Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or any of it's characters.

Chapter 7: Gretchen's POV

A conch horn sounded and I jumped. Don't ask me how I knew it was a conch horn, it just sounded like one. The other people in my cabin started moving out the door so I followed them. We headed toward the mess hall for dinner. My cabin mates all sat down at one table, so I sat with them. It seemed all the cabins sat together, which isn't so bad for me, but I saw one boy sitting alone at a table and at another table just two boys sat. One I recognized as Percy Jackson, the other boy was huge and had one eye in the middle of his head. A Cyclops. I realized no one else seemed interested by this. Old news, I guess.

Chiron, in centaur form, stomped his hooves for attention and everyone settled down.

"Attention everyone! We have a new camper today, Gretchen Johanson. I know you will all make her feel welcome," there was a small bout of applause, and many stares which made me turn red. "In other news, capture the flag will take place this Friday! The Ares cabin currently holds the laurels. Now let's eat!"

People begin passing around plates of food and I dished up. There was barbeque, rolls, strawberries, and many more delicious foods. I was ready to dig in, when I noticed everyone getting up with their plates and moving towards a brazier.

"What's going on?" I asked one of the twins, Connor, I think.

"We scrape a portion of our meal into the brazier as an offering to the gods. They like the smell," Connor told me. Okay, I've heard and seen some weird things lately, but I couldn't see how all the burnt food could smell good. As we got to the front of the line, Connor scraped the butteriest roll into the flames and murmured "Hermes."

I picked my juiciest strawberry and scraped it into the fire and silently prayed for my father to claim me. As I turned to walk away, I caught a whiff of the burnt food, and it smelled amazing. Despite all the different foods, and the fact of it being burnt, it all smelled good together.

I sat down and began to eat. I didn't realize how hungry I was until I was dishing up seconds of everything. Dessert came around and I was stuffed. We were dismissed and we all crammed out of the mess hall. There was no campfire tonight, so I wanted to find Mara. I searched the crowds and finally found her talking to Percy Jackson. I walked up to her and heard a piece of their conversation.

"…saw it in a dream. I'm sure he's in trouble!" Mara was telling Percy.

"Uh, hi Mara," I said, feeling awkward for interrupting. She turned around and saw me.

"Oh hi Gretchen!" she said.

"Hey Gretchen, I'm Percy," said Percy.

"Yeah, I know. You, like, saved the world," I said. He chuckled, looking a little embarrassed.

"I suppose you could say that. It wasn't as big as everyone makes it out to be," he said, smiling. So maybe he didn't have such a huge ego. Maybe.

"Hey Mara, remember when we met and you knew my name and you said you saw me in a dream?" I asked, reminded of the experience by what I heard her saying to Percy. Percy cocked an eyebrow, like he was curious about it too. "And you said you'd explain later. Well it's later, can you explain now?"

"Okay, well demigods don't have normal dreams. They can be visions of the past, present, and even future," she explained. "And I had a dream about you not long before we met."

"What was it about?" I asked her.

"Oh, nothing. But that was how I knew your name," she said, cleverly avoiding my question.

"Oh, well I had a dream the night before I met you," I said. Then I told her about my strange dream with the boy in the throne room. I glanced at Mara's shirt and I suddenly remembered something else from my dream. "Oh yeah, and he was wearing that t-shirt."

Mara and Percy looked at each other like they knew something I didn't, and they didn't look happy about whatever they had just realized.