Ch 3: Camp Half-Blood

My eyes fluttered open. The first thing I noticed was that I was not alone in the room. Sparrow and Shadow sat on either side of the white bed I was lying on. I sat up. Shadow turned to me at my movement. "Oh! You're awake! I'll go tell Chiron," she said. She got up and walked out of the room. Chiron? Oh yeah. We're at Camp Half-Blood. I turned to Sparrow. "How long was I out?" I asked. "Oh, a few hours. Not too long. But it was pretty funny when you passed out at the sight of Nico de Angelo." She tried to suppress a giggle. I rolled my eyes. "Harharhar," I said. Just then, Chiron walked in (or is it galloped in?). "How are you feeling, Terra? You must have taken quite a blow to just collapse like that," he said. Sparrow burst out laughing while a slight blush spread across my face. Chiron looked confused but he didn't ask. Shadow appeared from behind him and walked over to sit by me. "Well, since you three haven't been claimed, yet, you'll be staying in the Hermes cabin. Travis and Connor will show you around," Chiron said.

Chiron led us outside to where a bunch of campers were practicing sword fighting. He told us to wait while he walked over to two blond boys. He said something to them and they both nodded. I leaned over to Shadow. "The Stoll brothers?" I asked. She nodded. Chiron came back over followed by the two sons of Hermes. "Travis and Conner will help get you settled into camp. If you have any questions, ask them," he said and then left. I turned back to the boys. "Well, we'd better show you guys around, then," Connor said. Travis nodded. They started to walk off and we followed them.

"Well, this is the sword practice arena," Travis said, gesturing to the area where some campers were sword fighting. "You'll be spending a lot of time here," Connor added. Then we walked to a building where a bunch of campers were forging weapons and shields and such. "This is the armory," Connor said, "Off limits for any non Hephaestus cabin members." "Except for Tyson," Travis added. The three of us nodded to show we were listening. The tour continued like this. We went to Zeus' Fist, the forest, the beach, the volleyball net (we are so gonna take on the Nike kids some time),the strawberry field, Rachel's Oracle cave, the dining pavilion, and the Big House. We didn't get to see the stables, though, because the Athena cabin was having there riding time right now so it would be empty anyway and there was no point in seeing an empty stable. Right now we were looking at the cabins. There were too many, now that all the minor gods had cabins, to go and name every cabin so we just went to the basics: Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Hestia (Yes, she has a cabin now), Ares, Athena, Artemis, Apollo, Aphrodite (Haha. All the A s are in row!), Demeter, Persephone, Dionysus, Hephaestus, and, lastly, Hermes. "Welcome to the Hermes cabin," the Stoll brothers said in unison as we opened the door to our new cabin. A bunch of heads turned in our direction. Then, a voice spoke up from the back. "Permanent or undetermined?" "Undetermined," Travis said. There were a few "Aw!"s but mostly, we were welcomed and greeted with smiles and handshakes. I kept a hand on my bag to make sure they weren't going to try anything.

The Stoll brothers showed us to our sleeping bags and then left us alone. "This is so cool!" Sparrow exclaimed. I nodded. "All we need is Qelf and a few cans of soda and we'd be good to go." "Qelf in the land of the farm!" Shadow said. The three of us erupted into a fit of laughter. Suddenly, a blond girl about our age popped up from around the corner. "Hey, did you guys say Qelf?" she asked. I nodded. She pulled out said board game out of her bag. "I love Qelf! You guys want to play?" she asked. We nodded. She set up the game on the floor. We all picked our game pieces. "I'm Angelina Hale by the way. I have many nicknames: Angie, Angel, Ann, Gel. Call me whatever you want," the girl said. "Nice to meet you. Well, I'm Terra. And this is Shadow and Sparrow," I said, motioning to my friends. She nodded. "Oh! And before I forget…" she said as she reached into her bag and pulled out four cans of soda. "Let the game begin" I exclaimed as I grabbed a can and took a big sip.

"To ancient times and distant music!" I said as we crashed our cans together. I took another sip. "Ann, it's your turn," I said. Angelina nodded and rolled the dice and moved The Biscuit Farmer (her game piece) to that space. "Blue," she said. She picked up a blue card and read it out loud. "Whenever you drink something you must say 'I need my pills'," she read. She picked up her can and took a sip. "I need my pills," she said in a fake elderly voice as she hunched her back. We burst out laughing. "My turn!" Sparrow exclaimed. She rolled the dice and moved Mrs. Picklefeather forward. She drew her card. "Sing the song 'Heads, shoulders, knees and toes' in another language." She sang a song in Spanish. "Um, Sparrow, that's 'My body makes music'. Not 'Heads, shoulders, knees, and toes'," Shadow stated. Sparrow frowned. "It counts!" Just then, a conch horn sounded. Angelina stood up. "Time for dinner."

We lined up with the Hermes cabin and headed towards the dining pavilion. All the other cabins were already there. We sat down at our table as nymphs came and gave us our food. I nodded in thanks as one came and handed me a plate. I looked at my empty cup in front of me. Just say what you want, right? "Root beer!" Sure enough, the fizzy brown soda appeared in my cup. I took a sip. Nice and cold. Then, I noticed everyone was getting up to offer some food to their godly parents. I grabbed my plate and followed them. When I reached the fire, I slid some of my food into the flames. To my godly parent, whoever you are.

After dinner, Chiron galloped over to Shadow, Sparrow, and I. "I've contacted all your parents, telling them that you got invited to spend a year living in New York. You'll probably have to talk to them yourselves to convince them, though," he said. My eyes widened. I'd completely forgotten about my family! My mom is probably freaking out right now! We just up and left them without any note of message or anything. I could tell that Shadow and Sparrow were realizing the same thing. "OK. I'll call right now," I said. I know what you guys are thinking. 'Demigods can't use phones! It attracts monsters!' Well, the Big House's landline has a protective shield around it so that no one can listen in or track you. I grabbed the phone and dialed my home number. It rang for a minute. Then my mom answered.

"Hello?" "Hey, mom. It's me," I said. "Terra? Thank god! Where are you? Are you safe? Should I call the police?" she said all in one breathe. "Relax, mom! I'm fine. Didn't Mr. Bruner tell you?" I asked, using Chiron's fake name. "Well, yes, but I wasn't sure he was telling the truth. I needed to hear you say it." Then her voice turned angry. "Wait? So you're in New York? You just left without telling me!" "I'm really sorry, mom! It was just last minute!" I said, making up an excuse. She sighed. "Fine. Just, be careful, OK?" "I will, mom. Oh, and can you tell Shadow and Sparrow parents that they're OK, too?" I asked. "I will. Bye, honey," she said. "Bye, mom." Then I hung up.

We had a camp fire that night. I sat next to my friends as the Apollo cabin led us in song. The fire light was mesmerizing. Then, a camper pushed past me, causing me to slip off my bench fall backwards. Right into Nico de Angelo. "Are you OK, Terra?" he asked. Good thing it was dark out, so he didn't see the bright red blush that appeared on my face. "Yeah, I'm fine," I said. I sat back up just in time to see Sparrow and Shadow both flash identical grins my way. "Can you feel the love tonight…" the Apollo kids sang. I mentally slapped my forehead.

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