Just at the base of the hill there was a two story house and a vast strawberry field. Yes, it was beautiful, but what really caused my jaw to drop was what lay beyond it. It looked like a whole different country. It definitely did not look like it belonged in New York. There was a huge marble platform off to the side that was filled with large tables and a huge fire pit. The building hand huge pillars lining the sides, but no roof. A little ways away from that was a large dirt pit that was filled with brown lumps. I couldn't tell what they were from here, but I could see someone hacking at them with a sword so I assumed they were targets or dummies. A little bit further away there were twelve buildings placed in the shape of a "U". The rest of the space was taken up by a large lake, grassy fields, and a forest. Everything was made out of white marble, except for a few of the twelve houses.

I couldn't tear my eyes away from the camp. I could see people running by the lake, sword fighting in the pit, and a few where even in the strawberry fields. There was something so beautiful, so magical, about this place that I suddenly didn't mind spending my entire summer here. I'm not sure what it was – relief, happiness, maybe even hope – but a warm feeling began to rise in my chest and I felt inexplicably happy.

A small groan from behind me shook me out of my stupor. Nico was struggling to stand up and he had to lean on the tree for support. I left my suitcase on the ground and rushed to his side.

"Are you alright?" I asked. He leaned heavily on my shoulder and I almost collapsed again. He looked like he was about to pass out.

"Yeah, yeah." He replied weakly. "Let's just go down into camp. I'll send someone to get your suitcase." I nodded and stared slowly walking down the hill. Well, more like dragging Nico down the hill.

"Why," I grunted, "are you so heavy?" I was starting to sweat and my arms felt like jelly. A smile tugged at the corner of Nico's lips.

"Why are you so weak?" he replied faintly. I laughed.

"Touché." We continued stumbling down the hill. When we were about half way there, something in my mind clicked into place. "This is why you were asleep on my porch!" I exclaimed. "You had shadow traveled to my house all the way from New York and you were tired." I looked at Nico expectantly. He nodded slightly and said, "Bingo." I smiled and looked down towards Camp Half-Blood. I could see two figures galloping towards us, no doubt to help me carry Nico the rest of the way to-

Wait a second, I thought, confused. Galloping? As they came closer I saw that they had the legs of a goat. Before I could start freaking out, Nico quickly explained.

"Satyrs." Nico grunted. "Half man, half goat. They work for Mr. D." I was about to ask who Mr. D was when the two satyrs reached us and grabbed each of Nico's arms. They were both pretty muscular and they easily supported him. One of them had blonde curly hair and the other hand long dark hair. The blonde one turned to me.

"You're a new demigod?" He asked. I still hadn't gotten over the fact that he had hooves for feet and I was too shocked to speak.

Don't freak out. Don't freak out. I thought, desperately trying to calm myself. This is totally normal. Yeah, I mean, there are talking goat-men at every summer camp, right? Everything is completely normal. I nodded in reply to the satyr's question.

"Good. Then follow us." He and his friend started carrying Nico in the direction of the two story house. When he reached the porch steps the satyr said, "Wait outside. I'll send Chiron out in a minute." I nodded. Then Nico and the satyrs disappeared inside.

Chiron.

Where have I heard that name before? I started pacing. Chiron. Chiron. Oh! Chiron! He was the guy Nico was grumbling about when I found him on my porch. I hoped that Chiron would have answers to all of my questions because I was tired of no one telling me anything.

It felt like hours, but I knew it was only minutes, before a man in a wheel chair rolled out of the house. He looked middle aged with a bushy brown beard tinged with grey. He had wrinkles around the corners of his eyes from laughing and he had a checkered blanket draped over his legs.

"Hello, Juliet." Chiron said in a kind, deep voice. I cleared my through.

"Hi." I said back. "Is Nico going to be alright?" Even though I had just met him, I felt like I Nico was the closest thing I had to a friend here.

"Oh, yes. He is quite alright." I breathed a sigh of relief. "You have some questions, no doubt." I nodded and Chiron laughed heartily. "Yes, I would expect so. However, I'm afraid we will have to wait until tomorrow for your tour to being. I'm afraid I'm rather busy at the moment and I have archery lessons in an hour." My heart sank. Chiron noticed this. "Don't worry. I will take you to your cabin and you can ask your cabin mates any questions that you have." I felt a little better knowing that at least some of my question might be answered.

