Chapter Nine; The worst nightmare from my Sophomore year.

I trailed after my brother with my face and ears burning. I could feel the stares of the other campers. Their harsh whispers reached my ears,leaving me wanting to curl up in a ball, scream, run back to the cabin, or all three.

"Who is that?"

"Why is she with Percy?"

"Shouldn't she be sitting at the Hermes table if she's new?"

"That wouldn't have passed when I got here!"

Percy frowned as he noticed my trepidation and honestly, my fear. With my anxiety, being anywhere near remotely the center of attention severely messed with me. "Hey. Don't listen to them Nao."He reached out and grabbed my arm, virtually making me sit down, his hand moving from my arm to wrap around my shoulders,"Just keep your head high. They just like to talk."He smiled at me,"And I'm sure that if it gets bad enough, Jack will do his usual "Kid of death protecting the new kid" bit."

I smiled faintly at the image of jack once more being my guardian. "Thanks, Perc."I murmured,rubbing my arm nervously," Anxiety isn't the easiest to deal with…" He nodded,still smiling at me," I get 'cha"

I smiled up at him as silence fell across the pavilion after slight banging was heard from the "head table", I turned slightly to look at the table, seeing a satyr and Mrs. B smiling at our table, Chiron nodding as he looked over the pavilion, his voice ringing out clearly.

"I recognize many of you are confused as to why the Poseidon table has a new face sitting at it tonight." He winked at me as I shrunk further against my brother's side,making eye contact with Nico,who was smiling at me encouragingly.

"In answer to all of your questions, Miss Harmon would you please stand up?"

Mrs B took in a sharp intake of breath, raising her hand to stop her husband, but I was already standing, my eyes fixated on the table as the familiar claws of Anxiety started to press down on my chest, my hands and entire body starting to shake as I felt like my entire world was coming crashing down.

Chiron's voice came to my ears as if through a haze," This young lady is Naomi Harmon, our newest camper and the daughter of Poseidon.I hope you all will treat her with kindness, and welcome her into our home."
More whispers erupted as I swayed dangerously before dropping back down to the bench, Percy quickly whispering to me, his hands on my shoulder," Are you alright Naomi?"

"I'll…I'll be fine… just give me a minute."I whispered,closing my eyes and trying to ground myself again, Breathe in four, hold seven, let go eight. Repeat three times. As I did my breathing technique, the cold claws of anxiety relaxed and I could breathe easy again," 'Kay I'm fine." I nodded, smiling tiredly at Percy.

"Good."He grinned,before looking up as beautiful women I think were Dryads swirled past, dropping food onto our plates. Percy stood, pulling me up with him," Come on,"He grinned," Time to give the gods offering."

I nodded with a nervous smile,"O-Okay." I followed the tall teen, holding my plate nervously as we approached the brass brazier near the front of the pavilion. Once it was my turn at the brazier I scraped a good portion of my food into the flames, closing my eyes," Poseidon…Neptune….Father…I…"I flinched,"I…uh give you this offering?...I…Thank you for claiming me….I'm really glad to have family like Nico and Percy…..I guess…I'm happy I'm worthy enough to be claimed…I was really scared I wouldn't be…"I murmured,before hurrying over to Percy,"You did good kid."He laughed,sitting back down

I watched curiously as Percy's goblet suddenly filled with what looked like a…blue… soda after he mumbled something. Noticing my curious look, he grinned before explaining," The goblets are enchanted, you just say the drink and it will fill with the drink,Just going to warn you, Coke does not taste the same." I reached forwards, grasping my goblet tentatively, thinking back to my childhood, when I was living with my dad- I guess not my biological father but still my father-, I grinned as I remembered the drink I hadn't had in years, but always loved it," Izvorul Minunilor." I murmured, gasping as it filled with the mineral water, taking an experimental sip of it before beaming,"All it needs is a slice of lemon" I giggled, before realizing Percy was staring at me in shock," What language was that?"

"Romanian." I grinned at his flabbergasted expression," You know other languages?"

I nodded, taking another sip of the Romanian drink, before whispering thanks to a smiling dryad as she dropped a lemon slice on my plate,"Multumim doamna" I smiled as she looked at me in confusion before nodding. "Yeah I do. My dad's Romanian-" I was cut off as Jack leaned over from Nico's table and loudly said," He makes a loooot of Dracula jokes and oh gods you should see when he hears someone get something wrong on Vlad Tepes."

"He is a historian." I shook my head before continuing,"Anyway, Romanian is my first language, I lived there with dad up until I was seven. Then we moved back to the US, I learned English before that of course" I tilted my head to the side,"Then French, Norwegian, Icelandic, and German." I laughed at the shock Percy was exuding,"How do you know six languages?!"

"I know ten. My Finnish is really rusty, so is my Russian, and don't even get me started on Spanish or Japanese."

"My little sister is smarter than me."Percy whined, although he was smiling," That's really cool!"

I laughed again, taking another sip from my goblet, which now -with the addition of the lemon slice- tasted like a 7-up.

The rest of dinner passed quickly and the next thing I knew, we were back at our cabin.

"Hey I think Mrs. B left clothes on your bunk, you go ahead and get first dibs on the bathroom," Percy grinned at me as he laid across his bunk.

"Alright thanks." I smiled softly, grabbing the bundle of clothes that had been on my bunk."I'll be done in a minute."

"You do you." He shrugged, waving his hand as I entered the bathroom.