(Katie)

The sky was covered in a thick layer of grey clouds, blocking the sun's rays from reaching the car. However, nothing could diminish the delight radiating off of the teenager in the back seat. She watched the trees passing in green blurs as the family sped toward their destination. Katie could hardly contain herself. With every minute that passed she became more excited.

"Katie, can I please go past the stupid gate this time!? You can't even see anything cool from there." Came Carter's voice from Katie's right. He crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. "You said there is a rock wall that has lava, I wanna see that!"

"And I wanna see the Pegasuses!" Added Becca, who was sitting in between Katie and Carter.

Katie shot them an apologetic half smile. "It's Pegasi, Becca, and sorry, Carter. I don't make the rules."

"Katie…" He whined, but she just shrugged and went back to looking out the window, willing her step father to drive faster. As far as Adam White was concerned, Katie thought, all that camp was good for was getting rid of her for three months and saving the family from embarrassment. He didn't understand how hard it was for her. She hadn't wanted to embarrass him and get suspended. It just happened. What was she supposed to do, just let that that Chimera eat her homeroom? I mean please, she saved those ungrateful people. But, hey, she wasn't expelled this year and managed to keep a 3.8, so she decided to put this past school year in the 'win' column. Adam White disagreed, she knew he saw her as a problem, an obligation more than a daughter. And now to top it all of he was making this trip last twice as long as it should have. . He just didn't understand how badly she needed to be there.

It was her eighth summer.

Her eighth wonderful, stressful, albeit slightly dangerous (but totally worth it) summer.

And after a long year of keeping her head down and trying to go unnoticed in the mortal world, she was going home.

She couldn't sit still. She had spent the past nine months getting updates via Iris Message from her friends and, although she liked being 'in the loop', it also made her completely camp-sick.

"Katherine, do you have all of your- uh- camp specific items?" Adam asked from the driver's seat. He asked the question in that tone that made Katie kinda want to punch him in the face a little.

"Yup. I have my sword and the bow and quiver that Apollo gave me." She replied pointedly.

Adam cleared his throat uncomfortably, "Good."

Katie's mother, Sarah, turned around from the passenger seat to face her daughter. "Like always, have fun and be safe!" She said as the car slowed to a stop at the bottom of the Half-Blood Hill.

"I will Mom! Love you guys!" Katie said, leaning forward to give her mom a kiss on the cheek. She hugged Becca tightly and then gave Carter a heartfelt, sisterly fist bump. She grabbed her duffle from the back of the car, walked up the hill, and crossed the barrier into her home.

She was so ready for this summer.

(Aaron)

Aaron loved this girl, he was certainly not in love with her and would probably forget about her when they were done, but for now, he loved her. He didn't particularly remember her name, he was almost positive she was a daughter of Aphrodite (they usually were). It didn't really matter that he couldn't recall her name, his mouth was otherwise occupied at the moment, as was hers, so they weren't doing much conversing. She wasn't a usual on his make out roster, but he thought he may have to find a spot for her.

This had been going on for a while until the girl finally broke away, "I have to go."

"No, no, trust me you want to be here." He said with a wink, holding her tightly to him.

She leaned in once more and gave him a light kiss. "I really have to go. My sisters are waiting. We're going tanning."

"It's cloudy out. There's no sun."

"There is in the Helios cabin, silly." She said with a little giggle. She was still lying on top of him, she clearly would have stayed if he asked, but that was not going to happen. She wanted him to beg her to stay, to plead, but then he would've lost all his power over her. Instead Aaron just let his head flop down onto the pillow of his bunk.

"Right. Well, go ahead then."

What's-her-name stood up and fixed her hair. She started for the door, but stopped and spun around ever so gracefully on her heel.

"This was fun! Don't forget to mention me to your mom. She's my idol! I want to be a VS Angel just like her!" She squeaked bouncing up and down slightly.

"Will do." He said, but in his tone it was clear what he meant was "Go away now." Which she did.

After the Aphrodite girl left, Aaron checked his hair in the mirror. He was in the middle of running his hands through his gelled, black hair to perfect his 'I Woke Up Like This' signature spikes when the door to his cabin opened.

"Prince of Darkness, may I enter your Palace of the Doomed?"

"You're an idiot and I hate you." Replied Aaron.

