AN 6/7/15: Hey, so sorry this is a day late, but this has been honestly a crazy week. Thursday alone was a handful: waking up to hear one of my parents was in the hospital and Prom the same day. It proved to be interesting indeed. I haven't gotten much sleep, so I slept most of yesterday (Saturday). (On the note of my parent, he is home now if any of you were wondering and fine). I am glad to see replies to the most recent chapter. Also to the Guest who commented about the di Angelo's, don't you worry, friend, I have something special planned indeed. Work on the second book is going slowly so I started on the third for a change. I have many plans going in my devious mind in store for Allison meeting them and future events. I so badly want for you guys to be able to read it, but the things I have planned happen throughout the next books, and onward in the plot. Titan's Curse has some big plot developments in that aspect, but I shall say no more.

Hmm, Question of this week: What is your favorite book series? If it is PJATO/HOO, tell me that and your second. I am looking for new series to read :)

I walked with Chiron and Percy over to the Hermes cabin where Annabeth was waiting for us on the steps after the tour around the camp. She looked to be reading a book on Greek architecture. Typical child of Athena.

"Annabeth, I have Master's Archery class at noon, would you take them from here?"

"Yes, sir."

"Cabin Eleven, make yourselves at home." Chiron said as he gestured to the cabin. Now that I was closer I realized that the cabin was different from the last time I had seen it. I guess at some point they decided to rebuild, then I took a glance around and realized that some of the other cabins were similar. Huh. I looked to Chiron but he wasn't looking in my direction. He was guiding Percy into the cabin. As Chiron came into view of the residents they all bowed. Well that's formal. Probably just want to stay on his good side for when they pull pranks.

"Well, I must be going. Good luck to you, Percy." Chiron gave me a slight nod and cantered off.

Once he left the kids noticeable were eyeing Percy.

"Well, go on." Annabeth said, gesturing to the doorway. Percy squared his shoulders and stepped through the threshold, only to stumble. I sighed, a great first impression. I at least had my sword fight with Luke under my belt impression wise. Knowing camp, the news had spread already. There were a few snickers but aside from that everyone stayed quiet.

Looking into the cabin for the first time I noticed that it was even more packed than when I had stayed here. That was a bit concerning. There were sleeping bags strewn all over the floor, leaving very minimal floor space. The cabin really needed to be expanded or something, maybe a Hecate kid could do something magically to expand it? I peeked my head in further and noticed that somebody had put my bag at a spot on the floor next to a pillow and rolled up sleeping bag.

"Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven."

"Regular or undetermined?" Somebody in the back asked.

"Undetermined." Annabeth replied, causing everyone to groan a bit. Then Luke stepped in and chided the campers, introducing himself to Percy. I noticed Annabeth's slight blush and sighed a bit. Hopefully it was just a hero type admiration thing, he was too old for her. Annabeth then pulled Percy away from the cabin to stop him from making a bigger fool of himself. I followed and listened as she told him about how he had to make a better first impression. The conversation passed from one about Mrs. Dodds to Annabeth trying to convince Percy about the gods.

"Allison, do you believe any of this stuff?" He finally asked. I thought about what I should reply for a moment.

"It was a bit hard to believe at first, but yeah. Just think about all the incidents we had at school, then Mrs. Dodds and the battle on the hill. What else could explain it? For a while now I've had a feeling that stuff wasn't as it seemed. Sally protected us from a majority of stuff, but it was still out there."

Percy frowned a bit, still not wanting to accept this new, dangerous world. I honestly couldn't blame him. It was scary, and there was no going back.

Then a husky voice yelled, "Well, newbies!" I looked over to see a group of girls coming over from the Ares cabin. Oh great. Just what I need. I turned a bit and slid my knife slightly out of its sheath, ready for action if it came to it.

"Clarisse, why don't you go and polish you spear or something?" Annabeth was equally not as happy to see the group as I was. I knew these types of kids, the Ares cabin was always filled with them.

