Miss me?


"Wow." Was the only thing I could say when I saw Camp Half-Blood. This place was amazing. Just from the top of the hill I could see sport courts, a huge climbing wall with...lava? SWEET!

"Wow is right." Maija came over from petting the dragon. Yea, that's right, they have a DRAGON! I like this place already.

"Come on Twinny, lets go explore." I started down the hill eagerly. Maija was right behind me, totally up for the exploring idea. We ran past a building Mom described as the Big House, which believe it or not, just looked like a big house.

Maija pointed to the right, and we started walking that way. We past the courts. There were a bunch of kids playing volleyball.

I stopped to watch the game for a second. They were all really good. One team obviously had a size advantage over the other, they were huge and definitely not people you would wanna make mad. The other team was a mix of every kind of kid. Tall, short, red head, and blond. The surprising thing was, the score said the mix team was winning.

I voiced my thoughts to Maija, and automatically she had an answer . "The big team is obviously Ares," she told me as the show off daughter of Athena she is. "The other team is winning because look, there are at least three children of Athena in there." She was right, and if Mom's siblings were anything like her, no wonder they were winning.

That's when the whispering and pointing started. Apparently one of the kids saw us watching and I think they recognized us. I grabbed Twinny's arm and pulled her away quickly. "What's up?"

"Spent too much time there." I jerked my head in the campers' direction. She looked and immediately understood.

"This famous thing is getting on my nerves." Maija sighed. I chuckled softly.

"Yea, but what can we do." She shrugged and we continued walking.

The next place we came to, was a building that when I got within 10 feet I could already smell the clay and paint. Maija and I smiled at each other. Arts and Crafts. We loved art back at school. Ceramics for me, painting and drawing for Maija. I had a feeling we were going to spend a lot of time in that building.

After what happened at the volleyball courts, Maija and I didn't stay too long, even though we both wanted to go in and immerse ourselves in art more than anything.

We passed a big auditorium, I guess in Greece they called it an Amphitheater. Neither Maija nor I were very into drama class, acting, or anything like that, so we didn't even bother doing much more there than admiring the building itself. I guess Mom's love of architecture rubbed off a bit on both of us.

Then it was the climbing wall, and man this thing was cool! It was freaking huge, and on top of that it had lava spewing out the top! Sure it'll kill you if it touches you, but I still think it's the coolest thing I've ever seen. Maija had to tell me close to twenty times we couldn't it try yet. Which made me sad.

"So how do we get across the lake?" Twinny asked. I shrugged. I had no idea what was on the other side of the lake, let alone how to cross it. "Where are your parents when you need them."

"Hey come on! We can do this! I can control water can't I?"

"Yea, but you have no training with it." Stupid daughters of Athena being rational.

"Did you have any better idea of getting across?" HA! BEAT THAT LOGIC!

Maija glared at me before sighing. "No I guess not. Fine. How did you plan on doing this?"

"Well, what I've gathered from the few stories dad told me before we left, all he did to control it was will the water to do what he wanted." I replied simply. Maija looked at me sceptically. "Oh don't be such a worry wort! What's the worse that can happen? Get a little wet?"

"Famous last words." She muttered under her breath, then louder she said, "I'm just concerned about Poseidon and being in his realm. I'm still a daughter of Athena-the number one person on his hate list."

"Yea but you're with me, and no way he'd do anything to me." I recalled the talk I had with Grandma almost two years ago about me having to become Immortal. I was still totally against the idea, by the way.

"Fine...but I don't want to get wet." I rolled my eyes at her.

Ok, I told myself, taking a deep breath. Focus. I knew I had to create some kind of raft, because the awesome air-bubble underwater thing dad told me about was obviously out of the question with Maija. I put all my concentration on condensing the water and making it solid, because let's face it, nothing is cooler than walking on water.

Once I was sure it was solid enough to hold my weight, well I wasn't really sure-I was pretty much just guessing, I stepped forward. My foot hit solid ground, and I had to look down to check if I was on the water.

I was. I was walking on water! Suddenly I felt my foot sinking down ever so slowly. I was loosing my concentration. I stopped celebrating in my head, concentrated again, and the water solidified under my foot.

"That, is so cool." Maija breathed. I held out a hand to her, 'cause I knew she would be to scared to step out by herself. At least til she saw she wasn't going to fall through.

