A/N: This chapter is kind of long, but I needed to build some character relationships. Enjoy and review please! :)
Chapter 3:
I could smell the strawberry fields and hear the sounds of the satyrs - half goat, half man - running in the fields, playing songs on their pipes that made the plants grow. I walked past the volleyball court, where one of my best friend Dylan Reed was playing volleyball with some other campers. I waved at him as I kept walking towards the cabins where the campers stayed.
There were twelve cabins set up in a horseshoe shape. These are the cabins of the twelve Olympian gods. Around these cabins were multiple others, the cabins of the minor gods. Most gods have a cabin here. If a camper were to come to camp and be claimed by a god that didn't have a cabin, a cabin would be built for that god. Campers stay in the cabins designated to their Olympian parent. I walked over to the Ares Cabin, a badly painted cabin that was bright red. I hated being related to whoever did the paint job on this cabin. It also had a boar's head, another symbol of my father, fastened to the wall above the door. I shook my head and walked inside. Walking over the right side of the cabin, I set my bag on a bunk that had my name, Kyle Scott, in Greek written over it in red letters. Bellow that was the words Ares Cabin Counselor, also in Greek. Being counselor to these bullies kinda sucked. I felt like I always had to keep them in line. They're just a bunch of punks. But maybe it wouldn't be so bad this year. I noticed that there weren't many other people who have arrived yet, as over half of the cabin was clear of stuff. One new girl was sitting on her bunk, going over a battle strategy for capture the flag. She looked up as I was putting my stuff away.
"Hi. I'm Emma. I just got here a couple months ago. A-are you okay?" She said, looking at my bruises and my bloody knee.
"Oh, uh, yeah, I'm fine. Uh, I'm Kyle, your senior counselor." I said looking back at the girl.
"Oh, so you're the kid everyone talks about."
"What?"
"Well, no offence Kyle but I think our siblings kind of hate you. They call you a loner and a buzz kill. And they say you don't deserve to be head counselor." She set down the map of the camp she was holding.
"Oh, yeah I kinda knew that already… Well where is everyone?" I asked, motioning to the empty room.
"I don't know, I guess most people haven't arrived for the summer yet." She shrugged. "They'll be here soon." She went back to her planning. I turned back around and finished unpacking, placing my empty suitcase underneath my bed. Then I took a deep breath and decided to go find my friend Grace.
I walked back outside and immediately noticed a girl of about fifteen with long and wavy sandy blonde hair. She was knelt down in front of what looked like a white timber wolf puppy, as if she was talking to it. Although I couldn't see her face, I knew that she had bright blue eyes and was one of the most beautiful girls at camp. I walked straight up to her, as quiet as possible, with a half-smile on my face.
"A gift from your aunt, I assume?" She looked up at me and a smile washed over her face.
"KYLE! Oh my gods I have missed you sooo much!" She exclaimed as she stood up and threw her arms around my broad shoulders, pulling me into a surprisingly strong hug for her small build. "What the heck happened to you? You look like you have been in a fight with the Minotaur or something." She said, chuckling.
"Wow, Olivia, I have missed you too and uh yeah I got attacked by a hound on my way here, but I took care of it." I said with a wink before glancing down at the wolf pup in front of me, "So what's up with the, uh, wolf?"
"Oh. You were right. Artemis is relentless. She is trying to bribe me into joining the hunt before my mind is 'overrun by dirty boys'. First the bow, which I love by the way," Olivia said, glancing up at the sky, "and now Wolf here. And yes, his name is really Wolf." Olivia is a daughter of Apollo, the sun god. His twin sister Artemis, goddess of the hunt, favors Olivia over all of Apollo's daughters, almost treating Olivia as her own because she has no children. She has been trying to convince Olivia to join the Hunt since she came to camp and was claimed by Apollo two years ago.
"What good is he gonna do you?" I asked glancing at the small dog in front of me. Wolf growled and nipped at my feet.
"Calm down Wolf," Wolf immediately stopped, "he can be used to summon the wolves of the hunt. Whenever I am in need, all I need to do is command Wolf to howl and the other wolves will come to my rescue. He is a great companion too." She said with a smile. I could tell that she was happy to have this young wolf by her side.
"Well okay then. Hey, do you know where Grace is?" I asked, a little anxious as to why I hadn't seen her yet.
"Hmm, I don't know. Haven't seen her all day. Why don't you go to the arena, I'm sure she will find you there."
"Okay, worth a shot. Thanks Olivia, it was good seeing you! See ya later." I called as I sprinted off to the arena, ignoring the screaming in my leg.
The arena is this huge area that was mostly used for sword practice, but it seemed pretty empty when I got there. The only people in sight were a young boy from Athena's cabin being bullied by one of my half-brothers. Ares' kids were the biggest bullies around. I tried to distance myself from my siblings as much as possible. I rolled my eyes as the huge boy from my cabin took the glasses off the younger boy and threw them on the ground. Then he took the boys hat out of his back pocket, considering it for a moment before tossing it aside. He pushed the kid onto the ground and was about to step on his glasses, but I couldn't take seeing my sad excuse for a brother pick on a defenseless kid. I walked up to the boy, who I could now see was Erik, a boy who was a year younger than me but was claimed the same summer I was, and pushed his shoulder back, sending him sprawling on the ground as I was much stronger than him.
