The water curled around me as I glossed through it. The other campers watched me with a kind of strange fascination, wondering how I did what I did, but also why. I did a back-flip like a dolphin, my favorite creature, then took one final run though of the only clear lake you'll ever see (of course, it has to be in Camp Jupiter/Zeus) and crawled ashore. The other kids gathered around me and cheered. Someone handed me a towel. I managed a smile and thanked people for coming. I was given a rose.

This was standard entertainment. I'm Marinella. My mother was a beautiful Naiad. My father is Apollo. I'm sixteen, and I want to make a few bucks. Performing on the water is easy, legal, and fun.

I love the camp. I have friends. There is a side of the camp full of cabins based on godly ancestor and based on legion. There are those of us with parents who are mythological creatures (not that I like that term…) but there are three girls and two boys that are the offspring of Naiads. We all share a little hut near the lake. We sit right off the Poseidon/Neptune cabin. We are all like brothers and sisters. We kind of are, to a degree.

When the crowd disperses, I fully get out of the water and go and sit on the gleaming dock. I run my auburn hair down with my towel and splash some water in my face, making my eyes glow celery-green, the color they always become in the water. But I've spent enough time there today. Besides, it's almost dinner. I trot back to my cabin, having to unglue my eyes from the sparkling waters that are my real home here.

Our cabin has blue walls and shells in the molding. We have bunk beds and trunks full of musical instruments. I reach into my closet and pull out a flowing tan dress. Joli, my friend from the Aphrodite cabin, must have left it for me. She loves to dress me up whenever she can. I always let her. It's hard to be best friends with Joli. She's 5'7, and has long, shimmering white-blonde hair that falls to the small of her back. Her eyes are an icy blue, and her face is perfectly shaped. She's been the nicest to me of all the campers, who (though they will always come down and watch) think it's weird that I do my water performances rather than just go get a job somewhere around camp for some denarii or drachma.

Aria walks into the cabin and starts strumming a guitar left on her bed. Aria. There is nothing likable about this girl. I can't believe that we are even related. We don't look alike or anything. Aria has a conquest at least twice a month. She has even black hair that is chopped short at the nape of her neck. Her eyes are deep chocolate, and her lips are always contorted in a strange grimace that masks any beauty from her square jaw. She likes to hang out with the wild and crazy Venus kids, about ten times worse than any Aphrodite kids. Her boyfriend this week is in Mars, and she's always swooning about how he'll beat up anyone for her on her command. I cannot stand her.

"Aw, did your little shy friend leave you a pwetty dwess?" she mocks.

"No. Did your friends give you back your undergarments since they stole them last night after you took them off to jump into the lake?"

Her look deepens, knowing I'm not going to play along.

"Fine, whatever, where's Hector?" He's our oldest brother. He's leaving this year. Aria and he get along well, but that is just because Hector gets along with everyone.

"I don't know. I haven't seen him all day. You going to dinner?"

"Nope. On a new diet. No dinner. Or breakfast," she cackles evilly, "or lunch!"

And she leaves the cabin.

Dinner is amazing, as usual. Joli and I sit together and giggle about how cute Kevin Beau is in Venus. But mostly I just do that. Because for Joli, that would be weird. So she giggles about how cute Hector is, and we are perfectly content.

When dinner is over, I trudge back to my cabin, belly full, and crawl into the top bunk, but not before slipping Aria's sleeping fingers into a bowl of hot water. Ha-ha.

Go me.