Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson.

Chapter 4: I Have to Climb What, Now?

"Nike?" James nodded appreciatively as they walked over to Hermes cabin, "Nice, never seen one of those before."

I slowed in my walking, duffel bag slung over my shoulder. James had offered to carry it, but after remembering what he's said about children of Hermes I'd declined and carried it myself.

"Is that a bad thing?" I asked, trying to keep the nervous quiver out of my voice. I didn't want any more attention brought to me. Chiron already said that Children of Nike were rare (Just my luck), which severally altered my plans of blending in.

James shook his head with a small shrug, "Not at all. Children of all are welcome. Except Hades, but his children tend to be...unpleasant."

I could tell he wanted to use a more vile word, but had stopped for the sake of polite conversation. I felt curiosity rise to the surface at that. Hades had been one of the few gods the movie had shown in detail. But instead of asking I filed it back into a list of questions that I would ask Grover. Whenever he showed up...

"But never mind that." James waved his hand, and gripped my shoulder, steering me, "Check this out."

"I can walk." I glared, but there wasn't very much menace in it. The kid seemed extremely excited about something so figured I'd humour him.

"Close your eyes." He ordered. I rolled said eyes then closed them, letting him steer me around the huge pavilion. "Okay, open up."

"Woah." My mouth dropped. Out of the twelve cabins only two looked like normal summer camp cabins. The one to my immediate left had a brass '11' in the door, which I guess meant it was Hermes Cabin.

The other cabins weren't nearly as simple. Two of them had huge Ionic Columns in front of the doors and looked more like temples than actual cabins. One looked like an steampunk, Industrial era type factory, and another was made completely out of white and blue marble. Other's weren't nearly as pretty. On the left there was a blood-red building covered in barbed wire, and the ground all around was freshly dug. It made me nervous to think about what was buried around it.

I quickly found Poseidon Cabin, which was on the left like Hermes, but at the other end of the row. It was pretty, but in a much simpler way. The walls were made of a deep blue and grey colour. Fossils were etched into the edge of the shale of species a million years old.

"This way." James guided me towards Hermes Cabin. I tore my eyes away and went back to studying Hermes cabin. It needed a paint job, badly, and several of the windows were smashed in. Standing on the porch was an older camper who looked like he was waiting for us.

I raised an eyebrow in appreciation as we came closer. He shared a resemblance with James, but with blond hair and blue eyes. Not for the first time, I cursed my new age as I studied how his orange T-shirt was just a bit too small and how his hair stuck up in just the right places.

Holy crap. He even had a scar. Inwardly I gave this guy a 10/10, then dejectedly dragged my 12-year-old ass over to him with James.

"New kid!" James cupped his hands around his mouth and hollered. I stiffened as faces pecked out of the door and the older kid turned to grin at us. I tried to appear as calm and collected as I could as I came up to the Cabin

"Hello," The older guy gave me an award-winning smile, "I'm Luke, the head counsellor for Hermes Cabin."

I gave him a small smile, trying to quell my inner panic. Luke? Luke as in movie Luke?

I groaned. Why are the evil ones always the hottest?

James pushed me forward and I walked into the Hermes Cabin. I stopped right in the doorway, grabbing onto James to stop myself from tripping over a kid, whose bed was right in front of the door.

In fact there seemed to be very little floor that wasn't covered by kids. I could even see the edge of a sleeping bag underneath one of the more permanent looking Bunk beds.

"Er-Yes." Luke messed up his hair, looking around the cabin, "I'm sure we'll be able to find somewhere for you."

"There's some floor by my cot." James piped up far quicker then I expected. He seemed to realize this and blushed as I looked over at him.

Oh, great. He liked me. Sorry kid, you're only thirteen. Give it a few more years and we'll see. The woes of being a 20-year-old stuck in a 12-year-old body.

"Alright." Luke looked at me, then motioned to the Cabin all of which were giving me curious looks. "Introduce yourself."

"Jane. Jane Braxton." I said shortly.

"Regular or undetermined?" One of the others asked, obviously not a Child of Hermes as he lacked the family resemblance. In fact there were very few kids in here who did look like children of Hermes.

I paused, my mouth slightly open. I turned to James, not entirely sure what I was supposed to say.

"Determined." James answer for me, "But Minor."

