Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson

Chapter 6: The Year of the Archers


One year later…

Christina walked through the camp, heading towards the Big House, fiddling with the bracelet around her wrist, as she sent a quick, longing glance towards the Hermes cabin. Ever since Luke had come back from his failed quest last year, he had become increasingly more distant towards Grover, Annabeth, and her.

The Stolls and Chris, who was still unclaimed, told her it was the same in cabin eleven. Luke kept up with his counselor duties as seriously as before, but he wasn't the joking big brother figure who loved to tease her and Annabeth, and acted like he was annoyed with the Stolls' antics, but secretly loved it.

The three of them had taken to performing increasingly larger pranks to try and get Luke back to his old self, including dying his hair a plethora of colors, placing creepy masks that they got from who knows where, and stealing his flying shoes and taking them on a joy ride, but nothing seemed to help. Even Katie and Miranda, who had long been roped into the Stolls' pranks, didn't seem to mind the extra shenanigans, if it meant cheering up their friend.

"Has this ever happened before?" Will, who met her outside the Apollo cabin, asked.

Christina shook her head, falling into step with her friend. "Not really. Athena kids usually come to camp knowing their godly parent, and Thalia and Luke knew, but they were different, since they were on their own for so long. Luke had run into Hermes, and it was obvious that Thalia was a daughter of Zeus. I've never heard of two sons of Apollo showing up already claimed."

"I wonder what they'll be like." Will mused. "But it will be good to have an official counselor again. Cabin seven has suffered too much in the past year."

In addition to the loss of Liam O'Neil on Luke's quest, their previous counselor, Samantha Anderson, who was only a summer camper, not a year rounder, had been killed by monsters over the winter. Will, even though he was only nine, was the oldest Apollo kid so far, and had taken on the role of temporary counselor. Even though the two campers were new, they were twelve and fourteen respectively, and Will had decided to give up his role as temporary counselor to train more with Chiron in the infirmary.

Christina nodded. "Your cabin deserves this; you've lost too many people this past year."

As the two demigods walked up the hill towards the Big House, Silena ran towards them, skidding to a stop in front of Will and Christina, who had slowed down to wait for her.

"Chiron said the two newest demigods are named Michael Yew and Lee Fletcher, right?" She asked when she finally caught her breath.

Christina nodded. "Why are you asking?"

"You know my younger brother, Mitchell Fletcher, right?" She asked, as both Will and Christina nodded. "He had an older brother named Lee that he had to leave behind when he came here. His satyr, Sam Greenwood, probably didn't realize it because Mitchell was at a different school then Lee, since Lee was in middle school, and Mitchell was in elementary school. But Mitchell thinks that Lee might be his brother that he had to leave behind." She explained. "I wouldn't be a good counselor or sister if I didn't check on this."

Silena, like Will, had inherited the position of counselor when her own brother, the previous cabin ten counselor named Andrew Goldsmith, had been killed by monsters in the spring. Unlike Will, however, Silena had decided to keep her position as counselor, since she was twelve.

"You can come with us." Christina told her. "That would be wild if Lee and Mitchell are brothers, since they have completely different godly parents."

Will frowned. "How would that work? They obviously can't be biologically related."

"Mitchell explained that to me, since that was the first question I asked him." Silena told them. "When Mitchell's dad and his stepmom got married, she brought Lee with her. Mitchell was four and Lee was eight. But Mitchell barely remembers them not being around, so he's always considered Lee his brother."

Christina shrugged. "We're Greek demigods, I've heard weirder. Now come on, I suppose we have some new half-bloods to meet."

She pulled the door of the Big House open, holding it for Silena and Will. Once all three of them were inside, they ventured down the hallway towards Chiron's office, where he usually explained the demigod world to new campers, although from what Christina had been told, the two already knew.

"Why am I always the one doing these tours?" Christina asked, sighing, as they walked.

Will shrugged. "Well, you have been here longer than anyone except Chiron and Mr. D, and some of the satyrs. You grew up here, you know this place better than any demigod."

"And you don't have any other siblings to take care of, so you're the cabin counselor with the most extra time on your hands." Silena pointed out.

The three of them reached the door to Chiron's office, pushing it upon. Chiron, who had been sitting at his desk, with the two newest half-bloods facing him, their backs to the group of three, looked up when they entered.

