We got to camp in about thirty minutes. All I thought about during the ride was seeing my friends again. My dad thought about a lot of other stuff.

We passed a parking lot full of school buses. There were dozens of them, maybe even hundreds, in neat little rows, all orderly and lined up.

''Interesting,'' my dad commented, ''how the school buses are all arranged that way. How did they get them into that formation? It must've taken days. And when it's time to use them again, they'd have to make that one at the far end go first, followed by that one, and that one….''

Another time we saw this old helicopter that I thought was pretty ordinary looking, but my dad didn't think so. ''I can't believe it!'' he'd gasped. ''A Westland Whirlwind! Impossible! Those are extremely rare! Built in the 1950s'! I thought they weren't used anymore! Why is it up there? This is amazing!'' And of course then he had to stop the car to get his phone out and take dozens of pictures from every single angle imaginable before it flew out of sight.

I didn't mind these delays that much, though. It was just what made my dad my dad. I couldn't imagine him being any other way.

After almost an hour later, we arrived at Camp Half-Blood.

When I saw the familiar gate, by Thalia's pine tree on Half-Blood Hill, I felt like I was coming home. Not that my boarding school and my dad's house weren't great, they were. It was just that when I was at camp, I was with other people like me. I felt like I was actually being useful.

''Well, I have to stop here,'' Dad said. We both knew how the camp's magical borders didn't allow regular mortals to pass through. ''I'll see you in three weeks, Annabeth. Stay safe.'' He knew how dangerous being a demigod was, and how easily a carefree vacation could turn into a risky mission.

''I'll try my best. Bye, Dad. See you soon.'' I got out and waved until the car was out of sight.

''Tell me if you spot any more Westland Whirlwinds!'' he shouted as he drove away.

I nodded, smiling, turned toward the entrance, and started walking, more excitement building up inside me with each step.

The first thing I thought when I got in was how unaffected the camp was from the weather. Not a bit of snow had fallen anywhere on the beautiful green fields. Walking in, I felt immediately warmer, like it was spring instead of winter. The lake wasn't frozen, and everything looked like it had in summer. I knew that all of this was because of the camp's magical borders that kept out mortal weather as well as monsters and regular mortals.

I looked around to see which campers were here. Most of the year-rounders, of course. Almost all of the other campers were here for break. There were the Stoll brothers, Clarisse, Chris, Katie, Miranda, Clovis, Will, Drew, Lacy, Harley, Malcolm, and even more by the cabins and at the arena. Unfortunately, Percy wasn't here yet.

I saw a familiar horse galloping over to the entrance.

''Chiron!'' I ran over to my teacher, who was in centaur form, and hugged him. Chiron was like a second father to me. All those years when I thought my dad hadn't cared about me, Chiron had helped me through.

''Annabeth. Welcome back,'' the centaur said warmly. ''How is the work on Mt. Olympus?''

I felt a surge of pride when he mentioned Mt. Olympus. Last summer I'd gotten the incredible honor of getting to redesign the home of the gods after it got wrecked in the Titan War. It was a dream come true. I had so many great plans going for the rebuilding. Right now I was working on the bowling alley.

''It's going great!'' I exclaimed. ''I'm planning to make the bowling alley - ''

''Hey, Annabeth,'' a familiar voice behind me smirked, making me jump. ''More architecture plans?''

I spun around, and Percy grabbed me in a hug. It was just like him to sneak up on me like that. Percy. Oh gods.

But now he was here. We were together.

''Yes, more architecture plans, Seaweed Brain,'' I said, lightly pushing him away. ''Not like you would understand any of it.

''No arguing with that,'' he said, grinning.

I took his hand. ''Come on, let's go see what everyone else is up to.''

Even though we didn't live too far away from each other, I hadn't seen Percy for weeks. We'd both been pretty busy – not just with our schoolwork. There were some warnings about a new threat to the gods coming soon, and we were trying to figure out what it was all about. There were signs, like – like –

Like that earthquake at school! How could I have forgotten about something so important? Stupid, I told myself.

I tried not to, but I couldn't stop growing frantic. Who wouldn't?

Couldn't the world of gods and monsters just leave us demigods alone for a few months? We deserved it, no doubt about that. But somehow, we always ended up getting tangled in the gods' problems.

