The Adventures of Ruby Mackay

The Newest Member of Cabin 3

I stumbled around a dark forest. I felt like I was being chased. I was panting, almost out of breath. "Maybe I'm just paranoid." I mumble. I hear a snarl in the distance. I fall. My dirty, red hair covers my eyes.

Suddenly I'm pinned to the ground. I feel the slobber, and the rocks digging into my bare knees. "Mrs. O'Leary! What do you have there?" I hear a voice. I look up at the boy and realize I'm slipping out of consciousness. I reach out just as everything goes black.

I wake up in a tent. I sit straight up. There was that boy I saw, before I passed out. "Excuse me," I muster. "Where am I?" He looks up and brushes the hair out of his eyes. "And, who are you?" I ask. I try to stand up, but I can't.

"I'm Nico Di Angelo. Son of Hades." He says and I shake his outstretched hand. "And this is Camp Half-Blood." He says calmly. "Who would you be?"

"I'm Ruby Mackay." I say.

"Who are your parents?" He asked, sitting down beside me. He kept pulling out his sword.

"Well, my mother was Jennifer Mackay...my mother adopted me. And I never knew my other parents. Now I'm all alone, and I've been on the run ever since. I'm 16."

"Don't worry," He says. "A girl like you will be claimed before dinner." He flashed a brief smile and left the tent.

Several hours later a half-horse half-man, Chiron, tells me to go and pick a spot at the Hermes Cabin. I walk in and find a whole bunch of boys, wrestling.

I clear my throat, and everyone looked over at me. They all instantly stood up. Two boys walked over to me. "Travis and Connor Stoll," I shake their hands. "You're very lucky you have nothing of value to steal." They say and walked out of the cabin.

I walk out behind them. I couldn't bear spending any more time in there than I needed too. I go and try my luck by the lake. There was a blonde girl screaming into the water. "Perseus Jackson, you come back up here right now!" She screamed.

"Perseus?" I ask as I walk up to her.

"Are you new?" She asks, squinting her eyes.

"Ruby Mackay." I say. Familiarly extending my hand for her to shake.

"I'm Annabeth," She says. "Percy! Come meet the new girl!" She screams into the water, again. A boy pops out. He rests his arms on the dock.

"Hey newbie!" He says flashing a smile.

"Ruby Mackay!" I say cheerfully.

"Ruby, can you convince Annabeth to jump in? Like Charmspeak?" He asks.

"Only Piper and the Aphrodite cabin members can do that!" Annabeth shrieked.

"Zip it Wisegirl!" Percy says playfully. In all the turmoil I got pushed into the lake.

"AHHH!"I held my breath as I went tumbling down. I kept getting pushed down. I looked up and felt it was over for me. Someone bumped me as I touched the ground. "Watch it Son of Poseidon!" I scream.

"How are you doing that?" He says.

"Guess I'm your new sister!" I say smugly. "We'll get along perfectly!" I say, not letting him reply. I resurface. It looked like Annabeth had called everyone for help.

A girl with light brown hair, Clarisse called, "She's alive!" And everyone started to calm down. There was a flash of light as Percy resurfaced too. I looked up and saw there was a glowing, green trident hanging over my head.

"Chiron!" Annabeth shrieked. "She's a Daughter of Poseidon!"

I sneered up at the sky.

"Welcome to Cabin 3!" Percy said smiling.

Knowing you're a third wheel

Dinner wasn't any better. I had to eat with Percy, but that was okay. He taught me all the do's and don'ts. I think Annabeth was unnerved, she probably thought I was moving in on her boyfriend.

Another Black Haired boy walked up to me. "Percy's got some competition," He said. "I'm Leo Valdez."

"I'm Ruby, Ruby Mackay." I say, reaching my hand out. And very predictably to shake Leo's hand.

"Leo! Who's this?" A beautiful girl, with cinnamon colored hair approached Leo.

"Ruby, this is my girlfriend Calypso." Leo says and walks Calypso in the direction of another table.

"Who've you met so far?" Percy asks me.

