Hello, I'm not very sure where to take this story. Maybe just a story about two demigods in their struggle to survive in the real world as grown ups? I don't quite know yet. Anyways, I'd like to know what you guys think. If you've read this far, and you got any suggestions, please feel free to say it. All criticism is appreciated. Enjoy!

"I totally called it!" Madison continued to shout out. "That hair! He even has the same cute little face that you used to have!"

"Used to have." I repeated flatly, squeezing her side playfully.

"Wait, so..." Cory said quietly. "My teacher is my older brother?"

"Not your teacher anymore." I reminded him. "You told me that you wanted to stay year round, remember? The school probably already forgets that you went there."

I wondered what was going through his head. Surely there was something he was leaving behind at that school. Friends? A girl? I knew it shouldn't be easy to just drop everything and go, but he made it seem like a cakewalk. I also wondered if the school ever found a replacement for Mrs. Vendela. Hopefully it'd be someone that I could actually work with.

"Excellent." Chiron said. "Josh, could you take Cory to his cabin?"

His cabin. Those words just echoed in my head over and over again. He was my brother, a son of Apollo just like me. Yet, the cabin was his, not mine. Not mine anymore, that is. It used to be. I was even the counselor of it. Man, did I miss it. A completely safe place for me to live that didn't make me pay rent and kept monsters out of the area. Of course, there was one thing that it didn't have; Madison.

I nodded, gesturing for Cory to follow me as I grabbed Madison's hand and led them out of the Big House. As we walked, I gave Cory a small tour. I pointed things out for him; the dining pavilion, climbing wall, arena, etc. He seemed pretty amazed by it all, which made sense. If you just discovered this world and you weren't shocked, there must be something wrong with you.

Finally, we reached the Apollo cabin; cabin 7. It was made of solid gold, so needless to say, it was bright, but only in the day time. Now, I'm a son of Apollo, and I still don't know if the sun reflects all the light or it the gold generates it itself. My guess is the sun, but I've been wrong before.

Madison hated my old cabin. I always thought it was because it blinded her, but then we started dating. During the summers that I was in college, I would sneak out at night and go to her cabin, and we'd sit on top of the roof and watch the stars. She would never come to my cabin, though, and I never knew why.

"I'm gonna go check in on my siblings now." She said, kissing me on the cheek. "You two have fun."

She hurried off, running to cabin four to see the brothers and sisters that she loved so much. I had to admit, seeing some of my siblings again would be pretty fun.

"Ready to see your new home?" I asked Cory, before opening the door to the cabin and showing him in.

For the flashy outside, the inside looked pretty dull. Thank the gods, too. It would get pretty annoying when I was trying to sleep. There were seven sets of bunk beds inside, so maximum capacity was fourteen. It looked like there were only two year-round campers here, though, since only two of the beds had things on them. On one of them, sat a teenaged boy named Samuel, and he was casually shooting arrows at the wall across from him. It looked like he was drawing a smiley face on the wall with arrows, but he only had the eyes and less than half the smile done.

"Sammy!" I yelled at him, grabbing the bow from his hand. "How many times do I gotta tell you? No arrows inside the cabin!"

Samuel looked confused, as his eyes darted back and forth between me and Cory. Obviously, he wasn't expecting either of us today.

"You ain't the counselor anymore, Josh." He said, standing up and pulling the arrows from the wall. "Shouldn't you be teaching a bunch of kids right now? And who's this?"

"This," I said, "is Cory. I found him while teaching a bunch of kids, so I brought him here. He's your new brother, be nice."

"Yeah yeah." Samuel said. "'Sup, Cory? I'm Samuel, the current head counselor of cabin seven. Don't listen to what Mr. A here says, he's not in charge."

"Actually," I pointed out, "I have seniority, so I am indeed in charge. But whatever, I'll let you do what you want." I smiled and turned to walk out of the cabin. "Sammy, please make Cory feel at home. You know how hard it is to be new."

Samuel nodded, and I walked out of Cabin 7.

I spent the rest of the day there, taking in everything that I missed so much. It was truly my favorite place on Earth, but I wanted to experience the real world. Taxes, rent, groceries, gas money, a job, etc. It wasn't all that bad, because Madison was always at my side, whether she was actually next to me or not. If I had a rough day, or if I was feeling sick, or whatever bad thing that could happen to me, I knew that seeing her face would make me feel better. She made life easier.

We were sitting on the dock, watching the sun set over the lake. My arm was around her shoulders, and her head was leaning on mine. This was one of our favorite things to do at camp, so we were gonna keep doing it.

"I missed this." She said to me. "Just us two, not worrying about anything else, watching the sun go down like a normal couple."

"What? We're not normal?"

"We're children of gods from Greek mythology in a relationship, that's not normal."

I laughed, shaking my head. "Oh well. Normal is boring anyways."

She nodded. "Um, I didn't tell you this before, but Chiron told me that we could stay the night here if you want. It Friday, and neither of us have to work tomorrow, so I thought it'd be fun..."

Part of me wanted to go home, and spend the weekend with just Madison. The other part of me wanted to stay here for the night, just like old times. I didn't really know which way to go.

