Ink- This chapter is not good. Don't expect anything very good.

On another note, I've been playing a lot of Minecraft and Valorant, by the way. I suck and as of right now I'm S1. Also, I've been getting into custom mechanical keyboards, and my next big project is going to be building a new keyboard. I need some recommendations from the keyboard nerds of these websites. So please hook me up.

We begin our tour.

"So, we are going to start with the cabins," Luke says cheerily. The three of us walk to the cabins silently. There seem to be 12 of them.

"What's with all the cabins?" I ask. Before they disappeared, Zoe told me to act like an idiot, well, in her words, "more of an idiot than you are." So I don't draw any suspicion.

"They are for each Olympian God and Goddess," Annabeth explains, she continues by walking to each cabin.

"The first three are Lords Poseidon, Zeus, and Hera. Poseidon, Hades, and Zeus are known as the Big Three because they are the most powerful in the Olympian council."

"Why are they empty? And where's the Hades cabin?" I ask as Luke whistles.

"Gods, this kid asks a lot of questions. Most kids just numbly walk past them. Her, Annie, maybe she's one of your siblings." Annabeth shakes her head like she desperately doesn't want me to be her sibling.

"Chiron explained most of the demigod stuff beforehand, so I guess that's why I look so calm." I lied. Apollo explained his art of lying a couple of training days ago. Dam, I am not even an hour in and I miss all of my family.

"Anyway, the reason Poseidon, Zeus, Hera, and Artemis's cabins are empty is that they are either sworn to not have children or not have children anymore. And the reason why there isn't anyone in Hades' cabin is that he is the Lord of the Underworld. If he had a cabin in the overworld, things would go bad."

I nod and we continue to walk.

"The next ones are Artemis like I said. Then Apollo, Hermes, and Ares. Aside from Artemis, with the addition of Aphrodite, these are the most popular cabins. " Annabeth explains patiently. Luke then butts in, "My cabin is the best: Hermes and Annabeth's godly parent is Athena." I give them both a look over. Mom told me that Athena's kids have very blond hair or blackish blond hair, which Annabeth has the first. She rolls her eyes and is prepared to argue.

"Hermes does NOT have the best cabin," Annabeth argues. Luke scoffs.

"And what is? Athena? Ha!" After arguing for like 5 minutes, they come to an agreement that Aphrodite is the worst. Aw, come on, that's my cabin! They show me the other 5 cabins, which gets me thinking.

"So how will I know who is my godly parent?" I ask, expecting a simple answer. Luke scratches the back of his head.

"That, we don't know. We can help narrow down who your godly parent is. If you don't mind me asking, do you live with your mom or your dad?" Luke asks kindly. I remember vividly what the hunt said when I told them my heritage, not a pretty sight. This was of course before the whole fighting the Minotaur thing. I take a deep breath and prepare to say an answer.

Oh wait, right, mom's gone, but apparently, Lady Aphrodite is my Mom now.

"M-my, dad," I say nervously of their reaction. Surprisingly, they don't react at all. They act like they are used to it and I appreciate that.

"Hmm, that narrows it down to Lady Athena, Aphrodite, and Demeter." Annabeth thinks for a moment and then speaks.

"Assuming that you are one of these, you are most likely not useful," Annabeth concludes. Luke elbows her.

"Hey! Don't say that. Everyone is useful somehow."

I also get heated. Even though Lady Aphrodite isn't my Mom, how can Annabeth just disclose someone's skill so quickly based on only their godly parent? This was the same moral compass my ex-stepfather was based on, except a bit more on the extreme side. So I decide, instead of getting mad and possibly into a fight, I'll mess with her.

"So let me guess, Athena and Demeter, are the bad parents?" I say innocently. Luke gives me a warning gaze like 'you are messing with fire'. Annabeth's eyes flash dangerously.

"What! No! Demeter and Aphrodite are the bad parents! How dare you think Athena's kids are useless!" Honestly, I'm surprised that I kept a straight face, she gets so angry at the smallest things!

"Oh my bad, I just thought that because Athena kids get mad at the smallest things, that they would be the useless ones." This just gets Annabeth infuriated, exactly my plan.

"I do NOT get mad at everything you sa-" She fumes, but then realizes in a shocked tone, "I-I just got baited." Yep, they call me the master baiter. Luke starts dying of laughter.

