A/N: Here is the second chapter, hope you guys like it and thanks so far for the views and reviews. I still don't own PJatO. I might play around in later chapters with switching up the pov for some quests or what may come. Don't forget to review please.
Troy was really helpful showing us around the camp, a lot more than my mom Annabeth had been, but she always had some silly deadline up top at Olympus. We saw the cabins first and I counted eightteen of them in total. Troy explained that after our father, Percy, had helped lead the forces to defeating Kronos and had requested that extra cabins be built for some of the minor gods. So according to Troy the new six cabins were of Hades, Hecate, Eros, Nemesis, Hestia and a new Mixed cabin for children of demigods. He then pointed out how the Hera, Hestia and Artemis' cabins were all a formality since none would be having any demigods anytime soon, or later most likely.
Lucas was all taking this in with a lot more detail and enjoyment than I was of course, but that isn't to say it was hardly interesting. "So were exactly do we stay? In the mixed cabin or do we get to pick freely?" I tried not to laugh as Lucas asked curiously at Troy.
"Oh, well, you can either stay with us at Athena or in the mixed cabin." He paused as if thinking it all over carefully. "I suppose you might be able to stay in Poseidon's cabin as well, but nobody has really been in there since your dad."
I pulled Lucas by the collar towards me so I could whisper slightly into his ear. "Don't forget, mom said we should try talking about dad around here, he's still a sore subject after what happened before." My little brother gave a half aware nod as I asked Troy to please keep the tour going.
We saw the climbing wall with it's spewing lava, which made Lucas smile in delight. He showed us the ampitheater, which looked quite interesting to both of us. After leading us past the canoe lake and mess hall, we finally encountered the last stop, the Arena.
"Care to try it out?" Troy looked at us both with a mischevious grin. I had no doubt that many demigods would want to test their skills against both of us, quickly and often. "Uh, sure... that could be fun." I grimaced as I replied back, we entered a suprisingly not very crowded arena.
"Troy... here you are..." a girl with blonde hair and nicely tanned skin came running into the arena huffing. Troy seemed to blush slightly for a moment as I recognized the girl as the cabin leader of Apollo.
"Brittney." He barely managed to squeak out before being dragged off to who knows where. The thought made me cringe slightly but I could see that Lucas had a look of shear terror over his face. "No worries little bro, you've got time before some girl tries to drag you away anywhere." I laughed, trying to lighten the mood any, before being interrupted by a burly looking kid with spikey red hair and auburn colored eyes.
"Chase! Ya gotta sword on ya, don't ya?" I was startled by the loud outburst, but pinched the bridge of my nose as I forced a smile and turned around.
"Technically, I have a dagger, but that should suffice properly." I replied, drawing snickers from around the crowd.
"Don't be such a smart brat like your mom is, we all know that your brain is diluted just like your dads." Much more boisterous laughs erupted at that remark, which made my face turn a growing shade of red.
"So you plan on introducing yourself before trying to thwack me with that twig in your hand, buddy?" The group of demigods around us hushed as the boys face started to match the color of his hair.
"Chase, your gonna pay for that remark." I just smiled even bigger, as the boy gripped his spear tightly and took a defensive stance. "My name is Leonard La Rue." He snorted at me in disgust while swing his spear in a wide arc towards my stomach.
"Pfft, you have really got to do better." I taunted him after stepping back easily from such a wide and slow attack, but I knew that if he were to keep the distance I would surely have a hard time with my range limited weapon.
I sneakily put a hand behind my back and grinned again at Leonard. He brought another broad swining arc of the spear at me. I could move around from side to side or backwards, but I wasn't able to get within close range of my dagger. It was then that my plan finished working out in my head.
"Only going to fight me with one arm now?" Leonard cackled at me as I motioned behind my back for Lucas to toss me his bronze knife.
While his knife did have even less range than my dagger, it would be an ideal distraction and one that would allow me to get within the range I needed for this fight. Lucas tossed his knife at the ground behind me, sticking it directly behind my heel. I could feel it pressed against my shoe and used that chance to feint falling, it allowed me to scoop up the knife secretly while Leonard started to laugh at my lack of coordination.
