Chapter Three: I Speak To My Soda
I walked into the cabin, no idea what to expect. It was filled with kids of all ages. Things were hanging on the walls, stuffed underneath the bunk beds, sleeping bags on the floor. The room was packed full. Most of the kids had the same sneaky smile and sharp noses, somewhat elvish ears.
"Undetermined or child of Hermes?" Two of them said in unison. They looked strikingly similar, and I wondered if they were twins. Their sneaky smile made them look like they could be plotting a practical joke as you were talking to them. They also were less than an inch different in height, taller than me by close to half of a foot. But then almost everyone I'd met was taller than me, you didn't have to be that tall to pass me up. Each had messy chestnut hair and tanned skin.
Almost everyone in the cabin had a variation of the Camp Half-Blood shirt, and athletic shorts on. The brothers each wore the classic orange one, in tank top form, paired with athletic shorts and sandals.
I hadn't noticed it earlier, but all the campers had a beaded necklace strung around their neck. Some had several beads, others had one or two, but they all had it.
I was so busy taking in the whole scene, that I had forgotten to answer. "Ummm…"
"Tell the Stolls that you're undetermined!" Chiron had instructed me.
"Chiron said to tell you that I'm undetermined, whatever that means." Upon hearing that the cabin filled with groans, muttered complaints, and rolled eyes. "If you're the Stolls at least."
"Yeah I'm Travis and that's Connor, we're the Stoll brothers. Undetermined means—"
"Undetermined means you're stuck with us because you've got nowhere else to go." Interjected the one named Connor.
"SHUT UP!" Travis blurted, glaring at Connor. "He meant that undetermined means you don't know who your parent is. And since you don't know, you get to stay with us in the Hermes cabin."
"Being the god of hospitality" Added Connor.
"Parent, singular? I only have one? This might be a stupid question but I remember you're supposed to have two." I felt like an idiot and prayed that it didn't show as much as I thought it did.
"You do, but what he means is your godly parent. The greek god that brought you into this world and didn't even bother to pay attention long enough to claim you." One of the older guys piped up. "Most likely because he or she was too busy fooling around with another mortal. No warning that your life is gonna be screwed up. That you'll get kicked out of school after school, maybe have some learning disabilities, throw in some monsters chasing you, and-"
"That's enough Lucas," Travis stopped him. "we're supposed to welcome her to stay as long as she needs, regardless of how long that is." Then he turned to me "I'm sure you'll get claimed soon, don't worry about it."
"Claimed?" I saw some kids wince in what seemed to be second-hand embarrassment.
A young girl came up to me and nodded at the Stolls. "I'll take it from here, I know what she's going through better than you do."
As we walked outside she smiled at me, sending a wave of reassurance through my body. She didn't resemble the others in the cabin, meaning she must not have been one of them. She was like me: Undetermined.
Her dark hair looked almost black in the dark of the cabin, but now it shone in the sunlight, turning a deep auburn. It glinted from red to brown, contrasting with her outfit consisting of a white tank top and jean shorts. She also had a perfect tan, like nearly every person here.
She sat down on the front porch railing of the cabin and gestured at me to do the same. I obliged and enjoyed the view of each of the cabins. Ours sat at the very tip of the U, and we faced elaborately decorated houses.
Now that I could take them all in, I noticed how individual and different each cabin was.
6 and 8 were the most normal-looking ones, like ones I would stay in with my family in Brown County or something. Cabin 12 had a similar vibe to 4, with vines and grapes appearing to be its theme. Number 9 had smoke curling from a chimney and seemed to be made up of many different materials, like some sort of sketchy warehouse-factory. Across from it, 10 was starkly different; from its perfectly put-together appearance to its shining pink vibes.
They all had noises coming from inside, and boys and girls filed in and out of the cabins as we spoke. But cabins 1, 2, and 3 seemed empty, and no one walked near them.
The girl pulled me out of my observations.
"I'm Dessa by the way." She stuck out her hand for me to shake.
I took it and gave it a quick shake before turning back to the view. I wasn't sure how to respond seeing as I didn't know what my name was.