"Where are the cabins?" I asked. Chiron pointed to the twelve buildings arranged in a "U"

"Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympian gods. New comers always stay in the Hermes cabin, at least until their godly parent claims them." He explained.

"Wait," I said suddenly. "You don't know who my dad is?"

"I'm afraid not." he replied. "But don't worry, you will be claimed soon. Now let's get you to your cabin."

"Okay." I mumbled. I waited for Chiron to lead the way, but then I realized there was no ramp on the porch. How was he going to get down? It turns out he didn't have to. He pulled himself out of his wheelchair. I was expecting to see human legs, but instead there was the body of a white stallion.

Well, what did I expect? I thought sarcastically. Heaven forbid there be a single normal person in this camp. Chiron trotted down the steps and stood beside me. I had to crane my neck to look at his face.

"Just follow me this way." Chiron said, gesturing towards the cabins. Chiron led me past the marble structure that had no roof, past the dirt pit where a couple kids were throwing knives, and past a basket ball court where two blonde guys were playing basketball. Every time we passed a demigod they would stop and stare at me until I had walked past them.

I was relieved when we finally arrived at the cabins. Now that I was close up to them, I noticed that they were all decorated differently. One looked like it was growing out of the hillside and another looked like glitter machine had vomited on it. The cabin Chiron led me up to looked slightly more like a cabin that the others. It was made out of marble, but it was worn out and looked cozy.

"Well," Chiron said. "I must be going. A satyr should be arriving with your belongings any moment now. Ah, I believe that's him right there. Goodbye, Juliet."

"Bye." I said quietly. Chiron cantered away just as a young satyr galloped towards me, rolling my suitcase behind him.

"Here you go, miss." The satyr said, placing the suitcase on the ground in front of me.

"Thanks." I said. The satyr did a tiny bow and galloped away. I grabbed my suitcase's handle and rolled it toward the door of the cabin. I took a deep breath and pushed open the door. As soon as I stepped foot into the cabin, something tiny and wet was launched into my face. I dropped my suitcase in surprise and quickly wiped the sticky glob off my cheek.

"Ew, what the…" I began and then I saw a boy holding a straw that was pointed right at my face. His face spread into a grin when he realized he hit me square in the face.

"Yes!" He shouted, throwing his hands into the air. "Ha! Did you see that, Connor? Right in the face!" I looked around for Connor and saw him filling water balloons in the bathroom. As soon as he heard the other boy shout he dropped his water balloon and ran towards him.

"Nice!" he exclaimed. "Who did you get?"

"I don't know." said the boy who shot the spit ball at me. "Must be a new camper." Now Connor and the other boy were standing next to each other. They looked so much alike that for a second I thought I was seeing double. Then I realized that they must be twins. I suddenly realized they were both staring at me and my cheeks turned red. I would have started yelling at them for launching a wad of spit onto my face, but they both looked a lot older than me. They looked like they were old enough to go to college. They both were tall and thin with heads of curly brown hair. Connor smiled deviously and swaggered forward.

"I am the counselor of the Hermes cab-," Connor began, but the other boy cut of off.

"What? I'm the counselor!" he yelled. Connor rolled his eyes and turned to his brother.

"Travis, we've been over this a hundred times. We both know that Chiron was talking to me." Travis folded his arms angrily.

"No. He was talking to me!" he roared back. Both Connor and Travis started arguing at the same time, but I couldn't understand what they were saying. I thought I heard one of them yell "Mom always liked me better" and "You're too ugly to be the counselor." I was about to point out that they were both identical, when I suddenly felt the ground shake. Connor and Travis stopped arguing and looked out the window.

"Here they come." said Travis. Or maybe it was Connor…

"Here who come?" I asked. I was praying that it wasn't a stampede of more goat-people. Travis smiled deviously.

"Your cabin mates." I felt my heart drop to the bottom of my stomach. I hated meeting new people. I knew I was going to make a fool out of myself. "You might want to claim a bed before everyone gets back" Travis continued.

