"OH MY GOD. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?" I shrieked out, and I backed up further into the corner. My whole body was trembling and I tried to make myself as small as possible. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to think. My teacher is a monster, and what was that about a camp, and Ares and Athena? As in, the greek gods? Okay, so maybe this isn't the best time to think about that. I looked around for anything I could defend myself, and picked up a yardstick on a shelf behind me. It wasn't great, but maybe I could fend her off for the time being. As I was turning around, Mrs. Diverita lunged at me and scraped my shoulder with her long fingernails. The cut felt deep and I could feel blood dripping down my arm. I let out a scream of pain and poked her hard with the yardstick. She hissed and backed away a bit, but quickly resumed in attacking me. I prodded her a few times, but I was only annoying her. My arms were getting tired; I couldn't keep this up for long. While she managed to get close enough to scratch me several times, I was doing nothing to her. My shoulder still burned, and she got another deep cut on my ribs and one below my already hurt shoulder. I heard a hollow thud and looked over for a split second. I couldn't believe who I saw.
Sadie?" I gasped, still trying to focus on Mrs. Diverita. Although she looked like my best friend, there was a steely gaze in her eyes, and she held a silver bow in her hands.
She took an arrow out of her quiver and shot the creature once in the head. It didn't really die, it more, just… disintegrated and turned into dust? I didn't focus on that too much, though.
"Sadie, what just happened?" I was stunned and couldn't move. Or maybe that had to do with the pain I was in. I stumbled forwards and fell into my friend's arms.
"Shh. It's okay. You fine." But judging by the worry in her tone and the black spots dancing in my eyes, it didn't seem like I was fine.
"But, what just- who was- help…" I managed to get a few words out before dropping on my knees. The ground was getting too close. The last thing I could see were Sadie's combat boots before the world got dark.
Bright lights shining on my face. That was the first thing I saw when I woke up. A low buzz of people talking all around me made me try to cover my ears, but as soon as I raised my left arm fire shot through every nerve from my shoulder to my fingertips. I let out a low wince as I lowered my arm. I felt a few pairs of eyes trained on me so I squinted through the bright lights. The first face I saw was a middle aged man in a wheelchair. I tried to look around more but I got caught in the sight of his eyes. While he didn't look too old, his eyes looked thousands of years old. I shook my head and tried looking around again. I caught a glimpse of a freckled face and deep brown eyes, similar to mine.
"Sadie. What happened? What is this place?" I asked desperately.
"This is Camp Half-Blood. I'll explain everything to you soon enough." She gave me a warm smile, but I felt something behind the smile that wasn't so warm.
"What was that that attacked me?"
"It's called a changeling. They can disguise themselves as anything."
"I'm gonna pretend that I know what you're talking about. What did it mean when it said I was the daughter of Athena?" Sadie and the man exchanged a look.
"Alexa, you… your the daughter of Athena. Your not mortal. Well, you can still die, but your half god. A demigod." Sadie took a deep breath "Your actual mother is Athena. Everything about Greek mythology is real. The gods, the monsters, the Titans."
I laughed halfheartedly. "Your kidding me, right? A, a demigod? Bull. My mom isn't a greek goddess."
Sadie and the man exchanged yet another look. "I don't believe I've introduced myself. My name is Chiron." The man, Chiron, gave me a small smile.
"As in… the Chiron? The one who taught Hercules and Jason and Achilles and all the heroes? Like the centaur?"
"You certainly know your Greek history."
"Yeah, my sister used to read the Odyssey to be before-" I shook my head and tried to hold back tears welling in my eyes. "Before she died."
Sadie looked at me in shock, her eyes even more wide than normal, and her mouth open in a small 'O'. "You never told me you had a sister! I'm so sorry. I- well, I hope you don't mind me asking, but how- and when?"
Normal questions, I guess. Didn't mean I wanted to answer them. "A year before dad married mom. I was 10, she was 16. The age didn't matter to us. We were close. She was going to college so young, she was so smart, she-" I starting choking up, and tried to hold back a sob. A few tears ran down my face but I still wasn't full blown crying. I held myself back, though. "Collette was in a school shooting. It was her senior year, her last week of school."
