Chapter 5

*Omg, I find that I am finding less time to write as time goes by! Promise to write more often from now on! Also, I would just like to say I have created the Gods in my own image, not Rick Riordans. Thank you Annie On Board for sticking with me all the way through! It means a lot to me that you have reviewed every chapter so far, seriously it makes my day and boosts my confidence so this one is for you! Anyways, review review review !!*

There were so many things to see, it was overwhelming. I saw fighting arenas, people doing archery, canoeing, and training with swords. There was a building in front and the scent of strawberries wafted over from the strawberry field. Over to my right, there were 12 cabins, but they were nothing a like whatsoever. Tearing my eyes away from all the very interesting things, I let Sage guide us to the building that was in the front.

"Come on in," she said, and Asana and I followed her inside. There was a man sitting in a wheelchair. He had curly brown hair, a beard and a friendly smile. He was sitting across from a man who had bloodshot eyes and a pudgy face. He didn't look as friendly as the other man.

"Sage, I'm glad to see that you brought us two other half-bloods!" said the man in the wheel chair.

I shuffled my feet nervously and looked over at Asana. Her eyes were shining as she took in her surroundings. Immediately, the guilt of what I said in the cab washed over me. Asana belonged here. She felt at home already, even though we had only been there for about fifteen minutes, I could see it on her face. And I had chewed her out for my own selfish reasons. Just because I felt that I didn't belong here, doesn't mean that she doesn't.

"This is Asana Grante and Lucienne Gauthier. Asana and Lucienne, meet Chiron, camp activities director." Sage introduced us. She turned towards the other man. "And this is Mr. D. He's here, on some sort of probation from Olympus for awhile."

"Yes," Mr. D sniffed. "And so I am stuck with you brats all day. My name is Dionysus."

I sorted through the fuzzy memories that I had from the myths I had learned in school.

"Dionysus," I suddenly remembered. "You are the God of wine."

"That I am, Lucinda."

"Actually, it's-"

Chiron cut in. "are the determined or undetermined?"

"Undetermined, both of them."

"I see. Well, take them to the Hermes cabin and let them get settled in."

Sage nodded and led us out of the Big House. What did determined and undetermined mean? I looked at Asana, but she was too busy taking in everything around her. I turned to Sage, who looked like she was beyond happy to be here, like this is where she belonged. I smiled in spite of myself, and before I got to ask Sage what that meant, we were at the cabin.

"Well, this is the Hermes cabin. I will show you around inside-"

"That's okay, Sage" a sweet voice cut her off. "I will show them around."

Turning around, I saw the girl who had spoken standing there. She looked to be about sixteen. She had a deep tan, sparkling blue eyes, and straight, fiery red hair. Her smile was big and bright. I liked her in an instant.

The girl extended her right hand out to me and Asana. "Hi, I'm Ruby."

I shook her perfectly manicured hand. "I'm Lucienne and this is Asana. This is our first year here."

Ruby smiled and turned towards Sage. "Determined or undetermined?"

"Undetermined. Do you think you got it from here, Ruby?" Sage asked.

"Yeah, I can help them get settled. Go ahead and do what you need to, I'll take them to the Big house for dinner later."

Sage looked at us like she wanted to linger a little bit. "Go ahead," I smiled at her. "We will be fine for a couple hours." Sage nodded and took off back to the Big House.

"Come on in, everyone is friendly." Ruby said, waving us towards the door.

"What does determined or undetermined mean?" asked Asana. So she was wondering that too, I thought.

Smiling, Ruby answered, "determined means that your godly parent has claimed you as their own."

"Who's your Godly parent?" I asked her.

"I am undetermined. I don't know who my Godly parent is." She said coldly, her eyes darkening. "All of the kids who don't know their parent stay in the Hermes cabin; it's just the way it is. Many years ago, there was a boy, a great hero. He will be forever remembered by Camp Half Blood. His name was Percy Jackson. He defeated Kronos, and the Gods gave him a wish, so to speak. his wish was that all the Gods, even the minor ones, had to be claimed. The Gods agreed, and so far a great number of new demigods have arrived at Camp Half Blood than before. Unfortunately, there are a few God who couldn't be bothered with claiming their children. Apparently, my mother has decided not to claim me."

"How long have you been at camp?" Asana inquired.

"This is my second year at camp. I'm hoping that maybe my mother will claim me this year. I'm not a year-rounder, you see. I have tried to guess who my parent is, but I have had no luck. I can't control the water, I'm no good at archery, and I am not that good with a sword. I don't even really look like any of the Gods on Olympus. I may never know who my mother is."

I thought about how horrible it must be to have to wonder your whole life who your mom or dad was. To have to guess, and maybe even have an idea, but to never truly know. To feel abandoned, or unloved. I silently prayed to my father (whoever he was) that he would claim me eventually in my life.

I followed Asana and Ruby inside the Hermes cabin. There were bunk beds pushed up against the wall, and sleeping bags everywhere. It was extremely crowded and there didn't seem to be enough room in there for everyone. I loved it.

Ruby pulled out two sleeping bags and handed them to us. "Put them next to mine." She pointed at her spot. "And then come here, I want you to meet someone."