"Get lost, Erik." I said with a fierce voice.
"What the heck Kyle?" Erik stood up, brushing the dirt off of his shirt, "I was just having some fun with the new Athena boy, isn't that right four-eyes?" He looked at the younger boy in a taunting way.
"I… Uh... He..." The boy stammered as he reached out for his glasses.
"I said leave, Erik. Go start a fight with the archers or something and leave the new kid alone." I stared Erik down. His smile faltered before returning to the same smirk that I always have.
"Sticking up for the new kid, huh? What right do you have to tell me what to do?"
"Let's see. I'm older than you, stronger than you, and I could burn you to a crisp before you could say Ares. Oh, and I'm Senior Counselor. Need I go on?"
"Oh please, it looks like someone's already beaten you up today. You need me to give a little more pain to finish the day off?" Erik stated with unbelievable confidence. He looked up at me, his brown eyes boring straight into my black ones. I held the stare, not daring to be the one to break it. I had to be the one to show my dominance.
Without breaking eye contact, I flicked my hand out to the side, igniting it into a little ball of flame that seemed to consume my hand. I could see the flames flicker in Erik's eyes as he broke contact, glancing around for witnesses. Noticing nobody was here except us, he slowly started backing up. I could see fear flicker across his face.
"I-I'm sorry Kyle. R-really. I'll l-leave him a-l-lone. I-I p-promise." He managed to stammer out before turning around and bolting away. I closed my hand, extinguishing the flame and turned to look at the boy, extending my hand to help him up. He flinched, thinking my hand might catch fire again before realizing I was trying to help him and grabbed my hand. I pulled him up and swooped back down to pick up his hat. It had and owl embroidered into it. The owl is a symbol for the goddess Athena, the boy's mother.
"Here you go kid," I handed him the hat, "Forget about Erik. Actually forget about all my siblings... They're stupid. Trust me; camp is a lot better than that. Let me know if any of my cabin mates attack you again."
"Thanks." He took the hat and walked passed me towards the cabins.
I sighed. I hated being in this 'family'. Being a child of Ares is not a compliment. While the title comes with power and strength, it also comes with a reputation, one that I don't want to be associated with.
I decided to brush it off and let off some steam. I rolled a practice dummy into the middle of the circle arena. I stood about 30 feet away and rubbed my hands together to warm them up. I was kind of an outcast with my siblings, as I have powers that a child of Ares has never shown, at least as far as we know. They were all jealous that I got better powers than they did. Of course I always came back with the retort that maybe if they weren't such big bullies all the time, Dad would have given them better powers, as if the Gods get to choose what powers are passed down to their half mortal offspring.
I stood with my feet about a foot apart and held out my right hand, palm up. Suddenly, a small flame appeared in my palm. It just sat there, slightly moving with the wind. I looked at the practice dummy and considered something for a moment. Then I threw the flame like it was a baseball and sent it soaring toward the dummy at 70 miles per hour. The flame landed on the head of the dummy and set the whole thing ablaze. I smiled to myself, knowing that this was my greatest power, a power only ever seen in a child of Hephaestus, the god of the forges and the god of fire. I started another flame in my hand and tossed it up and down like a tennis ball. I was enjoying myself. I didn't usually get to have fun like this in the real world, where there are mortal witnesses around.
All of a sudden, the fireball in my hand went out. I looked side to side, confused. Then a spray of water extinguished the dummy. Now I was getting angry. I could feel my face getting hot as my vision became red around the edges. Somehow I knew my eyes were becoming flames behind my sunglasses.
"Alright, whoever is messing with my training is about to get it!" I exclaimed as I looked from side to side, preparing to turn around to see who was putting out my flames.
"Cool it, Hot Head." A familiar voice came from behind me. I turned all the way around and my anger just vanished. My face returned to its normal shade and my vision also returned to normal. I stared at the girl in front of me. She was about 6 inches shorter than me, with short, jet black hair and deep green eyes, almost like the sea. She had a huge grin on her face as she glared at me from across the arena. She wore board shorts that came down to her knees and a bright orange Camp Half-blood t-shirt. I could see her pen sticking out of her shorts pocket with a little charm dangling from it that showed a trident engulfed in flames.
"Grace." I said with a smile. I was speechless. It had been almost a year since I last saw her. She was more beautiful now than the last time we met, if that was even possible.
"Kyle. Looking like you just got into a fight. What else is new?" She laughed, eying my appearance, "Well? Are you just gonna stand there and stare at me or are you gonna come over here and give your best friend a hug?" She asked jokingly as she spread her arms wide.