Maija gingerly stepped forward and smiled when her foot didn't get soaked. "You did it." Her braces caught the sun and flashed my eyes.

"Yea, I did. Now quit smiling." Twinny laughed and turned to the opposite shore.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!" And with that she-who had been scared to death of just sticking her toe in the water a minute before-was walking right across the lake like it was cement. I laughed and caught up with her.

Thankfully no one was around the beach when we stepped on shore. "Hey look," Maija said, "There's the cabins. Let's go check them out."

The first cabin we saw had the number 20 written on the top. My head started to itch, and I immediately knew it was the magic in my streaks interfering with the magic in the cabin. "Hecate cabin." I said.

I looked around at the others, there were probably 20 in all, seeing as Hecate was the last one and it said 20 on it. All the cabins made a kind of Omega shape, well it would have if the first two cabins weren't closing it off, so it really looked like a big circle.

I could tell some of the cabins were newly built, mainly cause AC-mom's brand she puts on every building she builds-was carved into some of them.

Maija and I went down the line, guessing at which cabin belonged to which god. Some were obvious, like the Hephaestus cabin, Aphrodite cabin (I almost chocked on all the perfume coming from it), and of course Grandpa Poseidon's. Well I knew Zeus and Hera's cabins too, but its kinda hard not to, just from the way they look. Uncle Hades' cabin was like that too.

Maija pointed out Grandma's cabin, the Ares cabin, and we knew the Apollo cabin 'cause it almost blinded us...and we're blind enough as it is. But the cabin that really caught my eye was cabin 8.

Artemis' cabin.

When the 14 Olympians came and told me the truth, Artemis was the nicest and kindest. At least in my head. Maybe it's because while every other God/dess was like 30-she was my age, and I related to her easier.

Her cabin was a beautiful shade of silver, I could hear talking and laughing inside but the people inside were blocked by curtains the same shade of silver as the cabin. "You think that means the Hunters are here?" I asked Twinny.

She nodded. "Probably. Hey, isn't aunt Thalia a hunter?"

"Speak of the devil, and the devil shall appear." I jumped at the voice. When I turned around, I was standing face to face with a girl my age. She was just about the same height as me with shoulder length, spiky black hair. On top of her head was a silver tiara, and she was wearing simple silver clothing. Her hands were on her hips, and she was smirking at us. Her intense blue eyes scared me.

"So," She said, eyeing us. "How do you know me? Because I certainly don't know you."

"My mom told me about you." I told her, though I must admit, she was scaring the Hades out of me.

Thalia gave me a look, like 'Really? That's all you got?'. "What goddess?"

"My mom's not a goddess. She's Annabeth Jackson." I watched as the annoyance flushed from Thalia's face and surprise/shock filled it's place.

"Annabeth Jackson..." She whispered. "That's why she left camp. You're why she left camp." At first I was scared she was mad at me for being the reason her friend left, but she seemed...mystified I guess, not angry.

"She didn't tell you? I thought you two were close!" Better question would be how could she not know?

Thalia sighed. "We were. We are." She corrected herself. "I helped little Annie across the U.S. to here, but I turned into a tree and missed seven years of her life, only to join the Hunters and leave again when I came back. We didn't talk as much as we would have liked, and when I came back to camp Malcolm said Annabeth ran away. Artemis could never find her."

'Oh, Artemis knew exactly where she was.' Artemis' voice inside my head said, but I managed not to jump or make any sounds of surprise. I ignored the goddess.

"Well, she found her after I was born." Okay, so I didn't ignore her completely.

That got her attention. Thalia's eyebrows frowned in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"When I was born, my heart wasn't working right, so all 14 Olympians gave me a bit of their life force." I said quickly. "I have powers, which is why Mom had us come here. So I could learn how to-" I yelped and jumped back when lightning struck right in-between Thalia and I.

Thalia on the other hand, didn't even flinch, but her eyebrow shot up and she looked at me. "Did you do that?" I asked her.

"No." She smiled. "You did."

I looked at the ground, as if it could tell me how in Hades I did that."How?"

Thalia shrugged, "Is you're mom here?"

"Yeah, she's on the hill with dad."

She smirked. "Barnacle boy is here too? Perfect. See ya girls."

"Wait!" I called after her. "Don't you have any advice to help me control that?" I waved my hand up and down, trying to gesture to the non-existent lightning.

