Okay. Chapter 5. Jacob and Kaela are also new OCs I've made up that I'm introducing in this chapter.

~CampHBJake

"Jake! Jake! JACOB MURRAY, GET BACK TO EARTH RIGHT NOW!"

My twin sister Kaela snapped her fingers in front of my face.

"Oh, uh, what?"

"Get your dirty shorts off the floor!" she huffed. "I've been telling you that for the past five minutes."

"Okay. Jeez…"

I crawled under my bunk and gingerly picked up the gym shorts when a sudden cry distracted me.

"Will's back from the War Council! I think he has news!"

"Really?" I lifted my head in excitement and accidently slammed my skull into the wooden beams of the bed. "Ow..."

Will Solace had a grim expression as he opened the door of the Apollo cabin.

"What happened?" Dylan asked.

"Nothing, nothing. There's two new campers, both unclaimed. They're going with the Hermes cabin to Archery soon," he answered, looking a little dazed.

"Boys or girls?" Kaela questioned.

"Both girls."

"Good," she said. "We need some more females around here."

"We don't even know if they're Apollo's kids," I shot back, offended.

"We'll see, Sparky."

I bristled at the nickname and stalked out of the cabin. As I passed Will I heard him mutter, "Ah…how refreshing. Sisterly and brotherly love."

I fired an arrow as soon as the Hermes cabin tramped into the field for practice. I saw two new faces—both girls, like what Will said. The taller one caught my attention, though. She was tall and lean, with an expressionless face. I couldn't tell if she was angry, sad, tired, or happy at all.

I cleared my throat. "Can you guys tell me who they are?" I whispered to the Stoll brothers.

"Easy," Connor whispered back. "The short one is called Sophie. She's a total braniac. The taller one…her name's Reagan. Believe me, you don't want to get on her bad side."

"What? Are you on her bad side?"

"I don't know. I don't know."

By the time Archery practice was over, I had evaluated the new campers' skills. Sophie couldn't even draw back the bowstring, much less shoot an arrow or at least aim correctly. Reagan wasn't too handy with a bow, but she got somewhere near the bull's eye. I could still see her lifting up her bow and releasing the arrow in my mind.

Today was Wednesday, which meant that after dinner, there was Hand-to-Hand Combat tournaments. Anyone could challenge anyone else. They just had to write the names down on Chiron's scroll. Basically you wanted to push yourself to the top of the tournament. If you were the champion that night, you got camp store credit. The catch was that if you lost, you were out of the contest for the rest of the night. Jason Grace was usually the champion.

We equipped ourselves with armor, swords, shields, javelins, and spears. Magical items were allowed. I caught a glimpse of Reagan before she melted back into the crowd.

The first duel was between Piper and Drew. Piper won, no doubt. The next was between Travis Stoll and Katie Gardener. Surprisingly, Katie won. The mini-battles were fun to watch, but unless you had a good match, it was pretty boring, in my opinion.

When calling for the 33rd match, Chiron squinted at the scroll.

"Who is it?" someone called.

"Wait," he said while studying the list carefully.

"Tell us!" a camper yelled.

Chiron cleared his throat. "Jason Grace and…Reagan Grant."

Mr. D. raised an eyebrow. Murmurs broke out among the spectators. Everyone's head swiveled in Reagan's direction. Never before had anyone challenged Jason, since he was already Champion. Thanks a lot to his Roman legion training, he especially was skilled in hand-to-hand combat. Reagan didn't stand a chance.

"Do you think it's a fair match?" Kaela hissed. "What was she thinking?"

"I don't know." A sickening feeling settled at the pit of my stomach.

Reagan wasn't wearing any armor as she entered the stadium. Jason stood opposite, facing her. His bronze armor glinted in the firelight.

"You can still call this off, you know," he told her.

"I don't need to call it quits, but you might," she answered.

He smiled wryly. "Alright, then. Show me what you've got."

Jason flipped his coin into the air. It came back down as a pure gold sword. He looked like some kind of male model about to go into war.

Reagan yanked something from a cord around her throat. She tossed it up and it came back down as a wickedly sharp sword. Half of the sword had the glow of regular celestial bronze, but the other side was silver. It was steel.

