I Become Co-Owner of Mrs. O'Leary

After an hour of solid driving, my Mom pulled over at the side of the road, she turned off the engine but kept the lights on. They were trained in on this tree standing on a hill, a Pine. I don't know if I was imagining it, but I could swear there was a dragon curled around the base and what looked like a replica of The Golden Fleece hanging in the lowest branches. Just as Grover and I were saying our goodbyes to my Mom and got out of the car, a boy around the same age as me, 17, walked up the hill. He knelt down and scratched the dragon's scales. This boy was good-looking; he had, from what I could see in the light, black hair. I couldn't tell what colour his eyes were, I was too far away.

Grover and I started up the hill.

"So come on, tell me about this camp." I said.

"Well, Demigods come here from all over the country to learn how to fight and how to survive." Grover said simply. We were reaching the top now. "Like this Demigod here." He said, raising his voice a little. The boy who was still scratching the dragon's scales looked up at the sound of Grover's voice. As soon as the boy looked at Grover (I finally saw his eyes were green, sea green) He broke out into a grin.

"Grover! Hey man, you're back!" The boy said.

"Yeah, man."

"How was school?" he asked Grover.

"It was all good until a Dracaenae decided to turn up and ruin all the fun." Grover said in a serious voice. "This is Amelia Sheridan." He said, indicating me. I smiled. The boy extended a hand.

"Hi, I'm Percy Jackson." I took his hand.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you." I said, shyly.

"Yeah, you too. Come on. I was stationed with Peleus to make sure you got here alright. Let's get you to the big house to meet Chiron." Percy said. Percy was nice. Considering I was either his cousin or his sister, he was really cool about the whole thing.

Apart from the dragon, everything seemed kind of normal. Percy was normal, though he did keep on fiddling with a plain ball point pen. Then I remembered what Grover had told me earlier that, that pen turns into a sword. What did he call it..? Wait a second, he didn't. Suddenly a Greek word came to me.

"Anuklosmos" I said. Percy looked at me in surprise.

"You know about my pen?" He asked me.

"Riptide. It was created by Zoë Nightshade, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, how do you know?"

"I don't know, it was like a voice whispered it inside my head." I paused, then realised something. "Strýchnos! My hair clips are named after her."

"Your hair clips?" Percy sounded like he was well and truly confused. To explain, I pulled Nightshade out of my hair and pressed them. Suddenly there were my Sai Blades in all their glory, looking just as deadly as they had a few hours before.

"Nice!" Came a voice out of nowhere. I had no idea who it was. There was nobody there to say them, but I could tell it belonged to a girl. "Whoa! You're about to run me through!" The female voice continued.

"Gods, I am so sorry!" I exclaimed, turning the blades back into hair clips. "Um, who said that?" Percy reached forward and grabbed something in mid-air and tugged. A baseball hat appeared in his hand, and a blonde girl appeared in front of us.

"Hon, you really shouldn't freak out new people." Percy scolded. "Amelia, this is my girlfriend, Annabeth. Annabeth, this is Amelia Sheridan." I smiled. I'll admit I was nervous. Being the new girl, I had to make my character the best it could possibly be in such a short time. I got the feeling that Annabeth was one of the popular girls. She was beautiful. With her blonde hair and stormy grey eyes, she looked like a typical California girl, but with wisdom enforced in her stare.

"Hi." I said, offering my hand. Annabeth smiled, guessing my nervousness and shook my outstretched hand in a friendly manner.

"Welcome to Camp Half-blood, Amelia."

"Thanks." I'd be lying if I said I wasn't relieved that she was so friendly. I wanted her to like me. Percy was either my Cousin or my Brother, it would be bad if I didn't get along with his girlfriend.

I looked down the hill and saw the Big House that Percy had mentioned earlier. It looked like an ordinary farm house in general, apart from the fact this it was four stories in height. It had a balcony porch area stretching around the base ¾ of the way around. All around us in the air, I could smell strawberries. But the closer I got to the Big House the stronger the sweet fruity aroma got.

"You both are claimed right?" I asked.

"Yeah, my dad is Poseidon and Annabeth is a Daughter of Athena." Percy told me. I could believe it. A son of Poseidon and a daughter of Athena: dating.

"How did you manage to get away with that? I thought there was a big rivalry with Athena and Poseidon."

"Poseidon is okay with us dating." Annabeth said. Percy snorted in derision. I had a feeling he knew what was coming next. "But my Mom… well she kind of disapproves of the idea."

