We walked down to the mess hall and Aaron and Will came up to us.

"Steph guess what!" Aaron said.

"You saw a evil octopus with a unicorn horn eat the Holiday Inn." I said.

"Which one?"

"The one in that place in Ohio."

"Wait Ohio?"

"Ya Ohio."

"But Ohio is huge."

"Your huge."

"Well your stupid."

"No your stupid!"

"Your stupider!"

"That's not even a word!"

"Ya so?"

"Your terrible at intellectual battles."

"What?"

"Exactly." He stuck his tongue out at me

Lee and Will were staring at us.

"Do you guys do that a lot?" Will asked.

"You know it just happens." I said.

"Its weird."

"Ya well twins are some of the weirdest people ever." Aaron said.

"As you can see we are quite mature." I said.

"Has anyone seen Evan?" Will asked. We looked around.

"There he is, sitting with Beckendorf at that table." Aaron said.

"That means he got claimed!" Lee said.

"By who?"

"Hephaestus, god of fire and the forge."

"Wow."

"Now just to get your dad to know you belong to him."

"You know who it is don't you, I'm just over thinking it." I said.

Will and Lee smiled. "Pretty much." They both said.

"Well that's good."

"No, this is good!" Lee said. Will pointed up to our heads. I looked up, above my head was a glowing yellow lyre.

"CLAIMED! STEPHANIE AND AARON GOT CLAIMED!" Will and Lee yelled. Everyone looked at Aaron and everyone started cheering. Will and Lee's brothers and sisters started introducing themselves. I missed everyone's name, they all blended together. Chiron came up behind us.

"Hail, Stephanie and Aaron Archer, the twin son and daughter of Apollo, god of archery and healing!"

I looked around the crowed and locked eyes with the person I wanted to find. Evan. He looked and smiled, his goofy crooked smile that was just there.

I got claimed to, my dad is Hephaestus. He mouthed. I smiled back at him.

Everyone went to there table, the Apollo kids welcomed us to the table like they knew we had been there half-siblings for there whole life. They didn't treat us any different than the kids at the Hermes cabin.

A hoof pounded on the marble. We all looked towards Chiron.

"Good evening campers, I would just like to say congratulations to our three new campers who have been claimed. Evan Gagnon, son of Hephaestus." Kids cheered. "And of course-"

"THE TWIN ARCHERS!" Connor and Travis yelled. We all started laughing, even Chiron and I thought I saw a smile tugging at Mr.D's mouth.

"And on that note, Mr.D, tell the campers about Capture the Flag."

Mr.D stood. "Well yes, good for Stacy and Allen and Ethan whats-his-face, huzzah huzzah. But tonight you brats play Capture the Flag. The Red Team, lead by the Ares cabin," There table cheered and three scary looking kids ran up, a girl and two boys ran up with a blood red flag with a boar on it. "with there teammates, the Hephaestus, Demeter, and Dionysus cabins, and the Blue team, led by the Apollo cabin" our table cheered, Lee, Will and a boy who I think is named Mike ran up with a yellow flag with a lyre on it. "with there teammates the Hermes, Athena and Aphrodite cabins. So eat your food and get your bratty butts in your armor and go into the woods."

The nymphs came around and passed out the best smelling food ever. I kinda just watched what everyone was doing. Will gestured for us to follow the tables. We all got up, and scraped some of our food into a blazing fire.

"Burnt offerings to the gods. We dump in some of our food and send a silent prayer to who ever on Olympus we wish."Will said.

"Burnt food? Doesn't is smell gross though?."

"In the wrong fire yeah, but this fire makes it smells amazing. The gods love the smell. Watch."

Will walked up to the fire and scraped some food in. He stood there for a few seconds and walked away. I copied what he did. I scraped in some food and sent a silent prayer.

Thank you so much for clamming me Father. I caught a whiff of air as I walked off, it smelled like pumpkin pie. Now I knew why the gods liked it so much. When I sat down back at the table I started eating my food. When we had finished the nymphs cleared off the tables and and Chiron pounded his hoof again.

