Hey guys, I just want to say that I really hated the last chapter. After I had posted it I read it and pretty much threw up. So, I'd like to publicly apologize and promise that I will do better in the future. For now, here's Capítulo Siete.

Jacob's POV

Percy showed me around the camp: we saw the strawberry fields, the archery range, and the sword-fighting arena. The whole time, I was debating the fact that he was completely nuts with him.

"You're crazy."

"No I'm not."

"You've got to be."

"Well, I'm not."

"Have you ever experienced wild hallucinations before?"

"Look," said Percy with annoyance, "I'm not going to make you believe me, but it's true. You are the son of an Olympian. Probably your dad, by what you told me."

"What are you talking about? The gods don't even exist. They're myths, stories, legends. They were made up hundreds of years ago."

He waved his hand. "Believe what you want. But the gods do exist. And your father is one of them."

"What, you know him?"

He shrugged. "Probably. I've met most of the Olympians before."

"This is so insane," I murmured, looking at the sky.

He turned to look at me. "Jacob, look around you. What do you see?"

I looked at the camp. "A twisted version of a summer camp full of nutcases like you who believe in the Greek gods?"

He rolled his eyes. "Open your eyes! There are satyrs and wood nymphs running around everywhere, there are Greek buildings all over the place…our camp director is the god of wine, for crying out loud!"

I cocked my head. "What?"

He blinked at me. "You didn't know? That guy drinking the Diet Coke, Mr. D. It stands for Dionysus. He's the wine god."

I almost laughed. "What?" I said. "You expect me to believe that guy is a god? That's the most pathetic attempt you've made yet."

Percy's eyes widened. "I told you, don't mess with him," he said. "He can be a little…dangerous, if you're not careful."

We kept walking and found the cabins. They were twelve of the most unalike buildings I had ever seen. The ones at the front were magnificent; cabin one was huge and shimmered different lightning bolt patterns in the sunlight. Two was white with thin columns and was garnished with peacocks.

Percy tried to explain to me that the cabin you were in depended on the god your parent was. We passed by his cabin, cabin three, which was low and solid, and seemed to be made out of seashells.

"Doesn't look like many are in there," I commented.

He shook his head. "I'm the only half-blood in there. My half-brother, Tyson, is a Cyclops, and there's another one of my friends who's staying in there too."

"Who's her godly parent?"

His expression hardened. "No one. She's mortal."

"Then why is she-"

"Oh, look, here we are. Cabin eleven."

Cabin eleven was the oldest of all the cabins, and it had a caduceus painted on the front. "Hermes," I murmured, and Percy nodded. "So I'm a son of Hermes?"

"Maybe," he replied. "I don't know."

"So you just pick people's parents by guessing?"

He glared at me, obviously getting tired of my questions. He opened the door of cabin eleven and looked inside.

The kids in there were so crammed I was shocked that they had even enough room to breath. All the bunks were taken, and sleeping bags were laid out on just about every spot on the floor. Kids from eight to eighteen were crammed in there, talking, dozing, doing whatever. They all looked up at us as we came in.

"Jacob Spark, meet cabin eleven," said Percy, brandishing his arm. "He's a new camper," he told the crowd.

"Regular or undetermined?" a girl at the front asked.

"Take a wild guess," replied Percy, and all the kids sighed.

"What does that mean?" I asked Percy.

"Hermes takes in all unclaimed half-bloods," he replied, "You'll stay until you're determined."

Two guys walked up. "Hi," said the first one. They looked almost exactly alike. "I'm Travis, and this is Conner. We're the counselors for this cabin."

"Okay," I said. I strolled into the cabin and stared at the sea of faces coolly. Gradually everyone broke up and started doing their own thing again. Travis and Conner nodded at me and then walked away.

I shrugged and turned around. For some reason, Percy was still glaring at me. "What?" I asked.

"Nothing," he said. "Come on, we've got to find Annabeth."

We started walking past the cabins and I said, "Okay, so let's pretend for a second that I believe you, and that the gods do exist and all that. Shouldn't they be in Greece?"

"No," he said. "The gods move with the flame of the West."

"Ooookay," I said, "Thank you. That clears it up."

He rolled his eyes. "You know Western civilization, and all that? It's an actual force. Chiron can explain it to you better than I can. The gods moved as the west did, to all kinds of different countries, centuries ago. And now the west is here, so the gods are here. And so are we."

"Okay, I can roll with this," I said. "So the gods go around having kids with mortals and they come here?"