"Ha, got you!" As I fell to the ground I launched the knife at his legs. His reaction was exactly what I had anticipated, as the blade hit just above his right knee. I caught myself from hitting the ground with both hands and pushed off like a springboard. I quickly closed the distance on Leonard as he ripped the knife from his wounded leg. His spear darted out in a sweep again, but it was too high and I could easily skirt under it and got even closer.
"No." He mumbled as I got within stabbing distance and pressed my dagger to his throat. His spear was extended over my shoulder and our spectators just clapped and cheered at our battle's conclusion. "You almost had me there." I admitted under a hushed breath, knowing it would be audible for just him.
"You fight pretty well for a runt." He snarled but the look in his eyes was a mixture of relief and excitement.
I patted Lucas on the back when he came over, and handed the knife back to him. "I'm sure you might have bested me, had I only my dagger to fight with." We both shared a laugh together before the Ares cabin leader entered the Arena with a cute older girl with mousy brown hair.
"So, you got beat again Leonard, and by the new pup too.. maybe we should double your chores for the month." He grinned wickedly at the both of us, before the girl whispered something into his ear that made his eyes seem to perk up. "Oh, so your opponent was a trickster, eh?"
This guy seemed to be a bit of a jerk, but from what my mom had said before (and from meeting Lord Ares once or twice) it seemed to naturally run in the war gods family. "Good job kiddo, you might make a rather skilled fighter with some proper training." The Ares boy, Spencer Casalino, said as he tried to ruffle my black hair.
"He might indeed make a good fighter, but it surely won't be because you train him." I had to wonder if the arena was always this crowded, or perhaps they hadn't gotten many celebrities over the years. Troy had come back with the Apollo girl, Brittney Stremme and a few others that I hadn't met.
"Oh, and your going to train him? Or do you expect Price or Jeff to do so instead?" Spencer laughed along with the Ares girl with him. Leonard just looked down a little sad, staring at his feet while the confrontation took place. Many of the other campers had left the arena seeing the rising tension. "I highly doubt that the son of Hermes or Aphrodite would prove competent enough to even show Alexander how to even blow an attack the right way. They're more likely to get him killed in his first battle."
The Apollo leader, Brittney quickly nocked her bow, as the Ares campers took to the ready for a skirmish.
"Enough. What is the meaning of this?" It was at that next moment that Chiron clopped up in all of his centaur glory. I looked at the group and saw that the arena was divided in half, campers of both Athena and Ares split the room as well as some other stragglers here and there. Chiron broke up the would be fight with relative ease, as he sent everyone on their way. I wasn't exactly so lucky.
"Alexander, can you stay behind and walk with me back to the big house?" I nodded sullenly, figuring I was going to be busted somehow for everyone else's fight. Instead, after the others had all left us alone, he started to talk to me about the state of the camp. I should say the state of the campers.
"You see, while the Gods are trying to claim all of their children now and striving to do what's best and not to neglect their kids anymore." His voice faltered slightly for a second as he hesitated. "The truth is that many kids here still have terrible hatred and grudges against the Gods."
I looked a little puzzled at this, but I guess that was a disadvantage of living among them since I was little. "Well, there must be some common ground, right Chiron?" I asked him earnestly, but got a disapproving head shake for it.
"You and your brother actually seem to be one of the last straws between the two groups. While today might not have been a full out battle, had I not interfered, it would have surely made the neutral cabins and campers pick sides finally." His eyes looked sad as we reach the porch where Dionysus was sitting with the Satyr Lord of the wild, Grover Underwood. I knew something had to be done from the two sides ripping each other apart and I had a stroke of genius hit me.
"Uncle D." I stated flatly, causing a small cringe from him and Grover both. "I told you not to call me that around the mortals boy." He said with an irritance in his voice but a small sparkle in his face that told me he was glad I'd made it here safetly.
"Yes yes, sorry Mr. D." He groaned like the name bothered him and I kept on talking. "Since it's getting near the end of the week, can we have an impromptu Capture the Flag game on friday? Like between the Ares and Athena cabins." His ears perked up a little and I knew that I had his full attention now.