"Okay campers now that dinner is over its time for Capture the Flag. So put your armor on, get your weapons and get going!"

"Wait were are we gonna get our-" I was going to ask where we were going to get our armor but it appeared on the tables. Even armor for me. A girl named Annabeth from the Athena cabin showed me how to put it on. I felt kind of stupid but she was really nice. She had a deep tan, curly golden hair and gray eyes.

"Congratulations on being claimed." She said.

"Thank you. And thanks for helping with the armor to." I said.

"No problem. So do you know the plan?"

"No."

"Okay well this is what were gonna do." She started whispering. "The Aphrodite cabin is going to be scattered throughout the field, Hermes cabin will be our defense, along with some of the Apollo kids up in trees, that will include you, Aaron, Will and Lee. The Athena cabin will charge in to battle with the other side and the rest of your cabin over here."

"What will me, Aaron Will an Lee do in the trees?" I whispered.

"Well, the trees in this forest are extremely close together, you could walk from tree branch to tree branch, it takes loads of balance though. But that's one of the traits Apollo kids have, there athletic, agile, have great aim, and are light on their feet. That's only physical, mental is different. You four will be crossing the enemy lines to get to there flag, which the Ares cabin always hides near trees."

"Wow, you know a lot about this."

"Ive been here the longest see," She showed me a necklace with a bunch of clay bead on it. ",we get one bead every year after the summer ends. If we survive."

"Well that makes me happy." She laughed. We walked deeper into the forest, I put on my helmet, with a blue plume on it. Will came over.

"Come on were going up here." He said. We ran over to a few trees. Annabeth was right, these trees were extremely close together. "When I say go, start climbing the tree and go that way." Will pointed to were the sun was, it was lower in the sky than the stables, I was guessing it would be setting soon.

"Got it."I said. A conch horn blew.

"GO!" I looked and saw Will clawing his way up the tree, digging the toe of his sneakers into the bark. His fingers finding gaps in the bark. Lee was doing the same. I looked at Aaron. He nodded. I looked up, and started climbing the tree. When I got to the lowest branch Lee and Will had waited.

"Try to make it over as quite as possible." Lee said. I nodded. Then I just realized he said it in Ancient Greek. And I understood perfectly. I was shocked. I looked up and climbed to the next few branches. I slowly shuffled my way across a branch. It creaked a little and I stopped. I took a deep breath and kept shuffling. I nervously hopped onto the next tree branch. I looked around. Aaron was nervously doing the same. He looked at me.

"We can do this."I mouthed

"On the count of three." He mouthed back. I looked forward and held out three fingers.

Three.

Two.

One.

Go.

I ran across the tree branch and jumped to the next. I almost peed myself, I couldn't believe I was doing this. Somehow, I was doing it without dieing. In under five minutes we reached the boarder where Will and Lee had stopped. We could see almost everything. Campers fighting with swords, failed attempts to get the flag. I could just barely see the Ares flag, if it was any other color I wouldn't see it, but blood red is easy to make out. There were four campers there.

"The Hephaestus cabin is guarding the flag, they wont be easy to get by. But I have a plan." Lee said. He and Will made there way to us.

"Lee, Aaron and I can take on Beckendorf, Jake and Brandon. Evan will be difficult, he has a lot of smarts. He sees Aaron, and like everyone, assumes that you will be with him. He will be even more on guard. If he sees you, which he probably will,do what you can to get the flag and run as fast as you can back to our side." Will whispered.

"If you need help, just yell. Don't forget about your sword, that will ,obviously, help you fight him off. When you get the flag, put it in your quiver and run." Lee said. I nodded. "Come on."

