I could only fit four characters in the box, but for copyright purposes, I would like to point out that most of the characters did not come from me. In addition to the Stoll brothers, Leo, and Annabeth, I borrowed Percy J., Piper M., Frank Z., and the rest of the seven from the great mind of Rick Riordan himself. I also borrowed some of his descriptions for the gods, leaders/ co-leaders of the cabins, and some campers. Only Alexix and much of the storyline belong to me.

Alexix

I don't want to go." I told my mother firmly, but it was no use. I would have a better chance convincing a polar bear to move back to Texas with me.

"You know it's the only way after what you've done."

I scowled. "I told you I didn't do it."

"Yet you wouldn't tell me, or the police, who did... do it. I don't have a choice Alexix. You knew this was coming. Would you rather have me send you to one of those juvenile delinquent places? This is the only option for you."

"Fine." I snapped. Then I jumped out of the car. Wincing slightly as the heat hit my skin, I dashed away from the SUV and its rusted sides and its cheesy toys stuffed between the torn up seats. I dashed away from the smell of fast food and the leftover French fries that had long since gone cold and the empty wrappers that once held sustenance and now held nothing but grease smears. I dashed away from the one thing that would take me back to screaming children and Lego's and Polly Pocket's and wrestling matches. And my mother. I dashed away from her too. I ran towards the big white house that stood at the top of the hill.

The sun bore down on me angrily as though desperate to sear the skin off of my bones. I wasn't sure I could make it to the top, but I did, collapsing into the chilled, manufactured air. I leaned heavily against the nearest wall and looked around the room.

There was a pair of kids in there, I guessed they were campers. They were dressed in matching orange t-shirts, but that was about where their similarities ended. The girl who stood there was red faced and huge. She looked like a female version of Digger, all muscle, and her expression told me that she enjoyed crushing the skulls of puppies in her free time.

The boy was thinner, shorter. His face was leaner, and his scowl didn't seem as unfriendly as the girl's, but his eyes were deep, almost troubled, like he knew everyone's secrets, even before they did. It seemed that they were in a screaming match, but they had fallen silent when I walked in. Now both of their glares were aimed at me. Awesome.

"Hey, uh, Chiron?" The guy called nervously, "We've got company."

An older guy walked in, ducking under the door frame. At first I thought he was just freakishly tall, and then I realized that he was riding a horse, only he wasn't riding it. He was the horse. I stumbled backwards wide-eyed. I would have left, but the heat from outside was a pretty convincing argument to stay indoors.

"you're a… he's a… that's not…" I stammered, sounding like my little brother, West.

"A centaur, my dear, and your name?" the guy looked like a hippie, long beard, shaggy hair, shirtless.

"I, uh, Alexix." I managed to get out.

The hefty girl snorted. "Great, that's just what we need right now. A newbie."

The boy's scowl deepened. "Shut up, Clarisse. You know we're supposed to take in all the new campers. You look a bit older than thirteen, though." I crossed my arms over my chest as he looked me over critically.

Clarisse frowned and grabbed at the handle of… was that a sword? "Shut up? Don't tell me to shut up you…"

"Hush child. Why don't you two take the matter outside? We can resume our discussion at a later time."

The two walked out, Clarisse staring me down the whole way. Once they were gone, I shoved myself off of the wall and moved farther into the room. Chiron gestured to a sofa, but I shook my head.

"This is where I'm supposed to come right? The sign-in place or whatever?"

Chiron nodded. "I'll show you an orientation video for the camp, but I thought we might have a conversation first."

I sighed, but didn't sit down. "Fine, you want to talk, we'll talk. Really though, I don't think your methods are totally sound. I mean, I don't know what that chick, Clarisse is in here for, but she didn't seem to be one you should trust around sharp objects. She had a sword."

"I'm aware of the delusions that you have been under, but this isn't an ordinary camp."

"Yeah, I know. Obviously this is a place for bad kids like me or freaks like you. No offense. That still doesn't make me want to be here."

Chiron frowned and opened his mouth to speak again, but before he could say anything the phone rang. Chiron sighed and motioned for me to stay put. Then, he trotted back out, which I took as my cue to leave. I shut the door carefully behind me so it didn't make a noise, and I was free.