I leapt to my feet, as some other people did. Outraged cries sounded throughout the stadium. I had heard about that sword before. It had belonged to Luke Castellan, traitor. It could kill both humans and demigods and monsters alike.

Jason paid no notice to the gasping. He swung testily at Reagan. She parried immediately, coming back in a sweeping arc to smash his head. He raised his weapon and blocked the blow.

They exchanged a few more thrusts and parries before Jason flipped his sword which morphed into a long golden spear. He raised it to the sky, summoning lightning. Then he brought it back to earth where Reagan was standing.

The volts of electricity exploded on the ground, creating a huge crater. Reagan rolled to one side and missed the lightning bolt by inches.

Jason stood there, spear raised, celebrating his victory even though the battle wasn't finished. By his expression, I could tell that he thought Reagan was no match for him. He was wrong.

While he was basking in his glory, Reagan punched him and kicked him in the chest, sending the javelin flying out of his hand. Jason tumbled to the ground and lay helpless while she whirled her sword around like a baton.

"I told you that you could've called quits," she said in a dangerously low voice. "But now it's too late to turn back."

"Then maybe I've underestimated you," Jason replied, breathing heavily.

"Oh, believe me. You've underestimated me a lot. You don't know what I'm capable of."

"Ha! Like anyone would believe you. What are you even here for?"

"I've come to finish what your father started," she said. "I will replace flesh for flesh."

Her sword swung directly down at Jason's neck. Suddenly Reagan's words all made sense. She was going to kill him.

Annabeth got the message and stood up, stormy gray eyes flashing with anger. I couldn't believe it. Reagan was about to kill Jason. Why? It didn't fit together.

The blade was about to cut into Jason's throat when grape vines wrapped themselves around Reagan's arms, restraining her from moving her arms.

Mr. D. glared at the girl.

"What do you want?" she growled.

"Who are you?" Mr. D. demanded, eyes flickering with purple fire. "Answer me.

Tell me the truth—all of it."

Reagan lifted her chin in defiance. "No."

"Who is your father?" Mr. D. pressed on.

"Why should I tell you?" The grape vines fell from her arms and she lowered her sword.

"I asked you a question."

"Who said I had to answer?"

"Tell me. Would you want your life more miserable than it already is?"

Reagan laughed bitterly. "You can't make me. I swore by the River Styx never to tell anyone."

Mr. D. sighed in frustration. She was bound back by ancient laws. He couldn't break through them.

Chiron stamped his hoof and cleared his throat uncertainly. "Off to your cabins, now," he said. "We'll discuss this tomorrow."

Instead of walking to my bunk, I headed in Reagan's direction. Theia and Sophie were by her side and were apparently trying to calm her down. She shook her head at something they said.

In the dim firelight I saw that the previous traces of her anger were gone. Now she looked like any normal girl, with lots of stress and sadness across her face.

"…I'm sorry, Reggie," Theia was saying. "I'm sorry, Reggie."

"Stop it! You know I hate nicknames!"

"Yeah. We know. That's why we're calling you Reggie," Sophie chimed in.

"Stop!"

"Okay…Reggie!"

"I said to stop!" Reagan glared at her friends.

Sophie was the first to crack. She dissolved into a fit of silent giggles. Theia covered her mouth with her hand to stop a few laughs, but it didn't work. Laughter leaked out. Reagan couldn't stand it and started laughing too.

She looked more carefree now, less stiff. Her body racked with laughter, but stopped when I got closer.

"What do you want?" She threw me a wary glance.

"Uh…" I was at a loss for words.

"Um, Reagan, this is Jake. Jake, this is Reagan," Theia said.

"I know," was her curt answer.

"Uh, hi." I grinned stupidly at her.

Her expression softened slightly. "Hi."

"I, um, saw you today and, uh, I, um…" I mentally slapped myself for stuttering in front of her. How embarrassing.

"What?"

"Oh, uh, nothing."

My cheeks burned as I walked away from her and trudged to my bunk. At least she had said hi to me. She said hi to me…

Yay! Another chapter finished!

~CampHB