The sun was setting, making red, purple, and pink streaks across the sky. Everyone was heading to the dining pavilion for dinner, or heading towards the showers to wash up before dinner. She brought us outside to the fighting arena. There were two boys out there, one with sandy blonde hair and warm but determined brown eyes that looked to be around Ruby's age, the other with black hair and stormy blue eyes, around my age. Both of them were extremely cute.

They were swinging the swords at each other, like it was some kind of dance. I watched in awe as they moved quickly and gracefully in this different kind of art that I wasn't used to. The next thing I knew, the boy with the sandy blonde hair was on the ground and the boy with the black hair was pointing the sword at his chest. He smiled and offered his hand to the boy with the blonde hair. Chuckling, he took the other boy's hand and ruffled his hair.

"Not bad, kid. We'll practice again tomorrow, same time."

"Avery!" Ruby called out. The blonde boy looked at her and grinned. Both the boys walked over to us, the one with the black hair staring at me the whole time. I blushed and turned to look at Avery.

"Hey, Rubes! How you doin, kid?" he tugged on her hair lightly and she punched him in the arm.

"Shut up, I'm not a kid. I'm only one year younger than you."

"Yeah, well, sixteen is still a whole entire year younger than me…"

She punched him playfully again and he put his arm around her.

"Who are the newbies?" he nodded his head towards Asana and me.

"This is Asana and Lucienne. Asana and Lucienne, this is Avery Dunn and Griffin McCoy."

Smiling, I said hi and so did Asana, while she twirled her hair. I fought the urge to roll my eyes and smile at her unpredictable flirting.

"You guys determined?" Avery asked.

Both Asana and I shook our heads. Avery grinned. "Hey that's cool; we were all there at one time."

"Some of us are still there." Ruby mumbled under her breath. Avery smiled and pulled her closer to him.

"My dad is Hermes, and I'm head of the Hermes cabin. So I'm thinking that you are gonna be chillin with us for some time then."

I smiled and Asana agreed with him. I looked at Griffin, who was still staring at me. No, not staring. Glaring is more like it. Like he was shooting invisible hate daggers at me. Or was it something behind me? I looked behind me non-chalantly. There was nothing there but the strawberry fields. I decided to say something to him.

"Who is your mom or dad?" I asked him.

Griffin remained silent, glaring at me through his sweaty black bangs. Finally, he answered me. "My father is Zeus, Lord of the sky. I am head of that cabin, since there is only me along with my sister, Jillian." His voice was like silk, soft and smooth; I almost didn't hear what he said. I nodded dizzily and tuned back into the other conversation. I noticed that Asana was staring at both me and Griffin funny. I blushed again.

"I'm starving, let's go eat!" Avery said, leading the way with his arm still around Ruby. Asana, Griffin and I followed behind them.

When we reached the dining pavilion, Griffin left us and went to sit at a table where a girl who looked about 9 or 10 sat with her legs swinging. She looked very similar to Griffin.

I followed Ruby and Avery to a table that was very crowded with people. After we had gotten our food, I noticed that a bunch of tables were bringing their plates to the fire and dumping a portion into the fire.

I looked questioningly at Ruby, and she followed my gaze. "We make offerings to the Gods. They like the smell of the burning food. Come on, it's our turn."

As I got closer to the fire, I noticed that people were making their offerings to their Godly parent. Ruby scraped her food into the fire and said coldly, "To the Gods."

I scraped my food in, and something really smart like "Umm… to my father, whoever you are?" And then I sat back down and started to eat.

"Did you see the way that Griffin kid stared at you?" Asana whispered. "It looked like he was gonna eat you or something."

I shrugged and put a piece of cheese in my mouth, when I had swallowed, I answered, "yeah it was a little strange, wasn't it?"

She nodded and ate some food. We chatted and laughed with everyone at the table, and everything was going well until I felt some eyes staring at me. Sure enough, as I turned around there was Griffin, glaring at me once more. My eyes dropped back down to my plate and I made sure I didn't turn around that way again.

Sage came over to us, smiling. "So I see you have made new friends already? Good. We will start your training tomorrow." She bent close to my ear. "Are you feeling more at home now?" she said, just loud enough for me to hear. I nodded gratefully to her and she gave me and Asana a hug. "Get your rest. You will need it for tomorrow." And then she walked away.

After dinner, Asana, Ruby and I walked back to our cabin. "So what did you think of the boys?" Ruby asked.

"They seem really nice. Avery is pretty funny. Except I noticed that Griffin kept staring at me weirdly…"

"Yeah, I noticed that. I think it's weird too, usually Griffin is a pretty chill guy."

Hmm, I wondered to myself. Then why does he seem to hate me so much when he doesn't even know me?

"So what's the scoop on you and Avery, eh?" Asana grinned and wiggled her eyebrows.

Ruby blushed. "Nothing, he's usually that big of a flirt. Especially with the Aphrodite girls."

"But you like him, right?" Asana pressed on.

"Well… yeah, I do. I have for awhile. But don't say anything, Kay?"

Asana made the motion of locking her lips and throwing the key away, and I promised not to say a word. We sat up and talked about our home lives for a couple of hours until it was lights out, and then we crawled into our sleeping bags. My last thoughts before I drifted off to sleep were how this had been a pretty good first day at camp and that there were some big plans for me tomorrow.