"Ah, Will, Christina, there you are. And Silena? What brings you here?" Chiron asked, addressing the Aphrodite counselor.

Silena glanced towards the two newest campers, who had turned around when Chiron started speaking, seemingly trying to discern who was Lee. "One of my siblings, Mitchell, believes that Lee might be his adopted brother. I came to see if that was true."

The boy on the left looked up in shock. He had light, blond hair, although not as bright as Will's, with the sides shaved and dyed brown, and bright blue eyes. He wore the Camp Half-Blood shirt slightly tucked into a pair of jeans. Although he was sitting down, he seemed quite taller than the other boy, and looked about fourteen, while the other boy looked twelve.

"Mitchell's here?" He questioned. "Where is he?"

Silena smiled slightly. "Mitchell Fletcher? Curly brown hair, bright green eyes, conventionally attractive for his age, ten years old? Likes to involve himself in other people's relationships, even when it doesn't concern him?"

"That's my baby brother!" Lee said, grinning. "I thought I would never see him again, after he ran away when he was eight, but he's here. Who's child is he?"

"Aphrodite." Silena explained. "I can take you to see him once you get settled into your cabin. He'll be happy to see you, he never shuts up about you."

The other boy, who must be Michael Yew, decided to speak up then. He was extremely short, and looked not even five foot, even though he was still sitting down. He had black hair and brown eyes, with a pointy nose and scrunched-up features.

"Which one of you is the Apollo counselor?" He asked, glancing between Will and Christina.

Will raised his hand. "That would be me. I'm Will Solace. Did Chiron talk to you about one of you taking over counselor duties?"

"I will." Lee told him, turning away from his conversation with Silena about Mitchell. "Should we start our tour of camp?"

Christina nodded. "Come on, Silena, Will, and I can show you around."

The daughter of Poseidon turned around, waving goodbye to Chiron who had remained silent throughout the entire conversation, still sitting down in his wheelchair, and led her two friends and the two new demigods out of the office and onto the porch of the Big House.

"As I'm sure Chiron told you, that's the Big House." She explained. "The infirmary is also in there as well, which I'm sure you'll be in a lot, since you are Apollo kids."

The group descended the porch steps, and Silena, Will, and Christina led them across camp, past the strawberry fields, where the Demeter kids, along with Castor and Pollux and a few satyrs and nymphs cared for the plants, the climbing wall, which the Ares cabin was currently trying to scale, Canoe Lake, with a few naiads waving at Christina, and the sparring arena, where Luke was currently teaching a lesson to the Hermes cabin, before finally arriving outside the cabins.

"That's cabin seven," Will explained, pointing to the golden building that glowed brightly in the middle of the day. "The Apollo cabin where you will be staying."

"There are twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians." Christina continued. "Odds are for the gods, evens for the goddesses, except for cabin twelve, Dionysus' cabin, since Hestia gave up her cabin for him since she's a virgin goddess and has no children. Cabins one, two, and eight are all empty. Cabin two is Hera's cabin, and since she is the goddess of marriage, she has no demigod children, so it's honorary. Cabin eight, Artemis' cabin, is also honorary, since she has no children being a virgin goddess, but the Hunters of Artemis stay there when they visit camp. Cabin one is Zeus' cabin…"

Lee cleared his throat, interrupting her. "But I thought Zeus has a million children in the myths, that's the whole problem. Why would he have no demigod children?"

"Near the end of World War II, the Big Three, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades made an oath." Christina explained, Will and Silena having decided to let her explain this, since it tied to her directly. "That war was a fight between Poseidon and Zeus' children on one side, and Hades' children on the other. They swore on the River Styx to never have any more demigod children, since their children were too powerful. That's why Zeus' cabin is empty."

Michael looked at her, confused. "But you're here, and you're a child of Poseidon."

"Yeah, the three of them, especially Poseidon and Zeus, were never good at staying away from mortals." Christina said, sighing. "Obviously, my dad broke the oath, since I'm here, but Zeus did too. Sixteen years ago, he met an actress, Beryl Grace."

Lee looked up. "I remember her. She was pretty, but something happened, and she became an alcoholic. She was killed while drunk driving a few years ago."

