A/N - I don't own Percy Jackson


'Welcome to Cabin 11, also known as the Hermes Cabin.' Will announced as we stopped outside perhaps the biggest cabin in the camp (by my reasoning anyway).

A golden caduceus hung over the door which hung loosely on it hinges, and the cabin's brown paint was chipping pretty badly and in dire need of another paint job.

'But I thought no one knows who my father is?' I asked, feeling confused.

'We don't.' Will stated, looking as though he expected the question. 'Because Hermes is the god of travellers all unclaimed demigods have to stay here, once you're claimed you'll be moved to your fathers or mothers cabin.'

'Father. And I think you mean if I'm claimed.' I corrected, feeling a little bit of resentment towards the Gods.

'Chiron told you about that then.' I nodded, looking straight ahead. 'Try not to feel too bad about this, you might get lucky and you're father will claim you.'

Might I thought bitterly. Why did it even have to be might? Why couldn't the Gods step up and admit responsibility for their kids?

'C'mon,' Will started, breaking me out of my thoughts. 'I'll introduce you to Luke and he'll get you settled.'

'Where're you gonna go?' I asked, starting to feel nervous at the thought of the one of the only people I knew at this camp leaving me to fend for myself.

'I've got to get back to my cabin before dinner. Michael and Lee need help getting our siblings ready, there's too many of us for the two to handle alone.' He smiled gently at me, before walking towards the cabin door. 'You'll be fine, don't worry 'bout it.'

He raised a hand to knock the dark brown door, but paused, a thoughtful look crossing his face. He turned to face me, a finger raised in warning.

'You'd better learn how to sleep with one eye open, children of Hermes are the camps pranksters. They'll probably see you as fresh meat and use you to try out new stuff.' I nodded, feeling my nerves increase slightly. He turned again to knock, but paused and turned to face me again. 'And keep your hand on anything important you have on you at all times, especially if it's worth more than a couple of dollars. They're also pretty good thieves.'

I gripped the Minotaur horn in my hand subconsciously, I had almost forgotten I still held onto it. Right now, it was the most important possession I had.

Will raised his hand again and finally knocked on the door. We waited for only a couple of seconds before the door was thrown open and we were greeted by a tall blonde who towered over both me and Will. He kept a tight grip on the door handle as he looked at us expectantly.

'Hey Will, can I help you with anything?' The new guy gave Will a smile that seemed a little bit forced to me.

Will gripped my shoulder and smiled a little more convincingly up at the older blonde, I had a feeling there was some bad blood between the two.

'Luke, meet Sophia Jackson, arrived a couple nights ago so Chiron asked me to drop her off before dinner.'

'Unclaimed?' Will nodded stiffly. Luke looked at me in pity and gave me a sympathetic smile. 'No worries, we'll make sure you feel right at home here.'

'I don't doubt it.' I smiled politely.

I looked up at the tall blonde and actually made the effort to look at him properly for the first time for the five minutes that I had known him for.

He was considerably taller than both me and Will, easily towering over us both and his muscular build made him look quite imposing. He looked at least 17 years old, maybe a year or two older. I wasn't the best at guessing ages. His hair was a few shades darker than Will's, his blue eyes held a mischievous glint that made me feel a little worried that he was planning something that would end up embarrassing me in some way. His thin, pointed eyebrows made him look somewhat elflike.

However, what stood out to me most about him was the thick, pale scar that ran from his left eye down to his chin. I frowned slightly as I tried to imagine what could have caused it.

He turned his attention back to Will and offered him a tight smile. 'I can take it from here kid.'

Will scowled but didn't answer. Instead he turned to me, tried to smile and promised to me later, before turning and running off towards his cabin.

Luke cleared his throat to gain my attention, then stepped back into the low building and held the door open wide for me.

'Gonna come in and meet your new family?'

I hesitate for a second, remembering what it was like to be the new kid. My stomach churned with nerves, and my hands started sweating. The grip on my Minotaur horn tightened so that it wouldn't slip out of my hands. The object somehow making me feel a lot braver than I actually was.

Swallowing thickly in a vain attempt to shake off my nerves, and squared my shoulders as I mentally prepared myself. I took three confident steps forward, passed through the doorway, and froze.

