If you haven't read the Demigod Trap, you might want to.
Chapter 1
Addy and Izzy looked at one another, holding hands. Their parents stood right behind them. They were at the border of Camp Half-Blood. On the other side stood Chiron, in all his Centaur glory, along with one red-haired woman. Past them, spying from down the hill or from behind trees were kids, Satyrs, Nymphs, all eager to see what was happening.
"One step forward and we can spend our summers here," Izzy said to Addy.
"Or we smack into an invisible barrier, spend a week with Uncle Connor in the city, and then suffer another two day car ride home," Addy replied.
Izzy chuckled and then the two both lifted their right foot and stepped onto the camp grounds, past the barrier that kept mortals out. They both smiled and jumped. "We did it! We're demigods."
Katie and Travis smiled at one another and followed as well, Travis carrying Addy's duffle and Izzy's suitcase.
"Now, comes the more difficult question," Chiron said. "Where to place them."
"What do you mean?" Travis asked. "They'll go into the Hermes cabin."
"Uh, excuse me?" Katie asked. "I don't think that'll be a very good influence on them. They should go to Cabin Four."
"If anything they'll be the bad influence on my little siblings," Travis said. "Or has a certain situation from the end of last summer slipped your memory?"
"So they switched places," Katie said. "I don't want them to start stealing."
Izzy and Addy glanced at one another as their parents were going back and forth about where the two should stay while at camp.
"I'm going to start exploring," Addy said.
"Count me in," Izzy said. As they turned and began down the hill, Izzy noticed the red-headed girl smile and wink at them. The kids at the bottom of the hill scattered as the two started down, apparently not supposed to be there.
"You two are the talk of the camp," a voice said behind the two as they were examining the outside of the cabins. They turned to see a blonde boy, a year or two older than them. He had shining blue eyes, and tanned skin and was very cute.
Izzy and Addy looked at one another for a moment, smiles breaking onto their faces. "And why is that?" Addy asked.
"Well, no one can seem to understand what makes you two so special," the boy said. "I mean, you seem like normal girls to me... well, normal Half-Bloods, obviously. So, who's your parent?"
"Our parent?" Addy asked.
"As in one?" Izzy questioned.
"Your godly parent?" the boy asked. He motioned to the quiver slung over his back with a bow sticking out of it. "Like, my father's Apollo."
"Oh, well, my dad is Travis Stoll," Addy said. "And my mom is Katie Gardner." The boy cocked his head, confused.
"We're not exactly your normal demigods," Izzy said. "Our parents were both Half-Bloods. We kind of are the granddaughters of Hermes and Demeter."
The boy looked taken aback. "I didn't know that it worked that way as well."
"I don't think anyone did," Izzy said. "Probably why we're the talk of the camp." She smiled and held out a hand. "I'm Izzy and this is Addy."
The boy smiled. "Sonny," he said. "And don't laugh."
However, it was too late, as Addy couldn't help but chuckle at the name.
"Don't mind her," Izzy said. "She was raised by two sons of Hermes." She elbowed Addy a bit as Addy was still laughing.
"There you two are," Katie said, finding the two girls as they were sitting of the front stoop of the Apollo cabin with Sonny. "We have been so worried about you two."
Travis eyed the blonde boy. "And you are?"
"That's Sonny Staccato," Chiron said. "He's the head of the Apollo cabin, and a successful quest leader."
"So, have we come to a decision about which cabin we'll be in yet?" Addy asked, a little smugly.
"As a matter of fact, yes," Travis said. He dropped the duffle at her feet. "Follow your mother to Cabin Four, if you will. Izzy, I'll show you your cabin."
"Wait, what?" Izzy questioned. "You mean, we're going to be split up?"
"Well, as Addy draws her powers from my line," Katie said, "It makes sense that she should be with the children of Demeter. And same as you and your father, Izzy."
"This is a unique situation," Chiron said. "And, things can always be changed if the need comes."
Addy picked up her duffle and followed Katie to the Demeter cabin, throwing a quick wave in Sonny's direction to show that she still knew he was there. Izzy followed Travis to the Hermes cabin with a quick, "See you later, Sonny."
"It smells like your shop in here." It was the first thing Addy observed of the inside of the cabin. She had already expressed several ideas of the outside. Looking around the inside, however, she was just as shocked. Nearly every flat surface aside from beds and the floor was covered in potted plants, mostly various flowers. Addy could name most of them now, after helping her mother in the green houses that she used for her shop, but still wasn't thrilled to be surrounded by them twenty-four seven.
All the beds had either green or pink, or a combination of green and pink, themes to the blankets and pillows. They all mostly had floral patterns as well. However, what may have been most horrifying of all was that it was all clean. There were no shoes scattered on the floor, no dirty clothes over-flowing hampers, no nothing out of place.
"Where's my bed?" Addy asked.
"You get to choose," Katie said. She walked along the rows and sat on one of the beds that had plain sheets, indicating that it didn't belong to anyone one person. "This one was mine, if you'd like to follow more in my footsteps."
Addy took a deep breath and nodded. She opened her duffle and pulled out the sheets she had brought. They were electric blue and yellow striped. After hastily putting those on, she put the quilt cover on, ignoring as Katie tidied up Addy's sloppy job. As Addy stuffed the rest of her clothes into the dresser next to her bed, Katie straightened out the shoes Addy was dropping on the ground.
Just as they were finished with that, there was a knock at the door and the red-haired woman from before walked in. "Wow, Katie, your daughters really look so much like you... just with bluer eyes." In her arms she held five orange shirts. "I guessed that she was about a juniors small."
