Okay again Thanks to my wonderful Beta; 1-Artemis-Hunter-1 without her this story would be awful grammatically. Thanks again to Iris for suppling the major plot arch, with out her I wouldn't have gotten past this chapter. Thanks again to Sapphire for listening to this story over and over and over again. Thank you to my Lil sis, Bella, for being my inspiration and to her friend Belle for being the loud and crazy one who sometimes gave me much needed writers block (Everyone needs a break sometimes). THanks to my first Reviewer herosofolympus47.

Alpha-33 - it was not intended to be and my plot in majorly different you'll see in a few chapters...

I don't own.

Chapter 2

Demi-gods, Crazies and Centaurs Oh MY!

Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery – JK Rowling

Shamrock

We walked up to the big blue house in the center of the camp where I saw Lady Artemis standing talking to a group of campers.

"Hi Mom." I said and she turned and motioned for us to come closer I did and saw that there were like twenty other kids gathered.

"Tell them who you are." Grace ordered

"I'm Shamrock Clove son of Artemis." I said quietly, I had always hated public speaking.

"I've already explained us so Grace, why don't you help him get settled in?" My Mother said and grace lead me off to a ring of cabins. We stood there for a few minutes in an awkward silence

"Go into the one you have a connection with." She instructed. I went to the silver one, though when I passed the sea green cabin, I felt a small connection.

"Grace?" I asked.

"Yes Shamrock?" She asked wearily as she led me into the cabin.

"Is it possible to feel a connection to two of the cabins?" She looked at me a puzzled look on her face.

"Not unless one of your parents is a god or possibly a demi-god." She eyed me. "Why?"

"Well I felt a strange connection with the sea green cabin. Like I wanted to go in it." I explained and she got a trouble look on her face. "Grace."

"Oh, it's probably nothing, Poseidon and Artemis are close so it's possible that you feel the same closeness to the cabin." She dismissed. "Here this one is your bed." She gestured to the one in the corner it was carved with the same pattern as my bow with a shamrock in the center.

"Did Artemis carve this?" I asked fingering the shamrock, it was beautiful.

"Most likely. She carved almost everything, even the mantel piece." I looked at her, slightly puzzled.

"Almost everything?" I asked. She sighed.

"Not her bed, the one right next to yours." She pointed to the bed under the window, it looked old, 2000 years old at least. It smelled of the sea and a musky smell I associated with dogs.

"Who-" I started.

"Shamrock," She interrupted. "it's really complicated and she'll explain it to you when she's ready, but it's not my place to explain. I'm sorry." She said sitting on my bed and putting a hand on my shoulder.

"It's okay I just wanted to know." I shrugged it off, it was no big deal, I noticed she had a sad look in her Irish green eyes. "You don't need to explain."

"Thanks," She smiled at me "now I think Lady Artemis wants to talk to you." She got up, just then Mom came in.

"Mother." I greeted, she smiled and sat next to me.

"I carved it, do you like it?" She asked I nodded. "Now I sense you have a question to ask me." I sighed.

"Who carved your bed, and how old is it?" I asked.

"It's from Ancient Greece, Crete to be exact. It was Orion's, he carved and after I-I killed hi I-I t-took it." She said looking at her feet and tear rolling down her cheek.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked." I said she wiped the tear away. Honestly I would have comforted her but I was still fairly uncomfortable with the whole the-virgin-goddess-is-my-mom thing.

"No it's okay I see him for one night every hundred years, the last time was right before you were born. Though it will pain me forever to talk about it I have tried and failed to get Hades bring him back to life." She said sadly, then a horn sounded. "Lunch." She said and I looked at my watch, it really was already noon. What time did I wake up?

WE went to lunch where I found the other hunters sitting at the Artemis table most of the other campers stopped eating as I walked in but I didn't care. They gave me a wide berth when I came in. I sat next to Thalia, the only one who didn't seem to flinch or roll her eyes at me.

"Girls." I said.

"Shamrock." They greeted in return. I rolled my eyes and went to my lunch, a cheese sandwich (An old favorite) Thalia tapped my shoulder.

"Sham," She whispered using my nickname, "Cut them some slack they're trying to be nice."

