2. Fire Anxiety

A while after the sun had finally set; I stood up and looked around at my surroundings while climbing on one of the docks. The stars were so bright, in contrast to the dark shade of the sky. The little waves kept rolling in with a soft breeze that gently blew my hair out of my face.

I surely hadn't seen a night like this before in my entire life. I'd been like a prisoner for the last seven and a half years, and right now, I felt free for the very first time. I laid down on my back, and the soft sea aroma soon consumed me. Or maybe, I was consumed by it. My eyes began to close, and I felt myself slowly drifting to sleep, as if my non-existent mother had just sung me a lullaby.

Something jarred me awake quickly, though. It sounded like footsteps coming through the woods behind me. I could hear the chatter from campers as they passed me. I rolled onto the sand beside the dock, and hid. I was good at hiding. You tend to do that when you're surrounded by people who are really mentally unstable.

Once it seemed as though the coast was clear, I emerged from my hiding spot, only to lay eyes on a pair of beat up yellow, converse sneakers. My eyes rose to meet an extended hand. Reluctantly, I grabbed hold of it, and whoever it was helped me up.

The helping hand was attached to a guy who seemed about my age. He had long chestnut hair, and piercing eyes in which I couldn't tell whether they were a stony blue or a breathtaking hazel. He was wearing what everyone else was wearing-A camp T-shirt, but I could already tell that he wasn't like any of the other campers. He wasn't even like anyone I'd ever known, now that I thought about it: he didn't just pass me by like all the others, he helped me up.

"Not coming to the fire, new girl?" He asked me, and I stepped backward from him timidly. I never was too good with people, especially when I was upset. I shook my head slowly, and took another step back. Into the water.

Great, I thought. Now my foot was drenched, and I didn't have any clothes to replace my shoe which was probably just soaking through by now, even though strangely it wasn't happening very fast. I got confused, as I stumbled back onto the shore. The guy stepped closer to me, as if to spot me, in case I fell over or something, but I stepped forward, as if to push him away.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" He asked me.

"I don't know," I grumbled faintly, and he laughed. Personally, I didn't think what I said was all that funny, but whatever.

"I saw you run away," He said, still chuckling, "You were pretty mad."

"Was I? I didn't notice." I muttered sarcastically. I gently pushed him away from me, and started back up the trail into complete darkness, having no idea where I was even going.

"Aw, come on," He said, "What did I say?"

"Nothing," I said, only loud enough for him to hear as I started up the trail. Where the heck was I going?

Now Chestnut-hair was beside me, keeping pace with me, even as I sped up to get away from him so that maybe I might not have to embarrass myself further. "I'm Darren," He said out of the blue, "And you are?"

He seemed like he really wanted to know my name-or he was a really convincing actor-but I ignored him anyway. "'Mind telling me where I am?"

"Camp Half-Blood," He said it like I'd missed something obvious.

"Yeah, I know that, but where?" I snapped at Captain Obvious, himself.

"Long Island," He said, his voice shaking slightly underneath his seemingly tough façade.

I just groaned and stormed off up the trail further, plunging deeper into the darkness. Darren followed me like a puppy as I stumbled around in the pitch black. "You know, you're going the wrong way," He said after a while, "If you're trying to get to the fire, that is." I stopped, and turned around to look at him, now that I'd cooled down.

"Should I go to the fire?" I asked him, "I mean, do I have to?"

"Why not?" He asked shrugging. "The whole camp's going to be there. It's fun. We sing songs and make s'mores and the new kids get claimed…"

Claimed. I'd heard that word used here before. "The new kids get what?" I asked Darren curiously.

"Claimed," Darren replied. I stared at him blankly for a few moments. He exhaled and shrugged simultaneously in frustration. "It's when your godly parent tells everyone that you're theirs…" The blank look on my face didn't budge. "You mean, you haven't been claimed yet?"

