Heads up: This chapter also contain swears. Probably every chapter from this point forward contains swears.

"Sean, what the fuck?" Brenna hissed. "You're supposed to be tracking!" Inwardly, she breathed a sigh of relief. The kid was majorly annoying, but he wasn't a snitch. He was probably mad at her for the thing with Kieran, though. She'd have to get rid of him fast, before he came up with some kind of plan that publicly humiliated her even more.

"I am. I'm tracking you," her half-brother said, a stupid smirk plastered across his face. "I was looking for a trail around the cabin, and then I saw you leave and figured whatever you were up to would be more interesting than scuff marks."

"Well, can't say you're wrong," Arianna chimed in. They were still heading towards the armory. With any luck the rest of the cabin wouldn't show up.

There was no way Sean was just there because he got bored. He had to be up to something. "What do you want?" Brenna sighed, walking behind him. He never had learned not to wear hoodies around her. "Your pillow? Your natural hair color? Blackmail?"

"Actually, I think I like the pink. Better than brown, anyways. I just wanted to know if you were off infirmary duty yet," he replied. While he was talking, she slipped something inside his hood, then moved so she'd be facing him again. "I guess you are. But now that you mention it, where the hell is my pillow?"

"You'll never know," Brenna responded, turning to look at the woods and making sure Sean got a ponytail to the face as she did so. Better than brown, her ass. They weren't being followed by anyone else that she could see. "Now buzz off. I'm giving a tour."

Sean plucked a loose hair from his mouth. "Oh, so you're not coming to arts and crafts with us? Chris is gonna be pissed."

"I'm still technically in charge. He can deal with it." Even if she didn't want head counselorship, Brenna was not above abusing it. "You might wanna get back before someone notices you're missing."

"Six words: Julie and Alice in the woods. No way anyone knows I'm gone."

"They could."

His eyes widened. "You wouldn't."

"Try me."

"Yeah, well – um – I'll just tell Kier-bear why you're avoiding him!"

Brenna winced. That was probably the cutesiest nickname she'd ever heard, and she was a regular witness to Diego and Jess flirting. Worse still, she'd said it. Out loud. "Like he doesn't already know," she countered. "Fucking love arrows…"

"Okay, that's enough," Arianna interrupted, glaring at both of them. "You're both acting like… like…"

"Siblings?" Brenna supplied, jerking back slightly. Where had that come from? Arianna sounded like someone's mom! "But seriously, Sean, you need to go back."

"Yeah, I know," he pouted, kicking the dirt. "Ah well. It was fun while it lasted. See ya!"

Brenna watched as he left, making sure he was out of sight before continuing the tour. He sure was getting better at moving silently. "Anyways, this is the armory. There's a shit ton of weapons in there. We'll come back after dinner during archery knockout, because you need a weapon. Like, one you actually want to use, not just the ones we have to practice with."

"You're in charge of a cabin?" Arianna asked incredulously. Okay, maybe that was more surprising than learning that weapons were useful. "N-not that you're not old enough, but…"

"Oh, we don't go by age," Brenna cut in. Well, her cabin didn't, anyways. They would've had to go through, like, six people between Luke and Travis and Connor if they did. "Otherwise I'd be stuck with the job full-time. I'm just filling in while the real HCs are on a quest. Or dicking around in New York City. Probably both."

"What's a quest?"

Damn, that was hard to define. "They're kind of… well… basically, people get sent out to do… stuff, like find a thing or kill a monster. Usually there's a prophecy involved."

"Huh. Have you ever been on one?"

She had. Kind of. It was one of the few things that Brenna wouldn't talk about. Going through it all once was enough. Mentioning it quickly, then changing the subject was usually a good way to get rid of too much interest. "Not officially."

Definitely not, since she'd come back to camp a week after her own funeral. Tantalus had clearly not intended for her to return, especially not with a new demigod in tow. She almost wished he'd still been at camp so she could've seen the look on his stupid fucking face.

