It is not a good day for the Ares cabin; in fact, it might have been the most terrible week they have ever had. Camp only has started for little more than a week.

None of the Ares' campers is in a good mood, and as a result, the other cabins get a piece of their wrath.

Most of the Apollo's campers can be found either in the garbage dump, or hanging upside down from a tree like some executed prisoners of war.

The Stoll brothers are probably in the river, taking a bath since five in the morning. The Ares' campers helped them, gave them a little push they needed to dive into that river.

Clarisse didn't join the fun though, she's still busy sulking around in her cabin. Even Chris Rodriguez has given up in trying to cheer her up.

'Sometimes, there are things that can only be cured by time.' Chiron said that a couple of days ago. Time is going to have to work a lot harder if it wants to cure Clarisse anytime soon.

It's not their fault, really… Okay, so maybe it IS wrong to pick on other campers just because you're in a bad mood, but I kind of understand them. I actually feel a little bit sorry. Some new kid just beat up the Ares cabin's leader, the cabin of the god of war; they're the best at fighting. To make it worse, it happened on the first day of camp. I'm sure that if Ares hears about this, he won't be too happy about his children.

'Percy!' Annabeth calls.

I trance back into reality. 'Uh… Yeah?'

Annabeth and I are sitting near the training ground, watching a group of Ares' campers giving wedgies to Janus' campers.

'Then which strategy you want to use?'

'Uhm… Strategy?'

Annabeth sighs, 'You weren't listening to me, were you?'

I force a smile, 'Sorry… I was thinking of something.'

Annabeth examines me with her eyes, 'About the incident that happened to Clarisse?'

I nod. Annabeth has always been good in reading my mind, and I don't even know how she does it.

Annabeth sighs again, 'You're thinking about this too much, Percy. Even gods lose sometimes, let alone Clarisse.'

'Her opponent is a new camper, a camper that has never been to the camp before in his life, and I'm pretty sure you get the best training for demigods in this camp. Aren't you wondering how he managed to defeat Clarisse? She was one of our best fighters.' I say to her.

'Clarisse is still not the strongest person in the world. I'm sure that many people are stronger than her outside of this camp. Besides, he's just a new kid that happened to beat Clarisse. It's not such a big deal.'

'It's not?' I raise my eyebrow.

Annabeth rolls her eyes, 'Okay, so maybe it is. Doesn't mean that you should be thinking about it day and night. Anyway, Clarisse is going to snap out of it, and she's going to take revenge on the new kid. Things will be back to normal in no time.' She smiles.

'I suppose...' I mumble.

I don't know why, but there's just something about that new kid that gives me a bad vibe. Somehow I feel really curious about him, and I don't even know why.

'I'm sure of it.' Annabeth kisses me. 'Now snap out of it and help me think about how we're going to deal with the hunters.'

'Hunters..?' I ask, not having a single clue of what she meant.

Annabeth rolls her eyes, 'The Hunters of Artemis will be here in a couple of hours! Chiron said that we should accompany them with a game of Capture the Flags while he talks to Artemis.'

I sigh, 'And why are we the leaders again?'

Annabeth smiles proudly, 'Because we're one of the senior members of the camp, and because I'm more than qualified to do it… And also because I elected you and myself to Chiron.'

I raise my eyebrow, 'Why did you even elect me?'

Annabeth crosses her arms, 'It's simple, Seaweed Brain… It's because I rather have you right beside me than anyone else…' She almost whispered at the end of the sentence. She blushes a little, and so do I. She clears her throat, 'You have any problem with that?' She asks.

I smile to her, 'Not at all, Ma'am.'

Annabeth smiles back, and then she puts up her thinking face, 'Let's start with the members. Artemis is bringing forty hunters with them, so we have to find another thirty eight campers.'

I stand up, 'I'll go to Apollo, Hermes, Morpheus, and Nemesis cabin then.'

Annabeth stands up as well, she nods, 'Alright, I'll get the other cabins. Nineteen campers from us each.' She looks at me, 'Don't wander off, Seaweed Brain.' She smiles to me, and then she walks away.

Annabeth and I split paths. I leave for Apollo's cabin right away, they're usually the easiest one to invite.

When I've arrived at the Apollo cabin, I spot Will Solace in front of the cabin, tied up in a tree and hanging upside down with his brothers.

I approach him, 'Will?' I call hm.

He adjusts his eyes, trying to recognize me. 'Oh… Hey there, Percy.' He says with a slightly cheerful tone.

I raise an eyebrow, 'What happened to you?' The answer is obvious, but I still ask for some reason.

'Oh, you know, the Ares' campers are not exactly in their best mood… So they took it out on us.'

After last year's incident, Will Solace has been appointed as the new Apollo cabin's counselor, but I doubt anyone who's looking at him now will believe that he's a senior cabin member and a counselor.

