Chapter Four
"Sherman, Mark, what a delight to see you!" a handsome boy exclaims. Sherman and Mark smile at his greeting, feeling special. I was at first confused, until I realized how convincing his voice seemed. The boy's tone seemed genuine and real, though I could barely hear his quivering voice underneath the charmspeak.
"I thought Chiron instructed for you two to stop, *ahem*, horseplaying, but it seems that you guys got carried away." Sherman and Mark look ashamed of themselves, and Sherman gently pulls out the spear from my arm. I let out a small sigh of relief, and the boy smiles at me. "Now, let's get the poor girl cleaned up and you two should go train with the target dummies." I find myself getting up to my feet and Sherman and Mark leaving the area. Drew stands nearby, glaring at the boy, who I assume is her half-brother.
"My name is Caston," the boy says. He looks like he's from a Caribbean island, with messy, silky black hair and smooth brown skin the color of milk chocolate. He smiles at me, dimples showing on his cheek. Caston directs me to the Aphrodite cabin, decorated to look identical to Barbie's house. He laughs when I look at horror at the cabin, and says, "You'll get used to it." Caston uses charmspeak again, and I believe him.
Caston leads me into the bathroom, and gives me privacy while I undress and clean my wounds. When I'm done, one of his half-sisters comes in holding a fluffy pink bathrobe with a matching nightgown. I dress into it while she takes my dirty clothes stained with blood to wash. Caston is still in the cabin when I exit the bathroom, and he leads me to the campfire to be claimed by a godly parent. I panic briefly, hoping the gods have come up with a plan to mask my mortal identity.
We stand next to each other, away from the Drew's clique. Several demigod girls blush as Caston makes eye contact with them, and some attempt to flirt with him. When he escapes the wrath of one demigod, he mutters, "Being half-siblings with Drew means avoiding her horrible ways of charm," and I snicker.
The night gets darker as we wait for a sign of my godly parent. It rains down a few times, comforting me that the gods are creating a plan. By the time midnight rolls around, most demigods have left. Chiron gets frustrated, and is about to send me to Hermes' cabin until I glow pink. Poof! My blemishes and scabs are gone. Poof! I'm covered in perfect makeup and designer clothes. Drew groans, Sherman and Mark look guilty, and Caston seems disappointed. Chiron looks completely relieved that I've been claimed, and declares, "Aphrodite!"
I immediately throw up over the clothes. This time, Aphrodite doesn't bother to clean up the mess. Seriously, Aphrodite? Out of all the gods that could pretend to be my parent, I got the vainest one of all.
Caston smiles sympathetically at me, and jokes, "Welcome to the cabin of shallow, vain, and rude kids!" I wasn't worried about the kids. I was worried that I couldn't study and explore after being claimed.
As the kids walk back to their cabins, I snuggle into a comfy pink bed. My makeup and dirty clothes were gone, replaced with the previous bathrobe and nightgown. Aphrodite was kind enough to leave my body clean of any scab, so my skin looked perfectly flawless. I look around the room, studying my temporary half-siblings, and note that there are less boys than girls. Nonetheless, the boys' handsomeness made up for the whole bowl of makeup covered noodles. Caston was probably the most handsome, and probably the kindest, of the four boys. When I watch one particular boy closely, I notice him scrunching up his eyes in concentration. As time passes, he develops tanner skin, darker and longer hair, and then I realize he's trying to look like Caston. I laugh under my breath at this, thinking these wonderful looking demons were still jealous of each other. As the night wears on, I fall asleep.