It took us a while to make our way to the flag, because we had to be even more quiet. The Ares cabin wasn't stupid. They had kids everywhere looking for us. We reached the flag, four boys still there looking north, south, east, and west. Will and Lee slowly made their ways down the trees. I looked at Aaron. He locked eyes with me, he smiled and winked then followed Lee and Will. They ran to the flag, instantly starting a fight with Beckendorf, Jake and Brandon. Evan pulled out his sword, ready for someone else to run out of the woods. I climbed down the tree, and went to the south side of the flag, Evan was at the north. I crept closer and closer to the flag. It was inches from my hand. The boys were fighting away. I stepped forward once more, and I would have it. I stepped forward. SNAP! I looked down, I stepped on a stick. Evan turned around, his green eyes bright. We locked eyes. Slowly ,still looking at him, I reached for the flag. He saw what was happening and grabbed my wrist.

"No way." He whispered. I pulled out my sword.

"Lets go buddy." I challenged him. He pulled me away from the flag and let go of my wrist. He swung his sword at me, but i deflected it. I swung down at his legs and he jumped over it. Wen went into a full on fight. To tell you the truth it was fun. Evan swung at my legs and knocked me down, I rolled towards the flag and knocked it over. I stood up as fast as I could and grabbed the flag and shoved it into my quiver. Evan just stared at me. I looked at him, smirked and ran away. I heard him start running after me, I heard a few more people running behind us, I figured it was the boys, I looked real quick, and it was. I weaved in and out through the trees, jumping over roots and rocks. I took an abrupt turn left, loosing myself in the woods. I looked behind me real quick to see were the boys were, I couldn't see them. I stopped and leaned against a massive oak tree.

"Hey!" A face popped out of the tree. "What are you doing against my tree? I didn't give you permission to lean on it now did I? Now get along with your stupid game and stop staring like that! And if I catch you trying to climb this tree I swear you'll regret it Half-Blood." The face disappear.

"Oh my gods..." I started pacing and pointing at the tree. 'there was a face. And the tree spoke. Why was a TREE talking?" I yelled.

"Well, maybe you should have paid attention to the whole orientation film." I turned around. There was a elfish girl standing there holding flowers. "I'm Juniper. Oh, your friends are coming, I suggest you get on with your game." She ran off into the woods. I stood there for a second, then I heard something that didn't sound like a person, so I started running back to our side. I ran back they way I came and heard the fighting campers. That was a big mistake.

"GET HER!" Someone yelled and the other team charged for me. I ran as fast as I could back to our boundary line, when I saw Will, Lee, and Aaron.

"SERPENTINE! SERPENTINE!" Aaron yelled. I started weaving while I ran, I thought it wouldn't work, but it did. I lost a large amount of the group while I was running. Most of them got back into fights with the campers they were fighting with before, but there were still a lot of kids chasing me. The boundary line was so close, crossing it would end the game. I jumped over a fallen tree, out boundary line. I landed on our side. Quickly I pulled it out of my quiver and thrust it in the air. There was cheering and clapping, I heard depressed sighs from the Red Team. Connor and Travis pulled me up on their shoulders. Chiron came over and took the flag from me, once he did the ugly blood red flag changed, now shimmering with golden paint and a lyre on it.

"The Blue Team has won the game!" Chiron called. Our team erupted in another round of cheers. Connor and Travis smiled up at me. "Now, you all have time to shower and change into clean clothes and treat wounds before tonight bonfire. Now hurry!" Connor and Travis put me back on the ground.

"Great job Steph!" Travis said.

"Good job hiding the flag to." Connor said.

"Thanks guys." I said. They ran off to join the rest of their cabin. I followed after mine, were everyone began congratulating me. We emerged from the forest, were I could see kids running to there cabins then out to the showers or to the infirmary.

"Hey Steph, you should get that checked out, it looks bad." Aaron said, pointing to my arm. I looked down, there was a long cut right along my forearm with blood trickling down it.

"How did I miss that?"

"How did you miss the thing about the tree nymphs?"

"Shut it." I said.

He smiled "The infirmary is this way."