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Ch. 3 Hermes is Harold

Percy continued the tour. We passed by the strawberry fields, the arena where they had chariot races, the armory, Max had already become acquainted with this place, and the stables which were pretty impressive, Percy introduced me to Blackjack the, Pegasus that had flown me and Max over to camp. Then a thought crossed my mind; how was my mom, I instantly felt guilty.

"Percy does my mom know where Max and I are?" I tried not to let the worry appear in my voice.

"Well my mom and Paul said they were going to fill her in on the whole situation." Percy said. My nerves relaxed a bit. But I still had more questions that were pressing me.

"Percy could you do me a favor and answer all my questions?" Percy looked at me and nodded. "First, what were those things that I saw attack you, two, how come every time I say your name something attacks me, and third, how can I talk to my mom?" Percy listened quietly.

"Okay, firstly the things that attacked us were called Scythian Dracaena. Second, well…" Percy explained by telling me how Kronos the titan Lord tried to come back and end Olympus but was stopped by Luke Castellan, son of Hermes, who had also helped start it. There was also a whole bunch of other stuff but at the end of his explanation my body felt cold and my brain felt overworked. When Percy stopped explaining he seemed very sad and regretful at all the lives lost. But at my last question he smiled. "I can show you how to contact your mom." My body began to warm as I thought of my mother. But then a loud horn began to blow. "Looks like I'll have to show you later Armony. It's time for Dinner." Dinner? Man I must have been out longer than O thought but I was actually pretty hungry so I didn't argue; besides Percy said he would show me later.

We got to the Mess Hall, all the campers were there, there had to be at least a hundred kids here. Percy explained that the campers sit with their cabin. I looked around and spotted Max standing next to Chiron, who was part horse now, I was surprised but then again I had already danced with him; no need to be weirded out, right? Mr. D was standing behind a long table, looking bored. Max waved me over and I went to stand next to him.

"Mr. D. is going to introduce us to the camp and then we get to dump our food into the fire." Max filled me in. Great I got to be the center of attention; I really hope I don't have to say anything. But what did Max mean about the fire?

"What do you mean we dump our food in the fire?" I asked Max. But Chiron answered me.

"As a sacrifice to the gods." Chiron said. "So you give them the best item on your plate to honor them."

"Oh" I said in a small voice. Chiron was kind of imposing in his full centaur form.

Mr. D. stood up and suddenly the room began to quiet. "Campers please welcome our two newest campers." Mr. D said with absolutely no excitement. "Larmony and Fax Solomom." Did he just get our names wrong on purpose? I was kind of mad but I didn't want to correct Mr. D. in front of everyone. Everyone talked to their neighbors trying to figure out what our names really were. But they didn't need to talk anymore; a girl with brown hair and pink streaks pointed behind us. I turned around to look at what she was pointing at; bad idea. Behind us was a large painted banner that said "Welcome Max and Armony", while I turned a confetti canon shot into my face throwing me off balance and I fell backwards. I closed my eyes tightly waiting for the fall but I had been caught. I opened my eyes to see a boy with messy black hair and dark eyes. He propped me up on my feet and I got a better look he was wearing a lot of black, black t-shirt, black jeans, black shoes, dude was gothic or emo.

"Thanks." I muttered, my face going red from my lost fight with gravity.

"Your welcome. I'm Nico." He said introducing himself. Then he returned to his table, he sat by himself, yeah gothic or emo. Then I remembered that here you sat with your cabin which meant he was the only child of whoever his mom or dad was. I looked at the rest of the campers many of them were snickering at my fall, except for Max, Travis and Connor, and the rest of the Hermes cabin they all found it hilarious and were laughing right at me. The familiar heat rose to my face.

After the Hermes cabin had calmed down to just a few giggles every now and then everyone had their food and gold goblets were passed around the cabins stood up and started walking to the fire/ the hearth. As they passed the fire they would place a portion of their food and say which god it went to.

"Which god do we give our food to?" Max looked up at me. It was a good question; we didn't know who our parents were, so I guess it would be best to suck up. I thought about it.

