Author's Note: I don't think I've mentioned it, but this takes place in the summer of 1995. So before Percy, before Luke and Annabeth and Thalia even.

After talking to Chiron, I felt pretty good about the day that was ahead. I figured if Chiron could calm down so easily he would be a pretty good teacher. I like him a lot. More than I liked my own dad at this point. More than I liked Greg. And I only knew him for less than a day. As we walked back towards the dining pavilion we talked about what my schedule was like. I wasn't really keen about most of the activities. After all, I wasn't really a physically fit person. Luckily, though he seemed to be kinder when it came to who I would be doing these things with. Because there was only one of me in my cabin it wasn't too hard to just squeeze me in places.

I'd be taking Ancient Greek with Aphrodite's cabin in the morning. Then weapons making with the boys of Hephaestus's cabin. I'd do archery one on one with Chiron. Then Greek mythology taught be one of the satyrs with Hermes' cabin. Of course there would be rather unfun things in between like cleaning the stables and other stuff. But over all a lot of things sounded fun. Though, I wasn't sure how much I wanted to learn how to ride a Pegasus. That seemed….terrifying.

I could see that meals were going to be a daily challenge, three times a day in fact. My dad was going to be there unless he had some business on Olympus to deal with but those times were rare (at least I thought so because shouldn't a god be busy all the time?). I guess if I just focused enough on other things I could ignore the fact that my father was just there, ignoring me as best he could, which was an impressive thing to do, really.

Chiron and I walked into the dining pavilion, I didn't receive as many stares as I had the previous night which made things a little easier, I guess. I was feeling better so I guess breakfast was easier to get through because I wasn't feeling so crummy after a long car drive and I knew what to expect from my father. Being completely ignored or backhanded comments. I spent most of the meal talking to Forester about the various other campers and who I should watch out for. He said most of the kids were nice, but there were a couple in the Ares cabin to watch out for and a few in the Aphrodite cabin were just plain catty sometimes.

Once breakfast was over my nerves were taking over as I walked to where Ancient Greek was taught, not sure how they expected me to be able to learn Greek. I couldn't even learn English up to standards in school. When I walked in I was the last person in, there were about ten girls in the Aphrodite cabin and the class was being taught by a really cute older boy in the Athena cabin. Will was his name and he had the same pretty grey eyes that all his siblings had. They were all staring at me for a moment when I walked in.

"Um. Sorry. Got a little lost." I mumbled as I took one of the empty seats next to one of the other girls. "Hi, I'm Emily. Daughter of Aphrodite." She said as she looked at me. I stared at her, a bit confused. Most of the other kids gave me the impression they didn't want anything to do with me.

"Um…I'm Chelsea. Daughter of um…" I trailed off. I guess I was still getting used to the idea too.

"Yeah, I know." She said with a smile that seemed real. Not really what I would have expected from a daughter of Aphrodite. The way they carried on was annoying, like something from a movie. Snotty girls that were all obsessed with make-up and clothes and how they looked. Emily seemed friendly though. She was a pretty girl-the type of pretty that I always wanted to. Thin, blond hair, blue eyes. She didn't get to say much more before our tutor interrupted and a started us on a basic grammar lesson. I figured I'd be far behind, but as Will, the boy from Athena's cabin, told me we're all actually wired for ancient Greek and not English. He was even a little impressed with how fast I picked up on. Coming from a kid of Athena, I figured that meant a lot. And really most people never really told me I was good at much.

Once we were done with the lesson, Emily caught up with me again. "So how do you like camp so far?" she asked. She was still talking to me. That was surprising. I figured if I didn't even like my dad, other kids definitely wouldn't. So why would they hang out with me?

"Um. It's cool. I mean. I don't feel like a freak anymore." I told her honestly. I guess that was true. I really did feel like I fit in. Finally. "I don't know if I've been here long enough to judge the rest of it. Most people seem nice." I shrugged.

"Well, at least you don't completely hate it. My first summer here was awful. I mean, I had to come here all the way from Florida and was so homesick. So where are you from?" she asked quickly, very quickly.

"Um. Virginia. Kinda near DC." I told her as I shoved my hands into my pockets.

"That's cool. Does DC have a lot of good shopping?"

"I don't really know. I don't do a lot of shopping. And well, I guess my mom didn't want to risk putting me around the national government. We never really go into city." I guess that made sense now. Wouldn't look good if a monster attacked me if we were visiting the White House or something. That would be bad.

"Oh." She said with a bit of a frown, "Well you should. I live in Jersey! It's not that far from Virginia! Maybe during the school year you can come visit and I can take you shopping in New York! That'd be so much fun! It just sucks they don't let us leave camp during the summer." She sighed.

Wait. Did she really want to hang out with me? Emily was certainly very friendly. I didn't even mind that she loved talking about clothes and boys. I guess if I was going to have a friend that wanted to give me a makeover there wasn't a better pick than a daughter of Aphrodite. After finding out that she was from New Jersey, I found out a couple other things about her. She lived with her dad and grandparents. Her father was in the military. In the Navy to be exact. He was currently deployed. She was also a year older than me and had just finished sixth grade.