"Zeus happened." Christina muttered bitterly. "They had a girl, Thalia. But the Styx keeps its promises, and came after her. She managed to make it to Half-Blood Hill with the two half-bloods she had befriended, the satyr assigned to get them there, and a horde of monsters on their tail. Hades had sent his worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment them, although no one knows exactly why. She made her last stand on the hill, and when she died, Zeus turned her into the pine tree to protect the camp. As for me, I have no idea when the Styx will come calling, but I only hope I'll fare better than Thalia."

The five demigods were completely silent for what seemed like too long, all of them contemplating the ramifications of what Christina had just said, and what it meant for her.

"Well, let's head into cabin seven." Will said, finally breaking the silence. "You two can get settled, and then Silena can take Lee to see Mitchell and I can introduce Michael to our siblings."

Nodding in agreement, the group heading into the Apollo cabin, Silena and Christina hanging back at the door, since it wasn't their cabin.

"Come on!" Lee said excitedly once he and Michael finished setting down their few things. "I want to go see my brother."

Will nodded. "We'll head over there and later I can take you and Michael to the camp store, since neither of you have very much with you."

"My siblings are by Canoe Lake." Silena explained as they walked. "None of them are very concerned with fighting, and like to stare at their reflections in the water and flirt with the naiads, more than anything else." She told them, shaking her head. "I try, but nothing I say can really convince them to take fighting seriously. They figure that since children of Aphrodite don't have a very strong demigod smell, they can get by without training."

Michael winced. "I take it that hasn't worked out well for them in the past?"

"Since my predecessor was killed in the spring, no." She said, frowning. "I thought that would finally convince them, but it didn't. Mitchell, at least, took me seriously, but none of the others did."

As they approached Canoe Lake, Mitchell, who was standing slightly away from the Aphrodite campers, who were mainly focused on their reflections in the water and in the case of most of the boys, and a few of the girls, flirting with the naiads, looked up when the group approached.

"Hey Silena!" He called, waving. "I was wondering when you were going to…" But he cut off when his gaze landed on Lee, standing between Michael and Will. "Lee? Is that really you?"

Lee nodded, tears threatening to spring from his eyes. "Hey Mitchell."

The two brothers broke out into a run, meeting each other halfway and pulling the other into a tight hug.

"I missed you little brother." Lee cried into Mitchell's shoulder, realizing in shock that the other boy was nearly his height now. "You've gotten so tall."

Mitchell pulled back, staring at Lee in shock. "What are you doing here? I thought I would never see you again."

"Lee's an Apollo kid." Will explained, stepping forward. "He arrived this afternoon with Michael and is going to take over counselor duties from me."

Mitchell grinned. "I suspected when Silena told me who the new campers were, but I didn't want to get my hopes up. I'm so glad it's actually you."

"Why don't you go and spend the rest of the afternoon with Lee?" Silena suggested. "I think seeing your brother for the first time in two years is a good excuse to miss afternoon activities."

As Mitchell and Lee walked across camp, and Silena turned her attention to her siblings, yelling at them to get moving and go to sparring practice, Christina turned back to Will and Michael.

"I'm going to go on a swim, since we're already at the lake and I don't have anything else to do this afternoon. I suppose that is a plus of having no siblings, I can basically choose whatever I want to do. I'll see you later."

The two boys waved goodbye to her as she dived off the dock, disappearing into the waters below.


Six hours later…

"I thought I'd find you here." A voice said, startling Christina out of her thoughts as she gazed at the stars above Canoe Lake.

Will settled down on the dock next to her, joined by Clarisse and Chris, and a few minutes later, the Stolls, Katie, Miranda, Silena, and Beckendorf joined them as well. It had been a tradition that Christina had accidentally started the year that Silena, Beckendorf, Clarisse, Katie, Miranda, and the Stolls all arrived at Camp Half-Blood, as a way for them to break the rules and have fun, and when Chris and Will had come the next year, they had joined their midnight chats by the lake. The ten demigods never worried about being caught by the harpies, after having grown up at camp, Christina knew their schedule by heart, and now it was just a fun time for the friends to talk and catch up.

"How was Lee and Mitchell's catch up?" Christina finally asked the Aphrodite counselor, breaking the silence.

Silena shrugged. "Mitchell didn't come back to the cabin until right before curfew. I almost had to send a few of my siblings out to look for him."

"It was the same with Lee." Will confirmed.

Christina nodded. "Well, at least they were catching up."

"What's the history between Mitchell and the newest Apollo camper?" Katie asked, not having been caught up on the gossip of the day.