I kicked a rock ahead of me on the trail as we continued to walk toward the fire, wherever that was. Surprisingly, my foot didn't seem all that wet anymore. In fact, it was completely dry. Maybe I just hadn't been paying attention to it…

I sighed. "I guess I haven't been," I said sadly, answering Darren's question, but then I caught myself acting vulnerable, and changed. The tough Joaitha side of mekicked in.

"I don't see why it matters, though." Tough Joaitha said, "I mean, I've always been fine on my own." This was sort of the truth. I had survived all of my crazy years at Cahill with no guidance except for those God-forsaken teachers, who'd be overjoyed to unjustly put me in a strait jacket, were it legal.

"Don't you wonder sometimes?" Darren asked calmly, stealing a glance in my direction, forcing Tough Joaitha away. He made me roll over, despite my constant efforts to stay tough.

"Yeah," I admitted openly, honestly. I looked up at the sky, with tears again in my eyes. The trail we were on was thickly covered with trees, but I could still kind of make out the stars. It was comforting to know they were still there…that the constellations were still watching me, as always.

Stars were the only constant thing in my life when I was at Cahill. It was always comforting to know that the stars were always going to be there for me every night, even when my Mom, Dad, and Sister weren't. When the teachers called for lights out, I'd sit for hours, just staring out the barred window at the sparkling sky, thinking about how someday, I might get a closer look at them. Now, they were hidden by a dense cover of trees, but at least I wasn't locked away from them. Thinking about this put me in a better mood by the time Darren and I reached the fire.

"Here we are," Darren said, leading me down the large stone structure that was where the fire was being held. It looked like one of those ancient Greek theaters, except not, well, ruined. It looked like something straight out of Greece itself-with tall, stone columns, and an array of stones that resembled an earlier version of bleachers. Well, maybe it was just me.

Anyway, the whole place was packed with people. It seemed like every single person in this entire place was here. I quickly spotted Percy and Annabeth next to the fire. They were busy tending it, and helping younger campers with their s'mores. I saw Annabeth glance up at me, and I almost hid behind Darren in my guilt.

Darren had seen me tense up. "What's the matter with you?" He asked me, but I shook my head. He shrugged, and continued leading me down the steps into the crowd where I stuck out like a sore thumb.

That's when I started to realize how much attention I was really getting. People all around me were whispering, and staring-even pointing at me! I felt like I had something written on my forehead. Of course I didn't, but I checked anyway just to make sure. I slouched over as I walk, while getting a nervous pins-and-needles feeling all the way down my spine and legs and to my fingertips and toes.

Darren stopped abruptly in front of a rowdy crowd, clad with instruments, noisemakers and songbooks. "I'd like to introduce you to my family," He told me. They must have heard him, because they all quieted down. Then he faced back toward me. "I didn't get your name," He reminded me coolly, and I nodded, remembering that he in fact hadn't.

"It's Joaitha." I said clearly, so he wouldn't screw it up.

"Joaitha, this is my family, the children of Apollo," He said, and then he turned to them, while indicating me politely. "Everyone, this is Joaitha." Hah, he must be joking, I thought. Or they have the coolest cabin name ever: Children of Apollo. It had a nice ring to it, as far as I was concerned.

I waved awkwardly at them as they all said a polite hello. I still felt those pins-and-needles running all over my body and they were making me even more uncomfortable than I was before.

One of Darren's brothers even stood up to greet me. "I'm Will Solace," He said, shaking my hand. "I'm the head counselor of Apollo," He added, to possibly give me some background. I admired the rough string around his neck in which many colorful beads were threaded. Each had a different picture painted on them. I wondered where he'd gotten it.

"I'm Joaitha Harris," I said, and I made sure that was all I said. I'm sure nobody would want to hear me rant about how crazy my childhood was. I'd sound like one of those senile old folks in rest homes who just ramble on and on about their pasts, as though they were still living in it.

I know this from experience, because sometimes the teachers would take us on field trips to rest homes or mental hospitals as if we were previewing our futures. Maybe I was the only one sane enough to see it that way…

I snapped out of my zone, brought on by the deep thinking I'd just accomplished. Darren sat down on the open stone bleacher-thing. He patted the empty spot next to him, saying "Sit down, it's about to start."

