Chapter Two! Hope ya like it! Read and Review, please! :D
Katie Gardener couldn't believe it. She was a demigod. Her mother was a goddess and hadn't left because she hated her (or, at least, she hoped she hadn't left because of that.) The monsters she saw were real and they all wanted to kill her. She could have died. The camp she was going to was to give her a safe place, somewhere to learn how to deal with her newfound demigodishness and to fight monsters.
Good God- or gods?- she was confused. And scared. And, for the first time, worrying for someone else's sanity instead of her own.
She was curled up in a little ball in the front seat, pretending to be asleep. The driver, Argus, still creeped her out. Chiron did, too. And while she felt so confused, she didn't think she should be staring at the many-eyed man, or the half-horse weirdo. She needed to think.
Katie thought, first, that Chiron was a completely insane man in a horse costume and that Argus was actually a normal mute, that she was losing it yet again and imagining all those unnecessary eyes. Second, she thought it all made a strange sort of sense- how else did she explain the demonic mailman? Third, she thought she was dreaming.
Which one was true, she couldn't figure out to save her life.
And, before she knew it, she was fast asleep.
"Katie. We're here."
Slowly Katie opened her eyes, yawning and stretching her arms. At first she expected to look up and see her father's face leaning over her. But instead, she saw hundreds of eyes.
She bit down hard on her tongue to keep from screaming and offending Argus (again) and quickly scrambled up in her seat, peeking over the top. Chiron still lay there, from the waist down all horse. She almost started banging her head against the headrest.
That killed her hopeful "this is all a dream" theory.
Chiron was looking at her with a mixture of concern and…amusement? He thought her reaction was funny? She almost snapped something at him when she remembered he was some ancient being with possible magical powers that she was unsure of. So she bit back the comment and instead said, "No monsters, right?"
He smiled kindly and shook his head. "No, Katie. No monsters. Just others like you…and a few harpies, but they won't eat you unless you're out past curfew."
Katie's eyes widened. Oh, God- gods!- this was going to be some sort of adventure.
Argus came around to her side of the door and opened it for her like a gentleman. She tried her best to smile and not grimace at him as she slid to the grass. As soon as her sandaled feet touched the dirt, she felt better. Rejuvenated. Less like a girl who'd just been through all sorts of emotional crap and more like herself. She smiled without really thinking. She'd always been that way around dirt and plants, though she never really understood why. Maybe it had something to do with her godly parent?
Before she could contemplate the notion further, Chiron came around the side of the van, his hoofed feet softly thudding against the grass. Katie looked at him with awe and wariness, how she'd been looking at him since he'd stepped into the van without his wheelchair. He smiled at her again and said, "Shall we, my dear?" He gestured towards the hill before her.
A sudden nervousness overcame her. She pressed her lips together and she nodded with what she hoped looked like confidence. Her dad had sent her here. It shouldn't be bad here, then.
Right?
With a sigh, she climbed the hill after Chiron, wondering just what she'd gotten into.
Camp was amazing.
There were so many kids, all in bright orange t-shirts that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD, and most of them looked friendly. There were cabins, all so intricately decorated, that she felt for a second that she'd actually stepped through a portal into Ancient Greece. She saw a beautiful lake, met a grumpy old man called Dionysus (was he the Dionysus? Probably), saw plenty of half-goat boys running around after girls who turned into trees, and saw a sword-fighting arena. But the best thing of all had to be the strawberry fields. She could've stayed there all day, feeling the dirt beneath her feet, the sun on her face, surrounded by green life, but Chiron insisted that they find her a place to sleep in the Hermes cabin, since it was already starting to get late. She had to stay there, so Chiron said, because they didn't know her godly parent yet, and so she was just going to sleep there until she was claimed.
Chiron left her at the door. Apparently he had a game of pinochle to attend or Mr. D would get angry. So he cantered off, leaving her face a less-extravagant looking cabin that was blaring the sounds of screaming, laughter, and annoying rap music.
Katie felt nervous again. After seeing all this amazing stuff today, she'd began to think she could belong here. Seeing as everyone seemed to be as crazy as she was. But she hadn't actually talked to any of the kids here yet, and she had begun to think that the worst possible ending of her first day wouldn't be that she'd find out that this was all real. No, it would be that everyone here thought she was as weird as the kids at her middle school did.
Katie popped her knuckles, a bad nervous habit she'd picked up after a few days at middle school. Finally, after a minute or two longer of staring at the cabin door, she worked up the courage to open the door. But as she reached for the doorknob, she heard, "No, no, no! Cooonnnooorrr!" And the door was flung open. Katie screamed as a kid came hurtling out and into her, throwing them in a tangled mess down onto the ground.
"Get off of me!" Katie shouted, kicking and punching, trying to knock the kid off of her.
The boy tried to sit up, but her necklace went with him, stuck in his curly brown hair. He frowned at her, still flailing at him, and at the necklace. "Hey, your necklace is stuck in my hair," he said, pointing to her and then to the necklace. "I'm sort of caught here."
Katie reached up and yanked hard on the chain, pulling it free along with a few hairs off the boy's head. He yelped in pain, then glared at her. "Hey!"
Without really thinking, Katie sat up and snapped, "Well your hair was caught in my necklace because you knocked me over!"
"I was pushed."
"Whatever!"
"Hey, Travis!" A boy who looked nearly identical to the one sitting beside her poked his head out of the cabin's open door, grinning. "That's one way to get a girl!"
The boy, Travis, flipped the kid off and yelled, "Oh, real funny, Connor! Just wait, I'll get you back!"
The other boy just laughed and ducked back into the cabin. With the door open, all the sounds Katie had heard from outside were amplified, and she frowned in disgust. I have to stay here? she thought.
Travis looked back at her and grinned. "So, who's the lucky lady staying with our lovely cabin tonight?"
She wrinkled her nose in disgust at him. "I'm Katie."
"Hmm." Travis tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Now, there's lots I can do with that…"
Katie didn't want to know what that meant. She quickly got to her feet and, with one last glare at Travis, headed for the cabin. As she walked, a blonde-haired boy with a strange scar stepped up to meet her. His smile was kinder looking than Travis's had been, putting her at ease instantly. He held out his hand to her and said, "Hello, there, newbie. I'm Luke. You are?"
Katie smiled at him and shook his hand. "I'm Katie. I'm supposed to stay here until I'm claimed…whatever that means."
Luke nodded and waved her inside, where everything was cramped a chaotic. Luke stayed close by her, keeping the crazed kids from pelting her with spitballs and other various items. "Move aside, new kid coming through!" he shouted, pushing kids aside and leading her to a corner in the very back of the cabin. He'd grabbed her luggage from outside and now placed it in the corner. "I'll find you a sleeping bag," he said. "Make yourself at home." And then he vanished into the chaos.
Katie watched him go, then sat down on top of her suitcase. She smiled a little. Maybe all these kids weren't complete idiots…
Then she saw Travis come back into the cabin. He instantly spotted her and flashed her a grin.
She scowled and looked to the floor.
Maybe Luke and a few others weren't idiots, but Travis...well, she was already sure Travis was going to be a pain in the butt.
God- gods! (She had to remember that)- she could already tell this was going to be one heck of a summer.
