Chapter 6
*So, I apologize for any mistakes that may have been in my last chapter, but it was 4 in the morning and I was super tired, but I knew that I need to post asap and I sacrificed sleep for you guys . Anyways, I hope you enjoy this one! By the way, the whole boy's name that start with G wasn't on purpose. I just really like those names P.S.: if you can guess correctly who Ruby's mom is, I will give you a shout out in the next post: D Keep up with those reviews!*
I woke up the next morning feeling sore from sleeping on the floor, but oddly excited. Today, I was going to train. I was going to learn how to be a hero. I was one of the very few people awake. I looked at Asana, who was drooling on her pillow, and I laughed quietly to myself. As I climbed out of my sleeping bag, I noticed that Ruby was gone. Puzzled, I stepped outside.
It was cool outside, and the sun was rising over the horizon. There were beautiful colors painted across the sky, like someone had taken a paintbrush and made a masterpiece. The sun had started to warm up my arms and legs, and then my face. I smiled and a cool breeze blew up around me, into my hair-
And then I saw Ruby. She was sitting in a tree about 10 feet from me, watching the sun rise. I walked over to her and climbed the tree, and I sat next to her. We sat in silence for awhile, but it wasn't awkward. It was a comfortable silence as we enjoyed each other's company, watching the sun rise.
"You know, I always knew I was different." Ruby finally said, not taking her eyes off the sky. I nodded, agreeing completely. The sun made Ruby's hair seem like it was on fire. "I just wish I knew who my mom is, you know? Every half blood knows they are different, they just feel out of place in the world. That is, until they get here. Then they know they aren't alone, and they have a sense of belonging. But not me. I still don't know where I belong."
I started to protest, to say that any one of the Godesses could be her mother. But she shook her head.
"No, my mother is a different type of Goddess, I know it. See my hair? It is bright red. That doesn't come from my father's side. Neither do my eyes. I'm just a freak. I don't belong." Her voice wavered and broke on her last sentence. I patted her arm sympathetically, and promised that we would find out who her mother was this summer, no matter what.
"I hope so, I really do, Lucienne. I'm sorry I am dumping all this on you, I know you're new. This must be really overwhelming. It's just that you seem like someone who listens really well. Don't worry; we will discover your Godly parent too this summer, along with Asana's. Actually, we will probably find out today, since we start training. We can probably guess. Usually you can tell by what your strengths are."
I nodded again, not saying that I kind of didn't want to know who my father was. I didn't want to know who the jerk was who left my mom when she had a baby to take care of. I didn't want the responsibility I had to carry if I found out who my father was, to try and make him proud. But I just sat in silence with Ruby again. The sun was fully up now, and there were campers walking around.
"We better go," Ruby said, reading my mind. We climbed down from the tree and walked back to the cabin. Asana was standing outside in her pajamas still, with her arms crossed.
"Where WERE you? I woke up and you were gone! You really shouldn't make a habit of running off, you know." She chided me. "Lucky for you, I found Sage so I didn't look like a total loner. What were you doing, anyway?" I silently wondered to myself if she ever got tired of her own voice.
Shrugging, I answered, "I went for a walk."
Asana raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
"Right… well, I'm going to breakfast; Sage said she would meet us there. Are you gonna come or are you going to get dressed first?"
I glanced down at my tank top and pajama shorts and decided that it didn't really matter what I looked like, since we were just going to eat, and so I followed Asana and Ruby to the Big House.
I'm getting used to camp already, I thought to myself, bewildered at the thought. I just feel so… at home.
And that's when I saw Griffin walking gracefully towards the Big House also.
Well, almost at home, I corrected myself. His shoulders seemed to tense up when he heard us coming, but he didn't turn around. I wondered if he knew that it was me and the other girls behind him.
He spoke without turning around.
"Good morning, Ruby, Asana." He paused. "Lucienne."
So apparently he had physic powers now, too. Why did he act like I had been the kid who stole his lunch money every day?
No, it was worse than that. It was as if I had broken his heart before.
Puzzled more than ever, I nodded my good morning back to him and walked to the Hermes table where I found Sage conversing with some kids. Smiling, I sat down next to her and joined in on their conversation, and almost forgot about Griffin and his hostility.
Almost.
I found myself glancing over at his table, where he sat with his sister. She was really cute, with the same blue eyes and long black hair, but totally different face structure than Griffin. He was pulling at her hair and she slapped his hand away, and then something incredible happened. Griffin smiled.
I felt my heart melt a little when I saw his smile, I'll admit. He looked like a completely different person. And then he caught me staring at him and dropped his hand away from his sister's head. I felt the blood rush to my cheeks and I quickly turned my head to my plate.
"Lou, you feeling okay? You look all flushed like you have a fever or something." Asana put her hand to my forehead.
I forced a smile and told her I was fine, and then breakfast was over. It was time to start training.
So far, all I had done was sword training, and I have to say I'm not very good at it. Avery said with practice it should come easily, but I still don't think that sword fighting is my thing.
Now, Asana and I had archery with Chiron. Apparently, Asana had horseback riding on a Pegasus and she said it was great, so I knew I would definitely be checking that out.
"How did you ladies do on your first activity?" Chiron smiled warmly.
I winced and said, "Not good."
Chiron chuckled. "Well, with a little patience and a lot of practice, it should be better. And you, Asana?"
She smiled brightly and babbled on about how much fun it was to ride on a Pegasus.
Chiron handed us both a bow and some arrows, showed us how to hold it and shoot the arrows.
"We will start off with something easy. Just aim for the centre." He pointed to the target not too far in front of him. Asana went first, but she didn't quite reach the target.