Some people winced. I wondered if that was bad, but instead of angry and unpleasant glares they shot me looks of...sympathy. What was that about?

"Nike." I supplied, knowing that they were probably all curious.

Luke seemed to pip up at that, "Nike? Interesting. We've never had one of those before"

My eyes flickered over to James, "So I've been told."

James grinned, "I've been showing her around. Is your friend here yet?"

It took me a second to realize he was talking to me, "No, No, I'm hoping he'll be here soon though. Maybe tomorrow."

I winced after I said that. Chiron hadn't mentioned anything about Percy to me. Hopefully nobody would question me further on that.

"Friend?" Luke questioned, looking far to curious for his own good.

I paused, wondering if I should tell him. Honestly it would probably be more suspicious if I didn't, "Yeah. Percy. He freaked and Grover went after him."

Luke grinned, "Oh, you're Grover's half-blood. I'd heard they'd given him a second chance."

I frowned. Second what now? Second chance? Like what Grover had said about not wanting something to happen again

"Right." Luke clapped his hands together, looking very chipper, "I'll get her a bag."

And with that he was out the door.

"Alright, this way."

James lead me through the maze that was the scattered beds. I could tell that there was a predetermined path for making your way through and I figured that I'd learn it soon enough. He pointed to a piece of the floor beside an army cot where I quickly dropped my duffel bag, claiming it as my own.

"You'll be here for now." James winced, looking at the floor uncomfortably, "But seeing as you're a permanent you'll be one of the first in line for a cot."

I looked around and saw about eight army cots against the walls.

"Why do I get a cot before all these people?" I asked, looking at the dozens of kids all around.

He looked uncomfortable, scratching his head, "Er- well kids are only permanent if they're a child of Hermes or a Minor god. See the only one's ahead of you are Amy," He pointed to a sixteen year old girl with flaming red hair, "Daughter of Phobos, don't get on her bad side, and Chris." He pointed to another rather dejected looking boy sitting in the corner, "Undetermined."

I looked over to Chris the Undetermined, "But he looks like all the other Hermes kids." I pointed out.

James paused at the, running his tongue over his lips nervously. Then he leaned in and lowered his voice, "Everybody figures he's a son of Hermes, but there's been no claiming."

"You mean the..." I waved my arms over my head and James nodded. "It doesn't always happen."

He shook his head, "Sometimes, like with me, you just know. Hermes told my mum and she told me. But they don't always tell others...like you see Bobby..."

He pointed to a good-looking teenager with blond hair of bright blue eyes chatting animatedly with two twins who were very obviously children of Hermes.

James continued, "We all know he's a Son of Apollo, right. But there hasn't been a claiming yet. Some gods you can tell easier than others. Children of Demeter can control plants right? So once we see them do that we can move them. But others...We need to be sure. Can't risk offending the god, There's only six in here who never got claimed. If your here for more than two years without being claimed they either stay home or stay in Hermes permanently."

I kept that in my mind. Alright: Two...let's call them ranks. Permanent and Temporary. Permanent included Hermes kids, Children of Minor gods and Undetermined here for more than two years. We get the good beds. Temporary get the floor and the hope that they'll be claimed and moved to a different cabin.

I nodded to myself looking around at all the kids on the floor and felt a bit guilty, "If it ever get's busy I apparently have a free place in Athena cabin. Apparently her and Nike we're bros...friends." I continued seeing James's face. I'd have to get used to different slang words.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Luke come back into the cabin with a sleeping bag and a pillow. I nodded at him slightly.

"Nah," James grinned, before leaning down. I jumped back slightly, but then I realized he was trying to whisper. He lowered his voice, "Stelson 5 O'Clock."

I looked at him strangely, before I heard some rustling behind me. I gapped as I saw the same kid from the bus reaching for my bag.

I did the first thing I thought of, and stamped my foot down on his hand, hard.

He yelped, pulling his hand away where he cradled it in his chest. James roared with laughter behind me and I blushed deeply as the entire cabin turned to stare at me.

"Er-Sorry." I looked down, shifted awkwardly.

James was still laughing, but Luke just sighed looking exasperated, "He had it coming. A little reminder." He raised his voice and all the heads turned from me to him, "That we do not steal from our own cabin. All other cabins are free game! At your own risk of course!"