"Well, that's most of this side of camp. Time to check out the cabins. Maybe we'll find out which one's your mom's." Or second dad's. That wasn't unheard of, especially when it came to Apollo's kids.

"Where are you from?" Arianna asked as they began walking towards the cabins, trying to make small talk.

"L.A."

Arianna whistled. "That's pretty far away. Do you ever go home?"

"Nah, my mom and I… don't exactly get along. Monster attacks weren't helping," Brenna answered. They were getting dangerously close to touchy topic number two. "So I split. Haven't been back since."

"Wow. When was that?"

Brenna replied, rather flippantly, "Seven years ago. I was ten."

"You're seventeen? Really?" The younger girl raised an eyebrow. "No offense, but you don't really look that old."

"Yeah, I get that a lot." The average age people guessed was thirteen. People who'd been around camp for a while claimed that Brenna had looked the same since that age. So not true. She'd started wearing less makeup, for one thing. And there were actual colors in her wardrobe now.

Arianna thankfully changed the subject. "So, you made it all the way here from California by yourself?" She seemed shocked for some reason. Ten was far from the youngest someone had been when they ran away from home. And San Fran was a million more times dangerous than L.A., at least for demigods.

"I had some help. It's a long story, but there's plenty of time to… oh hey, we're there!" Brenna announced. "So far we've got twenty out of thirty-ish cabins finished. We'll probably have to put in even more eventually. Like, we need an Eos Cabin ASAP. There would be so much more space… anyways, let's start with the minor god cabins, because they're closest."

"Fine with me," Arianna agreed.

They were standing in front of a seemingly ordinary cabin made of stone. Cabin 20. Those stones were inscribed with all sorts of magic runes. "Okay, let's make this a little more fun. Try and guess whose cabin is whose. If you get more than half right, we'll skip the initiation ritual."

They probably would've ended up skipping it anyways, due to both Austin's tip-off and Arianna not being annoying enough for Brenna to want to stick her head in a toilet. Yet. But she didn't need to know that.

"Crap, I don't really know that many Greek gods…" Excellent. "Um… Hecate?"

"How'd you know?" Brenna asked, slightly upset. "Usually that one's hard for people to get. Like, the hardest."

Arianna blinked. "Wait, that was right? I actually learned something from Macbeth?"

"Not sure about that second part, but yep. Hecate's the goddess of magic. Her kids are super good at using the Mist, and there's… other things they do. Just don't piss them off and you'll be fine."

"What's the Mist?" Seriously? No one mentioned that? What did they explain to her?

"It stops mortals from seeing monsters, gods, and our weapons for what they are. Some people can see through it, but most people just see what they expect to see. Like, my friend Diego and I snuck out to buy pants this one time, and he brought a fucking halberd because he's allergic to weapons that are smaller than his forearm. We took that thing on the subway and people thought it was a fishing pole," Brenna explained.

That had been a crazy day. The poor hydra never knew what hit it. "Next cabin?"

"Oh, right. Good luck with this one," Brenna said, gesturing to Cabin 19. It was splattered with random colors, as if the painter couldn't make up their mind. There was an unmarked wooden chance wheel on the front porch.

Arianna just shook her head. "I got nothing."

"I kind of gave you a hint. This is Tyche's cabin. She's the goddess of luck. Her kids are… weird. There's like three of them and nothing they do makes sense."

"Luck? Well, I'm definitely not in this cabin." Was that a joke? Huh. She had a sense of humor after all!

They moved on to Cabin 18, which Arianna also couldn't guess. To be fair, it was pretty nondescript. It looked like a nicer version of Cabin 11 but with roses on a trellis outside and a golden cup hanging over the door. Ivy was starting to grow up one of the walls. "Hebe's the goddess of youth and brides," Brenna informed her. "How old are you?"

"Fourteen." That matched up with Brenna's guess, so Hebe was probably out. Maybe. "Oh, wow, this one's obvious. Nike?"