Christina turned to the Demeter girl. "Mitchell's dad married Lee's mom. They're stepsiblings, but they hadn't seen each other in two years, not since Mitchell came to camp."

"Well, it is nice to not have counselor duties anymore." Will commented, leaning back against the dock. "I'm only nine, I'm not ready for the responsibility."

Christina jokingly splashed water at him, as the group all laughed. "I've been a counselor since I could walk, you don't get to complain."

"But you don't have any siblings to watch over, it's just a title for you." Will pointed out, as Christina splashed more water at him, sending the group into more hysterics.

Clarisse glanced up towards the sky. "I hate to break up the party, but our laughter is drawing the harpies over here. We should probably move if we don't want to get eaten."

Scrambling up off the dock, the ten demigods took off in opposite directions, their laughter echoing out across the silent camp, even as the harpies fluttered over to the now empty dock.


One month and a half later…

Christina walked across camp, laughing with Annabeth so hard that she almost crashed right into Will, who was showing two new demigods around, before Annabeth pulled her back just in time.

"Thanks for the save Annabeth." Will commented, looking amused. "We don't want the two newest campers to think we're all distracted, just because Christina almost ran into me."

Christina rolled her eyes at her friend. "How did you get the job that Chiron almost always gives to me Will?" She asked him, before allowing herself to glance at the two newest half-bloods, sizing them up.

Both were rather young, appearing to be about seven years old. The girl had short ginger hair, which she had dyed the tips of green, bluebell blue eyes, and freckles covering her skin. The boy was African American, slightly taller than her, and had dark hair in cornrows shaped like a double helix, and brown eyes.

"I was one of the few people around that wasn't busy, since I had just finished training with Chiron in the infirmary when they showed up." Will explained. "Christina, this is Kayla Knowles and Austin Lake, our two newest campers. Austin, Kayla, this is Christina Keeper, the counselor of cabin three, and one of the campers who has probably been here the longest, and Annabeth Chase, the counselor of cabin six."

Christina jokingly shook her finger at him. "I have been here the longest, Solace. Get your facts straight." She turned back to the two young demigods, who had been watching their conversation with awe and poorly concealed humor. "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, I'm sure you'll love it here. Now if you excuse me, I have to go beat this one in a sparring match." She said, jutting her finger at Annabeth.

"You wish." Annabeth joked, elbowing her.

The two girls took off in a sprint, heading towards the arena, and Will watched them go, shaking his head.

"Come on." He said, turning to Kayla and Austin. "Let's finish this tour."


Four hours later…

Will ran towards the dock, where he knew he would find Christina, grinning when he spotted her laying back, her feet dangling in the water.

"Christina!" He called. "You'll never guess what happened today." But he stopped short when he noticed her hair. "What happened to your hair?" Will demanded, staring at her flabbergasted.

Christina's long, wavy black hair, which Will had never seen when it wasn't either cascading down her back, or tied into two Dutch braids, in the entire two years that he had known her, lay fanned out across the dock. But that wasn't what was shocking. What was shocking was that the tips were dyed a bright purple, in a way that Will knew they weren't when he had seen her a few hours prior.

"The Stolls happened." Christina grumbled. "Do you know how their favorite prank is to dye someone's hair crazy colors using that special, long lasting, hair dye that the Aphrodite cabin has?" Will nodded. "Well, they finally decided to pull that prank on me. They did something to the shower in my cabin, and when I came out, my entire head was dyed like this. I managed to get most of it out with Silena's help, but the tips are still purple."

Will sat down next to her, dangling his legs over the pier, but not enough to get his feet wet, even though he was wearing flip flops. "For what it's worth, I think it suits you."

"Really?" Christina asked, sitting up to look at him.

Will nodded. "I think you should keep it. And it will be a way to get back at the Stolls since everyone always tries to get the dye out of their hair. Imagine their faces when you walk into the dining pavilion tonight, not even mad at them, and simply owning your new style."

"I like the way you think, Solace." Christina said, grinning. "I think I just found my new fashion statement. Now, what did you have to tell me orginally?"

Will's eyes lit up. "Oh! Do you remember those new campers I was showing around today before you and Annabeth showed up?" Christina nodded. "So, while we were on our tour, I decided to let them try out a few things, since I was excused for the entire afternoon because of my infirmary training, and had time to kill. When we reached the archery range, Kayla grabbed a bow off the rack and shot a perfect bullseye, and Apollo claimed her right then and there."