There were several 'Whoops' from around the cabin, most notably from two twins in the corner, who then yelled offers to show people where the 'Land Mines' were.

And then the spell was broken, and everybody went back to their business.

"Well that was horrifying." I said bluntly.

"That was brilliant." James offered, still smiling behind his hand.

Luke walked over to me, handing me the bag, "Here you go. Seeing how you handled Stelson, you shouldn't have an issue staying with the rest of them."

I mock saluted him and he chuckled, walking back over to his bunk.

I looked around at all the kids around here. Most of them were much younger than the movie had portrayed. Luke was the oldest at maybe 20, and the youngest was a 7 year old boy.

But they were also much nicer. In the movie many came off as cold and steely, unfriendly. But here it just felt like the summer camps I went to as a kid where you stayed up all night reading horror stories and eating all the candy you'd hid from your counsellor.

The sun was going down and I already felt exhausted. I'd been traveling all day and it was starting to show. I slowly unfurled my sleeping bag and went into it. Luke called lights out, but it was still loud. The accumulation of the whispering of two dozen. But I lived in a dorm, I was used to it.

And with that final thought I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

The sun was barely coming over the horizon when I felt somebody nudge at my shoulder.

I waved them away at first, muttering something about a few more minutes. But the nudging just got more insistent.

"Jane." A male voice whispered as they continued.

I frowned, and opened up a single eye. I must've looked a sight, my hair mussed and the running remains and yesterday's makeup going down my face. Above me I could see the blurry outline of head Counselor Luke come into view.

"Luke?" I blinked, trying to push the sleep out of my mind, "Wh-What's up?"

But he didn't reply. His face was solemn.

"What?" I asked, definitely worried now, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Your friend came in last night." He whispered as most of the camper's where still asleep, "He's at the Big House. He's...in a bad way."

Immediately I knew what had happened. The Minotaur.

Well, shit.

Immediately I pushed the sleeping bag back. I had kicked off the jeans I fell asleep in and I should've felt embarrassed by my lack of dress, but my mind was in full-blown panic mode. I grabbed a pair of sweats from my bag, threw them on and ran out the door.

As I ran I could see a couple of earlier risers running laps around the track or on the lake. I got all the way to the Big House in time to see Grover sitting on the porch. His Rasta cap hung from his hands showing his horns.

"Grover." I gasped out, looking at the bloody gash on his forehead, "What happened?"

His bottom lip quivered, "We were attacked."

I sat there and let him get the whole story out. He managed to do it without crying which was an impressive feat for him. I just sat there and tried to be supportive, something that I'm not really the best at.

"Where is he?" I asked him once he finished talking.

Grover looked back to the Big House, "Inside. Chiron woke up one of the Apollo kids to look over him. Exhaustion mostly. Banged his head really good."

"That's it?" I was impressed. Grover looked at me appalled and I quickly back tracked, "Well with no training and facing a monster that's pretty impressive. And it marks his monster tally at two before he's even started."

Grover seemed even more nervous at that, "He's really powerful, isn't he?"

I could tell the question was rhetorical so I didn't answer. Instead I asked another, "How come everybody acts like being powerful is a bad thing?"

Grover winced at that, ringing his rasta cap through his hands, "The more powerful you are the more likely you'll be killed young."

"Oh." I sighed, "Good thing I'm a lowly daughter of Nike then."

"N-Nike?" Grover stuttered, his goat eyes slitting up, "Oh, that can't be good."

"Yeah," I nodded, "Apparently I'm some sort of omen of doom and gloom. I got the spiel from Chiron."

Grover paused like he always did when he was hiding something. I narrowed my eyes at him. "Grover..." I warned.

He coughed, "Sorry, It's nothing."

I kept my eyes narrowed, but dropped it. He was still in shock, and I didn't want to push him. No promises about later though.

Grover put his face into his hands, "Mr.D is going to kill me."

"Really?" I asked in mock surprise, "He seemed like such a teddy bear."

But Grover obviously didn't want to talk about. Instead he pulled a flattened pop can out of his pant pocket and started chewing on it.

"You'll start everything today." He explained, trying to take his mind off Percy, "Breakfast is at 8:30. Then Luke will take you through everything. Asses your abilities and then make you a timetable."

I snorted, "Beginner everything then?"