"Sure, Miss. Princess. Right after I run you through with it Friday night."

"Erre es korakas!" Go to the crows, dang. "You don't stand a chance."

"We'll pulverize you and your whole team." Clarisse jeered, but I caught her eye twitch. She wasn't entirely as confident as she projected about that threat. I smiled a bit, typical Ares kids and their attempts to be tough and macho. Never changes.

"Who's the runt?" She asked, nodding her head at Percy. I guess she already knew about me from breakfast.

"Percy Jackson, meet Clarisse, daughter of Ares."

"Like the war god?" He asked.

"Got a problem?" Clarisse sneered. My hand lingered closer to my knife, I noticed that two of the girls had swords strapped to their belts.

"No, it just explains the smell." Leave it to Percy to tick off a bunch of Ares kids on his first day.

"We've got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy." She grinned, so sure of herself in the ability to take down two untrained kids. People like her made me pretty ticked off. It was hard enough for a new demigod to wrap their minds around this place without having a bunch of bullies pestering you. They needed to be taken down a notch or two. She had to get better at her insults too, they were like kindergarten level.

"Percy."

"Whatever, come on, I'll show you."

"Clarisse," Annabeth tried to intervene but there wasn't much she could do.

"Stay out of it wise girl." Wow, a compliment as an insult. Bravo.

She looked pained, but stepped back. Clarisse and her buddies spread out in front of us and I slid into a slightly better stance. Percy handed Annabeth the Minotaur horn and got ready. They moved in like a pack of water buffalos: loud, smelly, big, and cumbersome. Clarisse and one of her sisters went for Percy as the two others went for me. I dodged around their grasps until they grew frustrated. They started throwing punches but I managed to dodge or deflect a majority of them. I glanced over to see Percy in a headlock.

"Take care of her, we'll take him." Clarisse said as she started towing a struggling Percy toward the bathrooms. They are in so much trouble if they try to take him in there. Annabeth looked torn between following Percy and staying here with me. She decided to linger at the bathroom door, still able to watch me.

"You guys think you are so tough? Picking on all the new kids? Don't you think they have a tough enough time trying to understand this all without your attempts? Pathetic, and you call yourselves children of war. Just a bunch of little bullies who think themselves strong is all I see." I taunted. They growled at me and as I dodged a punch from one the other took advantage of that and grabbed my shoulders. I quickly dropped all my weight, going limp and she stumbled. I took use of her off center of balance and twisted her around so she tumbled into the grass. I dodged a swing and struck out with my own, hitting the girl's elbow to knock her blow aside. The one on the ground got up and let out an frustrated sound and drew her sword.

"So now you are sinking so low as to raise your sword against an unarmed demigod? Good luck with that." I whipped out my knife and I saw a slight bit of shock on her face, clearly not expecting me to have a weapon as a new kid. I was fed up with these girls, I was done. Screw me supposed to be acting like a newbie, they were going down. I deflected a hit and ducked a kick at my chest, sweeping low and knocking the kicker off balance. Soon I was dealing with two sword wielding daughters of Ares.

Annabeth came running up the hill once she saw the fight take it's harsh turn, wielding a celestial bronze knife and yelling at the girls to stop. Just as I slammed the hilt of my knife into one of the girl's back, there was a loud crashing accompanied with screams and water blasted out of the bathrooms. Clarisse and her sister were swept out of the bathroom. My fight had stopped once the water came, all of us freezing, Annabth turning around and watching in wonder. The two girls sheathed their swords and ran down the hill as Annabeth and I ran down also.

Percy walked out, a bit stunned, but unscathed and completely dry. I smiled at his handiwork.

"How did you.." Annabeth was at a loss for words.

"I don't know." A bunch of campers had gathered around to gawk at the events. Clarisse and her sister were sprawled out in the mud and toilet water, completely soaked.

"You're dead, you hear me? Dead!" Clarisse yelled in rage.