"Yep. If Connor hadn't superglued those shoes to the roof, it would've been way harder. There's no way you're in this one. I challenged you to something and you didn't start talking trash." Arianna seemed confused by that. "Well, you know, she's the goddess of victory. Her kids are competition freaks."

Okay, maybe Jess wasn't too bad… usually… but Laurel and Holly were pretty extreme. The only reason they were both counselors was so they'd have someone to compete against constantly. Or at least, that's the reason she'd overheard.

Arianna got Nemesis and Hypnos wrong as well, but she remembered the Iris cabin. That one had so many rainbows it was ridiculous. The Hades cabin was easy, but then they got to Cabin 11. The one that actually looked like it belonged at a summer camp. "Okay, this is… um…"

"Hermes," Brenna supplied, "god of everything that wasn't already taken. I saved you a bed in case you don't get claimed today."

"Thanks! Man, I actually knew that one, too."

Brenna had really been hoping that Arianna would screw up on more names, but she rattled off the name of every cabin except 9 and 12 in quick succession. "Didn't you say you sucked with Greek mythology?"

"Yeah, or I thought I did, anyways. How many of these are we looking at?"

"Just Apollo's cabin and the even-numbered cabins," Brenna replied as they stood in front of the golden, glowing building. Arianna was shielding her eyes from the glare. "You do music stuff?"

"Percussion. But how could two guys–"

"Best not to ask."

Arianna shuddered. "Got it. Let's move on."

They walked over to the smaller of the two overly formal cabins. "Hera doesn't have kids, so don't worry about this one."

Next up was the Demeter cabin, with the grass roof that Travis and Connor had covered in Easter bunnies one time. Now that had been a good prank. There were plants growing everywhere on and around the cabin. Brenna peered into a window to make sure Katie wasn't inside. Empty, but that oak tree could easily hide someone.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Arianna commented. "What if someone was changing?"

"Eh, no one's home anyways. Just didn't want anyone coming at me with a pitchfork."

"What did you do?" Ah, she was learning so much already.

Brenna shrugged. "Nothing, this time. It was just a harmless prank two of my half-brothers pulled on them. Katie still hates their guts for it. Half the cabin does." It took a couple seconds for her to remember that Katie Gardner wasn't a year-rounder anymore. Miranda "Gods-guys-we-don't-even-look-alike-stop-calling-me-Katie!" Gardiner was the new HC.

"Oh." They walked towards the Athena cabin, though Brenna quickly pointed out that all Athena's kids looked the same so they could probably rule that one out.

"Yeah, she's a virgin," Brenna said before the inevitable question could be asked. "I asked Malcolm how his cabin existed once – big mistake, by the way – and trust me, you do not wanna know.

"Speaking of virgin goddesses, there's the Artemis cabin. She doesn't have kids. Her Hunters stay here sometimes – they're like teens and pre-teens that get to be immortal if they swear off guys forever, they go all over the place hunting monsters and whatever – but other than that it's empty."

Surprisingly, Arianna didn't ask how to join up. Usually that was the first question people had. "What cabins are left?"

"That we care about right now? Just Aphrodite's." That cabin had doubled in population; surprising, since most of Aphrodite's kids didn't even have to be year-rounders.

"Well, it sure is pink," Arianna muttered. Brenna was almost positive that Arianna wouldn't be moving in there anytime soon. She wasn't supermodel-y or bitchy enough. "What do we do now?"

"There's still a lot of really important stuff I haven't shown you yet, like the canoes!"

The two girls finished the tour just before dinner. It probably could've been faster, but there were a lot of questions that led to debates on everything from why Mount Olympus was above the Empire State Building to how it could possibly not be stupid to still have archery knockout every week when Kayla won every fucking time.

Brenna was exhausted. She'd rather challenge the entire Nike cabin to a volleyball match than explain anything else. But she had to admit that most of the afternoon had been fun, or at least more fun than trying to keep her cabin from blowing shit up during arts and crafts. Not the worst tour ever.