"Alright fine, but just so you know Grace tried and she did an OK job but I wouldn't say she was nice. I think she was more on the terms of polite." I said, Thalia got a puzzled look on her face, like she couldn't understand what I was saying. "You know the annoying red head?" The blonde (Can't remember her name)sitting across from me kicked me underneath the table I guessed she and Grace were friends.

"I know who Grace is, but she hates men, all of them. She is one of the most anti-guy fighters we have." Thalia said frowning. I looked down the table, Grace was talking to a brown haired girl, who was seated next to my mother.

"Well it didn't seem like she hates me. She's just really touchy about the whole past thing, which I can get, seeing as I didn't have a great past at all." I said. Thalia coughed in a way that made it obvious she was trying not to laugh. I frowned at her this is not something I would joke about.

"Um touchy about the past is an understatment, none of us know more than that she's from Galway, Ireland but that's the most we can get out of her without being given the cold shoulder." Thalia said.

"So I didn't find out anything significant with my question?" I asked, sighing, I had thought we were becoming friends.

Think again! My instincts screamed

"Yeah, don't let it bother you, she has a hard life. I'm shocked you got even that out of her. I thought I would have to explain everything to you. Oh great." She growled looking at entrance to the dining pavilion where a small girl was coming in. Not so strange, if you disregard the fact that she's green.

"What is that?" I asked as the girl made her way over to Mother.

"Spruce, a tree nymph," Thalia explained "she's like two hundred but trees age slower then humans, so she's like a nine year old." The girl came up to my mom and gave her a circlet of roses.

"Is she on friendly terms with my mother?" I asked, Thalia gave a sigh.

"Yes all the nature spirits are. Nymphs, Satyrs and anything else that could remotely have to do with nature." Thalia grumbled, I got the feeling she had something to hold against these nature spirits.

"I get the impression you don't like that." I said slowly. She looked at me.

"It's not that, it's the satyrs, they're all in love with her and they keep bugging about her." She paused "I will kill Grover for that by the way."

"Oh," I said, ignoring the fact that I didn't know who Grover was, and looked at the blonde. "Who are you?"

"Sofia, please just leave me alone." She whimpered looking quite terrified of me.

"She has, issues with guys." Thalia whispered I looked at her but it wasn't my business.

Later that night in the cabin, the girls seemed nervous around me and I couldn't help but wonder why. It was only when I realized y mother would be sleeping in the same room with us did I get it. How were we supposed to do this, wait for her to fall asleep, or go to sleep first?

Mother took out an old lyre and sat on her bed, beckoning for and big black dog to come and sit, and she began to play. It took me a minute to figure out why she was playing Here I am, but then I remembered something Apollo had told me. Artemis' lyre sounded different to everyone, it was what they need to here, then and there.

I began to drift asleep but not before I heard my mother whisper something, it sounded like;

"Sleep my child." And sleep I did, until the dream came.

In the drea,m I was standing in the middle of a forest. I could hear screams far away, and see a huge black palace, and three islands in the middle of a nearby lake. I took a wild guess that I was in the Elysium in the underworld. I heard some one coming and ducked behind a tree instinctively. A man passed by, he was tall (at least six feet) had shaggy black hair, green eyes and wore a hunters tunic. He carried a silver bow across his back and was whistling happily.

"Off to see the lady Orion?" A voice said, it was Hades.

"Yes Lord Hades, you remember out agreement. I haven't seen her since 1896." Orion said, this must have been just before I was born.

"Very well, but first I need a favor." Hades said and Orion looked at him.

"What tis it lord?" He asked. Hades began to pace.

"I need something for Apollo he requested a sample of your essence, may I?" I could tell he was greatly troubled by this as this was an unusual request.

"Of course." Orion pulled out a small vial in a Ziploc Bag from his satchel filled with a shimmery green liquid.

"You carry your own essence around in a Ziploc baggy?" Hades asked, raising a dark eyebrow.

"So that's what those things are! Yes I do. Now may I go?" Orion asked. Hades nodded, Orion was gone and with him the dream…

I woke with a start and looked around me. The hunters were getting ready to leave at, I checked my watch 4;30 in the morning. They must be seriously angry.