'Yeah, I can tell.' I say to him, 'I need to ask you guys something.'

Will smiles, 'Sure, Percy. But if it's not much trouble, can you please untie us first? It's not exactly comfortable talking to you in this position.'

I untie them, and then invite them to the game. They agree to it almost right away. It's nice to see that they are always friendly… Then again it's probably why the Ares' campers pick on them the most.

After that I walk to the Morpheus' cabin. It's a new cabin that has just been created. Not only the Morpheus though now. There's also Hecate's cabin, Janus' cabin, Nemesis' cabin. They have cabins for all the minor gods now.

I walk inside to the Morpheus' cabin, the place is really quiet. The beds are placed on the each side of the cabin, and almost all the beds are filled with a demigod. They all seem to be sleeping soundly. There are oil paintings on the walls, some are new and some are old, the children of Morpheus probably drew this. The paintings appear to be scenes of dreams that someone has gone through. There's a single large wooden table placed next to the door with a lot of wooden chairs, it all looks brand new but they're dusty, like they have never been used before. Next to the fireplace is a blue comfortable looking couch with a small circular wooden table in front of it. There's an iPod plugged in to two small speakers on the small wooden table, playing a lullaby over and over again. There's even a jug of warm chocolate milk next to the iPod. The atmosphere here is so comfortable, and it makes you really sleepy at the same time.

I try to shake the sleepiness off, and then I start looking around. I spot the new Morpheus cabin's counselor sitting comfortably on the sofa next to the fireplace while sipping his Pepsi's can. The Nemesis cabin's counselor is standing right next to him, talking quietly.

I grin, this makes everything easier.

Matt Grey is the newly appointed and the first Morpheus cabin's counselor. He's around 5'11" tall with wavy brown thick hair intertwines with gray hair. Somehow all the children of Morpheus have some gray hair that intertwines with their normal hair. His body is full of scars, you can even see some on his neck, but there's not even one on his face. He didn't talk about it, he never wanted to discuss about it. Despite his somewhat intimidating appearance, he's a very cheerful person, not to mention his love for flirting with pretty girls. Annabeth punched him in the face the first time she met Matt. Matt is wearing a black t-shirt with a silver skull logo on the front side of the t-shirt, with long gray jeans.

Even with all of this, it doesn't compare to Lisa Heidi, the Nemesis cabin's counselor. She's 5'3" tall with blonde hair braided over one shoulder, and an innocent cute looking face. She's the perfect image for a child of Nemesis, she always gets her revenge.

A couple of days ago, two Ares campers picked on her, and then the strangest thing happened right after that. Three hours after more bullying other campers they came back to their cabin. Strangely, the moment they entered their cabin, a bucket of honey fell and covered them both with it. Incidentally, a nest of killer bees just dropped off from the ceiling of their cabin. The bees come running out of their nest and swarm the two Ares' campers like a pack of hungry German shepherd to a meat. Somehow after that, they had this instant bright idea of running outside of their cabin and jumping to the nearest pond to get rid of the honey and the bees. I suppose it was only coincidental that there are so many pictures and photos of water and swimming pools all of the sudden in the Ares' cabin. No one seemed to have remembered of putting those pictures or photos there. It is also still a question though of how there's suddenly a pond near the Ares' cabin. They never built one, but it seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Anyhow, the idea worked, and the two Ares' children managed to get rid of both the honey and the bees, and they only suffered a few stung on their faces and arms. Sadly enough it still didn't end there; they were relieved that it has ended, but they saw snakelike shadows in the pond, and finally realized that there were dozens of electric eels swimming around them. It was too late by then, and then ZAP! They were electrified. They finally crept out of the pool, exhausted and hurt, crawling through the grass trying to make it back to their cabin. They knew that the series of those unlucky events are over, their bad day was finished. Wrong," somebody" (Well, there was no proof, but I think everyone got the idea of who did it) was playing catch with Mrs. O'Leary, and the ball just happened to land right next to them. Mrs. O'Leary trampled them, leaving them half dead on the ground. They were still a bit conscious at that time, and then the culprit left a very special mark on their back (Don't ask what). It was signed as well with two letters: LH. (Yeah, everybody knows who). Right now those two campers are still screaming "Lisa Heidi" in the nursery over and over again. No proofs can be found linking this "accident" to Lisa Heidi. She had the perfect alibi.

'What's up, Perce?' Matt greets the moment he sees me. Lisa turns to me as well.

I smile, 'Matt, Lisa. I'm here beca—' The Morpheus campers suddenly growl, they all shift position to get more comfortable.

Matt whispers, 'Oh… That's right. You have to be really really quiet here.' He smiles.

I look around, and whisper, 'Right… So I was thinking, would you two and your siblings like to join the game?'

'Game as in Capture The Flag with the hunters?' Lisa asks.

