CHAPTER 3: THE WAY TO LONG ISLAND

Alright! SuzuBells here! In honor of Magnus Chase (and the Sword of Summer), I'm releasing today! Now, for my thank-you to everyone who read/followed/glanced/considered in passing. Have a virtual brownie! Special thanks to Chaos Evans, IsabellaFaye11, and TheSummerNightingale. But extra-special thanks to AutumnLeaves03! Your review made my entire career as a fanfiction writer! Shall we start now? Lights! Cameras! Aaaaaaaction!

I blinked once. Twice. No matter how hard I tried, I still couldn't believe what was before my eyes.

A Hogwarts acceptance letter.

HAHAHA, JUST KIDDING! I tricked you all! Bet you believed me for a second, DIDJA? MWAHAHAHA EVIL LAUGHTER yeah. I know, that was just awful of me. But I couldn't help it! It was just too great to pass up. But for real now.

It was right there on his (ridiculously neat) desk. The business card. I remembered that blond boy with the striking eyes who had given it to him. What had he said? Something about remembering something. Oh well. Anyways, what did these people want? Were they trying to advertise something? What can you advertise by killing monsters, anyways? I picked up the card to look at it closer. It was bright orange and had strange symbols in white. I blinked— for a second I could have sworn it was white with a picture of a field that said DELPHI STRAWBERRY FARM. Probably nothing. When I flipped it over, the back also had the same kind of symbols, except for it looked like an address or something.

What the heck?

Anyways, it was all Greek to me. Then I realized. Greek. I'm a genius! Being the genius that I am, I turned on my computer and input the words into a translator. I had to search for the Greek alphabet, at which point I realized it was Ancient Greek (again, what the heck?), then painstakingly copied each and every letter from the site to the translator, which magically had Ancient Greek as an option. After some fiddling around, incomprehensible translations, and looking at alternate interpretations, I finally got something that I could read:

Camp Half Blood

Half-Blood Hill

Farm Road 3.141

Long Island, New York 11954

(800) 009 0009

Hmmm. A camp? A summer camp, maybe? I guess it made sense…in the way that cutting all the flowers in someone's backyard with a chainsaw and telling them to buy your second cousin's ice cream brand made sense. In other words, it didn't. Oh, wait. The card was probably something from school (such a weird name though) and wasn't actually the thing that boy gave Hayden. Yes, that was it. I searched the rest of his room (even the sock drawer) until I remembered that he put it in his pocket. It was probably still in there. Ah, well. That could wait until tomorrow—I needed to shower, and believe it or not, Hayden spends a reeeeeally long time in there. So unless I wanted to wait a whole hour, the mysterious business card of mystery could wait. Even if it had to do with the Beings (monsters. Whatever). I left the room and did my thing. By the time I was done, I was pretty tired and ready to crash. As I lay in bed that night, I thought of what I should do to get Hayden to tell me what was going on.

When I woke up, he was gone.


He wasn't in his room. He wasn't eating breakfast (It was 11 AM, but hey. Saturday). He wasn't even in the bathroom. I searched everywhere, but nope. No sign. Not even a note. I was right about to check my mom's room when she opened the door, rubbing her eyes groggily. "Where's Hayden?" I demanded. She replied "Mmm…Hayden? He's at camp." That one word threw me for a loop. "Camp? What camp?" Mom's face said I don't have time for this. "You know, we've been planning this for a month. His friends came to pick him up this morning. You know, the ones around your age…?" I blinked. Instantly that group came into mind. Camp? Camp sounded familiar…OH! The business card advertised a Camp Half Blood. Then that really must have been it. Somehow they made my mom think that it was all planned. I had a feeling it was like how people couldn't see the Beings. "Oh, right. I forgot. Thanks, mom." I went into Hayden's room once more. Yup, sure enough, his backpack and jacket were gone, along with a few other things. I would have called him, but Hayden was "too young to have a phone" according to mom. I had to wait until I was thirteen to get mine, after all. Anyways, I decided to do some packing of my own. After all, I would have to go to this "camp" and make my baby brother spill the beans.

Once I was ready (having eaten some cereal and put some snacks and money in my backpack), I had to tell my mom. So I decided to tell her the truth…or most of it. Leaving a note that said I would be on Long Island "with my friends", I shouldered my backpack and walked out the door, locking it behind me. When I left the building, I decided I would use the convenient public transportation system to get there (thanks, Google!). After an hour and a half of exchanges and walking, I finally got to the part where I had to drive the rest of the way. But no, I had no car. I was fourteen. I was going to call a taxi. And now, to demonstrate my fabulous NYC cab whistle! My friends had taught me this after I moved—surely I could do it by now, right? I put four fingers into my mouth, two on each side, and blew...

What came out was a tiny squeak that quickly fell flat. So I tried again. And again. And… At this point, I was red-faced and way too embarrassed to try anymore. With a sigh, I waved my hand and hailed a cab the normal way. Handing the driver the business card, I got into the car. For another half hour, I gazed outside the window, lost in the passing scenery. I saw fields…fields…fields…dragon…fields…Wait, what? Dragon? I looked again, and sure enough: shining on top of a hill, what was undeniably a reptile of the winged kind.

The taxi went down a rutted dirt path that led to that very hill, and stopped. "Here we are," the driver said, handing me my card back. "Delphi Strawberry Farms." Huh. How odd. Well, this was related to the Beings. What else could I expect? I thanked him, tipped him, and got out. A wooden sign in front of me was also covered in Greek symbols. When I compared it to the business card, I knew that I had come to the right place. Camp Half Blood.

Finally a longer chapter! Also, I don't know if the address is right or not. I just copied it off the fanfiction Days of Future Past by ChickWithThePurpleGuitar, which I highly recommend. Plus I've never actually used public transport before, so please excuse my cluelessness. I did actual Internet research until I realized, what the heck, it doesn't matter. Thanks for checking out this new chapter—stay tuned! See y'all next time! Saying of the day: You can be anything you want. Except for a unicorn. Those are one-of-a-kind (sorry, last unicorn).