"Mother, where are we going?" I asked looking over at Grace, her red hair tied up in pony tail. Mother looked at me and smiled.

"The huntresses and I are going hunting, we won't be staying at Camp Half-Blood. You on the other hand, need to remain here until the council calls." She said I nodded.

"How will I know if the council calls?" I asked.

"I can send someone if you wish." She sighed. "Grace and Thalia will come a get you if your presence is requested."

I could tell Grace was not happy about it. I guessed her few minutes of niceness was over because of the way she grimaced when mother said her name. But she nodded and told her she would come.

Soon though the huntresses had to leave, and I was left alone. It was still early but I was up so I decided to go hunting . I dressed quickly and grabbed my bow, which mother had hung over the mantel piece. As I was walking by Grace's bed, I noticed something laying on it. It was a small picture frame.

The photo graph in the frame was of Grace and, I counted, 13 other children. I saw that even though the photo was in Black and white, every one of them had the same red hair. They all looked exactly like Grace. She was holding an infant child in one arm and the other had the hand of a little girl. They had their backs to a small house and were smiling. Two of the little girls were looking back at Grace as if asking questions. I turned to photo over and on the back of the frame. It said June 18, 1912.

"Wow that is one old picture," I said to myself and then went out side. No one was up and I was obviously alone. It was a cold crisp November morning and I could still see the stars, I decided to find somewhere I could look at the them.

I walked around the camp for a few minutes before I found a dock with a perfect view of Orion. I wondered what he was doing. Did he still carry around his essence in a Ziploc? Was he missing My mother? Did he know my father? Did he know I was Lady Artemis' kid? Mostly I wanted to know how he felt about my mother. Did he love her so much that he was willing to die a thousand painful deaths in order to save her?

I heard a giggle. I looked around and saw the little nymph, Spruce. She noticed me and ran off blushing bright green. It was awkward to make a girl blush, for fourteen years I had lived around only Apollo. I attended and online school and had never made a friend, or for that matter talked to any girls that weren't the ones Apollo brought home.

I was, what you would call, socially awkward and kind of unpredictable, the only campers I had seen had stared at me for the whole lunch period. I didn't know if this happened all the time in school or if it was just here.

I wasn't exactly looking forward to breakfast but was so hungry that, when the horn blew, I went anyway. I sacrificed some food to my mother and went to sit down. On the table was a note.

Shamrock,

I hope you don't feel uncomfortable around the camp like we do, that's why we didn't stay longer, if you want to change something please just ask Chiron (The centaur).He can help you with any problems. I'll send someone if I sense danger.

– Artemis.

I reread the note twice and decided that I would just sit here and eat, but in doing that I got looked at a lot more and it was a bit unnerving, so I ate as quickly as I could. Before I could escape the centaur came up to me.

"So you are Shamrock Clover, son of Artemis the virgin goddess." He said looking down at me. I looked at him.

"Yes sir and you are Chiron, trainer of Hero's." I said, he seemed mildly surprised that I knew him but shook that off and handed me a sheet of paper.

"This is your schedule, should you skip any of these classes more than twice, I will be forced to punish you." He said sternly, like he was reading my mind. I read over the schedule and nodded, I would skip a few times anyway.

"Sir, I wish to request new sleeping arrangements, I would feel empty inside my cabin, may I sleep in the forest?" He raised and eyebrow.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"Yes sir." I nodded.

"Very well you may, but make sure to stick to the trees, the woods is full of monsters and it would be horrible if anyone got hurt." He said I –gave him a disbelieving look.

"You really doubt that I can take care of my self?" I asked he chuckled which made me angrier.

"No of course not. I'm only saying that it's dangerous and to be careful." HE said I just turned on my heal and walked off. He couldn't control everyone and it was high time someone showed him that. I took it upon my self to do that.

I showed up to the first class, sword fighting with the Poseidon and Hades' cabins. That made a grand total of three opponents. Percy, Nico (Who just glared and said he wouldn't fight me.) and Percy's little sister Aqua. Aqua took me on, she wasn't afraid of getting beaten. At first I had no problem with fighting her. It was when the whole camp showed up to watch. that ticked me off. I knew what they were doing, assessing me in battle. When I beat her and started to walk away, she grabbed my arm.

