JEM

"I'll race you to the pine tree, Jem!"

I laugh heartily, and fix into a running position. "You'd really do that, Will? I don't think any competition would be necessary for me to beat you." My real name is Jamie Elizabeth Henderson, and I hate my name, so call me Jem. One thing you must know about me is that I am a hell of a fast runner, and I'm not bragging. Almost everyone agrees with me. Of course, my half-siblings don't.

Half-siblings? Yeah, you heard it right. I have no full-blood siblings, and so do almost all of us 'round here. If you're asking why, brace yourself, because I'm about to sound crazy.

One of each of our parents is a god or goddess.

I know you're thinking, huh? This girl is insane. I told you, I would sound crazy. But it's true. It has been for, I guess, more than ten centuries, and not many people know. I bet you haven't even known of modern demigods. Yeah, I know people mostly know oldies like Perseus and Jason and whatever, but heard of Percy Jackson? That kid is my idol. I mean, fighting all of the Titans and winning the battle? Come on! Who wouldn't idolize him? Screw Achilles and Theseus, this guy is better than all of them.

Fine. I may have had a little crush on Percy Jackson when I first saw his face in the books written in Ancient Greek about the great demigods that changed the course of history. Then that crush kind of went away after I read that he died in the war. Poor Percy Jackson.

What is the war? I would have liked to answer that question myself. What they tell us is that, surely, the gods had something to do with it. Titan War III, as most of the campers call it.

"Yo, Jem! Are we doing this or not?" Will asks cockily. Cheeky Will. Just like most of the Apollo kids, Will Paxton is an awfully cocky boy, and don't let him tell you otherwise. Blond hair, and bright green eyes, he's the sixteen-year-old head counselor of his cabin, consisting of only children of Apollo. They're all equally boastful of their talents, just because they can write poetry and compose music and play ball games quite well. Bah. As much as I would like to throw a knife in each of their heads, Will's still my best friend. We've been through so much and I can't stand killing him.

And what about me? Huh. No one's ever asked me to paint a picture of myself. Imagine this: girl of sixteen, dark brown hair, chocolate brown eyes, lightly tanned skin. My dad? Hermes. God of thieves, messengers, travelers, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Don't expect me to name everything my dad is patron of, because I don't think you'd also want to name all your dad's past girlfriends in front of your mother, now would you?

I didn't think so.

Will grins at me. "You ready?"

I nod. "Are you?"

"Three…"

"Two…"

"One," we say together.

I push my feet forward and dash as fast as I possibly can. Usually, during mini-races like this, Will likes to cheat his way into winning. He likes to shoot beams of light in my face as I run, causing me to stop and give him an easy win. It won't work this time, because I know what he does, and I'm not going to cheat. I'm going to run fair and square.

As I spot Will shooting a beam from the corner of my eye, I stop abruptly, his beam narrowly missing me. As he's running, he curses in Ancient Greek and I look at where he's going as I start to run again.

"Tree! Tree!" I yelp, hoping he gets my message.

Instead, he scoffs, and keeps running, not looking at what's in front of him. "I know Thalia's tree, Jem. We've been there back and fo—"

Yup. Knew it. He's too proud to see the tree right in front of him, and his face collides with the rough bark. I take a moment to laugh at his misfortune, because I know he's going to try to forget this all happened. "Oh my gods, Will, you are a sad human being!" I exclaim.

As he gets up, I start to remember: we're racing here. I run, faster than I possibly have tried in years, and touch the tall, looming pine tree that once had a girl inside it. It's hard to believe that all of this actually happened more than three centuries ago, and all I'm thinking is, if the gods were that screwed up before, what more now?

I see Will dashing up the hill and rubbing his head. It's got a big red bump and it's sort of bulky. "Ugh, how can I ever be attractive again?" he moans.

"It'll shrink, Paxton, relax," I say, still laughing. I glance at the Golden Fleece that released Thalia from her eco-friendly prison. It fully healed her and brought her out of the tree. What astonishing things it can do! But now, I hear she's still alive, leading Lady Artemis' handmaids, the Hunters. They live forever, unless they fall in love or die in battle. Well, I could never be a Hunter—I can't stand staying away from guys-that would be too much.

Will grins and turns his back as I hear the camp horn in the distance. "Come along, Henderson, the wilderness is calling us!" he exclaims, pointing to the sky.

In response, I hear thunder rumbling and chuckle, not surprised that Zeus might be offended when called "the wilderness".