Today was going to be the day my life changed. I could feel it even then,though I knew little then about now. And it all started with… "MACK, GET YOUR BUTT DOWN HERE NOW!" I looked up from my work.

"OKAY BE DOWN IN A SEC, I'M WORKING!" I yelled back to my brother, Mitchel. And Michael. And Terry, Joe, Nick, Kevin, Artie, Victor, Harold, Jake, Marc, and Henry. Did I miss anyone?

"Mackenzie, Jake wants to have a cabin meeting." Clayton said. Oh, yeah. This is my other brother Clayton. He was relatively new, though, so I was off the hook. See I live at Camp Half-Blood, I have since I was 4. Now I'm a healthy 13 yr old daughter of Hephaestus. The only daughter of Hephaestus. I know there was another girl, but apparently something happened and no one will tell me what. So, I have 12, no 13 brothers and no sisters.

"So Clayton." Jake said, being the head counselor and all. "You've been excepted to your Clearing. Report tomorrow-Mack where are you going?" I

was already out the door, tears streaming down my face. His Clearing. He'd been here two weeks. This was practically an insult! I bolted out of the Armory and didn't stop. My brown hair reaching out behind me and my scuffed sneakers flung over my shoulder, forgotten. Forgotten just like me. A Clearing is what you need if you are a Hephaestus camper. A private meeting with Dad. Nobody knows what happens until it happens to you, and then you can't tell what it is… For years I have watched older, younger, better and worse people have their Clearing. Clayton was a baby compared to me. 3 months younger, he had only been here two weeks. I had been here 9 long years. I could fight and win. Clayton could barely hold a steak knife. The only thing he had I didn't was gender. I had to be stuck with a sexist pig of a father. Thinking about only made more tears come.

"You going to run forever?" My head shot up. Nico di Angelo, the "bad boy" of camp was standing there in front of me. Girls thought he was hot. I thought he was full of crap.

"Leave me alone"

"Mack, right"

"Only my friends call me that"

"What's wrong?"

"Leave me alone"

"You really don't like me do you…"

"Bite me" He snorted and shook his head. I looked around and groaned. I was near the cabins, so close to the safety of solitude and being alone on the path.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked, actually concerned. Suddenly the dinner bell gonged a great big clanging in it's usual way.

"If anyone asks, I'm going for a run." I told him. Leaving him behind confused I jogged to the one thing that had never failed-my own clearing in the woods. Good old solitude.

Puzzled, I watched Mackenzie leave. Why had she been upset? I mean, not like I cared or anything…but she had been crying. And as you learned quickly at Camp Half-Blood it took a lot to make Mackenzie Carter cry. When she was ten, and I had just gotten here, a older res kid had made fun of her. Instead of crying and making a big deal Mackenzie calmly had him pinned with a broken wrist winded and then went and ate some ice cream. And she hated me. I didn't have the slightest idea why. Still confused and curious, I made my way to dinner. Sitting down alone at my table, I looked over at the Hephaestus kids. They looked uncomfortable and kept glancing towards the path, as if searching for something. I wondered if it is Mackenzie.

"She went for a run" I called over to the 13 kids looking for her.

"I was afraid of that." Jake said. "We won't be able to find her now…" he muttered.

But I could. So I did. I followed her essence, a thing only Hades kids could do. She smelled like oh, dirt freshly turned, flowers in bloom, summer in all. It was strange for a Hades kid, but I almost liked it. Suddenly I heard a freakish scream.

"KENZIE" I called. No answer…