Thalia started to shake her head no, but stopped, and said, "Yeah, I got some advice for you. Artemis is in the cabin, go in and ask her to take the speed out of this," she pointed to my mouth, "And put it here." Her finger moved to point to my feet.

While I stared at me feet, trying to understand what she meant, Maija cracked up. I didn't get what was so funny. I looked up from my feet. "Move the speed in my mouth...to my feet..." I repeated. Thalia winked at me. I blinked, and she was gone. "Whoa!" I exclaimed.

"Get it now?" Maija asked, still laughing.

"Yea yea," I grumbled, walking into Artemis' cabin. "I talk to much."

We stopped at the door. I raised my hand to knock, but I froze. "You're nervous to knock on a door?"

"I'm nervous to knock on a door with a goddess on the other side!"

"It's just Artemis, so knock!"

I sighed and raised my hand again, it stopped a few inches from the door, I was just too shy to do it. Exasperated, Maija grabbed my arm by the wrist and knocked on the door with it.

All the laughter inside the cabin stopped, there was some scuffling around before the door opened. All the Hunters visibly relaxed when they saw we were girls. "Come on in." The girl who had opened the door told us. She was big and beefy, kinda like an Ares girl.

"Thank you Phoebe." Artemis said from one of the bunks. She smiled at us. "Alex, Maija. Good to see you again. Girls why don't you harass- I mean train with the boys?"

The Hunters all giggled, grabbed their bows and knives, and ran out of the cabin. "Hey Arty." I greeted, plopping down on the end of the bed she was sitting on. Out of all the God/dess, Artemis was by far the coolest. For one, she let me call her Arty.

"How's everything been since we talked last?"

"Being chased by fans, writing new songs, seeing the United States," Maija collapsed into a beanbag chair next to our bed. "Same old same old."

"The Record Company is letting us have summers off for the rest of our time recording with them," I informed her excitedly. "I've only seen half of this place and I already wish I could stay all year."

"You're coming to camp every summer? Hm, I think the Hunters and I might have to make a yearly visit." We all laughed. Arty started glowing, turning into her 15 year old form. Whenever we talked, she would change her appearance to whatever age Maija and I were. It just made talking to her so much easier.

"Her dad said something about Camp v.s. Hunters capture the flag game. What's that about?" Maija asked.

"Percy would know exactly what that's about." Arty chuckled.

"What did he do?" I sighed.

"Oh nothing, just almost drowned the camp and Thalia, while she tried to fry him." She started laughing again.

"No way!" We joined in her laughter.

I controlled my laughter enough to say, "This time the Hunters are going down!"

Arty laughed harder, "And what makes you think that?"

Maija and I shared a look, "Camp has me."

"You know, I can change that."

"Arty, I've told you a thousand times already," I sighed, "I don't want to join the Hunters."

"Alright," she waved it off, "But even you can't beat my girls."

I smirked, "You wanna bet?"

Arty grinned toothy, and when I say toothy, I mean you can see her fangs. She does it to intimate people, and it works. I was thoroughly intimated, but I've gotten this look before, and I was getting better at resisting. "You bet your bow I do."

"So, what are the stakes?"

"Hmm, a new weapon by Hephaestus and 50 drachmas if you win..." She admired her nails smugly as she talked.

"And if we loose?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

Arty looked up and gave me the 'wolf smile', "Admittance to the Hunters."

"Hmm..." I pretended to think. "I could use a new bow...I'll take it."

I know what you're thinking, that's such a risky bet! You could loose Dylan forever! Yea I know, and it probably was a stupid move, but I was cocky. Mom says I get it from dad. I had good reason to be too. During tour, if the Hunters were around, they would come to the hotel we were at and we'd spar. I never told anyone other than Maija, who came and spared with us. Not even my bodyguards knew, and tricking my bodyguards was a fleet in itself. Sure, I had my fair share of losses, but I learned.

"Does it apply to me too?" Twinny asked.

"If you want it to, I'm always open to another Hunter." Arty held out a hand to the both of us. Maija and I looked at each other, and nodded. We both shook her hand.

At that moment, a conch ran through the camp and I faintly heard Chiron calling dinner. I heard campers cheer, mainly guys though. What's with dudes and food?

"Men are pigs." Artemis read my thoughts. She smiled at me and stood up. "Come, let's eat."

After locating my parents, I followed them up to the Mess Hall, which wasn't very far from where we were. I was really hungry, I won't lie. So when mom and dad led us up to get food, I got as much as I could fit onto my plate.