We were walking towards the forge where I'd be doing weapons making with the Hephaestus cabin. However, I nearly stopped in my tracks when a rather tall, but still lanky boy emerged out of the forge. He had dark brown hair, slightly curly, that didn't go past his ears. He also had the most gorgeous dark brown eyes. He did seem to be covered in soot though. "Who's that?" I asked quietly moving my eyes to my friend.

"Hector. Son of Hephaestus." Emily said, "Why? You think he's cute?"

"No." I muttered stubbornly and felt my cheeks start to burn red.

"Hector! Come over here!" Emily called waving to him. That seemed to shock the boy, who looked to be about my age, but he did come over.

"Um. Hi Emily." He said before glancing at me. "And you're Chelsea, right?" he asked as he looked at me. I just nodded.

"Yeah. That's me. The freakish daughter of Dionysus." I said with a small laugh.

"It's nice to meet you." He said as he shook my hand. Even though he was young his hand still felt rough and he had a very strong grip. "You're here for weapons making?" he asked.

"Yeah. I am."

"I'll see you too later. I've got archery." Emily said with a hint of a smirk as she skipped off towards the archery fields.

"Well, no better lot to learn from than Hephaestus's cabin." He said as he lead me into the forge. Let's just say that I nearly suffocated from all the smoke that was in there. I was pretty sure that anyone who spent that much time in the forge was going to develop lung cancer or something. But the boys of Hephaestus's cabin were exceedingly nice and cheerful. Hector was certainly the best looking of the lot. At least in my opinion anyway. Though I did find out that he was also really nice. He was from Texas and his mother had remarried like mine had, though his stepfather made Greg sound like the saint that he always thought himself to be.

The next few days seem to get better and better. Emily and I were quickly turning into fast friends. Hector and Wesley were usually seen hanging out with us as well. They had all been at camp before. Emily had been for three summers, Hector for two, and Wesley for one. I was the newbie among the lot, but it didn't bother me much. I was adjusting fairly well, I thought. I wasn't really great at much, though it turned out I could run pretty fast. Not as fast as the nymphs, or Hermes's cabin, or Apollo's cabin, but I could generally out race a lot of other campers, mostly the Ares' cabin that I shared that activity with.

But they were jerks. I hated them. Not many people like the Ares' cabin as whole it seemed. I had seen members of the cabin alone with other campers, but on their own they were different it seemed. Together they acted like a bunch of bullies. And every day when we had racing together it was the same mess. After a week of it I was really getting sick of it. I kept smoking them in the foot races and they were getting mad about it.

"You cheated! You took off early!" One of the thirteen year old boys said. His name was Jon and he was pretty big for a thirteen year old.

"I did not!" I snapped back. "You're just jealous I'm better than you." He had dirty blond hair and grey eyes and a really big nose and tried to be all punk and stuff. He just looked like a goon though.

"Did too!" he said as he finally shoved me.

"Liar!" I yelled as I pushed him back. I wasn't going to take his crap. The nymphs that were our instructors just seemed to be a bit bored with the fight, maybe a bit nervous. They didn't seem to want to get involved. Our yelling was certainly attracting a crowed.

He didn't seem to be happy that I pushed him back. Far from it, really. He pushed me again to the ground. I had never been much of a fighter, but I guess at this camp you needed to be. I jumped up and lunged at him. Taking him down. I got up off of him and backed off, only to be grabbed by two of his goon friends. I struggled to get free.

"Call for help! Call for your daddy to come and save you. He is camp director, right?" Jon taunted. He was just trying to get me mad. It was working. I swung my leg at him and managed to hit him in the shin.

"You-" he muttered before backhanding me in the face. I felt my lip open and blood start to trickle into my mouth.

"Look at you. Pathetic. Not even your dad would come help you."

"Shut it!" I muttered. Something was happening though. I felt sort of disconnected from the rest of the world. Everything was going in slow motion. Or starting to slow down.

"What are you gonna do huh?" he asked as he pushed me again, "Useless waste of divine blood. Your mother was probably ready to give you up. Bet she jumped at the chance to get you out when she found out who your dad was."

"Shut up!" I yelled. It was then that things just stopped. I don't know what happen, but it was like something snapped. I blacked out for a moment, just a second I think. I don't know what happened in that small amount of time, but when I came to the two jerks that were holding me had let me go and they were surrounding Jon, who was rocking on the ground screaming like a banshee or something.

"NO! STOP! DON'T HURT ME!" he yelled as he rocked and tried to cover himself. He wasn't afraid of me or anything that me and the rest of the people could see. And there was a large group now. At least twenty other campers were around.

"Jon! Jon! What'd that crazy girl do to you!" his best friend Mark asked as he tried to snap his friend out of it. That didn't work though.

"What'd you do to him?" another one of the Ares cabin yelled. I froze. Did I do that? I had to have. But at the same time I couldn't have done that. It just didn't make sense. A few more of the Ares Cabin were yelling at me. I freaked out. I didn't know what to do.

So I just ran. And ran.