Chapter Four

Sleep was not pleasant. It was like a living nightmare. I woke up in a dark room, thousands of scratchy voices screaming at me. One voice rose above all, though. It was dark and menacing.

"You will save me!" The voice said. I was aghast and pinched myself, hoping I would wake up. It didn't work.

"Shut your face, and go away!" I yelled into the darkness.

"Just wait, Lexi, just wait." It said and I woke up with a startle. I must be going crazy! I thought to myself. Stupid creepy voice.

Breakfast came around, and man, was that food good! I prayed, again that my father would show himself. I sat at the Hermes table next to Tanith.

"Sleep well?" I asked her as I took my first bite.

"No, you?" She replied.

"Not at all." I took another bite of my food.

"Nightmares?"

"Yup."

"Me too." We both talked while eating our food.

I was in the middle of making a dramatic bite on my waffle, when someone ruffled my hair.

"Oi!" I turned around and, without thinking, slapped whose ever hand touched my hair. "Sorry! Didn't mean to slap you!" I looked up and saw Luke. "Oh, hey."

"Hi." He chuckled. "So why did you slap me?"

"Well, I don't generally allow people to touch my hair." I replied. He laughed.

"Am I allowed to touch it?"

"I suppose." I said quietly as I turned back to my food. He slipped into the bench next to me.

"So what's up?" He tried to make casual talk.

"The sky." I said sarcastically. Then we both started laughing.

"Nice one." He smiled.

"So when does camp get interesting? No offence." I asked. Even though I've only been here a day, it was still pretty boring.

"Trust me, you haven't seen anything yet." He said with a wink. I smiled and continued to eat my waffles.

"Well, I hope so." I said. I took a sip from my pink milk. What? I liked pink milk, not strawberry flavored. Just milk, that's pink.

"Is that… pink milk?" Luke and Tanith asked at the exact same time.

"Yes, yes it is." I said simply. I took another, dramatic sip from my glass. But, I guess I needed to laugh or something so I laughed into the milk and it spurted everywhere. It reached like fifty feet in front of me. Hitting a girl from the Ares table on the head.

"Uh oh!" Tanith said. She scooted away from me.

"What? Who did I hit?" I asked, looking around me. The girl I hit turned around.

"That's Clarisse," Luke answered. "The daughter of Ares."

"Oh, shnazzle bugs!" I muttered under my breath. Ares was the god of war right? She must be a fighter. I'm screwed I thought. Clarisse stood up and looked around.

"Who spit on me?" She demanded.

"Not me!" I defended quickly, probably too quickly because Clarisse turned right towards me.

"It was you! Wasn't it, you little pip squeak?!" She screamed.

Fortunately for me, Chiron told her to calm down.

"I'll get you later," She whispered when she passed me. I was only slightly afraid, because even though she was tough and strong, she probably had no brains.

"Picking fights already?" Luke teased.

"I didn't do anything!" I defended. "What could sweet, innocent Lexi do?" I laughed at that with him.

"Sweet? Innocent? Puh-lease!" Luke joked.

"What? I am sweet and innocent!" I defended once more. I made puppy dog eyes and batted my eye lashes at him, trying to look innocent. Trying. "I don't think this is working," I told Luke.

"Nope. It's not." He replied, smirking.

"Whatever." I said. "So, what do I do now?" I asked.

"Oh, Chiron will give you like a schedule for training. Just go ask him." Luke told me and pointed toward Chiron.

I walked over to him and asked for a schedule. He handed me a scroll bound with a small orange string. I pulled the string off and read the paper. This is what it looked like:

8:00 AM Breakfast & Cabin Inspection

9:00 AM – 10:00 A.M: Sword and Shield: Hermes Cabin and Apollo Cabin

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM: Archery with Chiron

11:00 AM- 1:00 PM: Winged Horseback Riding

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM: Monster Assault Techniques

2:00 PM – 4:00 PM: Free Choice

4:00 PM – 5:00 PM: Swimming and Beach Time

5:00 PM – 6:00 PM: Free Time, Volley Ball, Cabin Clean up

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM: ACTIVITY

8:00 PM – 9:00 PM: Dinner

9:00 PM – 10:00 PM: Sing-a-long and Bonfire

10:00 PM: Get ready for bed, lights out at 11 PM.

"Wow," I muttered, "This is going to be a long day." I walked back to Tanith and Luke. "I got it."

"Cool, let me see." Tanith pulled at the scroll.

"Oi!" I reached for it but she just swatted me away. "That's MY schedule, Tanith, not yours!"

"Oh, just let her read it!" Luke reasoned, pushing me away from Tanith. This resulted in me falling, of course. And I just so happened to land on Luke. Now, THIS was an awkward position. He was on the floor and I was on top of him, my face just inches from his. My hands were on his chest, as if I tried a last minute 'Brace myself' situation. I couldn't stop staring into his blue eyes, and then I realized what position we were in. I jumped up and brushed myself off; I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks.

"Sorry," I muttered, blushing furiously.

"It's okay." I noticed Luke was also a bright shade of red.

"Um… Yeah, I should get to-" I looked at my schedule, "Sword and Shield? See you!" I left the pavilion with Tanith not far behind me.

"Wait up!" She said, running to catch up with me. I slowed down and then I stopped. She reached me side. "Do you even know where we are going?" She asked me. I blushed slightly.

"Erm… No?" I replied.

"Come on." She laughed, "I'll show you!" She pulled on my hand and we walked to an arena. "Oh, wait. We should probably get you a weapon first," She said.

"A weapon?" I asked.

"Yeah, you know, so you can fight?" She said sarcastically.

"I know, but I've never been trusted with anything sharper than a toothpick!" I said.

"Why?" She asked.

"Well, in 6th grade we went to this fake armor shop, but they had real swords. I didn't know they weren't fake though, so I took a sword and poked this kid in his stomach. He had to go to the ICU…" I trailed off.

"You thought it was a fake?" Tanith burst out laughing.

"It's not funny." I tried to say seriously while keeping a straight face. I couldn't it any longer, I started to laugh too. We walked into the armor cabin and looked around.

I tried, knives, but none of them felt right. Most of the swords were too heavy for me, and some were much to light. I came to the last sword in the cabin.

"I hope this works," I muttered under my breath. The sword was made of what Tanith called Celestial Bronze, the actual blade was very plain but the handle was decorated. On the handle were vines that formed the grip and at the very bottom was a symbol, but I couldn't tell what it was. I picked up the blade and felt the weight.

"This one feels good." I said as I tossed the sword from hand to hand.

"That's Zaloc, there's supposedly a history behind it, but I don't know the story," Tanith told me. "If you're ready, let's go!" And she pulled me back to the arena.

A/N: Another chappie! Yay! So if you noticed, there's gonna be a little Luke romance, but since he's 19 in the story, and Lexi is 14 I changed his age to 16. THIS IS ONLY FOR THE SAKE OF THE STORY! Don't get mad at me, but I promise it will work its way in later on. Review please!