Chapter 6

At dawn I was woken by the birds singing. My head was sore and I was completely alone. It took me half an hour to find my cabin again. I tip toed in and fell into my bed. I managed to wake up before anyone else and get changed and washed. I wandered around until I found the eating area place. Each god and goddess has their own table for their children to eat at. I didn't know who Theo's godly was parent was, so I didn't know which table to look at. I found Tamsin, sitting at the Hermes table because she hadn't been claimed yet. One of my sisters had managed to heal her but her hair was still a little frizzy.

"Hey!" she said, smiling at me as I sat down with my bowl of corn flakes. "How are you?"

"Pass the sugar please." I muttered, looking at my cereal bowl. She passed me the sugar, regarding me suspiciously.

"You look tired." Tamsin said, "Where were you last night? Your random family said you didn't come back to your cabin."

So I told her everything I could remember. I couldn't stand it anymore so I put my head down on the table and started to cry.

"Kalina!" Tamsin exclaimed. She took me by the shoulders and shook me.

"Get a grip!" Sensitive as always.

I sniffed and gulped and took a deep breath. "Ok." I said shakily, "I can do this."

"Yes, but first eat something. You look like you're gonna pass out!"

Anya walked over and slid into the seat next to me.

"Hey-y-y-y-y-y!" She said grinning. She saw my red eyes and instantly looked sympathetic. "Kalina! What's happened?"

Tamsin explained about Theo and what happened by the camp fire.

"Oh my gods, seriously?" Anya exclaimed, "I bet he charmspoke you or something, I heard kids of Aphrodite can do that." She turned to glare indignantly at the Aphrodite table.

"Yeah," I mused, "he was um… persuasive." I said blushing.

"For the love of Zeus, Kalina!" Anya groaned, "You've got to be more careful!"

"Yeah, gods know what could have happened!" Tamsin said exasperatedly.

"Sorry guys… he's really cute," I mumbled, picking up the golden goblet on the table which instantly filled with milk. I sipped it and then noticed a familiar face walk into the dining hall. It was Theo, wearing a tight fitting dark blue t-shirt and black shorts. He flicked his dark hair out of his eyes and noticed me looking at him. He instantly started to walk over.

"Hey beautiful!" he said, taking my hands and gently pulling me up. Anya and Tamsin stood up on either side of me and folded their arms, glaring at Theo.

"Woah ladies!" he said dropping my hands and stepping back slightly. "I'm just saying hi to my babe!"

"She is not your babe." Tamsin said through gritted teeth.

Tamsin clenched her fists and said, "I will blast you to the Underworld if you ever dare touch my friend again."

"Geez!" said Theo, raising his dark eyebrows, "you're friends need to calm down!" he said and reached forward to put his hand on my arm. Anya jumped forward and held up her hands and suddenly Theo was floating up in the air in a giant ball of water. He punched and kicked at the water but it made no difference. He couldn't hold his breath for much longer up there.

"Anya!" I screeched at her over the roar of the water.

Anya suddenly lowered her hands and fell to her knees, out of breath. The sphere of water around Theo collapsed and he fell to the floor but managed to land on the Athena table and not the hard tiled floor. He got up, spluttering and dripping.

"Theo!" I said running to him. "Are you all right?"

"I'm just fine baby." He said softly and kissed me.

Tamsin and Ruby, who had just walked in, both looked outraged at the nerve of Theo. Chiron cantered in and noticed Anya and the soaked tile floor. He called out, "Anya Naeco! Daughter of Poseidon, god of the sea!" Anya looked up at me and muttered, "Sorry buddy, you're boyfriend's too cute to drown."

The hall erupted with cheers and I was too busy clapping and being kissed by Theo, to notice that a boy with messy brown hair got up from the Hermes table and ran out of the hall.

After the celebrations, while Theo was drying off, I found a girl who I had known since I was 3 and hadn't seen for 10 years. Her name was Carmen and she was in my nursery and the first couple of years in primary (elementary) school. But suddenly she disappeared without a trace. I tried to visit her house, which I did almost every day when I was 4, but the curtains were all closed and nobody came to door when I knocked and rang the bell. It was always a mystery, but now she told me that she had been kidnapped by some evil wolves that work for some guy who's a god of something but she couldn't really remember too well. She was a daughter of Iris, goddess of rainbows which I wasn't really surprised by. Carmen was very bright and funny and it felt good to be around her again. When she disappeared I thought she had moved away because she didn't like me anymore. But no she bounced over to me after breakfast.

"Kalina!" she squealed.

"Oh my gods! Carmen!" I squealed back and gave her a hug.

After, I wandered back to my cabin and pressed the button on the wall next to my bed and walked down the narrow golden steps. I walked over the shiny white desk and sat down, opening up the sleek modern looking laptop and turning it on. I typed in my password and logged in. The seat was getting uncomfortable so I took the laptop upstairs and lay on my bed with it on my lap. I signed into Twitter. 53 new followers? Oh, and a direct message from ' theo_man26'. It said, "Heyy babe, meet me beside me lake at 8 tonight. Lots of love from Theo xoxoxox"

Hmmm…. what to do? I needed some advice, and my friends always gave me the best advice.

"Hi guys!" I said as I walked into the training arena where Ruby was attacking a wooden manikin with a long spear that crackled with electricity, Anya was trying to make a large reservoir split into two sections of water and Tamsin was firing arrows all over the place.

"Careful!" I said, dodging an arrow. "Can I try?"

"Sure." said Tamsin, puffing and panting as she took her quiver of arrows off her back and handed it to me. "I need to sit down."

I picked up the quiver and put it on my back. I drew out an arrow and fitted it into the bow. How did I know how to do that? I'd seen Tamsin try to do that and it took her ten minutes to work it out. I pulled the bow back and fired an arrow at the target board. I closed my eyes, waiting for people to start laughing at how badly I'd failed or someone yelling because I'd hit them in the eye with my arrow. Suddenly the arena went very quiet. "Oh gods," I thought, "I've killed somebody, haven't I?" I gingerly opened my eyes. Everyone was staring at me in awe.

"How did you do that?" Tamsin whispered. She only whispered but it seemed to magnify a thousand times in my head.

"Oh no." I said and looked up at the target board. The arrow was right in the middle. Right on target.

"Have you ever done archery before, Kalina?" Chiron's deep voice said from behind me.

I whirled around. "N-n-no." I stammered.

"I see." Chiron pointed towards the target board. "Well, you seem to have a gift. Not many children of Apollo are so good at archery first time"

I blushed and smiled shyly. Finally, I had found something that I was good at!