"No you don't. You may have gone through half the girls at camp, but none of them compare to your best bro and you know it. I fill that void in your life that would otherwise wake you up in the middle of the night." Replied Will dramatically as he crossed the threshold of the cabin even though he hadn't been invited and could have technically been smited for doing so.

On paper, William Miller and Aaron Merton should not have been friends, but Will was the only one who could stand to be around Aaron for extended periods of time without getting truly insulted. Will was "that guy" at camp who kind of radiated friendliness and was nice to everyone and Aaron had only one real friend, Will. William really respected and valued Aaron's honesty and was the only one Aaron ever trusted with his whole story. Aaron was a total jerk and everybody knew it, but it never seemed to phase his best friend.

"So now that you're finished with your morning appointment, what's the plan?" Questioned Will, flopping down on one of the many unused beds in the Hades cabin. "Whatever it is we need to be done in time for the soccer game that Owen Cross is planning."

"Well the last of the summer campers are coming in today. We could check out the talent."

"'Fake Basketball While Actually Girl Watching' it is."

"Our favorite pass time." Agreed Aaron giving Will his famous crookedly mischievous smile.

He was so ready for this summer.

(Sky)

Sky didn't talk to many people. She didn't really like many people. Sky really liked books. They were interesting and you didn't have to talk to them. And, despite seemingly popular opinion, no one truly cared if you judged them based on appearance.

As far as people went, Sky mostly just hung out with her brothers and sisters. She also hung out with Felix, or really, Felix hung out with her. She would sit under a tree and read or write and Felix would babble on about this or that. She didn't really listen, mostly because she didn't care what he was talking about, but he didn't seem to mind, so she tolerated him. He was harmless and sitting under a tree with a friend (even one you weren't too crazy about) was better than sitting under a tree by yourself.

Her best friend only stayed at camp for the summer, so did Felix, but his school must get out really early or something, Sky thought, because Katie was getting here today and Felix had been here for almost two weeks.

Sky was under her usual tree near the top of Half-Blood Hill on the camp side, but no book today, it lay forgotten on her bed side table. She was conversing with Felix and her brother, Arthur, but not really. She was mostly scanning the hill top over and over.

Then she saw her.

Katie suddenly appeared under the marble archway as she passed through the invisible, force field gate into camp.

Sky didn't like people, but she liked Katie. She had been Sky's first, and only, best friend. When she came to camp at thirteen, she had still been a little broken. Twelve year old Katie had marched right up to her and said 'You're sad.' Not 'Are you sad?', or even 'You seem sad.' But what really sealed the deal was, in Sky's mind, Katie had been saying 'I'll help fix you.'

Sky ran up the hill to Katie and enveloped her in a tight hug, which Katie reciprocated.

I didn't matter that she had talked to a total of ten people since last summer. It didn't matter that she couldn't really hold a conversation with other people without sounding bitter. She had her best friend now and she was so ready for this summer.

(Owen)

"Owen, please demonstrate that parry and take down you just did, but slowly this time so everyone can see what you're doing." Chiron instructed. Owen did so effortlessly, making the relatively complicated movement seem easy. "Thank you, Mr. Cross. Now I would like everyone to partner up and try this technique."

Knowing that hadn't meant him, Owen walked over to the water cooler. This had always been one of his favorite classes. He dominated at hand-to-hand fighting. He knew it, too. Owen was cool. He was the Alpha of the camp, son of the King of Gods and easily the best sword fighter around.

"Chiron, I was wondering, could I bow out a little early so I could do a couple of runs on the Climbing Wall?" It wasn't necessary for him to be there, he already knew all this stuff, but had Chiron asked him to stay he would have, he was confident, not rude. However, knowing there was no real reason for him to stick around, he was granted early dismissal by the centaur.

The Climbing Wall was probably his favorite place at Camp Half Blood. Zeus' fist was taller, but less of a challenge. There was something about being thirty feet in the air with a slight chance of dying that can get your adrenaline going.

And Owen was good at it.

Since he first raced up the wall at the age of 10, dodging falling boulders and avoiding lava, he had never lost a battle. Sure, there were many who tried to dethrone the undefeated half blood, but Owen Cross beat all of them. He dominated in everything, and he would make a point to say as much if given the chance.

"Cross! Come down!"

