A/N: Before jumping into the chapter I just want to give a quick thanks to Elmethea and Chocomadsandirish. Both these writers submitted brilliant characters, and then gave me exceptionally nice reviews. Thank you so much! You guys made my day.

"Mike! Mike! Wake up!" Mike sat up quickly and glanced at his surroundings. Kendall leaned over him shaking him frantically. Looming behind Kendall was a gigantic, humanoid figure. As he stared up at the face of the beast, Mike realized it had only one eye.

"What... Kendall... behind you!"

Kendall turned with remarkable speed and hurled her sword into the monster's eye. She turned back to Mike. "Get up! There are weapons inside!"

Mike raced back into the little house and hunted around until he found a long knife, or maybe it was a short sword. The few rays of dawn peeking into the house were pale and vague. He ran back outside, nervously clutching his knife.

In the time it took for Mike to find his weapon, Adam had climbed onto the monsters shoulders, retrieved Kendall's sword, and returned it. Now his sword was buried in-between the monster's shoulder blades, and Kendall appeared to be stabbing his foot. Mike stood in the doorway for a moment, paralyzed by shock and fear. Then the monster lumbered towards him.

Mike had been thrown into this world less than twenty-four hours ago. He hadn't had any training, or even a thorough explanation. He had no idea how to fight monsters.

At the last second, Mike threw his knife, praying it wouldn't hit either of his friends. He was, as always, extremely lucky.

The knife buried itself in the monster's chest. The monster had time only to swing one giant hand at Mike before crumbling to dust.

Mike was thrown sideways. He felt his head smash against something hard, and then everything went black. The last thing he saw was Adam tumbling from where the monster's shoulders had once been.

Mike woke to a spoon being shoved between his lips.

He tried to sit up and immediately felt dizzy.

"It's okay," came an unfamiliar voice. "Just swallow. It'll make you feel bettter." Mike looked in the direction of the voice and saw a girl, about his age with light red hair pulled back in a braid. She held a bowl, and the spoon that had just been in his mouth.

Following the girl's instructions, Mike swallowed. Whatever it was tasted good, like his father's potato casserole, something they'd eaten nearly every night until his father had been remarried. Mike's father wasn't much of a cook, but his stepmom was.

Mike sat up again, and the dizzy feeling came back, but lessened greatly. "What happened?"

The girl looked at him sympathetically. It didn't escape Mike's notice that she was quite pretty. She was pale, with kind hazel eyes, and her hair was an interesting shade of red. Not bright red like Mike's own curly locks, but a softer shade, streaked with blonde. She actually looked a little like Kendall, but that could have just been the similar complexion, or more likely the same sympathetic expression.

"Wait, what happened to Kendall and Adam? Adam... he fell from like, ten feet!"

The girl smiled. "They're both fine. A little beaten up, but that's to be expected when you battle a Cyclops. They're all healed. They didn't have concussions like you. And falling isn't a problem for Adam. He can fly."

"He can fly?"

"Well yeah, all children of Zeus can. 'Course we didn't know about it until Jason Grace figured it out. But he and Adam can both fly. I'm Alice by the way. Alice Robinson, daughter of Apollo."

"Apollo?"

"Are you just going to repeat my words as questions?" Alice smiled. "But yeah, I'm a daughter of Apollo. Didn't Adam and Kendall explain?"

"Explain?" Mike laughed, and after a pause Alice laughed softly as well. "Yeah, they did explain. But it's hard to believe. And I get the feeling there's a lot I still don't know."

"Don't know?" Now it was Alice's turn to make Mike laugh. Then she sighed heavily. "Rest for a little while longer. You'll get a tour soon."

Mike shook his head. "I need to get up. How long have I been out anyway?"

"Two days." Mike couldn't believe his ears. He couldn't have been out two days. How could he have missed so much?

"I need to get up," he said again.

Alice nodded. She handed him

a tall glass of what looked like honey. "Drink this."

Mike swallowed the drink in three gulps. It tasted like the herbal tea his stepmom had loved so much. There was always a mug of tea waiting when Mike got home from school.

"How do you feel?" Alice asked.

"Like I've never even met a Cyclops."

Alice nodded again. "That was nectar. The stuff I was feeding you before was ambrosia. Food and drink of the gods. In small doses it will heal demigods, but too much of it will burn you to ashes."

She said this casually, as if she were relaying a simple cake recipe.

Mike stood easily now. Alice left the room to let him change into a pair of jeans and an orange t-shirt someone had laid out for him. She promised him that Kendall and Adam would be by in a minute to give him a tour, but that when he couldn't stand their flirting any longer, he was to run back to the infirmary and she would finish his tour. Mike wasn't sure if that was a joke or not; she spoke far more seriously than when she had warned him of spontaneous combustion.

Within minutes there was a knock on the door. "Come in," Mike called out.

Kendall poked her head around the door. "You're back in the land of the living!" she exclaimed. "Come on, we'll show you around."

As Mike walked next to the two older teens, they used one hand to point out the landmarks, while keeping their other hands tightly laced together.

"That's the climbing wall,"Kendall said casually. "Don't worry about the lava, it's really not that hard to dodge, especially with luck like yours."

"And that's the canoe lake. Poseidon's children love it, although there's only two of them at the moment," Adam interrupted his girlfriend.

The small group headed towards a mass of what looked like tiny houses, all in a slightly scattered, but still very organized formation.

"Those are the cabins," Kendall explained. "One for all the gods, even the minor gods, even the maiden goddesses. Originally there were only twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians, but as part of Percy Jackson's deal, we built cabins for every god we could find. And the only one we couldn't find let us know."

