A thanks to Devil in the Mist for allowing me to use his character James, in this chapter.

Braxton: My Quick Annoyance Back at Camp

I had never been to camp during the school year. Last summer had been my first and only time to Camp Half-Blood, and though I was happy to be alive, I wasn't happy to be back.

I opened the door to the Eris cabin in a huff, disturbing my half sister. She had been reading a book on her bed, but threw it down when she spotted me.

"Brax!" She enveloped me in a tight hug.

Nothing makes sense about my sister. She has the personality of a child of Hebe, way overly friendly and happy. She looks like a child of Demeter, completely average. And the favorite colors of any Aphrodite child, pink and gold. She's handy with a sword, when she's battling a practice dummy, but she almost always refuses to strike anyone else unless defending her life.

Though I've never met my mother, I cannot imagine that she is proud of Reis. In fact, we have two things in common; we both eat an apple a day (though she prefers honeycrisp, ambrosia, or pink ladies and I stick solely to granny smiths) and we share the same dark brown eyes, so dark that they're almost black.

I do wonder how she survived the war against the Titans, though. I was safely tucked away in Montana at the time, but she had already been attending camp for a few years, and she was there, at the battle in New York City. I mean, sure, I've seen her precisely hack a practice dummy to pieces, but I can't see her striking anything living, whether demigod, monster, or anything.

I finally pushed Reis off me. "Hi," I said simply, and dropped my backpack on my bed. I noticed that my space was almost exactly how I left it, only my bed was actually made. Reis was a year-rounder after an attack of telkhines sank her sailboat and her father along with it. She managed only to get away by luck of being just off the coast of camp. When she officially crossed into the boarders of camp, the telkhines couldn't follow.

"Why'd you come?" she asked. "I mean, I found out from Chris that you were coming back, but what made you change your mind?"

"Getting attacked by monsters sure helps," I told her. She's really clingy to me, because I'm pretty much the only family she has left. I mean, she has our mother, but neither of us have ever met the goddess.

"And you didn't get hurt?" Reis asked. "No maiming?"

"Uh, well, I was sort of rescued by another demigod," I told her. I left out the details. I didn't need her to know it was a woman twice her age. Instead, I jumped onto my bed and kicked off my shoes. She frowned at this action, and within seconds, she had collected my shoes and placed them at the foot of my bed neatly.

"That's good," Reis said. "I didn't know any others lived in Montana..."

"Traveling to camp," I said simply. We both knew several half-bloods that lived in California, so this was plausible. "Anyway, I came here with a few others. New half-bloods and such."

"Really?" Reis suddenly sounded interested. "Any girls?"

"Two," I said. "They're both head over heels for me already."

"Oh, you wish, Brax," Reis said. "They probably plotted to make you think that, just so that they could make a fool of you later."

I decided to change the subject. "So, not as many campers are here as I expected with the number of attacks you told me about."

"Those that haven't come back are taking cover, waiting for either a satyr or a few Half-Bloods to pick them up. Stolls left this morning for Alabama, and I believe Clarisse is waiting for something closer to her home before she goes far out."

"And you're not out because?" I asked.

She shrugged. I knew the reason was because Chiron wouldn't send any but the best out alone, and not many people would want to go with Reis. Me either. Mostly on account of who our mother is. It was really annoying how judgmental demigods can be, especially as Reis is one of the nicest people at this place.

"So, tell me about the new girls," Reis said. "Do they know their parents?"

"Well, not officially," I said. "One knows Hermes isn't her father, but she doesn't know who her father is, and the other one, my guess is Mr. D."

"Pollux is gonna have a sister?" Reis questioned, excitedly. "You know, it's possible that the other could be our sister."

"No, not unless Eris can impregnate other women," I said.

"Hey, she is a goddess, so I wouldn't be surprised," Reis said.

"Anyway, her eyes are blue," I told Reis. "She'd need dark brown eyes to be our sister."

"It could be a coincidence that we both have dark eyes," Reis said. "After all, my dad had brown eyes."

"And my dad has green eyes," I reminded her. "So, the eyes I'm pretty sure I got from our mother."

"Anyway, their ages?"

"Mine," I said. "Or about. Hey, do you know the satyr Troy?" She knew a lot more of the camp's residents than me.

"Yeah, why?" she asked. "They didn't actually send him somewhere, did they?"

