As Piper led me through the camp, weaving through campers and past pavilions, I was silent.

My mind was too full of questions to function, and I wasn't sure I would get many answers. Though I probably wouldn't have by running away either.

"So that's the Big House," Piper was saying, pointing to the blue house I had woken up in. It was a lot bigger than it had seemed, four stories tall and wide as a resort. "That's where you woke up. There's the infirmary, the rec room, spare rooms, the attic for storage, and…you get the point."

I made myself say something, refusing to go into shock. "Yeah."

"There's the volleyball court," she said, pointing to the sand pit I had run through earlier. The kids who had been playing before were staring at me. I looked closer at the ones I thought had been wearing shaggy pants, seeing the fur seemed to be attached to them.

"What are those?" I whispered to her, almost not wanting to know the answer.

She looked where I was pointing, chuckling when she saw my face. "Satyrs."

"Sure. Why not?"

"Yeah, it can take a little getting used to."

"Just one question. Why are they staring at me?"

She bothered to cover her laugh with her hand this time. "Maybe because you're still in your pajamas?"

I looked down to see I had never changed out of the bright orange pants. I felt blush rise in my cheeks, heating up my face.

"Come on." She grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the bright blue house. "Let's get you some new clothes."

We reached the porch, and she bent over her knees, breathing heavily from laughter. I managed a laugh too, though the blush hadn't faded from my face, my eyes staring at where her hand had taken mine.

It had felt wrong, and I had almost flinched away. Something about it had felt nice though, nearly friendly.

Her eyes still shone with laughter as she pushed open the door. "There should be some clothes in one of the bedrooms, and if not, we can head to the camp store." She pushed open the door but froze when she got inside.

"Piper?" I moved to the doorway, to see what had stopped her, and was faced with a white horse tail.

Piper was unfazed. She didn't seem to have paused out of shock, instead trying to get its attention. "Chiron!" She tapped its leg, and it flicked its tail angrily, but moved inside anyways, opening the doorway.

The name sounded strangely familiar. "Wait," I said, slowly realizing. "Wasn't that the—" The horse turned, revealing a human upper half blended smoothly into a white horse's body. "Guy in the wheelchair's name," I finished with a squeak.

"Uh, Chiron?"

"Oh, Piper!" The man-horse said, closing the book he'd been reading. "I see you brought our new camper back."

"Um, not really I just—"

He turned towards me. "My dear, how are you liking camp so far?"

"I, uh. What? Huh?" I managed to stutter out.

"Chiron, I don't think she's used to seeing centaurs."

"Oh, of course. So sorry about that." He turned and pushed me and Piper out of the doorway with his human arms, before turning and trotting outside, towards something that looked like an archery range.

I stumbled toward a sitting chair, my head spinning with too many new things to focus on standing. "What?" I finally asked, barely able to speak.

"Yeah, that about sums it up."

"I—Huh—How?"

"I didn't think centaurs would be the one to break you."

"Why?" I asked, managing to speak coherently again.

"I mean, you lasted through dragons and satyrs."

"I didn't see the satyr's asses."

She laughed, but her face went soft when she said, "There's gonna be a lot more weird stuff at dinner. Do you want to stay here?"

"No," I said firmly. I didn't want her to baby me anymore. And I wanted to stop being confused.

"Are you sure? I mean I could have the dryads bring it here."

"Dryads?" I asked, my voice small. I cleared my throat. "No. I'm okay. I think I'd rather rip it off like a band-aid."

"Or a spear out of a wound," I heard Piper mutter.

"What?"

"Nothing. Demigod analogy. So, we still have a half-hour till dinner. Do you want to finish that tour?"

"Sure. Just, maybe in real clothes?"

"Right," she snickered. "Let's go."

I had changed into one of the pairs of clothes from my backpack but had on an orange 'Camp Half-Blood' T-Shirt from the camp store.

Piper showed me the strawberry fields, the archery range (where Chiron was teaching), the arena (where some burly kids were hacking at each other with swords), the pegasi stables (where Annabeth was muttering to a black horse about donuts), the forge (where a scrawny guy was running around, yelling in Spanish), and the cabins.

"And there's the amphitheater, the canoe lake, the mess hall, the climbing wall—ignore the lava—the beach, and the woods. Don't go in the woods until you're armed. I'll take you to the armory after dinner. Now come on! We're gonna be late." She started to pull me away, but I didn't move. "You okay?"

"Yeah. It's just a lot," I said, fidgeting with my necklace. "And, we don't have to stop by the armory."

"You didn't have anything at the beach."

"I dropped it." The charm had reappeared again when I got it back from Will. I hadn't done this when I wasn't in danger before, so I took a deep breath, prayed to the gods who were apparently out there that I wouldn't make a fool out of myself, and pulled down.