"Who was that?"

"Tyche, goddess of fortune and luck. She's a forgiving goddess, but she was pretty annoyed that we'd forgotten only her. It was awful. She appeared one day in the dining pavilion and broke every mirror in the camp. You know, for seven years of bad luck. All that happened was the Aphrodite kids went insane, and we had bad luck for a month before she forgave us. We started building her cabin right away of course and gave her burnt offerings every night. Of course there's still no one in the Tyche cabin, but many of the minor gods' cabins are empty. The minor gods have been less good at keeping their oath."

All the time Kendall had been talking, the three had been wandering the cabins. The stopped outside a rickety looking wooden cabin. "This is the Hermes cabin," Kendall said. "All unclaimed demigods stay here for a while, but never very long. Since you're already fifteen you'll probably be claimed at the campfire tonight and won't be staying here at all. Unless your dad turns out to be Hermes. Adams already bet me five drachmas that you're a child of the god of thieves."

Mike nodded, not knowing whether or not to be insulted. Kendall and Adam led him to the main building.

"This is the Big House," Adam informed him. "You probably won't be coming here a lot, but right now you need to meet Chiron and Mr. D. Chiron's our activities director and Mr. D's our... overseer I guess. He also happens to be the god of wine, so don't insult him.

Before Mike could step inside the building, the door swung open and a huge white horse trotted out. No, it wasn't a horse. It was half horse, half man... a centaur.

The centaur smiled warmly. "You must be the new camper. I am Chiron, the activities director. I trust Kendall and Adam have taken care of you?" Mike managed a nod. Chiron said something about the Mr. D not being in a welcoming mood and sorry for the rough welcome before the door swung open once more to reveal a short girl about Mike's age.

"It's all fixed," the newcomer said to Chiron. Chiron thanked her and introduced her to Mike as Cyra Reese.

"Cyra was fixing my wheelchair," Chiron explained. "I use it as a disguise and it broke down a little while ago."

"Can I call my family?" Mike suddenly remembered. "They don't know where I am and they're probably really worried."

"Of course," Chiron replied. "Don't make a habit of using phones but of course your family should know where you are. Cyra, would you mind showing Mike the phone?"

Mike followed the girl down into the building and through many rooms. She was short, no more than 5'4", but her hands were strong and callused. She was curvy and sweet looking, and she'd occasionally glance back at Mike with a kind smile.

"Here you go," Cyra said, handing him the phone. "We disconnect it after we use it because of the danger. Don't talk too long."

She spoke softly with a slightly southern accent, but smiled gently the entire time. As Mike carefully dialed his home number, she took some wires, gears, and various other items out of her pocket and began fiddling with them. As she fiddled, she leaned against the wall and let her long dark brown hair drape over her shoulder. Mike watched her for a while. She was dressed casually, her baggy jeans rolled halfway up her shins and dotted with dirt and motor grease, an old blue and white plaid shirt unbuttoned over her camp tee. Her face was furrowed in concentration; she looked like whatever gear she was thinking about was the most important thing in the world.

The phone rang three times before someone answered.

"Hello?"

Mike almost cried in relief at hearing his stepmother's voice. He hadn't realized until this moment how homesick he'd been.

"Hi Candy."

"Mike? Mike is that you? What happened? We got a call from your school saying you'd been expelled and you were on a flight home, but that was days ago."

"I'm fine Candy. Some friends took me to a summer camp with them. It's kind of a long story. I think my dad knows about it."

"Mike, you can't keep doing this. Sooner or later, your going to get in really big trouble. It was bad enough when you were playing the slot machines, but running off to summer camp? That's not okay Mike. You have to tell us first. Do you know how worried we were? We were all set to book a flight to Montana and talk to your school."

"I'm really sorry. I swear I couldn't call you until now. Uh... is dad there?"

"He's on his way home from work, but he's stopping to pick Fiona up from soccer practice."

"Okay, can you tell him I called and I'm okay?"

"Isn't there an adult I can talk to?"

"Um... wait just a second." Mike held the phone to his shoulder. "Um, Cyra? Cyra?" Cyra glanced up from her work. "Is there someone who can reassure my parents? They're kinda worried."

Cyra shrugged. "We can maybe have Chiron call them later."

"Okay. Um, Candy? Yeah, our activities director can't talk right now, but he can call later. Is that okay? I'm really sorry. I wanted to talk to you the second I left school."

"Alright, you're okay for now but if you don't call us later we're getting on a plane straight to... where did you say you were?"

It occurred to Mike that he really had no idea where he was. He turned to Cyra again but had to call her four times before she tore herself away from her work.

"We're in Long Island Sound," Cyra said. Mike was quick to relay the information to his stepmother.

"Alright," Candy conceded. "Call us tomorrow with more details. Tomorrow at the latest. Be safe, I love you."

Mike hung up and Cyra crawled under the table to disconnect the phone.

"Thanks," Mike said lamely as he and Cyra walked out of the Big House. He never really knew how to talk to pretty girls, and by his standards, Cyra was beautiful. There was something about her quiet, yet self-assured demeanor, her expressive dark blue eyes, or her plain but sweet face.

Cyra just nodded and walked towards the cabins. Watching her walk away, Mike swore to himself that if he was going to settle in here, the one thing he had to do was get Cyra to notice him.

A/N: Next is the campfire, claiming, getting settled into a cabin, and maybe introducing the characters who have not yet come in. Also, I leave for a vacation on the fifth and will have no internet connection until August, so I'll try to get a lot of updates in now to make up for the entire month without updates.