She and Arianna met up with the rest of the Hermes cabin outside of the dining hall. Almost immediately, Chris had pulled her aside to ask why she'd been AWOL if she was off infirmary duty (apparently Sean told him nothing), but he backed off after she played the "new camper" card. Newbies really could get you out of doing almost anything.

After the usual "hey there's a new person, try not to kill them" speech from Chiron, dinner began. Everyone started talking at once. Brenna just sat there, propping her head up with one arm while she drank her soda. She didn't notice that her elbow was sliding out from under her.

"Um, are you okay?" Sean, who was sitting across from her, asked. Brenna jerked upright; she'd been inches away from faceplanting into her plate.

"Yeah," she said unconvincingly, slamming down her fourth goblet of Mello Yello. Her half-brother raised an eyebrow.

"Doesn't that stuff just make you tired?"

"Tired? Who said anything about being tired?" she retorted, staring at his "mustache". "Ever hear of shaving?"

"Shut up, Julie stole my razor." Sean rolled his eyes and turned away. "You are so lucky," he muttered under his breath. "Ever think about letting someone else try giving tours?"

"Austin volunteered me, okay? And today was one of the better times. Some of the people –"

"So, Drew," he translated, trying (and failing) to get his bangs out of his face. "Did you even apologize?"

"I did. Years ago." Gods, he could give her a little credit. "And then I almost drowned in a fucking toilet because she made me give myself a swirlie!" Brenna exclaimed, getting questioning stares from the rest of the table. Whatever, it wasn't like it was a secret that they hated each other. And that was far from the worst thing Drew had ever done. "… I'm just gonna shut up and eat my food now," she murmured.

Gradually, everyone looked away and she was able to focus on her salad. At least she could pretend she had good eating habits. She was really glad that she had an excuse to get out of archery knockout. Some people, herself included, should never be allowed to hold a bow.

Finally, dinner was over. It was time for the most pointless event at camp. As much as they sucked, at least the Trials of Strength weren't predictable. "Hey, Chris, if Chiron asks, I'm helping Arianna find a weapon," Brenna said, her tiredness mostly forgotten.

"Glad to hear no one's getting shot in the leg tonight," he responded jokingly. She smirked back. At least he wasn't mad at her.

"I don't know about that, did you see what happened to Cecil last week?"

Chris shook his head. "Was it… um, who's the other guy you hang out with? The one with the blue hat and the trident? I know his name but I don't remember how to say it."

"Kieran," she supplied, really wishing she hadn't accidentally brought him up. Maybe in a week or so she'd be able to face him again. Maybe. She wasn't sure if that kind of embarrassment ever went away. He probably hated her now. "Yeah, Cecil was like thirty feet behind him and still got hit."

"How is that possible?" he asked, looking past her like there was someone approaching them.

That was all the warning she got. "'Sup, Peter Pan?" Diego said nonchalantly, using her head as an armrest. That kind of thing really used to piss her off, but she'd gotten used to it over the years. "Hey, Chris, Clarisse was looking for you," he added as an afterthought.

Chris rolled his eyes. "I swear, if this is about Capture the Flag again… Malcolm already has Apollo, Hephaestus, and Nike on his side."

"Outbid him," Brenna suggested. "Ares is, like, the only good cabin we've got on our team." If Malcolm had somehow convinced Clarisse to change sides the blue team was screwed. They probably had the numbers advantage, but aside from Percy no one else was really known for their fighting skills.

"Damn right," Diego agreed.

"I should probably go see what she wants anyways. Have fun, guys." Chris walked away, heading out of the dining hall. Probably a good idea, but there were still a few groups of campers standing around talking. They had plenty of time.

"How's the weather up there, Scar?" she teased. They were slowly making their way through all the Disney movies, because Diego had to tell her who the hell Peter Pan was, leading to him finding out that she'd never seen any of them (aside from Hercules). Like, before that, he'd thought she just hadn't seen the princess ones. They were almost done, thanks to no official activities being scheduled on weekends.

