After that, nothing really changed.

Well, the amount of stares and people whispering about her changed a lot.

Almost everywhere she went people would glance at her and turn to their friends. Maddie sometimes heard snippets of their conversations and couldn't tell if she should be proud or embarrassed.

"A daughter of Ares? No way, she's a pipsqueak!"

"I heard she almost killed Michael! Can you believe that? I wish she had."

"I heard that part of her ability is that if you stare into her eyes for too long your brain will melt and you'll die instantly!"

The rumors and gossip didn't make Maddie feel too heroic, or even good about herself. She just wanted to be seen as a normal girl and gain friends. She just wanted to have fun and play with everyone. Yet, after the incident people either regarded her as a superior fighter, practically bowing at her feet or trying to sneak peaks at her when she was training, or they would run away from the mere sight of her. She hated it. There were times when she even started to wonder what it would be like if the capture the flag game hadn't happened...or if Ares wasn't her father.

What made up for it though were her friends. Even though she desperately wanted to become friends with everyone at camp, the friends she did have made it more bearable. After the battle and finding out that Marcus was able to calm her battle mind, Chiron had made it a rule that until she had enough control over it that she wasn't allowed to do any form of combat unless Marcus was with her. That was fine with her, it meant that she would always have someone to help her train. She had been excited about the rule in all honesty. Kelly tried to fix Maddie's hair after the incident but after realizing there was no hope trying to salvage it, they just shaved it all off to let it grow back in naturally. She had offered to buy Maddie a hat but Maddie refused, preferring to enjoy the fact that she was no longer forced to have the long hair she always hated but her mother loved. What Kelly did give her though (that Maddie couldn't say no to) was a special harness for her spear to safely secure it to her back. This way she could have it at a moment's notice and she wouldn't have to hold it all the time and risk going into her battle mind. Maddie had been afraid at first that since she was pretty short that the spear would end up dragging on the ground awkwardly behind her, but Kelly explained that the harness had a special magic placed on it. Whenever the spear was put into the harness it shortened the weapon to have it fit, but immediately turned back to normal as soon as it was taken out again. Even Hunter was warming up more to Maddie, going so far as to teach her how to swim, which she enjoyed immensely.

Then there was Thomas and some of his friends. After agreeing to help her get in contact with Apollo, Maddie had made a point of trying to visit him once a day. He seemed surprised by her determination but had no arguments when it came to teaching her and helping her. A lot of the time though, their "lessons" turned into them goofing off and having fun.

The other major difference was her living arrangements.

It took less than two hours of her leaving the Apollo cabin for her to be hunted down by three of the Ares kids.

"Maddie right? I'm Chameleon, that's what everyone calls me anyways, head of the Ares cabin!" She had barely even waited for Maddie to reach out her hand before she had forcibly grabbed it and started shaking it. She was a lot taller than Maddie, and her clothes were ripped and dirtied showing tons of wear and tear from over the years. Yet, she held herself proudly and her large smile was infectious.

"Nice to have a new Ares kid around. Surprised you're such a bean though. Eh, no matter. We'll fix that up in a heartbeat. How you faring after that killer fight? Man, wish I could've seen it...seeing that jerk pummeled to the ground. I would've sat back and watched with a bag of popcorn and tears in my eyes from laughing so hard. Anyways, we figured we'd come offer our help. Gathering your things and help moving you to the Ares cabin, right? You are moving in with your siblings, right?"

Maddie's eyes had grown wide and she glanced at the other two Ares kids for approval. After saying "yes" with such joy and excitement she had started bouncing up and down, the group flew to the Hermes cabin and immediately started taking down all her things, packing them up, and taking them over to her new cabin. The Ares cabin felt more like home than anywhere else the minute she had stepped into it. Especially since whereas before people seemed weirded out or disgusted by her pictures that she took, most of the Ares kids looked at them in awe and complimented her on her work. They encouraged her to hang them up around her bunk and quickly ran off to give her tape to do exactly that. The whole place made Maddie feel like she belonged once again and it was wonderful. It was the best decision she had made since arriving at camp.

