Author's Note: The world of Percy Jackson and the Olympians belongs to Rick Riordan. I do not own it.

Army Recruit

It hurt. That first time she stood on the hill, staring all around her at the green grass and the overcast sky, small hints of familiarity in a world so new and strange, she just about whirled around and fled for home. In that moment, she didn't care if she would be mauled by 'monsters' she hadn't even believed to be real up until a few days ago. She just wanted to see something other than the cabins, the mostly typical camp setting. This spelled out for her the worst place in the world. She knew this was just for the summer, but wanted to reject it all the same.

In her hand was a grungy softball, worn down by years of hitting it and throwing it. She tossed it up and down, up and down, her eyes tracing it as though she were meant to be hypnotized by it. That was all she had brought. She had never been big on preparing, for anything, and figured she'd be going home immediately after coming here. She wouldn't even think of staying beyond the first day. Camp Half-Blood had seemed like a nightmare from the minute she'd arrived. Being thrown into a world of Greek gods and demigods was not her idea of an ideal summer. She wished for home, with her father, a scientist who studied four days a week and still managed to spend time with her. Her friends and the softball team were at home. Her physics textbooks were at home, and she wished that she'd thought to bring at least one of them. It seemed like it would be boring around here.

She started to descend the hill, trying to stare at the cabins, because it was so much easier than looking at the campers. They all seemed divided into different, alike groups; some tough, athletic teenagers stood laughing by the bathrooms. A group of girls with their hair done just so and pink nails that sparkled in the small rays of sunlight chatted while standing in the grass. There were other groups, but they were more diverse and not quite so stereotypical.

Stopping, she reached up to tighten her ponytail. From the corner of her eye she could see a half-man, half-horse figure approaching her, and she twisted around to face him. She opted for her best glare instead of a bored look, her green eyes obscured by a thick, bushy red brow. The horse-man-thing seemed unfazed; he galloped up to her with a warm smile on his face that she wanted to slap off. "So you're Zadessa Jones, then," he commented.

"Dess," she insisted, juggling her softball with one hand again. "How long till I can leave?"

His grin grew, if anything, wider, much to Dess' annoyance. "We'd appreciate it if you stayed the entire summer, so you can be more educated on what you are –"

"What are you, exactly?" she challenged.

"I am a centaur. You can call me Chiron, and I am the Activities Director of Camp Half-Blood. Now, for your earlier question, you will stay here for the summer. Some of our campers stay here year-round, as they have nowhere else to go, but apparently you aren't one of them."

"Of course I'm not," Dess said, almost angrily.

"Very good, then we'll show you to your ca-"

"Hold your horses, centaur," she interrupted, snickering a little at her own, pathetic joke.

"You will call me Chiron or sir, Dess."

"Okay, Sir Dess." She saluted him. "Anyway, I don't know why I'm here. It's pretty obvious I'm not a half-blood, right?"

"You will address me as Chiron or sir! And of course you're a half-blood. The very fact that you can see this place is proof enough."

Dess racked her brains for the conversation she'd had with a satyr before coming. She had mostly tuned him out, but managed to retain some information. "Maybe I'm just an ordinary human with the power to see through the… um… Fog, sir," she suggested.

Chiron shook his head. "It's Mist, not Fog. You raise a good point, but the satyr I talked to informed me that you had power you knew not of."

She rolled her eyes. "I've always wondered how the crap that satyr found me. I have plenty of friends, from the softball team, so I'm not alone like most demigods. I'm not dyslexic. I study physics!" Even as she said it, Dess recalled a time back when she was no more than three and her father was teaching her to read. She was always getting 'dog' and 'God' mixed up. She defiantly shrugged that memory away. "And so what if I have ADD? A lot of people do."

"You're a half-blood, Dess," Chiron said gently, but with a tone indicating it was the end of the conversation. "Now, you'll be sleeping in the Hermes cabin until one of the gods claims you as theirs. You should go talk to a few of them, try to make friends. They can tell you about Capture the Flag, which we're having on Friday." He smirked and galloped away, leaving Dess to make her way (slightly apprehensively, though she'd admit it to no one) down the hill towards the Hermes cabin.