"Yeah, they did," I said. "He was with the girls when we met up."

"But he can't... smell."

"So we learned the hard way," I said. "One of the girls managed to see completely through the mist. I'm not sure how, but she wasn't fooled for a second by the empousa that tried to intercept us in Chicago."

"Empousa?" she questioned. "Hey, I wonder if Percy's back." She was suddenly leaving.

Reis has this delusion that she has a chance with Percy Jackson. She doesn't. First off, half the girls here are in love with him, and most of them are a lot prettier and more interesting than Reis. Second, he has Annabeth Chase as a girlfriend. And if that power couple ever breaks up, everyone knows that his second choice is the Oracle of Delphi, Rachel Dare. And sure, she's not supposed to become engaged romantically, but there are times when she looks at him, I get the feeling that, if he and Annabeth ever did break up, Rachel might give up her power and position to be with him. Save the world a few times over and suddenly you're every woman's fantasy. I've seen Aphrodite girls offer to allow him to splash them with water, while they were wearing tight white tops. The idiot declined, ruining it for the other five of us guys at the beach at the time.

While I give off the idea that I prefer the cabin empty, it did feel really dark and lonely without her around. She is my sister, after all, and I do love her, I guess. After a moment, I rolled my eyes and pulled my shoes back on so I could follow her.

She was already up ahead by the Olympian cabins. I looked around to see who was there. Mercedes Richman, better known as Mercy, was sitting on top of the Hermes cabin enjoying what seemed to be freshly picked strawberries. Chances were she was plotting some prank. The Tinti sisters were arguing, which was no surprise. Bonnie and Melissa Tinti were daughters of Aphrodite and Demeter by the same man, and they hate one another quite passionately, mostly because Bonnie (real name Bonita, one guess which her mother is) is a slut, bitch, and dumb as bricks, and aims all her spite at poor, defenseless Melissa. Granted, at this moment, Katie Gardner was defending her little sister quite passionately. Katie rarely takes into account that, had Aphrodite not stolen the Napa Cowboy (Mr. Tinti), Demeter would never have settled with her father that year. Aaron Eaton-Sanders was in front of his cabin, ignoring the girl fight while he inspected his double-headed spear; how like a child of Ares to ignore a cat fight to play with a weapon.

It was a moment later that Clarisse stuck her head out a window and yelled at the three girls to be quiet. Reis was already rounding to the front of Cabin Three, Poseidon's cabin.

She, however, lost my attention when I spotted Red heading into the area, Mr. D with her, his hand on her shoulder. Everyone stopped and turned to stare. It was a rare sight that Mr. D actually talks to any camper, not to mention being nice, showing one around personally, and being jolly. Apparently, my guess had been correct.

"Your brother Pollux is currently at his home with his mother, but he should be here in just a week or two," Mr. D was telling her. He reached the door to Cabin Twelve. His eyes began to travel around as Mary-Ann was inspecting the vines that ran up and down the majority of the cabin. He suddenly was looking around. "Where's that satyr with your stuff?"

Suddenly, Troy came huffing and puffing into the area, carrying all of the stuff Mary-Ann and Dawn had brought with him. He hurried to Cabin Twelve and put down the duffle bag.

"Thanks, Troy," Mary-Ann said. Her face was slowly turning the color of her hair as she realized everyone was staring at her. Mr. D must have sensed this too, because a moment later, he bellowed out, "Don't you all have better things to be doing? And you, off the roof." His voice lowered as he mumbled, "don't need to be paying to fix roofs."

Mercy stood up, then ran and jumped, landing nimbly on her feet, despite Katie's shrieks. She trotted up to Mr. D and Mary-Ann. "Hi, I'm Mercy," she said, holding out her hand to Mary-Ann. Mary-Ann just looked shocked.

"Ah, Marcella Richards," Mr. D got her name wrong, as he does with everyone but his own children. "Thank you for volunteering. Mary-Ann here needs someone to show her around and teach her about Camp Half-Blood. Someone to help her assimilate."

"Will do," Mercy nodded. She grabbed Mary-Ann's wrist and started pulling her along, chattering away. After a moment, I followed and caught up. It seemed like a better option than watching Reis drool over Percy or sitting alone in my cabin.

