And this is the first chapter of Tips to Surviving in a Roman Camp. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer : I do not own anything to do with Percy Jackson or The Heroes of Olympus.

Oh, and this book will be in Robbie's POV, although you probably knew that already.

And I like updating once a week so I'll probably stick with that.

Chapter 1 : I Try to be Inconspicuous. And Fail Miserably.

"Remember what I said. Learn from my mistakes. Don't say stuff that didn't happen yet. Stuff like that." Alex's green eyes looked worried as she scanned me over. "I'm worried about you Robbie. I mean, my quest was with Camp Half Blood, but this…"

"I'll be fine." I hoped my voice sounded confident, because truthfully? I wasn't ready at all.

Alex raised her eyebrows. "Don't lie. You're horrible at lying." Mentally cursing at my dad, I tried to reassure her that I would be fine and that I would survive but she was already waving me off. "You should probably go. Argus is waiting."

"What, no good-bye kiss?"

She laughed and gave me a peck on the cheek. "Be alive when I get to Camp Jupiter and we'll see."

As we both walked out of Cabin Seven, my heart grew heavier. Turning to Alex, I said, "What if I can't do it? Like if I can't find the camp?"

She smiled, but it wasn't her regular sarcastic confident smile that I was used to seeing. It was sadder and hopeful too, like she was depending on me. "You'll do it. You'll find him." Then brightening, she slapped the back of my head. "Don't think negative! Come on. You're going on vacation! Have some fun with your family! Tour San Francisco! Be a teenager!"

"We're not exactly normal teenagers though." I mumbled, rubbing my head. "And I have a chance of dying on this so called "vacation. And Alex, you're not supposed to be this cheery. You're supposed to be the sarcastic intimidating daughter of Poseidon who can kick ass. Now, you sound like one of those sparkly fairy princesses."

She slapped my head again. "Don't interrupt."

"And that's the Alex I know and love." Catching Argus's slightly annoyed gaze, I nudged her in the shoulder and pointed.

"Oh, okay. Right, you'd better go now."

Squaring my shoulders, I got into the car, hoping that for once, I wouldn't get attacked by monsters.

Aaaahhhh! Screams followed me as I cursed. "The Fates hate me, don't they?" I muttered under my breath. I took out my bow from my bag and fit an arrow, gtting ready to shoot.

Mom, running alongside me, asked, "What did you say dear?" Then pointing at my bow, she screamed. "Is that a bow?! And arrows?! What is this, Robbie?!"

"Nothing, nothing." I looked around. It all started out fine too. Nothing happened on the way to the airport. My mom tried to make small talk about my "school" (which I successfully deflected) and was pleasantly surprised to find out that I had a girlfriend. Of course, she had tried to give me The Talk but Dad managed to talk her out of it, something that I would owe him for the rest of my life for. The plane ride was great, nothing wrong, and I expected shit had to go down in San Francisco but nothing happened. We got out of the airport, dropped off our stuff at the hotel (except for my bow and arrows and my mom's camera of course), and started sight-seeing. And then shit went down. Drakons slithered up to us and starting creating chaos with all the mortals screaming stuff about poisonous snakes, which wasn't that far off.

Running along, following the crowd, I suddenly saw the Caldecott Tunnel. You have got to be kidding me! I don't even get to see Lupa? Seeing that the drakons were starting to catch up, I made a split-second decision and ran toward the tunnel. The drakons hissed with glee and followed me. Running with everything that I had, which was not a lot, I dashed toward the tunnel. Standing guard were two people that I didn't recognize and not for the first time since I left for California, I wished I had Alex with me. She knew everything and everyone from every book. Not me. I was more about focusing on the main characters. The girl, seeing the horde of drakons ran out to meet me.

"Get in the tunnel! You'll be safe there!"

I did as she said and passed the other guy who was running out to help the girl. When I looked back, I knew that unless I helped, there was no chance that the girl was going to get out of this alive. She was being surrounded by the drakon and the guy was too busy fighting the others to help. At the speed of light, I raised my bow and shot down the 5 drakons who were getting ready to spew poison.

She looked at me in astonishment. "Thanks!"

"No problem!" I ran out. "Let's go help your friend."

With all three of us working together, it didn't take long before all of the drakons became dust. Breathing hard, we stumbled through the tunnel into the camp. It was beautiful. Well, Camp Half Blood was a lot better, not going to lie, but Camp Jupiter had a sense of security that Camp Half Blood lacked. Maybe it was just the sunlight and smell of coffee but I automatically smiled.

Seeing my smile, the girl laughed. "Yep. This is Camp Jupiter. And I assume you're a new recruit?"

"Yeah. I'm Robbie Feldsman."

"I'm Gwen."

I couldn't stop myself. "Centurion Shish-Kebab!" And then I immediately clamped my mouth shut. Now I know what Alex meant. Keep your mouth shut, you idiot!

She looked at me like I was crazy. "What?"

"It's nothing, I thought you were someone else."

"Oh. Anyway, I'm a centurion for the Fifth Cohort." Pointing at the boy who was making his way into what I assumed was the bath house, she made a disgusted voice. "And that's Larry. He's kind of a jerk." Her face brightened up after a while. "Anyway, it's really nice to meet you. Thanks for saving my life back there. If it wasn't for you, I would have died."