"You want a gargle with toilet water again Clarisse? Close your mouth." Her sisters held her back from getting to Percy and led her away, the two I had fought shooting me nasty, furious glares. I just gave them a little wave, sticking my tongue out at them a bit for the heck of it. I then turned to Percy, giving him a high-five. Annabeth came up to us, looking like she wanted to say something.

"What?"

"I'm thinking that I want you two on my team for Friday night."

As we finished Percy's tour, campers whispered about us as we passed, stuff about toilet water and knives. Finally we came back to the trail by the lake that lead back to the cabins.

"I've got training to do, I'll see you two at dinner, just follow you cabin to the mess hall."

"Annabeth, sorry about the bathrooms, that you were put in that situation."

"Whatever."

"It wasn't my fault." She looked at him skeptically. I could already see it now, Percy in the near future using his watery powers to defeat monsters, like how the other Poseidon kids used to do.

"You need to talk with the Oracle." She finally said.

"Who?"

"Not who, what. The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron." Not who, what?

"Wait, Annabeth. Isn't the Oracle a person?" Memories of the old Oracle coming to the forefront of my mind. Had something happened to Ruthie? She was the Oracle when I was first at camp. But the Oracle moved from person to Percy through the ages, it might not have been her.

"How did you-yeah, in the old days. Not anymore, she's a mummy now." My eyes widened, Chiron had really missed some things when he caught me up. What happened to Ruthie, if it was her? I needed to have a little chat with him later.

"I, uh, remembered from school, the old Oracle at Delphi." I lied, covering up my blunder. It was a logical reason, it could pass.

"True- Percy! Don't encourage them, Naiads are terrible flirts." Annabeth caught Percy cautiously waving back to some of the Naiads in the lake. I took a step closer to Percy. I didn't want my presence here to start something, it was better if I stuck closer to Percy.

"Naiads. That's it, I want to go home."

"Don't you get it, Percy? You are home now. Camp is the only safe place in the world for kids like us. You can't just go home without having to face monsters constantly." Annabeth explained.

"Kids like us, so mentally disturbed kids?"

"No," she sighed. "I mean not human, well not completely human. Half-human."

"Half-human and half-what?" Percy asked cautiously.

"I think you know."

After a moment Percy replied. "God. Half-god." He had an interesting look on his face, like a mix between fear and awe.

"That's right, you dad isn't dead. He is one of the Olympians." Technically, minor gods and goddesses who are not Olympians can have kids too.

"That's.. crazy."

"Is it? Think about it, all the gods did in the old stories was run around falling in love with mortals and having kids. Do you think they've changed at all if there wasn't need to?" She had a point there, I wasn't even sure what would be big enough to make the gods change even that.

"So then, if all of the kids here are half-gods-"

"Demigods, that's the official term." She corrected, her Athenian side showing.

"Okay, demigods, then who's you dad?" Annabeth's face reddened and she looked like she had this conversation too often with new kids.

"Not all the parents of demigods have to be gods. Goddesses have children too."

"Then who's your mom?" Percy looked a little embarrassed.

"Athena, goddess of wisdom and battle, right?" I asked. She looked at me curiously.

"Yeah, you really read up on the old stories, huh? How did you know?"

"Well, you were reading a book about architecture earlier, Clarisse called you wise girl, you seem pretty bright, and you have grey eyes, just like Athena in the stories."

"That's pretty good for you to pick up on all that." She complimented. Percy looked like he couldn't believe that I had gotten that all on my own.

"You sure you aren't my sister?" She joked, a small smile on her face.

"I don't.. um," I paused awkwardly, thinking of how to explain it to her. It seemed like I could never be who I was, always hiding. A picture of my mother in her favorite house dress came to mind at the mention of her.

"Ally started living with my mom and I when we were both toddlers." Percy filled in for me.

"Yeah, that." I confirmed, thankful he explained it for me.

"Oh, sorry. So you don't know who your godly parent would be then?" She looked a little embarrassed.

"Yeah.. no." I technically did know, but I just couldn't say I did. Again with the having to hide everything, living life in the shadows. How ironic.

