Anne's POV

I was jerked out of a dreamless sleep to find myself in the woods of Camp Half-Blood.

"What the—?" I yelped, looking around in a panic. "Um, why am I—"

"I wanted to talk to you, sweetheart."

I whirled around.

Behind me was a woman hovering two inches above the leaf-covered ground of the forest. She was absolutely the most beautiful person I'd ever seen. Her eyes and perfect teeth sparkled as she smiled at me. It was weird, I couldn't decide what color her hair or eyes were. They kept shifting restlessly, changing their shades and hues.

"You're really pretty. Are you Aphrodite?" I asked, figuring a compliment right off the bat was the way to go with the goddess of love and beauty.

She smiled bigger. "Yes, I am. See, I knew I should have gone to you first, but noooo. I had to talk to that Valdez boy before you. He's a friend of Piper, I thought. She has good taste. He can't be at all bad."

"You talked to Leo?"

She nodded. "Such an insolent boy," she muttered. "Calling me huge? Me?"

I groaned. Of course Leo had managed to offend Aphrodite. "I'm sure that wasn't what he meant—"

Aphrodite cut me off with a wave of her hand. "I can't stay long, sweetie. I just wanted you to know the truth. I did let you see Leo's flame from across the forest."

"I knew it! But did you—"

"I did not do anything else!" Aphrodite exclaimed. "Nothing else! I swear by it! To do so would have gone against the codes of love."

I frowned, half confused (codes of love?) and half irritated. "You don't need to get all defensive."

Aphrodite took a deep breath. "I apologize, honey. My meeting with Leo has gotten me all riled up."

"Why'd you do it?" I couldn't help asking. What did I do to deserve this? I hadn't stopped global warming or saved someone's life. All I'd done all year is be at camp. I must have done something. Think…

She smiled as if I'd said what she'd been waiting to hear all day. "Love is a wonderful thing, Anne."

"That's it?"

"That's it!" She beamed. "You really are a sweet girl. I'm feeling much better now. Maybe a reward is in order?"

My heart stopped. Oh, no. I remembered when Piper McLean had been claimed. New dress, perfect makeup, shiny braided hair, all courtesy of Aphrodite here. No, no, no, no, no. Not for me.

"Oh, no, um…my lady," I stammered. "Leo's love is a good enough reward for me." I couldn't help wincing at how corny that sounded, but it was true.

She raised one eyebrow skeptically. "Are you sure? Your hair would look so good—"

"I'm sure!" My voice sounded panicky. "Totally sure!" Please, please, please do not give me a makeover.

She pouted. "Do not fear beauty, Anne Soleil. Helen of Troy did not fear hers."

"Didn't she die? Like, horribly?"

Aphrodite heaved a deep sigh. "Save me from ungrateful demigods."

"Hey, I am grateful!"

"I am sorry, dear. Thank you for not wasting my time as I feared. Pleasant dreams." Aphrodite smiled warmly at me before she waved her hand and I fell back into the black waters of dreamlessness.

A loud crash jerked me awake.

Scott had dropped a helmet on the floor. "Sorry," he said, not sounding sorry at all.

"Let it go!" I growled at him, throwing the covers over my head. When was he going to grow up?

"What are you doing?" Will asked. The crash had woken him up too.

"It was an accident!"

"No it wasn't," Will retorted. "You know it and I know it."

I could hear the creaks of mattresses as my now-awakened cabinmates began to get up. I tossed the covers back over my head and got up. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I dressed and brushed my hair. I threw on a dark green T-shirt, blue skinny jeans, and my battered Vans.

Once we were all dressed, Will led us out the door to the mess hall, where we ate. Breakfast was pretty low-key. Chiron reminded us about cabin inspection today (ignoring the audible groan from most of the cabins), and warned us that a young hellhound had been spotted in the woods.

"Everyone be careful, Hephaestus cabin especially," Chiron said. "Keep your eyes open when you're going to and from Bunker Nine."

Everyone nodded and promised to be careful, but it was obvious that we weren't really paying attention. Chiron excused us and we went back to our cabins to start the day's activities.

