Thanks a lot for reading! I've had such a crazy fun first week of summer! I'm so glad to finally be playing ultimate and tennis again even if my knees are like, "You SUCK". I hope all you other college students are loving it too. And good luck to any seniors highschool or college. Now for a few notes:

1. So first off, some of you may or may not be a little pissed on Dessa's view of things after reading this chapter. Just saying they are not my views! In fact I completely disagree! I love anicons, and geeks.

2. I'm so sorry about my mistake in Chapter One where I called her DuCot instead of Drake. I changed the last name recently, so I guess I'm still not used to using it.

Okey I'm done.

Disclaimer: I don't own Rick Riordan's characters, cuz if I did the books would've never been finished and everyone would hate me.

Whilst I slept I dreamed, as one is prone to do during fitful, light rest. I dreamed of all sorts of strange and impossible things that really went far beyond my imaginative capabilities and into the realm of alien. A thousand voices were screaming at me, calling a name, my name, which I could not quite hear. They demanded I save them, accused me when I didn't, screamed for me when I did. I dreamed of a runty little cyclops grinning at me and yelling, "Peanutbutter!" Then came the total blonde hottie repeating, "Nothing personal." As he disappeared (dangit!) there was a beautiful girl with her thick hair in a braid giving me the saddest smile I'd ever seen as she murmured, "Yes. You." And all the while in the background there was this terrible, screeching voice as cold as steel and tinny as metal laughing again and again and again, as if mocking my confusion.

But that wasn't all I dreamed of. There was swirling, confusing chaos. Dark and flashes of light. I watched as world after world was born, as each lived their lives and then were mercilessly destroyed, whether by themselves or another. I watched as beings, tall and terrible and almost to bright to look at, walked upon the earth and all of the lesser beings fled their steps. I watched as more beings, smaller and dimmer fought the great and terrible ones until one by one they fell. I watched as the beings were cast into a pit of darkness from where they would never rise. And then I saw civilization, humans, empires rising and falling, children growing old and dying, metropolises rising from little but a few meager huts. Again and again, I watched until I finally felt I could handle no more. And that was when I woke.

My eyes shot open, and searched around frantically for another person crying accusations for me failure or another goat asking if I was going to eat that can. When I finally, calmed a little I realized that I was in a farm house room, on a small bed with a glass of lemonade beside me and a chair. In the chair sat a friend. How nice. I smiled, "Hey there, Sam."

Sam, who had been sleeping, started and fell off his chair with a rather impressively high note issuing from his throat. When he got back up he looked confused and dazed. So basically he looked like he always did.

"Des, oh my gosh! You're awake, thank gods!" Considering the fact that he had just fallen off a chair (pfft embarrassing) I decided to let the speech mistake pass.

"Yeah, how long was I out?" I eyed the lemonade, lord I was thirsty!

"Two days I think, I guess you were pretty shocked at the Cyclops thing but Director says-"

"Wait", I said taking my attention off the all-important lemonade, "Two days? Cyclops?! THAT WAS REAL?!"

I didn't really realize I was shouting but I guess I was pretty loud because Sam said, "Woah, Des! Calm down! Do you want to send the whole camp running?"

But now I was hysterical, "I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE CAMP! WHAT CAMP ANYWAY?! WHERE IS JACK! WHAT DID YOU DO WITH HIM? WHERE AM I?!"

I started getting out of bed then, but before I could take my rage monster show on the road Sarge walked in. Woah. Weird(-er). He was wearing ancient Greek-looking battle armor and he had shaved. SHAVED. Yeah, I know. I was a little disillusioned by this prim and proper Sarge who looked like one of those major geeks who went to anime-cons or whatever (losers). However, he did appear to be Sarge, albeit a brainwashed one, and that was what mattered at the moment, so I calmed down just enough to stop code green.

When he looked at me his expression softened, "It's alright Private, you're safe now, and you'll be briefed soon. Your," he paused, "creature is right here."

I was confused (and rightly so), why had he called me private? Had I been promoted?

Jack is a cat of sorts, he has large ears, a clipped tail and short hair. He's pretty large for a cat, almost as big as a bobcat actually, over forty pounds, but built very large so it's not fat. I met him on the street when I ran into some unsavory character. As the man was about to attack me, Jack came out and, well, shredded him. You wouldn't think that such a relatively small creature should be capable of incapacitating a grown man but um…yeah… he was.

