Chapter 1: Surprise, surprise

Apollo's Maserati parted the fluffy white clouds, as he spouted terrible haikus. Despite Apollo's undoubtedly terrible poetry, people in Camp Half-Blood were generally in a good mood. The satyrs went around helping everyone, couples took romantic walks by the lake, nature spirits checked that everything was correct and, overall, demigods just acted like demigods. Most were out in the woods, practising for Capture the Flag at the weekend, but a few were training…

Antonio O'Connor, son of Poseidon, was practicing his jabs and thrusts in the arena with his golden, sapphire encrusted trident. The Poseidon Cabin (which only consisted of three campers, including Ant) were teaming up with the Hecate, Demeter, Hades, Athena and Hermes cabins to try and win capture the flag the next day. Magical sorcerers, plant-lovers, clever strategists, goofy followers, shady kids and flying skirmishers, and if that wasn't enough to make him love the team, Ant's best friends were going to be there.

Ant was doing an upward jab when a camper called Adreana, who was a child of Athena, walked in, holding two knives. She held her head high, never missing a step. She radiated confidence.

Adreana had dark brown hair, flowing down way past her shoulders. Her eyes were a cold blue and her skin slightly pale, but smooth as if she had just been born a normal thirteen year old girl. She wore an orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt along with denim cutoffs that suited her well; she wore leather sandals.

Any girl who can wear what she was wearing could make themselves look pretty. But Adreana is the prettiest girl in Camp, so this just made her look prettier. Ant had to use all his willpower to stop staring.

The child of Athena spotted Antonio training and made her way towards him.

"Hello." Adreana said in her angelic voice that could probably make a baby stop crying immediately. She smiled at the child of Poseidon, but she still held her knives.

"Oh...hey, Adreana! When did you get here?" Ant tried to act casual, but failed, nearly tripping over. The girl still gave Ant the creeps. He quickly remembered the first time he had met her…

Ant was outside the Hades cabin, chatting with Alex, one of his friends, when all of a sudden Adreana, new on that day, walked up and introduced herself to them. The aura of confidence that shrouded her was mistaken for malevolence to him, which made Antonio back away, slowly.

"Antonio O'Connor, where do you think you are going?" Alex asked, looking straight into Ant's soul. Adreana turned her blue eyes onto Ant and smiled. Ant wanted to cry.

"Um...to go get some of your… siblings to meet Adreana!" Ant managed to stammer. The moment he finished talking, he sprinted the opposite direction, crashing into another camper called Cel.

"He's cute when he's nervous." Adreana remarked, laughing with Alex as Ant apologised to the fallen girl.

Ant wasn't happy about the way those two girls had laughed at him. He wasn't happy about the way Adreana made him feel. And Ant definitely wasn't happy with the fact that he couldn't get his trident to work properly.

"I just arrived here now, Ant. Did you not see me?" Adreana giggled, which made him feel worse. Ant could never understand her sense of humour. "You really should concentrate more. What if a Nike kid sneaks up on you? They'll definitely beat you!"

"Seriously? I may be a klutz, but I can defend myself!" Ok, Ant was starting to get annoyed with this girl, mainly because she was insulting him. He was supposed to be the one dishing out the roasts!

"Well, you may just be a klutz because you haven't been trained by my uncle or blessed by Artemis." Adreana mocked. She threw her knives in quick succession, hitting the enchanted and moving board of wood. Ant's mouthed dropped open and Adreana laughed. "Your father trained me, you know. He's a really good teacher, and also really nice. Has a lot of talents to."

"I have talents too!" Ant exploded, whipping out his fork and turning it into a trident. Angrily, he stabbed it into the ground, creating metre long cracks in the ground.

Something like this should have made anyone shocked, but Ant remembered his dream clearly two nights ago. The cracks were supposed to be so much bigger.

"See!" Ant said defiantly, but faltered when he realised that Adreana also expected more from that. Was she able to read minds?

"A big enough lever could tip the world, try to pry it not stab." She advised, sounding deadly serious. Ant didn't want to take advice from a girl who was a year younger than him, but he did it anyway, sure it wasn't going to work. The trident easily bit into the ground, and did something so unexpected, Adreana had to grab his hand to drag him next to her. Huge cracks spread outward in all directions, stopping ten metres from the trident that was embedded in the ground. Ant was too shocked to speak, but Adreana saw this as an opening to gloat.

"See? Being trained by Posey sure has its perks. He told m1e to show you that in a dream." Adreana taunted, making Ant feel even more worthless.

Ever since Ant came into Camp Half-Blood a week ago, the only recognition he had gotten from his father was when he claimed him, and even that was for five seconds. After that, nothing else. Not even a dream. Now Antonio was here, talking to this really pretty but annoying child of Athena that had not only been trained by his dad, but also blessed by Artemis, the goddess of the Hunt. Even his dad found Adreana much more interesting.

"What else did he show you? How to gloat?" Ant said angrily, pulling his trident up from the ground.

"No, Ant. It's no-" Adreana's voice softened but Ant didn't care.

"What did Artemis give you? So much wisdom that you think that you can go around Camp, telling everyone what they're doing wrong?"

"Ant, all she gave me was the power to speak to animals!"

"And I can only talk to horses and sea creatures." What Antonio said was true, but being able to talk to any animal in the world? That was just really unfair. "I probably won't be blessed by any god in my lifetime…"

Adreana was the prettiest girl in Camp, only arriving two days ago. The Aphrodite girls were all jealous of her and the satyrs always talked about her. Some boys were even planning on making a move on her.

Antonio was nothing special. He had always been a klutz and messing everything up. His siblings in the Poseidon cabin always laughed at him whenever he did something incorrectly. His friends had to help him in nearly everything he did. Now this happened.

Adreana stepped in front of Ant, looked straight into his eyes and kissed him. The kiss shocked Ant so much he couldn't move, but he managed to regain enough of his senses to respond. The kiss was warm and gentle. Warmth spread out into Ant's body as Adreana kissed him harder. Ant wrapped his arms around her waist as Adreana's hands pressed against his chest.

After a few seconds, they broke off and looked at each other, really close. Unfortunately, that moment was short lived, because Alex, a child of Hades, walked in, her head held low