"Most of them, yeah," said Percy. "A lot of times, they get killed before they get the chance to come."

And on that cheery note, we went looking for whoever he was talking about.

We walked up to a huge rock-climbing wall that consisted of two rocks that clashed together and poured lava if you didn't get up fast enough. As I watched, a blonde girl made her way up to the top of the wall and rang a huge bell that hung on top of the wall. She got a round of applause from the campers below her.

"That's Annabeth," said Percy. I glanced at him. He had a weird look on his face, like he was arguing with himself about something.

That's when I said what I knew was the last thing he wanted me to say. "You guys going out?"

Oh, man, I had done it. "What?" he said, jumping away from me. "I mean, no, we're not- we're just- I mean, like we would ever…" Then his voice faded out altogether and he was left just staring at the ground, muttering to himself.

"Oh, okay, that makes sense," I said reasonably. Percy didn't seem to hear me. I smiled. I didn't plan on telling them that I had seen them the other night on my bed and I had just gasped like that to get their attention. The campers below the wall had dispersed and now Annabeth was jogging up to us.

"Hi," I said brightly. "Percy and I were just talking about you."

"What? We weren't- I mean-" Then he gave up. "Look, I've got sword-fighting with Apollo. Will you give him the rest of the tour?"

She shrugged. "Sure," she said. "Later, Seaweed Brain."

Seaweed Brain? Oh, give me a break. She even had a pet name for him.

Percy walked away, shaking his head. I turned to Annabeth. "Let's go," she said. "I'm Annabeth Chase, by the way."

"Yeah, you told me before. I'm Jacob. Jacob Spark."

We were heading towards the woods when a guy about sixteen with curly brown hair and shaggy goat legs trotted up to us.

"Annabeth, hey," he said casually. "Mind if I walk with you guys?"

"Not at all," said Annabeth. "Jacob, this is Grover, the satyr who's responsible for finding the wild god. Grover, this is Jacob Spark."

"Hi," said Grover with a smile. I smiled back and we shook hands.

"So, the wild god, huh?" I said. "Impressive."

He blushed. "It was a group effort."

"Don't listen to him," said Annabeth with a grin. "We never would have found him if it hadn't been for him."

"Who?"

"Pan," Grover replied. "The god of the wild."

"Oh, okay," I said. We had reached the woods. I could hear strange noises coming from the inside. They gave me chills, and we quickly left.

"So how long to I have to be in the Hermes cabin, exactly?" I asked as we headed back towards the lake.

"Until you're determined," said Annabeth, surprised. "Didn't Percy tell you?"

"Yeah, but what does that mean exactly?"

We came to the lake and sat down by a tree in the shade. Grover watched the canoes floating out on the lake while Annabeth answered my question. "You can't just pick who your Olympian parent is. You have to be chosen by them…claimed by them. Sometimes, it takes a long time to happen. A lot of times not at all."

I was surprised. "You mean there are kids here who don't even know who their god parent is?"

Grover nodded. "The gods are always busy, and sometimes they don't have time to claim their children. Some of them could really care less."

So that was why the Hermes cabin was so packed, I thought. It wasn't just Hermes kids. There were campers who had no idea who their mom or dad was. Would I be one of those kids, I wondered? Shoved away by my dad because he didn't really care that I was his son or not? "That's not fair," I said aloud.

They both nodded. "The gods aren't always fair. In fact, they hardly ever are," said Annabeth. She seemed to be able to read my mind. "Don't worry. No one's ever seen a kid claimed on their first day at camp. Be patient and work hard, that's my advice. Then your dad ought to notice you."

"And please don't be another son of Ares," Grover added. They both laughed, and I smiled too. We kept talking for about half an hour, them explaining to me about the gods, and monsters, and things like that. Somehow, these guys were a lot easier to talk to than Percy. He just seemed sort of hostile for some reason. I was about to ask Annabeth and Grover about it when suddenly Percy himself came around the other side of the tree. He saw the three of us smiling and laughing, and his eyes narrowed.

"Wash up. Almost dinner time," he said, staring at me with a mixture of anger and suspicion.

"Oh, yeah, I'd better go take a shower," said Annabeth, hopping up. "Nice meeting you, Jacob." She gave me a final smile and jogged off.

"Well, see you guys," I said, getting up and running off toward the cabins. I still didn't get why Percy was so mad at me all the time. Surely he wasn't jealous of me? I mean, they were his friends and…

Man, I was hungry. What was for dinner? Maybe pizza. Yeah. Pizza is good.

