Bring her to camp? What? Were they going to kidnap me? A million thoughts ran through my head. My mouth felt dry.
"Please," I croaked, "my grandma doesn't have a lot of money." The guy looked confused. They didn't say anything but just studied me, probably seeing if I was worth mugging. I turned and ran.
"Come back!" shouted the dude. He chased after me. I struggled to grab my phone out of my purse as I ran. I dialed 9-1-1.
"Help!" I shouted, "My name is Cora Williams. Please! Help- " The last thing I remembered before I blacked out was a metallic blurr coming at my head.
I felt like I was floating, drifting in and out of consciousness. When I finally awoke, I found myself a bed. My first thought was that Annabeth and that dude kidnapped me, but then, I saw a glass of amber liquid right on the bed stand as if it was set there for me. I reached for the glass and placed it to my lips. I was expecting apple juice, but when the cool liquid washed over my tongue, I nearly cried. It tasted like my Dad's homemade pumpkin pie and Monica's hot chocolate. Monica is my grandma but my nickname for her is Mom. As I drained the last of my glass, the door creaked open. A girl about my age stepped into the doorway. She had blonde hair. like Annabeth's, but more golden.
She gave me a shy smile and said, "Hi. I'm Lacy."
"Um… hi?" I said suspiciously. "Where am I? Why am I here? Is this a torture camp? Why do I feel like I got hit in the head with a mallet?"
"This isn't torture camp. And, well…" Said Lacy. "You did get hit in the head with a bronze sword butt…"
"What?"
"Percy had to knock you out…" Lacy said, then added, "He says he's very sorry."
"Wait. Is Percy that dude with Annabeth?"
"Yes."
"Oh. He's kinda cute."
"Don't let Annabeth hear you. She'd kill you if you tried to steal Percy." Lacy warned. She helped me out of bed. "I'll let Chiron explain the rest to you cause' I'm really bad at explaining things and… I need to paint my nails."
"Chiron?" Chiron sounded like a name for a cafe. Or a sports brand.
"Chiron's the activities director here." Lacy explained as she opened the door. I gasped. The view outside was amazing. It looked like a postcard from Switzerland. There was a valley with a crystal clear lake at the bottom and a semi- circle of cabins. The cabins were of all shapes and sizes. One had flowers and trees growing on the roof and another was surrounded with what looked like barbed wire and painted blood red. Other than that, the camp didn't really look like a torture camp. Lacy led me towards the front of the house. Sitting on the porch was a man with… horse legs? Was I hallucinating about this whole thing? First, a weird vampire with a donkey leg, and now, a dude with horse legs. Great. Beside the horse-dude, sat a pudgy man with curly brown hair, the dude, Percy, and Annabeth. They were playing an intense game of cards together. When the pudgy dude saw me, he groaned.
"Why do I always have to explain things? Doesn't anyone watch the orientation film?" He complained.
"Uh. Mr. D, there is no orientation film." Annabeth said. Mr. D sighed and waved his hand. A can of diet coke appeared. I gasped and closed my eyes. Being wacked in the head was probably making me lose my mind. When I opened my eyes, the diet coke can was still there and Mr. D was eyeing me suspiciously as he drank. The horse guy cleared his throat.
"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood." He said. Camp Half-Blood? Half-Blood sounded kind of like an insult, not a name for a camp. "You must be very confused, and such, so let me explain." He placed down his cards and trotted over to me. "Follow me." He said.
I followed the horse guy down the hill, towards the cabins.
"Um." I said stupidly. "So, you like dressing up like a horse?"
Horse Man looked offended. "I'm a centaur." He said.
"Am I hallucinating?" Was my school lunch contaminated with pixie dust? Was my lunch disagreeing with me? I thought the school lunch was bad, but not that bad.
"Cora," The centaur's voice stopped my thoughts. "Do you know about the greek gods?"
"Yes?" Monica had bought a bunch of greek mythology books from this yard sale and made me read all of them even though the words flew off the page like pegusi I was reading about.
"Well, they are real and living in America."
"No way." I backed away and tripped over a rock. I was probably imagining this whole thing. Or, Camp Half- Blood was actually real and people there were weirdos who dressed like centaurs. The centaur stepped closer to me and I broke into a run.
"The woods are stocked." The centaur yelled. "You can try your luck if you wish." Stocked with what? I thought. The first thing that popped in my head was that the woods were stocked with shoes. I pushed away that ridiculous thought and kept running. Well, whatever. I thought. The woods didn't look scary at all. I figured I could just run right through into someone's backyard and call 911 again. But boy was I wrong. Just as I came into the woods, something grabbed me and pulled me back. A cute boy about my age had just grabbed me by the hand. I blushed and tried to yank my hand away. His clenched my hand with surprising strength and said, "It's dangerous to be in the woods at night."
"Well, then, why are you in here?" I retorted. "I have every right to walk out of here. 'Cause I got kidnapped-"
"I was just coming back from Bunker 9. Ok?" He said. He looked away and let go of my hand. "Just… there's a lot of monsters out here. Last time, an unclaimed kid tried to sneak away. The next day, the dryads found a pile of bones." Dryads? The name sounded familiar and I remembered that it was a tree nymph.
"Monsters? Dryads?" I asked. "You're kidding, right?" But one look at his face told me otherwise. "But. Those things don't exist. They're just myths."
"No." the boy insisted. "They're real." In the distance, I smelled barbecue cooking. My stomach growled loudly. When was the last time I ate? It must have been hours ago.
The boy said, "Come on." and started to head towards the camp. It seemed like a fishy set up but I was so hungry I didn't care.