Owen groaned. He had been making such good time. He started to climb down the wall. He got about ten feet from the ground when he decided it was taking too long and pushed of the wall, doing a back flip and landing lightly on his feet.

Green eyes met gold as he ended up face to face with Katherine Rogers. And he literally meant face to face. She was on the taller side so they stood at almost the same height, which pissed him off to no end (though he would never tell her that).

She had clearly just arrived, she was still carrying her duffle bag over her shoulder.

"Look, Rogers, I appreciate the enthusiasm, but why don't you go unpack before we continue the long standing tradition of you losing to me."

"Stuff it, Cross. I just wanted to make sure I was going to be a captain for the game tonight."

"Well, I haven't decided yet." He answered honestly. He wasn't really a 'planner'.

"Yeah, that's fine. I get it." Said Katie as she started to walk away.

"Wait! What did you mean by that?"

"Just that you only ever compete against me in things that you can control and know won't change, like the wall. But, it's fine. No hard feelings."

Owen wasn't stupid. He knew what she was doing, she always pulled this reverse psychology bullshit. She tried to rile him up, to make him angry, so that she could get her way. And, by the Gods, it worked every time.

"Fine. You can be captain. You can even have first pick. It won't make any difference. You're going to lose, just the same as always, because I'm the best." He said, and he meant every word.

"I guess we'll see about that won't we?"

"There is nothing to 'see' Katie. One year hasn't changed anything. I'm still number one, and you will always be second best." He said, Katie's eyes narrowing at his comment. Not waiting for a response Owen turned his attention back to the Climbing wall, not even throwing a glance over his shoulder to see if she was still there.

Three months of enraging his biggest rival and constantly besting her sounded like a good time to him. He was so ready for this summer.

(Chuck)

"If, in under thirty seconds, I can make you jump into the lake, fully clothed, you have to give me five drachma."

"Chuck leave him alone, he's new. He doesn't know better." Juliette whispered. Chuck just ignored her friend, keeping her attention on the boy.

"What if I don't jump into the lake?" Challenged the scrawny, preteen son of Hebe.

"I'll give you a kiss." Said the daughter of Aphrodite rather matter-of-factly. The boy thought about it for a second.

"On the lips, with tongue, fifteen seconds." He said, probably thinking himself very clever.

"Deal." Agreed the Irish beauty, sticking out her hand to confirm their agreement. They shook on it and she instructed her friend to start the time. She locked her blue eyes with his brown ones and let out a small sigh.

"You're getting really hot." She said, giving the younger half-blood a reassuring smile. "The sun is beating down and you're starting to really feel the heat." The son of Hebe looked up at the grey cloudy sky and squinted as if he was looking directly into the sun. He was already starting to sweat. Chuck did not break her focus. "It would just feel so good to go for a dip in the lake. You're already in your bathing suit." The boy looked down at his tshirt and shorts, but Chuck knew he was seeing a swim suit. "Just jump right in. It would feel so wonderful."

She had barely finished her last sentence when the boy jumped off the pier they had been standing on and into the cool lake. The shock of being suddenly submerged in water was enough to pull him out of the charmspeak induced trance.

"You shouldn't have done that. He's just a kid." Juliette said as she looked with pity at the boy still floating in the lake.

"Ugh- fine. I won't take his money." She said turning on her heel. The much shorter daughter of Poseidon followed her tall friend back to the beach. Chuck flopped down on her towel. "There's nothing going on today." She said, annoyed at her boredom.

"That's because capture the flag is tomorrow and no one wants to risk getting into trouble or getting hurt." Juliette reminded her.

"I know that. It's just stupid. We're demigods. We should never be bored. We can't even tan. Stupid Zeus is covering the sun." Thunder rumbled in the distance as Chucked stuck her middle finger out at the sky.

"He's going to smite you."

"I'd like to see him try. At least it would give me something to do."

"There's that soccer game later that Owen is putting on. And if you really wanted to tan we could go to the Helios cabin."

"That's true. And no way are we going there. All of my sisters are there and I just cannot deal right now. Come on. Let's go find Owen- I wanna make sure he picks me for his team." She said wrapping the towel around her flawless, bathing suit clad body. Chuck ran her hands through her blue streaked, white blonde hair, which was covered in sand and lake water and still managed to look flawless. This past year had been so uneventful. She was so ready for this summer.