Chapter 6: My Brother is a Traitor: Colin's POV

Me mum suggested I do this exchange student thing in America. Actually, she had been begging me for years. I finally said yes, and I was shipped to the U.S. for eighth grade.

I actually lived in Connecticut from the ages of 2 to 5, because of me mum's business in shipping supplies. We finally got to move back after a while, and I had lived in London, England ever since.

I took the place of a boy from a school in San Diego, California. Ashton immediately befriended me when we were assigned to be lab partners in Physics. Now I think of him as my brother.

I know a lot of girls think my accent is 'dreamy'. However, even though so many girls have asked me out over the course of the school year, I haven't said yes to anyone. I don't know why that is. I guess the feeling isn't mutual…

I didn't think I was that big of deal here, but Ashton explained that with my short blond hair, tall stature, impeccable fashion sense, and, of course, the accent, girls would flock to me. I laughed at him, but I knew he was right.

I've got a lot of friends here. America has really become my home away from home. Though I never quite understood why me mum begged for me to let her spend a ton of money on the program…

Until now.

She knew whoever my father really was, and now she wanted me to discover who he was.

After Annabeth had explained that we would be learning more about Greek mythology and actually learning ancient Greek, Percy told us about training at the camp. Afterwards, Chiron explained the rules of the camp.

"No cell phones," he said, "Cell phones attract monsters. So, please hand over your phones."

We all started handing over our phones when Cinder shouted, "WHAT?"

"Um, yes… Cinder please hand over your I-phone." Chiron demanded.

"No! What about my facebook! My twitter followers? My messages on deviantArt? If I miss out on the next Jenna Marbles video, I'm going to- *gasp* DON'T TAKE AWAY TUMBLR! I'M BEGGING YOU!"

Val stroked Cinder's head as she cried and held her I-phone with her life. I saw Chris beginning to walk over to 'comfort' her as well, but I glared at him and he stopped.

I don't know why I felt so protective of Cinder. It's just, Chris is not a good guy, and he doesn't like Cinder for the right reasons.

'But, why have I not felt this way when he's made moves on other girls…?' I thought.

"Anyway," Annabeth continued after Chiron managed to pry Cinder's I-phone away from her, "You see these orange Camp Half Blood shirts Percy and I are wearing? Camp uniform. We'll get your shirt measurements later. Also, no high heeled shoes-"

"NO!" This time, it came from Val, who is the known preppy fashionista at our school. Cinder is fashionable too, but more in a punk way. Ashton seems to where surfer clothes all the time. Chris wears all black, all the time. Sam wears overalls and long sleeve shirts a lot. As for me, you could say I dress like a model for GQ. It's strange; we're all fourteen-years-old, yet we dress and act so different from one another.

"My precious…" Val said, holding her feet like they were her children.

"Okay, let's just skip the rules part for now because the next rule will probably make someone else cry too..." Percy said, "So instead, Annabeth will take Sam, Val, Ashton, and Cinder on a tour of the camp with the help of Katie Gardner. Chiron and I will take Chris and Colin to the Big House, since you guys haven't been claimed yet."

Chiron galloped ahead of us to tell the camp director we were coming. Percy led us along the trails.

"So…" Chris said, "You and Annabeth are obviously special campers. What sets you apart from some of these other people?"

Percy sighed, "Well, it's a really long story. Let's just say, we saved the world. Oh, Grover helped too. That's how he became a Cloven Elder. I'm sure Juniper mentioned that to you…"

"Oh yeah," I said, "I think she made it a point to completely drill it in our heads. Is she always like that?"

"No," Percy said, "Juniper can be cool. But with the wedding and this new threat with Nemesis, she's really stressed out. As Grover's best man, I'm trying to do everything I can to help. But if you haven't noticed, she's a bit of a control freak…"

"Just a tad." I said sarcastically, "So, you saved the world? That's kind of amazing."

"Thanks dude," he said, "Oh, by the way, if you see Ashton, tell him to meet me at cabin 2. That's my- well, our cabin now."

