AN: I own nothing! Not, Riordon's characters, settings, etc., or the various things that Drea alludes to. This is fifteen, almost sixteen, years after the prolouge, and begins at the begining of the first book.

One Step Closer—Chapter One: I'm Recruited for a Cult

I woke up this morning with a bad feeling. A glance at the calendar on my wall told me why. Today was the last day of school. To most kids, that was a good thing, but to me it meant the last day at this foster home. This one lasted longer than I expected, but I knew that they'd soon grow tired of me and send me back into the foster system. They always did.

The day went in a blur; the last day of class was just a formality. I said goodbye to the friends I never bothered to make and hurried back to the house I'd been living in. When I got there, my foster family was nowhere to be seen, but Ms. Rylie was waiting for me. Ms. Rylie is the social worker in charge of my case; she's been in my life longer than my own mother. My mother who I have absolutely no memory of. No face, no voice, no anything. I don't even know if she's alive or not. Hell, it's not like I know anything about my father either, zip there as well.

Ms. Rylie offered me a small smile, "Good afternoon, Drea. How are you today?"

I ignored the question, "So, am I going back to the orphanage or do you already have yet another temporary place for me?" They were always temporary; I've been in twelve different homes in my lifetime.

She sighed. "Good to know you're feeling fine. I'm good too, thanks for asking."

"Sorry, Ms. Rylie."

"That's okay. But you'll be happy to know that neither of those options are correct."

"What other options are there?"

"I'm going to take you to a camp for the summer."

"Camp?"

"Yes. Get your things."

"Okay…" I run into the house and grabbed my few bags: two small duffel bags of clothes, my laptop case, and my guitar. All I'll ever need. Hopefully this camp has an outlet somewhere. I exited the building and threw my things into the open trunk of Ms. Rylie's car. "So, where am I going?"

"It's a surprise," she answered.

"Come on, you have to give me a hint. Space camp? Camp Rock? What?"

"You'll have to wait and see." Ms. Rylie opened the passenger seat door and gestured for me to get in.

I sighed, "Fine, but if the suspense literally kills me, you're to blame."

"Don't worry Drea; if something's going to kill you, it's not suspense."

I gave her a questioning look as I climbed into the vehicle.

Hours into the countryside later…

"Ms. Rylie, where the hell are we?"

"What have I told you about your language?"

"Sorry. Where the hell are we, please?"

Ms. Rylie sighed, "We're almost there."

I looked out the window at the sprawling fields, cows, and farmhouses. "Where is there?"

"Have you never seen farmland before?" Ms. Rylie asked as she parked the car. "Okay, we have to walk the rest of the way."

I got out of the car. "Where's the path that takes us there?"

"There isn't one," Ms. Rylie said as she pulled my stuff out of the trunk. "Take these." She handed me my bags and began walking away.

I rolled my eyes. What camp is literally in the middle of nowhere? I followed her toward a tall hill. "Ms. Rylie, where are we going? There is nothing out here. Are you going to murder me or something?"

"Please stop whining, it's unbecoming," she replied.

"I'm not whining, I'm complaining," I informed her. I smirked and then added in a high-pitched voice, "Thiiiis is whiiiiining!"

She gave me a hard look and then said, "Look, we're here." She'd stopped at the top of the hill a few feet from a tall pine tree. I looked out at the valley below. All I could make out was a large farmhouse with a large wooden porch.

"Um, that's not a camp, that's a house," I pointed out to her.

She fixed me with a pointed look. "Just go to the house, you'll find the camp, don't worry."

"Wait, you're not coming down?"

"No, this is the end of the line for me. I can't cross the tree."

"The tree-What are you talking about?"

"Calm down, young one," I heard beside me. I turned to face the voice, but I had to look down to see the bearded man in a wheelchair. "You'll understand soon. Follow me." He began to roll down the hill. I was surprised he didn't lose control and go wheeling down the hill at a crazy speed.

I looked over at Ms. Rylie, "So, I'm staying with a creepy cripple?"

She sighed, "You'll never learn to filter what you say, will you? Look, give this place a chance; it may be the only place you belong."

I looked back at the farmhouse and the wheelie-man waiting for me. "I doubt it. If he tries to make me tend crops I'm leaving."

"But you love to garden."

I gave her my famous, or rather infamous, death glare. I saw the shiver run down her spine and smirked internally. I could always glare the guy to death if he tried to make me work the fields or whatever they do on farms.

I changed my expression to a smile, "Goodbye, Ms. Rylie. I'm sure we'll see each other soon."

She smiled, "Bye. Try to play nice with the other campers." She began to walk away, but then turned to me and said seriously, "Don't. Kill. Anyone."

I'm not entirely sure she was joking, but I ignored it anyways and began descending the hill. I came up next to the bearded man. "So, what do I call you?"

"Chiron."

"Chiron?"

"Yes."

"Weird. Well, I'm Drea."

"It is nice to meet you."

"Yeah, sure. So where am I?"

He began to wheel away and I followed him, agitated at his ignoring of my question. We ventured all the way around the side of the house. I stopped dead in my tracks. A camp had suddenly appeared behind the farmhouse. I wasn't sure how I didn't see it from the top of the hill. From where I stood, I could see everything from an archery range to a volleyball pit, including cabins, a climbing wall, a lake, lots of woods, a weird pavilion thing, and amphitheater, and lots and lots of strawberries.

"As I said, I'm Chiron. I'm also activities director," I barely heard him say. Good thing too, if I'd fully heard that, I would have laughed my ass off. I was distracted at the time, however, by the large group of kids on some kind of stage in full armor attacking each other with swords. What the hell?