"Good job, I look forward to fighting you again sometime." She said I just turned and walked off leaving her looking hurt.

Archery; Mayhem, The Apollo cabin was not nice. Will Solace "missed" the target and just happened to lodge an arrow in my leg. I ripped it out poured nectar in it, and stood up. I aimed and fired, hitting the target dead center dead center with such velocity it pierced the next two targets. The whole camp was once again watching. I sighed and moved on to rock climbing.

I scaled the wall in two minutes and leapt off the top, doing three flips in the air and landing in a squat with one hand on the ground. I stood up and walked away.

"You did really well." One girl said blushing, I had never made a girl blush and I didn't like it. So I Shrugged and walked away. The rest of my day went in much the same way and I didn't even go to dinner, I just went straight to the forest and fell asleep under a tree.

I was awakened at about midnight, maybe later by someone standing over me, I could see that it was Percy and he was mad. I sat up.

"What?" I snapped.

"Dude, not cool okay? You can be mean to me but not to Aqua. She was just trying to make you feel welcome, and I went through the same thing and the Hermes campers helped me with it." He said.

"Look I don't have friends, okay? I just have me! I've always just had me. You have parents, my dad I dead, my mother is never around! I was kept inside my whole life and only had Apollo!" I yelled.

"You have an opportunity to make friends here and acting like you are doesn't make them. You have to open up to someone!"

"No I don't, I didn't for fourteen years and I can do it for longer." I said and walked away. I was furious, he may have been right that I did need to open up and I should find someone, but that didn't mean I had to. He could have been polite but he decided to be rude about it instead.

I guess now that I think about it I should have been nicer to his sister, but things worked out in the end. I know I was being a brat but it was two in the morning, and I was sick of being woken up, all the time. I had been woken up by Spruce at least four times and I had been stared at all day long.

I felt kind of like a zoo animal who spent all day being studied. The Athena kids had tried to conduct an experiment on how long I could stay in the forest. I didn't say anything but as far as I know their counselor, Annabel? Annie? Anna? Oh never mind but she was still out there on the boarder looking for me.

I decided to try and run for it but then I got caught by the night patrol and ended up being shoved back into the forest.

By Friday I had enough of the stares and was just sitting back and not listening to Annabeth (I finally learned her name) reread the plan, I was devising my own. I had decided just to go to get the flag myself.

Once the game started I immediately left my post and headed out to find the flag. It was in a dark clearing, only Aqua and Nico were guarding the flag. Aqua would be easy if I could count on her ADHD to keep her distracted long enough, but Nico was a problem. Not only was this his element, but he wasn't ADHD and if he was it wasn't as bad. I ran through the clearing fast enough not to get caught but slow enough that Aqua could see me.

Aqua fallowed me into the woods and after getting about a quarter of a mile away I doubled back, Aqua though kept going. Good, she was out of the way. Next I just had Nico.

He was expecting me though, he had summoned a dozen undead warriors and as soon as I entered the clearing, they surrounded me and I stopped dead.

"Thought you could out smart me in shadows?" He asked. I laughed and let lose a feral howl.

"Thought you could outsmart me in the forest?" I responded once again he laughed, cold, clear and high.

"Mommy's little helpers huh?" He asked I chuckled, and a dozen silver wolves emerged from the woods.

"Nope, sic um' girls." I said and the wolves launched themselves at the zombies. I drew my sword. "How about it Nico? You and me head on. Last man standing gets the flag?" I asked flicking my bangs for dramatic effect.

"Sure." He said with an absolutely evil grin and I launched at him.

I had to give Nico some credit, he was wicked good with that sword, I could just barely match him move for move. His fighting style was new to me and mine was new to him. Luckily I learned fast.

I also learned that he had taken me word for word, he really wanted to kill me. This thought didn't frighten me at all, in fact I found it somewhat peaceful.

"Do you have any idea what you're doing? You could kill me!" I said appalled more at the thought that he didn't care then that he wanted to kill me.

"I know. I hate you!" HE screamed, this puzzled me. I had never spoken to him, I had never done anything to harm him.

"What?" I asked.

" I hate you because of your mother!" He screamed. This puzzled me even further. What did he have against my mother and why was he going to take it all out on me.