Katie smiled. "Thanks, Rachel." She turned to Addy. "This is Rachel Elizabeth Dare, also the Oracle of Delphi."
"The lady that spews prophecies in green smoke?" Addy asked as Rachel handed her the shirts.
"I'll take it that you were raised by Travis and Conner then," Rachel said. Addy took one of the shirts off the pile and stuffed the other four into her dresser. She then pulled off the red shirt she had been wearing, her back to the two women, and pulled on the orange Camp Half-Blood shirt.
"How do I look?" Addy asked.
"Like a demigod," Rachel said with a smile. "The other Demeter girls are about to groom and fly the Pegasi, if you'd like to join them. I can take you there."
"Pegasi?" Addy asked. "As in horses with wings? Totally!"
"Addy has a horse of her own," Katie said to Rachel. "Granted, one without wings."
Izzy stood in the doorway of Cabin Eleven horrified. The thing was worse that Addy's room...
She glanced at her father, who was smirking in amusement. Clearly, he'd never had a problem with Addy's messy habits, as she had seen how he allowed her to keep it when the two had switched places. Now, Addy had to tidy it up once a week or Katie was likely to throw anything on the floor into the trash or donate it to charity. But this... was that a slice of pizza on someone's pillow?
"So, pick a bunk, any bunk," Travis said.
"Are there any open?" Izzy asked looking around.
"I think that one is," Travis said pointing to a top bunk in the middle of the room. He stepped up and noticed that it was indeed without an occupant. It was also without a quilt or pillows. "We'll just snag a few things from these other beds..." He found a bed with four pillows and a quilt that was used to hide the corner lower bunk from the rest of the place. "There."
As there were no open drawers in any of the dressers, Izzy just propped her suitcase in the window that was at her head and pulled out the picture of her family, putting that on her pillow, now covered with her pillowcase. She felt a little odd as she had the only bed that was made, and the only one with pink sheets with daisies. Before she knew it, there was a knock at the door and Chiron strode in. He had five orange shirts.
"Oh, are those my camp shirts?" she asked, excited again.
"Of course," Chiron said, crouching to avoid low hanging items from the ceiling. He kept stepping on random items, shaking his head as he managed his way to Izzy's bunk where he handed her the shirts. She was off the bed and in the bathroom in a matter of seconds, before yelling and coming back out.
"I am so not using that bathroom until someone cleans it," she said sternly. She pulled the shirt on over the shirt she had been wearing, and through some struggle, managed to pull the other one off without flashing her father or Chiron.
"Yes, I suppose that I might have to insist on this cabin working to clean a little," Chiron said, looking around the place.
"Hey, give this one some rubber gloves and a bucket and she'll get it into tip-top shape," Travis said. He looked around again. "I think it's worse than when Connor and I were in charge.
"For some reason I doubt that," Izzy said. Chiron chuckled a bit. "Anyway, Izzy, your cabin was just headed over to the arena for some sword work. Now, I'm not sure if you've ever used a..." he stopped as Izzy reached into the side pocket of her suitcase and pulled out a short knife. When she spun her hand around, it extended to a two foot sword.
"My mom trained me," she said. "So that I could protect myself from monsters and stuff."
"Well, then, let's show you the way then," Chiron said. "We'll of course equip you with armor so you don't get hurt..."
"Ah, I have a feeling she'll take after her dad," Travis said placing a hand on Izzy's shoulder as they headed out of the cabin.
Izzy was a little upset to see that Sonny was gone from where she had left him, but wasn't going to let it get her down.
The four Stolls all met up after each daughter had gone to an activity and met their cabin. Travis and Katie hugged and kissed their daughters, bidding them good-bye, and Addy and Izzy waved them off. Izzy had to hold back tears.
They then made their way to the dining pavilion, as it was time for dinner. They knew how it worked, how they'd get their food, but make an offering to the gods first. Izzy and Addy kept sending one another glances, as they wanted to be sitting together, but had to sit with their cabin.
As soon as everyone was seated, however, Chiron stepped to the middle of the room. "This is an exciting year for us, here at Camp Half-Blood," he announced. "We have a few of our Roman cousins spending a few weeks here, helping to keep the peace between our two camps. I hope you will all help to make them feel welcome."
There were a few mumbles and nods, and two kids ducked down their heads, trying to not be noticed.
"As well, we have two very special girls," Chiron continued. "Not the daughters of any god or goddess, but instead the children of a son of Hermes and a daughter of Demeter. They possess the gifts of their grandparents, and are unique among their kind, Half-Bloods of a different type. Once again, I'm sure you will all do your part to help them adjust."
Addy beamed and waved when people looked around, but Izzy, like the Romans had, tried her best to not be noticed. Until Sonny spotted her. He smiled at her and she smiled back, her cheeks getting a little warm.
"Lastly, I'd like to introduce this year's senior counselor, and leader of the head of the cabins," Chiron said. He motioned to the head table, where Mr. D always sat. Next to him was a woman that very few had even bothered to notice (mostly because they didn't want to look in Mr. D's general direction). But this woman had long locks of brown hair, bright blue eyes, and a beautiful face. "Daughter of Aphrodite, Linda Belle. She has asked to be called Miss Linda."
Boys whistled while girls whispered about how pretty she was. Some of the older campers remembered her from their first years attending camp. However, Izzy and Addy were both horrified. Before them was the woman that had almost ruined their perfect family life, and she was probably out for revenge.