ANNABETH

It was around 8am when Annabeth's cabinmate, Malcolm, woke her up. She was annoyed - after all everyone in Camp new she went to bed late these days. After all, her boyfriend of a few years had been missing for a few weeks now, and she'd been doing anything that was in her power to find him.

"Annabeth, they've brought another one to Camp," Malcolm's voice was shaky. Annabeth had been in Camp longer than most, and she'd definitely survived the most quests - everyone here saw here as a leader, and angering her wasn't something they had on their list.

"What? Not possible. Why wasn't I informed? Chiron made it pretty clear to me I was to be told if any new campers were to be delivered," she suddenly didn't feel sleepy anymore.

"I-I don't know, Annabeth. She arrived at around 3 in the morning, unconscious. Coach brought her."

"That crazy goat," she sighed, "okay, thanks, Malcolm. Where is she?"

"Big House. They're treating her to some ambrosia and nectar," he was clearly relieved at her change of tone.

Annabeth got dressed and washed up. She was in no hurry - after Percy, her missing boyfriend, made the gods swear on the River Styx to claim all their children and after getting permission to built cabins for the countless minor gods, demigods had been arriving to the Camp like crazy. Why was this one different?

She took that back when she saw their new camper.

The girl lying in bed was, well, beautiful. Annabeth would've had no doubt she was a child of Aphrodite, the gorgeous (yet annoying) goddess of love, if something about the girl in front of her was different. She wasn't like Aphrodite's other children, but on the other hand neither was Piper. But this girl wasn't like any of the half-bloods here.

Her dark hair hung an inch above her shoulders. Annabeth couldn't see her eyes, since they were closed, but she imagined them to be large and brown. The girl looked around 13 or 14.

She turned to face Chiron, the famous centaur who'd trained all the great heroes back in the ancient times, who was given immortality in order to train the demigods of the new generations. "Who is she? Why haven't you told me about her?" Her voice trembled with anger.

"Annabeth, dear, it was late, and we know how tired you are these days," he looked like was about to say more, but decided against it.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow, "So, you found out about her this night? And brought her here in what, two hours?"

Chiron looked away and sighed - nothing could be hid from Annabeth.
"A pack of wild deer appeared here. They came from the woods. They seemed to be trying to tell us something. Mr. D asked one of the satyrs to translate - turns out they saw a tired girl," he pointed to the bed in which she was lying, "on a highway not far from here. Said she was exhausted from running from monsters through half the US states, unarmed."

"What? Half the US states? Unarmed? Alone? How did she survive? Why didn't any god or goddess tell us about there? And why deer?"

"I don't know, Annabeth. I guess we'll have to wait for her to wake up."
Annabeth didn't see how that would answer any of her question, but they both glanced silently at the sleeping girl.
Suddenly she coughed, and her eyes flustered opened. Instead of chocolate brown, her eyes were silver. A piercing silver. Annabeth's heart did a somersault. Those eyes…

"Where am I? Who-who are you? Where's that crazy old man?"
The girl glanced at Chiron - he was out of his fake wheelchair, so it was clear he was, well, half-man, half-horse. To Annabeth's large surprise, the girl didn't seem to be surprised. No wonder, she thought, didn't this girl go through like 25 states fighting monsters?

"Hi," Annabeth tried to used her calmest voice, which came out as a squeak. Oh boy did she wish Piper was here right now, that girl could do amazing things with her voice.. "I'm Annabeth. I suppose by 'that crazy old man' you mean our very own Coach Hedge. Don't worry, he's fine," she pointed towards the centaur, "this is Chiron, our activities director. You're at Camp now, you're safe."
The girl didn't seem assured.

"What's your name?" Chiron tried to smile.

After a few moments, the girl spoke. "Arabella."

"Well Arabella, welcome to Camp Half-Blood."

"Half-Blood?"

Oh gods. They always had to be very careful with words when it came to explaining to new campers that they were, well, half Greek god.

"Half-Blood as in…well…the people here are special. You see, it's called Half-Blood because we're all half-bloods here. Demigods. One of our parents is…a god."

"Greek?" Arabella's tone still held the same hint of suspicion as before, but nothing more. Even Chiron was taken aback.

"How did you know, child?"

"The creatures that have been chasing me reminded me of Greek myths I've read before."

There was silence in the room. Annabeth silently admired her. Finally someone who actually read.

Suddenly the girl turned even paler, "but I don't belong here. Both my parents are mortal. I have no godly parent."

Chiron looked sad - it was hard when things like these happened, when you had to explain to the children that one of what they've believed for many years was one of their parents, wasn't in fact their parent at all.

"Arabella, that means either your mother or father aren't your actual parent. I'm sorry, but monsters don't chase regular mortals. And regular mortals cannot survive what you've survived."

Before Arabella could argue back, Annabeth decided to change the subject.

"Tell us your story. Please."

Arabella looked clearly uncomfortable about having to tell these two complete strangers, someone who basically just told her she'd been lied to her whole life, something that has been killing her for months now. But Annabeth's pleading look won her over.

"I ran away from home," she sighed, "I wasn't happy. I realised I only had one life that I knew of - might as well use it to do something I've always wanted to do - have an adventure. Except the first week I was out and free, I was attacked. Monsters that others couldn't see were trying to kill me. I didn't know what to do, where to go. I've been travelling from one state to another aimlessly, trying to get rid of these creatures. Now I'm here."

It was clear she didn't want to talk about it anymore.

Chiron smiled sympathetically at her and turned towards Annabeth, "Take her around. Tell her what's been going on. Her godly parent should claim her tonight at the campfire," he turned to face Arabella, who had a faraway look in her eyes, as if she was seeing memories she was trying so hard to get rid of, "until tonight, my dear friend."