The colors blurred together and I couldn't see or think straight. My stomach hurt again, not from the gashes but from a deep knot from welled up feelings.
"I'm sorry, I can't even mention, can't even mention her, without breaking down… without crying, without…" I choked out.
"We'll give you a few minutes of rest and another camper here will show you around, okay?" She paused."Oh, right. To put it briefly, I'm a demigod, daughter of Apollo, but I'm also a Hunter of Artemis. Artemis's Hunters go out and kill monsters around the country. We're also immortal, so I'll look thirteen my entire life. I can die in battle though, and I can't date boys. Well, girls either, to think of it. I became a Hunter last year, after I found out about me being a demigod. My mom told me, she knew who I was. What I was. So I came to camp last summer and came back to school next year to try and ease you into this life. The older you get, the stronger your scent gets. Scent as in monsters can smell you easily. You might have some weird-"
Sadie continued to explain, but the second she said 'rest' my eyes began to droop. I tried to stay awake and comprehend everything she was saying, but that's impossible to do for a sleep deprived teenager. I passed out with a bigger knot in my stomach than ever.
When I woke up, I wasn't in the same cot I was in before. Instead I saw a boy around my age, but his serious expression showed he's seen some shit. He welded a sword in his hand and his stance was wide. His head and leg were forward like he was about to run, and his arms lay stiff at his side. I saw him charging, running towards someone. A clash of metal. I didn't know who had the other sword, but whoever it was, he was crazy strong. The sword was a lot bigger than the boy's. I couldn't tell much of what was happening, I was only seeing the swords clashing at this point. But from what I could tell, the boy was losing. The huge sword looked like it was about to deliver a final blow. He would die. I tried to run forward, but I couldn't move. I couldn't even talk. Before I saw the outcome of the fight, I woke with a start.
"Alexa," A voice called from across the room.
"I… I think it was a dream, but it looked so real? I don't know… I don't know… it felt so real." I stuttered, trying to find the right words. My eyes glanced around the room nervously and landed on a girl, the one who had called my name. She had tan skin and long blonde hair. I tried to look into her eyes, but they were so intense. Focused, grey eyes where I could tell a million thought ran through her head in the background.
"That's completely normal. Most demigods get hyper-realistic dreams." The girl said, her eyes wandering around the room and occasionally drifting back onto me. She wore a bright orange shirt with the words "Camp Half-Blood" written on it. Her hands stayed busy as she kept fiddled with a necklace around her neck. I couldn't see it clearly though her fingers, but it looked like it was made of a few colorful beads- around five or six, maybe. "My name's Annabeth Chase. I'm another daughter of Athena. I'm giving you a brief tour of camp, and then you can settle into our cabin."
She offered me a hand, which I took and she helped me out of the bed. My shoulder and side ached from before and I tried to hide my wince.
"I have a question- well, a lot of questions, actually. But long story short, I used to be obsessed with this game called Mythomagic and I thought I knew everything there is to know about greek mythology. So how come I've never heard of Changelings before? Also sorry, I tend to ramble on a lot about random information that probably no one cares about. By the way, my name's Alexa, but you probably knew that"
"Don't worry, so do I." She gave me a soft grin that lightened up her dark grey eyes, and I couldn't help return the smile. Annabeth was the kind of person you could trust, maybe. But I had more things to worry about that making friends. "There are a few monsters that the gods want to keep hidden from humans. No one really knows why and, hey, they're immortals. They can do whatever the hell they want."
We walked around for a while, and the more Annabeth talked, the more I felt at home. I felt like I could grin and run up to the volleyball courts, challenging whoever was there. Or take a go at the lava rock climbing wall. Maybe pick up a sword and start fighting. I could never just go up to people and talk to them before. But I felt so in place here. We ended the tour soon enough and went into the Athena cabin. I saw a few bright-eyed kids all looking at me. Most of them had pale skin, grey eyes and blonde hair like Annabeth and I stuck out like a sore thumb. A boy maybe a bit older than me stood up and put down the book he was reading. "I'm Malcolm. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."