A flash of light later, and I was holding the sword. "Whoa," Piper and I said at the same time.

"Okay, guess we don't need to stop by the armory. But can you put it away? Swords usually make a bad first impression."

"Right." I'd never tried, but I wasn't going to tell her that. I closed my eyes and pictured a tiny sword charm in my hand. Another flash of light, and it was there.

"Wow, that's bright."

I held the charm up to the chain on my neck, there was a tiny click, then it was reattached.

"Cool. Now come on. We're seriously going to be late." She grabbed my hand again, and this time I let her, and as we moved, I felt my face heating up.

"Don't mention your last name," she said as we walked.

"Why?"

"You unfortunately share the last name of their old head counselor."

"Unfortunately? What happened to him?"

"He died."

My stomach rolled, even more nervous to meet these cabin mates.

"And something happened last year. I don't really know, I wasn't here. But he did some bad stuff."

"Is that why Annabeth freaked out when she heard it?"

"Yeah. He was her best friend."

"So she won't like me?"

"She'll like you," she insisted, though her tone made it hard to believe. "She's just going to be a bit cautious."

"I'd prefer being normal for once."

"For once?"

"Being the girl with dead parents makes you stand out a bit."

"Oh, Celeste, I'm—"

"Don't apologize. That makes it worse."

"Okay, but—"

"Which cabin is the one we're going to?" I interrupted, before she could make me feel worse.

She pointed to a plain looking cabin. Well, plain compared to the barbed wire and grass roofed ones. I ran up and knocked on the door, and a boy with curly brown hair and a smile that says 'trouble' answered. He saw Piper and seemed to know what was happening. He opened the door all the way to let the other kids see me. They stared, sizing me up. I knew this routine. I'd gone through it at every new house or school.

I forced my feet forward, just wanting to get this over with.

"Regular or undetermined?" I heard someone ask. He looked exactly like the boy who had answered the door.

I looked to Piper with the question in my eyes, not wanting to seem clueless in front of all these people.

"Do you know who your godly parent is?"

"No," I answered, with the response of a few quiet mutterings, none of them good.

"How old are you?" the boy who had answered the door asked. Or maybe it was the other one. I couldn't tell them apart.

"Fourteen. Almost fifteen."

"She should've been claimed already."

I didn't know what claiming was, and I didn't really want to.

"It'll probably happen at the campfire tonight. But she still needs a group to eat with."

"No, it's fine, we'll take her."

I snorted, and muttered, "You better."

"What?"

"Celeste," Piper interrupted. "Meet cabin eleven."

"Does Celeste have a last name?"

"Travis—"

I cut her off. "Celeste is right here. And isn't Hermes the god of thieves? Are you trying to steal my information?"

Travis laughed, but his twin standing behind him retorted, "He's also the god of travelers. Which is, you know, the whole reason you get to stay here."

"Conner—" Travis tried to intervene.

"Oh, I get to sleep in this run-down shack?"

"No one said anything about you sleeping here. We just have to eat dinner with you."

"Do you have to be rude to new people as well?"

He burst out laughing.

"Is something funny?"

"I think you're gonna do well here."

I forced myself not to smile. "Maybe I will."

"Connor. I'm Connor," he said, holding out his hand. I took it cautiously. "And this is my brother Travis."

He opened his mouth to say something, but a horn sounded. "Eleven, fall in!"

The campers lined up, Travis and Conner first, then everyone else. It seemed to be in a specific order. I was dead last.

"Will you be okay?" Piper asked, walking in the back with me.

I looked around. "Yeah. I think I will."

She playfully elbowed me. "Still don't believe in gods?"

I wanted to answer, but a girl stepped in front of us with her hand on her hip, stopping us in our tracks.

"Abandoning your responsibilities already, honey?" Her voice was dripping with malice.

"I was just showing a new camper around. Which is one of my responsibilities, honey."

"Not going to introduce them to me?"

"Celeste, Drew. Drew, Celeste."

"I meant a little more than that."

"Look, Celeste," she said, completely ignoring Drew. "I have to take my cabin to dinner. I'll see you at the campfire."

"Your cabin?" I asked, realizing how little I actually knew about Piper.

"Aphrodite. I'm the head counselor."

"Oh."

She laughed. "Yeah, I don't look it, huh? Go catch up with Hermes. You don't need to be new and late."

I looked ahead to see the line had kept walking without me. "Right." I turned to leave, but something stopped me. "Piper?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

She gave a small smile. "You're welcome. Now go!"

I turned and ran, and when I looked behind me Piper was waving.

I rushed to catch up with the group, retaking my place in the back of the line. No one had even noticed I was gone. We crested a hill, reaching the place Piper had called the mess hall.

It was an open-air pavilion with torches on the columns and maybe twenty tables. A bronze brazier the size of a bathtub burned in the center.

