"I know this might seem fucked up, but at the camp I go to, the most beautiful people get put in a cabin together just because of their looks." I tell Emily in the car. I don't know how this happens, but when I feel my conversations are too normal, I steer them towards camp. Nothing spices up a conversation like a camp that teaches you how not to be devoured by Hades' bloodthirsty minions.

Emily raises her eyebrow, "That seems judgmental." She pats her baby bump unconsciously.

"Well," I add, "That's not the only reason. You have to have my mom, too. But people guess you're in Cabin Ten if you're really attractive." Everyone at camp is attractive, how could they not be? They've descended from gods.

"Your mom?" Emily finds it hard to believe I have that many half siblings. Yep- Twelve sisters and four brothers.

"Yeah, my mom gets really busy, right? There's Arianna, Piper, Lacy, Mitchell, Riley, Ginny, Jackie, Drew," I mentally skip Silena, "Joshie, Xavier, Bella," Emily almost flinches at this name, "Valerie, Rosanne, Johanna, and Ashleigh."

Emily chuckles, "I think I won't have more than one or two."

I smile.

We drive in silence for a few more minutes, passing thick forest, before Emily asks, "So how did your mom convince you all to go to the same camp?"

Well, I couldn't exactly say the truth that there were mythical monsters out to get us, so I made up a story.

"Well, our mom is... famous among some people, and all of her kids, my siblings, cause trouble to get attention and stuff. My sister Piper stole a car and totally went kleptomaniac. Anyway, we're safe from the paparazzi there. The rest of the kids are there from their parents, too. Some of those cabins even have more people than ours! And," I said, "It's insanely fun!"

I glance up at her mauled face to see if she was interested. She glances over at me at the same time. She smiles, but she's looking behind me, and I spin around to see a huge charcoal wolf, like a hell-hound baby, but cuter. It lacks the wild, rabid, and bloodthirsty look to the eyes and the fangs with points you just couldn't get from a pencil sharpener. "Did you see that?" I ask her. What was she seeing- a poodle? I love mortals imagination. It keeps me entertained.

"The wolf?" she asked, unaffected by the mist. "Yeah, they're everywhere. Just stay out of the forests." She recites her answer like it's rehearsed. I know the feeling. Well, not really, I tend to make up things as I go along. I don't really abide by Chiron's rule book when it comes to talking about camp in the mortal world.

I decide to continue talking about camp, "So at camp we do Capture the Flag in the woods, like extreme mode, every other night or more. Because of camp, I'm also fluent in Greek and French." Emily looked impressed. I decided not to mention that I was better at those languages than English.

"Say something in Greek," she asks me.

"Μιλάω Ελληνικά."

"What does that mean?"

"I speak Greek, literally."


We parked at a small house with tons of forest around it and a porch.

Emily smirked, "After, you can stay for lunch because you helped me shop. And let's pretend you only know how to speak Greek, because it'll be hilarious how the guys react."

I decide she's quite devious. I am proud of her for plotting with me. "You're a genius. Why should you use your powers for good when you can use them for evil?"

We parade through her house- kitchen, first for the groceries, and up the stairs to a cozy bedroom with a dark blue bed spread on a king-sized ceder bed.

"First you." I demand, and she complies, laying on the king sized bedspread with a towel wrapped around her head. I didn't even notice her put that one. Must be my ADHD acting up. "I'll do it for you because it'll be hard for you to see." She closes her eyes, and I thickly lather the white cream paste onto my forefinger. As I stroke her scar up and down, the scar heals perfectly, melding back into her perfect skin before the supposed bear attack. It looks more like a Hellhound took a liking to her face. So she doesn't get suspicious that it healed immediately, I put a cloth bandage over it.

"Stay still for fifteen minutes." I command, and without even using cream, I touch my ex-burn, and it disappears. I put the white cloth on it just to not raise suspicion. It still hurts me when I touch it, not from actual pain, but from memory. I wince. "Γαμώτο!" I hiss the equivalent of the F-bomb in Greek.

"Are you okay?" Emily tries to stand up, but I race over to her and guide her back to the bed.

"Ναι, είμαι μια χαρά- I mean, yeah, I'm fine. I just... looking at it brought back memories."

"That's too bad," she says. The brown-haired, black-eyed girl hesitates, "Tell me more about your camp. You know, to get your mind off it."