"Oh my gods, Annabeth, you actually fell for that!" She starts to blush madly and is suddenly not so openly talking. I feel pretty bad about embarrassing her, so I give her an apologetic smile.

"Also, because Demeter kid's powers, I'm guessing that they have something related to nature or plant powers, which are useless if you scorch them."

Luke nods with me and adds seriously, "I mean, everyone is useless if you use enough fire on them." Finally! Someone who thinks like me!

"True, very true." We share a grin.

Annabeth stutters out, "W-what just h-happened?" A voice emerges behind me, and I turn to see the biggest dude I've ever seen, but not like what you think. What I mean is that he is the buffest, guy, I've ever seen. He has a farmer's tan and bed head brown hair.

"Annabeth, I think you just got outsmarted." Annabeth splutters some incoherent words. The muscle man turns to me.

"So, you must be the new camper?" He says, eyeing me.

"Names Percy. Do you by chance have a name, muscle man?" I counter. The bodybuilder turns to his arms, then to mine.

"Yeah, I guess I can see where you are coming from. My name is Charles Beckendorf, but everyone here calls me Beckendorf." Of course, Muscle Man is an understandable nickname for a guy who is two times the size of the average NFL linebacker. Luke snickers at something Beckendorf says, but I couldn't hear because Beckendorf quickly cuffs his neck.

"Luke, you may be older than me by like a month, but I can still fuck you up." He warns and Luke wisely backs away, rubbing his neck in pain.

"He's from the Hephaestus cabin by the way," Luke adds. Beckendorf turns to Annabeth who was sulking behind Luke.

"Have you guys shown him the training arena? He looks like a fighter." He asks.

Annabeth grumbles, "Don't get your hopes up. He's either an Athena, Demeter, or Aphrodite kid." Beckendorf gives her a hard stare in confusion.

"That's not a bad thing. Every camper is valuable, and that's one less dead. If you plan on being the leader of the camp, you should have a more positive outlook." Beckendorf says sternly. I don't know why but I feel a rush of gratitude for Beckendorf.

"That's what I said," I blurt out and then blush, "I mean, the 'not a bad thing part', not the 'leader of the camp' thing." Beckendorf grins and nudges Luke.

"I like this one, might have to tutor this one." He says.

Luke smirks, "That's if I don't get him first. He has a lot of potentials."

Beckendorf's mood turns somber, "He fits Thalia's personality, she would have loved him." Luke's mood also takes a depressing turn. He turns to whisper to Beckendorf, but again, I couldn't hear anything.

"Aaanyway," Annabeth moves on, "I was going to show him, but I got rudely interrupted. Now we have to finish this tour. So shoo!"

"Alright alright. Chill. I'll go. See you around Percy." Beckendorf says, walking back to a cabin that has smoke billowing out of it. Annabeth is already striding, probably to the arena. Luke and I share a look as if saying, 'what the hell is she on', but then we jog to catch up.

"So, what's the training arena for?"

"For sword fights," Annabeth replies shortly. I think she is still mad at me.

"Ooh I'm good at that," I say excitedly. Luke peers at me suspiciously. Shoot! Right. I have to play dumb.

"I used to do fencing, so I'm predicting that I'll be pretty good," I say quickly, praying to Apollo that it wasn't too quick. To me, I think that it is a pretty convincing story for one that was made on the fly. Luckily, Luke's suspicious demeanor drops and he dips his head in understanding. I let out a sigh of relief quietly. Luke turns back around.

"I wanna see how good you are. Care to dance?" He challenges. Should I?

"Sure, let me get my sword." Annabeth's eyes goggle.

"You have a sword?" She says in amazement. Oh shit. Improv time.

"Yeah, supposedly my mom left it before she went away. At least that's what my dad said." I lie easily. Apollo's training is coming in clutch! Annabeth nods accordingly.

"Yeah, that does make sense. Alright, have fun fighting Luke, Percy. He is the best fighter here, and possibly the best fighter in the last 300 years." I gulp, this should be a one-sided fight. And to make it worse, Luke shrugs like he has heard this many times, and he seems to be the type of guy to be humble.

We walk to the arena and it is like a miniature colosseum in Rome. It's about 15 feet wide and 30 feet long. We both go in opposite directions and Annabeth calls it.