That ancient feeling the earth gave… it was like nothing I'd ever felt before…

Percy must have sensed that something was wrong. He stopped walking. ''What is it?'' he asked.

''Nothing!'' I automatically said. I really didn't need to ruin his break with these crazy thoughts of mine.

''Yeah, right.''

''It's nothing! But if you really have to know – and I'm guessing you do, being the Seaweed Brain that you are – I have this feeling that something is wrong on Olympus…''

''How come?''

''Earthquake…'' I muttered.

''Earthquake?''

I rolled my eyes. ''Don't you know that that could mean?''

''Um… no, actually, I don't,'' he admitted sheepishly, in a way that was both cute and annoying at the same time.

Well, Seaweed Brain not knowing obvious stuff certainly wasn't new.

''You know what, it doesn't really matter. It's not like we can do something about it. We don't even what it is,'' I said. Worrying people about this was definitely not going to help.

''I guess,'' he agreed. ''Although, if you really can sense something is wrong, you should probably talk to Chiron about it.''

How had I not thought of that before?

Percy must have seen my surprise because he smirked. ''How does it feel like being the clueless one?''

''Not so great,'' I admitted. ''Definitely not an everyday occurrence. So don't go thinking you're all high and mighty now."

We laughed, and I decided to forget about my worries for real this time. After all, what did I have to worry about when Seaweed Brain was by my side?

We walked, hand in hand, around the whole camp, to see what all the others were up to.

It turned out that everyone was in a festive mood, even the Ares kids, who showed it by not guarding the entrances and greeting campers by stuffing their faces with snow from outside the camp's borders, like they usually did.

Speaking of the Ares kids, their counselor, Clarisse La Rue, was waiting for us with a huge smirk on her face.

Clarisse used to be one of my least favorite people – but all that changed during the years, as I got to know her and her own struggles better. She really wasn't a bad person. She was just an Ares kid – it was in her nature to act all tough and warlike. Clarisse was one of the camp's greatest heroes. Last summer, she had single-handedly slayed a drakon to avenge her friend Silena's death.

"Looks like the two lovebirds are having fun," she snickered. "Well, not for long they aren't! Come on, guys!" she yelled at the other Ares kids, who, as though they'd been practicing this, immediately started packing snow from outside the borders in their hands. In less than three seconds, about a hundred perfectly shaped, huge snowballs were sailing right into our faces. So much for being in a festive mood.

Now, as a demigod, I usually had pretty fast reflexes. It was part of the ADHD we have – your instincts keep you alive in battle. But this time, I wasn't expecting any danger. I was at camp!

It looked like Percy was under the same conditions. Which meant that a hundred or so snowballs, moving faster than Zeus could shoot lightning bolts, exploded straight in our faces.

You really don't know what that feels like.

After all of the hundred snowballs had collided into us, knocking us over wildly, and coating us in cold frost, the Ares kids started to launch another volley.

I got up quickly, and pulled Percy up with me.

I started making snowballs as fast as I could, and so did he, but – two snowmen against fifteen Ares kids wasn't really an easy win. Well, for us, it wasn't. Clarisse's group won quite easily.

As they started to get the third storm ready, I decided I'd just stay out of their path. If I didn't even stand up, Clarisse couldn't reach me, right?

Wrong. They just aimed it at where we were on the ground. And yes, it was possible to become more soaked.

This was getting ridiculous. Why were we having this one-sided snowball fight with Clarisse and her friends in the first place? Oh yeah, because they're children of Ares. Ugh.

Of course, they were already starting to prepare the fourth round.

But this time, I had an idea.

I stood up, grabbed Percy, and quickly brushed the snow off of him.

"Ow!" he complained. "Do you have to brush so hard?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes. And I think know how we can beat Clarisse. Look, Seaweed Brain, snow is made out of water, right? And you can control water. So, turn their snowballs into water, then shoot the water right in their faces."

"Can I do that? Melt the snow? Wait, how does water even become snow in the first place?"

He didn't know that? Wow. "That's a very simple question," I said enthusiastically. "See, snow is created when water vapor—water in its gas state—is cooled so much that it turns into solid ice crystals. Going directly from a gas to a solid is call deposition. The molecular characteristics of water causes its solid state to be in regular crystals. The size and shape of these ice crystals is determined by the amount of water and the temperature at which snow is formed. Deposition – "

"Look out!" Percy interrupted as he pulled me out of the path of the Ares kids' fourth bombard of snowballs.