"Yeah," Connor agreed, leaning up against a bunk bed. "Cause once everyone's in here there's not gonna be enough room to twiddle your thumbs." I glanced around the cabin. It looked pretty plain. It had a wooden floor with wooden bunk beds. It was a large room, but it was so full of bunk beds and suitcases that there was hardly any space to walk. Off to the right was a door that I knew led to the small bathroom.

The footsteps grew louder and I could hear voices now. I frantically searched for a bed that had no suitcase on it. I started to panic when I couldn't find one. I walked briskly to the other end of the room and started searching there. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw an empty top bunk. The bed beneath mine was messy and covered in text books and notes. I groaned at the thought of doing homework during summer. I left my suitcase on the ground and climbed up onto my new bed.

"Brace yourselves!" Travis yelled as he jumped onto the top bunk across from Connor. Just as he finished talking, a wave of people crashed into the room. The air was instantly filled with the buzz of conversation. I watched in awe as everyone navigated easily though the junk to find there bed. Then I saw a small group of people moving towards me. I felt really nervous.

What am I going to say? I thought frantically. What if this is actually someone's bed? To my extreme relief, no one yelled at me for sitting on their bed. No one spoke to me either. I doubt they even noticed I was here. Everyone was talking across the room to each other and no one paid any attention to me. Suddenly I realized that I hadn't seen anyone sit down on the bed below me. I peeked over the edge of the bed, but no one was there.

BANG.

I jerked my head towards the door. Standing in the door frame was the tallest person I had ever seen. As But, that's not saying much since I don't know many tall people. He was at least four inches taller than me. As soon as he realized that people were staring at him his face turned red and he mumbled an awkward apology. His legs were incredibly long and lanky and he stumbled over peoples' feet and luggage as he walked in my direction. As he got closer I could see that he had flaming red, wavy hair and a splash of freckles on his nose, but none on his arms. He had a leather laptop computer case slung over his shoulder and when he reached the bed he slipped it off and set it on his pillow.

Apparently he didn't realize I was here. I was sure he would have seen me even from far away. He was mumbling to himself about daggers and was shuffling though his notes. I cleared my throat and I could hear his head hit the bottom of my bed. When he emerged from underneath my bed he was rubbing his head.

"Oh," I said awkwardly. "Um. Sorry about that." He didn't say anything but he was squinting at me with his pale green eyes as if he wasn't sure if I was real. Finally he said, "Are you an angel?" I burst out laughing. I couldn't help it. The look on his face was too hilarious.

"What?" I asked after I had controlled my laughter. "No, of course not. Why would I be an angel?" The boy shrugged.

"Well, nobody ever takes the bed above mine and I figure if this is happening then I must be dead. Or maybe dreaming." I laughed again. This time he smiled back. "I'm Oliver, by the way." He said, holding out his hand for me to shake.

"Juliet." I replied. His eyes lit up.

"Oh, I absolutely love Shakespeare! Are you a fan?" I was about to say no when he continued talking. "Did you know he had seven siblings? I have a lot more than that, but it's still fascinating. My favorite play is probably Hamlet, but Romeo and Juliet is great too. Oh, I wish he was still alive! How cool would it be to meet him?! It would probably be hard to hold a conversation, him being from a different time era and all, but I've been studying old English. I have my notes here somewhere if you want to see them…" Oliver's excited voice trailed off as he stared digging through his papers and textbooks.

So this is why no one has claimed this bed. I thought to myself. He is an absolute nerd. Not that I had anything against nerds. Although, I didn't really feel like spending my evening learning the difference between "thou" and "thee".

"Er, it's okay, Oliver." I said quickly. "We can do that another time." Oliver stopped looking for notes.

"Alright." He said happily. I noticed that people were wearing pajamas and starting to get underneath their covers. Was it really night time already? "We should probably go to sleep now. You're gonna have a busy day tomorrow."

"Yeah." I said quietly. "A big day."

"Well, goodnight then."

The lights were switched off and the snores of the campers filled the cabin. I laid awake staring up at the ceiling. I felt an ache in my chest and a horrible sadness filled my stomach. I missed my mom already. I even missed Nico, but don't tell him I said that. I sighed and rolled onto my side. I closed my eyes and waited for sleep to take me.