"Alright, here we go. Ready, one. Two. Three. Fight!" She yells. Blood flows through my veins and the adrenaline kicks in. Luke is looking at me to make the first move. I'm not going to fall for this trap again, Zoe has wired that into my brain. I've fallen for that too many times. Now, do I care? No...no I do not. So I aim for the first move.

I make the first move with a classic swing to the right. Luke easily blocks it and does something weird. He swings when he blocks, in an effort to disarm me. Instead, I pull back my blade a couple of inches to make it so when the crash of the blade occurs, it'll render the move useless. As expected, when the blades make contact, he tries to push through my sword. Unfortunately for Luke, he couldn't get any with the blade and it slid off slowly. The move that he did use up a chunk of his energy. I'd say 15%.

Even though his move didn't have the intended effect on me, it still caught me off-guard. After I had played defense, I went back to the offense. I push him on his left side, which is currently unguarded. Word must have spread that Luke and I were sparring because a crowd started surrounding our fight. They gasp that I'm still fighting. I guess that most people are destroyed in under 2 minutes.

Luke barely gets to defend as our swords clash. This must-have required him to use a lot of energy since now, all of his swings are sluggish and sloppy. I try to do whatever he did originally on me and push left. Instead of defending, he tries to overpower me, which is what I would have done in his situation. But as he pushes me down, he doesn't expect me to react to his counter-attack. I suddenly push outwards.

His grip on his sword immediately loosens and it cleanly falls out of his hands and clatters on the floor. The whole arena that was once screaming and chanting 'Luke', or appropriately, 'Camper', is completely speechless. Including Luke.

"H-how did you know how to do the disarming move?" Luke asks in disbelief. Everyone is staring at me expectantly to answer the question. I don't like the sudden attention, but I put on a grin at his shocked expression.

"To be honest, I didn't. I just fought like I normally do, and saw what you had tried to do at the beginning of the fight and did it, but without falling. I just got really lucky." I explain earnestly. Luke blushes at my words and extends his hand. We shake our hands and the crowd whoops.

Two twin boys with brown hair, similar to Luke's, yell, "Looks like Luke isn't the best one here!" Luke smiles awkwardly, unsure of how to respond to that. Annabeth, however, does. [In this story, Travis and Connor are twins]

"Hey, you heard him, Percy just got lucky! Lay off him will you?" Annabeth fiercely tells them. The twins are about to fire back when Luke mediates the situation relatively quickly.

"Travis and Connor, I can beat you both in my sleep, so shut up. And Annabeth, it's fine," Luke calmly shuts them down.

After we get out of the rambunctious crowd, Annabeth mutters to Luke. I can't hear much, but I'm able to pick out a couple of phrases, "Maybe he is the one… regardless, I want him on my team to capture the flag."

"You guys do capture the flag here? Isn't that a tad bit normal?" I ask, not expecting a reaction. Instead, Annabeth glares at me and responds angrily.

"Does your capture the flag game have magical items and weapons for war?" She lashes out. I blink blankly.

"No. No, they do not. Does that mean I can use my sword?" I add, bringing Riptide out of my pocket, but leaving it in pen form. Annabeth calms down a bit and then nods, acting more like her age. I forgot to mention this, but Annabeth is my age and Luke is about 15.

"Yes, you can use your sword." Luke eyes my hand.

"Hey Perce, can I see your sword?" I stiffen at the mention of my nickname.

"Don't call me that," I warn, but hand him the sword. He examines it. The engraving, Anaklusmos, shines in the sunlight.

"Riptide," Luke translates, "You said your mom passed it down to you. So that means that either Lady Athena, Demeter, or Aphrodite wanted you to have this sword. Good sword. If you ask Chiron, he can probably give you a more detailed description if you don't already know." All I knew is that it was made of Celestial Bronze. Other than that, I have no idea.

As I'm listening to what Luke says, I get a feeling that if I let this conversation go on for any longer, that it'll reveal who I am. I try my best to deflect the topic.

"So, you said something about me being on your team?"

Annabeth's eyebrow raises, "You heard that? But yes, you seem like a formidable teammate." Those are a lot of fancy words she says, but they mostly boil down to:

"You just don't want me to go to the other team, huh?" I guess. Annabeth's gaze suddenly averts and she is now standing quite uncomfortably.

