I don't own PJO.

As soon as they got Hermes and Poseidon to calm down, the Olympians were surprised by the way the campers were looking at them. Instead of curiosity, they were staring at them with nothing but jealousy and spite. If one of the younger ones came over to greet them, their older siblings would pull them away without as much as an explanation. "This is just bunk," Demeter said with a scowl.

Apollo nodded. "They accept Wyatt but not us? Total bunk."

Hermes looked at the area he thought contained Ares. He was there with that weird bully kid and his posse. They were standing as if they owned him, as if they were his masters. And to his surprise he found Ares actually cringing a bit.

Elle's eyes drifted over the scene as well, but unlike Hermes she was not shocked or appalled in the least. "I wouldn't say accept. I would more say, giving him the Ares treatment. This is how they were taught to greet newcomers."

Hermes arched his eyebrows. "Really?"

"Just be grateful they're not shoving your head in a toilet right now," she said with a laugh.

Aphrodite screeched and grabbed for her perfectly straightened blonde hair. A group of the girls from her cabin looked in her direction and narrowed their eyes. She looked at them curiously. "What are they doing?"

"Sizing you up," Athena inferred. "They are trying to figure out whether you're a threat to them."

Her daughter nodded. "It's the truth." She looked to everyone. "If you want a chance of being accepted, I'd suggest you go meet your cabins now."

Athena nodded and looked at her father and her two uncles. "If any of you use your powers, then you're answering to me. Are we clear?"

"Sure thing, sweetheart," Poseidon laughed.

She glared at him. "We're mortal now. I would hate to," she smiled deviously, "accidently kill you and leave us an Olympian short."

He rolled his eyes. "Like you could bear to lose me."

She pulled a dagger on him and ran her finger across it somewhat menacingly, until he gulped. Then she walked away triumphantly. He sighed and walked over to where Demeter was standing mumbling something under his breath about mood swings.

His sister looked around for her children. "C'mon, they're over here." She dragged her brother over there.

One of the males was laughing and he looked at Poseidon with a smile. "Having problems with your girlfriend?"

He blinked. "You think Liv and I are dating?" He felt his face grow warm. "No! We could never, that's not…"

Demeter chuckled at her brother's expense. "While he figures out a lame excuse, I will just introduce us. I'm Willow and this is Dylan. I think we're going to head down to the cabin."

"Hmm, you don't look like one of us," he said with a glance at Poseidon, "in fact you look a lot like…"

One of his sisters punched him in the arm to get him to shut up. He shook his head. "We have two empty bunks on the right." He looked like he thought a moment. "We'll take you down."

Demeter gave him a small smile and nodded. She dragged a stuttering Poseidon along behind her. He stayed that way until he caught a glimpse of his own cabin and let out a wistful sigh. Then he caught a better glimpse of Demeter's cabin.

"Is that grass on the roof?"

They nodded, almost confused to his surprise.

"Isn't that…" he searched for a word, "really stupid? It seems like you would wake up covered in dirt!"

Demeter hit him upside the head. "You're an idiot."

"Is it magic dirt? Does that even exist?"

She sighed. "All dirt is magical!" He huffed and followed behind as his sister opened the door to the cabin, and a giant pile of dirt fell of her head.

"All dirt is magical?" Poseidon asked with a laugh. "Really Willow. Do you still think that?" His next sentence was cut off by the fistful of dirt that his big sister threw at him.

"Aw," she complained. "I was aiming for your mouth!"

He looked down at his shirt that had taken ten minutes to find and scowled. "If I wasn't so tired you'd be dead." He looked to his temporary brother. "Do you have a shirt I could have?"

The smaller boy looked at him. "I might…we'll have to look." He went digging through his chest and Poseidon went ahead and took of his soiled shirt and threw it at Demeter.

"Will a medium do?" he asked turning around holding a smaller orange tee. Then he stopped in his tracks. "Holy Hades dude, where did you get those scars?"

He blinked several times. "Scars?"