"I'm impressed she was even able to lift the bow, she's so small." Christina commented, her eyebrows raised. "Apparently this is the summer of the Apollo kids."

Will snickered. "I'm not finished. And then when we reached the music pavilion, Austin went directly to the wall of instruments, picked up a saxophone, and played one of the most beautiful melodies I have ever heard, and I live in a cabin full of talented musicians. And then Apollo claimed him too."

"What are the odds that both of the new campers you were showing around happen to be your siblings?" Christina asked, shaking her head. "Now come on, let's go to dinner. I can't wait to see the Stolls' faces when I walk into the pavilion tonight."

Safe to say, when Christina walked into the dining pavilion that night, her hair once again tied into two braids with the purple standing out against her orange shirt, and thanked the Stolls for their dye job, with Will barely hiding his snickers at the Apollo table, it took a while for the two Hermes boys to pick their jaws up off the floor, as Chris simply shook his head at them.


So, I didn't realize I had planned for all the notable Apollo kids except for Will to show up in the same year, until I looked at my notes. So, enjoy a lot of cabin seven. Can you tell I love them?

Mitchell and Lee being sort of adopted siblings is not canon, just my own headcanon, little fun backstory with them. Mitchell doesn't even have a last name in canon, so here I am, giving this random side character a backstory.

Sam Greenwood, who I offhandedly mention is the satyr that brought Mitchell to camp, is also a canon character, sort of. He's from some e-book stories that Rick released. I've never read them, so I know next to nothing about him, except that he exists. I legitimately just searched for the list of named satyrs on the wiki and picked one, since I have no idea what normal satyr names are, since there are so little named in canon, who basically just consist of the Council of Cloven Elders, Grover, Coach Hedge, and Grover's uncle.

I definitely forgot that Michael is canonically 4'6", until I wrote this. I'm 5'2" and consider myself very short, and I'm nearly a foot taller than him.

In reviewing my notes, I did realize I made a character a year older than in canon. Not going to say who yet, cause they haven't been introduced, but they're one of my favorite characters. Although I did realize this while panicking that I made one of my other favorite characters a year older, who has been introduced. Do not worry, they will be introduced in this fic, so it isn't something that is going to be ignored for forever.

I realized while writing this that it is mentioned in TLT that Thalia being turned into a tree is the River Styx's punishment for Zeus breaking the oath and it got me thinking, what is Percy and Jason's punishment. Jason's might be what happens in the Burning Maze, but we don't know for sure. But what is Percy's? Is it him falling into Tartarus? Is it something that happens during PJO? Has it happened yet, or will it happen in the future? Who knows?

You have no idea how hard it was writing a chapter that included two characters heavily who were named Mitchell and Michael for half of it. I kept switching their names half of the time and would have to go back and fix it.

As for Will saying that Christina had no special responsibilities because she had no siblings, even though the cabin counselors were always involved in war meetings, there is no war yet, so the counselors' jobs consist of watching over their siblings, making sure they get to activities on time, solving disputes, etcetera. Christina has no siblings and only has to get herself to activities, hence the lack of responsibilities. The counselors still get extra information from Chiron right now, but with no war, there isn't that much extra secret information, and she would have gotten that anyway, since Chiron believes she's the child of the prophecy, even though she doesn't know the prophecy exists yet, and only thinks his reason for telling her extra things is because she's a child of the Big Three.

So, no offense to Kayla, but I work as a counselor at a summer camp where one of my jobs is teaching seven year old's how to shoot a bow, and most of them have trouble even picking up our smallest bows, much less shooting them. So, the fact that she was able to do both and get a bullseye, with no training, is impressive and a testament to the fact that she's an Apollo kid.

I definitely wasn't planning for Will and Christina to become best friends when I first started this fic, but they are, and I think it's so fitting, so their friendship is going to continue, and I'm now planning on making it a big part of the future.

If anyone was wondering, I write these notes as I write the chapter and things come up, so that's why they're so long, especially with a chapter as long as this.

If you want more of my ramblings, check out the notes I posted about this series. Which does not have a lot of ramblings yet, I realize now, since most of my ramblings in my notes have massive plot spoilers. And I'm not going to spoil what I have planned for HOO just yet.

Please review. I love reviews.