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"You guys really take Capture the Flag seriously, huh?" I said as Conor helped me strap all my armor in. He finished.

"Yep," he said, nodding satisfactorily at his work.

"So you're on my team, right? So that makes your parent-"

"Apollo," he said. "God of light, healing, and music. Cool, huh?"

"Yeah, it explains why your voice is so great," I responded, smiling as he looked at the ground and turned a light red. I walked around in circles, trying to get used to the extra weight. I stumbled over a rock. I groaned. "Ugh, I won't be able to run in this. I'm barely able to walk in it!"

"You'll get used to it," he said, steadying me before I could trip over my own two feet again. "Trust me." But could I, I thought subconsciously?

"Why didn't you tell me before?" I blurted out suddenly. He looked at me weirdly. "That I was a demigod?" he sighed.

"I wanted to," he admitted. "but I didn't know if you were one of us, and when you do know, monsters can detect you easier. And I needed a clean start." He smiled at me. "But I'm glad you're here. You know, I was the person to bring you back to health." He stuck out his chest pompously. "You should be thanking me." Going towards him feeling a bit less awkward, I kissed him on the cheek. He blushed, a smile creeping across his face.

"Thank you," I said sincerely. He opened his mouth to say something when Annabeth walked towards us.

"So, we're going to do the usual strategy," she told Conor. Then she turned to me. "You're going to be offense. What we're going to do is you're going to be the backup offensive. I know you're new, but I saw you take on the Ares cabin all by yourself."

"What?" Conor said, confused, looking at me with shock. Annabeth ignored him.

"Besides, if you get caught, I'll intercept them and help you out. I got your back," she said, smiling slightly and punching my shoulder. I nodded.

"Aye, aye, captain!" I said cheekily. She punched my shoulder again affectionately, and with one last smirk as she looked at both of us knowingly, she left to tell others of the plan.

I looked around the forest. The stream that divided the two territories twinkled in the light of dusk. I took a deep breath: none of the enemies were nearby yet. I quickly crossed the stream and sprinted as fast as I could into a clump of bushes. The armor was weighing me down too much: I quickly unstrapped the greaves: I didn't need protection in my legs. I automatically felt better. I held my bracelet in my hand, and it elongated into my sword. I looked around for people and then went further into the woods.

I had a couple of close calls: the Hephaestus kids almost found me, and I did not want to mess with them, what with their burly and muscular builds. Two people that looked like twins cursed as they stumbled through the woods. I almost laughed at their faces, but I controlled myself.

Eventually, I got to where the banner was placed, on the top of a pile of rocks. But it was completely surrounded by people. There was no way that I would be able to get through so many people. I looked around, noticing that there was a big tree that had a branch a couple of feet above the flag. I silently climbed up it, feeling so glad that I used to climb trees all the time in Narragansett. I eventually managed to get to the branch in question, but it was way too thin to ever hold my weight.

I sprinted as fast as I could on the branch and jumped off right as it was about to break, landing on top of the rocks without a scratch. But the noise startled people, and they were beginning to notice me. I quickly grabbed the banner and jumped off the rocks as far as I could. I hit the ground running, which wasn't a good idea. I tripped, but years of running for exercise allowed me to do this weird somersault thing and land on my feet and just keep running.

I had a couple of close calls with the cabiners, but I refused to stop. I kept running. I probably sprinted a half mile until I finally saw the stream that I would cross and be home free. Then, all of the Ares cabin arrived, blocking my path to the stream. There were a lot more of them than before, I thought nervously.

But then a surge of blue plumes surrounded them. They all were distracted by the sudden sneak attack. My team had my back, I thought. I crossed the stream, victorious. Annabeth appeared right next to me out of nowhere, causing me to jump slightly and point my sword at her. She made me drop the sword and then threw her arms around me.

"You did it!" She screamed.

"How the hell did you just show up?" I asked, dazed. She laughed.

"My Yankees hat- it turns the wearer invisible," she said.

"Okay, invisibility. Why am I not surprised?" I muttered. I looked down on the banner: it turned blue, with a seafoam green trident on it.

Dinner was pretty eventful. Percy's cup malfunctioned (he blamed the Stoll twins) and blue coke blasted everywhere. So we had to sit with Chiron and Mr. D at the head table. Mr. D kind of ticked me off: he never got my name right, and he probably threatened to turn me into an atlantic bottlenose 20 times. Normally I would've punched him in the face numerous times, but Percy shot me a warning glance everytime my frustration sent me to the brink.

After dinner, we had a huge campfire. The flames were magic, and fed off of the excitement and happiness of the moment. There were so many people I didn't know: but most of them smiled at me, laughing, and introduced themselves. To my right, Annabeth was talking to Percy animatedly while Percy's eyes were glazing over. Conor sat to my left, abandoning his cabinmates and friends to sit with me. He nudged my knee with his.

"So you okay?" He said. "I know it's a lot to process, but you seemed to totally embrace it." He chuckled. "When I found out my dad was Apollo, I literally tried to run away from camp." I shrugged.

"You know, when I was little, I knew that I was different," I winced at the memories. "People were too cruel. So I guess that, even though this whole greek-gods-are-our-parents thing is totally insane, it's not," I struggled to find the words. "Malicious. And that's what's important."

"Nice word choice," he approved, trying to lighten the mood. It worked: I laughed.

"I know. I guess those few months at Goode really helped me expand my vocabulary," I joked.

We spent the rest of the night talking about nonsense, like pranks and regular camp activity. We eventually had to leave since it was getting so late. Lying down in my bunk, I couldn't help but feel as if, just maybe, I found home.

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