of disbelief, clearly overwhelmed. "Naiads? That's it. I'd like to go home now."

Sophie didn't know why, out of everything else that had happened, this was his breaking point. There were pretty water girls waving at them! She found this an upside compared to everything else.

"Well you're gonna have to get used to calling this place home," Annabeth said.

"Why?" Percy asked, his tone dangerously close to whiny.

"Cause it's the only safe place for kids like us," She stated.

"You mean, mentally disturbed kids?" Percy said, scared his friend had already succumbed to the insanity of this place as he watched her lean further over the railing to stare at the naiads.

Annabeth looked at Sophie and rolled her eyes before answering Percy's sarcastic question. "I mean not human," she said. "Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."

"Half-human and half—Soph!" He exclaimed, annoyed, grabbing Sophie by her shirt and pulling her back over the railing before she could lean so far forward that she'd fall into the water.

Annabeth was silently amused by this. "I think you know what I'm getting at," she said, resuming back to their conversation.

Percy did know. But he didn't want to admit it.

"God," he said. "Half-god."

Sophie turned to face them "But I'm not Christian?" She said forgetting the earlier conversation.

"Greek gods." Percy said slowly.

Annabeth nodded. "Which means your father isn't dead Percy. He's one of the Olympians."

"That's...crazy," Percy said, head buzzing.

"Is it?" Annabeth questioned. "What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?"

"So all the kids here are half gods?" Sophie asked.

"Demigods," Annabeth corrected. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods."

"Then who's your dad?" Percy asked.

Her hands tightened around the pier railing. "My dad is a professor at West Point," she said. "I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history."

Percy blinked. "So...he's human."

Annabeth turned her head sharply to him. "What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?"

Sophie shrugged "I'd take it as a complement, he's saying female gods are smarter and don't go around f-"

Percy put his hand on her mouth to stop her from finishing that line. "Who's your godly parent then?"

"Cabin six."

"... Which is?"

Annabeth straightened before answering, "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle."

Sophie started humming Warrior of the mind.

"So then.." Percy started. "Who's my dad?"

"Well that's why your undetermined," Annabeth said, "like I told you before. Nobody knows."

"Except my mom. She knew."

"Maybe not, Percy. Gods don't always reveal their identities you know."

"My dad would have. He loved her."

Annabeth gave him a cautious look, like she didn't want to burst his bubble. "Maybe you're right," she shrugged. "Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure. Your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens."

Sophie wrung her hands together, nervous for an answer, but said, "...Annabeth?"

Annabeth made a gesture for her to 'go on.'

"Well...I've had a human mom and dad my whole life."

Annabeth shrugged as if it were obvious. "You're a child of an affair then."

"Hey!" Percy said to her bluntness.

Annabeth raised her arms up in innocence as if to say 'just saying.'

It did make sense. Why her mom had been rather rude. But what about Millie, Connor and Leila. Did that make them her half-siblings then?..

Percy frowned at his friend's inner turmoil, and decided to divert the subject back slightly. "You said 'sometimes kids get claimed.' Why only sometimes?" he asked Annabeth.

Annabeth ran her palm along the rail. "The gods are...busy. Some of them have a lot of kids and they don't always...Well, sometimes they don't care about us. They ignore us."

Suddenly the crowded Hermes cabin made much more sense. So did the sullen looks that some of the older kids seemed to have. As if they were waiting for a call that would never come. Percy had known some kids like that at Yancy Academy, shuffled off to a boarding school by rich parents who just didn't have time to deal with them. Heck, his best friend standing next to him had been through a similar experience.

But...these were gods. Gods should have been better.

"So we're stuck here," Percy said. "That's it? For the rest our lives?"

"It depends," Annabeth said. "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter, you're probably not a real powerful force. The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble—about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off."

"So monsters can't get in here?" Percy asked.

Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially
summoned by somebody on the inside."

"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?"

"Practice fights. Practical jokes."

"Practical jokes?" Percy exclaimed while Sophie shot him a sly smirk.

"The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm."

Sophie decided to come back into the present. "So...you're a year-rounder, Annabeth?"

Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colors. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring.

"Been here since I was seven," she said. "Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college."

"Why did you come so young?" Percy asked.

She twisted the ring on her necklace and gave him a harsh look. "None of your business."

"Oh." Percy stood there for a minute feeling a little awkward. "So...I could just walk out of here right now, if I wanted to?"

"Sure," Annabeth shrugged. "It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless..."

"Unless what?" he asked.

"You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time..."

Her voice trailed off. Sophie could tell from her tone that the last time must've ended badly.

"What's the deal with the summer solstice?" Percy asked remembering what they overheard from Grover and Chiron's conversation.

Annabeth's shoulders tensed. "So you do know something?"

"Well...no." Percy admitted. "It's just, back at our old school, We overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?"