I don't argue because I want to forget so badly. I tell her about how some people stay year-round and some leave for the rest of the years. She finds it weird. I say how some people have been there since they were six or seven and some people don't meet their siblings until they're about sixteen. I explain how they aren't my full siblings- we just share the same mom. I don't mention Carrie and Riley, because I find it very weird that they're in love and in the same cabin. Cabin Ten keeps that secret under wraps well. I describe how we have the Fireworks twice every month and it's the primary "date spot" couples go to. One year we convinced Chiron to host a dance. Like I said, one year.

I describe Cabin Ten as a pink, Barbie dream house. It has a painted roof with pillars and a blue-and-white checkerboard porch with steps and grey walls. I call my sisters beautiful girls with designer clothes and my brothers handsome boys with godlike physiques. The hot pink door is alluring for the girly girls of the world. The lace curtains frame the windows and the potted carnations (that we write our crushes names on scrap paper and place under resting on the porch.

The scent of perfume that almost gave Jenna Clark the hives.

I talk about the inside of the cabin. The walls are a rosy pink with white window trimming. The beds are pastel blue for the girls and green for the guys. Every person has a (magical) chest with their name painted on it in calligraphy (the art of writing beautifully) (that fits as much as you can possibly put in it) to put their personal stuff like makeup and clothes. I talk about how my sisters squabble for more space to fit their posters of attractive celebrities, and I just hung pictures of my friends.

Soon, half an hour had gone by, and suddenly Emily shoots up, her brown hair flying up behind her neck, and I curse in surprise as it whips me in the face. "Let's go down! It's time for lunch," she says. "But I have no time to make to before the guys come, so I'm just going to order pizza. Are you good with that?"

I nod, "I'm not picky. Well, I don't eat octopus. I don't eat seaweed, because I will not eat something in the paste I put on my face at the spa-"

Emily cuts me off, hurriedly, "Great!"

Okay.


As soon as the Pizza Hut guy comes, a parade of quite tanned, built, HAWT guys stampede the room like a pack of wolves. I remember Emily's plan, and speak to her in Greek.

"Emily, ποιοι είναι αυτοί οι άνθρωποι?" I ask who these people are.

She somehow knows what I'm asking and points to each of them. "Quil, Seth, Jacob, Embry, Jared-" another attractive man enters the room,m but he's older than the rest of them, "-and this is my fiance, Sam, who I was telling you about." He wraps his arm around her protectively, especially of the baby bump. The side of her face covered with the bandage is facing away from him so he doesn't notice it.

"συγχαρητήρια για το μωρό. Δεν πιστεύω ότι σας είπα ότι νωρίτερα, είμαι τόσο ηλίθιος. (Congratulations on the baby. I believe I didn't say that before, I'm such an idiot.)" I say, throwing my hands in the air and face palming. I thought she said these boys eat a lot? None of them have touched the pizza yet, but ti's probably because the don't know what to make of this dazzling, beautiful Aphrodite child spewing Greek like Rachel's prophecies. Taking advantage of the awe factor, I snatch up a piece of pizza, and motion for fire. "Φωτιά! Φωτιά!" I need to pay tribute to the gods.

Emily furrows her eyebrow. "Alexandra, what?"

I put my hands on my head, and try to come up with something to signify a "fire" charade without looking like a complete idiot.

The HAWT guys finally speak. Jacob, (He looks a lot like Taylor Lautner. They could be twins) I think, says, "Emily, there something you want to tell us? Does she only speak... that language?"

Emily and I laugh lightly, and I curse at him, "Πηγαίνετε στην κοράκια αυθάδη θνητό! (Go to the crows insolent mortal!)"

I hear thundering footsteps enter this room and another fit for Aphrodite/Ares hybrid (most likely just naturally attractive guys on steriods) storms into the room. He's clearly angry at someone. "SAM!" He yells, but then he takes a look at me, and a wave of love and adoration almost knocks me down. I involuntarily flinch from the powerful desire radiating from him.

He looks hurt.

"Συνήθως διαρκεί λίγο περισσότερο για τα παιδιά για να πάρει αυτό εμμονή μαζί μου. Αλλά εντάξει ... Σας αγαπώ πάρα πολύ μάγκα. (Usually it takes a while longer for guys to get this obsessed with me. But okay... love you too dude. )" I rapid fire at them.

The good looking Aphrodite/Ares hybrids burst out laughing.

"Only you, Paul, would get the chick who speaks some foreign language."