I walked through the camp alone. There was a lot of orange which, quite frankly, was a huge put off. It seemed that everyone was wearing it. I looked around for someone to talk to, but no one looked very welcoming. Finally, I decided I might be better off hovering at the edges of the camp instead of actually trying to meet someone.

Choosing an isolated tree just a short distance into the woods, where the air was cooler and the sun was blocked by the trees, I turned and looked over the campground. There was a volleyball sandpit next to a basketball court. Both were filled with kids that seemed to be super talented athletically. That definitely wasn't for me. Farther back, there was a rock wall with… was that lava? And archery fields, and even a forge! This was the coolest delinquent summer camp I had ever seen, but I would have traded it all to be back in Texas with my friends.

I wondered idly what Jenna would be doing. My best friend since kindergarten, Jenna was as much a part of me as my right hand. We used to do everything together. Then my mom gave me the news of a summer camp. Jenna did everything she could to get in too, but the camp was full before she was accepted. In the end, she ended up getting in more trouble than the camp was worth. Two days in and I was already missing her. Worse was the stupid no phones rule the camp had, not that my mom would give me a cell phone anyway. Jenna was farther away than ever, which meant I was alone.

Over by the huge white house, the half horse man had come back out and was talking with a pair of campers. He gestured to the trees and a sinking sensation filled my gut. There was always a chance that they weren't talking about me of course, but something told me that wasn't the case. Turning, I started forcing my way back into the woods. There were lots of trees, which was sort of cool. There weren't a lot of trees in my part of Texas. I guess there were probably more down by the coast or maybe up in the mountain area, but I was bred in the flatlands. All this green was a foreign concept to me.

Suddenly, something burst out of the trees to my right with a roar. Letting out a gasp of surprise, I stumbled back. Unfortunately, I wasn't in Texas anymore and my way back was blocked by a tree. With wide eyes, I stood pinned as a huge metallic looking lion stared me down. "Oh… my…"

"Leo!" a boy's voice called out through the trees and I heard something crashing through the foliage.

The lions ears rotated with a whir, but his eyes were trained on me. I took a closer look at the metal of his teeth. Unfortunately, they looked extremely real and horribly sharp. Its eyes were two dark video cameras zooming in on my face. Really, it was an amazing piece. I could have spent hours just looking at the outside, if only it wasn't trying to kill me. Those are the breaks I suppose. The lion lowered its torso—do robots have a torso part?—and though I don't speak lion fluently, I figured this meant it was ready to eat.

It opened its mouth and roared again this time accentuating it with a burst of flame. If I hadn't rolled to my left, I would have been flambéed. As it was, I realized that I was not meant to be a forest ninja, and I ended up sprawled all over the ground. I shoved myself up using another tree and faced the lion again.

Then a boy burst through the same area that the lion had launched itself. "Leo!" he said with obvious relief. Then he spotted me, "Whoa, no. Uh, bad lion." He said, stepping between us.

To me this seemed an extremely bad idea, but this kid pulled a remote out of his pocket and started hitting a bazillion buttons, ignoring my look telling him he was insane. I guess he was right because the robo-lion shut down.

The kid turned to me, and I got my first good look at him. He had dark brown curly hair that splayed across his tanned forehead. His eyes were dark and full of concern, and I saw him summing me up too. I raised my chin defensively, and his face split into an impish grin.

"Are you alright?" He asked through his smile.

"I'm fine, thanks." I tried not to be too curt, but this wasn't exactly what I had imagined my first impression would be like.

"Why didn't you scream?" The question made my face burn, though I couldn't tell if it was with embarrassment or anger at his assumption.

"I wasn't afraid." I snapped, shoving off of my tree. Then I remembered I was supposed to be making friends and softened my tone a tad. "That's super cool. Where did you get it?"

"I made it. Child of Hephaestus and all. It's kinda my thing."

I tilted my head, "Child of Hephaestus? What does that mean?"

His eyes widened, and he scanned me again. Self-conscious, I looked myself over too, but aside from a bit of extra dirt on my knees, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, "What?" I demanded.

"Uh… nothing. Didn't you go through orientation with Chiron though?"

I scowled. "He had to take a phone call."

"So you left?" he puffed out his cheeks and shoved his hands through his hair. "Right, well I think I, uh, should get, um, Piper. Or maybe Jason or Percy. Or Annabeth or…"

"I get it; you're not the guy to talk to. That's cool. Nice meeting you anyways, uh…"

"Leo." He stuck out his hand though it was covered in motor oil.

