A few hours after we fled the awful softball game, I finally got the courage to look back. In the car behind us, I could see at least three of the weird softball cannibals. They were spitting fire at the windshield, obviously hoping to melt it and get to me.

"Speed up, Dad," I told my dad weakly.

"It's okay, we're almost there." he reassured me.

You see, when I get worried, I get extremely worried to the point of it feeling as if I'll explode. I've also been told I'm bossy, extremely bossy, but I still need proof of that.

Over the next ten or so minutes, Kyle explained to me the wonderful world of the Western Civilization.

"So Mount Olympus is really on top of the Empire State Building?" I asked with my mouth hanging open.

"Yup," Kyle nodded.

"So, does anyone know who my mom is?" I asked him. I was kind of excited for his response, I mean, I might actually know whose daughter I am.

"Only two people know, one's a goddess, and the other's in this car," Kyle said softly.

"Dad?" I asked my dad.

He told me sadly, "Unless you want more monsters chasing us, I can't exactly tell you."

I sighed. We were all silent for a while. I may have seemed like I was doing nothing, but my mind was racing. Who was my mom? Why don't I know? Which goddess do I look like?

The inquiries kept running through my mind until my dad finally broke the silence and said, "Emma, run for that pine tree. I know you're fast, I mean, I gave you those genes, but you still have to outrun a ton of monsters. Good luck. Kyle, you go unless you want to be monster food."

"But my bag! I don't have a bag. I'm going to a summer camp, right?" I protested.

"I'll mail it to you! Just get past the pine tree!"

I sadly said, "Bye," to my dad and hugged him.

"You be good," he said seriously.

"Of course I won't," I joked with a smile.

I gestured for Kyle to follow me and told myself, Okay, I should run straight to the left of the tree. That should give me some extra time. I always have a plan.

I opened the car door and started running to my full potential towards the left of the pine tree, the side I was closest to. As soon as I ran past it, the monsters weren't chasing me anymore.

"That went well," I said to no one in particular.

I heard someone laugh from a few feet to the side of me.

I turned to the direction of the voice and saw a Korean boy my age wearing an orange T-Shirt. He seemed somewhat different, though. His face seemed to say, "I tricked you!"

He held out his hand. "I'm Cody, son of Hermes. New camper?"

I shook his hand and said, "Yeah. I'm Emma, daughter of some goddess."

He laughed again. "You're one of the few people who actually arrives here conscious."

"What?!" I asked, horror-struck.

"Relax, it's normal. Anyway, welcome to Camp Half-Blood. I'll take you to meet Mr. D and Chiron."

He started leading me and I relaxed, somewhat. What was I getting myself into?

We walked into what looked like a farmhouse. Sitting at a card table was a middle-aged man in a wheelchair and a fat guy in tiger stripes.

The guy in the wheelchair said to Cody, "New camper?"

It was the same question that Cody had asked me...

Cody nodded.

The guy in the wheelchair asked me, "What is your name?"

I replied, "Emma Spencer."

The fat guy, who was sipping Diet Coke (I thought, Gross! at that. Diet drinks disgust me) said in a bored tone, "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, yadda yadda yadda, now I have another useless hero to look after. Great. Cory, lead her out."

Cody said impatiently, "That's Cody, Mr. D. C-O-D-Y."

Mr. D said, "Cody, Cory, what's the difference? You're just another brat I have to baby-sit."

Cody scowled and told me, "Come on. Want me to show you around?"

Glad to be out of the Big House, I followed Cody to the middle of twelve cabins arranged in a U.

He pointed to each cabin, explaining them one by one.

As he finished, he said, "But now it's dinner time. You have to sit with my cabin mates and I. We take in all unclaimed demigods."

I took a deep breath and said, "Just today I figured out a lot about my past. It's weird, you know? Anyway, thanks for showing everything to me."

He waved an airy hand and said, "No problem. Anyway, the mess hall is this way."

We set off walking, again. I found all the campers seated at twelve different tables.

He pointed to the most crowded one and said, "Come on, Emma."

I sat down next to him. A bunch of naiads came into view, holding platters filled with pizza and barbecue.

I ate a slice of pizza with olives and drank Dr. Pepper from a magic cup that filled with anything you want.

Cody said, "You'd better save the crust to sacrifice."

That odd ritual was already explained to me, so I just nodded.

After we had all burned portions of our food, which took forever, Mr. D stood up with the guy who was in the wheelchair. Except now he was a centaur. How that happened I didn't exactly want to know.

Mr. D said in the same bored tone as before, "We have a new camper, Ella Sprocket. I'm not exactly happy about it, but I only have 60 years to go at this awful camp."

He looked at me, daring me to speak. I stood up and said loudly, "That's Emma Spencer. Not Ella Sprocket."

All of the background whisperings stopped.

Mr. D said, "Sit down," to me.

"No," I protested. Several people gasped.

Instead of making me die a death by grapevines, Mr. D looked impressed.

I heard a sound that sounded like bells tinkling. Everyone's mouths dropped open. One girl pointed at the air right above my head. I looked up. There was a shimmering, brown owl. It quickly faded and everyone knelt.

Chiron the centaur said, "Our new camper is Emma Spencer, daughter of Athena."

I couldn't help but smiling and feeling happy as all the campers sat back down and clapped. I walked to the Athena table, where my half-brothers and sisters clapped my back. The girl at the head of the table, who looked extremely like me, but a few years older, said, "Nice to meet you, Emma. I'm Annabeth, our cabin leader."

"Hi," I said cheerfully, looking at all my newfound relatives.

"She'll fit in with us," said one older boy.

"I'll do my best," I laughed.

They all laughed too.

I looked over at the other tables and saw one boy Annabeth's age with black hair and green eyes sitting alone and staring at Annabeth.

When he caught me looking at him, he started fiddling with his nails.

I looked over towards Cody and found him staring at me. I cocked my head to the side, wondering why he was staring.

He mouthed, "Meet me at the campfire."

I nodded.

I said to Annabeth, "That boy over there was staring at you," pointing at Percy.

She laughed, "He's always staring at me. We're best friends."

I said, "Okay, cool."

My first few hours at camp were going wonderfully when I saw two kids carrying a kid wearing all black in on a stretcher. I said to my siblings, "That can't be good."