Chapter Seven is up! Finally... my computer is lagging. Dx And thank you for the reviews. :D
Disclaimer: PJ&O characters belong to a man called rick riordan. I'm a girl called – forget it.
I Get a Letter From Home
"Congratulations to our new daughter of Poseidon, Elisa Ember," Dionysus said lazily, as if he didn't mean it, and a bottle of Merlot appeared in his hand. Chiron whispered in his ear. "Elena. Whatever." There was polite clapping and some not so nice glances. Then the Mess Hall shook with thunder that had randomly appeared. Dionysus looked up and rolled his eyes at the sky. The bottle of wine turned into a bottle of water. He looked distastefully at it. "Hurrah, now let's eat."
After we were done stuffing food into our faces, Chiron got up for the more formal version of announcements. The Mess Hall respectfully shut up, hearing him clear his throat. "Once again, congratulations to Lena. It is a… surprise to all of us." Yeah right, the news had spread faster than wildfire. "Hopefully, she'll find her new cabin to her liking." He smiled kindly at me but at the same time, I kept thinking of the unspoken words that might as well been spoken out loud from his quivering voice. Enjoy it while you can. Then with a tail swish, he turned towards Cabin Eight, where Thalia sat stiffly. Throughout the entire dinner, she hadn't spoken or had any expression on her face for that matter. Rigid and emotionless as a board.
"Welcome to our temporary additions to Camp Half-Blood," Chiron said. His enthusiasm was not shared with the campers. They directed all their attention from me to Table Eight. Most of it was angry attention, especially from Aphrodite's Cabin. "As usual, it is our custom to play Capture the Flag with them… and lose," he muttered under his breath.
"What happened last time?" I whispered to Percy.
"Let's just say Thalia and I had a little disagreement." He was obviously reliving an unpleasant memory. "And I had to carry mummy from the creek to the Big House. Long story."
I was about to ask him for more details when Chiron released us to the campfire. If we wanted to avoid being crushed by excited campers, we had to scamper quickly out of there. Plus, it was hard getting the front row seats, where your marshmallow had the possibly of burning up.
We still ended up getting squished, and I found myself right next to enemy number one: Mark. I looked away, hoping he'd be intimidated by the fact that I now had Poseidon as my dad, but he used it to his advantage instead.
"Who's your daddy?" he asked in a slobby voice and puckered his lips. I kicked him in the shins. He was down for only a moment. "Looks like your daddy broke the rules again."
"The oath is over," I shot back at him. "So technically –"
"You were born while the oath was still under effect," he countered and smirked. "He can't keep his eyes off of woman –"
Percy tapped his shoulder. "Excuse me, but making fun of her is not a very good idea." Especially if he had his pen out.
Mark stared at Riptide but recovered quickly, and brought out a knife, pretending to clean his nails. "Come on, Percy, stop pretending. You're angry at your dad, for forgetting about your mom so quickly, and having another child. You liked being the special child of Poseidon, don't you? Did you really think your dad would remember your mom forever –"
Percy turned red under the evening light. He didn't take the cap off his pen, but raised his fist. "Don't talk about my mom that way," he said angrily and shot his fist forward. Mark caught it and twisted the fist clockwise. I expected to hear a crack any second and did the only thing I could: I kicked him in his soft spot.
~0~
"At least we didn't get into serious trouble," I yawned up at the ceiling. "Chiron was pretty understanding."
"But Mr. D threatened to feed us to the harpies," Percy said with the pillow over his head. I turned off the lights and he came out. "Oh well, it's not like he hasn't before. And I'd like to see the harpies try and eat me."
We laughed in the dark. By now, I knew about Percy and his little bath in River Styx, which he described it as 'never try this at home… or at camp'. Then I sighed. "I'll never stop getting in trouble."
"Um, it's probably because of Mark," Percy said. "Really, after you guys sort things out –"
"Which will like happen never," I said. "It's just… a part of me, you know? I don't even mean to. It's like sometimes I don't even think about what could happen."
"I feel that way sometimes – the part about getting in trouble," Percy said. I heard him turn onto his side. "Well, better rest up; we still have bathroom duty with Athena's Cabin tomorrow."
