Something Floats Over My Head
Cedar showed me the archery range (which I looked forward to a lot), the pegasi stables (which looked really fun, but Chiron had forbidden me from it), the canoe lake, the climbing wall (which horrified me enough without the lava), the mess hall (I figured out why they called it a mess hall), the outside of the forest (she warned me not to go in unless I was "heavily armed". Eek!), and finally the cabins. They were pretty cool; constructed in a U-shape, two at the top and five on each side. They were just about the weirdest collection of buildings I've ever seen. One was covered in flowers and a bunch of other nature-y stuff, one was painted red, but it was a very bad paint job, as if someone had taken a paintball gun to the walls. Others seemed calmer, like the third one. It was decorated with seashells, but, my favorite had to be #8. It was subtlety decorated, but it looked like it was washed in liquid moonlight. Cedar walked me to #11, which wasn't decorated; it just looked like a very old cabin.
She opened the door and I almost lost it. There was mostly boys (extremely awkward), but what struck me most was that it was so full. There was barely any room to move around in. There were sleeping bags all over the floor of the cabin. I wondered why people didn't just go over to the cabins that were completely empty. It would be a better representation of space management. I asked Cedar and she looked at me like I had lobsters coming out of my ears.
"You can't just choose a cabin and move in. It depends on who your parent is."
"My dad is unemployed. We live at 1621 North 57th St. What cabin do I get for that?"
"Not him. Your immortal parent. Your mom is one of the Greek gods." I let that sink in. My dad always said that my mom had to leave after she had me. She was an astronaut, he said. She went on a mission to the moon, and their shuttle exploded on the way back to Earth. It seemed like a pretty horrible way to die. But before I could say anything else, a teenage boy came up to me and introduced himself.
"Hi, I'm Zack. The counselor of this cabin. Every newcomer who comes here stays in this cabin. Our patron, Hermes, the god of travelers, accepts all of 'em. Cedar, regular or undetermined?"
"Undetermined." A lot of people groaned. "Come on, Natalie. We have to finish the tour." We left, but apparently I wasn't done meeting people. A girl who was about my size times three walked up to us.
"Hey. I'm Danielle, daughter of Ares, god of war. Come with me. We gotta little ceremony for newbies at this camp." Cedar tried to say something, but her mouth wasn't working. Clarisse dragged me to the girl's bathroom which I can't say was all that hygienic. I was getting pretty annoyed. This girl radiated rudeness. She took me into a stall and forced my head toward the water in the toilet. And then I lost my cool completely. Now, I wasn't all that strong, but I was small and I was quick, plus I had a really loud voice. So, I screamed and Danielle let go of my head to cover her ears. I slipped through her legs used someone's leg to hoist myself up, and ran out of the bathroom.
"Natalie, are you okay?" Cedar asked me when I appeared next to her.
"Yeah, she tried to get my head in the toilet. I didn't like that, so I got out of there." Then, Danielle stormed out of the restroom.
"You win this time, brat. But I'll get you. One day. Watch your back." Cedar had to hold me back from racing after her as she walked into cabin #5.
"Here, go back to Hermes' cabin and wait 'til dinner. After supper, is capture the flag. You can take your anger out on her then. K?"
"OK. See ya later." And I walked slowly over to the cabin.
At dinner, we lined up in order of seniority, so I was last. I didn't see that as rudeness. It's the rules, after all. I sat at the Hermes table, almost sliding off the end. There was a few of empty table that I wished belonged to me. After dinner, Zack came up to me and said to follow him to the woods. So, I did, however reluctantly. Chiron spoke and then we suited up in shiny armor and chose weapons. I chose to stick with the wooden twig Cedar gave me earlier. The kids in the armory had fashioned it so I could hold on to one end and had sharpened and coated the rest with celestial bronze. It was awesome.
The Ares campers charged in with their ugly flag, painted red and with a boar's head in the middle. The Athena campers ran in holding their silver banner decorated with an olive tree and an owl floating above it. Zack said we were on Athena's team this time. Apparently, chores and shower times had been negotiated in order to get reinforcements. Zack told me to stand at the creek and do guard duty (yell if any of the red players get near the border line.) Chiron blew a conch horn and most every one on our side ran over the creek. I heard fighting and yelling. And then four Ares kids ran over to me. I was about to yell when they stopped and looked at me. One of the smaller ones slashed me with her sword. It wasn't a deep cut, but that didn't stop it from hurting.
"Natalie, I bet you wished you had something special about you. Too bad Chiron will probably have to make you all better after this game. Even the Apollo kids couldn't heal what's comin' to ya." Now, if you didn't see it, that was rude, and I blew up. I punched the one who slapped me and then slipped between the others I got on the other side of them and hit one on the head with my twig. Staff, there that's a better name for it. The other ran for it, in the wrong direction even. Then Danielle came after me and I knew I was a goner. I'd wasted my energy on the other three, and was left standing in the creek, exhausted.
The moon rose into the sky and a cool nighttime breeze swept over me. My energy level rose quickly and I pulled some kind of karate/boxing thing and came up on her left side. I hit her in the side with my free hand and when she slashed at me, I wasn't there. I had dropped to the ground and hit her Achilles tendon. She fell like a marionette whose strings had been cut. The guys standing guard at the flags base had just noticed what was going on and started clapping. But then the volume of it increased drastically as more voices joined in. An Apollo camper was running with the Ares banner in his hand. He jumped the creek into friendly territory and the banner changed to an orange color with a giant sun in the middle of it. Everybody lifted him up on their shoulders, including me. Somewhere in the back of the crowd, someone tripped, knocking others down like dominoes in succession.
I was the only one able to stay standing, but I was still holding up the winner of the game. I put him down and suddenly everyone was looking at me. No, not me, my arms. They were glowing just like cabin 8 (one of the empty ones). And then everybody watching me gasped in unison. Every one who wasn't watching turned to see what was going on and gasped as well. Something seemed to be wrong with the air above my head, and I couldn't help but look.
Over my head was a spotlight of blue light that seemed to come from no where. But that wasn't the weirdest part. Contained inside the light was a gray orb. But if you looked close enough there were small holes, craters, in its surface. It was a tiny model of the moon. Chiron pushed his way to the front of the group and I was surprised, no, astounded to see that his bottom half was not in a wheelchair. It was the body of a proud palomino horse. He was a centaur, I'd read about them in books. They were supposedly very peaceful creatures, but he looked downright murderous as the moon over my head dissipated into nothing.
"Um…" he stuttered, "It is determined. Your mother has claimed you."
"My mother?" I asked, completely bewildered.
"A-Artemis, Moon Manipulator, Mother of the Hunt, Archery Expert. Hail, Natalie Peirce, Daughter of the Maiden Goddess."