"Uhh… yeah."

"So then who is on our team, and who is on their team?"

"The teams fluctuate each week, and this week, it should've been Athena, Hermes, and Aphrodite vs Apollo, Ares, Dionysus, and Demeter-"

"But the hunters of Artemis are coming so it'll be the camp versus them," Luke finishes her answer.

I feign confusion, "The hunters of who?"

Annabeth responds to my question nonchalantly, "Followers of Artemis who are eternal maidens that swear off romantic interactions. Luke dislikes them, but I don't mind them." Then she whispers to me, "Probably because we usually lose to them, but maybe because their best two people, Zoe and Atalanta, aren't there for some reason, we'll win. Also, now that you're here, we have a chance."

Luke's mood suddenly swings from dejected to elated.

"Zoe isn't coming! Thank the gods!" He says happily.

"Why is she so bad?" I vex, ticked. Oh, wait! I can't let them find out that I know Zoe.

Fortunately for me, Luke and Annabeth don't notice my bitter tone.

"She just hates males, like we had a choice. Plus, she's a sweat at capture the flag." I tilt my head and stare blankly.

"Isn't the- Isn't the point of the game to win?" Luke shakes his head.

"I mean it is, but Zoe is crazy good, and I always end up getting hurt one way or another." Luke's arguments are weird. Half of his logic made sense while the other half made none at all and was based fully on his own opinions. However, I don't say this. No use in arguing with an already angry man.

"So, what's next on the tour," I ask as we are walking to the main area of the camp, the cafeteria. Coincidentally, that's also my favorite part of it.

"Just saying Percy, you should stay at your godly parent's dinner table because it is sort of like the thing we explained earlier with the cabins," Luke says. Luke is talking about when I asked them why couldn't we all just sleep in different cabins.

He had answered, almost offended, "It's a disgrace to your godly parent, and I think it's just about honor or some shit like that. I don't know." At which point, Annabeth slapped him for profanity. Yeah, I know right. She is hung up on that stuff when she is a demigod.

"Alright, so am I sitting with you?" I ask Luke awkwardly. Gods, why did I say that? I just met him, so he is going to say no.

Surprisingly, the opposite occurs. "Sure, Percy. Just make sure you keep an eye on your things. My brothers and sisters… seem to catch their eyes on a bunch of things. Anyway, see you at dinner!" The three of us split up and go our separate ways. Luke went to go workout, Annabeth to study some random things, and me, who is going to look at the Artemis and Poseidon cabins.

As I am walking down to the cabins, I once again have to remind myself to watch out everywhere for people who are watching or staring at me. There have already been too many close calls today, and there was no need to throw all of my efforts away.

I walk to my first visit, Mom's cabin. As I approach the silver and wooden door, I do a quick 360 and check if anyone is watching me. No one is. I think most people are doing some activities like the rock wall or something. Once I get in, I notice that it is very dusty. Makes sense because the hunters come here maybe 1-2 times a year, and I don't think anyone wants to face Mom's wrath.

The whole room is filled with bunk beds like the Hermes Cabin Luke showed me earlier. The difference here is that they had a huge closet filled with hunting supplies like custom bows, arrows, and quivers. There was also fur on the rug, which was made of the same material. I guess that the wolves we travel with shed a little fur.

At the back of the cabin, there is a huge statue of mom with a brown headband wearing mortal clothing, not her usual attire of specially made limited edition hunting apparel made by the Olympian sewing committee. Mom was going to take Zoe and me shopping, but of course, that had to clash with our trip to this place.

I kneel at Mom's statue and begin to pray to her. While I'm praying, I realize that we had ended things on a bad note, with them leaving me without even saying goodbye. So when I start praying, I think, 'Hey Mom, just so you know, I'm not mad. Camp Half-Blood is okay. I already beat their best swordsman. I'm very lonely right now, I just want someone I know.'

Her response is almost instant.