Everyone inside instantly stopped what they were doing the moment I entered the building and stared at me. Various objects lay limp in hands, and mouths were still open from having stopped talking mid-sentence. They all looked at me with various looks of excitement, curiosity and some even looked a bit angry.

I was dimly aware of the door closing behind me.

'Okay, listen up you bone heads. Sophia's gonna be our new roommate, unclaimed,' I flinched unintentionally at that word. 'I don't want to hear you asking her about what happened a few day ago. And no pranks, you got that boys?' He aimed the last past at the twins who had been creeping closer to us the more Luke talked, identical devilish grins plastered on their faces. They groaned simultaneously at the warning and made their way towards one of the bunks. 'Now back to what you were doing before, and give the girl some privacy.'

Slowly, with more than a few lingering looks, everyone went back to what they were doing before I got here. Some were sprawled across their beds or sleeping bags, some were sat up flicking through books and magazines, others were grouped together gossiping and one group were even crowding around a pile of junk, that based on my knowledge of Hermes, I was pretty sure was stolen goods from other campers.

Luke stepped around me and motioned with his head to follow him. He guided me through the crowded cabin, expertly dodging bodies as they moved from one place to another. I looked around the cabin curiously as I was guided to the back of the cabin.

There were bunk beds lined the two longer walls, with sleeping bags in tight, neat rows at the foot of the beds. Various objects like pens, paper, knives, various pieces of armour and empty soda cans were scattered across the floor. But at the foot of every bed were trunks for personal possessions and at the bottom of every sleeping bag was a neat pile off various sized bags, which I figured were for the same reason as the trunks.

The amount of people staying here was almost claustrophobic, and I was actually a bit disgusted by the lack of interest the Gods seemed to show their kids.

We stopped at the cupboard at the back of the cabin where Luke pulled out a rolled up sleeping bag, toiletry bag and a modestly sized backpack.

'Tomorrow after breakfast I'll take you to the camp store so you can stock up on supplies, but for tonight you can borrow pyjamas from someone.'

I didn't say anything as he led me back through the crowd of campers and to an empty corner, where he helped me unroll the red sleeping bag. I stowed my Minotaur horn in the backpack and left it at the bottom of the sleeping bag, similar to how everyone with sleeping bags had done themselves.

'A few things you need to know,' Luke started, standing straighter. 'At the end of every week there's a cabin inspection. Cabin councillors take turns in going round all the cabins and marks up how clean each cabin is. The more marks a cabin gets, the earlier shower time they have for the next week. We're the sixth cabin to use the showers, and honestly it's usually worse but there was an explosion in the Hephaestus cabin last week, and all Apollo campers were working overtime in the infirmary to fix everyone up. Basically it means that it's everyone's job in the cabin to clean up and keep their area clean, so that we get a better shower time. Make sense?' I nodded and he continued.

'Obviously you can use the showers at any point if necessary, but there's allotted times to keep some order in the camp, and it's easier than everyone going whenever they want. There's a curfew for ten, but final lights out is eleven and I really don't recommend breaking curfew. The camp employs harpies as cleaners. For the most art we don't see them, they tend to stay in the kitchen area during the day by at the end of the summer they go around cabins and clean. But at night they're basically security guards, but instead of arresting you they eat you.'

My eyes widened at that. What happened to this place being a safe place for Half-Bloods?

'But you shouldn't worry about that.' He continued, oblivious to my inner panic. 'You'll share time tabled lessons the rest of the cabin, there's a time table on the notice board over there. Every class is ranked from beginner to master. Obviously you'll start at beginner, then at the end of the summer you'll be tested to see if you're ready to progress to the next level. Unless of course you progress a lot quicker than the rest of your class, then you'll get moved up earlier. At the end of the summer you have to make a decision on whether you want to stay for the school year or go home to your family, but if you don't tell Chiron or Mr. D in time the Harpies will try to kill you.'

'So basically if you break any rules the harpies will kill you?' I asked, starting to dread having to live here more and more every second.

He chuckled lightly.

'No, sometime Chiron does the punishment and he usually just takes away desert privileges or makes you help the harpies clean up after dinner. Again, try not to think about the harpies.' Easier said than done. 'We get up at seven, then breakfast is at eight. Lunch is from 12 till 1 so you have time to clean up if necessary as well as a bit of free time, then dinners at 6 till 7. Everyone has to sit with their own cabin at meal times, although at breakfast we can sit wherever we want however most people tend to just stay at their cabin's table. Then every Friday, we play Capture the Flag straight when dinner is meant to be on, then after the game there's a buffet to celebrate the winning team. And every night after dinner there's a camp fire where there's a sing-a-long, and you basically get time to unwind and socialise. You get all that?'

