I woke up that early June morning, and smiled greatly. Today was the day where I would travel back to Camp Half-Blood for the summer. I was superly psyched to see all of my half-siblings, friends, and instructors. Now you may be asking, "Who is this chic I'm reading about and why is she going to Camp Half-Blood when I haven't heard the words "Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, or the growing Percabeth?" Well you see, I'm not one of those famous people. I am Daphne .

Yup, I'm just one of those kids that go to camp and while that person holds the camp together, the camp gets famous and that kid doesn't get any of the credit. I am a daughter of Apollo. So archery is my forte, obviously. My mother didn't keep my father a secret from me for long, in fact. I knew that I was a demi-god before I was out of kindergarten. I don't know why she so desperately wanted to know, but I guess that's something I'll have to live without.

I quickly got on a pair of destroyed light wash capris and a Camp Half-Blood tee shirt. I decided to slip on a light shrug to hide the name of the camp, because that would raise bad questions. I started to comb out my strawberry blonde hair, which didn't go well because I couldn't sleep last night. In other words; Daphne + not enough sleep= really, REALLY, bad hair. You don't have to be a kid of Athena to know that about me.

I pulled it back into one of those circles of fabric head band things, and touched up my mascara as I headed down the stairs. My mom was already awake, wearing a sweatshirt and jeans as she stared blankly to the television screen, watching the news. She held the coffee mug in her hand as if it was the energy source that kept her in her mindless trance… which was probably true. "Good morning, mom." I chirped, "Is David awake yet?" David being my step dad.

"Huh, what? Oh, good morning honey, I have some cereal on the table, David's still asleep and so is Ronnie and Aaron," Ronnie and Aaron were my half siblings, mortals.

I gave her a hug and started into the kitchen, and poured a small dish of Cheerios. I ate them mindlessly, thinking about how this would be my seventh year at camp. Which for you people out there, that means I'm in seventh grade. I fingered some of the clay beads on my necklace, the lipstick one was from a few years ago when the Aphrodite cabin had covered every cabin with glitter, perfume, and hair sprayed almost every guy in the camp. I was only in third grade at the time, so they let me tag along and spray candy scented perfume.

My favorite was the trident, which was the first year Percy Jackson made his way to camp. He was one of the Big Three, being a son of Poseidon, and that was the first exciting year in a very long time. Still, I was in fifth or sixth grade, so I still couldn't do much.

Finishing up my breakfast, I placed the bowl in the sink and the milk in the refrigerator. I looked at my mom again, who was still watching the news. She hadn't moved an inch. "When can we go, mom?" I asked.

"… Whenever David wakes up and tells you good bye," She replied,

That threw me off. Because anyone with a brain in my family knows that David can sleep until three in the afternoon, after doing who knows what the night before.

"But MOM!!" I whined, "I want to go nooowwww….." I hated sounding like a kid, but that was the only way to get my point across. She was going to reply, probably saying something like, 'just be patient' or 'don't worry about it, he'll be up soon' but I didn't wait.

I stormed up the stairs, realizing that it was only 7:30 in the morning. I didn't care if David killed me for waking him up so early, because this was a special occasion.

I hopped onto their bed, and started shaking David's shoulder, "Wakey wakey! Take Daphne to summer campy….. wampy?!" I couldn't rhyme, so I added fake enthusiasm to make it sound like I was cheerful.

He mumbled for a few moments, then he opened his eyes. His rusty hazel iris's looked at me like daggers. Dull, but painful, daggers.

"Why in the name of the Good Lord am I being woken up so early?" He asked, with a fairly scary tone.

"Well, um… I want to get to camp, and mom said that I couldn't go until you woke up and said good bye to me."

"Why… you impatient, little scum! You selfish, needy, little b-"

He wanted to call me a you know what, but then my mother came into the room. And he would probably lose her as his first wife if she heard him calling me that.

My mom sat down next to me, and rubbed David's shoulder, "I'm sorry honey. Daphne didn't ask me if she could do that. She just wants to get to camp so she could see her friends again. And she wanted to say good-bye to her favorite step-dad, right Daphne?" She said it with a kissy, baby tone, but when she spoke to me, she sounded harsh, almost gritting her teeth.

"Yeah. I'm real sorry, David. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't want to see my face for the whole summer." They all knew that I was trying to make an excuse to leave, so they all laughed. Well, they faintly chuckled with their mouths closed, but that still counts!

"Alright, alright. Bye Daphne, I'll sure miss you, have fun at your mysterious camp that I never hear about." David mumbled, he rubbed the top of my head, and I gave him a good bye peck on the check.

My mom and I silently left the room. I packed my bags in the car the night before, saving time. My mom knew that of course. But what she didn't know was that I had made an oak bow over the year in woodshop. My teacher for that was a demi-god himself, so I could work on it without having people freak out. I packed it next to my seat in the back so I could tweak it before flaunting it to the rest of my cabin. My mom didn't care that I didn't sit up in front with her, which I usually beg her to let me do. She hadn't been really paying attention to me in a while. But I didn't care why, honestly.

I stroked down the curve of the bow, shining it with some polish I packed. I did small tweaks, like tightening the string, which was really a magic enhanced string that I had smuggled out of Camp Half-Blood last year. We were both quiet the whole way from our remote town in Maine to camp. I fell asleep for most of the way, holding my bow like a teddy bear against my chest. When we finally arrived, I truly felt at home. There were some kid nymphs playing tag around the forest in the distance. I heard the sound of metal clashing against each other in the arena, someone was having practice. Mom just stopped the car long enough to let me get my things out of the trunk and to let me blow her a kiss good bye. I was home… again.