When we had to offer some to the gods, I didn't know who to offer to. I could offer to Grandpa, but then Grandma might get mad. I could offer to Grandma but Grandpa would get mad.

Then I got an idea. My second favorite goddess next to Athena, and third favorite God/dess over all. The one I just spent a whole afternoon talking to.

Artemis.

I smiled at our conversation today, and decided on something she would appreciate. I threw in the freshest lettuce from my salad. No meat.

I took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of fresh pine as it surrounded me. When everyone was sitting again, Chiron stomped his foot...er...hoof on the wood to get everyone to quiet down.

He raised his goblet and called "To the Gods!".

"To the Gods!" Everyone repeated full-heartily.

"Now, we have a few new additions too our family." He said while setting his glass down on the table. "Or should I say old friends and their family. Everyone welcome back Percy and Annabeth Jackson, saviors of Olympus!" Mom and Dad stood up and hugged Chiron while everyone else whooped and hollered for them. They looked so happy to be back.

"And let's not forget our newest Demi-gods! Maija, Dylan, Jon, and James." They all stood and walked to the front table. A few seconds went by and Grandma, Zelus, and uncle Apollo claimed their children...like officially.

"And, our special guest. Alex Jackson." I guess it was my turn...I stood up and walked so I was standing between my parents. I felt a glowing above my head, there was an Owl with a Trident it it's wing. I smiled at my parents.

"Hey, I bet you 5 drachmas that's not the real Alex Jackson." My head snapped to the left. I don't know how I heard that, the person's voice couldn't have been much more than a whisper.

"What did you say?" The pavilion went dead. I was generally surprised, my cafeteria didn't get this quiet this fast even if the principal was talking. I looked straight at the Ares table, I don't know how, but I had a feeling that's where the voice came from.

A small dude, defiantly not what you would picture when you think 'son of Ares', stood up. "I bet you aren't the real Alex Jackson."

I scoffed. "And what makes you think that?" I crossed my arms over my chest and waited for an answer.

"There are tons of celebrity look-a-likes. How do we know you're not a daughter of Hecate or something just changing the mist to make you a look like Alex? Plus the real Alex Jackson is on tour." He finished, looking proud of himself. "No way she would have time to come to camp."

I was about to blow up, NO ONE calls ME a fake and gets away with it alive, when I heard Grandma's voice. 'Never fall for an enemy's taunting. It's designed to trick you. Stay calm, use your head.'

I took a deep, calming breath. "I guess I'll just have to prove it then. James, Jon, your cabin isn't leading the campfire tonight." I didn't take my glare off the Ares jerk, who was cowering under it. Not surprising, dad says I have my mom's glare, and if you have ever been on the receiving end of my mom's glare...I had to suppress a shudder just thinking about it.

The pavilion cheered as I returned to my seat. "You're going to sing?" Jake asked from his table, which was right next to ours-well dad's, I was sitting with him and Zoey. Mom and Maija sat at the Athena table, same with James and Jon. Dylan was sitting at a table I assumed all the Minor god/dess' children used.

"Of course, plus, it gives me a chance to showcase a few new songs I've written recently." I shrugged and popped a mini tomato into my mouth.

The rest of dinner pasted quickly and everyone made their way to the Amphitheater, Chiron moved us there. I was behind the stage teaching everyone the music for the new songs. I never got around to doing it before now.

Only when I was confident they got it down to a point where they would only make small mistakes, did I walk out on stage-my guitar on my back. "Hello Camp Half-Blood! I'm going to sing two songs before handing it over to the Apollo kids. And...here's the first one." I need to work on intros...

I started strumming on my acoustic, with James on keyboard backing it up, it really made it sound echo-ish and I liked it.

'Cause I'm all about him, him, him, him, him

And he's all about me, me, me, me, me

And we don't give a dang, dang, dang, dang, dang

About nobody-e-e-e

Well, had him shooting for me like a ball team

Every guy was a knock out, Don King

But none of 'em had smarts, that's my thing

It's not enough to have balls, Spalding, ha

One day by Starbucks

I bumped into a guy rocking black Chucks

He said "Excuse me, beautiful," I said, "Aww, shucks"

And then he asked, "Well, ay, wanna grab lunch?"