"Hermes, after all we are staying in the Hermes cabin." I answered him. It made sense to me. He nodded. We walked up to the hearth and we both held out the best piece of brisket on out plates. "For Hermes." We said together, we dropped the meat into the flames. I smelt the flames but the fire didn't smell like burning food it smelled like something I hadn't smelled in a long time, licorice.

"Max, Armony?" A voice spoke from out of nowhere, it sounded familiar.

"Max did you hear that?" I looked down at him but the expression on his face told me he had. I didn't have time to think about it. We were pushed out of the way to make room for the other campers.

"Come on you two." Connor called us over to sit at the Hermes table. I sat down across from Conner and Travis and heard "FFFUUURP" My eyes went wide, and my face went red, tomato farmers would be jealous of how quickly I turned red. The Hermes cabin started laughing and so did Max, I reached under me and pulled out a whoopee cushion. "Alright, sorry Armony but we couldn't resist." Connor somewhat apologized.

"But after we saw the way you got hit by our confetti canon we couldn't resist." Travis smiled. I put my hand over my face and smiled with them I guess it probably was funny. "Any way welcome to the Hermes table. As you know I'm Travis."

"And I'm Connor." Connor said. I actually already knew this, I guess they forgot. "We are the co-head counselors of the Hermes Cabin and these are the rest of your cabin mates," Connor started naming everyone down the table. "Chris, Taylor, Tyler, Levi, Mike, Craig, Michelle, Candace, Tucker, Lana and Robert." I had already seen the Hermes cabin, there were fourteen beds, and with Max and I that made fifteen campers in the cabin.

"So I guess I'll take the floor." I said. Connor looked at me confused until he realized what I was talking about.

"No, we have fourteen beds. And there's only fif…" Connor did the math and realized someone would have to sleep on the floor.

"As long as Max has a bed I'll be fine." I assured him. I looked over at Max he was eating a piece of brisket too big for him; he had stabbed it with his fork and was trying to bite a piece off.

"Well you could always share a bed with someone." Connor suggested then I thought of a way to try and get back at him.

"I guess if you need someone to sleep with you Connor I'll keep you warm." I said as sexy as I could and batted my eyelashes. If I had not been kidding there is no way I could have actually said that.

"I-I uh…" Connor stammered I had caught him off guard; a faint blush began to creep on his face. I laughed.

"I'm just joking Connor, laugh." His face returned back to normal. "By the way where do I get something to drink?" I said holding up my empty goblet.

"Like this." He grabbed his goblet and demonstrated. "Sprite." The goblet filled with the clear liquid. Then he smirked. "Red Sprite." The liquid turned red. That was awesome. I grabbed my goblet.

"Dr. Pepper, Pink Dr. Pepper." This was pretty cool. "Connor will this stain my mouth." He shrugged.

"So you and Max are brother and sister." Connor said it was an observation. "Do you guys have any idea who you dad might be?" I hadn't even thought about it. I had met Max's Dad which meant he was a god. Picturing Max's dad as a god was actually kind of hard though, he was always so normal.

"Well I have no idea who either of our dads might be." I said. I hadn't even met my dad, whenever I thought of my dad all I felt was sadness, false hope and loneliness.

"What do you mean either of your dads?" Travis had asked he had been listening in on our conversation.

"Max and I are half-siblings." I said, but I had never felt that Max was half anything, he was my brother that's all there was to it.

"So if you both are demigods but you have different dads then that means your mom…" Travis trailed off. I could feel anger rising in me. He made it sound like my mom was a slut for the gods.

"Travis you better be careful what you say next." I warned steel in my voice. I'm not one for conflict, but if someone messes with my family in any way I will make them pay. Travis looked at me apologetically. I backed off a bit. "Any way what happens after dinner?" Travis seemed relieved for the change in topic.

"Capture the Flag." Travis said. He and Connor spent the rest of our time at dinner explaining the rules of Capture the Flag. From what I could gather it was basically you normal game of capture the flag but Greek army style. "Although since you and Max haven't had any proper training you guys don't get to play." I wasn't sure whether to feel bad about that or to be glad.