At once a boy sprung out to greet her. "Hi, I'm – whoa," he said, looking over her head. "I don't think you belong in this cabin."

Dess rolled her eyes. "The centaur told me to sleep here till I'm claimed, okay?"

"I know. But you're being claimed right now," the boy told her.

She immediately jerked her head upwards. A little heart hovered in the air over her, and she raised her hands to swat at it like it was a bee.

Chiron came sprinting towards them, and Dess groaned. Does he have to follow me everywhere?

"You've been claimed by Aphrodite," the centaur informed her calmly, far calmer than Dess felt herself. "Admittedly, I would have guessed Athena, due to your interest in physics, but Aphrodite could have been expected too, because of your elegant name…"

"And she's pretty, too," the boy laughed. Dess felt like punching him, but suppressed her anger just in time.

Instead she turned to Chiron. "Just who is this Aphrodite, then? What is she the god of?"

"She's the goddess of love."

Dess swallowed hard and felt her face burning in shame and embarrassment. "My mom is the goddess of love?" she shrieked. "That can't be right. There's no such thing as love."

"There is," Chiron said a bit forcefully, and Dess wondered if she'd offended him. "Now go over to that cabin, that's Aphrodite's."

She nodded, biting her lip to keep in the nasty comments she wanted to make, and solemnly walked towards her cabin with her softball in her hand, hoping there was at least a television in that pile of wood.

*

It was around dusk when Dess stormed out, a streak of red nail polish on her forehead and lip gloss covering her arms. "Ugh," she whispered, sitting down in the grass and trying to rub off her arm on the evening dew.

The sound of footsteps reached her ears. She looked up, bristling, to see the boy who had talked to her outside of the Hermes cabin. "Glad to see you're being girled up," he teased. "You'd do better with your hair down."

She again had to quell the urge to slap him and spoke as if he had never opened his mouth. "Gosh! The girls in there are so frilly and obsessed with make-up. I was just sitting on my bed when they came over to me and attacked me with this crap!" Dess gestured to the nail polish on her face and the lip gloss on her arms.

"It looks like you got a thousand tattoos," the boy agreed.

"Can I leave yet?" she asked abruptly, standing up. "Is there like, a rule that I have to stay here for the summer?"

"It would help," he informed her. "There's… a war of sorts, going on. Some of the half-bloods have turned against us and against the gods. Instead, they're siding with the Titans, who came before the gods, and we think they're going to try to take over Olympus, and even Camp Half-Blood. You can help us with the war. We need every half-blood we can get."

She decided not to mention she hardly understood any of what he had just said. Her anger swelled, until her cheeks were crimson with rage. "So that's what I am, then? An ARMY RECRUIT? I didn't sign up for this! I don't care about this stupid stuff! I didn't even know it existed before a few days ago. I'm not going to fight for you stupid freaks! You and all the rest can go DIE! You can go get SLAUGHTERED by those Titans, whatever the crap they are! I don't care! I just want to go HOME!"

Several people looked out their windows, but she ignored them. Dess just glared at the boy, willing him to say anything, anything at all, to break the silence. She wished that the hurt, taken-aback look would die off his face, because she felt guilty and didn't want to.

Her wish came true when he steadied himself, but instead of anger to match hers, his face was full of disappointment. "Then leave. There's no room for selfishness here. We're fighting for a cause we believe in. We don't need you to hinder us."

"I don't believe in that cause," Dess said, her face stiff.

"Then don't fight," the boy concluded, and turned to walk away. Before he could, though, she whacked him in the back of the head.

He didn't even turn around.

*

That night, she lay on her mattress, staring reproachfully around the cabin. She hated everything here. She hated everyone here. Most of all, she hated the boy she had talked to outside, for not getting angry, for not allowing her to vent in an argument. She tossed and turned, small dreams coming to her but fading away as she continuously lurched awake.

Clutching her pillow, she sighed. She would stay, she decided, for the summer, if only to prove that she wasn't a total jerk. Even if, deep down, she knew that she was.

Author's Note: I'd love constructive criticism. This is basically an introduction to Dess, my OC... I'm probably going to do a few one-shots with her. Any reviews are much appreciated. Let me know what I need to improve on!