"Should we go to arts-and-crafts first, or should we get cleaning the cabin out of the way?" Will asked.

"Do you even have to ask?" Jesse grinned as he adjusted the sling on his arm. "So not clean the cabin."

"Actually, I think we should do the cabin first," Isabel said. "Then we can relax and know we got that out of the way."

Will agreed with Isabel, and before long, our whole cabin was hard at work. I made my bed and collected my armor from underneath it. Even though I knew it wouldn't be inspected, I organized my camp trunk. I like things to be nice and organized, but I can never keep them that way.

I put my armor back under my bed (I wouldn't be able to put it in a better place until later) and straightened up. "Done."

Before long, the rest of my cabin was finished too, and we headed out. I saw Piper McLean walking out of the Athena cabin with a clipboard. She was probably doing cabin inspections for the day.

"Hey, Anne," Isabel said, poking me. "Your boyfriend's waving at you."

I turned around to see Leo across the grass just outside Cabin Nine. He was holding a pile of metal scraps in his free arm, probably to get rid of before Piper came to his cabin for inspection. I smiled and waved back.

"I had a dream!" he yelled, sounding like Martin Luther King Jr. back from the dead. "Tell you later! I don't know when; I gotta work on the ship today!"

"No problem!" I yelled back.

Cameron elbowed me. "Now, I wonder what he could be dreaming about…"

Jesse smirked. "Are you sure you want to find out?"

I pushed him back into Cameron, blushing furiously. "Shut up."

Cam and Jesse straightened up, laughing. "Jeez, I'd hate to be Leo; if he ever dumps you, he'd better watch out!" Jesse said, pretending to cower in fear.

I laughed and rolled my eyes as my brothers threw mock punches at each other. Isabel shrieked as they backed into her. "Don't trample me!" she said indignantly.

"Sor-ee," they said, ceasing their battle for the time being. I couldn't help smirking. Isabel is only thirteen, and a tiny thirteen at that. Jesse and Cam are both taller than me, and I'm five-six. Poor Isabel would get squished.

I noticed Scott walking at the front of the line by himself, just behind Will. Still sulking. What was his problem? I shrugged to myself as we entered the arts and crafts cabin. If the little twerp wanted to sulk, that was fine with me.

I felt like drawing. I wasn't in the mood to do anything really big today. I grabbed a sheet of drawing paper and a good pencil and began to sketch a series of trees, all clustered together. I drew a single tree lying on its side, and I shaded everything so it looked gray and dark. I erased some shading to make a long ribbon that looked like water.

"Pretty," Isabel commented, looking over my shoulder.

"Thanks," I said. I'd never been the best at drawing, but that actually did look pretty realistic. I smiled when I held my drawing at arm's length. It looked just like the woods did that night. Dark but not creepy, cold but not freezing.

Beautiful.

Suddenly I needed to see the woods. I longed to remember that night by being where it happened.

Plus, something was nagging at me. It was almost the same feeling I'd had when I saw Leo's flame and thought the forest was on fire. My heartbeat started to go a little faster. I could sense it: there was something about to happen. Something dangerous.

"Will, I just realized, I um…left my helmet lying out," I stammered. "Can I go put it away before Piper inspects the cabin?"

Will gave me a weird look. I tried to ESP him silently: Let me go! Please!

Then he shrugged. "Whatever. Go."

"Thanks," I said, trying not to run out the door. I heard Scott muttering, "Probably going for a rendezvous with her boyfriend."

I managed to ignore him. There were bigger things to worry about. I probably looked crazy, bolting out the door to replace a helmet, but I didn't care. I was probably wrong (the whole forest fire thing was a false alarm) but I really did not want to risk it. I ran toward the cabin to grab my bow. I had a feeling I would need it.

Omg cliffhanger! Haha what happens next? Im going to be a horribly cruel person but I will not put chapter 12 up until I get 5 reviews! Mwahahahaaa! *dangles chapter 12 in front of crowd of hungry fans* review or… *holds chapter over pot of boiling acid* you'll never find out what happens! IT'S YOUR CHOICE—REVIEW OR THE CHAPTER GETS IT!