Dessa noticed my hesitation but didn't question it and continued. "It's short for Iridessa, my dad named me that, he's my mortal parent. I don't know who my godly mother is. The thing is, all those Greek gods you hear about; Zeus, Hera, Poseidon." Thunder rumbled in the distance.
"Oh, right, you should be careful with names, they're only lenient with me because I'm new. SORRY!" She yelled to the sky.
"Anyway, those gods are real, immortal beings that live in the empire state building right now. Look, I get that you're confused, we all are when we first come here. I came over spring break a few months ago, after being expelled from my fourth school in six years.
"I'll be 11th grade this year, as with most of the others and probably you too, I was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia. ADHD is because your body's trained for battle, those reflexes will come in handy during a fight; keep you alive. Dyslexia is because your brain is hardwired to read ancient Greek.
"Other than that, you already know you're here because one of your parents is a Greek god. That makes you half-god, what we call a half-blood, or a demigod.
"Since you don't know who that is, you're with Hermes, the god of travelers, along with many other things. Watch out for his kids, he's also the god of thieves, so keep your valuables close. The rest of the kids in there are like you and me, undetermined."
Here she finally took a breath "Whew, I think I hit everything." As she searched my face for some sort of sign of comprehension, I saw where she got her name, her eyes were beautiful, speckled with green and gray and even gold. "Got all that?" She spoke after a moment.
"Yeah," I blinked a few times "some of it's ringing a bell, like I've heard some of it before."
"Huh, you're more accepting of it than I was when I first had it all explained."
I smiled, grateful she didn't expect me to know all the answers already or roll their eyes when I asked questions. "Thanks, I guess. What else is there?"
"Well, you got the tour already?"
"Yeah Chiron showed me around, I'll explore later."
She nodded. "Good, then let's see… We have naiads and dryads and a centaur and satyrs" She ticked these off of her fingers as she said them. "Oh and an actual god, Diony—he goes by Mr. D." Here she lowered her voice to a whisper and leaned towards me. "But he's a real douchebag, hates all the campers, doesn't do much other than complain, eat, and play pinochle."
After that she leaned back, and glanced around, raising her voice back to a normal volume. "And that's pretty much it, if you have any more questions let me know. I'm happy to answer all I can, anything I can't, I'll bet Annabeth can, she knows more than anybody."
The ADHD thing was no lie, this girl can't stay on topic for more than two seconds can she?
As if she could read my thoughts she jumped up. "Let's go back inside. I'll shift my stuff over on the floor so you can be next to me, and we can sit together at dinner, it's getting close to time anyway."
Soon after setting up next to Des in the cabin, a horn went off throughout the camp followed by someone yelling "Cabin Eleven, fall in!".
Dessa told me this signaled dinner time and had me stand at the back of the line behind her.
"We arrange in order of—what's the word?—oh right—seniority, and so you'd be at the back." She'd explained as we filed into the mess hall. Kids from the other cabins filed in as well, though I noticed no one came from cabins one, two, three, or eight.
There were about eighty campers, two dozen satyrs, and an assortment of naiads and dryads. The last two seemed to emerge from bushes, trees, and the canoe lake.
Each cabin also had a table, at ours I squeezed in next to Iridessa. It was a tight fit for us all. Where most other cabins only had at most a dozen inhabitants, ours had around twenty.
Dessa turned towards me and pointed. "That's Mr. D, the grumpy-looking one in the Hawaiian shirt."
I glanced over at the table she'd pointed out, table 12. There sat several satyrs, a few blond boys, and Chiron stood off to the side. In-between Chiron and the boys sat a serious older man. He had dark hair that glinted purple in the setting sunlight and he glared at each of the tables in turn. His choice of style was questionable. He had an obnoxious Hawaiian shirt on, and though I couldn't see his pants, I did see some weird-looking sandals.
His glare was turning toward table 11, so Des and I focused our attention back on the others at our table. I stifled a laugh and avoided eye contact with Dessa to keep a straight face.
Chiron stomped his hoof against the floor twice to get everyone's attention. "To the gods!" He exclaimed as he raised his glass.
Everyone else followed suit and repeated, "To the gods!"