--

Percy's POV

The following week at Camp Half-Blood could be described in one word: normal. And that was what bugged me. It was too normal.

I mean, don't get me wrong, it's good to lay back and just have a normal week at summer camp once in a while. But I felt like I should be doing something. I mean, Kronos was out there preparing for war against the gods, and I was just here doing nothing.

We had normal training. Chiron started a new aerial combat class with the pegasi. I had sword fighting every day. My archery was just as bad as ever. I hung out with Grover most of the time. Annabeth was avoiding me again, and I figured this time she might never come out of her shell. I tried to talk to her a couple of times, but she just acted like she had something to do and she walked away.

Rachel refused to come out of my cabin. The arrival of Jacob had postponed talk about her, but I knew it wasn't over. For one thing, the entire Ares cabin, Clarisse included, would walk past and joke, "Hey, Prissy? Where's your little girlfriend? We've got something for her." Then they would all laugh. I didn't know if they were joking or not, but I kept my eyes open. Tyson brought her food and kept her company sometimes, but we both agreed that at some point she was going to have to come out of that cabin.

And then there was Jacob.

There was only one resemblance I could find between him and myself when I had first come to camp: no one could figure out who his dad was. But it wasn't because he wasn't good at anything, like me. To put it simply, Jacob excelled in everything he did.

Chiron announced he was a natural archer. By Wednesday only the fastest wood nymphs could outrun him. His javelins were perfectly thrown. He scaled the rock-climbing wall with apparent ease. Basically, he was good at everything.

Now, you'd think everyone would hate him because he was so great, right? Wrong.

Everyone liked him because he was just likeable. He was a laid back, easygoing, funny, clever, and altogether cool kind of guy. Even the Ares campers were okay with him…at least, they didn't give him the "initiation" they had given me.

I tried to ignore the fact that I was the only one who didn't like Jacob, but it was true. I mean, can you blame me? He's just so…perfect.

The following Friday, I had a sword fighting lesson with the Hermes kids. I felt confident. Finally, something I was better at than Jacob.

We started off with the dummies, me teaching them different moves and giving them pointers. Then we split up into pairs and practiced sparring. As Luke had done with me, I paired up with Jacob since it was his first time, although he had plenty of friends who he could have paired up with.

I taught him a few basic moves first, and he seemed to understand well enough. "Okay," I said. "Now we keep going until one of us is dead, figuratively."

His eyes widened a little, but he nodded. "Got it."

We faced each other. I studied his blade. It was a little shorter than Riptide, which gave me the advantage. His eyes were determined, and he was taking in my every move.

We circled each other, and suddenly I attacked. He parried my first few blows with surprising skill, then he turned his sword in a complete circle and I was forced to stumble. Then he came at me with a left swing.

My original plan was to feign a block, then quickly change to a parry and come back on the offensive. But Jacob apparently saw the move coming. He ignored my block completely and turned his arm so that it was now an overhand swing. I was so surprised I didn't even attempt to parry, and so I forced to jump to the side to avoid the blow.

All right, pretty boy, you want to fight for real? Fine, I thought. I lunged at him with a long string of blows. He managed to block each one, but he looked battered. On the last blow, he caught me at his shoulder with a parry, then he spun and switched to his left hand to block my next strike. He switched hands! It had taken me years to learn that, and I still hadn't mastered it. He continued fighting with his left hand for a minute, then he quickly changed back to his right.

The rest of the class was finished and had come to watch. Oh, no. I was not going to let him humiliate me in front of everyone. I pressed him harder, coming at every angle I knew possible. He calmly and determinedly countered me, and together we performed a wild, furious dance in the middle of the arena, each waiting for the other to mess up.

Finally, something changed. As our swords crashed together once more, he twisted with the hilt of his blade and managed to slacken my grip considerably. He quickly seized his chance and turned his entire body to meet me with a powerful side cut.

I weakly raised my sword to counter, but as our swords clashed, his sword suddenly flashed and I felt something shoot up my arm and ricochet through my body. It was almost like an electric shock. I dropped my sword and found a sword point at my throat.

We both stood, panting, as the rest of the group stared openmouthed at us. Then I heard a sudden voice call "Percy!"

Annabeth was standing at the edge of the arena. She looked as surprised as everyone else but she said. "Come with me. Travis, Conner, you too. Chiron's called an emergency meeting. He says he's got bad news from Olympus."