A/N: Guys, we hit 1,000 views! You have no idea how happy this makes me. Anyways, sorry I'm late. I'm really bad at this, aren't I? I say I'm not going to update, then I do, then I say I am going to update, then I don't. Wow.

Disclaimer: Don't own it.

Helena POV

Jessica and I just stared at the latecomer. He seemed harmless enough, though I was quickly learning that you never could be sure with demigods.

"What?" asked Leo, starting to smile. "Do I have something on my face?"

I glanced at Jessica, not sure what to say. Fortunately, we were saved by a half-asleep Frank Zhang stumbling through the door.

"Leo." Frank scowled. "I thought that was you."

Leo nodded. "The party has arrived! Where do I put my stuff?"

Frank shrugged. "Uh, we didn't really expect you to show up, but I guess you can take the spare bedroom. Good thing we built that thing . . ."

"Wait." Leo's grin faltered. "What do you mean, you didn't expect me to show up?"

I looked at Jessica, who gestured towards the door. I nodded and we snuck around a now-arguing Frank and Leo.

"What was that all about?" I asked. "Do Leo and Frank have a bad history or something?"

Jessica just shrugged. "I don't know Leo that well, and I've never met Frank, so I wouldn't know. Let's just hope they settle their differences soon."

I struggled into the heavy and inconvenient armor. So far, I was totally failing at being a Roman legion member. The day had all been a blur to me. Ethan, Jessica, and I were accepted into the camp quickly. Russell hadn't wanted to train descendants of Greeks, but our other praetor, Jade, convinced him. Collin had eagerly volunteered to stand for me, while Sammy stood for Ethan and some girl who claimed to be Collin's friend stood for Jessica. Collin gave me a quick tour of camp, then gave me as much training as he could in a limited amount of time.

Collin seemed nice enough. He was really sweet, and funny, too. And yes, I'll admit, he was pretty cute. However, I was determined to not fall for anyone ever since I learned I wouldn't be seeing my life-long crush at Camp Treble.

Collin and his friend who stood for Jessica were the centurions of Cohort Four. Sammy, on the other hand, was a member of the Second Cohort. Don't ask why; I have no clue.

My main problem with Camp Jupiter was how abrupt everything was. For example, tonight we had war games. I mean, seriously? I couldn't be any less prepared.

As we walked down to the field to play, Collin was rambling on about strategies and fighting moves. I wasn't really listening. My Imperial Gold sword was too heavy and my helmet was falling in my eyes. In other words, I most likely looked like a complete dork.

Ethan walked up to me. Surprisingly, he actually looked cool and collected. He had a gleaming knife at his side and a bow and quiver of arrows on his back. Despite being only twelve, his armor actually looked good on him. In fact, it defined muscles I never knew he had. How come I couldn't look as normal as him? Ethan looked like he had been a legion member all his life. The only thing he was missing was the tattoo on his arm, though at this rate, he would probably get that soon too.

"How's it going, sis?" he asked, clapping me on the shoulder. That move didn't quite work due to the fact he was shorter than me.

"Why do you look so . . . Roman?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. This stuff comes easy to me. Just wait till we start!"

He jogged away, yelling, "You're so going down!"

In all the confusion, I had totally forgotten that I would be playing against Ethan. Fourth and Fifth Cohorts were defending the banners while First, Second, and Third were attacking. I realized that Collin must face this problem every time, with Sammy in the Second and all. I turned to ask him about it, but he was gone. I looked up and found him standing next to Crystal, the other centurion, at the head of the Cohort.

"Fourth Cohort!" called Collin. "As you all know, today we are defending our banners. Fifth Cohort is going to be inside the fort, keeping an eye on the flag. Meanwhile, we will be placed outside, ready to attack any advancing demigods."

"Everybody needs to be putting forth their best effort," continued Crystal. "And I mean everybody. It'll be three of them against one of us, so we need to fight as hard as possible. Ready?"

Cheers came from the other Cohort members, including Jessica, but I remained silent. I couldn't fight to save my life. Collin already knew this, but what was Crystal going to think when I failed to stop the others?

"Fourth Cohort!" yelled Collin, all pumped up to fight. Everyone yelled back in response.

"Fourth Cohort!"

Everybody ran to take their places, and I clumsily followed.

Russell and Jade swooped in over us on their pegasi. They gave instructions, but all I could hear was an odd buzzing noise in my ears. I wasn't aware that Collin was talking to me until he poked me, hard.

"What?"

"I said, are you okay?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

"You look like you're about to get sick."

"I'm fine!" I bit back, probably a little harder than I meant to. He just nodded and walked away, looking disappointed. I felt bad about it, but at the moment I had other things to worry about.

War games had begun.

All was quiet for a while. I started to wonder if anybody was going to attack.

Then it came.

The noise was quiet at first, but it grew. Suddenly the roar of yelling legion members was deafening. All three Cohorts burst out of nowhere, screaming and waving weapons. It was madness. I feebly tried to defend myself, but it didn't work. Every person I fought shoved me down and kept moving.

Crystal noticed me struggling out of the corner of her eye. If we weren't in the middle of war, I'm pretty sure she would have face palmed.

"Helena! Jessica!" she called. "Retreat back to the door of the fort!"

I looked to the spot she was talking about. It was empty. The Fourth Cohort was doing a good job of keeping the enemy away from the fort, so Crystal most likely positioned us there to keep us out of the way.

Of course, just my luck, it was then that one of the Second Cohort members got through our first line of defense and headed for me. As he got closer, I realized that I knew him.

"Ethan!" I screamed. "What are you doing?"

He grinned. "Sorry, sis!" Then he barreled past me and Jess without a problem and tore inside the fort.

I fell over into the mud with the momentum of his shove. I lay there, completely in shock. Meanwhile, the Fifth Cohort was in an uproar. They weren't expecting a small, twelve year old boy to come attack as quick as he did.

It didn't take long for him to come bolting out of the fort, carrying our banners. He shouted in triumph and carried them back towards his Cohort.

And he didn't look back at me.

The First, Second, and Third Cohorts all started cheering, "ETHAN! ETHAN!"

It was sickening.

My little brother was awarded with the Mural Crown. The roaring of his teammates got louder and louder. No one as new as him had ever been awarded such a high honor.

Crystal had gone to chew out the Fifth Cohort, who apparently had let Ethan take the flag without hesitation. Meanwhile, Collin had stalked over to Jessica and I. He looked angry.

"What were you thinking?" he demanded. "We can't even trust you two to fight off someone three years younger and a head shorter than you?"

"Collin, we tried," I began. "But -"

"I don't want to hear your excuses," he snarled. He stomped off, still looking steamed.

I stood there, feeling utterly rotten and useless.

A/N: Thank you again to all my favoriters and followers!

To Bookworm19980115, Natsucrush106, kat callan, and girlwithdarkhair: Thank yooouuuu!

To thein273: Looking back on it, I might have overdone Leo a bit. Sorry about that, I'll try to make it up to you.

To redisawesome: Sorry, no spoilers! (Although I will say that I might have been a little too obvious with the foreshadowing.)

I have a question for you guys: do I introduce the characters too fast? I have a bad habit of doing that. There's a lot of them, so let me know if it gets confusing.