Nymphs came forward with plates of fruit, fresh bread, and chicken. They set them on the table and everyone helped themselves to the food. My mouth watered at the smell of the warm bread and meat. After filling my plate with some of each, and the plumpest fruit I'd ever seen, but Des nudged me before I could take a bite.
"We each burn an offering of the best of our meal, the gods like the smell or something."
No one likes the smell of regular fire. Let alone a bunch of random foods burning in it. But I got up and dropped in three of the ripest strawberries. It smelled wonderful, which I didn't expect at all. Like standing in a candle shop during the fall, and all the scents meld together into a perfect smell of sugar and spice and, well, everything nice.
I looked up to the heavens If any of you are up there—if any of you are listening. Could you help, a little? Nothing huge, maybe my memory or something? I sighed and returned to my seat.
I reached for my glass, but it was empty. I looked around and saw the kid who had ranted to me earlier, Lucas reaching for his empty glass. Absentmindedly, he spoke into it, and a clear carbonated liquid filled his glass.
I swallowed hard and tried it for myself. "Ginger ale." The glass filled with a cloudy carbonated liquid, I sipped it and recoiled. It didn't taste right.
"Try asking for Canada Dry." A voice suggested.
It was the girl I saw the first time I woke up, passing by on her way from the burnt offering. Her hair was in a ponytail, one strand hanging loosely by her left ear, and she wore the same orange T-shirt and shorts. She was much more athletic looking than the others, though she couldn't have been more than 11 years old.
I did as she suggested and tried the drink again. It was perfect. "Thank you!"
"No problem!" She smiled. "It tastes different than any other kind of Ginger ale, no one else believes me. I'm glad you like it better too! See ya around." Se called as she walked back to her table.
"That's Annabeth," Des said. "she knows this place better than almost anyone else. Only 11 years old, but she's been here for close to 5 years."
I was about to ask more, but she got involved in the conversation at the table, so I decided to drop it for then. I listened to the stories and arguments and even started to interject a few things here and here. The Stolls entertained us with a story of how they pranked Clarisse from the Ares cabin earlier that day. She even heard part of it and started yelling at them from table 5.
After we finished eating, Chiron once again stomped on the marble floor for attention. "A reminder for cabin counselors, we have a council of the cabin leaders tonight at 9:00, Mr. D?"
Mr. D stood up, rolling his eyes as he did so. "Hello everyone, I only have to announce one thing today. Yay." He pointed an accusing finger at me. "We have a new camper, undetermined, and she doesn't even know her name. Sucks to be her, doesn't it? These kids are getting dumber every year. That's all. You can all go sing kumbaya or whatever." He sat back down.
Everyone's eyes had turned to me, I shifted uncomfortably under their gaze. Whispers had broken out among the campers.
People were standing up and moving toward the exit, murmuring in confusion.
Why can't I even remember my name, why am I here? Can't I have a little help here? My embarrassment and bitterness mounted up in my chest as I followed the rest of the campers.
I sat down in the amphitheater, hoping everyone had forgotten the weirdo with amnesia. But the awkwardness hung in the air like a thick smoke above us.
Shut up and sing! I screamed in my head. Stop looking at me, I know I'm weird but can we move on from that? My hands started to ball up into fists and I clenched my jaw. I tried to focus on staying calm and not letting their stares get to me. But the anger at whoever did this to me was rising, and I squeezed my eyes shut.
Unexpectedly, the anger rushed out of me and I felt a flush of heat on my face. My eyes flew open. The campfire we sat around had risen into a large deep red flame that looked ready to engulf us.
I shivered despite the heat. Make it stop, make it stop! The flames withdrew to normal size and everyone took a collective deep breath of relief. The warmth returned to my body.
There was a light shining behind me making everyone's eyes turn once again towards me. I glanced behind me and saw nothing there. The whispering had started up again, and I realized the light was directly above me.
Glancing up, I saw a silvery light above my head, it was a sliver of a moon with a bow and arrow hanging next to it. On top of that was written in fancy cursive, was the name Caly.
My name Caly.
"What? What's so weird?" I asked.
No one answered.
"What?!" I demanded.
"Connor, go get Chiron," Travis finally answered. "You've been claimed. By Artemis."