The days rolled by, full of endless training and practicing and laughing. Each day, Maddie felt more and more like she belonged here...and each day she dreaded leaving more and more. It was hard to imagine life as it had been after all that had happened. Going home, trying to tell her mother about her experiences but probably just being brushed off, getting rounded up into her room, and then being forced to stay in there for the rest of the year until summer again. Even if she could argue that she now knows why she acts the way she does, the fact that she wouldn't have the extra safety net of Marcus around would not help. In fact, it would probably convince her mother more than ever to not let her leave the house. That thought made her sick to her stomach. How was she going to survive now that she knew what grass, and dirt, and trees, and the ocean felt like? How would she be able to sit still when all she wanted to do was train and battle? (There was no way her mother would let her have a spear in the house.) How would she survive without being able to talk to her friends or in this case...anyone besides her mom for the next year? She couldn't even ask her friends for their phone numbers to call them because everyone knew demigods couldn't have phones, as it attracted too many monsters. The more and more she thought about it, the more she felt sick to her stomach at the idea of going home to her prison. Before she knew it...there were three days left before she had to go home.

"Maddie? Earth to Maddie!"

Maddie startled as she forced herself to escape from the circling and spiraling thoughts that had plagued her over the past couple of days regarding her home and her mom. She was sitting in the pavilion with her friends eating lunch. Kelly was waving her hand in front of Maddie's face trying to get her attention.

"S-sorry. Spaced out for a moment…" Maddie said, her voice trailing off.

"Yeah, we noticed." Marcus barely looked up from his food. There was a distinct thud from under the table and Marcus tensed with pain, giving a glare towards Alicia who smiled innocently.

"Anyway...we were wondering if you had any plans for today? Marcus and I were going to do a bit of training if you want to join us." Kelly said.

"Oh! Um...yeah...I can join you guys...later though...I should probably start packing up first…" Maddie slumped back into her seat and picked mindlessly at her half eaten food in front of her.

"Pack? What for?" Aaron said, his mouth full of food.

"Huh? W-well, my mom's picking me up in three days...isn't camp closed for the rest of the year? Aren't you guys going home?" Maddie looked around at all of them, her face twisting in confusion.

"What? No. We're year-rounders. Most of us don't even have a home to go back to…" Alicia mumbled the last part under her breath and Maddie opened her mouth to ask what she meant but thought better of it.

"What do you mean by year-rounders?" She asked instead.

"Did we never tell you? You're allowed to stay at camp all year if you want." Kelly said.

"WHAT!?"

Maddie jumped up from the table, almost spilling her lemonade on herself. She stared at her friends with wide eyes and her mouth hanging open. That was an option!?

"Did we never tell you? I guess we're all just so used to it we forgot that not everyone is like that. Sorry about that." Marcus ran a hand through his hair awkwardly, embarrassed by their forgetfulness.

"This changed everything! How do I stay? I want to stay! Please tell me I can stay!" Maddie's words tripped over one another. She looked around frantically as if a magic book would appear and suddenly let her sign her name to a contract granting her permission to become a year-rounder.

Aaron started laughing at her, "you're more than welcome to stay, all campers are! We just need to talk to Chiron and Mr. D about it. We can go right now if you want, I'll come with you." Aaron started standing up from the table, stretching out his back as he got up.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Maddie ran over to him and grabbed his hand, practically yanking him behind her. He let out a startled "woah" as he caught his balance but smiled and happily followed behind her as the two made their way to the Big House.

Maddie was practically jumping up and down as they stood at the door for the main house, waiting for one of their leaders to appear. She had yet to let go of Aaron's hand, holding onto it as if it was her last chance of succeeding in her mission and if she let go it would be the end. After what seemed like eternity the door swung open to reveal the round, plump face of Mr. D. Looking less than pleased to be there.

"If you've come to try and steal a few minutes of air conditioning then tough luck." He grunted, taking a giant swing from his soda can.

"No! Not at all! I wanted to ask if I could stay here all year. I didn't realize that was an option and Aaron told me I could, would it be possible?" Maddie barely let herself breathe as the words spilled out from her mouth.

"You want to stay all year?" Chiron seemed to magically appear from behind Mr. D, who moved to give his wheelchair space as he wheeled himself out onto the porch to better talk with Maddie.

"Yes! Yes, please!"

"But I thought your mom said that she was going to be picking you up at the end of the summer? Wasn't that what was agreed upon?"

Maddie's bouncing stopped and she tried not to let her face fall. The thought of her mother already making plans without consulting her felt like a punch to the gut.

"I...I wasn't aware she said that. But! I really...really like it here. And! We're worried about me slipping into battle mind, right? She was always worried about that. Here I have much better control of it especially with Marcus around! Wouldn't it be better for me to stay?"

"Typically we only let campers who have nowhere else to go stay all year round…" Chiron glanced at Mr. D who was squinting at Maddie like she'd grown a second head. Of course he wouldn't understand. He always believed camp was a dreadful place. Why would anyone want to stay? But Maddie was different. This was where she belonged. This was her home.