'Hello Percy, and alright, but I'm still sorry for leaving you. Zoe is still upset with herself, and she has already begun counting down the days till you come back. Also, I'm so proud of you Perseus! Though, I think the kids there aren't on your level. Aphrodite should claim you soon, honey. I guess that she'll do it the old-fashioned way and make it dramatic, so prepare for that. Additionally, the hunt should be arriving soon-'

At which point, the door swings right open. The hunt's here. Phoebe is the first one to enter the cabin since she is in charge. As she enters, she notices me. I don't think she recognized me because at a moment's glance she whips out her bow and death glares at me. I fall weak to the glare and flinch a sizable amount. It's the same glare that Gabe used.

"What do you think you are doing here, boy!" She snarls icily. I raise my hands, being careful to not look into her eyes. If I look into her glare, I fear that I may have another panic attack. It's been a month since the last time I have had one, and that was when it was my biological mother's birthday. I remember that day vividly. I went to the place of what remained of Mom and put her favorite flower, a cornflower, on her coffin. After I did that, I broke down, sobbing hysterically, wishing that all my tears were worth another chance to see Mom. I wish I had at least gotten one last hug.

Anyway, I face Phoebe and give her a steel stare, "Damn, Phoebe. Someone doesn't even know their newest recruit. Tsk tsk tsk." Phoebe turns as bright red as her hair and grabs me by my sleeve and pulls me outside.

"Percy! You are not supposed to be in there. Remember, no Artemis, only Percy, the son of Aphrodite." Phoebe says, poking my chest so that I 'remember'.

"I do remember. I just wanted to pray to Mom. Also, how will I play capture the flag?" I justify. Phoebe tilts her head, and a strand of her fiery hair falls to the other side.

"If you are talking about the Campers vs. Hunters, then it's quite obvious. You aren't playing with us, you are playing against us." Phoebe says, smiling, but then her face turns to a stoic and neutral facade. "Alright, this is getting suspicious now. Good luck, just don't hurt yourself. I don't want our little huntress getting hurt." She's been teasing me lately by calling me the hunt's little huntress, and I don't know how to take it, so I usually just nod. This strategy works pretty well.

While I was thinking, I look back up, and just like Zoe, she's gone in a flash. I do another 360 and no one is staring, which is good. I take one last gaze around and notice something. A person who has a New York Yankee baseball cap in her hands and blonde hair with princess curls. There's only one person that I know who fits that category: Annabeth.

I jog away from Phoebe wordlessly and go to the table, where Annabeth is still staring at my previous position. When I approach the table, everyone is still doing their activities. Annabeth is still staring. I tap her shoulder, and this time, she flinches suddenly.

"Uh, you good?" I asked, unsure of what to do. Annabeth goes straight to the point.

"Why were you talking with a hunter?" She says suspiciously. Normally, my brain would be panicking right now, but Zoe and I had brainstormed last night on how to lie about it if I was to ever be in this situation, so I was calm.

"I was asking if she knew someone I used to know, because she randomly disappeared, not that it's any of your business," I say coolly. Annabeth's brow furrows, but then she realizes that an argument is pointless, so she drops it.

"So, the capture the flag game is going to start in an hour. Want me to help you learn the ropes?" She asks, somewhat kindly. Maybe there is hope for a friendship.

"Already? Gods, the hunters just arrived too. And yes, please!" I say, amazed.

"I know right," Annabeth agrees, "but the faster they win, the quicker they can get out. This time, for some reason, they look like they want to stay here, and they are staying here for 3 days." I fake a disgusted look.

"That's not good," I say warily, in case anyone is overhearing. Even though I'm on good terms with most of the hunters, that still doesn't mean that some of them don't know I'm faking it.

Annabeth shrugs, unfazed, like she didn't care that the hunters were here or not.

"It's whatever. They always try to recruit me into the hunt, which gets annoying sometimes." She casually throws out. This piques my interest. An offer?

"So, are you going to take it?" I say, trying to contain my obvious interest. I don't know if I would like Annabeth on the hunt. On one hand, we could either have really good chemistry. But on the other hand, we could also have a real shitty one.

Annabeth shakes her head in a way where I can't identify if it's a yes or a no.

"I don't know. I started out here when I was 7, and this place has been my home for the past 3 years. But, they won't let me take on a quest because they think I'm too young, and they still do, when I can beat most people here. Except Luke or Beckendorf." She complains.

"And me!" I pipe up just to annoy her. Gods, toying with people is so fun when you don't have to get slapped whenever you do it.