Grover shrugged, "Maybe, maybe not. Apollo's children do expert archery from day one. Children of Athena have an easier time of reading Greek and Children of Ares are natural Swordsmen and women."

I sighed, "But I'm a daughter of Nike. I mean, I plan to bet like mad at basketball games cause apparently I'm good at guessing things like that, but otherwise I doubt I'll be very special at anything."

"You're probably right." Grover agreed and I grinned fondly at him.

I patted his back, "You'll be fine Grove. Percy's alive, I'm alive. And there's one dead Minotaur. Sounds like a win to me."

Then I stood up, stretched and walked back to my cabin.

On my way back I passed a girl, probably 11 or 12 with pretty blond hair tied back in an elastic as she ran past me. Her clothes were neat like her hair. I looked down at myself. My clothes were wrinkled and smelt like stink and my own ratty hair was only half in a pony tail.

I wrinkled my nose and wandered back to the cabin, hoping to grab a shower before I wandered to camp.

It turned out because our cabin was messy and the earlier mentioned twins had played a rather horrible prank on this weeks cabin inspector, we got shower's last. Which meant ice cold water first thing in the morning.

Breakfast was interesting. I had to watch mournfully as the largest bits of bacon were sacrificed to Nike.

The smell afterwards was almost worth it.

Almost.

Sorry Nike.

Chiron introduced me to the whole pavilion which lead to more awkward clapping and nods. A few people seemed interested in my parent and leaned over to get a look at me. I saw one kid at Athena table actually scribble notes in a book as he stared at me, which was a bit strange.

After that Luke brought me around to different things, leaving his Cabin in the semi-capable hands of Travis and Conner Stoll, a.k.a the Twins.

"That's not going to go well is it?" I guessed.

Luke watched the cabin with trepidation, "Not even a little bit."

I wasn't terrible at Ancient Greek which was taught by the same Blond girl I'd seen earlier that morning. I'd learned her name was Annabeth Chase (Yes, the same Annabeth from the movie. Go figure) and, despite being only twelve, was the head counsellor of Athena Cabin.

We hit it off right away. And by that I mean that she seemed dead set on being my friend. I, on the other hand, was a bit wary of her. She had this look in her eyes like she was constantly scheming. It made me nervous, but at the same time she seemed friendly enough. I sat there and half listened as she rambled on about the Temple of Athena Nike, which was apparently by the Parthenon in Athens.

But of course that was in between the side glances at Luke, who was accompanying me to all my classes and writing things down onto a clipboard. Every time he smiled at her, her entire face would flush red. Apparently I wasn't the only one at camp who saw how attractive the son of Hermes was.

Next was archery, which once again I was alright at. Meaning I hit the target 80% of the times, but only the closest ones and never near the middle.

Same with track. I was faster than some kids but slower than others.

In fact, in every single things I went to I rated the same. Average.

There wasn't a single thing I was better at or worse at than everybody else.

The climbing wall had been an adventure that I'm pretty sure Luke was still annoyed at me for.

I looked up at the two giant wall's with horror, "What is that?!"

Luke barely spared it a glance, his arm full of ropes and harnesses, "Climbing wall."

I scoffed, "Um...No, that's not a climbing wall. That's a death trap."

"Don't be so dramatic." He snorted.

"Is the lava necessary?"

He rolled his eyes, "It's not as hard as it looks. Your demigod instincts will kick in, let's harness up."

I opened and closed my mouth, "...I'm sorry?"

"We're climbing it." He said like it was obvious, starting to pull on his harness.

"Um...no I'm not."

"Uh, Yes you are." He mocked my tone.

"I can't."

He looked at me strangely, "Why not?"

I stared back, deadpanned. "I have this condition where I'm not suicidal."

"Look, the lava flow is extremely slow. If you can't outrun that, then there is some question about your skills as a demigod."

I snorted, "Ha! Jokes on you, because there already is some question about my skills as a demigod.'

He blinked, "Just climb the damn rock wall."

"Make me!"

Luke rubbed his head, exasperated, "We need to know your skill level so we know where to put you."

I paused, "Is there a level without the lava."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because it's essential that you learn this, Jane."

"Really?" I looked at him with a mocking shock, "Climbing the edges of erupting volcanos? Is this a daily thing for you?"

Luke stared at me with a single raised eyebrow.

I climbed the freaking wall.

And once again, average.