'Yes,' I answered slowly, trying to wrap my head around the onslaught of information I had just been given. 'But what's Capture the Flag?'

'I basically a game where we test the skills you've learned during training, and the aim is to steal the enemy's flag and get it into your teams boundaries before they get your flag. I'll explain more the night before your first game.' He waved his hand dismissively. 'Anything else?'

'Not right now.'

'Great!' He clapped his hands together and looked a lot happier than he did seconds before, as if explaining how the camp works was physically draining. 'I know it can be a bit overwhelming, but stay with me and you'll pick it up in no time'

Before I could say anything else, a horn sounded, the low sound echoing through the cabin stopping almost all movement and sound in the cabin. My new cabin mates turned to look at Luke expectantly.

'Okay guy's line up, you know the drill.' Luke raised his voice so that everyone could hear him.

At his words everyone quickly moved into a semi-organised line a lot faster than I thought possible. Luke gently took my arm and tugged me to the front of the line, quickly explaining that the horn had been the alert that dinner was ready.

After making sure everyone was ready, he nodded once and led us out of the cabin and towards the mess hall. Realising that this was as good as time as any, as quietly as I could so that I wouldn't get any more weird looks I asked Luke where we were meant to eat if it was raining.

'There's a weather protection charm around the camp that stops weather like rain and snow interrupting daily schedules. Although during winter the camp allows a little bit of snow to come through.' I felt a little better that the one thing that was bothering me since I first saw the mess hall had been answered.

Luke led us into the mess hall and to one of the twelve long tables that stood in the open air hall, there we two other campers in the hall stood next to the table next to us.

No one sat down. Instead we were all just stood behind the benches and waited as other cabins poured in, automatically going to their assigned tables.

'We can't sit till Chiron get here.' Luke explained as I watched the hall filled quickly with campers.

Satyrs filtered in with the rest of the campers, going to the table next to us and joining the two blonde campers that had gotten here before us, I tried looking for Grover but didn't recognise him amongst the odd group.

I also noticed that amongst the crowd of campers being led to their tables were these beautiful girls whose skins looked as though they were tinted green, with dark brown hair. But instead of joining campers at the tables they lined up along the walls next to numerous trays of food.

'Who're they?' I asked Luke nodding towards the strange girls.

'Wood Nymphs, or Dryads if you want the technical term. The live in the trees and bushes in the woods surrounding the camp,' He explained, joining me in watching the Wood Nymphs as they started to pick up they trays filled with fruit, vegetables and what looked like various BBQ'd meats. 'No one's really sure why they serve us during dinner. I mean they eat with us during breakfast and lunch, but at dinner time they just serve us our food.'

'Do they get paid?'

'Doubt it, they can't really go too far from their trees and bushes, I honestly think the mess hall is the furthest place they can go,' Luke shrugged. 'Well some of them anyway. Most of the camp's Dryads live further into the woods so really they can only travel as far as the woods will let them.'

By the time we finished speaking everyone had found their places at their tables, and Chiron and Mr. D made their way up to the head table, which was really just a smaller version of the tables we campers sat at and had chairs instead of benches. The table was lifted slightly above the campers by the stone stage it had been placed on, allowing whoever sat there the opportunity to look over the campers whilst they ate.

Chiron, in his true form, settled himself at the centre of the table with Mr. D on his right. Grinning warmly and arms spread wide, Chiron motioned for us to sit down. The scraping of benches filled the open air mess hall as everyone took their seat, the wood nymphs navigated through the tables placing large trays of food on the tables.

I helped myself to some veggies and a few BBQ chicken wings, then looked around for something to drink. I frowned and took a quick look around at other tables only to realise that no one had been given any drinks. I looked at the wood nymphs for any indication of them passing drinks out but they only held trays of food.

'You have to tell your cup for what you want to drink, as long as it's not alcohol it'll give you what you want.' Luke explained as if knowing what I was thinking, then to demonstrate he spoke clearly to his cup 'Coke.'