"Nico, Mrs. O'Leary, Travis and Connor, Annabeth, Clarisse, Chiron, Leo, Calypso, and you." I say counting off the top of my head.

"Oh, and stay away from the Aphrodite kids, except Piper..she's cool. Even though she's dating Jason!" Percy starts laughing. Nico, the first boy I met was sitting by himself.

"What's the deal with Nico...he doesn't really seem like a people person. Does he have a girlfriend?"

"Oh, Nico...he's not really into socialising. And he's got a boyfriend, Will Solace."

"Oh." I say disappointedly.

I stood up and started walking up to the Poseidon Cabin. A popular looking black haired GIRL walked up to me.

"Ruby is it," She says snappily. "Don't get too comfortable around anybody. You'll just be a third wheel. Even if Nico did have any feelings for you, ugly spawn of Poseidon, it's against the rules to date a g-meep."

I was taken aback by the way this girl spoke to me.

"That was harsh." Someone said behind me. I wasn't in the mood of meeting the owner of the new voice. I sprinted to the dock, and dove in.

I let myself sink to the bottom.

"Percy? " I ask, as we walk into the cabin.

"Yes, Ruby?" He replies, and motions for us to sit down on his bunk.

"This Aphrodite girl came up to me and said no matter who I befriended, I would always be a third wheel. Is that true?"

"Drew!" Percy exclaimed. "Ruby, don't listen to a thing that priss says. She just wants to make you feel uncomfortable because she's jealous. Jealous of my new found, pretty little sister."

That made me feel 9 times better. I kissed him on the cheek and crawl up into my bunk. "Tomorrow will be better, good night Ruby." I slipped off into a deep sleep.

Early the next day, before anyone got up I was restless. I needed some fresh air. I journey out, determined to clear my head. I spot Nico sitting by himself. "Hello?" I whisper.

"Who's there?" He replies.

"Ru-Ruby." I didn't know whether to be relieved or terrified by the child of Hades. He let out a sigh. I slink over to the Hades table. He looked up at me almost surprised by who I was. I sit down next to him.

He looks up at me and I can't help but smile. He was cute. Suddenly we're both scooting closer, and our lips collide. I lose myself for a few seconds but then push away. It wasn't right, and I knew that. I quickly stand up and run back to my cabin.

As I slam the door I realize that I might wake Percy up. It wasn't until then that I realized he was with Annabeth. Slowly backing out, I see Nico walking towards me. I don't think I've ever ran so fast in my life. I quickly dived into the lake. The last thing I see is Will Solace calling to Nico.

Hours later someone else splashed in, and of course it was Percy. I tried to swim away, but he was a more experienced swimmer. He caught me in a matter of seconds. "What's up? I haven't seen you all day!"

"All day! What time is it?"

"7:30, precisely time for the sing-a-long."

I decided I couldn't hide from my feelings, so I pulled up to the surface. All the campers gathered around the fire. Happily singing along, I sat down in between Jason and Hazel. We sang Counting Stars by OneRepublic, Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran, and Maps by Maroon 5.

All of a sudden a torrential wind swept through the camp which was abnormal, the it thundered and the ground where the fire was gave out. A dark shadow rose up from the ground. It was a girl, but she looked asleep. A golden light amplified her features. She had flowy, brown hair with bangs that looked like horns that flipped down. She also had a friendly face and was skinny as a toothpick. She looked a lot like Nico, but had tanner skin...like a child of Poseidon. She fell onto the ground and I rushed to her side.

Her pulse was weak, and Nico got paler. "What!? Valentine….It couldn't be!" Everyone heard him, even though he was quiet. "Solace help her!"I could tell by the way everyone else reacted, I could tell that his reaction was not natural. "Will! Get her into the infirmary, NOW!"

"Who's Valentine?" I ask Jason, he only shrugged.

"Nico!" His face gets even paler as he turns toward me. "Who's Valentine?"

He looks back at the stretcher, then back at me. I can tell he wants to say something but he runs toward the infirmary.