"Then why do you hate her?" I grunted as our swords met once again.

"Because, she took my sister from me! She was killed because of your mother!" He snarled, this alone made me stop. Nico got a swipe at my arm and a good size cut was along it, it was bleeding a lot. As soon as he realized I wasn't going to fight he paused, we had drawn a good size crowd now and they were all looking at me. I turned and ran back to my cabin…

The cabin was colder than last time, having been a week since anyone had slept here, I felt a tear roll down my cheek. I sat down on the bed.

MY mother hadn't intentionally killed Nico's sister had she? Of course not, that was ridiculous! She loved innocent young girls who hated guys. Another tear fell down my face. I realized now more than ever I wanted her here.

"M-Mother, did you really kill her?" I asked to the empty room as though expecting it to answer. When it didn't I went over to my bag and pulled out the picture of Grace's family and of the Hunters. I looked at the one of the hunters of Artemis. It was dated in December of 2007. After the Hunters had won capture the flag, there was a girl there who looked a lot like Nico.

"Where did you get that?" A girls voice asked from behind me. I wheeled around and saw Thalia and Grace standing in the door way.

"Oh you left them." I said wiping away the tears and holding them out to Grace. She took them and set them down. "Why are you here?"

"Oh the council is tomorrow, Lady Artemis sent us." Thalia explained. "But judging by the scene you just caused out there I would say she'll be here now." Just then mother ran in a wild look in her eyes.

"Are you alright?" She asked me I nodded. " I'm so sorry, I should have known you would hate this place, I should have let you travel with us." She hugged me tightly and I went limp. I was safe. All other thoughts went blank and I collapsed into her small form. She wasn't much bigger than me and could have been my sister, but that didn't really matter. I heard her tell the hunters to go and find Chiron. "What on earth did Nico do to you?"

"I-It wasn't Nico. In fact I probably like the way he treated me best. The others are the problem, I'm not an experiment , well I kind of am but that's beside the point, I have feelings too. Treating me like some lethal weapon isn't going to do anything." I said sitting up.

"I warned them." She mumbled.

"The Aphrodite cabin was worst. They kept trying to seduce me," I shuddered. "And when that didn't work they got mad and constantly provoked me. I put one of them in the infirmary before Chiron found out."

"I'll talk with Aphrodite, but now let's wait on grace and Thalia." She said and as if they were waiting on cue they walked in behind Chiron.

"Shamrock! What is the meaning of this. The campers have been nothing but nice_" I cut him off.

"Nice?" NICE! You call treating me like a bomb that could blow up any second nice? You really are off your rocker Centaur! If that's nice then what is cruel? This is a camp for Crazies which, I'll have you know just because my ADHD is the worse than all of them put together, doesn't make me one of them." I yelled.

"Now Shamrock , they were nice, and even if they weren't, it's no reason to pick a fight with Nico." Chiron said civilly, this guy really was crazy and you could tell he had been raising teenagers for a long time.

"I didn't pick that fight with Nico, he charged me!" I screamed "but you know not being afraid to take me on with a dozen of my mothers wolves, in the forest, on a full moon would make him my favorite except for the flaw that he hates my mother but I think we could work around that!"

"Now, now no need to make excuses." Chiron said, he really didn't get it did he?

"Never mind." I growled and sat down.

"Chiron he makes a point I saw the whole thing." Grace piped up. "Just looking at the campers today made me sick, the way they treat him is like they treat one of us. Which –no offence sir- is pretty bad."

"Yeah Chiron, Nico hates us and all but I would have to say he was the kindest to Sham. HE needs a little credit in this." Thalia said. I looked up at her and Grace. They were defending me?

"Chiron we can sort this out, the campers have been treating him too much like one of us. Glaring or, in the Athena camper's case, asking to experiment on him. I agree that he could be nicer but I also think that the campers could have given him a fair chance." Mother said.

"Aqua was nice… ish" I said remembering the first day and wincing I could be nicer though and when I got back from Olympus I was going to be.

"Shamrock you start being nicer to everyone else and they can start being nicer to you." Chiron said I decided that instead of pointing out that they didn't want to be nicer to me I should just agree.

"Yes sir." I said he smiled.