I nod, 'Yeah, I thought you two might be interested.'

'I'm in.' Matt quickly replies, he looks excited.

'So am I.' Lisa follows.

I was surprised by their quick reaction, 'Uhm… Thanks.'

Matt grins, 'Are you kidding me? Thank you! With all the Aphrodite's girls watching, I'll be a ladies magnet as soon as they see me become the hero that wins us the game.'

Lisa rolls her eyes, she grumbles, 'Grow up, Matt. Even if you win the game for us, they won't look twice at your stupid face.'

Matt snickers, 'Jealous already, Lisa? We're not even dating, but don't worry, you'll still be my favorite.'

Lisa punches Matt's arm, he groans. She turns back to me.

She looks proud, 'I'm in so that I can show those Ares' campers that they're not the only one who can fight. No one messes with Lisa Heidi!' She instinctively raises her voice.

The Morpheus' campers growl, one of them mumbles, 'Keep it down…'

I sigh, 'Lisa. I just hope that you won't send another camper to the nursery.' I mumble.

'What was that?' She smiles, and asks me with a soft but deadly tone in her voice.

I tenses up, 'Uhm… Nothing.' I panic a bit, and look around for an exit, 'Well, I need to go and tell the Hermes' campers. I'll see you two later!' I half-run my way out of there, I don't really want to end up in the nursery by a so-called "accident".

I make my way to the Hermes' cabin, it's less cramped that it was last year. Now that all the demigods are being acknowledged by their god parent, everybody goes to their own respective cabin. Even if they don't get claimed right away, they usually will get claimed in the next couple of days after they've arrived at the camp.

I look for the Stoll brothers, and find them grumbling about how much they hate the Ares' cabin at the corner of the cabin. Now that I get a closer look, I notice that they're covered in mud and banana's skins.

Travis Stoll is the first one to notice me, 'Hey Percy.' He greets me.

'Did the Ares' campers do this to you?' I ask.

Travis grumbles, 'Actually… Connor did this to me.'

Connor protests, 'Hey! This is your fault too!'

'What happened?'

Travis sighs, 'Well, we tried to take our revenge on the Ares' campers by setting up a trap for them. Mud kind of trap.' He starts to explain.

'It backfired, and instead it showered us with mud. After that, we started to blame each other.' Connor continues the story.

Travis scratches his head, 'We wrestled, and then we hit the trash can.'

Connor shudders, 'All those trashes, so many banana's skins…'

Travis shook it off, 'Forget it, Percy. You're here to talk about the game, aren't you?'

I nod, 'Yeah, but seeing you guys like this, will you be able to play?'

Connor brightens up, 'Duh! It's the perfect way for us to relieve the stresses that have been building up.'

Travis shrugs, 'That is if you don't get your ass kicked by the hunters.'

Connor slaps Travis in the back of his head, 'Shut up, Travis.' Travis groans. Connor then looks at something at the other corner of the cabin. 'You might want to ask the new guy to come along as well.' That's the new guy that beat Clarisse. He's sitting near the window, watching the sky and looking like he can doze off at anytime.

Travis grins, 'He'll be one heck of a trouble for the hunters, not to mention he will piss off a lot of Ares' campers.'

I sigh, 'You're right. The hunters will have trouble dealing with him.' I admit, ignoring what he said about angering the Ares' campers.

Connor shrugs, 'He doesn't talk much though, didn't even bother to tell us his name.'

I think for a moment, and then gain my resolve, 'I'll try to ask him.'

The new kid has been making me curious ever since he got here, this might be a good chance to know him better.

I approach him, and he notices me. Before I can say anything, he just stares coldly at me.

'Uhm… Hi.' I awkwardly greet him.

He doesn't say anything and just keeps staring at me.

I clear my throat, 'Right. So, I saw how you beat Clarisse, and we can really use that swordplay of yours in the game.'

He keeps silent and still just stares at me.

'So… Do you want to join our team in the game? You know, Capture The Flag.' I try to smile, but I think it becomes an awkward smile.

There's nothing but total silence in the air. This is really really awkward, I thought to myself.

'…Alright.' He replies all of the sudden. He turns his face around and starts to watch the sky again. I guess that means our discussion is over.

I walk back to Travis and Connor.

'How'd it go?' Connor asks curiously.

'I think he agreed to join us.'

Travis grumbles, 'Seriously? Well, isn't that just swell? He chats with you but not with us.'

I shrug, 'It wasn't really chatting. I did most of the talking and he only said a word.'

Connor raises his eyebrow, 'A word?'

'Yeah, and I quote from him, "Alright".' I say.

Travis laughs, 'That explains.'

All of the sudden there's a loud noise coming out of a horn, a hunting horn to be exact. I know exactly what is going on, I've heard that horn before.

The Hunters of Artemis has just arrived.