Emmy turned feeling the rhythmic tap on her shoulder. Her white teeth flashed in the most genuine smile Percy had seen from her in awhile.
"This is Griffyn Philia. A childhood friend, we grew up together."
Griff held out his hand towards Percy, though Griff knew exactly who he was. Percy shook the hand, giving a tight smile.
"And Griff this is Percy, my, um, boyfriend." Percy's smile lightened up a bit hearing her say it.
"Oh, I know who he is. But I thought he was dating Annabeth."
"It's complicated." Emmy said simply after a short awkward silence. "Anyway, what are you doing here? The last time I saw you was when we were 14 and you moved away."
"This is where I moved to. My mom shipped me up once the monsters got really bad." The more Griff talked the more Percy picked up on his accent, the same one Emmy had. Once again he looked the boy up and down.
"We can catch up later." He said before Emmy could reply. "We're going to be late for dinner." Emmy looked around, they had fallen behind the mass of campers who were entering the dining pavilion.
"Well can't we just sit at the same table?"
"That's not exactly how it works." Percy explained and started walking towards the eating area, "Everyone sits with their cabin. Until you are claimed you will sit with the Hermes kids. From there a pair of twins named Travis and Connor will show you the ropes." Emmy nodded logging all this into her memory. "They will be sitting at the table with the most kids." Even though just a few years ago he had made them promise to claim their children, they weren't always very thorough. This left many demi-gods still unclaimed, but there wasn't as many as before.
"Hermes table, Travis and Connor. Got it." By this time they had arrived at the pavilion. Griff waved goodbye and headed off to his table while Emmy gave Percy a quick peck on the cheek before walking away. "See you later Fish Breath." She called backed to him. Percy's face was red when he turned around, almost walking straight into Nico.
"Fish Breath, huh?"
"If you ever repeat that I will drown you. Slowly. When nobody is watching." Nico raised his hands in mock surrender.
"Okay, okay. I got it. Fish Breath." Nico broke into a dead run, Percy chasing behind him.
"Now, now campers please have a seat." A loud commanding voice called from the front. Percy shot Nico one last glare before going to his table, where he sat all alone.
Emmy walked over to the large table, not sure what to do with herself. There was so many people, almost all of them looking at her. She was about to take a seat towards the middle of the table before a pair of boys waved her over. They were almost identical, which probably meant they were Travis and Connor. Emmy walked towards them, a friendly smile displayed. "Hi, you must be Travis and Connor."
"Actually we prefer Connor and Travis." One spoke up returning her smile.
"No we don't, Travis and Connor is in chronological order." The other said giving his brother a slight glare.
"But Connor and Travis is in alphabetical order. Which makes much more sense than chronological." They continued this bickering for a few more minutes, neither of them backing down.
"I'm Emmy by the way." The girl spoke up, though she was entertained by them, she felt someone else had to put a stop to it, or they would go on forever. "And I'm guessing you're Travis." She said pointing to the one rooting for Travis first. "Leaving you to be Connor." The boys nodded, like they had completely forgotten they were having a heated argument a few moments ago. "You're correct." They said in unison, which would normally seem weird, but Emmy thought doing so suited them. "And you're Percy's new lady friend." Travis said bluntly.
"I... guess you could put it that way" Emmy replied with hesitation.
"We will," they said in unison.
Emmy opened her mouth to reply, but didn't have one. They just stared at her, with faux-innocence. Emmy, trying to avoid how awkward she now felt, looked around. The first thing she saw was Percy sitting alone at his table. He didn't look sad exactly, just bored.
"Why does he have to sit alone?" She asked the twins, who were still staring at her like creepers.
"Who, Percy?" Connor asked not looking away from her.
"Yeah."
"He's the only kid of Great-Uncle Poseidon, meaning the only kid to sit at the table."
"That doesn't seem fair."
"No one said it was," Travis and Connor replied simultaneously, not breaking their stare.
"Well, it was nice meeting you two. You're kind of creepy, but you might be tolerable," Was how she said goodbye as she stood.
"Where are you going?" Travis asked, alone this time.
"I'm just going to protest peacefully," Emmy said with a grin, before turning to walk away.
"I think we might be able to put up with her," Connor said to Travis, who nodded in agreement.
The whole pavilion full of kids looked towards Emmy as she walked through. Though, she didn't let that faze her. She walked with confidence, not even looking to the side. Percy looked up as she sat down in front of him. "You're not supposed to do that," He said with a crooked grin.
"We're not supposed to do a lot of things Percy, like climb a fire escape. But that didn't stop you did it?"
Percy chuckled softly, "But that was different. You needed me."
"Says who? And you needed me to cure your boredom."
Everyone was still looking at them. Much whispering was going on, especially from the Athena and Aphrodite cabins. "Who does she think she is?" "What does he see in her?" "Shes a vampire. Just look at her neck and how pale she is." "Why did he choose her and not me?" Both Percy and Emmy ignored what they heard around them, not caring what others thought.
"Okay, it is now time for everyone to get food." Mr. D said boredly, "The Nymphs are on their way," Emmy gave Percy a confused look,
"Nymphs?"
"To put it rudely, servants of the gods, although that's not the politically correct term."
Emmy nodded and watched as women flooded out of the kitchen doors. Though if you looked closer there was something about each of them that made them not quite human. One's skin had a slight green tint to it, and another had pointed ears that looked strangely like leaves. Emmy couldn't help but think how beautiful they were. "Wow." She whispered, earning a smile from Percy.
"Okay, just grab what you want from the platter when they get here." Emmy nodded determined not to make a fool of herself by dropping anything.
The Nymphs returned to the kitchen once everyone had food. That night's special was Italian so everyone had spaghetti with salad. Emmy was about to take a bite when Percy stopped her quietly. "Wait, we have to do something first." He stood grabbing his plate, and flicked his head to the side as a sign for her to follow. Gingerly she grabbed her plate and walked behind him. Everyone seemed to be lining up, the end being the fireplace in the middle. Emmy hadn't noticed it much before, but it must be important. It began to smoke heavily, and each camper seemed to stop in front of the flames a few seconds. "Their sacrificing to the gods." Percy said behind his shoulder to her. "We do it every night. Just scrape a bit of your food off into the flames and you're good." Emmy nodded, sounds easy enough.
The line moved relatively quickly and soon Emmy and Percy were at the front. Percy skillfully scooped food into the flames and looked back at Emmy before leaving to return to the table. She took her fork and twirled some noodles onto it. Hi, I'm, um, new to this so I don't really know what to say. But Dad? If you could claim me soon, that would be nice. She let the noodles drop into the fire, and it produced a surprisingly delightful smell. Having done that without any problems she tried to get back to the table as soon as possible. The table was in sight and Emmy flashed Percy a smile before there was a sudden pressure behind her. She fell forward, landing directly on her plate. Most of the pavilion started laughing.
"Oops, sorry 'bout that Hun." Said a sickly sweet voice behind her. Emmy sat back up turning over to see a blonde girl looking down at her. "But you really should watch where you're going."