Yep, that's right. I'd gotten myself into bathroom duty. Again. After Travis and Connor Stoll got us out of it. "At least you get to see Annabeth," I grumbled. "I have no one." Then I giggled when a wave of water splashed onto my face. Or at least, it tried to. "Won't work against me, I'm a child of Poseidon too."
He didn't laugh.
I stopped. "Is it what Mark said?" I asked him, and felt horrible guilt. "About your mom?" Maybe Percy would rather me be in some other cabin. Maybe Mark's accusations were right.
"No," he lied. I raised an eyebrow even though he couldn't see me. "Yes," he admitted. "I'm not comfortable about the idea of you… being here. But you've been an awesome half-sister so far," he added quickly. "Saving the camp and everything."
"Thanks." The warmth and the sadness from that statement coupled together, so for a few seconds, I debated whether to glow with pleasure or glower at him quietly, though really, I couldn't blame him. Percy had the most awesome mom in the world, from what I'd been hearing from him. And me? I had a mom who wouldn't give a damn if I skipped school or burn down the entire city, actually. I chose to sigh quietly. With relief, or with exasperation, or both. "G'night Percy," I said, my voice muffled by my sleepiness. I pulled the blanket up to my neck and waited for a reply.
He snored.
Staring up at the ceiling above me, I waited for my eyelids to drop until I was sleeping too.
~0~
My hands shook as I poured myself a glass of juice, like I'd drunk too much coffee and my nerves were jumping around. Instead, the truth was the opposite. Because I'd had a nightmare, I woke up early in the morning, feeling like I'd never slept at all.
I slammed the cup of juice down on the table and pressed my forehead to the wood. I closed my eyes – I could just take a nap here in the midst of chaos and no one would notice…
"Lena?"
I raised my head just for a second to look at him. "Fine." Which, of course, meant hell no I'm not. I mean, who was this much of a wreck after a nightmare? But demigod stuff was usually weird, so I took my chances. "Really bad dream."
Percy dropped a knife covered in strawberry jam. "Tartarus," he cursed and wiped the stain as best as he could without spreading it. "About what?"
"I can't remember the exact details. A lot of chaos and stuff. But there's this one scene that really stood out." I paused to raise the cup to my lips and took a sip, somehow without spilling juice onto myself. "I'm standing on this beach. It's a nice day, so I put my foot in the water. Then I'm dragged out into the ocean and drown." How poetic, being sucked to a watery grave. If this was supposed to mean something – a beach visit gone wrong – either I was too stupid to figure it out, or I was too tired to do so.
"Maybe you should talk to Rachel," he suggested between bites of toast and jam. "She could tell you a few things."
"Rachel Dare? The Oracle?" I blinked. From what I had heard, Rachel Dare was a redheaded perky girl who stayed with the Apollo Cabin and gave out prophecies for quests. Except she was at school most of the year, and I didn't know if she was already here. "She's here?"
"Yeah, arrived this morning."
I thought about it. "I don't know…" From what I heard, it was possible to be driven insane by the spirit of Delphi, and I liked my mind sane.
Percy seemed to reconsider his suggestion. "Yeah, you probably shouldn't. Talk to the Oracle. But it doesn't hurt talking to the normal Rachel. As long as she doesn't spew out a prophecy unintentionally in front of you, it's safe. We have the archery range with Apollo's cabin this afternoon. I'll introduce you there."
~0~
After a particularly smelly session in the washroom, Percy and I – and the rest of Cabin Six – were glad to be out in the fresh open air once more. Goodbye smelly mops and permanent graffiti. At least this time, we had magical weapons at our disposal, so it wasn't as bad as last time.
Annabeth tutored me after that in my first lesson in reading Ancient Greek. I'd been dreading this for sometime, actually. Even though most demigods were supposedly horrible at reading English… I doubted they were as bad as me.
"Okay, let's get started," she said. She was holding a huge thick book with some squiggles on the cover, so I wasn't feeling too good about this. "What's the matter?" Annabeth asked, concerned. "You've read books before, right?"