Diego removed his arm from her head. "Find out for yourself." He grabbed her underneath her arms and lifted her up so she was at eye level with him. "I knew showing you The Lion King was a mistake." Well… yeah, but for different reasons. Fucking Mufasa…

"I could've gone with that dude from Mulan," she retorted as he set her down. "At least Scar had a personality. But seriously, dude, you could've visited me during free time or something! The infirmary's boring as fuck!"

"I know, I spent a lot of time in there after I saved someone's ass last summer. What was her name again?" Ah. Okay, that explained it, she wouldn't wanna go there either if she'd spent a whole week as a patient… more than once…

"Brenda Stevens, I think," she answered, using Mr. D.'s version of her name. Now that she thought about it, Mr. D. hadn't been at dinner. Chiron had done the announcements and new camper speech… wait, speech? Shit! "Thanks again for that, but I just remembered I have to do… something…" Eh, Arianna wouldn't care if she brought another person along. "… say, you know a lot about weapons…"

Understatement of the century, he'd been a quartermaster during the war for a reason; all he had to do was look at a weapon to know stuff about it and if he held it he'd learn more. Apparently it was a huge distraction in combat.

Diego grinned. "I'm in. Let's hit the armory first, there has to be something good in there."

"I didn't even say what we were doing yet," she pointed out.

"There's a new person staying in your cabin and you've used the same weapons for the past three years. I'm not stupid."

"How did you – oh right, the speech. But yeah, we're finding her a weapon. Where'd she go, anyways?" she asked, looking around.

He shrugged. "You're on your own there."

After about a minute, Brenna spotted her in a group on the other side of the room, talking to Sean (or someone else with pink hair) and some other kids. "Hey, Arianna, ready to go?" she called.

She slowly made her way towards them. "We play Capture the Flag with weapons and armor?" Oh, yeah, that wasn't a given.

"Yeah, and it's freaking awesome!" Diego answered.

Introductions were made, follow-up questions were answered, and the three of them walked to the armory. "… a lot of the weapons in here come from the forges," Diego continued to explain. "Things people make that they don't have a use for. Then there's all the stuff left over from wars, and… well, the really old weapons are mostly in the Athena cabin –"

"Okay, we get it," Brenna interrupted. "Gods, she just wanted to know why we have so many places we keep weapons in."

"Eh, we're here anyways," he responded. "Do you have a key?"

"I think Travis still has it," she admitted, "but you say that like I need keys." Instead of digging out her lockpicks, she tried the handle. The door opened.

Arianna commented, "Well, you don't if the door's unlocked, huh?"

They stepped inside. The armory was about the size of a cabin, with the walls, ceiling, and bins on the floor covered in various weapons and pieces of armor. Aside from the usual swords, spears, knives, and bows, there were guns, javelins, and things that really didn't look like they belonged, including a Celestial bronze hairbrush.

Diego immediately started inspecting a few of the swords. "Have you used a weapon before?" Brenna asked, getting a sarcastic "no" from him. "Not you, smartass."

"Um, my dad taught me how to shoot a gun and we have some archery stuff, but I barely use it. So unless you count pitchforks as weapons…" Arianna trailed off. Okay, maybe the question could've been better.

"That can be a last resort. Try this xiphos," Diego instructed, handing her a short sword with a vaguely leaf-shaped blade. He was holding another one in his right hand. "I would let you spar against Brenna, but I don't wanna deal with injuries, so show me what you've got."

She just stood there for a few seconds, staring at the sword. "What if I hurt you?" she suddenly blurted.

Brenna had been expecting to hear something more along the lines of "Oh my gods, I'm gonna die." She made eye contact with Diego and both of them burst out laughing. "Don't – ha – worry, you won't," she sputtered.

"I know I don't look like it, but I can dodge pretty well," he responded, actually succeeding at stopping his laughter.