I was about to say something like, "It was nothing." Instead, a commanding voice rose up. "Who is that, Gwen?"

Gwen's voice changed, from the optimistic person that I had met into someone sort of respectful and cautious. "This is Robbie Feldsman. He was being chased by a horde of drakons and he made his way to the tunnel."

Reyna made her way up to me. "You have a bow. How?"

"Well, I noticed that I was really good at archery. And I got this from a summer camp. They told me I could keep it." When Reyna's eyes moved to Gwen, I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding. I couldn't help it. She scared me. An aura of authority just radiated off her. Plus, her eyes were black. That was seriously intimidating.

Reyna continued. "Come with me to the principia. I want to ask you some questions. Gwen, wait outside and when I'm done, take him to Octavian." She swept off, her purple cloak fluttering. I started to follow her and then turned back to Gwen with a pleading look. She gave me an encouraging smile. Praying to all the gods of Olympus, I jogged up to Reyna.

Sitting down in the principia, I couldn't help but look around in awe. Mosaics were on the ceiling and the floor was pure marble. It was nothing like what I was used to in Camp Half Blood. There, everything was loose, there weren't many rules, and it was relaxing, like a regular summer camp. Here, every part of my body was telling me that this was wrong, that I wasn't supposed to be here. All I wanted to do was run.

Reyna put her hands on the table. "Tell me your story. And don't lie." Petting her two metal dogs, she said, "My dogs don't like liars."

Okay… Time to do some creative truth telling. "My family and I went on vacation in California and while we were sight-seeing, suddenly these things came up. They spewed poison and everything. Gwen said they were called drakons?"

"Yes. Monsters. Go on."

"Well, I was running and then I saw this tunnel. I knew it was important and I knew I would be safe there."

Reyna looked confused. "You didn't see Lupa?"

"Umm no?"

Reyna still looked confused. Then she saw my arrows. "What metal is that?"

"I got these as a gift." Implying you don't know. Good.

"Who gave them to you?"

"They were in front of me when I woke up."

That wasn't exactly a lie. I mean, it was my birthday a few months ago and Alex had sneaked a bunch of arrows next to my bed. Which I almost stepped on. Which made her crack up for ages. But I didn't exactly tell Reyna all that.

I asked, "Do you know what it is?"

"Celestial bronze. All Romans have weapons made of Imperial gold but this? This is older, rarer. Something Greeks would use." She shook her head. "It's obvious that your godly parent gave this to you for help. If anything, I would say that your godly parent is Apollo but that remains to be seen. You're interesting Robbie Feldsman. Go with Gwen to Octavian. Let's see if you can join the legion."

Walking to Temple Hill, I was a bit apprehensive. I wasn't that keen on meeting Octavian, a guy who I didn't even know how I was related to. Plus, he was power hungry, manipulative, and an absolute disgrace to the name of Apollo. I really wasn't sure how I would be able to control myself from punching him in the face.

Gwen saw my face and misunderstood. "Nervous?"

"A bit."

"Don't worry. You'll get into the legion. And if it comes down to it, I'll stand for you myself. You did save my life." She patted me on the back. "Plus, if you ask me, Octavian's an absolute asshole." We reached the temple of Zeus. Jupiter. Whatever.

Octavian was busy summoning freak red lightning. When we came in, he turned around. Smiling, he stepped toward us. "So, you must be the son of Apollo."

"What?"

"Well, I read it in the auguries. The son of Apollo has arrived to save us all or something like that. So Reyna sent you to me, hmm?"

"Yeah. Just get on with whatever you need to do." This guy was already rubbing me the wrong way. He looked at me like I was dirt. All I wanted to do was go up to him and say, "I'm the son of Apollo and you're just a lousy legacy!" Although that would probably get me killed, it would be totally worth it. Unfortunately, he went up to the altar and got ready to murder stuffed animals so I couldn't exactly do it. But one could dream…

He raised his knife and slashed open a teddy bear. Looking through the stuffing, he smiled. "You may join the legion!"

"Great." I turned to leave. When I noticed Gwen wasn't following me, I stopped. "Gwen…"

I heard yelling. "You think that I'm going to ever support the likes of you?!" Gwen stomped her foot. She started yelling again, this time in Latin, so I didn't understand much although I did take Latin in school. We didn't exactly learn insults but I heard "son of a …" and something about snakes. Also body parts. I really did not want to know what she was saying.

Octavian just smiled. "You really don't want to say that."

"Oh I don't, do I? You with your bought friends and bought influence!"

Okay, this is going too far. I steered Gwen out of the temple as she was screaming about knives and certain death. Even Gwen's yells weren't loud enough to keep me from hearing Octavian say, "You'll pay for that."

Evening came and Reyna introduced me to the camp. "This is Robbie Feldsman, a son of Apollo. Octavian says that the auguries are favorable."

Octavian continued. "He is qualified to serve!"

Everybody shouted, "Ave!"

I was embarrassed. Not being used to people staring at me, this was torture. Octavian turned to me. "Do you have any letters of reference? Credentials?"

"No?" I choked out.

"How unfortunate." He smirked, making me want to pummel him even more. "Does anyone stand for him?"

Gwen stepped up. "I do. He saved my life."

Reyna spoke. "Does your cohort accept him?" At Gwen's glare, everybody started banging their shields on the ground. She looked at me. "Very well. Welcome to Camp Jupiter."