"So who's against whom?" I asked.

"It's the Hermes, Hades, Poseidon, Athena, Aphrodite and Apollo cabins versus the Ares, Demeter, Hecate, Hephaestus, Nemesis, and the Iris cabins. It should be an easy win." Connor said.

"Campers!" Chiron yelled. "It is time for capture the flag. Go get you armor and report to the field." The campers got up and headed for the cabins. I got up and started walking to the Hermes cabin but my thoughts were about Max's dad who could he be?

I remember when Max was born, his dad Harold, or whatever his name really is, had stayed with us until mom came off of maternity leave. That was the happiest time of my life. It was like I had a complete family. I can't say for sure if Harold treated me like his daughter, I had no idea what a father daughter relationship was like but he treated me kindly and I loved it. The first time I met Harold I didn't like him but he made my mom happy. He would come to pick my mom up for a date and he would give me licorice. I hated licorice, I still do actually but, he made mom happy so I ate it anyway. But I began to warm up to him, he would play with me. Harold had two pet snakes George and Martha I used to pretend that they could talk; George would ask for mice to eat and Martha would reprimand him. After Max was born he didn't play with me as often but I was still happy but the more I saw him with Max the more jealous I got, but one day I realized that Harold wasn't going to stay with us. That night I made him promise.

Flashback

"Harlod, can you promise me something?" I looked at him his blue eyes meeting mine.

"What is it Armony?" He asked he had just put Max down for a nap, and Mom was sleeping in her room.

"I want you to promise me on your most precious thing that you will always come to visit Max for his birthday." I knew that Harold couldn't stay with us, I didn't know how but I knew he couldn't. I looked at him; he looked like he was about shake his head no. "Please Harold. I don't want Max to be like me." My voice started to cry but I couldn't let that stop me. "Don't let him wonder where his daddy is. Please be his daddy. Every Birthday I wish that my daddy will come to my birthday and hug me and say 'Happy Birthday' I don't even care if he brings a present, but he never comes. So please promise me you will always come and visit Max on his birthday, you don't even have to bring him a present but presents are nice. And I know he would like it." I grabbed onto the bottom of Harold's shirt and looked down at his shoes I didn't want to see him shake his head. I was still crying my tears fell on the floor I could see Martha and George come out of his pocket, looking at me.

"Yes Armony." Harold said yes, it took me by surprise. I looked up and I could see he was sad too. He put his hand on my head.

"You promise?" I asked.

"Yes Armony I promise on my most special thing that I will always come and visit Max on his birthday." I smiled. The tears still fell and I tasted the salt. I wiped my eyes and hugged him, he hugged me back.

Present

I got to the Hermes cabin, everyone was dressed in Greek armor. I looked toward Connor who was still putting on his armor. Travis was helping him with the straps. Then I noticed Max wasn't in here.

"Hey Connor where's Max?" I asked I could feel panic starting to stir.

"Uh he was behind us when we got here." Oh crap. The Panic started to seep into my thoughts what if he got hurt?

"No, this isn't good. I lost him again." I said alarm obvious.

"Don't worry he'll be fine. What do you mean you lost him again?" Connor tried to suppress my worry.

"This one time when we went camping-wait this is no time for reminiscing."

"Is someone freaking out because she can't find her brother?" I knew that voice. I turned around to see a man with black curly hair, gray hairs appeared every now and then in his hair. He was wearing a jogging suit like usual. It was Harold with Max riding on his shoulders.

"Harold. Thank you!" I was so happy Max wasn't hurt. "Wait what are you doing here?"

"Well I'm betting by now you've probably guessed that I'm a god." Harold said.

"Armony, do you know who this is?" Connor asked me.

"Yeah this is Max's dad." I said gesturing to Harold.

"Armony, I was walking back to the cabin when I saw dad talking to Mr. D. Did you know Mr. D.'s real name is Dionysus?" Max looked so excited, like a puppy that hadn't gotten to play for a long time and was finally allowed to.

"Armony I meant do you know which god this is?" Connor asked me a very obvious question.