Satyrs trotted in from the meadow, girls—naiads, I assumed—came out from the lake, and people came out of the woods. Actually came out of the woods. I guessed they were the dryads Piper had mentioned.

Campers filed in, all sitting at assigned tables with their cabin. Piper led a group of kids into the pavilion. They all looked different but managed to seem the same as well. Lots of makeup, perfect hair, stylish outfits. Piper stuck out with her plain clothes and choppy hair.

Annabeth was sitting at a table full of people who looked just like her, with blonde hair and gray eyes. I tried to meet her eyes, but she looked away.

Once everyone had settled in, Chiron pounded his hoof against the floor. Everyone went quiet. "To the gods!" he toasted, raising his glass. The words echoed, somewhat reluctantly. The gods didn't seem to be popular.

Dryads wove through the tables, carrying platters of food full of fresh fruit, bread, potatoes, and burgers. I filled my plate up, but before I could take a bite, everyone grabbed their plates and moved to the fire in the center.

Connor (or maybe it was Travis) waved me along. I followed him, taking my place in the line that had formed. Campers went up and scraped bits of their plates into the fire.

The silence was deafening, and as much as I wanted to know what was happening, I didn't want to break it. The confusion on my face must have been obvious because Conner whispered, "Offerings for the gods. They like the smell."

I snorted, but nobody looked up. Connor glared. "You should take this seriously. They don't appreciate being laughed at."

"They? You mean the magical Greek gods?" I asked incredulously.

"Most of us start that way. It doesn't get any easier once you believe."

We were next. Connor went up and threw a pack of peanut MMs into the fire, murmuring, "Hermes."

When it was my turn, I didn't know who's name to say. They hadn't bothered claiming me, so I didn't want to sacrifice my meal to them. Not scraping my food into the fire would make me stick out even more. I threw in a roll, muttering Chiron's toast of 'to the gods' under my breath.

The smoke that sizzled up didn't stink. It managed to smell like every good thing rolled together. It shouldn't go together, but it did. Hot cocoa, wildflowers, fresh baked cookies, and a million other amazing smells. They put something in the fire, I thought. It didn't prove anything about gods.

I managed to pull myself away from the wonderful smoke, walking back to my seat. I settled back on the bench, still being ignored.

Once everybody had returned to their seats, Chiron stamped his hoof again. "As our camp director is still absent, I will once again be doing the announcements."

A couple blonde kids at table twelve looked disappointed, but not surprised.

"Capture the flag is this Friday. Cabin six currently holds the laurels." The kids at Annabeth's table cheered and high-fived. "Yes, congratulations. Also, I should tell you we have a new camper today. Celeste Castellan!"

It seemed like a spotlight was shining on me. All eyes snapped to me, with menacing glares and whispered questions. Annabeth had that look on her face again, like she was reminiscing on a painful memory, one she feared.

Piper stood up. She gave me a smile that said 'I tried' before speaking. "It's just a coincidence. She has nothing to do with Luke. Or Kronos." Both names seemed to cause anger and fear to settle over the crowd. It seemed like she had made it worse.

"Where'd you say you were from?" Travis leaned over and asked me, his face ashen.

"Connecticut," I answered, realizing I said it too loud when the whole Hermes table gasped.

Chiron stamped his hoof before full-on panic could break out. "Enough. It is a coincidence. Nothing more nothing less."

The campers settled uneasily, obviously unconvinced. "Yeah," someone snorted from table five. Sure it's a coincidence."

"I heard that Sherman," Chiron called out. Sherman flushed as red as his tablecloth. "Dish duty. Today and tomorrow. Anyone else have any problem with Celeste?"

The campers grumbled, but no one else spoke up. I sunk into the group of Hermes kids, trying to hide my blush.

"Now, if everyone's finished, you are dismissed." His tone made it clear everyone was done. "Campfire is in an hour. Have a good evening." His voice was flat, like he was reading from a teleprompter. He trotted away, leaving campers grumbling as they cleaned up.

Eyes focused on me, still staring. Some were confused, some were scared. Some of them were even sympathetic. But most of them were angry.

I had just wanted to be normal for once. Of course that could never happen. The one thing I wanted out of this camp, the thing I had stayed for—a chance to be normal—could never happen.

The whispers and stares got too much. I felt like I couldn't breathe. My heart beat faster and faster, and no matter how many deep breaths I took it refused to slow down.

It didn't matter if I believed in the gods. It didn't matter if I wanted to stay. No one wanted me here.

The bodies around me seemed suffocating, everyone pushing and shoving to put their plates away. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to push the claustrophobia away, but I failed. I felt like I was going to vomit.

My plate slipped from my hands, clattering to the floor, shattering on impact. I pushed through the sea of bodies in front of me, gulping in fresh air once I escaped. Then, I did what I did best.

I ran.