"Thanks," I said. "Now, do you want to learn more about the deposition process or not? Because – "

"Not!" he said quickly. "Thanks for explaining. Now I understand how – wait, what were you talking about again? The positions or something?"

I whacked him lightly on the shoulder. "Just go and do it," I said.

He nodded eagerly, like he was glad he wasn't learning about ice crystals and deposition anymore, and stared at the Ares kids in concentration. They had their fifth batch in their hands, positioned to throw.

I waited.

Clarisse and her friends hurled the snowballs.

Just as the solid ice crystals were flying, halfway to us, they suddenly froze in midair. The snow slowly turned into slush – but the slush didn't drop onto the ground. It hung, mid-flight, in the air.

In a few seconds, the slush turned to complete water, still in the air, and still frozen.

Percy concentrated.

All of a sudden the water unfroze, and began zooming backwards in Clarisse's direction. The speed they traveled at was about as fast as Zeus could throw thunderbolts.

The Ares kids could only stare in surprise as a swift, powerful, jet of water doused them with such force that they were knocked over, falling very deep into the snow. The water seemed to go out of its way to soak Clarisse and every single one of her friends.

They started shrieking and trying to get out of the two-foot deep ditches that they had created. Clarisse managed to claw her way out first. She glared at us with fierceness. "I'll get you for this, punks."

Clarisse and her siblings stormed away angrily into the camp, making a point to shake all of the water covering themselves onto Percy and me. They looked like wet dogs after an unwilling bath. I tried not to laugh.

"Great job!" I congratulated Percy. I high-fived him, but didn't let go of his hand afterwards.

He seemed pretty pleased with himself, and just wouldn't stop grinning.

Oh, great, now he's going to be all supercilious.

I told him so, and he just stared at me blankly, like he had no idea what I was talking about. I realized that was probably the case, because I'm pretty sure that the word, 'supercilious' wasn't in his simple vocabulary. Seaweed Brain, I thought.

But for some reason, I couldn't stop grinning either.

I hadn't noticed that the evening had come. The snowball fight had taken longer than I thought. It was time for dinner.

When we got to the dining hall, some angry Ares campers welcomed us.

"I'd beat you guys up now, but I don't want to do the dishes," said Cassie, a girl with short, frizzy, brown hair and flashing brown eyes. "But just wait until Capture the Flag. We'll get you good then."

I had almost forgotten that it was Friday and, therefore, a Capture the Flag night. "We'll see about that," I told Cassie, and I walked briskly away. I wondered what the teams would be this time. Most likely, though, the Athena and Ares cabins would be opposing each other. I needed to start thinking about plans…

I sat down at the table with my half-siblings. My plate was filled with plump purple grapes, cheese, bread, and the camp's special barbecue meat. I magically filled my drinking cup with hot chocolate. It reminded me of movie night with my dad.

I walked over to the bonfire, in the center of the pavilion. I scraped a portion of my food into the fire and prayed to all the gods, but especially my mother, Athena, that winter break would be awesome and that my school report would be, too.

I didn't feel any response, though. I don't think there was even a special godly fragrance that the burnt food turned into, like it always did. The gods had been there for us in some way all these years, even if it was really discreet. Why would now be different? This was one of the worries that we'd had about something being wrong… as if Mount Olympus's very doors had been closed, shutting off all communication. But that couldn't be… right? They wouldn't have any reason to do that.

I was interrupted from my distant thoughts by a tap on my shoulder. I turned around.

It was a woman that I'd never seen before. She seemed to be in her mid-thirties. She had long, dark hair that framed her friendly face. She wore large plastic glasses over her gray eyes. She didn't seem to be a mortal…

"Who are you?" I asked.

The woman smiled. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Annabeth. You're quite famous, you know. I'm Mirabelle Benson, daughter of Athena."

Finally, Chapter 2 is here! I said I would update in a week or two, and it has been exactly two weeks! I kept true to my word! I think that I'll make two weeks the official update time now. So you can expect the third chapter on or around May 28th. Please review! I've gotten some follows/favorites but no reviews! I need your feedback! Thank you! Hope you enjoy this chapter! :)

-Awesomejoyce