"Drea?"

Chiron's voice finally brought my attention over to him and some pudgy man in a gaudy Hawaiian shirt. "This is Mr. D. He is the camp director."

"Great another one," the man grumbled. He sighed. "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."

"Camp Half What?"

"Blood. Half-blood."

"Okay." This place is kind of starting to sound like a cult. "Camp Half-Blood?" I said it slowly.

The pudgy man grumbled to himself some more, "Great a slow one. Chiron, you deal with her."

Great, the director sounds like he'd rather eat the kids than deal with them. Lovely.

"So what does it mean? Half-blood? Are you going to tell me I'm a wizard now?" I laughed.

"No," Chiron answered as if my question was serious.

No sense of humor. This summer's going to be fun. "Okay, then go back to the first question. What does it mean?"

"Drea, do you know about the Greek Gods?"

That ignoring thing is going to get annoying.

"Yeah, sure. I've heard of them. I don't really know anything though."

"Great," Mr. D comment.

"That's okay. You can learn. Let's start with the first lesson. They are real."

Oh, a religious cult, even better. Well, I'm avoiding the Kool-Aid. "Look, I'm atheist, I don't really believe—"

"And she doesn't believe, how surprising!" Again, Mr. D.

"Whether you believe or not, Drea, the Gods exist. Actually, everything in Greek Mythology exists."

I stopped myself from laughing. "And what does this have to do with me?"

"What do you know about your parents?"

I'm not dumb; I knew exactly where this was going. "I am not the child of a nonexistent Greek God." Thunder roared in the distance. I immediately checked for storm clouds, but there were none.

"You are a demigod, someone with one mortal parent and one divine parent. It will take time for you to process this. Until then, let me give you a tour." He moved like he was about to get up out of his wheelchair. That was impossible, right? But he did rise. And the strangest thing happened. Somehow, a horse body appeared out of the wheelchair. I blinked a few times, but Chiron now suddenly had a white horse's body.

I turned around and pretended I hadn't seen a thing. "Let's just start this tour."

He led me around the camp, but I only half listened. I was far too distracted by what was going on around me. A total freak show. These people… I don't even know where to begin. Maybe with the Greek armor, the really odd cabins, the sword fighting, and I don't know what else. Oh, and apparently, this place has an armory. What camp has an armory?

Okay, I've had enough of this for one day, but then again, how much worse could it get?

"Now, to assign you a cabin. Since you're undetermined—"

"What does that mean?"

"It means that we don't know who you're divine parent is."

I shouldn't have asked. I guess he's going to push this child-of-a-God stuff. I ignored it for now. "Why this cabin though?" Inside, it was packed with kids, and I mean like over-sized sardines.

"This is the Hermes Cabin. He's God of travelers, so he welcomes all."

I peered inside again. "There's no way in hell I'm staying in there with all those freaks-I mean-people."

Chiron gave me a hard look, like he was calculating me. Apparently, I equaled the right number, because he said, "Follow me."

He led me into the trees near the waterfront. Hidden deep in the woods, far away from the cabins, was another cabin. It was made of dark stone and stood above the ground.

"This cabin has no patron God."

"Good. So no fr-people to share with?"

"No."

"Perfect." I rushed up the stairs, longing to shed my bags that I'd carried around this entire time. I was in an open area of the cabin, there were rooms of to each side and I could see a small garden behind it.

Chiron called to me, but I didn't hear him. I think it had something to do with dinner. When I turned back around, he was gone. I sat down on the couch, thankful for the breeze that blew through the cabin. I recalled all the events of today.

Nonexistent Gods, freaks, and a guy with a horse's ass stood out in my mind. What had he called me? A demigod?

Nope, there was no way in hell this was real.

Camp Half-Wit: Day One

This place is full of delusional freaks.

Whoever convinced these people that they're the offspring of Greek Gods must be a master manipulator. Really, Greek Gods? They don't even exist! Although I will admit that I thought I saw some half-goat and half-horse people walking around. So that, and the fact that I'm here has caused me to create three hypotheses.

1. I have gone entirely insane. (Worst case scenario.)

2. Someone slipped me some kind of hallucinogenic drug. (I'd rather be drugged than crazy. At

3. least Shrooms wear off.)

I'm just in a very strange dream. (Best case scenario. Hopefully I'll wake up soon.)

Other oddities about this place? Tons! The freaks I already mentioned like to play war. They run around in this weird ancient armor with swords and shields and fight! Weirdoes. On the upside, I can just pretend I'm watching a video game on a very large screen.

Thankfully I packed this laptop before coming here. And the cabins have decent amenities: electricity (surprisingly) and running water (also surprisingly). It sure beats candles and bathing in the lake or something.

Anyways, the crazy gets better. Not only do these freaks thinks they're demigods, apparently, I am too. Ridiculous! Oh, but that's not it. I'm supposed to believe that I'm born from some Greek God I don't even believe in, but there's a catch. They don't even know which God it is! Idiots.

Oh well, I'd rather be in Freaksville, Wannabe-Greece than back in the system. I guess I'll just have to make the best of this until I wake up or the drugs wear off. I have my laptop and my guitar, I'm good. Maybe I can find a quiet place near the lake to write some new songs. Hopefully their ancient era Halo game doesn't spread to wherever I am.

AN: That was Drea's journal, by the way. Okay, thanks for reading! Please leave reviews, and if you catch any mistakes please tell me.