While Chiron instructed her on how to do it properly, I thought I would take my shot. I raised my bow and arrow and aimed for any ring on the target, really. I just wanted to hit my target.
And I hit the centre perfectly.
My mouth dropped, and both Asana and Chiron froze and looked at me.
"Lucienne, look…" Asana breathed.
Following her gaze, I looked above my head, and I saw a sun, fading slowly. I waited until it was completely gone before looking at Asana and Chiron again. Asana still looked stunned, but Chiron broke into a smile.
"Congratulations, child. You have been claimed. You are now determined as a daughter of Apollo."
Apollo? My father was Apollo? I am a daughter of the sun? I thought dizzily to myself. I swayed and probably would have fallen over, but Asana came next to me and squeezed me tightly.
"Congratulations! I am so happy for you."
I nodded, still speechless, but I hugged her back. She pulled away from me, smiling brightly.
"We have to tell Sage and Ruby! They will be so happy for you! Aren't you happy, Lucy?" Asana asked.
I thought about that for a minute. Was I happy to know where I belonged at camp? Did I really want to know that I had a father that was watching out for me? Of course, whether a god wanted to claim me as their child or not didn't really bother me since I already had a father. But still, to know that my biological father had decided to show everyone how I was his daughter was a big deal. It made me feel like I did belong in this world, when I had thought so many times before that there had been a mistake and they had the wrong Lucienne Gauthier.
"Yes, I am happy." I answered Asana and smiled back at her.
"My dears, I'm afraid our lesson is over for today. Lucienne, you will finish up your activities for today and then you will move into the Apollo cabin just before dinner. I will have Sage help you with your things, although I'm sure she would help you without me asking her. We will make up your new schedule tonight and then we will give it to you at breakfast tomorrow. Good luck on the rest of your lessons today, children. I will see you later on."
And so I continued my training throughout the day like I would have if I hadn't been claimed. My lessons were fun, and before I knew it, Sage was coming with me to pack up my things to move into the Apollo cabin.
"What's it like in the Apollo cabin?" I asked, firing question after question at her.
"It's decorated to honor Apollo. You'll like it."
"What about my brothers and sisters? Will I like them too?"
"Yeah, they are all pretty nice in there. I should have guessed that your father would be Apollo. You look similar to the boys. You have two half-brothers, one half-sister."
"Do you think they will like me?"
Sage smiled. "Why don't you find out for yourself? Are you ready to go?"
I nodded and carried my luggage from cabin eleven to cabin seven. Taking a deep breath, I opened the door to the cabin and walked inside.
It was beautiful inside. There were crystal balls hanging from the ceiling like disco balls to represent prophecy. Music notes decorated all the walls except for one. On that wall, there was a gigantic sun, which moved with the real sun outside. Right at that point, the sun was almost set on the other side of the wall. There were six bunk beds, all up against the walls, and in between each set of bunk beds there was a bow and arrow. There were giant lockers at the back and I put my stuff back there.
"Well, what do you think?" Sage asked me.
"It's beautiful," I whispered. Sage showed me to my bunk. I got my own, seeing as there were only four of us.
"You can decorate your bunk anyway you want, and you can leave it here if you aren't going to be a year round camper. Just as long as you keep it neat, so the cleaning harpies don't eat it."
I nodded and we left for dinner. I looked at the Hermes table. Asana was sitting with Ruby, and they were laughing with Avery about something. Wishing I could go and sit over there with my friends, I headed towards table seven. There were three heads, two brunettes and a blonde. I started twisting my shirt nervously as I got myself prepared to meet my siblings.
"I'll sit with you, if you want," Sage said just before we reached the table. I whispered my thanks and sat down next to the brunette boy with wavy hair and brown eyes. He had a friendly face, and resembled a puppy. He smiled at me.
"Hey, I'm Graham. I'm the head of this cabin. You must have just been claimed. You are?"
"I'm Lucienne. I'm new here. Nice to meet you." I tucked my hair behind my ear shyly.
"Backatcha. This is my twin brother, Gregg." He motioned to the boy sitting across from him. They looked exactly the same.
"Hey sis." Gregg grinned at me. It was weird thinking that these people were my brothers and sister. Being an only child, I had always considered Asana my sister more than anyone else.
And this is Sadie." Graham pointed to the blonde sitting next to Gregg. She flipped her strawberry blonde hair coolly and crossed her legs and her arms, staring at me. I got the feeling she didn't like me too much. Just to check of it was my imagination, I smiled at her. She didn't do anything back but shoot invisible hate daggers back at me with her dark green eyes. Yup, I definitely wasn't on her good side.
I shot a look at Sage, but she just shrugged her shoulders. I turned to Graham. "So, this is it? I mean, there's only the three of you?"
"Yup. Weird, huh? I guess Apollo just didn't feel like having that many children in this generation, as far as we know. But anyways, welcome to table seven."
As dinner went on, I found I had more in common with Gregg and Graham then I thought I would. I found out that Gregg and Graham were 17, and that Sadie was 16. Not that she told me, Gregg did. But we laughed and I actually had a good time. Well, mostly. I couldn't shake the feeling that Sadie hated me. Like really, really hated me. I didn't even say anything to her, and yet she still gave me the hard, cold stare like I wasn't wanted around. Maybe I wasn't. My first day at camp and I already had two enemies. Speaking of enemies… I thought, shifting my eyes over to Griffin's table. He wasn't staring at me, but I found that I had a better view of his table. He also had a better view of mine.
We gathered around the bonfire after dinner and sang, which apparently our cabin was in charge of. I had a blast leading the songs with the twins, who turned out to be real jokesters. Everybody loved them. When it was time for lights out, I'm pretty sure I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow. My last conscious thoughts were that it was a pretty good first day. Little did I know what was in for me tomorrow.
