AN: I'm trying to get back on track, but my brain's going kinda whack.
"Come on Emily. The line starts here." Willow muttered as she pulled me over to the buffet table that was set up. There was a huge fire pit in the middle, which didn't really make a whole lot of sense. And why do people keep throwing food in there? The room steadily grew noisier, so everyone must have gotten over the shock of seeing me (or they were talking about gnomes. It's always possible).
There was so much food that for a second I just stood there. Hotdogs, mashed potatoes, beans, steak, salad, and pizza were just several of the many, many options. The selection was truly shocking. I grabbed some salad and followed Willow to an empty silver table.
"Hey! Silver for Artemis," I muttered to Willow.
"Umm all the tables are silver. They're made of steel." she replied, making me feel slow.
"So, what happened? Ward told me that you hugged him, and then your mom came, and I'm totally confused. Can you fill me in? If you're allowed that is." she said, looking down at her tray.
I chuckled and told her my story, leaving out some of the more intense things. She was a really good audience, congratulating me on my sweet flipping move. Her eyes widened and she gasped in sympathy when I told her about what Ares and Aphrodite did to Artemis. (Have you ever noticed how many Greek gods' names start with an "A"?) Finally, I told her about Artemis's escape (not mistake) and then my rescue.
"So, yeah." I concluded, twisting my back to stretch. All of the other campers had left, but that didn't bother me in the slightest. Too many people had been blatantly listening to our conversation for my liking. Willow and I got up and threw our trash away.
"Well, I guess we should-" Willow stopped suddenly. Right outside the tent, there were 5 or 6 angry campers.
"Hey guys," I said, looking around casually. All of the campers were wearing red of some kind, whether it was a red shirt, red shorts, red battle helmet… Wait. That last one can't be-
"Shut it. We didn't come here to hear your opinion. We came here to lay down some ground rules. Our parents don't like each other, but that doesn't mean we have to be enemies. So, as long as you stay away from us and only come out at night, everything will be peachy. Agreed?" asked one girl, who kinda looked like a wrestler. A male wrestler.
I snorted. If I can take on (and lose to) an Olympian, then there's no way that a couple bullies are going to mess with me. Before I crushed their little egos, I decided to play along.
"Wh-who ar-re you guys?" I stuttered, looking terrified. Olympus knows I've had enough experience.
The leader smirked and tossed her head. "I'm Adrestia, daughter of Ares. To my right you have Anteros, another child of Ares." Anteros was a vaguely unpleasant looking guy, and his blood-red battle armor didn't really make him look like a friendly person. "To my left you have Eryx and Cecilia, daughters of Aphrodite." They were very pretty, but kind of snobbish looking. Plus, one was doing her nails during this conversation. "And in the very back, you have Seamus, son of Hebe for some reason. Why are you here Seamus?" she asked, turning to look at him.
He looked around, confused. "I don't really know."
He walked away. That was odd.
"Anyway," Adrestia continued, shaking her head. "do you agree or not?"
I pretended to consider it, ignoring Willow's panicked look. "Which answer would you prefer? When Hades freezes over, or when our parents get along?" I asked with a sarcastic grin.
Adrestia and her gang of thugs scowled and cracked their knuckles. "Let me make this clear. I wasn't really asking."
"Let me make this opaque. I am not scared of you or your little band of girl scouts. And yes, I mean offence Anteros," I said, smirking. He immediately turned a shocking shade of red, and he had a dull red glow covering him. Well, his dad is Ares after all.
Adrestia took a step towards me and I notices for the first time how tall she was. Curse you small bone structure!
"Beat it Satyr." one of the easily interchangeable Aphrodite girls spat, putting down her nail polish and scowling.
Willow took off, sprinting in terror without a look back, a fact which didn't exactly make me a happy camper. I'm pretty sure there was a pun intended.
"Perhaps we need to convince you," Adrestia said, taking another step towards me. I tried to back away, but I was backed against the pavilion wall. So, I tried Plan B: Keep them talking until a counselor comes.
"Before we get to the convincing, can you explain a little about camp? This is my first time," I said, putting on my innocent face (which I don't use very often).
Adrestia frowned and looked at me, confused. "What do you mean 'explain about camp'? What's there to explain?"
"Just…ummm…. activities?" I trailed off hopefully.
Adrestia didn't buy it.
"Well, there is one activity I really enjoy. It's called "Beat the Hunter's Kid". In fact, let's play a round right now. I'll go first," she said, taking another step towards me.
"Let's not and say we didn't." I suggested.
She didn't respond, but her cronies formed a half-circle around me.
'This is proving problematic,' I thought looking around. Adrestia raised her fist, and I took a deep breath, trying to get ready to dodge the blow and scamper off like a scared kangaroo.
In mid-swing, she stopped. In fact, everyone stopped. Except for me.
I heard someone run up from behind the Ares/Aphrodite kids.
"Come on Emily! We need to get out of here! I can't hold them much longer," my knight in an green t-shirt said urgently. Oh wait. It's Ward. "Let's move!"
He pulled me past the A/A campers and we ran all the way to the lake. It looks much different with sunlight instead of moonlight.
Ward slowed down and exhaled sharply, leaning against a tree for support.
"Are you okay? Willow told me that they were harassing you," he asked as soon as he regained his breath.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I assured him, loving the fact that I could talk to him without severe pain. That usually puts a damper on conversations.
"Good." he said as he laid down on the grass. "So, how have you been?"