Arianna was unconvinced. "Then how come – er, you have – um, I mean, with your…?" She trailed off, obviously trying to ask something.

"Yeah, I have a lot of scars," he said casually, somehow understanding… that. "Sometimes the other guy, or monster, whatever, gets a lucky shot in." And sometimes you shove someone out of the way – oh, sorry, trip.

All of Ares' kids were like that: in private, it was "I might've done that on purpose but you can't prove it", but in public? "Yeah, Will, I tripped and got these three arrows in my chest. Slap a band-aid on it and I'll go back out there and kill more stuff." Who'd they think they were fooling, anyways?

"Brenna?"

Oh shit. She put on her best "I've totally been paying attention" face. "Personally, I like guns."

"Not a bad idea, but let's see how she does with the sword first," Diego replied, smirking. He knew. "Ready?"

"I guess," Arianna muttered, swinging her xiphos experimentally. Once she worked up the courage to attack, she wasn't terrible. Diego let her get a few strikes in before disarming her.

"You're stronger than you look, but with a weapon like this, speed is more important," he told her.

"So let's take advantage of that, and maybe not go for knives," Brenna contributed. "Anything you wanna try?"

Arianna sighed. "I wouldn't know where to start. What do you guys use?"

"I've got a Glock 23," Brenna said, lifting her shirt slightly to reveal the holster. She was one of maybe three people who actually used a gun. The safety restrictions scared most people off. "Can't use it for Capture the Flag, though, so I have a knife too."

"I use polearms, mostly," Diego answered. "You might want something with decent reach, actually, but you have to remember that you'll need to carry around whatever you choose."

"Which is why I have weapons that normal people can lift," Brenna teased. "Wait a minute, ignore what I said before, everyone should have a knife on them at all times. Since most of us can't kill monsters with our bare hands, backup weapons are important."

Arianna seemed to be trying to process all the stuff they'd just said. After about a minute, she lifted a scythe off the wall. Was she trying to get her ass kicked? Kronos used a scythe. It was probably the worst thing she could've chosen.

Instead of screaming at her to put it back, Diego grabbed a… something. It looked like a curved blade on top of a stick. "Try this instead. It's a war scythe; actually meant for fighting and a lot less fragile." He traded weapons with her, giving Brenna a look that said, See? I have tact! Whoop-de-fucking-doo.

The war scythe was taller than both girls. It was probably meant to be like that, but the difference was pretty extreme. "Is there anything shorter?" Arianna asked.

"I think there is a shorter one somewhere in here, let me look around," Diego replied. He rummaged through a few bins, eventually finding a more manageable size.

"I'm honestly surprised there's more than one of those," Brenna commented. "When were they used?"

"Well, back in World War II, a bunch of them were forged for some Demeter kids. No idea which side they were on," he explained. "Or wait, did you mean just in general?"

Sometimes she forgot just how much he knew about these things. But then he also read books on military history for fun sometimes so that probably had something to do with it. "I didn't, but go for it I guess."

"I'll spare you this time. Here, Arianna, let's switch again. Okay. Come at me. I'll counter with this."

This time, Arianna was less hesitant. Diego still wasn't having any trouble keeping her attacks at bay, but he also had a huge reach advantage with the first war scythe (and, well, in general) so he switched back to the sword. After that it looked like he was actually kind of trying. "Nice. You can stop now," he said. She complied. "Do you want to go with that one?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Hey, Diego, what time is it?" Brenna cut in, hoping he had his watch on him.

"Siete y media," he responded. Basically, "Go buy your own damn watch", but she knew enough Spanish to figure out it was seven thirty. So archery knockout was still going on. "Anyways, you're pretty much good to go, then. Talk to Chiron tomorrow about getting some armor that fits."

Arianna nodded. "Thanks for all the help, guys."

"You're welcome," Diego replied. "Say, since we have so much time left over, who's up for a lesson?"