"Now then, I'll go talk to the campers." He said and strolled out, the other huntresses were waiting right outside and ran in.

"Are you okay?" The one named Emily asked. I nodded.

"Girls let's all get ready for bed, it's already ten o'clock and we have to be up at sunrise." Mom said and within thirty minutes everyone was asleep. Everyone except me. I looked out the window. The full moon was bright and beautiful. I sat there just looking at it for a while.

"Shamrock are you okay?" My Mother said from the bunk at the foot of mine.

"Yes, I thought you were asleep." I said. She laughed quietly.

"I'm a goddess, we don't have to sleep." She said. "But you do , go to sleep you have a long day tomorrow." She pulled out a set of reed pipes and began to play, to me it sounded like the song Apollo used to play on the lyre when I was little until I fell asleep. I think he called it 'Shamrock Lullaby.' I was soon asleep.

I woke the next day to Thalia trying to wake me. None of the others were awake but I guess that was because it was 4:30 in the morning.

"Morning. Wake Grace up for me, I have to shower." Thalia said and ran off.

"Good morning to you too." I mumbled and still half asleep I trudged over to Grace's bed. I guess Grace was alight sleeper because it didn't take long for her to wake up.

"Morning Shamrock." She chirped and bounced out of bed, and off to shower. I guess she was also a morning person because it should be illegal to be that happy in this early in the morning.

I learned Thalia was not a morning person the hard way. They had there own kitchen in the Artemis cabin, mom had said it was for when they had to get up and leave early, well Thalia came in and made a cup of coffee. I poured my self some and she growled Grace then came by and said.

"Wait until Thalia is done because usually you come to regret it if you don't" She said. Noticing that they were out of the shower I went to take one. When I came back out Thalia was in a better mood. Better meaning she had drank five cups of coffee.

"Okay is there some kind of Huntress dress code I don't know about? Because you are always dressed the same in silver tops, jeans, tennis shoes and in winter silver jackets. Your hair is always braided and you all make the bed in exactly the same way." I said. Grace looked at me with a puzzled expression.

"No, it's just easier to dress like this for camp. When we hunt we wear black hunting tunics." Thalia said.

"Besides these are adorable!" Grace gushed.

"Did she get into the coffee?" I asked because Grace wasn't ADHD, but she sure acted like it.

"Yep. Just ignore pretty much anything she says." Thalia said "That's what I do." I looked over at Grace who was drawing on her arm in sharpie. Thalia grabbed her and we walked out of the cabin.

The morning was cool and crisp, it was still dark out as we went to the stables. I picked out a golden pagasi and put Grace in front of me.

"I'll take her, I don't want her to get giddy and fall off." I said. Thalia nodded. According to Thalia, Grace had so little caffeine in her whole life that it made her really crazy when she did get it. Almost like the time they gave me valium at the dentist and I… never mind.

"It's probably good she won't remember this in an hour." Thalia said. I looked at her.

"Why wouldn't she remember this?" I asked she looked at me.

"Caffeine acts like a mind wipe for the period of time, Grace was under caffeine influence." Thalia said. I looked at Grace who was giggling like a maniac. She was drawing circles on the Pegasus. We kicked off and she lurched. Thalia's Pagasi (Well she said it was her cousins), Blackjack was eying Grace with a 'who is this maniac on my friend' kind of look. Thalia leaned against him, looking green and closed her eyes.

"You okay?" I asked she turned her head and looked at me, if you can call it looking when her eyes are closed.

"So high." She murmured so quietly that I could barely hear her.

"You're afraid of heights? But your dad is Zeus." I said she sighed and opened her eyes enough to roll them.

"I didn't say it made sense, I just said I was." She said louder this time. I glanced and Grace who was petting the 'Pretty Horsey.' I decided not to tell her the 'Pretty Horsey' was a guy.

"Close your eyes and relax, I can lead." I said she murmured something but fallowed my instructions. It only took us about a half an hour to get to Olympus and by then it was dawn, or it would have been if it wasn't so cloudy. I felt sad, not because I was most likely going to die, but because my beloved night was over.

We landed in front of the throne room, Thalia told me to go ahead, she was going to take grace to my mother's place. I looked ahead and entered the throne room of the gods…