Annabeth rolls her eyes and answers, "Yes, and sadly you. Also, the hunt goes on with many skirmishes, it looks so much fun. Though, swearing off boys kinda scares me, and so does partial immortality." God, do I agree with her. About partial immortality, not the swearing boys. I promise, I'm not gay, not that there is anything bad about it, but when you know, you know. Yeah, you get what I mean, and so does Atalanta. Annabeth gives me a withering stare all of a sudden.

"I see your look, and no I would never go for you." I give her an odd look and laugh.

"Why would I look at you like that?" I chortle. Annabeth is surprised by my answer.

"Er… that is a good question. Well, most of the Hermes and Ares boys are like that. Other than Luke of course, but I like your answer." I shrug indifferently.

"I have an older sister, and she would slap my head off if she caught me acting like the… Ares children. And it prevents me from getting gutted by the knife in your holster." I say warily, eyeing the knife on her belt. Annabeth laughs at my expression.

"Good. You have a sister?" She asks. I'm tempted to just lie, but some of Apollo's training comes in. *ayo* The best way to lie is not to say everything.

"Her name is Zoe." I smile at the memory of her. Gods, I wish she was here. It would have been so much more fun.

"Cool, I also have two stepbrothers, they are… fun." She answers carefully. She also has a smile, but it looks a bit more forced than the previous one. I figure she doesn't want to talk about it, so I change the subject.

"That bad, huh? I won't push. So, how will we set up capture the flag?" Annabeth laughs nervously as if nearly dodging a bullet.

"I can show you since you already have your sword. We won't need you to get a weapon for this. We can use magical items, like your sword." Annabeth then adds, "Normally, if a camper doesn't have a weapon, which is everyone else, they go to that shed over there with the spear going through it." She points to a muddy swamp blue shed with a deteriorating roof that indeed has a spear impaled through the wall slightly above the window.

"What would other magical items look like instead of mine? Can I get a visual example or something?" I ask, staring at my pen. Annabeth also looks down at my pen, as if arguing with herself. After about 10 seconds, she finally concludes. She holds up her Yankee cap and motions it.

"This," She puts on the cap, "is a magical item." My jaw drops. The second she placed her hat on her head, she turned fully invisible. I extend my hand and poke at the space I had once seen her. A yelp emerges from it.

"Percy," She complains at my stupidity, "I'm invisible, not completely devoid of matter." I smile sheepishly.

"Sorry, but I had to make sure." She takes off her cap, arms crossed and then frowns.

"Making sure doesn't mean you have to poke my cheek. Anyway, it's about time we head out to the forest and meet up with Luke. It was fun talking though!" Annabeth chirps. Now that I think about it, Annabeth is a lot friendlier than when you first meet her. She just needs to warm up a little. Hopefully, I found my first tangible friend here.

While we are walking to the place to meet up with Luke, I think about what Mom said. Aphrodite should be claiming me, soon. I asked Luke about me getting claimed and his answer was pretty dark.

"Who knows when you'll be claimed. If you're important, which it looks like you are, then you might be claimed during the next week. But I don't know, Gods are weird. You could be claimed today, in a week, in a month, or if you are unlucky years." He groused. I'm assuming that he has some sort of grudge against the Olympians. Probably because, when a camper is unclaimed, they remain in the Hermes Cabin, which I presume is very cramped and does not have the best conditions for sleeping.

We both meet Luke in the forest, which is right in the middle of the camp. The Forest acts like an inner barrier to monsters and also makes an easy place to set up capture the flag.

"Wassup, Percy, and Annie," Luke calls out when he spots us. I turn to Annabeth a bit shocked.

"Annie?" She didn't seem like the type of person to have an affectionate nickname. Then again, she didn't seem like the type of person to be affectionate either. She gives me a withering glare.

"Don't you dare," She threatens with a finger? I raise my hands up like when I was with Zoe. Ah, I miss her.

"Just asking," I chuckle. She keeps her eyes on me and then turns to Luke.

"So, I figure we show Percy the ropes of the game," Annabeth tells the Hermes child.

"We are? No offense Percy, but what made you do it? This is normally not part of the tour." Luke asks. Even though his words are kind, they do affect me. Once again, I feel like I have no friends here.

"Thanks," I crack sarcastically, "I appreciate your words." Luke rolls his eyes and slouches.