"Ehh, not bad. A little war here, a little torture there. Not new," I joked as I laid down next to him, being sure not to touch.
He chuckled and I told him my tale, maybe down-playing my terror a little bit. No big deal.
"Hey! I know what we should do! We should prank those Ares kids! How long can you stop time for?" I asked, getting excited.
His face turned a shade paler than normal, but bravely replied, "However long you need me to."
"Excellent." I sighed happily, planning my elaborate revenge.
-A SHORT TIME LATER-
"YOU DID WHAT?" Artemis's shriek literally made my ears bleed.
Perhaps a little explanation will prevent you guys from cussing me out in PM.
Dionysus, the centaur, Artemis, Ward and I were all sitting in some random room of the Big House. Well, Mr. D was sitting. Ward and I were cowering in our chairs while Centaur was trying to block Artemis's view so she couldn't get a clear shot at us. Yeah, that's more accurate.
Any way, on with the show.
"They led a little 'expedition' into the Ares' cabin. The damages were severe." Dionysus said with a yawn.
Artemis's eyes narrowed, and she walked up to me.
"Are you ready?" I asked Ward as we snuck over to the blood-red cabin. The moon was high in the sky, and I could feel its extra strength pulsing through me.
"Oh yeah!" Ward exclaimed, practically shaking with excitement. He was wearing all black but for some reason I could still see him clearly.
We snuck up to the cabin, and Ward did his Hiro Nakamura thing, trapping the entire Ares cabin in their dreams. I opened the door cautiously and looked around. No one was awake. Perfect.
You see, Ward and I had a plan. We figured that when he stopped time, everyone stopped in the middle of what they were doing, whether it be moving, threatening, etc. So, if all the Ares kids were sleeping, they would stay asleep. Plus, it would be easier for Ward to keep them there. Simple.
"So," I muttered quietly to myself. "bunk beds or ceiling first? Bunk beds. Definitely." Then I got to work.
It was kinda scary, knowing that I was one exhausted time stopper away from utter annihilation at the hands of a dozen furious Ares kids.
Finally, when all the screws were in their unrightful location, started I work on the ceiling.
Eventually, my masterpiece was completed. I stepped back and put my small blade down.
"YOU CARVED 'Cabin 8: 1 Ares Cabin: 0?' ONTO THE CEILING?" she thundered, glowing hot silver.
"There's more," the centaur said, looking at me apologetically.
I gathered up all of their stuff that I could (even borrowing someone's bag) and headed towards the lake.
"One," I said, grabbing one of the bags.
"Two," Ward continued, grabbing a pile of magazines that I had found.
"Three!" We said together, throwing the stuff into the lake. There was a huge Splash! but no one came running.
Laughing, we went back to the tree and congratulated each other. After the laughter died away, I started to wonder.
"Why did you lead that raid? The one that killed all those people?" I asked, looking to make sure he wasn't offended.
He wasn't. "Well, it's a long story, but I'll tell you if you really want to know." I nodded, so he started his tale.
"It all begins when I was little. As you know, Kronos is my dad. We never really connected, probably due to the fact that he scared my mother away and hated me. Oh, he tried to bond with me, he did. But a little game of 'Murder the Civilians' isn't exactly fun when you're five years old. That was when the nightmares started. As I got older, I started to pull away from him more and more. He was still waging war on the gods, so he wasn't home much. But when he was home, he was always in the worst moods. Do you know how terrifying it is for a 'time-out' to literally mean 'taken out of time'? Once, I messed up all the clocks in the house and he froze me for a week. No one could see me, and I couldn't see them. I was trapped and alone and practically dead before he remembered and let me out of my time-cage. After that, once he realized how much that had freaked me out, it became his main form of punishment.
Then again, he wasn't all-bad. After he won the war, his visits were always more pleasant, and I began to believe that, maybe just maybe, he wasn't so bad after all. He trained me to sword-fight and to control my powers. I remember being really jealous because he could travel through time (only forward) and I could barely stop time. Then, once he surrendered to the Olympians and I heard about the deal he had made, I felt like there was still a chance that he could come back. I felt like I owed him that much." Ward finished, looking at the sunrise.
"But why did you have to kill all those people?" I asked.
"It wasn't me. It was some of my dad's followers that went a little crazy. I tried to-"
Ward was cut off my a furious shout and a loud crashing noise that seemed to come from the Ares cabin. We looked at each other for a second, and took off running, trying to find the farthest part of camp.
Crouching down behind some bushes, Ward smiled and said, "It was nice knowing you."
"You too," I said and we shook hands. A sharp blast of cold air appeared behind us, and Dionysus teleported us back to our cabin where Artemis was there, looking extremely angry.
"So," Mr. D said. "due to the extreme extent of the damages, she's been kicked out of Camp." Utter silence permeated the room after this particular announcement.
I was speechless. Am I really that awesome?
Artemis seemed to be struggling with something different.
"She's been kicked out? She is the first camper to ever behave disgracefully enough to get kicked out of camp?" she spat out, sucking all the light out of the room, leaving us in a creepy pitch darkness.
"Yep. What a way to celebrate my 49th year, eh? Anyway, you have one hour to remove her from the grounds."
"Or what?" Artemis spat, glaring at him.
"Or you can take her place here and she can go to Olympus, so says our father, Lord Zeus." Dionysus said with a smirk.
Artemis glared at him and walked out, pulling me with her.
"You are so" she proceeded to switch to Ancient Greek for a couple words. "dead."
AN2: So, hopefully you like this chapter more than the last one. Reviews equal love!
