Walking back into the Apollo cabin after the bonfire made me realize something. It looked like almost like a kindergarten classroom. Paint everywhere, people singing and instruments all over the place. It probably could have been one, besides the fact that all of us are teenagers and a few of the healers would purposely make other kids hurt themselves just so they could heal them. It was a good thing all these walls were soundproof, or the other cabins would hate the yelling and singing going on at all hours of the day. I lay on my bed just as the lights went out and everyone started yelling at each other for blowing a fuse.

I couldn't sleep that night. Not at all. I opened my eyes and sighed and went to roll over, but there was a light. I looked up at the ceiling were it seemed like the night sky was directly above me. I never noticed it before because I had my eyes pressed shut before the lights went out. It was the dark. I don't like the dark. Not likening is an understatement. I hate it. No, I fear it. The night sky, not scary. Literal darkness? Scary. I took one last look at the ceiling and rolled back over and jammed my face into my pillow. I had to sleep.

The next morning was cloudy. The bad weather made me feel more tired than I already was. Steph didn't talk at all, just acknowledged people by looking at them and giving a small smile when they came to say good luck and stuff like that. Sitting closely next to me, she was tapping her fingers on the table and zoned out on her plate and pushed her eggs around with her fork.

"You have to eat." I said quietly.

"I know." She replied, just a little louder than a mumble and began stabbing at her eggs.

"All right, who's ready to go on a deadly field trip?" Connor said as he and Travis came walking over.

"Very inspirational." Travis said. He looked at Steph. "Aw, come on Princess, you can't back out now!" She looked at him and smiled a little.

"That's more like it!" Connor said. Clapping a hand on her back, he lowered his voice. "By the way, everyone bet all their drachmas that you three would come back a live because the Ares cabin is convinced you'll mess it up and the World will explode. They're a fun bunch of people."

"They didn't say anything about the world exploding..." Travis said as he and Connor began to walk away. Just as soon as they were gone Chiron came over.

"Time to go." He said. Evan was behind him. I sighed and Steph got up, grabbing a bunch of green grapes and trudged alongside me.

Two hours away from camp and we already had a problem.

"What do you mean you can't fix the taxi?" I asked the taxi driver.

"Well... I... Uh..." The driver stammered.

"Where did Evan go? He could fix this." I said.

"Right here." Evan's voice was muffled.

"Hey, kid! Get out from under my car!" The taxi driver said.

"You'll shut your mouth if you want this thing fixed."

"You'll get out if you want a ride."

"You'll need it fixed if you're gonna give us a ride." He crawled out from under the car and wiped his hand on his shirt. "Start the car."

The driver did as told; the car started like it was brand new. The driver gave Evan a look and climbed in the car and we got in the back. The rest of the ride was quiet. All you could hear was the sound of the backpacks, filled with all our supplies, rubbing against the seat.

We showed up in front of the Empire State Building at about 9 in the morning. I wasn't sure about where we were going from here.

"Why can't Zeus just get up and find his own kids..." I mumbled.

Thunder boomed above us in response.

"Whatever."

A police man came up to us. "You kids lost?" He asked.

"No." I answered.

"Looking for Mom or Dad?"

Steph snorted behind me. She stepped forward to the policeman. "Can you point us in the direction of Central Park?"

"Uh, yeah. Just go that way down 5th Avenue."

"Okay, thanks." She flashed the policeman a big smile and turned and started off down the sidewalk.

"She's weirdly happy for this." Evan said.

"She's internally panicking and this is the only way she know how to deal with this. You know fake happiness."

"Parks are wonderful!" She called over her shoulder. Multiple people stared and she didn't even care.

Central Park had a few small bodies of water. The tree we were looking for, the one that had Daphne, was supposed to be beside any one of them.

"Which one are we looking for?" Evan asked.

"Turtle Pond. Here's a picture of the tree." Steph pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to Evan. "It's supposed to be in like, the middle of the park."

"Let's go, then." I said.

We passed multiple groups of people giving us weird looks. I don't blame them. A random group of three kids in bright orange shirts caring around huge backpacks and staring at trees. We reached Turtle Pond, and I'm fairly sure there weren't any turtles. I couldn't be fully sure because I was too busy looking at trees.

"Hey guys, guess what I found!" Evan called

I turned around and saw Evan standing next to a tree that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. I was about a quarter of the size of a normal tree, and hidden behind a lamppost.

"So," Steph said, "what are we supposed to do?"

We stared at the tree for a bit, wondering how exactly we were supposed to free Daphne from the tree.

"You're some funny looking people." The tree seemed to have a face made out of the bark, "Maybe you should just utter the words, 'Daphne, under the power of your father Peneus, I' and then say your name 'set you free from the Laurel Tree of Central Park!' And hurry up, because boy, do I need to stretch."

I stared at the tree and after a while the face looked agitated.

"Well, hurry up! You're gonna need my help on this quest!" Daphne said.

"Daphne," Steph began, "under the power of your father Peneus, I Stephanie Archer set you free from the Laurel tree of Central Park."

The tree smiled. "Oh thank you so much! I'm forever grateful and- oh! Here we go!" There was a quick flash of light that made me see spots for a few seconds. When my vision cleared a tiny girl was brushing dirt from a white toga. She looked up and smiled at all of us. Her eyes were the same color as the leaves of the laurel wreath she wore on her head and her brown hair was braided down her back. "Hi! I'm Daphne! So where are we going on this quest? Oh! I'm the one who knows this!" She laughed at herself. "Come this way! But first, who gave you those?" She asked Steph and I pointing to the iPods at our waist.

"Well, mom and dad-"

She abruptly ripped them from our waists and stared at them.

"You mean Hera. She gave these to you. Demi-gods should never have electronic devices like this, they attract monsters."

"Why would she do that?" Steph asked.

"She hates you."

"Why?"

"Because you're Apollo's kids, and Apollo isnt her kid. Of all the affairs Zeus had and all the kids he had she was always incredibly jealous of Leto for having kids as amazing as Artemis and Apollo. Especially when about 90% of Apollo's kids become famous." She started walking away. "Come on, we have to fix these."