She clenched her fists. "I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so normal."

"You've been to Olympus?" Sophie asked.

Annabeth nodded like it was no big deal. "Some of us year-rounders—Luke and Clarisse and I and a few others—we took a field trip during winter solstice. That's when the gods have their big annual council."

"Cool."

"But...how do you get there?" Percy asked.

"The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special elevator to the six hundredth floor." She looked at Percy like she was shocked he didn't already know this. "You are New Yorkers, right?"

"Oh, sure," Percy said. But as far as he knew, there were only a hundred and two floors in the Empire State Building.

"Right after we visited," Annabeth continued, "the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting. A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. And if it isn't returned by summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you guys came, I was hoping...I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something."

Percy and Sophie exchanged a look.

"I've just got to get a quest," Annabeth muttered to herself. "I'm not too young. If they would just tell me the problem..."

Although Annabeth had been one of the only campers, so far, that she had properly met, Sophie still didn't doubt the girl's capability.

Percy's stomach growled loudly, and Annabeth informed them that dinner would begin shortly. She left them at the pier, telling them that she'd catch them later.

Sophie winced a sharp feeling in her head. As if she'd just been poked by a needle.

Percy turned to Sophie and asked if she was alright.

"Mhm," she said, and it probably would have sounded convincing to someone else. "We're both hungry. I'll talk to you later about it?" Sophie said, grateful for his concern, but hoping he'd let it go. Percy nodded, hoping she would talk to him later, but Sophie tended to not express the things that were upsetting her. He wondered to himself if that was a result of her family life.

She told him that she was going to sit by the water a little longer, to wave to the naiads again, and that she'd see him at dinner. Percy rolled his eyes and told her to try and not fall in, before he said goodbye and left, knowing that she likely just needed a minute alone.

Sophie watched him go. She stared out into the water emitting a sigh, getting sucked back into her head. So her mom didn't like her, because she wasn't actually hers, because her dad had cheated greek god. Cool.

It still didn't explain why Abigail didn't like Leila either.

She wrung her hands together, She started twirling the silver rings on her fingers- a way of dealing with her ADHD. When she smelled the barbaquee coming from camp, she shook out her knuckles and began to head over to cabin 11.

When Percy left Sophie at the pier, he walked back to the Hermes cabin and sat in his little space on the floor that he had claimed. He looked around seeing his new cabin mates talking and horsing around while they waited for dinner. He picked up the Minotaur horn and ran his hand over the keratin. It was strange how the only thing he had to remind him of his mom was a piece of the monster who had taken her life.

"Cool horn," a voice caused Percy to lift his head up. There were two boys, who looked so similar they might have been twins, looking at the horn in his hands.

"...Thanks," Percy said, because he didn't know what else to say.

"So did you really fought the Min-"

The boy's lookalike cut off his sentence with a swat to the back of his head. "Don't say it's name genius."

The boy responded by hitting the other boy back, and soon the two were in a battle of swatting hands.

"They do this often," said another boy who appeared, though this one looked slightly older. He sat on the bed closest to where Sophie had sat and stretched out his hand for him to shake. "Name's Ethan."

"Percy," Percy responded, shaking the boy's hand. "You're the one Sophie was talking too?"

Ethan nodded.

Realizing they were missing introductions, the two identical boys from earlier ceased their fighting and introduced themselves as Travis and Connor, before they sat down on the floor in front of Percy.

"Are you Hermes' kids?" Percy asked, already guessing the answer, based on the aura of mischief the two boys seemed to have.

"Yeah," Travis said. "Year rounders."

Percy nodded and looked at Ethan next. "What about you?"

Ethan's expression got a little darker when he responded saying,"Undetermined."

Percy wanted to ask him how long he's been undetermined, but thought that might be a touchy subject. So instead he just said, "Uh...me too,"

"Which is fun for us because we like to bet on who'll claim the newbies," Connor said.

"Bet?"

"Yeah," said Travis. "Sometimes with drachmas, or sometimes with other stuff."

Percy didn't know what a drachma was. "Have you bet on me?" he asked.

"Yeah," said Travis. "A few of us have, but you're not allowed to bet on yourself. Them's the rules. You could bet on your friend though, if you're tryna make some money."

"Sophie?"

"Mhm," Travis nodded. "You were easier. There's already been some rumors about you. She's kinda a toss up though."

"I bet you five drachmas she's Athena," Connor told his brother.

"Yeah?" Travis said "She didn't give off... Athena vibes"

"Aphrodite?" Connor suggested.

Travis shook his head "She was too brave."

"Selina could beat your ass if she wanted too."

"She's pretty." Ethan added joining in their conversation.

And just like that Percy was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with this conversation.

Ethan seemed to notice Percy's unease and decided to pick on him. "What do you think, Percy?"

"What?"

"About Sophie's godly parent."

