Hello! So I will be drifting more away from cannon now. I will make sure to include all the important happenings but maybe with a new environment or new POV. I really enjoy writing this and I hope that you all are having some fun reading it.

Thank you so much to the Follow-ers and Favortie-ers this past week. You all are wonderful people and I really appreciate your interest in the story. And to my lovely reviewers: awesomeninja09, prince of the seas, bogbiscuit1967 and liaregie; you are all absolutely amazing and I can't thank you enough for the encouraging words and votes of confidence. We'll just have to see what happens with everything... =)

Shameless begging ahead: It was my birthday on Monday, and I would LOVE it if more people took a second to review this little story. Just as a birthday gift... if you feel so inclined... I might possibly love you for eternity...

Onward!


9. Penelope

The next few days were totally overwhelming… Good, great even… but still very overwhelming.

I could remember the conversation that I had with Alec; it was all about Godly parents and him explaining a bit more about the protection around camp, but it honestly felt like it was another lifetime when we had talked about that. The everyday routine of camp had taken over and almost completely distracted my brain from the sadness of losing my mom and the annoyance of my dad still not claiming me. In my mind, there wasn't the option that he wasn't going to claim me. Mom telling me how much he cared about the two of us was one of the last things she ever said to me, so I refused to imagine a scenario where I remained undetermined.

I mean… if Mom was right about him never forgetting about me and visiting very year for me birthday, why the heck hadn't he given some kind of signal about who he was yet. I was safe at camp now… right?

I mean, as safe as a demigod in training could be I guess.

The food was good here, most people seemed as if they genuinely wanted to help me; I was still at the Hermes cabin which was fine, but I did ask Grover to hold onto a few things for me until I was determined. Hermes was the god of mischief and thieves after all…

Alec volunteered to help me with learning Greek, Chiron had tried to show me how to shoot an arrow, and Clarisse unfortunately showed me how to lose at wrestling… Some of the wood nymphs were trying to get me into shape and Will taught me some simple healing tricks for when I inevitably pulled something.

I also started to notice everyone's necklaces since Alec showed me his. He was right; most of the other campers, including all of the councilors, had fewer beads then him and Luke. The college ring on Alec's necklace still had me interested though. And I had tried to get more information out of Alec about his moral dad, but it had only made the guy clam up more. It seemed to me that he needed to talk about it, like I used to with my mom, but I guess the guy isn't really the sharing type.

People still seemed to murmur behind their hands when I walked by. I tried to wave or smile at them; trying to show everyone that I wasn't affected by their gossip but still wanted to show that maybe I was friendly enough to make friends with. I had never had a lot of friends before though, so it was difficult to say if I was going about it the right way or not.

Thankfully I had Grover. And I liked hanging out with Will and Alec well enough to call them friends.

Will and Grover had heard all about the Lake incident and teased me mercilessly about it. Something about their shock over such a small person created such a big wave was repeated a lot, but I didn't mind since that wave had taken Clarisse out. And she had left me relatively alone after that, other than the horrible wrestling lessons. The weird thing was Alec always seemed to completely shut down when someone brought up what happened at the Lake. He wouldn't offer any funny perspective of the incident and he actually seemed to avoid the subject like the plague.

I guess it was embarrassed by me or something.

When I asked Grover about it, he just shrugged, "He might not have liked that Clarisse sister pinned him, but no one even cares about that. She's three years older than him and she's almost as big as Clarisse."

Will offered pretty much the same thought, but I could tell he knew more than he was telling me.


At the end of third day, I was completely exhausted. My brain was full, my muscles screamed and I was honestly surprised I was still walking. It had only been here a little while but I really had grown to love Camp Half-Blood. If my mom had been here, it would have been perfect… but nothing is ever perfect for demigods; or so I'm told.

My favorite place, not surprisingly, turned out to be the beach behind the mess hall. After dinner and whatever activity was scheduled; I wandered out to the sand, which reminded me so much of Montauk, and just sat.

I kicked off my flip-flops, plopped down on my butt, closed my eyes and buried my hands and feet into the sand. I used to do this all the time when I was younger; trying to will myself into becoming one with the beach.

Weird I know, but I was a strange kid.

If you want to get all miserable, it might have something to do with the fact that all the good beach memories I have are with my Mom. I had done this every night since I got to camp. I guess you could say this was my way of mourning. No one had found out about my little spot yet, but I guess I shouldn't have been surprised I couldn't keep it for myself forever.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Alec sounded confused as he stumbled onto me.

"Being depressing and trying to enjoy some silence before I go back to the Hermes cabin," I didn't turn toward him or open my eyes; I just sat there listening to the small waves drift back and forth.

He sat down next to me.

"I didn't say you could sit with me," I opened one eye to see him silently chuckle at me.

"So?"

I turned my head and opened my other eye, "So depressed girls are your thing then?" It took me a lot to hold my mouth steady in a straight line.

Alex looked at me with shocked eyes and gaped at me, "What?"

I burst out laughing, "You are way too easy to rile up, dude; lighten up."

He glares at me, "You are such a brat; you know that?"

I nod my head and just continue to laugh. I guess it was contagious because after a little while, Alec was laughing too.