"Disapproves of the idea! She singed my shirt as a warning to stay away from you!" Percy contradicted. We were at the Big House now. It was daunting to say the least and my nervousness had now come back full force. We walked onto the porch and started to make out way around. I tried to calm myself by taking a look at the camp I was to be attending. I could see several cabins all made up to represent a different God. I could tell that the grander cabins were for the main Olympian 12, 4 of which looked to be for the Big Three; Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. And one for Zeus' wife Hera who was the Queen of Olympus. I had no idea which cabin was mine, nothing seemed to fit me.

To the right there was an amphitheatre. An open topped mess hall, and a climbing wall with what looked like Lava flowing down it; my stomach looped back on itself when I saw that. To the left there was a forge for making weapons and armour. An archery range and a set of stables for what I presumed were the Pegasi if I was going by Greek mythology. Close to the big house there was what looked like a fighting range and a huge dog that was chewing a dummy in Greek armour. I realized it was a hell hound. Forget looping back on itself, my stomach was doing somersaults. And right at the back was a huge forest and the Long Island Sound. The sea looked soothing to me, which I guess was needed when you have a frightening looking wood next to it.

My effort of calming myself was starting to work looking at the Sound, but then I was brought back down to earth when we arrived at a table where two men were playing a game of Pinochle by candle light.

The two men were complete opposites. The farthest one from me, whom I was facing was wearing a leopard print shirt. He face was podgy and was a deep shade of crimson, like he was either constantly embarrassed or constantly angry. My guess was the latter. He was drinking can after can of diet coke, making a face as if that wasn't what he wanted to be drinking.

The closest one had his back to me. He was in a wheelchair and a blanket was covering his legs. He wore a tweed jacket with leather elbow patches, like a Geography or Latin teacher. He had dark hair atop his head and; as I got closer, I saw he also had a beard, cropped but bushy. His eyes were kind but had infinite wisdom in them. He smiled when he saw me, when the other almost grimaced.

"Ahh, Miss Sheridan. Thank the Gods that you have joined us safe and sound. Well done Grover." The man in the wheelchair said.

"Thank you." Grover commented.

"I am Chiron, it is a pleasure to meet you Amelia." He held out his hand. So this was Chiron, I thought he was supposed to be a Centaur. All the same I shook his hand anyway.

"It's nice to meet you." I always respect my elders, even ones who were at least 3000 years old.

"That's new." The other man said. "A polite Demigod!" He snorted after saying that.

"Please forgive Mr. D. Amelia. He's still angry he has to spend another 48 years here." Chiron said with an odd look in his eyes, like he was amusing the man he called Mr. D.

"Oh yes. And we are having the time of our lives, aren't we Jackson?" Mr. D. looked at Percy.

"I'll get back to you on that." Percy answered. Mr. D. smirked in agreement.

"What I wouldn't give for a grape." Mr. D. said wistfully. It struck me then that I was in the presence of a God. It was an odd feeling. Hard to describe but I knew this was Dionysus, God of Wine. "Well don't expect me to be happy that you're here." He told me. With that, he leaned over and blew out the candle.

"Amelia, it's time for the campfire." Chiron said. "We shall see who your father is."

"Although you have your suspicions of who it might be." I said, somewhat out of turn. Chiron smiled knowingly.

"Well, we'll see if I'm correct."

Chiron wheeled backwards in his chair, and then applied the brake. The chair shuddered for a moment then the blanket covering his legs fell away. I suddenly realized that they were fake; they joined to nothing; that's why the blanket was needed. Chiron stood, his fake legs staying in place. When his lower half appeared, my theory of him being a Centaur was confirmed. Where a normal man's legs should be was the body and the lower half of a white stallion. Chiron stepped out of his enchanted chair, stretched and clopped around a bit.

"That's better. My fetlocks always seem to fall asleep in that chair." Chiron said. "Come Amelia. Percy, Annabeth and Grover? Will you three go down and gather everybody for the campfire?"

"Sure." The three of them replied in unison and then left, running to the mess hall to rouse the other Demigods. I was left with Chiron and Mr. D. I remained silent, not knowing if I should say anything. Instead I took another look around. We walked past the fighting range and past the hell hound that was chomping a dummy to bits. But when we walked past, the hell hound stopped, tossed the dummy away, stood and stared for a few seconds then started bounding towards us.

It seems I was the only one alarmed by this. I was all ready to run or close my eyes for impact, but at the last second the hound stopped and settled into a walk beside us. That was strange. It was also the second hell hound who'd taken an interest in me.

"I wouldn't worry about Mrs. O'Leary." Chiron said. Mrs O'Leary? "She's quite tame and friendly."

"What is she doing here?" I asked, confused. Hell hounds belonged in the underworld.

"Ha!" Burst Mr. D. "Ask Jackson."

"Percy?"

