Chapter 1:

Dakota's POV

I glance up at the climbing wall. The bottom is spinning with log like protrusions poking out of the bottom. Already other demigods are climbing up it, fighting to get to the top first. My brother, Percy, is fighting with Clarrise to get to the top first. I glance to the other side of the wall to see my sister, Alaisia, smirking at me. I smile back slightly.

"What?" I call over at her. "Scared you're going to lose against me?"

She laughs. "Not even close." She sprints towards the wall.

I laugh too before sprinting for the wall. In one smooth leap, I grab hold of the bottom part and pull myself up easily. Alaisia grins at me. She ducks under one of the log like protrussion while I jump over it.

"You're going to lose." She states.

I shake my head then smile. "Not on my watch." I start to climb as quickly as I can. Alaisia is right with me, but she's on the other side of the wall. I laugh. "Is that all you've got, sis?!"

"Nope." I hear her grunt. Then I feel something slam into my shoulder.

I yelp in surprise as I start to fall. Quickly, I latch onto the wall again right at her feet. "Cheap shot!" I call up. "But lets see how you handle this!" I pull of the bars that runs through the wall towards me. She cries out as she loses her footing. As I climb back up, I see that she's holding onto the wall tightly. I grin and continue climbing. That's when I come face to face with Gabri.

"Hey, Gabri." I say as we climb up at the same pace. She's on the other side of the wall.

"Hey, Dakota." She says, smirking at me.

"Why are you smirking?" I ask cautiously.

"Because of this." She shoves a bar towards me.

I see it coming and I'm able to move out of the way. I shove the bar back into her shoulder. She yelps before losing her grip and falling to the ground with a thud.

"Hey!" Luca cries from below me. "That was my sister!"

I shrug. "Sorry!" I climb faster. I didn't want to have to go against Luca. He'd knock me off of the wall easily.

In the next moment, Luca is staring at me across the wall. "It's time for pay back." He shoves a bar towards me.

I drop a couple inches to dodge the bar before yanking a different bar out from under his foot. He easily moves to another bar. we struggle like this back and forth. He shoves a bar towards me, but I'd move before retaliating with a yank or a pull. I could hear some daughters of Aphrodite whispering about which of us will knock the other one off.

That was what gave Luca the advantage. I had glanced down to look at the girls which gave him the oportunity to shove a bar directly into my chest. I try to stay up, but the strength behind the shove pushes me away from the wall. I fall all the way down and slam into the ground. I groan slightly. A second later, Percy lands next to me.

There's a shout of praise as I see that Clarrise had grabbed the dish at the top. Slowly, Percy and I climb to our feet. Clarrise and Luca drop down in front of us. Clarrise smirks at us before marching off. Luca marches up to me.

"If you do that to my sister again, I'll do worse. Got it?" He warns.

I nod. "Yeah. I got it." I answer, rubbing my chest where the bar had hit. He marches off to check on Gabri.

"You alright?" Percy asks me.

I nod again. "Yeah. What about you?"

"I'm banged up, but I'll live." He replies. "Lets go back to our cabin and change."

"Alright." We make our way to the Poseidon cabin. When we walk in, we both go to our own beds.

I don't pay attention to what Percy is changing to as I stripe off my sweaty t-shirt and shorts. After digging through my duffle bag, I change into a clean Camp Half-Blood t-shirt, blue jeans, and my green running shoes. I turn to Percy who had changed into an identical camp t-shirt and blue jean.

"Think that they'll do a Capture-the-Flag game tonight?" I ask, hearing the conch shell, signalling dinner.

He shrugs. "Don't know, but we'll find out."

I nod. "Yeah. I guess so." With that, we both start towards the dinning pavalon.

When we walk in, we gather some food, scrape some into the fire, then sit down at the Posiedon table. A moment later, Alaisia sits down with us.

"So, that was an eventful climbing wall game." She states.

I nod. "Yeah. Luca seems to really hate it when I mess with his sister every now and then." I say, taking a sip of my Sprite.

Percy and Alaisia smirk. "Yeah. Why do you always mess with her any way?" Percy glances over at me.

I shrug. "Because I know it gets on his nerves. Plus, it's kind of pay back for the time he made me speak in ryhmes for an entire day. That just sucked."

Alaisia chuckles slightly. "Yeah, but that was pretty funny though."

Percy grins and nods. "Yep."

I shake my head slightly. "You two enjoyed that day a little too much in my opinion." I take a bite out of my cheeseburger. At that moment, I feel a hand brush across my shoulders. When I glance over my shoulders, I see that it was one of the Aphrodite girls that's in what Percy calls my "fan club."

"Hey, Dakota." She says.

"Hey." I reply, flashing her a gentle smile that makes her blush. I smile even more. "What's up, Drew?"

"Um... I was wondering if you would want to..." She trails off as I stare at her silently.

"Would want to what?" I ask.

"Um..." She stutters before turning and hurrying back to the Aphrodite table. The other girls at the table start to murmur things to her.

I turn back around to see Alaisia stiffling a laugh. "What?" I ask defensively.

"It's just that you made one of the cutest Aphrodite girls at a lost for words just by looking at her." She says before laughing. Percy chuckle slightly with her.

I shake my head again. "It's not like my fault."

Percy shakes his head. "No. It's not your fault that you've got the good looks."

I blush slightly. "Yeah." I mutter, glancing back towards the Aphrodite cabin.

Saoirse, one of the girls that aren't in my "fan club," is talking to Drew. I could guess that she was talking about me since she kept motioning towards me a lot. Drew nods before standing up again with Saoirse right behind her. They make their way over towards me. I stare at them silently.

"What's up?" I ask.

Drew opens her mouth to say something, but then closes it. She stares into my eyes before blushing then looking down at her feet.

Saoirse sighs before looking at me. "Drew is wondering if you'd like to take a walk along the beach with her if there's no Capture-the-Flag."

I glance towards her then back at Drew. I nod slightly. "Sure. Sounds like fun."

Drew squeals slightly before hurrying back to the other girls. She whispers to them excitedly. Saoirse smiles slightly at me. "That's nice of you to say yes to walking along the beach with her, Dakota."

I shrug. "If it makes her happy, then I'll do it."

She smiles again. "You're a sweat guy, Dakota. Any girl will be lucky to have you as a boyfriend." She leans down next to my ear. "And if you want to make her even happier, you could give her a kiss while on the walk." She whispers before turning and walking back to the Aphrodite table.

I blush slightly before turning back to Percy and Alaisia. They're both smirking. "I guess you have plans later." Percy says.

I nod. "I guess I do, but that's only if they don't have a Capture-the-Flag game."

"Well, we don't. Not tonight." I hear Chiron reply from right behind me. I turn around to see him standing there.

"Alright, Chiron." I say, standing up. "I guess I better head to the lake then. See you guys later." I turn and walk towards Drew. "Hey, Drew. Ready for that walk?"

Drew smiles and nods. "Yes. Yes I am." She takes my hand and drags me towards the lake.