ANDI'S P.O.V.
They don't understand. Nobody does. I mean sure, Cara thinks she does. After all, she's my sister. I know Mom would've. But Dad—er, Poseidon—made sure she wouldn't understand anymore. He didn't love her. He doesn't love us. We're just two more devil kids he spawned. And Percy, don't even get me started! Tyson is… well, Tyson's alright, I guess.
I stared at the badly chipped cotton-candy colored nail polish. Absently, I thought, "One of the Aphrodite kids has to do them for me."
I came out of the bathroom at around 11:30. That way, I knew Percy, Cara, and Tyson were all asleep. Tyson snored like Katy Perry singing with a sinus infection. I rummaged through my bright blue camp truck that shimmered and had little goldfish all over it. I blindly pulled out what I thought was my red sweatpants and XXL Elvis Costello t-shirt and slipped them on. After climbing into my bunk, making sure to shove my foot near Cara's face, I stared at the ceiling. In the middle, there were a bunch of fish-horses rocking back and forth thanks to the cool sea breeze coming in from the window. Little tridents were dotted throughout the area, and merpeople, clams, crabs, coral, fish, and other sea-related things swam around, thanks to a well-built holographic projector. Music that sounded suspiciously like the fairy dance music in the 2003 version of Peter Pan, composed by James Newton Howard, softly floated through the room. I soon fell asleep.
The sound of a very loud instrument, maybe a gazillion reed pipes, woke me up so fast I thrashed and fell off my bed. Someone stifled a laugh, and I looked up to see Percy's cheeks puffing up and his face turn red. I was so mad I couldn't even speak, so I just stormed to the bathroom. "Oh, no!" I said. My jet black hair was a rats nest, and I had a couple pimples appear over night. I carefully combed through my hair and slipped on a black and pink heart headband, took a wash cloth and popped my pimples, and pulled on some brown shorts and a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt that Chiron gave me and Cara, and walked into the bedroom. Cara and Percy were dressed already, and Tyson had even left. A conch horn blew, and we walked out to breakfast.
We sat down at the Poseidon table, and dryads bustled in, carrying platters of food. "Belgian waffles and peanut butter toast!" one announced. Goblets appeared on the tables as well as food, and Percy waved a hand over his cup. "Blue Coke" he said. Cara and I gave him questioning looks, but said nothing. I was the next to try. "Um, sweet tea," I felt odd talking to a goblet, but it instantly filled with the good stuff. "Water," Cara said. During breakfast, she kept glancing towards the Hephaestus table. I couldn't see who she was looking at, but I didn't really care. After breakfast, I hurried to the archery range. Chiron was teaching, even though I'm not that good, and I didn't want to go to sword practice because Percy was the instructor. I didn't dare wanna see him. Cara hurried to Arts and Crafts, where Hephaestus Cabin was doing "make your own weapons!" Annabeth ran to sword fighting. Little hag.…
"Ah! Andi, we're just starting, would you like to shoot first?" Chiron called. "Uh, sure," I said. I picked up a Camp bow and a quiver of arrows and aimed for a dummy instead of a target. Dummies were easier, and I didn't have much confidence. I aimed at a 24 degree arc, and shot at a medium power level. It just grazed the dummy's ear. "Oh, gods…" I muttered. "Um, Chiron, I think I'll try later," I said, dropped the bow and arrow, and ran to Arts and Crafts before they could say "ambrosia".
Arts and Crafts was easier. I made some sort of shield, even though it was deformed, as I watched Cara cuddling up to Jake Mason, head counselor for Hephaestus. I wanted to go up there and bash my shield over her pretty little face, but I stopped when I saw a boy, about 14, walk in. He had a certain air about him; darkness, death. Some of the kids got restless, and others took a sudden interest in their shoes. He strolled up to Jake Mason, whispered something in his ear, and after Jake nodded uncertainly, walked off. The kids went back to normal, whispering amongst themselves. I dropped my things and went to talk to Jake. "Who was that?!" I asked. "That was Nico di Angelo, son of Hades," he said grimly. "Hades, as in like, hospitable, rich, souls-of-the-damned-sewn-into-the-cloak Hades?!" I was shocked. I didn't know he really loved anyone enough to have kids. "Yeah. Three years ago, on a quest to save Artemis and Annabeth, his sister, Bianca, joined the Hunters, maidens of Artemis. They came to the junkyard of the gods. When she tried to turn off a machine that was gonna kill 'em all, it started running, and it crushed her," he said sadly. "One shall be lost in the land without rain," a female and a male voice recited together. I whirled around to see Percy and Annabeth, holding hands, walked in. I could tell it was hard for them to say it. "So, anyway, Andi, wanna canoe race?" Percy asked. "Nah, I'm gonna go see someone real quick," I smiled, waved to Jake, and sped off. I could feel Cara's eyes just glaring at me.
I found Nico di Angelo in his cabin. I rapped the door. Knock, Knock! And he opened with stern eyes. "What? Who are you? Whaddya want?" He asked almost angrily. "Hey, watch it, Dead Boy! I'm Percy's sister!" He glared at me, but let me in.
"Percy's sister, eh? Should've known. Same hair, face, eyes. But definitely not the same attitude. What do you want?" He studied me carefully. "Son of Hades, right?" I took a deep breath. "Yeah, so what? Oh, gods, you're not—no! No, I won't. I can't do it. It's too dangerous. Absolutely not!" He shouted. "Keep your voice down! You don't even know what I was gonna ask!" I cried. "Yes, I do. You want me to summon someone from the Dead. Someone who fell in battle, probably. Or a sibling. So, no," He shook his head. "You have to! It's my mom!" I pleaded. He faltered. "Please, Nico. She died a few months ago. Someone shot her. Please!" I was on my knees. "No!" and then he pushed me out of the cabin so hard I did a half back-flip. "Don't ask me again!" He yelled as he shut the door. "Andi!" Cara cried as she saw me, coughing into the dirt in front of a black, skull covered door. "I'm fine," I lied. "Just help me up."
After we got back to Poseidon's cabin, Cara asked, "What did you do?!" She yelled. "I asked Nico a question, he said no, and I pushed it. Simple," I shrugged. She threw her hands up in despair and stormed out of the cabin, muttering something about shipping me off to Barbados.
I walked to the entertainment area, a new looking building with foosball tables and air-hockey, and a huge 56 inch plasma flat-screen television. A few kids milled around, some lounged on the plush recliners and couches. Jake Mason was sitting on the edge of one of the couches, and to my absolute shock, Cara had her head rested on the same edge, her body lying across his lap and down the vicinity of the sofa. Trust my sister to do that when I needed her. I nearly cried out in anger, saying, "That's my sister! Leave her alone!" But I thought better of it. Instead, I plopped down on a nearby recliner, and let my feet stick out in front of me. We only had an hour of this entertainment a day, so I was happy to have some R&R. The T.V. was on USA network, CSI Miami was on, and I could hear my sister say "Eww!" every time a graphic scene showed. I endured that, and then went to dinner.
For dinner were burritos, Tostitos, chips and salsa, chalupas, tacos, soft tacos, and Grover's favorite, enchiladas. Before everyone started to eat, we walked up to the fire and scraped in our best portion of the meal. Then Chiron said, "To the gods!" And we all chowed down. After I stuffed down a little bit of everything, including flan, tres leches, and Puerto Rican fruit pastries, I dragged my feet through the grass and into my cabin to take a shower. The warm water flowed down my back, and the shampoo just massaged into my hair. After that was done, I slipped on my P.J.'s from the night before and fell asleep.