Luke seemed to think it had something to do with my mother.

"Think of it like this." Luke said as we walked back to the showers after he finally managed to coerce me to climb down the wall, which was apparently just as important as climbing up, "You're like...a judge. You have to be partial. Average, in the middle. You can't favour one thing over another."

I kind of understood what he was getting at. Didn't mean I had to like it.

But something was bugging me, "A judge? I thought I couldn't decide the end of something. Only maybe predict it."

"It's a literal thing." Luke continued as I fished for information. He may he evil but he knew what he was talking about. Why not take advantage of it while I could? "Once there is a winner, a Child of Nike 'crowns' them, or declares them the champion. Therefore deciding the battle over. I guess perhaps, 'Jury' is more appropriate than 'Judge'."

"What?" I asked, slowing my pace, staring at him confused. What did he mean, 'Crowned the Victor'?

"Didn't Chiron tell you?" Luke looked at me in confusion and I narrowed my eyes at him. Oh please, I knew this trick. I'd seen enough movies. However, I wasn't buying what he was selling.

But I really wanted him to continue. It obviously had something to do with whatever Grover was hiding. "Tell me what?" I urged.

He smiled, charmingly, "Children of Nike are born to crown the victor. It's why there's one in every great war. Once you decide the winner, the Battle is over."

"Oh." I squeaked, "No pressure or anything! Hasn't a child of Nike ever been born when there wasn't a battle?"

I sounded extremely hopeful.

"Hmmm." Luke thought about it, "Maybe. I don't know, there were great periods in history where Demigod births weren't documented as well."

I tried to imagine Luke pouring over books in some old musty library as he learnt everything he'd just told me. He didn't seem like the type to do a lot of research, but he was pretty knowledgable about these things, so he must have learnt it somewhere.

I slowed my pace, "But...if my declaring a winner decides the battle, then what's to stop me from just declaring my side a winner."

"Well." Luke chuckled darkly, "That's the thing. Anything can turn the tide of a war. One side could be backed up against a corner and then pull a Hail Mary out of their backside. But say a child of Nike was there when they were still backed against that corner and you declared the other side a winner. It wouldn't matter what they pulled out, the other side would still win."

He sounded a bit to pleased about that for me.

"And that means?" I asked.

His faced darkened for a second, but then brightened agin, "It means I'm sure glad you're on my team for capture the flag."

A/N: You know when you put something off for a super long time and you don't really think about it and then suddenly BAM it's right in your face? That's happening to me right now. You see next week is something called midterm week. I did not realize that next week was midterm week and now I'm drowning in work.

But I figured I'd get this chapter up, just because I had a break and figured I'd use it. Actually that's a lie. I'm procrastinating. There I said it.

The only other problem I have is that I am posting way faster than I am writing. I like to keep a bit of distance between what I write and what I post (as Readers of ATSWNT will know), mostly so that if I make a plot change I have time to add either foreshadowing or even change things before I post it.

Also, I felt like mentioning. Yes, I know that the Stoll brother's aren't twins. But Jane doesn't, which Is why I'm referring to them that way. That's a huge mistake I always see with OCs in particular, is having them know things that they haven't actually learnt yet.

I'm also really sorry if there's any issues with formatting. If you see any weird line breaks or sentences that are split weird let me know. The editor on this website was possessed or something while i was working on this chapter.

A note on reviews:

FandomSailor: When I started this story I was super adamant that she wasn't going to be a Daughter of the Big Three. Originally she was just a plain old daughter of Hermes, but then I created the Nike plot. I am super excited for House of Hades. Last year I had to walk through a random early season blizzard to get my copy of MOA. Obviously Boreas was against me...

Xieg: Actually I'm a Child of Athena through and through. Blond curly-haired, grey eyed (I'm not even kidding, it's uncanny), plus I'm studying Archaeology, specifically in the area of Greek architecture. Like I said, uncanny. But in Greek Mythology Nike and Athena were always connected, like I said, the Parthenos had a figure of Nike in her in her outstretched hand. Probably because Strategy and Victory go Hand in Hand. Like movie!Annabeth always said, Children of Athena always win.

Please Review with any thoughts or concerns. Questions are always welcome! And I will respond to them unless there's spoiler's involved. I might started responding to reviews in PM's only, unless it's an anon.

Until Next Time,

-Ash