I couldn't get rid of him after that. So, I eventually warmed to him and named him Jack the Ripper (trust me when I say that, it's very fitting). Anyway when Jack walked in I was suddenly very calm (funny how bright red eyes and razor sharp teeth do that to you right?). He walked over to me and meowed, well more like "mroarwed".

Deciding to live up to my crazy cat-lady destiny, I completely ignored the other humans in the room in favor of talking to my pet like any good crazy-pet-owner would, "Yeah, I'm confused too."

I noticed Sam had moved from the chair to behind Sarge when Jack came in and was even more confused, they seemed almost afraid of him. Uh, no. Scratch that, Sam was definitely afraid of him, not that that was surprising. And Sarge seemed wary, almost... nervous, which was most definitely surprising and even a little disconcerting. Hmm... maybe the Geek (see was I did there?) armor he was wearing had turned him into a wussy.

As if hearing my thoughts, Sarge's dark eyes zoned in on me and narrowed in a, "Disrespect me and I'll gut you through your nose" sort of way. I shuddered and quickly avoided eye-contact. Or not.

"So… what's going on?" I asked, then quickly answered my own question, "No, wait let me guess, the guy I just fought with is a Cyclops, from the Greek myths, which aren't really myths at all, and are actually real, the Greek gods and goddess' are real, they now live in New York on the Chrysler building and I am a child of one of them which is why the Cyclops thingy attacked me and this place is a refuge for demigods like me." I took a breath, "how close am I?"

Sam just stared at me drop mouthed, "Dead on. How-"

"Just a guess." I muttered.

Sarge didn't look surprised at all, in fact he was still eyeing me with that suspicious, "were you just thinking something bad about me" look, "Samuel take Drake to her cabin please. We'll have lunch soon Drake, but that's not the best time to see your cabin."

Sam stood up and it was my turn to be surprised. "You're a Llama?"

He made a bleating sound of disgust, "NO! I'm a satyr!" He gave me a black glare, "A llama," he scoffed, "must run in the family…"

I nodded, "A satyr. Of course, why didn't I guess?"

"Not a clue!" Huffed Sam in irritation.

"Sam", Sarge cut in smoothly, "her cabin, now."

Sam grumbled something under his breath then said, "This way."

I walked out the door and straight into the arms of the hottest guy I had ever seen. It was the face in the rainbow, but he looked even better in person. He was hot. Straight up, tall, dark and hot. Muscular, tan, the type of guy who when you saw on the street you straightened up and did your sexy strut and then once you were past him turned around and just enjoyed the view.

When he saw me his eyes nearly bugged out of his head for a moment (god the man made even that look good), before he recovered himself and said, "What's up?"

Well, that was cool.

I pushed away from him, embarrassed, "I'm sorry I wasn't watching where I was going."

He held up his hands, "Oh no, trust me when a beautiful woman falls in my arms, it's a good day."

I was flustered, usually I would've replied with a witty comeback or broken his nose but… This guy, he wasn't the type you saw on the street every day, and I'd know, 'cause you know, I live there. "Well," I said recovering, "next time you're set on having a good day, try not to take me by surprise. I am not fond of falling into the arms of strange men."

He grinned, then turned to Sarge, "Your right she does have a sharp tongue," he cocked his head, "but you failed to mention the… uncanny resemblance."

Resemblance? Deciding that, no matter how gorgeous he was, a mere boy was not worth my time (or so I'd make him think, watch me work!) I turned to Sam, "Are you going to show me my cabin or not, llama-boy?"

Sam's foolish grin didn't break at my sharp tone, "Yeah, yeah, this way."

I could feel the guy's eyes on me as I walked away and I tried not to look like a complete klutzy idiot. Sexy strut, sexy strut, I told myself, smooth back and forth motions with the hips. Calm down girl, squealing and fangirling could come after I was out of sight.

Sam leaned closer, "His name is Joel Bailey, but mostly we just call him Ace, well his friends at least, you can call him that." He grinned, glancing down at my hips significantly, "If you're interested that is."

I glowered at him and turned my nose up increasing my speed and abandoning my strut as we turned around a building, "I'm not. He's obviously a dumb jock, incapable of any type of mental activity higher than that of seducing some unsuspecting girl. Not my type."