Against her better judgment, Brenna agreed. Arianna was way more enthusiastic, because she had no idea what she was getting into. One hour and twenty minutes later, they staggered (okay, Brenna staggered; he clearly took it easy on the newbie) over to the campfire. "C'mon, Brenna, you're fine. Just out of practice," Diego called from gods knew how far ahead.

Out of practice her ass; even if learning had priority over training whenever it wasn't summer, it was damn near impossible to get "out of practice" at camp. "Are you sure you don't wanna be a drill sergeant?"

"You sure you don't want a high school diploma?"

Ouch. "Fuck off!"

"If you have enough energy to complain, you can catch up with me."

"No, I can't, because we're walking," she pointed out.

"Oh, is that what you call it?"

Gritting her teeth, Brenna decided to just let it drop. Mostly because she couldn't think of a comeback. Surprisingly, Diego chose to wait for them… well, not-so-surprisingly, since he'd probably get screamed at if he showed up alone. Clarisse didn't like it when people ditched activities.

"Wow, we're early!" Diego exclaimed. "We're never early."

"Or on time," Brenna added. She saw Jess waving at them and gesturing to some empty spots. "I guess we're going over there."

"Um… actually, I told Sean I'd sit with him. I guess there's someone he wants me to meet?" Arianna said hesitantly. "I'll see you guys later!"

Okay, that was suspicious as fuck, but they had been talking earlier. Maybe Sean wasn't planning something. Maybe he just wanted to help her make friends. Eh, whatever. Girl still had her pointy thing on a stick and a knife that Diego claimed didn't have bad vibes, she'd be fine. "Sometime tonight, Brenna?"

"Huh? Oh yeah. Jess. Don't wanna keep her waiting," she replied. They walked over to her.

"Good to see that the new girl's okay. I kinda thought she was a goner when we got her on the van," Jess said as they sat down.

"Oh right, you were there for that. Kayla won archery knockout again?" Brenna responded, keeping an eye out for the rest of her cabin. Everyone was coming from the same place at the same time, but the Hermes cabin always found a way to be last.

Jess nodded. "No contest."

"Man, am I glad we didn't have to go to that," Diego commented.

"Eh, I don't mind it. Only one wins, and the rest must live with the agony of defeat. As it should be."

And that was how people could tell she was in the Nike cabin. Because of shit like that. "Who had the biggest I-didn't-win freak-out this week, Laurel or Holly?"

"Holly, no question. She tried to strangle Laurel with her bow. Chiron had to take it out of her hands!" Jess answered. "Best part of the night, by far. They got second and third, if you were wondering."

"That might've been worth seeing," Diego admitted, putting an arm around her and giving her a peck on the cheek. Wow, a whole minute without physical contact. That had to be some kind of record for those two. But then, up until the war ended and Jess got claimed they hadn't even kissed so they had some self-control.

Fortunately, the sing-along started before it could get worse. About halfway through "Live Like You're Immortal", Brenna noticed the rest of her cabin sneaking in, except for Sean, who must've shown up around the same time she did.

The fire didn't make it past dull orange that night, but that was pretty normal for Wednesdays. There weren't any announcements (okay, there could've been announcements, but she was busy trying to remember how many campers her headcount was supposed to come out to) so everyone lined up by cabin. Had to make sure no one was missing.

"We're good," Brenna called. It took her a few seconds to figure out that her count was off because they had a new person, not because Julie and Alice kept popping up in different parts of the line. "Let's head back to the cabin, guys."

She hung back, partly to say goodbye to Diego and Jess and partly to make sure no one ran off. Brenna had to chase Alice around most of the cabins (like hell she "forgot which one was hers"). When they finally got back, nobody was in bed. Big surprise.

Everyone was rushing around, frantically shoving things into trunks, under bunks, and under pillows. Well, everyone except Arianna, who didn't have any stuff to clean up. She'd put her war scythe in the communal weapon rack, so she was done. "So, how do you like camp so far?" Brenna asked over the sound of Cecil defending his trunk from Julie.