Never ever met a guy so fly

Got me hooked like apple pie, I

Think I'm falling and I don't know why

But I won't fight these butterflies

If you knew me, one of my few weaknesses was Apple pie, and Dylan defiantly had that same effect on me. I remembered he even brought Apple pie to our picnic date before we left. Oh and if you didn't know by now, yes, this song was about Dylan.

And I swear what we have is just super cool

The way he's always in my head like a Bluetooth

He was always in my head, everything just reminded me of him-one way or another. If I saw a nice car, I would think of Dylan's and how much nicer it was. Or if I saw someone wearing Chucks I would think of Dylan's obsession with the brand. Now, that makes me sound like a fan girl. Great.

No, I don't need no fancy cars

And I don't need no diamond rings

My baby is all I need and more

'Cause I don't need those extra things

It's not about you (Oh-oh-oh-oh) (It's not about you)

It's not about them (Oh-oh-oh-oh) (It's not about them)

It's all about me (Oh-oh-oh-oh) (It's all about me)

And it's all about him (Oh-oh-oh-oh) (It's all about him)

I continued the song with the repeating lines, this song was full of repetition. Honestly, if one of my songs have has a lot of repetition in it, I couldn't think of what to say...

(Oh-oh-oh-oh) 'Cause I'm all about him

(Oh-oh-oh-oh) 'Cause I'm all about him

(Oh-oh-oh-oh)I'm all about him

(Oh-oh-oh-oh) And we don't give a dang, dang, dang

(Oh-oh-oh-oh) It's all about you

(Oh-oh-oh-oh) It's all about you, boy

(Oh-oh-oh-oh) It's all about you

(Oh-oh-oh-oh)

After our last 'oh', James turned to his sound box, he made four beats-like a D.J would on a record- followed by a horn to end it.

I stepped back from the mic and waited for the cheering to stop, which wasn't for a few good minutes. When they did stop, I intro-ed the next song. "Thank you. That song's brand new, you're the first to hear it. The next is as well, I hope you like it."

Yea, I'm still not any good at intros. I nodded to Dylan, and he started it with a neat little solo on his electric guitar.

You had it all

The day you told me

Told me you want me

I had it all

But let you fool me

Fool me completely

Yeah, I was so stupid

To give you all my attention

'Cause the way you played me

Exposed your true intention

And One day I'll have you begging on your knees for me

Yeah, One day I'll have you crawling like a centipede

You mess with me?

And mess with her!

So I'll make sure you get what you deserve

Yeah, One day you'll be begging on your knees for me

You might be wondering about that centipede part...Well I was writing outside at the time-one of the few times I got to during the tour-and I saw the cutest centipede crawling on the branch next to me. Oh, I was in a tree too.

So Oh, mister player do you feel like the man now

and I bet you're nervous 'cause this song makes you freak out

I know I'm being bitter

But I'mma drive you under

You had it all

And one day!

And One day I'll have you begging on your knees for me begging on your knees for me

Yeah, One day I'll have you crawling like a centipede crawling like a centipede

You mess with me?

And mess with her!

So I'll make sure you get what you deserve

Yeah, One day you'll begging on your knees for me.

The song ended the same way it started, with Dylan's electric guitar riff. The lyrics ended after that, and I looked out over the crowd, they were all up and dancing. Well Maija, there's your 'upbeat dance song'.

With no farther comments, I walked off stage. Maija stopped me before I left the backstage area. "Hey, are you ok Twin? You didn't seem as energetic as you normally do." She looked generally concerned for me.

I grinned at her, though it was a bit forced. "I'm fine Twinny, just tired. Been a long day you know?"

She looked at me sceptically, but nodded. "Alright, sleep tight sis."

I smiled. "You too." With that I walked to Grandpa Poseidon's cabin. When I got there, I had just enough time to pull the covers over myself before I fell asleep.


I woke up the next morning when sun rays pounded against my eyelids. I shifted, trying to get out of the blinding light with no anvil. I groaned and reluctantly sat up.

At first, I had no idea where I was. I thought I was still on tour, in some hotel, in some city, in some state, and I had to get up soon to get ready to sing.

Then the events from the previous day rushed back to me. I was at Camp Half-Blood, in my dad's cabin, and today was the day I found out if I became a Hunter of Artemis.


So, whatcha think? Does Camp win for the first time? Or do Alex and Maija become Hunters? ;) Let me hear what you think!

Yours,

Arty