Sam was undaunted, "I knew you'd like him. He was the first demigod I brought in, people say that he's as good at sword fighting as Percy is."

Sam puffed up with obvious pride, as if I should know who this "Percy" was. Me, I was pretty much just left wondering how they'd taught a dog to sword-fight ('cause, you know, Percy is a dog's name). As I considered this further we walked, and I got to have a good look around this camp. I won't lie, I was surprised by what I saw. I had expected something less modern looking with Roman-looking soldiers everywhere, like a boot camp or something, but it wasn't like that at all.

Not only was there a volleyball pit, there were strawberry fields (yuuum), a large building that said rec room on it, cabins, a huge forest, rivers, and 10's of other buildings as well (some in construction). And while there were some people walking around with weapons and armor, and some fighting, mostly the kids that were walking around looked just like any other teenage kids.

Finally, we came to a cabin set off by itself it looked sloppy and lopsided, like it'd just been stuck there as an afterthought. Very unimpressive, I thought, and generally I would've said so, but I was still thinking about Ace. However my lovely train of thought (and perhaps slightly dirty) was sadly blown of the tracks when I had the misfortune of walking inside.

My god, could I make a list of all the things not okay with this place?

I surely could try.

One, so many kids in this cabin you couldn't see the floor = not cool. Two, most of the kids were boys (I could stop there, but I won't) who looked sad, angry, mischievous or just plain weird. And three, that they had all been talking and now they were staring open-mouthed at me, Jack and Sam (rude). Of course, I was used to scrutiny being who I was. And I was used to sad, mischievous and weird people being who I was. I also was used to being crammed together with other people who may or may not smell even worse than I did (when it's cold, you do what you got to do). But they didn't know that. They didn't need to. And so I sure as heck wasn't going to tell them.

An elfish looking guy around my age picked his way over to us, he looked at me and said, "Undetermined I hope?" Sam nodded and the guy smiled, "Hi, I'm Connor Stoll, head consoler for the Hermes cabin, make yourself at home."

I ignored his shifty look (I'm homeless you dunce, you really think I have anything worth stealing?) in favor of examining the two foot area he had gestured to on the floor. My first day of school flashed before my eyes. I remembered when I'd first arrived at school, determined to be the nice girl and be grateful for everything I was given. I remembered smiling at everyone who met my eyes and being kind and friendly. Then I remembered the bullying as kids realized that not only was I all alone in the world, I was also a push over.

Not. This. Time.

I marched over to two guys sitting on a bunk "Off."

One, the kid on the top, blinked, "What-"

"Off," I said again gesturing to the floor, "either you get off or I make you. Keep a little dignity or loose it all, choice is yours."

The same boy who'd spoken took one look at my face, one look at the bristling Jack and then gathered up his stuff and left. I ignored him as if he were beneath my notice, though inwardly I was celebrating, and focused wholly on the boy in front of me.

"Are you really going to let her do that?" He asked the first boy irritably before turning to me and saying, "Well whatever, I guess you're my new bunkmate then."

I sneered, "Yeah, I don't think so, you get off too."

He blinked again, "You already have a bed."

I grinned, "I do but," I moved aside so he could see Jack, "he doesn't."

The kid spat, "I ain't moving for no monster."

"I'm so glad you agree." Before he could do anything else I waltzed over to him grabbed his shirt and tossed him off the bed.

"What do you think Jack?" I asked not giving a sideways glance to the kid again, even as both Sam and Conner grabbed him to stop him from attacking me. Jack walked up and sniffed the sheets then turned his head away disdainfully.

"Yeah," I agreed, "I'm not thrilled about it either, but I'll soak the sheets in ammonia before we sleep in them."

Jack grunted in disgust then in a very condescending manner put his paw on the edge of the bed. I grinned, "I'll get to it then."

After stripping the two beds, I turned back to the head consoler and the cabin, "I'm so very pleased to meet all of you and I'm sure we will all get along famously, just don't talk to me and don't ever touch me." with that, I gave another smile and then walked out.

"And that," I heard Sam sigh as I left, "is yours truly, the eighth wonder of the world and the greatest mystery to mankind, Dessa Drake."

Darn right. I thought smirking, if I couldn't fit in this place, then I was going to own it.