"Before… yeah I have," I mumbled. The truth was, because I skipped class all the time, the last decently long book I read and finished was when I was in Grade Four. And that was before my mom gave up on me.
Annabeth went on. "It's not hard reading Ancient Greek. It's wired into your brain. In fact, some demigods find it easier." She explained the basics and then handed me that big book and told me to start reading.
I stumbled through the words and made mistake more than I could count. I couldn't even get through a single sentence without screwing up a syllable or the whole word. Although Annabeth was patient… okay, maybe sometimes she made a face… I kept gripping the book until my fingers turned white, as if that would help me with my reading skills. It felt like I was a first grader. If Annabeth had asked me to summarize the article – even in English – I would've looked at her blankly. I was too focused on reading those words to even bother analyzing what was coming out of my mouth.
"Not bad," Annabeth said. "For your first try." I don't think she knew that she was frowning. "Which means you still have a long way to go."
I sighed. This was going to be one of those camp activities that would drag on forever.
"Let's try again."
"Hold up a second," a person said above us. I looked up in irritation because he was blocking the sunlight, casting a shadow on both of us. I couldn't really see his face properly, but he held out an envelope to me. "Mail for you," he said. I took it and was about to thank the stranger when he disappeared.
"Who's it from?" Annabeth asked.
I turned the envelope over and read the typed letters. "My parents," I answered. They didn't even bother handwriting the address, which made me feel sad and left out. I ripped the envelope open and found two sheets.
Drea Lenea, It started. I blinked and read it again. Dear Elena. They were typed words too. Maybe it was a little silly, but I believed that letters between families and friends should be handwritten. I continued reading, but it got harder as I went on. Words started swirling around again and the letters jumped from place to place. After ten minutes of uneasy silence, Annabeth offered to get Rachel and help me read the letter.
"No thanks… I'm okay," I said and read silently in my head. Basically, they were wondering if I liked camp and would want to stay there year-round. It was written as if it were in my best interests, but I knew they really wanted to get rid of me. Plus, it seemed like my mom had finally told my dad about the whole 'demigod' thing and 'I hooked up with Poseidon', which made my dad feel pretty damn angry. The letter finally ended with a 'Sincerely, Mom'. Which made me feel cold and angry at the same time. Sincerely? Are you kidding me? I felt like taking out my dagger and shredding it into little pieces and burning it in the campfire.
"There's a second page," Annabeth reminded me. I dropped the first one down on the dirt and unfolded the second one.
A bill. Of all the damage the Cyclopes had done to our house. Apparently, he hadn't just knocked down the front door. The number was several digits long, but I couldn't see the exact cost because once again, I was angry and when that happened, my dyslexia cranked up more.
"What do they want me to do?" I yelled to no one in particular. "Feel guilty? Ask the Cyclop's family to pay for the damage?" Then I took the two sheets and ripped them in half. Quarters. Eighths. You get the idea. In the end, handmade confetti was resting on our hair and no one was talking.
"You know, I have a family like yours," Annabeth said. I tried to block out her voice but I was curious on what she had to say. "We've had a lot of fights… but we always forgive each other." Then she held up her hands. "I'm not saying your family is like my family, but you're reading a lot into the letter."
"Leave me alone," I muttered. "Please."
~0~
My bad mood lasted through lunchtime… and into the afternoon. Percy didn't really know how to get me out of it, and neither did Annabeth, or Nico, or Thalia (by the way, they were avoiding each other). Anger was something that usually faded with time for me.
Percy told me to get a bow and arrow because we were heading down to the archery range. We walked down and I found myself a target. Another girl was watching me. She was supposed to help me, but she had her eyes on some guy from the Morpheus Cabin.
In my opinion, archery was a waste of time. Sure, that time would come when you needed your archery skills because your sword had shattered into pieces and your reinforcements had thrown themselves off a cliff and all you had left was conveniently a bow and arrow. It was a skill that could save your life, and kill monsters.
But while practicing, it seemed like all I was doing was injuring campers.
"Watch it!" the girl shrieked after an arrow lodged itself into the bark of the tree behind her. "Aim for the target."