His cup filled quickly before my eyes with the familiar fizzy, brown liquid. Luke took a big gulp then sighed with satisfaction, he nodded at my cup in a silent go ahead. I thought for a moment then shrugged.

'Lemonade,' the cup filled with the clear, fizzy liquid. 'With ice.' Four ice cubes appeared and floated to the top of the cup.

I smiled and took a sip.

'Good?' I nodded at Luke, feeling oddly pleased with myself.

'Very good.' I made to pick up my fork but was stopped when Luke quickly grabbed my wrist. 'What?'

'Wait.' He nodded at the line of campers that was making their way towards the front of the hall, plates of food in hand. 'You need to make an offering first.'

'A what?'

'An offering, you through a portion of your food into the fire whilst thinking of the God you want to thank,' he snorted. 'A bit over the top if you ask me.'

'I'm guessing you're not a fan.'

'Of the Gods?' I nodded. 'You can say that. My father and I don't exactly see eye to eye.'

'You've met your father?' I felt a little excitement run through me at the thought of finding a way to meet my father.

That was new, I had never wanted to get to know my father, never mind get excited at the idea of meeting him.

'A few times, I'd rather not think about them.'

I shrugged and didn't say anymore, listening to the conversations going on around me as I tried not to fidget to much as I waited for my turn to go up to the front of the hall. Due to the amount of the kids in the Hermes cabin it was a bit of a tight squeeze at the table, thankfully I wasn't on the edge so I didn't have to worry about falling off the table.

After what felt like ages, Luke finally stood up and we followed him to join the line, as the last of the campers from the table before us made their way to the stone brazier that was set up in front of the head table.

I peered around Luke curiously as I watched the camper before him make an offering. The kid was silent as he scraped off a portion of his food into the flames, his eyes closed briefly then walked away from the brazier heading towards his table.

Luke then stepped up to the brazier, and like the kid before him scraped some food into the fire, shut his eyes briefly, then walked away. As he passed he gave me a quick nod of encouragement.

Swallowing back the nerves that seemed to bubble up from nowhere, I stepped up to the brazier, the heat from the flames warming my face uncomfortably in the summer evening. I scraped some of my vegetables into fire and closed my eyes for second, and clearly thought the name Hermes. Figuring it would be better to make an offering to the God whose cabin I was staying in.

I made my way back to the table whilst the person behind me took his place at the brazier, I felt slightly more confident now that I didn't have a dozen people standing behind me wondering if the new kid would somehow manage to screw up something so simple.

Dinner passed relatively quickly. I eventually found my nerve and fell easily into conversation with my new cabin mates. At first I had been bombarded by questions about what happened the night I got here, everyone clearly ignoring – or otherwise forgot – Luke's warning from earlier on. Despite Luke reassuring me that I didn't have to answer, and tried to answer the questions as best as I could.

That night was still a sore subject, so answering questions about how my mom died definitely brought about some emotional pain. However, once they realised that I wasn't going to give them a lot of information (either that or they realised I was one question short of crying) they quickly changed the subject and went about making me feel at home. The twins from before had even managed to make me laugh a few times.

I was quickly beginning to realise that the camp, or at least my cabin, was just one big family. A nosey family that is. Although I guess that should have been obvious to me considering everyone here was actually related. It felt a bit weird to know that I had just been given about a hundred new family members in one day, it was a bit overwhelming actually.

After dinner the campers filled into the Amphitheatre, where everyone settled down into a huge circle around a camp fire where a group of kids led the campers in a sing-a-long. Or at least tried to anyway, many campers just talked amongst themselves. They didn't seem to mind though, and the songs provided some very nice background music.

I spotted Will amongst the singing campers, and while he didn't sing himself he alternated between harmonizing and playing the guitar that was passed along as a new song started. He smiled briefly at me when our eyes met before one of his younger siblings pulled his attention away. The girl looked around eight or nine and seemed almost glued to his side.

I let my eyes roam over the sea of campers, taking in the happy faces as they laughed and chatted away with friends. I was starting to feel a little bit more comfortable here, granted I had only been conscious for about half a day and hadn't done anything that would involve any major exercise but I had a feeling that I would like it here.