I narrowed my eyes at the hand suspiciously. "Wasn't that the lion's name?"

This time he blushed. "Oh, well, Leo means lion, so it seemed like a fitting name. The fact that we happen to share the nombre is totally a coincidence."

There was a laugh in the woods to my left, "Yeah right. You name all of your inventions Leo."

I grinned as two more figures emerged from the woods. I recognized them as the two campers that the horse guy was talking to, and my smile faded a bit. Leo blushed a little deeper than laughed and gave a sweeping bow to introduce the new pair. "This is Annabeth and Percy. Percy's the guy and Annabeth is—"

"I'm sure she can figure that bit out." Annabeth cut in, rolling her eyes. When she focused them back on me, I felt like a bug under a magnifying glass. Percy was looking me over too, and I had to bite back a sigh. I suppose I should get used to being looked at. Jenna would have called it one of the 'New girl probs'.

"You're Alexia?" Percy asked, as though there were a bunch of different new campers running around.

"Alexix. I don't really do nicknames until I get to know you better." I wasn't trying to be snarky, but I was kind of fed up.

"Right, well, welcome to Camp Half-Blood." He grinned at me and I tried to smile back.

"Why don't you boys go do something productive while I go talk with Alexix?" Annabeth's question left no room for argument, and the boys both left, though Percy gave her a quick kiss before he went.

"Your boyfriend?" I asked once they were gone.

Annabeth smiled, "Yeah. So, let's get you orientated, shall we?"

I scowled again. "You know what? That's alright. I'm fine, really. All oriented up."

Annabeth hooked her arm through mine and led me out of the woods, obviously not believing me. "So, I have a bit of tough news for you. Everyone here at this camp is a demigod. That means that one of our parents was a human and the other…"

My eyes widened. "Oh no. No way. Trust me, if you knew my parents you wouldn't try to convince me that they were anything more than what they are. Which is human, just so we're clear. This camp is for the bad kids, the messed up psychos."

She looked at me sympathetically, like she had expected my denial. "I bet you're ADHD, right? Most of us are. Dyslexic, too. That's normal, it's 'cause we're more than what we are. Shuffled around to a bunch of schools and labeled troublemakers. My boyfriend, Percy, he's been to let's see… seven schools now? And obviously you've gotten into a bunch of trouble, that's normal too."

I looked at her skeptically. "You're telling me that all kids who have difficulty reading are part g-" I couldn't even say the word.

"Of course not. But it's a pretty good indicator."

"Look, you've got the wrong girl then." I unhooked my arm from hers and stepped away. "I'm a great reader, top of my class, and I've never been diagnosed as anything other than GT. No ADHD anywhere in me. Sorry."

"Look, I know this isn't exactly an easy thing to accept, but it's true. Do you have any idea which parent might not be blood-related to you?"

"No!" I shouted, getting mad. "They're both related to me so you can shut your face! Look, I don't take kindly to liars, sweet, so I suggest you tell me the truth from here on out. If you can't give that to me then I'll find somebody that can."

Annabeth finally relented and suggested we climb to the top of a hill. "It's got a really nice view of the camp."

So I followed her up. Once we were at the top, I could see the whole layout of the camp. There were tons of cabins arranged in an omega so that they extended all over the camp. There were more campers milling about now, and I could see what looked like a dining pavilion.

It was cool on top of the hill, and we sat in the shadow of a huge pine tree that seemed to glow with its own light, so the sun wasn't beating down on me. It was actually a lot more comfortable than I was used to, and I found myself enjoying the outdoors, which was totally new for me.

"So… tell me about yourself."

I looked at her strangely. "You are an odd duck, you know that?" She didn't say anything, so after a moment I sighed and moved on. "So I live in Texas. I'm sixteen. I have a big red truck which is what everyone who's anyone has in Texas, but I couldn't bring it here because of some seriously messed up rules in the camp." She frowned, but I didn't give her a chance to interrupt.

There was something about Annabeth, she made me feel like she was really listening, and more than that, she made me feel like she actually cared about what I was saying. I found myself telling her everything about my life, well almost everything. I talked about my three little all-natural brothers who I love more than anything, my natural sister who gets on my nerves in an endearing fashion, my school, Jenna, even about my ex-boyfriend, though I only skimmed the surface on that one. By the time I was done, it was late afternoon, and I had just about lost my voice. "Alright, your turn." I finally said.