"Why my young cousin, would we pick those cabins to lead?" He asked it straight to the point and I tried hard not to laugh. "In the arena today, the cabin leaders almost went at it." I started in, and after about half an hour of explaining everything he just sighed and stood up from the table.
"Very well, I'll make the announcement tonight at dinner." He headed into the big house with that remark, leaving me on the porch with Grover and Chiron. Grover looked over to me, and smiled before looking at Chiron.
"Do you mind if I take Alex here on a stroll to his cabin?" Chiron nodded and Grover bleated happily. How odd. Anyway we walked from the porch as he asked me all sorts of questions about what I knew from my parents of grandparents. Sadly, I still didn't know a whole lot, but Grover explained that growing up he was Percy's best friend. He sounded a little sad when he asked how my mom was doing, but I smiled and told him she was happy and putting the finishing touches on the new Olympus.
Grover led me to the number eightteen cabin, the one for mixed blood kids. He opened the door and went inside with me to introduce everyone. To my shock, my brother was already inside and sitting with him was Leonard La Rue. There was one other person in our cabin at the moment, a girl with elflike features and dirty blond hair, Stephanie Stoll. She appeared to be just older than Lucas, which as Grover explained would make me the cabin leader. I laughed a minute, before the others looked at me and just smiled.
The satyr lord didn't stick around long, he did assure me we would talk plenty later though. I turned to look at the two older campers, but learned that Leonard was the only way to be here a full year already and he didn't particularly care to lead a cabin of misfits. As he put it. "I say we use this like a hangout, and we can still sleep in our other cabins when we feel like it."
We all agreed on the idea, exchanging some small personal information here and there before we heard the dinner horn sound. We all scampered away to our other cabins to eat with full families. At dinner the big announcement came from Mr. D.
"Alright campers, Aloysius Craig." Chrion leaned over to correct Dionysus, causing the God of wine to groan loudly. "Right, Alexander Chase, has petitioned for a special event this friday. There will be a Capture the flag in the woods on friday." Everyone burst into a dull roar of chatter among who would be joining what teams, before Mr. D. cleared his throat and continued.
"Team Red will be the Ares cabin, along with Hermes, Hephaestus, Nemesis, Hecate, and Demeter cabins. The rest will be on Team Grey, lead by Athena. They will have Apollo, Aphrodite, Dionysus, Eros, and the Hades cabins." Chiron announced the team leaders of Casalino and LaBelle, before dinner let out. Most headed towards the ampitheater for the sing-a-long, but some were already planning out battle strategies for the game.
"Hey Alex." Leonard called to me as he ran to catch up. "I guess we're gonna be enemies for the game huh?" I stiffled a laugh but smirked at him. "So you think you'll try and defeat me out in the woods? I don't plan on losing even once to you, Leo."
We both laughed as we caught up with Stephanie in the stands. Apollo's cabin led the singing, and I must say that the girl Brittney had an amazing voice to match her looks. Stephanie poked me in the side to stop my gawking, as she introduced me to an olive skinned girl with medium length black hair and black eyes that seemed to reflect flashes of color in them.
"Alexander Chase, this is Zavia Strath, a daughter of Nemesis." She prononced to us both, trying to play the arrogant matchmaker. The girl was startling pretty, and my other thoughts just seemed to dissintegrate away in front of her. "Wow... you have an older brother don't you?" I tried to smile at the awkward question, as I could see Leo slapping his forehead in embarassment beside me. "Way to go dummy."
It was getting late so we all headed back to our cabins for the night, knowing that tomorrow would be quite interesting to say the least. I had all but forgotten about the capture the flag the next day, just thinking about all of the people (especially some of the girls) I had met in my first day here. Lucas interrupted me as we walked to Athena cabin. "So Alex, do you think something bad will happen tomorrow? I mean, Uncle Dionysus sure did pick some rather hostile teams."
I thought about the question that night as we laid in our beds. It was indeed going to be an interesting summer for us after all.