"Camp usually isn't this empty," Mercy was saying when I caught up. "Well, actually, during the school year there's usually less people here, but in a month or so, there will be so many other campers you won't know who to speak to."

Mary-Ann seemed to notice me first. "Um, hi Braxton..."

Mercy looked at me past Mary-Ann. "You know... him?" We're not on best terms.

"We traveled here together," I informed Mercy.

"Oh, you poor dear," Mercy said to Mary-Ann. "Don't worry, only a very small percentage of the campers here are like him. Most are a lot nicer."

"Where's Dawn?" I asked.

"Oh, apparently some others actually went out and brought her mother here," Mary-Ann said.

"Percy did go out with Blackjack and came back with a passed out woman with him... and Annabeth, of course," Mercy said. "You two know her?"

"Probably Dawn's mother," Mary-Ann said.

"Why bring a normal mortal woman here?" Mercy asked. "That's against the rules."

"She's not normal," Mary-Ann said. "She's a Half-Blood. And her daughter is a three-fourths blood then, I guess."

I rolled my eyes as Mercy stared at Mary-Ann. Mary-Ann, still not versed in the rules of the Olympians, didn't realize what Dawn really was to our world.

"That's just a war waiting to happen between the gods," Mercy said. "And I think it's against the rules..."

Mary-Ann looked confused for a few moments. I wasn't surprised. She didn't seem like the brightest of girls.

"Whichever god bagged Hermione is going to piss off Hermes when he finds out," I said. "Some side with Hermes, while others side with the other god."

"Did you say Hermione?" Mercy asked, but I ignored her as I kept explaining.

"Tensions get too stressed, and you have the gods fighting, which will result in the demigods fighting, which is not going to be good."

"Hermione as in Westbrook?" Mercy asked again. Mary-Ann was about to answer, so I launched into another explanation.

"Also, it's against the gods law to have a child with a demigod because it would create a sort of super demigod. If it was one of the Big Three, Dawn would probably have enough power to defeat every demigod here, take over the mortal world, stuff like that. Any other Olympian, and she'd still be super powerful. The minor gods, still probably more powerful than most of the children of Olympians, because we know for a fact she's got Hermes in her."

"Would you shut up already!" Mercy snapped. Her elvish face was beginning to turn as red as the red streaks in her blond hair. "When you said Hermione..."

"Hermione Westbrook is Dawn's mother," Mary-Ann said.

"Seriously!" Mercy squealed.

"Only a child of Hermes would run and get an autograph book for a thief," I said, rolling my eyes.

Mercy responded with a hard elbow to my ribs. "Jerk," she mumbled before turning back to Mary-Ann with a smile. "Remind me to meet her before she has a chance to leave. But, for now, let's show you the rest of the camp." She turned to me. "Are you going to be annoying and follow or are you going to go brood a bit more?"

"I'm sure I can entertain myself, thank you," I snarled back. With that, I turned back to my cabin. If nothing better, at least I could practice some skills with my sword for a while. Maybe even get Reis to help.

Back at my cabin, I grabbed my sword, which was mounted above my bed. It was a large broad sword of celestial bronze... nothing special. It didn't have any special enhancements to hide from the mist. I didn't exactly need something outside of camp as I wasn't exactly a pro with the thing. I dragged the thing out to the practice arena and set up a dummy. Holding the sword up, I took a deep breath, and then swung. It hit a little lower than I wanted it to. Nor did it hit hard enough.

"You know, you'd have better luck with a smaller weapon," a boy from behind me said. I turned to glare. I recognized him as a boy from the Hephaestus cabin named James. He stood taller than me, by several inches, as well as broader than me. He was essentially made of muscles. Even so, I knew he was about my age. He had a huge weapon, a sort of halberd, but with the ax widening into a hammer on the far side. He probably made it himself.

"You've got a pretty large weapon," I remarked.

"Yeah, but I also have the strength to wield it," he said. With that, he demonstrated, swinging it hard and lodging it into the wall. It only took him a small tug to get it out.

I just rolled my dark brown eyes and turned back to the dummy. Behind me, I could still hear James swinging his ax-hammer around, though he wasn't actually hitting anything with it.

I would really appreciate reviews, if you guys are reading. Preferred is constructive criticism, but I'll accept anything. What do you like so far, what don't you like? Your favorite character? Least favorite?