"Well, I was raised for the first few years of my life by my father. Then he got remarried and my evil stepmother didn't like me bringing monsters around all the time, so I ran away. I made it here with a couple other half-bloods and a satyr. My dad and I are still working on our relationship, but my real mom and I are slightly better off. She's Athena, you see, and she's finally started speaking to me, which is nice. My boyfriend, Percy, has saved the world more than a couple of times, but he won't talk about it if you ask him. He's cute that way. He's the son of Poseidon. Then there's the other major honcho, Jason. He's the son of Jupiter, so he and Percy butt heads a bunch."

"What, I mean, if I was a demigod, not that I am, but if I was, who do you think my parent would be?"

She looked me over seriously, and I gave her kudos for not smiling. I don't think I would have been able to keep a straight face after hearing such a convoluted sentence. "Well, you could be a child of Ares… no offense, but you're kind of hot headed. Or maybe… Apollo? You have Hermes eyebrows, but you've never been caught stealing. Of course, you could always be a child of one of the minor gods. I think that's more likely since you didn't mention ever fighting off monsters."

Just then a conch sounded over the camp and Annabeth leapt to her feet. "Come on. That's dinner. You're going to be sitting with the Hermes kids since he's the god of travelers."

"I thought he was thieves." I said as we jogged down the hill.

"He's that too. And the god of medicine. He actually covers a pretty broad spectrum, but you're with him nonetheless."

At the pavilion, Annabeth introduced me to Connor and Travis, psycho brothers who I'm pretty sure were on drugs. They were so alike they could have passed as identical twins, so I lost track of who was who about two minutes after meeting them. Both boys had crazy curly red hair, arched eyebrows, and matching mischievous grins. They both had the weird leather necklaces on, and matching orange camp shirts. I'm pretty sure that if they wanted to, they could get ready just by looking at each other, no mirrors necessary.

Once Annabeth left, the two started talking ninety miles an hour, leading me over to a table with about twenty other campers assembled around it.

"So who are you?"

"Newbie, eh? Well don't worry, we'll get you sorted."

"We're your councilors for now. But you should get claimed pretty soon."

"Right, that's when your parent on the uh, higher side names you as one of their spawn."

"You're supposed to be claimed when you're thirteen, but obviously that didn't happen."

"You are older than thirteen, right?"

"Duh, look at her. I'd say she's about two years younger than me."

"Wanna make it a bet?"

"You're on. Five bucks."

"Why not go for ten? Unless you're doubting yourself already?"

"No way. Challenge accepted."

"So how about it, girly? How old are you?"

They both turned to me expectantly, and I realized they actually expected an answer. "Oh, uh. Sixteen."

The brother on the right crowed. "Whoo! That's ten bucks!"

"Come on." The other one muttered, "Let's get her filled in."

"Hey, so how'd you make it so long on your own?" They asked; I was beginning to see them as a single entity.

"I'm not like you guys, okay? I don't have a godly parent. Just two human parents."

The Stoll brothers exchanged looks, but were kept from responding by the arrival of the food. It was brought out to us by a bunch of little girls dressed in green and brown. I raised my eyebrows at the brothers. "Um, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but slavery was abolished from the US like, fifty years ago."

The brothers laughed. "They're wood nymphs."

My eyes widened. "Nymphs?"

"Yeah, they help out at the camp since they live here. It's kinda like a return service for us not killing their trees and all."

"I can't believe this." I managed as the nymphs set the food on our table. "Is this for real? It isn't just some practical joke right?"

The brothers laughed again, "You insult us; our jokes are much cooler than this. I mean, let's get real, Hermes is the god of thieves."

"Right. Hermes." I saw the first table get up and start tossing some of their food into the bonfires that littered the pavilion. "Burnt offerings? Really?"

"Yeah. The gods like the smell."

"The smell. Of burning food." Suddenly, it was just all too much. I stood quickly, muttered some excuse about not being hungry, and ran out of there like Hades himself was after me. Not that I believed in things like that.

Please comment, follow, or rate, but don't hate! If you like it, please tell me! If not, you can tell me that too. I'll try to update the story at least once a week, so if you have some ideas, feel free to throw them out there. Thank you all, NinjaB.