Author's Note:

You're probably thinking: finally, an actual chapter again! Sorry about that.

I don't really have anything to say besides that I would very much appreciate it if you reviewed instead of just reading, because the thing that tells me how many people have read it doesn't tell me if you liked it.

Also, sorry that I changed Athena's personality a little bit. I kind of just needed to do that in order for the story to make sense.

Disclaimer: I'm not Rick Riordan. Does that surprise you? I hope not.

Chapter 2

BY THE TIME WE'D GOTTEN TO THE AIRPORT, boarded our plane, and gotten comfortable in our seats, Ellie looked about ready to cry.

"I'm scared of heights," she confessed.

"It'll be fine," said Annabel. "And besides, you can just go to sleep and dream up that you're safe on land."

Ellie looked at her doubtfully. I decided to change the subject.

"So, you know how you guys don't know anything about your dads?"

They both flinched, and I almost regretted bringing it up.

"My dad lives in Ireland," Annabel said. "Haven't I told you that before?"

"Oh, come on," Ellie said, rolling her eyes. "We all know that's not true. Maybe the guy who you called daddy when you were little and who lived with you for a few years moved out to Ireland, but you know nothing about your biological dad."

Annabel glared and Ellie shrunk back, knowing she'd made a mistake.

"Who told you that?" Annabel demanded.

"Umm, I believe you mentioned something about it in third grade," Ellie mumbled.

"And even if what you say is true, why would a biological dad be the slightest bit important when I have a perfectly fine dad who I know and who cares about me?"

As you can see, Annabel is a bit touchy on the subject of her dad, biological or the one she grew up with.

"Actually," I said, gaining confidence, "It is important."

Annabel glared so harshly at me that I thought, maybe I should just let someone at Camp Half-Blood explain. But as her best friend, I thought it would be kind of mean to keep that big of a secret from her.

I didn't let her say anything, because to be honest, she can be pretty scary when she's mad.

"It's important because your dad is a god."

"My dad is a what?" she asked. She actually seemed curious. Maybe a bit annoyed, but she definitely wasn't angry anymore.

"Your dad's a god," I informed her, "like how my mom's a goddess. I'm not sure which god. Your's is too, Ellie."

"How do you know?" Annabel asked.

"Athena told me."

I took the note out of my pocket and read it aloud.

"Wow," said Ellie. "I never thought that someone as important as a goddess would care about me, the lowly Élouase Dupont."

"Well, I guess since you're a demigod, she cares a little bit about what happens to you."

"I guess."

Annabel didn't have much to say for the rest of the flight; in other words, she didn't speak to us for the rest of the day. Me and Ellie talked some, but we never said anything about dads or mom or gods or camp. I didn't want Annabel to get mad or upset.

I couldn't sleep that night. Ellie slept half the flight, I swear, but I'm pretty sure Annabel just faked it.

When we got to New York early in the morning, me and Annabel had to wake up Ellie. She protested, saying that it was much too early to get up, but we dragged her out of her seat and forced her to get off the plane.

It took us about fifteen minutes to leave the airport, but we were just lost. We eventually just asked a cab driver to take us to take us to half-blood hill. He didn't have much of an idea where that was, but we made our way to Long Island and eventually found it. I had a pretty good hunch that we were there, because at the top of the hill was a large tree with a dragon curled around it.

I paid the driver with the money Athena had given me and Annie, Ellie, and I stood at the bottom of the hill looking up.

"Well, come on!" I said. "Let's go find a blue house!"

When we'd gotten to the top of the hill, it was pretty obvious where we were supposed to go. We went over and knocked on the door. When it opened, I jumped back and Ellie blinked. When Athena had told me to 'tell whoever's there' that I already know who my godly parent is, I hadn't expected a centaur.

The centaur looked surprised to see us, too.

"I wasn't expecting you three," he said.

"I'm supposed to tell you that Athena is my mom." I said.

"She claimed you?" he asked.

"Well… I guess so? I've known my mom is a goddess since I was six."

His eyes widened. "You have? How old are you?"

"Um, nine."

"Well, you can make yourself at home in Cabin Six," he said grimly, "right after you get the tour from your counselor, Annabeth."

The girl named Annabeth was pretty okay. She seemed nice. She told us all about the camp, and the gods. She said she wasn't sure if Élouase and Annabel would be claimed yet, because they weren't thirteen, so they didn't have to be claimed for another four years.

Ellie and Annabel made themselves at home in the Hermes cabin. The campers there seemed a bit unhappy about that, as they'd gotten used to having to deal with much fewer 'unidentified' campers. Annabel was still sensitive about the whole actually, your dad is a god! thing, but she dealt with it.

Nothing too interesting happened that day. We all received weapons (me and Ellie got swords, but Annabel chose a bow and arrow, and one of the other campers speculated that her dad might be Apollo).

We practiced with our weapons and tried to make conversation with other campers until the conch horn blew for dinner.

I waved to Annabel and Ellie before sitting down next to Annabeth at the Athena table. Our plates magically filled themselves, and we all got up and scraped a bit of our meal into eternal fires as offerings for the gods.

Hi, mom, I thought, as I pushed a cookie into a fire. Thanks for the tickets. And for the advice last time I saw you.

I didn't really know what else to say.

We ate dinner, then went to the campfire, where we sat around and talked and sang songs for a bit. The fire was pretty cool. It glowed different colors based on the mood, and the more energy everyone had, the higher and warmer the flames got. Then Chiron got everyone's attention by stomping on one of the fire pit stones. All the campers fell silent.

"First of all," Chiron said, "I would like to welcome our three new campers. They came from London today. Would they please stand?"

I stood, and my eyes found Annabel and Ellie across the way. They looked a bit nervous, so I smiled and gave them a thumbs up. Ellie just nodded, and Annabel smiled.

"Would you like to introduce yourselves?" Chiron asked. We all nodded.

Chiron nodded at me.

"Hi," I said. "I'm Jacqueline Smith. You can call me Jackie. I'm nine."

I looked at Annabel.

"Hello, I'm Annabel Lee, and I'm nine years old."

Ellie came last.

"I'm Élouase Dupont. You can call me Ellie. I'm also nine years old."

Then Chiron spoke again. "Well, other than that, we've got Capture the Flag tomorrow. Ares is red, and Athena is blue. Now, enjoy your s'mores!"

So yeah, nothing too special happened.

But the exciting stuff would come soon. Very, very, soon.

Author's note: I am proud of myself for finishing this so quickly. It's 1,229 words, which is good for just an hour!

Since I replied to the reviews in my last author's note, that's pretty much it for now! I'm going to work on the first chapter of that new story I told you about in my last note. It's going to be a bit different (you'll see what I mean when I post it).

Sorry that I didn't do more writing and I wasn't able to post when I got back from vacation, but at least I posted now!

I'll let you know about my writing schedule when I know more about what hours I'll be in school.

Love,

Ivy Antionette