I jogged over to her and embraced her, picking her up off the ground in my excitement. We stood in that hug longer than we normally would have, but it was so amazing to see her again. We were still embracing when our friends Dylan and Olivia came walking down the hill, hand in hand with smiles on their faces.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here Dylan? Our best friends just can't keep their hands off of each other!" Olivia laughed and nudged Dylan's arm with her elbow.
"Oh Olivia you are such a riot. Not. Now shut up and come give me a hug." Grace said as we pulled a part and she hugged Olivia. Grace and Olivia have been friends since they both came to camp at age 12. They were both year-rounders, but Grace had been spending some time with her father under the ocean, so she hadn't seen Olivia in a couple of months. While Olivia and Grace were hugging and giggling like little school girls, I walked over to Dylan.
Dylan has bleach blonde hair that falls perfectly across his face. He has a line of faint freckles going across the bridge of his nose and the tops of his cheeks. He was shirtless, of course. As a son of Aphrodite, he is slightly obsessed with his looks and his own body. But he's not nearly as bad as his siblings. He wore khaki cargo shorts with his white t-shirt tucked in his back pocket. His skin was perfectly tanned. We were practically complete opposites, and yet best friends all the same. We met when we both came here three years ago. We arrived the year before the Titan War. We were thrown together while training and stuck up for each other. We have been best friends ever since.
"Hey man, so what exactly happened to you today? Trouble getting here?" He asked, giving me a look over.
"Ah, you know. Just a small brush with a hellhound, nothing too bad." I joked, chuckling as I avoided how terrified I was and how huge that hound was.
"Looks like you took care of him. I would hate to see what you did to that poor hound." He said.
"Yeah, it was pretty bad dude. So, how's it going man?" I asked as I gave him a hug and we turned to watch the girls talk about stuff that guys could care less about.
"Pretty good dude. I noticed you and Grace had a, uh, moment over there. What's up with that?" He asked with a huge goofy grin on his face as he nodded in Grace's direction.
"Nothing. I haven't seen her in almost a year. I hugged Olivia earlier too. You gonna say something about that?" I asked with a laugh. Dylan and Olivia kind of had a thing going on. That realization made me remember how they looked walking down the hill towards me and Grace. "What's up with you and Olivia? I saw you guys holding hands as you walked down here" He noticed that I discarded the comment about me and Grace. I mean, yeah, she's beautiful. But I have known her since I was 13, so it was hard to think of her as anything other than my best friend.
"We started dating in December. I don't know what happened. One day we were having a snowball fight in the perfect snow that Chiron allowed to fall, and the next day we were walking into the dining pavilion and we noticed some mistletoe hanging from the arch. We kinda joked about it being there, then she looks into my eyes and she just kisses me, right there under the mistletoe. It wasn't that big of a deal, but I swear that stuff followed us around everywhere. We always found ourselves under the mistletoe. And, well, we just kinda started dating. I have never realized how amazing she was before." He glimpsed at Olivia quickly and smiled, he cheeks turning slightly red. I looked over at the girls, and by the way Olivia's face was lit up, I could tell that they were talking about the exact same thing. Grace glanced over at us and smiled. I returned her smile before turning back to Dylan.
"Oh and happy birthday by the way." Dylan said, nudging my shoulder and handing me an envelope. It was decorated with little flame stickers that looked like they had come out of a happy meal. I opened it and saw a birthday card inside. "Your birthday is today, right? Or do I have my dates mixed up?"
"No, you're right. I almost forgot. My mom didn't even tell me happy birthday when I left this morning." I turned away from Dylan. I am not usually emotional, but when it came to my mom's neglect, well it can get to me. I prayed to the Gods to take care of my brother James while I'm gone.
Grace glanced over and saw the envelope in my hand and totally dropped the conversation she was having. She gave Olivia the one minute sign than came over and pulled me off to the side. Dylan went forward to talk to Olivia, looking a little confused as to why Grace suddenly pulled me away. I stuffed the envelope in my pocket as Grace came to a stop a few yards away from where we were standing before.
"Are you okay? I know your birthday is a... difficult subject for you. But if it makes it any better, come by my cabin after dinner tonight. I have a birthday present for you." She tried to comfort me, but it was hard for anyone to do.
"I'll be okay." I said, looking away from Grace as she rubbed my back in a calming way. I didn't mean to be so cut off, but I hated feeling vulnerable and weak. I stepped away from her, breaking the contact between us. Her arm dropped to her side as I started toward Dylan and Olivia. She followed me and we walked back over to our friends, who were in an in depth conversation about what they wanted to do this summer. We joined in the conversation, though I was a bit more reserved now after being reminded of my birthday.
Suddenly, a bright light shown for a split second. We all covered our eyes, knowing that it was a God appearing, and anyone who sees a God in their divine form would disintegrate from all the power. When the light subdued, we all looked up to see a huge man in a black leather jacket and biker boots. He had wraparound sunglasses on that hid his fiery eyes. His hair was trimmed in a neat crew cut. I saw my friends glance at each other out of the corner of my eyes, which stayed fixated on the huge figure in front of me. I recognized him immediately. He was Ares, god of war, my father.