So I sat down, as the last few campers at the fire making s'mores retreated back to their seats, and that Mr. D guy had come out. All he had to do was make a presence, and the whole theater fell silent.

"Let's just get on with this," was basically all Mr. D said, just in many more words than that. But that was really all that needed to be said, because the Children of Apollo cabin took over right away.

They were really good singers, the Children of Apollo were. By looking at any one of them, you might have missed that quality at first glance, too. It's hard to explain how good they were. It's something that you'd have to see and hear to believe.

For once in my life, I actually enjoyed something. Boy, was I surprised that the day I had finally found something to be happy about would be today, but I surely wasn't complaining. I looked around at everyone in the theater. If I wasn't dreaming, I would be the luckiest person on Earth to stay here.

But, seeing as I just saw a man with a horse's body, I think that this not being a dream is sort of a long shot.

I sighed, and gazed at the fire for the longest time as the sky got darker and darker all around me. I seemed to be the only one who noticed. Everyone else was stuck in either a conversation, or the music. There was nothing wrong with that, of course. It just showed how different they were from me.

Since I had no sane people to coincide with for most of my life, I found myself constantly giving up on the idea that to be happy you have to focus on people. Usually, I'd just focus on things. Like the bright blue sky, or the stars at night. Or even the way the shadows cast away off of the barred windows in the afternoon. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

Darren silently offered to share his songbook with me, while the rest of the cabin took a brief break in order to decide which song to play next. Maybe that was the sign I was looking for; telling me that people are more important than environments. Despite that, I smiled politely while I turned him down, and I told him that I'm not a very good singer. It was a lie.

I sang in the school chorus this year so that I could take an easy class. And I was right about that one, too. I was so glad that one of my teachers last year had strongly recommended that I should try it. Originally, it wasn't about me, though. It was a plot set up by the teachers to try to get my mom to come into school and sign her CDs for them. They idolize my mom.

I, personally, wouldn't go that far.

My mom is-different, and by different I mean that she's an overly emotional drug user who tends to overdose once in a while, and even landed herself in rehab once. My mom was the one who disowned me when I was just about five because I began to see monsters. Now that I'm older, I realize how hypocritical she was for doing so since she was the one who once hallucinated that the house was on fire, and made us all evacuate, only to embarrass ourselves in front of the neighbors.

As much as I hate to admit it, I wonder where she is now. Not out of love, just out of curiosity. I wonder if Haley's with her. I wonder if Haley's even okay…

Sometimes, I even wonder about my father. I wonder what he looks like, and where he is, and I even wonder why he'd fall for someone like my mother. I wonder if he ever thinks about me and Hales, even though Haley isn't his own daughter. He probably has another daughter to replace me…

Thinking about that makes me feel some weird tingling sensation in the pit of my stomach, right underneath my belly button. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to try to make it go away.

That's when I felt someone grab my shoulder and shake me. It was Darren, and he had a look of urgency on his face. "Joaitha!" He said frantically. He shook me harder.

I snapped back into the real world quickly to find everyone staring at me. People were even pushing through the crowd to get a closer look at me. My eyes grew wider by the second, and my heart began to pound. I had also never been this confused in my entire life.

I could see Percy and Annabeth a few rows below, cutting through the crowd rapidly, their jaws dropped. Then, I noticed that everyone's jaws were dropped.

"He wasn't kidding," Said Percy, perplexed.

"W-what's going on?" I murmured to Darren, my voice shaking with fear. He didn't answer right away, he just stared at the air above my head.

I looked up then, to see a ball of green light, with a floating trident in the middle of it. I blinked hard. It was still there. I even pinched myself, and it still wouldn't disappear.

"You're being claimed," Darren said, still looking up above my head. And then he gulped. "By Poseidon."

A/N: Thank you SO much for reading this! This is still my first fanfic, so make sure you review, so you can tell me all the things I'm doing wrong so I can get better. Thanks again! –sarahliz