"Right, I'll make sure."

We finally made our way to the Big House. There was a man playing pinochle on the porch. He wore a bright purple Hawaiian shirt and his hair was slicked back. He had a can of Coke in his hand. Chiron was standing next to him.

He looked up at us, "So, out of the six, you two haven't been claimed." He leaned towards us, "Who do think your dad's are?"

I didn't expect the question, but Chris apparently had a guess in his mind, "I think… Hades. That's the god of death, right? Well, I always dress in black, my hair is black, and my mom once said I look like death… So, I'm going to go with Hades."

"No…" Percy said, "I know a son of Hades; he radiates death. His sister did too. I'm not picking that up from you."

"Then…" Chris wondered.

"Try Dionysus. The god of wine." The mysterious man said.
"Okay. Wow, wine? That explains a lot…" I guessed he was referring to his excessive drinking, smoking, drugs, etc.

"Mr. D!" Percy gasped.

"Peter, could you please leave with the other demigod kid? You two seem to lower the I.Q. of everyone on this acre of land. In the meantime, Chiron and I are going to have a chat with Cody."

"Uh, my name is Chris…" Chris said.

Percy grabbed my arm and we quickly walked down the hill.

"Why did he call you Peter and Chris Cody?" I asked.

"He purposely gets names wrong. Speaking of names, did you figure out what his is?"

"You said Mr. D…" I made the connection, "That was Dionysus."

"Exactly. There's one other child of Dionysus, but he doesn't act like… the way Chris does. I think Dionysus is going to try to use some of his godly powers of persuasion to convince him to stop."

I raised an eyebrow at him, "Godly powers of persuasion?"

"Okay, maybe not." We laughed.

"We better start your training then, since you haven't found your godly parent yet. But don't be sad about it! You know what they say, save the best for last."

We went on talking for a while on the way to the weapons shack. Percy told me about how Chiron had disguised himself as his Latin teacher when he was two years younger than we are now. I told Percy the weirdest teacher I ever had was a man named Professor Hershel Layton; he was obsessed with puzzles and his life mission was to make all of the boys in my class into proper gentlemen. Either that, or solve all the puzzles in the world. Or maybe to make us proper puzzle-solving gentlemen…

When we reached the weapons shack, Percy opened the door and it and a hundred weapons poured out.

I sighed, "Well, we better get started before sundown."

We searched for a very long time. Percy told me about the camp.

"Each cabin has a cabin leader." He said, "For instance, I'm the leader of the Poseidon cabin. Annabeth is the leader of the Athena cabin. Connor and Travis Stoll are the leaders of the Hermes cabin. And so on and so forth."

"Wait," I began to ask, "Why are there two cabin leaders for the Hermes cabin?"

"Well, they're like this." Percy crossed two of his fingers, "It just kind of made sense. You know, they weren't always the cabin leaders. It… it used to be this guy named Luke."

"Why did he stop?"

So Percy told me the story of how he saved the world with Annabeth and Grover. By the time he was done, I had already picked out a sword that I liked, but I sat on a log listening to him intensely. It was almost dark by the time he finished.

"…And that's what happened."

"Wow, that's… wow." I stared at him blankly in amazement.

"Yeah, the story is long, but it's like, common knowledge here now. It's good you know it."

"Wait…" I had just thought about a person, someone I hadn't seen since I lived in Connecticut, "What was Luke's last name?"

"Castellan. Why do you ask?"

The name hit me like how Nemesis hit us into that window back at Garcia's. I knew that name. I knew it very well.

"Colin…" Percy said quizzically, "Do you… Did you know Luke?"

"Yes," I replied, "He was my childhood best friend."

It all happened so suddenly. Percy dropped what looked like a ball point pen and pointed above me. There was a caduceus, the symbol of Hermes, if I recalled correctly. It was sparkling blue with gold.

"It looks like you two were more than best friends," he said while still in awe, "You two were brothers."