"Yes, she belongs to him. When Daedalus died, he left her to him." He confirmed. Okay forget what I said about normality. I was walking past a mess hall with one of the 12 Olympian Gods, a Centaur and a Hell Hound. Nothing about this was normal. We entered the area for the campfire where there was talking at first, then everybody looked at me in silence, after that, murmurs started. Chiron raised his hand and silence fell again.

"This is Amelia Sheridan." He announced and I blushed. More murmurs occurred but this time Mr. D. called for silence by clearing his throat. The action made the flames of the camp fire turn a deep purple. It seems that was enchanted too.

I could see Percy, Annabeth and Grover sitting just to the left of where we were standing. They were sitting next to a boy of around 14 years. I felt a strange pull towards him; from his expression I could tell he was feeling the same. He was dressed in black, had dark hair, dark eyes and a sword strapped to his side.

"As you know when we have a new camper," Chiron continued. "We will be expecting to see him or her be claimed by their Godly parent. Please keep your eyes peeled for this tonight in Amelia's general direction." At this, there were a lot of nods. I saw the boy dressed in black, lean over and whisper something in Percy's ear. Percy deliberated; looking at me then whispered something back. The boy seemed satisfied with this, settled back in his seat and started to stare at me.

Suddenly I felt a poke in the back. I whirled around to find Mrs. O'Leary nuzzling me, trying to get my attention. Cautiously I raised my hand and hovered it over the top of her head, she stretched up to meet it proceeded to make me scratch her behind the ears. A deep resonating purr came from within Mrs. O'Leary and she sat content by my side. More murmurs came from that.

"Now, let us continue with the camp fire and sing along to welcome Amelia to camp." Chiron finished. The music from a bunch of campers whom I decided were children of Apollo, the God of Music started to play. I hurried to a seat in-between Annabeth and Grover; the boy dressed in black kept staring at me as I did this.

I never felt his eyes leave my face. I was sure my cheeks were a deep shade of red to match my embarrassment and the colour of the flames dancing in the camp grate. I was personally waiting for my Dad to claim me and I think everyone else was too.

"How will I be claimed? What'll happen?" I whispered to Annabeth.

"It depends on who you Dad is and what kind of mood he's in." She replied. I'm sure my expression was puzzled because she explained further. "Normally, when a Demigod is claimed, their parents Godly symbol dances above their heads." I looked up to make sure, there was nothing there. "Other times, your appearance may change."

"My appearance? Like what? How?" I asked.

"Your hairstyle." My hands lifted to check my head. "Your clothes, that type of thing." I looked down. Everything seemed normal.

"How were you claimed?"

"My Mom sent and owl fluttering out of the forest to fly above my head for a few seconds."

"Wow! That's pretty cool." I said, awed. Annabeth smiled. But I was still nervous so she took my hand in reassurance. The fire was dying down now as we were coming to the last song.

Suddenly I started to feel different. My breathing was beginning to come in short gasps so I looked down yelped, then jumped to my feet.

"What has he done to me?" I exclaimed. I was wearing a corset, hence the short gasps. Atop that, I was wearing a black dress with embroidered detail of deep purple. My plain shoes had been turned into black, high heeled boots. I was wearing decorative gothic jewellery and my hair was half up, my ringlets pouring over my shoulders. A girl came towards me with a mirror and held it up so I could see my reflection. I my complexion was now deathly pale and I had black eyeliner and lipstick on. I could see Nightshade still adorned my hair. As shocked as I was, the look suited me. I looked… pretty. I turned to Chiron. He kneeled before me, all the others apart from Dionysus; who was standing there completely flabbergasted did the same.

"All hail Amelia Sheridan." Chiron announced. "Princess of Ghosts. Seer of Spirits. The Daughter of Hades, Lord of the Underworld."

Percy, who I now knew as my cousin was taking me to my cabin. I squirmed in my corset.

"Don't worry, Annabeth and Piper are getting you some clothes to wear." He told me. Piper was the girl who showed me my reflection in the mirror. She was a daughter of Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love and Beauty.

"Thanks Percy. You're being really nice about this and I just want you to know that I appreciate it."

"Hey, no problem." He smiled. I sighed. "Amy? Nobody is going to treat you any differently. Don't worry." I felt a little more comforted by that. We'd arrived at my cabin now, my… home I supposed. The walls were solid black Obsidian. There was a skull of the door and there were torches that burned green fire. I had to admit, it was beautiful in a weird, gothic kind of way.

The door opened and the boy that was dressed in black stood in the frame. He was still staring at me, but with a new expression. It was a mix of fear and affection. Neither of which I could understand… until he introduced himself to me.

"I'm Nico D'Angelo." He said, holding out his hand. "I'm your brother."