"You get what I mean. Also, you haven't answered my question, Annie." Luke presses. I turn to her as well, his rather blunt question was still a good question. Why had Annabeth done this? Annabeth then becomes pretty flustered and blushes, pink on her lightly tan cheeks.

"N-no specific reason, I just thought he was a p-pretty okay guy. Plus, he's the only other person my age here, so I want to make a friend. You got a problem with that?" Annabeth rants, glaring pointedly at Luke in the end, who looks slightly guilty of forcing Annabeth to admit what she just said.

Something about what just happened strikes me as odd. The way Annabeth said the stuff, made me reminiscent of Atalanta and the way she practically every sentence had a threat aimed at me. It might just be me having confirmation bias, but I'm getting a weird sense of deja vu. Confirmation bias is the tendency of people to favor information that confirms or strengthens their beliefs or values and is difficult to dislodge once affirmed, according to the books I read when I avoided Gabe.

In other words, let's say someone says everything around them involves the number three. They truly believe that everything involves this number. Three lights in the stoplight. Three blue cars on the way to work. Three girls in your class. Five shorts in your dresser… uh let's skip that. So, when the person sees a number that doesn't involve three, the brain automatically ignores it. As if it only wants to register the things that represent three. The term confirmation bias was created by Peter Wason. And that is your daily psych lesson from professor Percy.

I have always loved Psychology. I haven't told anyone this, but before the whole Greek ordeal happened, I planned in my life to be a Psychiatrist. I've always wanted to say this to someone, but every single time I think about it, I feel that I'll ruin the mood. But anyway, I've read up on some books on the topic of psychology and I can give a pretty good estimate of what's going on in people's brains. But now that I am a demigod, I can throw that dream out the window.

Anyway, Luke runs to a group of kids who are all huddled in one group of about 30 people. He goes to the middle and brings them close as he starts to speak strategy.

"So here's the plan, and I'm not going to sugarcoat it. We are probably going to get obliterated like normal, but this time we have a chance. Their best two people are gone to do some hunting with Lady Artemis, so that's two down. And we have Percy Jackson, who is now probably the best fighter here. Now, everyone, we have strength in numbers, all we have to do is pick fights, and find the ones we can take. If you can't find someone that you are around or better in skill level, go with someone and double team. We got this! And if people will help the newer ones, such as Percy, this will go very smoothly." Luke chants.

Just so you know, I think of myself as an introvert, so talking to 2-3 people is difficult, much less than having 30 in one group. I'm glad that Luke is taking the loss well, but I'm starting to dislike the way he is pushing the responsibilities of being the best one here to me. I shake off the looks of judging and head off with Annabeth. Annabeth is stationed on the far right near the river that is the dividing line between the two sides.

"So what's our plan here?" I say, leaning on a nearby tree. Annabeth turns to me and shrugs.

"At this point, we've explained most of the things. I assume you've played capture the flag before. It's just like that, but whenever you see someone, you have to fight them. If you win, they go to your jail. And vice versa. Also, I wouldn't lean on that. Dryads get pretty angry when you are on their property." She explains calmly. I jump off of the pretty tree and peer around, frantically hoping none of the dryads or any nymph saw me. Annabeth sees me doing this and rolls her eyes.

"Relax, they won't be here because we warned them about us playing capture the flag tonight." Annabeth laughs at my expression of relief. I think about facing my fellow hunters, and get scared. Maybe not everyone in the hunt is my friend? Someone could try and hurt me. Annabeth sees my apprehensiveness and nudges my shoulder/forearms with her elbow.

"Hey, you'll be fine. I mean, I don't know anything about the hunt, but you are our best one. Plus it's your first time, so you've got nothing to lose. Also, Chiron mentioned no maiming, so we are good on that." I breathe another sigh of relief. Guess who is not losing a limb, today boys! And girls! And whoever else! Also, it's not only me, to be fair. The rules are for everyone, so I guess that I'm not special. In the distance, I hear a loud and sharp whistle, which I assume is from Chiron.

The games have begun.

Ink-Like I said, this chapter was trash, but I really wanted to add a Hunger Games reference at the end, but then it wouldn't flow, so I just scrapped the idea. Hopefully, you stick around till the next installment but for then Au Revoir!

Scenario: Bye!

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