"Connor if I knew which god this was, do you think I would be calling him Harold, besides I already told you I had no idea who our dads were." I snapped, sometimes I hate being asked questions I already explained.

"Armony don't talk to my son like that." Harold got mad, something in is voice showed his true nature, it was powerful. I looked at him confused until I realized; Harold is Hermes.

"I'm sorry lord Hermes." I apologized and bowed my head at that Harold looked incredibly surprised. I figured that was how you were supposed to talk to gods. "How are George and Martha?" I asked desperate to change the subject. As if on cue George and Martha poked out of Har-Hermes' pocket.

"We're good Armony." Martha had talked she actually talked. I had always thought I imagined her talking.

"Did you bring me a mouse?" George asked.

"George stop thinking about your stomach, she gives you a mouse on Max's birthday every year." Martha nagged George.

"But I want one now." They were just like I remembered. I smiled.

"Martha, George now is not the time." Har-Hermes chastised them. "Any way I was in the neighborhood when I got your sacrifice so I decided to come on by and see how my kids were doing." He didn't mean to but when he said my kids I knew I wasn't included in that and a pang of sadness hit my heart.

"Well dad we" Travis began but he was caught off by a horn. "Well dad we have a capture the flag to win." The Hermes cabin left, but first Hermes said hello to each of his children and told him he was rooting for them in Capture the Flag.

"Well you guys have no idea how surprised I was to find out that you guys were in camp half-blood, your mother wanted to shield you guys from this world." Hermes said. But I caught on to the last thing he had said.

"Wait mom knows about all this Greek gods and mythology stuff?" I could see now why my mom wanted to hide this stuff from us but if we were demigods this was something we should have known.

"Well yeah I assumed she finally decided to let you guys come here." Hermes looked confused. "But if she didn't let you guys get here?"

"Percy Jackson brought us here, Daddy." Max wanted to fill him in on his new hero.

"Well that explains a lot." Hermes nodded. He tried to pull Max off his shoulders but Max wouldn't let him, Hermes gave up with a smirk. I had to ask him this thought had been on my mind since Connor asked me.

"Hermes since you're a god, do you know who my father is." The smirk on his face disappeared.

"Armony I do but he made me promise not to tell you." I could feel my heart break. My tears pooled in my eyes, how could I let myself get my hopes up. Armony don't cry, nothing has changed he just doesn't want you to know who he is, you had figured this might have been a reason so don't cry; don't care, I told myself over and over like a mantra. "Armony he just wants you to prove that you are his daughter." What the hell did he mean by that?

"Armony are you okay?" I looked up and Max's big brown eyes were studying me.

"I-I'm fine Max." I faked a smile. "I just miss mom." I lied.

"I know it's early but Max." Hermes pulled Max off of his shoulders, this time Max didn't fight he was too curious. "Since you know about this world now I see no problem with giving you these." Hermes pulled a shoe box from behind him. He opened the box and two black converse shoes. Max looked unimpressed, last year his dad had given him a spring loaded light saber with lights and sound. "Here try them on." Max took of his shoes and tried on his new pair. "Now say maia." Hermes ordered.

"Maia." Max echoed. His shoes sprouted wings and began to flap. Suddenly Max was up in the air. "Whoa! Ow!" He hit his head against the ceiling. Wow this was pretty cool.

"Alright Max, I'm going to go watch the rest of your siblings play capture the flag. Would you like to come we can fly over there." Max grinned and nodded. "Alright lets go." Hermes shoes grew wings and he and Max flew off. Leaving me by myself.

I was alone and bored. I walked to the Big House and saw Mr. D. with a pack of cards.

"Hello Mr. D, how are you?" I asked trying to be polite.

"Oh hello…Army." Okay I know he messed it up on purpose.

"Mr. D would you like to play a card game?" I gestured to the pack of cards. That peaked his interest.

"Do you know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D tried to hide his interest.

"No but if you teach me then I'll know then won't I." Mr. D. pursed his lips.

"Only because I don't have a pinochle partner I'll teach you." He took it as a chore but he taught me anyway. And…well…pinochle is hard especially if your opponent is a god who predates its existence.