Okay! After watching three to four hours of YouTube (Shout out to Danisnotonfire, AmazingPhil, Jenna Marbles, and IISuperWomanII!) I am ready to fanfiction! :D

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When I opened my eyes the next morning, Connor, Travis, and Miranda's sister—Katie?—were talking, sitting on the floor. "Hey!" Connor smiled.

"Hey. What time is it?"

"One o'clock. You slept in late, but Katie said to let you sleep," Travis said. "I wanted to wake you up sooner—"

"By pouring a bucket of water on her!" Katie interjected. She turned her attention to me and smiled. "Watch out for these two. They'll screw with you until you want to pull your hair out."

I laughed and sat down next to Connor. "What are you guys doing in here? Don't we have to… I don't know… do stuff?"

"I'm lazy," Travis groaned.

Katie nodded. "But, heard Miranda is at the pegisi stable."

"Cool! Wait, where is the—"

"I'll take you!" Connor exclaimed, jumping to his feet. We left the cabin and walked over to a stable. "So here we are. If you want any more help, let me know, okay?"

I laughed. "Yeah, thanks! You're the best."

Inside the stable, there were at least fifteen winged horses all different colors and sizes and wing spans. I marveled at a Pegasus with awe. He was grey-blue with small braids in his mane and intense grey eyes.

"His name is Blueberry," Miranda said behind me. She unlocked his door and helped guide him out. "Get on."

I laughed, nervous. "What?"

She giggled her eyebrows. "C'mon. Up. You know you want to."

Looking at the horse, I felt my heart throb. I did want to ride him, but… "Would it hurt him?"

She gave me a look that said. Wow. What a noob. "Get on and hold on."

Jumping on Blueberry, I took a deep breath. "Now?"

"Get a running start and ride, er, fly."

"Right, I'll just do that."

I kicked Blueberry. He galloped so fast, my skin stung and I thought my face would peel off. Then, Blueberry took flight. You heard stories of people wishing to fly, but honestly, I didn't like that idea whatsoever. I had no control—anytime she tried to go down, Blueberry whinnied and continued to fly. After fifteen minutes, he went back down to the ground and neighed, clearly satisfied with freaking me out.

"How was the riding lesson?" Miranda asked, laughing at my messed up hair.

"Shut. Up."

She took my hand and took me to a pick cabin. "Go in, ask Mitchell for hair help."

"Say what?"

Miranda groaned and opened the door. Inside, a bunch of girls talked and did manicures and such, while a few guys hung out talking about girls. "Mitchell!"

One of the boys looked up. "Yea—oh. Gods. What did you do to her hair?"

My face flushed a deep red and Miranda explained the pegisus story, going into detail of how I "screamed like a fury with a hangnail". I punched her arm.

"Okay, I can fix this. But… Everyone get out. Makeover."

Collective groans and a few curses erupted the room, but slowly everyone except Mitchell and I left.

"I love your red hair. It's deep red… Is it natural?" He asked.

"Yeah…"

"I knew it. Red hair, green eyes, freckles, pale skin—it all looks so pulled together. So, I think I'll cut it chin length. The key to not having a bad hair day riding a pegisus it to have your hair back or have it short. With your hair, short would look fabulous on you and complement you're natural hippie vibe."

"Oh, thank you… I think."

He laughed. "I like you. What's your name, babe?"

"Anna."

"Daughter of…?"

My eyes fell to the floor. "I wish I knew."

He nodded carefully. "You came yesterday, right?" I nodded. "Then you should be claimed soon. Don't sweat it. But… Um… friendly advice from the son of Aphrodite: don't get too emotionally attached to anyone until you are claimed. You don't want to find out an… unsavory surprise."

I blushed again, making Mitchell laugh. "I'm just teasing! Smile, it's good for you—you live longer."

I giggled softly. "I'm just not good at talking to people…"

"Confidence is sexy."

That time, I really did laugh. And he hugged me slightly. "Hey, if you ever want to hang, I'm here for you."

"Thanks," I got up and looked in the mirror. I had my four feet of hair lopped off and I looked oddly pretty. I never liked short hair, but this look worked for me. "I'll pay you back for this, I promise."

He scoffed. 'Don't offend me—you look beautiful thanks to my handy work. That is enough for me."

I left the cabin, feeling happy. I saw Nico laying up against a tree across the camp. "Hey, Nico."

He nodded. "Hey, Anna."

He was watching a group of girl wrestlers a few feet away, frowning. Does this guy ever smile? "Kinky," I teased.

He glared at me, his look sharp as daggers. "What?"

I felt like I was about to melt and not in the good way. "Sorry. It just looked like you were checking those girls out. I was just teasing. Sorry."

"I'm not checking them out. I'm watching my friend. I don't want to bother her while she's practicing."

"You hang out with people?" I asked, genuinely surprised.

"Sometimes. I don't like talking to people in general, but River is cool. Different from other people."

"Yeah, I noticed that. You're very quiet."

He nodded his head. "I'm bad news to these campers, so I just stay on the sidelines, except for a few exceptional people."

I nudged him and winked. "So does that make me exceptional?"

He regarded me with a look in his eyes I couldn't quite place. "Suppose it does… Why do you talk to me, though? I'm sure Miranda or Katie or someone's told you I'm not welcome, exactly around here."

I shrugged. "They have… But I don't care. I don't judge people by stereotypes. So your dad's Hades. So he has a rep of "evil" or whatever. That's so stupid to say that when you don't know the person themselves. It's call respect."

Nico looked like he was about to say something, but he stopped and bowed down. "You're mother is Iris, goddess of the rainbow."

"What?" I looked at the image Nico looked at above my head—a rainbow of colors and flowers. "Oh. My. Gods."

Nico got off the ground and smirked. "You sound so stupid using demigod slang."

I laughed. "Well, gee, thanks." I pushed the side bangs Mitchell gave me aside. "Hey… Why did you bow to me? It was sweet, but kinda unexpected."

He shrugged. "Typically, people only bow to a major god, but I do it to anybody who's claimed. It's a respect thing."

Yay! Anna's making new friends! And, just so everyone knows, there are going to be quite a few parings throughout this fic, okay? But I'll try to not let the romance smother the actual plot.

Parings are:

Percabeth

Tratie

RiverxNick (from my other fic)

GroverxJuniper

And two other potential romances (Nico, but I'm not sure who to pair him with, because *SPOILER: HE'S GAY* And Anna, because... She's just awesome like that.)

Any and all ideas welcome! :D (::)(::)(::)(::)(::)