From what I had been told at dinner everyone here was either ADHD or Dyslexic, if not both, so I didn't have to worry about being made fun of for being different. Which didn't happened often at my old school's but every now and then a school bully would use them as an excuse to try and upset me.

Everyone had been nice enough not to crowd me and bombard me with questions from my first night here, with the exception of dinner that is. Although it could have something to do with the fact that Luke had settled himself next to me and glared at anyone who looked brave enough to try asking me questions. I had a feeling though that once my lessons started questions would be thrown at me, judging by the amount of curious looks sent my way.

I caught sight of Clarisse on the other side of the campfire. The girls hulking figure easy to spot amongst the crowd. She was sat with her siblings, one arm resting on her knee as she lounged back against a log, glaring at me.

I shivered slightly and lowered my gaze. Despite feeling a little bit smug about managing to come out unharmed during our encounter, I couldn't help but feel intimidated under the daughter of Ares' glare.

'You okay?' I looked up and nodded at Luke question.

'Yeah, it's just Clarisse…' I trailed off, not knowing how to finish the sentence.

'Yeah, Clarisse can be a bit –'

'Angry? Violent? Psychotic?' I supplied. He tilted his head thoughtfully.

'I was going to say intimidating, but yeah, more or less.' He chuckled. 'I would recommend staying out of her way, but after what happened in the toilets I don't think that's an option for you.'

'How do you know about that?' I asked sharply.

'News travels fast.' He shrugged. 'Plus I'm pretty sure the entire camp heard her yelling.'

'Ah.'

'Yeah. But if it helps I'm pretty sure you gained a few fans from it.' He sniggered. I shoved him playfully and we fell into a comfortable silence.

I carried on people watching, and once again my eyes met someone else's. This time it was a curly haired blonde, with grey eyes that carefully took notice of my every move. The girl, who admittedly looked somewhat familiar, raised a single eyebrow when our eyes met.

Mimicking her, I raised an eyebrow and studied her intently. She was playing with a bronze knife, twirling it in her hands. I doubted she was aware she was actually doing it. She was wearing one of the bright orange t-shirts that I noticed a lot of the campers wore, Camp Half-Blood was spelt out in black letters above a black Pegasus. A beaded necklace hung around her neck, again something I had noted the other campers wearing, although hers seemed to have a bit more than most.

Over all, she seemed like a normal camper. But something about her set me on edge. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I had a feeling that the two of us wouldn't get along.

Luke speaking ended our staring competition. Although the blonde next to me had managed to grab my attention away from the strange girl, I couldn't help but notice the smirk she sent my way just as I turned my head.

I definitely wasn't going to get along with that girl.


By the end of the camp-fire I was struggling to keep my eyes open. The day had been little more exciting than I thought it might be. The shock of finding out that I was part a secret world that somehow managed to keep itself secret for years from normal humans, and getting dragged around the camp in a very quick tour then getting bombarded with questions at dinner about the night my mother died (which I was doing my best to try and forget) had really taken a lot outta me.

I had been kindly given a pair of pyjamas to borrow for the night, and the moment I had gotten back to the cabin I had quickly changed before crawling into my sleeping bag.

The chatter around me quickly died down as people crawled into their own beds. Those who were still talking made sure to keep their voice down at a quiet whisper, something of which surprised me as I assumed that such a big cabin would probably take ages to settle down. Despite my earlier exhaustion it took me a while to actually fall asleep. The new and still unfamiliar surroundings making it hard to fall asleep straight away. I stayed up way past lights out, and stayed up even after the last couple kids who had carried on talking quietly fell asleep.

I rolled onto my back and sighed, staring up at the wooden rafters as I let my thought's run over the last several hours. My eyes began to water as I thought about my mom, but I refused to let myself cry. The image of someone waking up and finding the new kid crying her eyes out embarrassed me enough that I could make sure that no tears fell.

Hearing someone get out of bed, I quickly closed my eyes and faked being asleep, scared I'd get in trouble for being awake so late. I listened as soft footsteps made their way down the length of the cabin. Once they had passed me I risked peeking as I tried to see who was trying to leave so late, but unfortunately my little corner didn't give me the best vantage point as the person slowly opened the door, making sure it didn't make any noise, then closed it behind them just as swiftly.

I frowned, wondering who was leaving the cabin so late. Deciding not to think too much of it I rolled back over tried falling asleep. And, after a while, I did.