Ch.2

Nico helped Emily pack up the pencil crayons and notepad to take with them and held her hand as they walked out of the big house. At least he didn't have to carry her anymore but she still refused to leave his side. Will couldn't help thinking how cute it was to see Nico taking care of a small child. People would pause and stare as they past, it wasn't odd to see Will and Nico together and Nico was somewhat social but only really with a few people. What was odd was to see a small child clinging to him. Normally it was Will that the younger campers stuck to.

Nico just ignored the obvious staring and walked towards the strawberry fields. Emily looked around with wide curious eyes as they walked through camp. It was a lot to take in your first time there. When they got to the fields her little face lit up with joy as she saw all of the berries growing. They sat at the edge of the field and Will turned to Nico with a grin. "The strawberry fields huh?" Nico shrugged "I figured it would be the best place to go, she is a child of Demeter and this seemed like the least intimidating place for someone who had been really shaken up." Will felt so proud of Nico and his compassion.

Emily sat down and flipped to a new page in the notepad and shook Nico's arm and held up the box of pencil crayons. Nico gave her a small smile and started drawing strawberries while Emily colored them in with all colors of the rainbow. She held a pink pencil crayon up for Will he took it and tried to draw a few strawberries on the corner of the page closest to him. When the picture was finished they all signed their names at the top of the page. Emily had a huge grin as she looked at the finished drawing like it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen and it made Will's heart swell. He didn't know what the poor girl had been through but she was so happy now and she seemed to help Nico open up more and not seem so lost in his own head. Will wondered if the two of them were saving each other in a way.

They sat quietly for a while just enjoying the sunshine, cool breeze and smell of sweet strawberries. Then the conch shell sounded signaling that it was time for dinner so they packed up and headed towards the dinning pavilion with the other campers. As they reached the pavilion they walked over to the Demeter table and were greeted by Katie. "Hey guys, hello there Emily these are your brothers and sisters." She gestured to the rest of the table. Everyone was smiling warmly at Emily but she grabbed onto Nico's sleeve and his behind his back. Will smiled and looked at the Demeter kids who looked slightly confused by this. "She's shy, we haven't been able to get her to let go of him since we found her." The Demeter kids nodded they could all understand how intimidating the first day at camp and meeting your siblings could be.

Nico turned and knelt down so that they were eye to eye "It's okay Emily, these guys are really nice and can teach you a lot, why don't you sit with them while you eat?" But she just shook her head and wrapped her arms around Nico's neck again. He sighed and stood up "I'll go talk to Chiron." And headed off, Will watched them leave then turned back to the Demeter table. "See what I mean?" then he headed over to his own table where his siblings were.

Nico approached Chiron with Emily held in his arms hers still wrapped tightly around his neck. "Uh Chiron, may I ask you something?" Chiron looked up from where he sat talking with Jason. "What can I do for you Nico?" he asked seeing Emily clinging to his neck he had a feeling he knew what it would be. "Emily isn't comfortable sitting at her table, and refuses to leave my side so I was wondering if you could make an exception on the seating rules so that she could sit at my table with me until she's ready to sit with her siblings at their table."

Chiron smiled and looked over at Jason "As it so happens that is just what we were just discussing." He stood up and addressed the rest of the campers seated. "I have an announcement to make, for the remainder of the summer you may sit wherever you like as so long as this doesn't get out of hand." The whole dinning pavilion erupted into cheers as people rose from their seats and went to sit with their friends.

Happy that he hadn't been asking too much Nico walked with Emily over to the Hades table and sat down with her in his lap because they were joined by Will, Jason, Piper, Percy, and Annabeth, and she was still a little shy. "So Nico who's your new friend?" Percy asked looking at Emily and smiling. She looked at each of the others a little nervously. "It's okay sweetie we're all friends here." Piper said in a soothing voice to help Emily relax. "Her name is Emily, we found her under attack when we went to the city today; she was claimed by Demeter right away." Will filled them in "She doesn't speak, we aren't sure if she is unable to or if it's just shock but since Nico was the one who saved her from the scary monsters she's latched herself to him and won't let go." They nodded "I know the feeling." Annabeth said, she must have seen a lot of herself in Emily, both of them having been so young when leaving home and finding themselves at camp.

As they all began their dinner Nico showed Emily how to fill her plate and cup with whatever she wanted, luckily you could just think what you wanted or this could be a bit of a problem, next they showed her how to make the offering to the gods and sat back down at the Hades table. To make Emily feel more comfortable they told funny stories from their many adventures and the time they spent at camp. They told her that not all monsters a bad or scary and that some of them were their friends. Percy told stories of his cyclops brother Tyson and his harpy girlfriend Ella, and the resident pet hell hound Mrs. O'Leary. Jason told stories about Venus, they told her about the Pegasus here at camp half-blood and the unicorns over at camp Jupiter. They told her that Cerberus likes to play fetch with a red rubber ball and that he was just like an oversized three headed puppy.

As they were finishing dinner they made plans to meet back up at the camp fire that night and all sit together while they roasted marshmallows, this made Emily really happy.

Hey guy's sorry if there's not enough dialog to this story, I'm not much for talking unless I'm obseesing over something then there's no shutting me up until I'm done or run out of air because I talk fast and loud when I'm really excited and most people stop listening to what I'm saying and just count how many breaths I take in 10 minutes.

Let me know what you think of the story so far.