"Excuse me, Chiron. I understand your concern but Maddie is right. If she's able to stay here then she can better hone in her skills and train herself from slipping away. It would be beneficial for her. Also, when Ares came he mentioned that she was stronger and more intense then any of the other Ares kids. Don't you think that would attract more monsters in the end? Since she's more powerful, her smell would be more potent. It honestly would be safer to keep her here." Aaron flashed his best superstar smile, and gave a quick wink to Maddie.

"I suppose...if Maddie wishes to stay I honestly can't just kick her out of camp for no reason. However, it would be best to talk it over with your mom since she had other ideas. You can use an Iris message to contact her. Make sure you do so before the end of the week so she doesn't drive all the way here for no reason."

Maddie's eyes lit up and she once again started bouncing. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Aaron had to physically start pulling her away from the house to get her to stop her words of gratitude. She looked up at him and smiled brightly.

"You're the best Aaron!" She said.

"Well, you're not wrong there Maddie. But it's the least I could do for you. Glad I could help out"

"Thank you!" She wrapped him tightly in a hug and he laughed and hugged her back. This was it. She was going to live here. Forever! This was her home now, and no one could stop her.

"WHAT!?"

Maddie flinched and stared back down at her feet, daring not to meet her mother's eyes. Her mother stood a few feet away from her, on the outside of the barrier to Camp HalfBlood. Maddie stood inside the barrier, the barrier that prevented any mortal from stepping inside of camp. They could still see and hear each other, they just weren't able to touch one another.

"L-like I said...I-I decided that I want to stay here for the year." Maddie said, her knuckles turning white as she squeezed her hands.

"And you couldn't have told me that before I drove all the way here? Or bothered to tell me at all?"

Maddie dared to look up at her mother, who was currently holding her head with her hand in annoyance. Even though Maddie had been dreading going home, she couldn't deny that she missed her mother. Her brown hair always pulled back into a messy ponytail, her abundance of tattoos covering her body that had once led to Maddie drawing on her own skin so she could be "just like mama!", her clothes that always, without fail, had traces of dirt on them. If they were close enough Maddie would be certain that her mother would still smell of soil and various flowers. She longed to reach out and hug her, but knew that if she did she wouldn't stand a chance of returning.

"I-I'm sorry. I was going to...and then I got caught up with my studies, and training, and swimming, and-"

"I'm sorry, training?" Maddie's mother stared at her with such intensity that Maddie shrunk back into herself.

"Y-yes…"

"Maddison you know as well as I do that is too fucking dangerous for you and the people you are around. I specifically instructed for you not to be able to hold any weapons while you were there! It was part of the deal! Those bastards went back on their promise…" Her mother took two steps, already rolling up her sleeves to start a fight and was immediately stopped by the barrier.

"I wanted to train! Plus we found out a way to help! Which is why it's better that I stay here! So I can better learn how to control my battle mind and be able to be normal like everyone else! I won't lose control!"

"Battle mind?"

"Oh...right...we never referred to it like that back home...uh...that's what dad told me it was. A battle mind."

Maddie's mom froze and her mouth hung open. Maddie bit her lip, unsure if she should continue or not.

"I...I got to meet dad. Ares...I mean. He was happy to see me" Maddie said, desperately waiting for a response.

"I...see. Well, you'd figure it out one day I guess," her mother ran a hand through her hair, causing more strands to fall out of her ponytail. "Just because you have a name for it now doesn't mean that it's alright for you to be messing around with anything dangerous! You could kill someone!"

"I...I know...but…"

"Maddison get out here right now. We're done discussing this. We're going home."

Maddie froze. She knew that tone. It was the tone that showed there was no more joking, no more caring, no more love. If they were at the flower store, most of the vases would not survive the interaction. Maddie could feel the tears stinging her vision. 'Alright.' She thought. Her years of obedience kicking in. She took a small step forward before stopping herself.

No.

If she went back there was no promise that she would be returning. Especially after today and this interaction. She may never see the camp again. She may never get the chance to learn about the gods and train as much as she did now. She may never know the coolness of the ocean again. She may never see her friends again. Was it worth it to disobey her mother and fear her wrath every day from now until they met again? In all honesty, her mother could be scarier than most of the monsters she had started to learn about. But…

"I...I'm sorry."

Maddie's voice was barely above a whisper as she turned around and walked away.

"Maddison? MADDIE!"

Her mother's screaming voice disappeared the further she walked away.

She never looked back.