"The one's on your back!"

Scars on his back? It took a little thinking on his part. "Oh, um…, those it was a monster."

"It got you good."

He smiled a bit wistfully, much to his sister's curiosity. What about a monster attack was worth smiling for? But those, didn't look like they came from a monster, they reminded her more of the scratches she got from Persephone when she was little and had sharp fingernails. "Yeah, she was a doozy."

The boy looked at Poseidon curiously. "What kind of monster was it? I mean I'm not the best in Monster Fighting, but I've never seen marks like those."

"It was…" his face scrunched up in thought, "look kid, I'm not the best at identifying monsters in the middle of a fight. I'm not an Athena kid here."

Sometimes Elle wished she wasn't an Athena child. As soon as she entered her cabin, she was greeted with the most pathetic sight. There were eight blondes rocking nervously on their beds. "Elle!"

She sighed. "What is it?" As if she had to ask, the answer was obvious.

"Spider!"

Elle groaned. "This fear of yours is completely illogical. They've never even done anything to you." She looked around and found the spider. Within one second she has squished it right under her designer flats, you could virtually feel Aphrodite flinch.

"Now, where's our fearless leader? We've got two new recruits."

They pointed to the bathroom. "Tell Poindexter to unlock the door and get his podex out here!" They frowned at her use of Latin, but said nothing else.

He exited the bathroom and looked around. "It's gone."

"Its exoskeleton is, but if you're talking about the guts they're still here." She sighed. "Just tell these two where their bunks are. They've had a rough day."

He looked at them a bit distastefully. "They can sleep near you." He looked at his watch. "Everyone else hurry up, we'll be late for archery otherwise."

With a look back at the newcomers they all followed suit. Athena looked at her daughter. "What's with them?"

Her daughter sighed. "We have a power vacuum. Almost all the cabins have new counselors or none at all." Zeus looked confused. "Listen, we grew up underneath the greatest generation of demigods. We always came in second, but now they've moved on to other things."

"A good bit of them are on the west coast, studying in New Rome. Others just left, sure they might come back in about three or four years when Annabeth makes New Greece. But for now we are just on our own."

She sighed. "We have a chance to shine, and everyone wants to be the next Percy, the next Annabeth, even the next Stoll brothers. So whenever someone seems special, you get singled out. They do anything to keep you from being special."

"Some kids can't take it. My friend," she sighed, but kept her steely look, "had charmspeak like Piper or Drew. But none of the Aphrodite kids now, respect that. She couldn't…she never got to meet her mother. That's all she wanted, but where she is…the only person she's going to meet is Hades."

She brushed the hand her mother placed on her shoulder. "I'm fine. The point is you either need to pretend to be normal or build up a shell."

She shook her head. "Don't get me wrong, there are some really nice people. But it's best not to get close. It kills you inside when something happens to them. It's easier to just ignore. Once you guys are back to normal, I'm not coming here anymore."

Elle tried to give Athena and Zeus a smile; it came of unnatural and shaky. "My dad wants me. You guys should rest."

Athena would spend the next twenty minutes staring at the wall wondering where she had went wrong as a mother before drifting off to sleep.

A/N:

Sorry for the random sadness, I don't know why it's in here. But oh well, I tried to give Elle some back story here.

Basically in this story, all the characters we've met in the series are gone on their own adventures. The seven are all in New Rome learning or ruling until they've put in their ten years.

Travis and Katie eloped and went to NYU (my Tratie oneshot). Connor just went home. Pollux went to school. Will is searching for Michael after he gets a clue he might be alive. Clarisse and Chris are at college together, somewhere.

Nico and Thalia pretty much never leave California, easy access to Jason and the Underworld. Rachel is just at school, this takes place during the school year. The other Hephaestus kids are helping Leo repair Camp Jupiter. The Aphrodite kids we know either followed Piper to Cali or are at school.

Malcolm's at college, too.

I think that's everyone important, but you get the jist. Their little siblings are trying to stand out, by any means necessary.