"Erm... When's dinner?" Percy asked, hoping to change this subject that was slightly irritating him for some reason.

"Should be any minute now," Connor said.

Suddenly Luke approached their little huddle, carrying with him two sleeping bags. "What're you guys talking about over here?"

"Uhm, nothing," Percy said, for some reason feeling like he was caught discussing something he shouldn't of.

"Ok, well I found and your friend sleeping bags." He said handing them to Percy. The two talked for a few minutes, Percy learning a little more about Luke, and the bitterness he seemed to have when he talked about his father, Hermes.

Their conversation stopped when Percy heard the sound of someone blowing on a conch shell. Although he didn't know how he knew the sound, he'd never heard a conch shell before. Sophie walked in at just right right time.

Luke yelled, "Eleven, fall in!" And the whole cabin filed up in order of seniority. Sophie stole the spot in front of Percy, claiming she crossed the property line before him. She just didn't want to be last in line.

They marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined them from the meadow. A few girls even came out of the woods—like emerged out of trees—and took a seat at their bench.

At the pavilion, 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. Percy was practically half hanging off the bench, while Sophie was squished between him and another camper.

"Ok I get that you can't stay in a cabin that isn't yours—" Sophie whispered to Percy, "but I get that the gods would be mad, cause their cabin represents them, and you shouldn't stay in it if your not their child. But why do all 20 of us have to sit at one tiny table. There is literally nothing special about any of them. Like, do any of these tables scream 'Zeus' to you?"

There was a rumble of thunder as soon as she said that.

Sophie glared up at the sky. "They all look the same! It's just a picnic table!"

Chiron interrupted Sophie when he pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion. Everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"

Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"

Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food. Percy looked at the other kids' glasses, confused how they were already full.

"You speak to it," Luke told him and Sophie. "Whatever you want—"

Sophie grinned at her glass "alcoh-"

"--nonalcoholic, of course." Luke finished interrupting Sophie. The girl in question pouted.

"Cherry Coke," Percy said, and his glass filled with the sparkling caramel liquid.

He thought for a moment, before saying, "Blue Cherry Coke," and the drink turned a violent shade of cobalt.

"Pink Coke." Sophie said looking at her drink- witch was now pink. Hey that Rhymed. Maybe her dad was Apollo. "Greek coke, Blue coke, Yell-" She looked at the glass in disgust. "Coke."

"Here you go, Percy," Luke said, handing him a platter of smoked brisket. Percy loaded his plate and passed it to Sophie. He was about to take a big bite when he noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion. Percy turned to looked at Sophie. She froze with her fork halfway to her mouth.

"Come on," Luke told them.

So they got up and followed. Everyone was taking the best portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire. Sophie was not about to dump her ripest strawberry into the flame.

"Burnt offerings for the gods," Luke whispered to them. "They like the smell."

"You're kidding," Percy said.

Luke's look was a warning to take this ritual seriously, but Sophie didn't see why immortal all powerful beings liked the smell of burnt rolls and cheese. And surely, fruit did not smell good while on fire.

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

Percy went next.

Since he didn't know what god to say, he made a silent wish for whoever his dad was, to please tell him. He then scraped a big slice of brisket into the flames.

Sophie went after him. She thought for a moment before taking the smallest yuckiest looking strawberry she had and dropped it in the fire.

Percy had to cover his mouth and turn his head so Luke didn't see him laugh.

Sophie ignored the look of disapproval she got from Luke, and everybody returned to their seats to eat their meals. Eventually, Chiron pounded his hoof again to get everyone's 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.

"Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we some new campers today. Peter Johnson and Sally james."

Chiron murmured something.

"Er, Percy Jackson and Sophie Jones," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."

Everybody cheered and headed 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. All things considered, Sophie and Percy actually had a good time, feeling less isolated than they had all day.

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. When it was time for bed, Percy collapsed onto his sleeping bag, closing his eyes and falling asleep instantly, his fingers curled around the Minotaur horn.

Sophie glanced at the sealing. Today had been crazy, she'd learnt her mom wasn't her mom and she was a god. That she was a demigod (hopefully with cool powers) and that she could speak Italian. Okay maybe she didn't learn that today. She could always speak Italian.

Sophie closed her eyes expecting to fall asleep.

Ha!

She thought!

Instead she had a nightmare.

A common thing for her.

The gods are horrible, Percy thought.

So i know it was way more than 12 hours before i changed it ✌

I had this thing called school (which is ending on thursday the 27th btw) So two more days. Then on friday im hanging with some friends before they go on holiday then saturday sunday i'm going camping with another friend before she goes to Rome.

So the earliest I'll update is monday. But after that it's the holidays so ill be free for six weeks. I'll also continue whispers (Probably wre write it) And I'm working on a Jeyna fan fic because I love Jeyna.

Chow 🫡