"I was," I mumbled and raised my arms again. Another reason why I hated archery. You needed focus and to stay still in order to hit the target. Thanks to ADHD, it prevented me from being able to do both. Unlike swordfighting, where ADHD actually helped you, archery just didn't accept ADHD.
The arrow flew and the girl ducked again. She scowled and left my side altogether. "Rachel," I heard her say. "Please. Watch her. Maybe your future telling skills will help you in ducking her arrows."
"You're so nice, Blake," Rachel said and I found myself looked at the priestess of Delphi.
She sure didn't look like it. Her jeans had holes in them and she doodled all over her hands and her orange t-shirt. Plus, no green mist was wafting out of her mouth. Yet.
"You're Lena, right?" she said. "Percy's sister."
"Yeah." I confirmed. I took another arrow out and tried to keep my eye on the target, but my gaze kept wandering to Rachel, expecting her to spit out some rhyme that would determine my fate. I loosened my grip and the arrow hit the dirt, slicing open a stalk of grass. "Damn it."
"Um," she looked at her sneakers, which were pretty close to the fallen arrow. "I'll get Chiron. He's a really good mentor."
The afternoon went on with me cursing silently under my breath and Chiron trying to help me. Maybe I got better at target shooting with his help. I did hit the target twice. But I was still terrible. It didn't help that the person next to me was hitting bullseye with his eyes closed, and that the other person next to me was a hunter and could knock out flying arrows out of the way.
Percy and I went back to the arena for some more swordfighting. If we wanted to win against the Hunters in Capture the Flag tonight, it was a good time to brush up on your best skill. My anger melted away with the excitement of the game. Everyone was talking about how they wanted to beat the Hunters for the first in about 60 games. They'd obviously waited a long time to do this.
Even Percy was talking. "Thalia was on my team last time… it's gonna be pretty interesting if we win against them." Not interesting, I thought. Satisfying.
Dinner was filled with the campers praying to their parents for victory. Especially the kids from Nike's cabin. They must have a lot of pressure on them, because their mother was the goddess of victory. If we didn't win, they'd get beaten up into pulp, or at least get into a fight.
Then it was time to suit up in the armoury.
"Try this for size," an Aphrodite girl suggested to me. I put it on. It fit me well, but I staggered under the weight.
"Anything lighter?" I asked her desperately. The armour Percy and I used was made with lighter material.
"Yeah, but the armour's ugly. Are you sure you want to wear it?"
I took the new armour.
The next problem was that I couldn't find a balanced sword. So I took the one I usually used – it was a bit heavy for my liking, but you had to have a weapon.
I fiddled with the dagger Percy and Grover had given me on my first day and stowed it in the second sheath. You could never have too many weapons. Unless, of course, it weighed you down.
We gathered in a clearing in the forest. I felt like some warrior in a Greek play, with a sword, armour, some random weird helmet, and a shield. I was used to swordfighting with two hands, but I guessed that if the shield was more of a burden than helpful, I could just throw it down and leave it behind.
"… No maiming allowed," Chiron was reminding us again. He'd gone over the rules before we armed ourselves, but some rules had to be repeated several times for it to sink into some heads. "And of course, no killing," he added as an after thought.
The Hunters disappeared to their side of the woods. I saw a silver flicker through the branches, and then nothing. Thalia had confided with me that she was pretty confident she could beat Camp Half-Blood – and Percy. And with their record, I didn't feel too confident about us.
"So, where do I go?" I asked Annabeth since she was the one ordering everyone around. The flag was somewhere behind me, on the top of one of the many trees.
She looked at me. "Here, at the border. It's your first time."
"Like on defence?" I asked her. Boring. Especially after all that training Percy had put me through this afternoon.
"Yeah. The Hunters are crafty. We'll need all the help we can get to prevent them from getting the flag." Her eyes were serious and determined. From that only, I almost believed that we could win.
"Advice?" I asked.
"Stay alive." She sprinted to Percy on the other side of the river as a conch horn blew. Everyone cheered.
With that recommendation in my mind, the game began.
Not much to say… but review. xD
Until next time. ~^^~