"If you want, we could spend the night." I told her. "And we can leave tomorrow afternoon. It'd be fun to stay at camp again anyways."

She smiled, leaning up and kissing me. "I know how much you like our alone time, but one night won't hurt. Just for old time's sake, okay? Tomorrow night, it's just you, me, and the bed."

She winked at me, and I felt my heart beat a little faster. "Sounds like a deal." I told her, standing up and helping her to her feet. "Let's get going."

The rest of the night went pretty quickly, until the campfire/sing along. Dinner here was always great, cause I got whatever I wanted. It also helped that I didn't have to pay for anything, which was completely different from what I usually have to do.

Because of the lack of year-round Apollo campers, they forced me into the song along. My dad was the god of music, so naturally, I played some instruments, but mostly guitar. We were all naturally born singers, for the most part at least. I've heard Samuel try to sing before, and it sounded nothing like the son of the god of music.

I had massive stage fright. I hated going up there and singing for everyone. It was kind of weird how I became a teacher, since I've always hated being the center of attention.

I did it anyways, but I focused on Madison's face the whole time. It was so welcoming and warm that is always settled me down. I sang some classic camp song as I played the guitar that the camp had so generously let me use. It seemed like I was up there for hours, but in reality I was only singing for no more than ten minutes. Once it was over, I walked up to Madison, kissing her goodnight and walking back to my old cabin, where I tried to sleep.

I fluttered in and out of dream world, waking up probably every five or ten minutes before falling back asleep. I don't know why, but I couldn't sleep soundly. It was almost as if something was missing. Even though this is the very bed that I spent all my summers in until I graduated college, it didn't seem right.

Then it hit me. What was missing, it was obvious. Madison.

I pulled myself out of bed, careful not to wake the three kids who were sound asleep. I slid on my shoes, and walked out of the cabin. I tip-toed past two other cabins before I reached cabin four: Demeter's cabin. I was about to knock on the window before I saw someone sitting on the roof. I'm pretty sure that I knew who she was.

I climbed up the back, trying to be as sneaky as I could. Once I was on top, I snuck up to Madison and tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped, almost falling off the roof before I grabbed her and held her steady.

"Gods, Josh!" She hit me lightly on the shoulder. "You scared me half to death!"

I laughed quietly. "I thought you'd be up here. Now lower your voice, we don't wanna wake anyone up."

We sat together quietly, watching the stars like we always used to do. We typically didn't say much when we did this, but there was usually some conversation. Right now, however, Madison remained quiet.

"You alright?" I asked her, raising an eyebrow. "You're never this quiet. What's wrong?"

She sighed, finally opening her mouth. "I came up her because I needed a place to think. There's a decent amount of kids in there, and it didn't feel right."

"I know how you feel." I said, shrugging. "I just wanted to be with you. But you still didn't tell me what you were thinking about."

She shook her head. "Nothing too serious, but it was about us..."

Typically, when a girl said that, you were supposed to get worried. If a girl is ever thinking about "us" then you might be in some hot water. I didn't understand what I did wrong, or what didn't seem right. After seven years, our relationship should be stronger than steel.

"What about us...?" I managed to get out, feeling butterflies start to flutter in my stomach.

"Don't worry about it, but." She said, giving me the same relaxing smile that she always did. "I was thinking that... We've been together for seven years, right? And we're both responsible adults with jobs so... I was thinking that... Maybe we should get.. Married?"

Married. The complete opposite of what I thought she was gonna say. I froze, gazing over the top of the cabin to look at the rest of camp. I didn't really know what to say, so I told the truth.

"I've been wanting to for awhile, babe..." I said quietly. "I just really don't have the money right now... I intend to marry you, but I don't think right now is the right time... And honestly, I don't know if I'm ready."

"I know, I know." She said quickly. "Money's tight. Forget I even mentioned it."

"No." I said, grabbing her hand. "It's a good thing to bring up. I know, we should get married, but we need to talk about it first. I know I'm being stupid when I say that I'm not ready. After seven years, I think I should be. And money? It's just paper. We will get married. Don't worry."

She looked at me, and her solemn eyes turned happy. She smiled, kissing me deeply and holding it for a few seconds. "I love you." She said softly after breaking the kiss.

"I love you too." I said, returning the smile.

"Now go to sleep, sunshine." She told me, standing up carefully and guiding me to the side of the roof. "We're both gonna what some sleep for tomorrow."

I almost made the biggest mistake that any boyfriend or husband could ever do. I was about to ask what tomorrow was, and then it hit me. Tomorrow; September 5th, 2015. In other words, our eight year anniversary. Man, that really snuck up on me. At least I remembered. We actually started dating when she was 16 and I was 17, but her birthday is on September 7th, and mine was only three days after that. So we pretty much started our relationship at 17 and 18.

I didn't even know what she wanted to do for tomorrow night, but I figured it involved some decently expensive restaurant, which I didn't mind. We didn't have a lot of money, but I could spare a few extra bucks a few times a year to take her somewhere nice.

I nodded. "Where do you wanna go? It's on you."

"We'll talk about it tomorrow, just get some sleep." She said, smiling at me before I jumped off the roof. I helped her down, kissing her goodnight before walking off to my cabin.

This time, I was able to sleep.