This story is filled with OCs because I refuse to finish Percy Jackson and let the stories end. I think fans deserve to know and explore more of the camp, not just go on quests (although those are the best part too). I am borrowing the character of Jayne Cobb from Joss Whedon's Firefly. You do not have to watch the show in order to read this fic; I just love his character dynamic and appearance so much that I wanted to rediscover him as a young halfblood of my own creation.

"I'm 22, why do you ask?"

Elizabeth watched the two men's faces twist in slight confusion and they murmured between themselves again. She shifted in the plasticky office chair, her upper thighs and butt slightly oozing out of it.

"Can you tell us about your family life, please? Your childhood or what brought you here?" The young man cleared his throat. He had facial hair, something classified between a five o'clock shadow and stubble. It must've been itchy as he kept scratching at it, his hands never not moving.

"Oh uhm..." she felt her throat get tight at having to talk about herself. "Average family life, problems just like everyone's I suppose. I'm here because I think I'll be really good for this position-"

"What kind of problems?"

Elizabeth looked at the man in the wheelchair. "Excuse me?" He repeated himself, not blinking, not moving; remaining as calm and cool as if he were at the beach. She shifted her legs and began to pull at the sleeves of her fancy blazer. "I'm... I'm sorry Mr. Brunner, I dont understand what these questions have to do with the internship. Am... am I at the wrong interview? This is for the TA position, right?"

She watched as the two men hesitated, sharing an unspoken connection as they glanced at each other quickly. Mr. Brunner shifted a bit, as though his paralyzed legs were falling asleep on him. "It is for a teaching job, yes, but because of the exact nature of the teaching job, we need to know about your background." He took a breath and smiled kindly. "Please," he said, "if you're alright with it, we'd like to know about your life, all the instances that led you here."

The other man, Mr. Nettles, spoke up. "So we can better understand how you might respond to kids in like situations or with troubled backgrounds. We just want to know how good of a fit you'll be."

As she felt her panty hose tear slightly as she scratched her leg, Elizabeth sighed and went with it. She told the two men how she came from a very large family in a small town. Her mother an angel, her father a terrible human being. She had a lot of siblings and many pets, all of them having to roll with whatever was dealt to them. Poverty, eviction, family deaths, interventions, and everything in-between. Life happened and she went on. "So I definitely know about teenagers going through rough times, I went through many and am still going through them." She took in a breath as her chest tightened, continuing, she said, "that's why I'm here. I want to teach history. I want to let kids know that many great figures and leaders went through terrible times just like they might be..." Elizabeth stopped, she watched Mr. Brunner rub at his beard as he hummed in interest. As she finished her little speech, hoping the interview would wrap up soon, she kept wondering what he meant when he said it was a "type" of teaching job.

"This is just a TA position, right?"

Mr. Brunner smiled warmly at her. "Tell me, Ms. Craft, how extensively did you study the Greeks in your schoolings?"

It all ran through her head as she satin the back of the big white strawberry van. Old memories of warn out mythology books spiraled around Elizabeth's head, an orientation video playing on a screen that hung from the ceiling. The quality was like someone had badly copied a VCR tape onto a DVD.

It showed Mr. Brunner, actually the hero trainer Chiron, extending himself from the fake wheelchair. It showed dozens of kids doing different activities at this Camp Half-Blood she was being transported to. A rock climbing wall that spit lava and shook, girls melting from trees picking strawberries, a blonde tween boy with a scar on his face helping kids pick out the right weapon. Weapons for kids. Huh. Elizabeth wondered which ancient weapon she would get to use. Stop. She told herself. You're a teacher, not a demigod. You have two parents that aren't deities.

The van took a sharp exit off a freeway.

"Sorry," Mr. Nettles said from the passenger seat. His apologetic eyes glanced at her from the rear view.

"It's alright." Elizabeth's voice was quiet as she concentrated on understanding this new part of the world. Well, old part of the world that had stayed behind the scenes as everything became new. She'd been watching the orientation video for nearly two hours of this cross country trip, not focusing on its replay for the last 45 minutes. As she removed the disc and put it in its lil box, she tried for small talk.

"So, Mr. Nettles-"

"Oh please, call me Sky." He faltered. "Short for Skyler". He laughed a little nervously. "My friends always laugh at my first name. They say that when I die I should be reborn as a cloud nymph." At her silence, he continued. "When satyrs die, they are reborn as a part of nature."

"Like a ladybug?"

"What?"

"What?"

It got quiet. Skyler soon cleared his throat. "I know it's a lot to take in, a lot to believe when you first hear it all-"

"Oh I believe it." Elizabeth cut him off. The goat in the front seat raised his eyebrows at her. "I do. I've... I've always wanted them to be real. I went through a very hard time in elementary school. Times when I wished I was dead, didn't have friends, would cry whenever I got home... and then I found this big yellow book of Greek myt..." she stopped herself, blushing. "Greek stories," she corrected. "I checked it out of the school library so many times in one year the librarian got angry at me. I made paper dolls of the gods, and memorized nearly every story. They helped."

Skyler smiled wide in his seat, his eyes never leaving the rear view mirror as she spoke. He had taken his ponytail out earlier, his long black hair getting tangled around the seatbelt. "Well I think you'll find a lot of people just like you at camp. I am surprised you have taken to it all so quickly."

Now it was time for Elizabeth to raise her eyebrows. "Mr. Nettles, Skyler, you do realize our driver is covered head to toe in eyeballs, right?" Argus chuckled a little at this, never taking his eyes off the road.

Skyler visibly jolted in his seat, staring at the driver. "Argus," he said airily, "I don't think I've ever heard you laugh before." The driver smiled and signaled that in about twenty minutes they would arrive. They would be crossing over into Camp Half-Blood.