"Well maybe our parents will send a sign or something? I bet my mom knew who my father was."

"Maybe not, Percy. Gods don't always reveal who they are. He might not have." Annabeth said carefully. It was sad but true, not all gods did. They were mainly in it just for the short term relationship.

"My dad would have, he loved her." Annabeth looked like she wasn't happy to go down this road again with another camper. Having to break the news to new kids was never easy.

"Maybe you're right. He might send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to claim you as his son by sending a sign. Sometimes it happens."

"You mean sometimes it doesn't."

Annabeth busied herself with running her hand across the railing. "Well, the gods are busy. They don't always have time for us, they tend to have a lot of kids.. and they don't always-well sometimes they don't care about us. They ignore us." The image of all of the unclaimed kids I had seen came to mind from the Hermes cabin. Even if they were claimed by a god who wasn't an Olympian, they still had to stay in the Hermes cabin.

"So we're stuck here. Is that is? For the rest of our lives?"

"It depends. Some campers can manage with only staying during the summer. If you're a child of say, Aphrodite or Demeter, maybe Mr. D, you can skirt by. You aren't too powerful a force, monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with just a few months of summer training. Then you can live the rest of the year in the mortal world. Out there, we attract monsters. They sense us and come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble, about ten or eleven years old. After that, most demigods make their way here, or get killed off. A few manage to survive out there and become famous. If I were to tell you some of the names you'd know them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But those are few and far between."

"So this camp is protected from monsters?"

Annabeth nodded. "Yes, unless they are stocked in the woods or specifically summoned by someone on the inside, for practice fights, practical jokes.

"Practical jokes?"

"Look, the point is that the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside we look like a valley, or a strawberry farm."

"So.. you're a year-rounder?"

She nodded again and took out her camp necklace from under the collar of her shirt. It held the same beads as Luke's, but with the addition of a college ring.

"I've been here since I was seven. Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college.

"Why so young?"

She fingered her necklace. That could be a sensitive question for some campers. "None of your business."

"Oh." We stood there for a minute in uncomfortable silence. "So.. I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?"

"Percy.." I warned. I had just gotten him safe and now he wanted to endanger himself again.

"It would be suicide, but you could with permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of summer session unless.."

"Unless?" A quest.

"You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time.." By the tone of her voice I could tell the last quest had not gone well. But no more quests? That was just weird. Yeah, there weren't a ton of quests when I was at camp, but we would go out on missions. I had been on my fair share of them myself. Not quite quests but we still got out.

I realized that I had missed a bit of the conversation, they were talking about the summer solstice now. Annabeth seemed frustrated about it too, like she wanted to do more.

"I wish I knew. Chiron said the satyrs know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong on Olympus, something major." I knew I had to hold back, if the campers knew about the master bolt, things would get bad. The last thing we needed right now was for campers to get into an uproar.

"The best I can figure is that something important was stolen, and if it isn't returned by the summer solstice, there will be trouble. When you came, I was hoping.. I mean Athena can get along with just about anybody, except Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon. But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together." That might be a problem for you there Annabeth. I still don't see why the gods' kids have to be in line with their parents rivalries and spats. Nick and I were never like that..

"I thought you two might know something." Yeah, but it isn't for your ears.

"I've got to get a quest," Annabeth muttered to herself. "I'm not too young. If they would just tell me what the problem was-" Percy's stomach let out a howl and she stopped. You are too young for something this big, Annabeth. You don't want to get wrapped up into something that much bigger than yourself too soon, I thought sadly. The aroma of barbecue was drifting down from the pavilion. Annabeth told us to go on and get ready to eat. She lingered back though, drawing what looked to be invisible battle plans with her finger. Probably for Capture the Flag.

Note: If you find any spelling or typing errors, I only did a once over, and one where I am very tired. Things have been busy so if you find a typo or mistype, just tell me. Thanks :)

Hope you have an awesome week, and hopefully end of the school year!