"It's… different. There's so many people here."

"There's even more in the summer," Sean piped up. "Chiron had to make so many new rules for people who're waiting for their cabins to be built…"

"Rules? Oh, crap! I never asked about rules!" Arianna interrupted.

Brenna smirked. "I think this is the wrong cabin for that. But, um, we've got the 'two unrelated campers can't be alone in a cabin together' rule…" Shit, she was blanking big time. "Little help here?"

No one spoke up. C'mon, at least five people were listening in on any given conversation. So either everyone else was blanking on important camp rules too, or they just wanted to watch her fail. "If Chris wasn't off breaking –"

"Curfew! Thank you, Sean. That's kind of a big one. The harpies have permission to eat you if you break it," Brenna cut in. "Chris'll be fine, though, it's not technically breaking curfew 'til eleven. Which is lights out. So hopefully we'll be done cleaning by then."

"Maybe if you helped –"

"Do you see any of my stuff out?" Well, aside from her weapons, which she quickly stowed in her trunk. "No, you don't, Cecil, I was only here for, like, ten minutes today. But that reminds me, cabin checks are a thing. We obviously never win those, but the important thing is to not get last. Last place has to help with KP, and that's never fun."

Sean finally finished putting away all of his stuff. "Hey, just curious, did you even show her the orientation video?"

…shit. "Orientation video?" Arianna repeated. "Didn't see that, but I prob'ly wouldn'ta paid attention anyways, so…" she trailed off, before coming up with, surprise, surprise, another question. "How do showers work?"

He answered, "You saw the communal showers before, right? We've got plenty of time left before the harpies come out, Brenna can go with you. She needs one."

"Guess who's on garbage duty tomorrow?" Brenna responded, sticking her tongue out at him. She'd kinda thought the question was about shower heads or something. "But yeah, what the hell, let's go. I've got extra stuff you can use."

They barely made it back in time. Apparently when Sean said "plenty of time" he meant "like, twenty minutes". Chris cut it even closer than them, with less than a minute to spare. So he'd probably actually been inside the Ares cabin then.

Brenna was waiting for the lights to go out for like a minute before she remembered that it was her job to turn them off. "Everybody in bed? No? Get the fuck there." She flipped the light switch. Almost immediately, five or six flashlights turned on. As soon as she made it to her bed, almost falling down the ladder because Sean thought it'd be funny if he grabbed her ankle, she called, "Hey! Lights out means lights out!"

Miraculously, the flashlights turned back off. There were some goodnights and insults, then everyone was quiet. Must've been a hard day. That, or there was a secret group prank in the works that she'd have to look out for.

Brenna knew she wouldn't be sleeping anytime soon, even though she was fucking tired. It was like her brain knew that the second she got to sleep the nightmares would start again.

To distract herself, she tried to guess who Arianna's godly parent was. So far, she was leaning towards Apollo, Demeter, or Iris. Or Eos, because she had so many fucking kids it was ridiculous. Hopefully she'd get claimed soon. The waiting around really sucked.

Gods damn it, Brenna thought before she finally fell asleep. She was starting to care about the kid. Not good.

Author's Note: Longer chapter than the last few, but most of the ones going forward are about this long. There's a lot of things I had to just... try and work out for this chapter and the next few that take place at Camp.

Just to preface, because it'll come up next chapter (and it came up in this one), the year-rounders do have actual classes and stuff that they have to do, and they run Monday through Thursdays, 9:00-13:30 with a lunch break. There's chores and training and stuff in the afternoons, and since the Camp population is big enough, they get to do the night games (yes, archery knockout is a thing; I got it off of a released summer schedule of Percy's). Fridays just have Ancient Greek and Greek Mythology as far as actual classes go, and there's more of a focus on training. Weekends, as I mentioned earlier in this chapter, still don't have anything scheduled except for meals. I made a whole-ass spreadsheet with an example summer and example year-round schedule.