"I may be a brat, but you're kind of a snob and a know-it-all. So… we all have our faults," I shrug and offer him a kind smile that I hope he finds endearing, because he's one of only three people I can call friend… I can't afford going around and pissing them off.

"Yea, whatever Lake Girl," Alec smirks at me before he turns his attention to the small waves a few feet in front of us.

"Oh, so you're talking about that now?" I raise my voice playfully trying to coax him into bantering with me. It seems to be a favorite pass time of ours over the last few days.

Alec doesn't take the bait though and just continues with his super serious expression and voice, "Do you remember anything from when you were recovering in the Big House?"

I decided to humor him, "Not too much, just small moments. I remember you and Will feeding me that ambrosia stuff. And I remember you making fun of me for snoring."

His lip pulled up slightly, but his voice remained the same, "Do you remember me saying anything about the summer solstice?"

"Yea…" I racked my brain trying to remember the questions that Alec at thrown at me while I was half conscious, "Didn't you ask me if I knew about something being stolen?"

Alec nodded his head, "Yea. Something really important was taken. And from what I've gathered from the satyrs, if it's not returned by the summer solstice something really bad is going to happen."

"But you don't know what was taken?" I thought it seemed kind of stupid not telling people what went missing if you're laying out ultimatums for its return…

"Nope, but whatever it was… I think it was taken right after the winter solstice. Chiron took us, the year-rounders, to Mount Olympus in December and right after our visit was when the weather started getting weird." Alec tilted his head up at the sky with a nervous look.

"Wait, all the wonky weather is because the Gods are pissed about something being taken? Why can't they just get a new… whatever it was?" I still didn't totally understand the God thing; but I did remember some stories about the Gods of Olympus acting like spoiled brats sometimes… I suddenly didn't like that Alec called me a 'brat' earlier.

"I guess it's something that can't be replaced that easily."

I haven't known Alec that long, but I've already caught on to what his annoyed impatient voice sounds like. I guess I should be taking this more seriously though, since it does kind of affect me too, "Ok, so what was your plan? Get info from me, go play hero and then return whatever was taken?"

"Well, there's official steps in between all that… but yea. I wanted to help; I wanted a quest. I thought this might be… that you might be the one who's supposed to help with that," Alec sighed and looked really defeated.

"Sorry," my voice sounded lame even to me. "I wish I knew something; but I don't even know who my Godly father is. How am I supposed to help if I can't even figure out who I am?"

At my comment, the pressure weighing Alec down seemed to ease up a bit, "Well I actually have a theory about that. But I'm kind of hoping I'm wrong…"

"Will says you're rarely wrong, so why are you hoping that you are?" I smirked as Alec shifted uncomfortably beside me.

"If I'm right, I'm not really supposed to get along with you," Alec refused to make eye contact with me.

I snorted, "Well I wouldn't say we exactly get along now. I mean you're my friend, but we do kind of bicker sometimes."

He nodded and smiled, "True. But can you really be friends with someone you've known less than a week?"

"I… I don't really know," I looked at the sand beneath my fingers and shoved my fist into the rough earth, "I've never really had too many friends, so I don't have much experience on the subject." I wasn't looking for sympathy, but I figured I should tell the truth.

Alec didn't say anything.

"Sorry, I forgot guys don't like talking about their feelings," I tried to smile and let Alec off the hook.

We fell into silence again.

Alec broke the quiet this time. He took his camp necklace out from under his shirt and fiddled with the large gold ring, "My dad's a professor at West Point. I haven't seen him since I was seven years old. I haven't talked to him in over seven months."

I was shocked by the personal information exchange that had just happened, "I'm… I'm so sorry."

"Anyway," Alec stood up and brushed the sand off his palms. I guess that was all I was going to get for now. Alec offered his hand to help me up, "Want to test my theory?"

"Sure! Why not?" I made my voice as cheerful as possible, even though I'm absolutely sure that whatever Alec had in mind wasn't going to get me determined. I took his hand and he pulled me up pretty easily; I brushed the sand off of myself and followed him down to the edge of the water.

"Go stand in the bay," Alec looked really tense as he spoke.

I took two steps into the gentle waves, they were a little past my ankles, and turned to face him, "Now what?"

He screwed up his face in concentration; it was actually kind of cute.

"What? Did you think I was going to get swept away or something?" I laughed at his puzzled expression and took another step backwards. The water was an inch or two below my knees now.

Nothing happened.

I mean the water felt nice; not chilly like it usually was off of Montauk, but kind of lukewarm and comfortable I guess. I took another step back and the swaying water began to brush the bottom of my shorts.

"So you don't… feel anything?" Alec asked.

"What should I be feeling?"

Alec scratched the back of his head and sighed like he was irritated, "I don't know; different, powerful?"

I laughed. I felt some seaweed tickle my foot so I stepped to the side to get away from it, "Wait, did you think my Dad was Posid…"

I wasn't able to finish the name because I somehow found the edge of a drop off and sunk into the bay…


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Always,

Misha

Ps. Check out my other stories: 'Life as Demigods,' 'Thrown Back' and 'Begin Again.'