Ew. This took forever to write and I'm not at all sure why. But whatever! Here it isss!

For some reason when I was writing this, these weird lines came up and I couldn't figure out how to get rid of them, so I don't know if they're gonna upload like that or not, so just ignore them. Heh, sorry.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything!

After the chaotic first day of camp, it was a relief to walk outside and not be momentarily deafened by the noise.

But that doesn't mean it wasn't loud. Campers still ran around and talked obnoxiously to their friends while they walked to breakfast.

There was still a bunch of Aphrodite girls giggling, and a bunch of Ares kids being the idiots they are. Annoyed, I continued walking to the dining pavilion.

When you've been attacked by so many monsters, ghosts, goddesses that want to turn you into a flower, angry campers, and just plain weird New Yorkers, your defense skills tend to kick in pretty quickly.

So when an arrow flew through the air and embedded itself in the ground right near my feet, 5 seconds hadn't passed before I had taken out my sword and swung it around to scare any possibly attackers.

Scanning my surroundings, I came to a surprisingly realization:

There was nobody there. Well, besides those few campers staring at me like I was some kind of freak show (which, to be honest, I really was).

I must've looked horribly confused, so somebody pointed to the direction of the archery range.

Duh, Nico.

I spotted a group of Apollo campers practicing, while some Athena kids sat off to the side waiting for their turn. I picked up the arrow, and waved it in the air for somebody to see.

Soon enough, girl began to run over from the archery range, her ponytail flapping wildly with every jog she took. When she reached me, she put her hands on her knees and tried to catch her breath, even though she had only run for a short distance. She had the looks of an Apollo kid, and I guess running was not their specialty.

After a moment of panting, she straightened her back and looked up at me. "I am so sorry!" She had big brown eyes that looked sincerely apologetic, even though the arrow had obviously not hurt me.

I shrugged. "S'okay." I handed her the bow, and she took it graciously and checked to make sure it was still intact.

"It's just that last night I didn't get to sleep until, like, 2 and I can't sleep past sunrise for obvious reasons, so I was forced to get out of bed. And then, I got to breakfast and for some reason there wasn't any cinnamon toast, which is like my all time favorite so I was in a seriously bad mood and I guess I was just out of it during archery, and-" she looked at my expression, "you really don't care, do you?"

I smiled. "Nope. In fact, I didn't hear half of what you just said. Something about the sunset and cinnamon toast."

She let out a quick laugh, "It was the sunrise, but I do love the sunset."

She tucked a piece of loose strand of light brown hair behind her ear, and kept on talking. Usually, I would ignore her and walk away, but since I had nothing better to do I decided to stick around.

I barely noticed the familiar blonde that jogged over.

"Hey, Hailey, what's taking you so lo-" she paused, "Oh, hi Nico."

I looked over. "Hi, Jill. Whatcha doin'?"

"Nothing, really. I was in archery but my partner decided to come over here and have a conversation, while her best friend had to stay behind and retrieve her own arrows after each shot." She glared at Hailey. "But I'm fine. Really, I am. I'll just go back and work twice as hard as everyone else, because I just had to choose a slacker as my best friend."

Hailey, as I shall now call her, smiled. "Oh, you're just jealous that I'm over here socially mingling while you're over there all sweaty and gross."

Jill sighed. "I'm pretty sure that's not it. Believe what you want, but either way we have to get back. The instructor will have our necks if we miss anymore of the lesson. I had to tell her I had left my copy of To Kill a Mockingbird at breakfast, and was afraid the Stoll's would steal it."

"Travis and Conner? Stealing a book?" asked Hailey.

"I was improvising, alright? When that didn't work, I told her it had a $20 bill as the bookmark, since nothing else was available at the time." explained Jill.

"Did you seriously? Twenty dollars?" asked Hailey, looking like she was prepared to make a mad dash towards the dining pavilion to get the money for herself.

Her friend rolled her eyes. "No, you idiot. I was lying."

Hailey, seeming unfazed by the insult, just smiled and said "Oh, alright. Let's go." Hailey and Jill began to walk back to the archery range; their bright orange shirts standing out against the green grass and blue skies.

As they walked, Hailey called back, "Bye, Nico! It was nice meeting you!" I was too lazy to respond, so I simply raised my hand and waved slightly. She seemed fine with it, and skipped ahead of Jill.

Speaking of dearest Jill, after Hailey's goodbye she turned around to face me. She opened her mouth slightly, looking like she was about to say something, but quickly shut it and ran to catch up with her friend.

I would've thought about it more, but my stomach was stronger than my mind, and my legs seemed to move themselves toward the direction of the dining pavilion.

After eating an incredibly boring bowl of cereal for breakfast, repeatedly flicking pieces of grass at some camper until they noticed, and walking around aimlessly for twenty minutes, I decided to just give up on doing anything exciting for the day and made my way back to my cabin. Outside was too loud and… sunny. It was horribly annoying me.

As I was about to walk into my cabin, I noticed a piece of paper stapled to the outer side of my door that I hadn't noticed earlier that morning. It was a schedule of activities for everyday, along with the other cabins scheduled for the same thing.

8:30:

Archery (Apollo, Athena, Hades)

Whoops. I guess I missed that one.

9:00:

Canoeing (Hades, Ares, Hecate, Hebe)

Uh, I'll pass.

10:30:

Arts and crafts (Aphrodite, Hades, Demeter)

No thanks.

11:15:

Volleyball (Apollo, Nyx, Hephaestus, Hades)

Maybe next time.

I went through the list, saw nothing that appealed to me, and happily walked into my cabin. I flipped on a light switch (because as much as I liked the dark, I didn't have night vision) and walked over to my bed. I sat down on it, and contemplated summoning some spirits or shadow-traveling somewhere cooler than summer camp.

I mean, seriously? Summer camp? We were half god. We should be spending every waking moment in a palace, with beautiful girls serving us platters of junk food, and the rest of the world bowing down to worship us. And Hannah Montana should be there too, so we could throw things at her when we got bored. It would be a pretty good life, eh?

But of course, reality had to come around and smack me in the face. There was a small knock on my door, and a little voice called out "Hello?"

Ugh. People are annoying.

Ignoring the knock, I continued dreaming about the pool filled with chocolate pudding that I would have. So you could swim and enjoy chocolaty delic-

Knock knock

Angrily, I stood up, walked over to the door, and swung it open. I looked down to those who dare disrupt my peace, and two small faces stared back at me.

"Hi!" said the girl. She looked about 10, and was clutching a younger boy's hand. They both had light brown hair, and big green eyes. Freckles dotted the girl's face, and when she smiled I saw a gap that showed where a baby tooth used to be.

"Listen, I was in the middle of something really important, and I don't have time for a conversation. Sorry, but maybe the Aphro-"

The little girl rudely interrupted me. "I'm sorry to disturb you, but we're lost. Can you show us where the stables are?"

I sighed, annoyed. "Go to the right until you see a group of trees-"

"What kind of trees?" she asked, interrupting me yet again.

"The kind that has those green leaves. Then, take another right and follow the scent of manure. You'll be there soon enough." I went to close the door, but the girl grabbed onto my arm before I had the chance to.

"I don't think we'll be able to find that. Can't you just take us there? It would only take a minute…" The little boy next to her nodded vigorously, and I found myself feeling bad for the two. I sure knew what it felt like to be lost, in more ways than one.

Defeated, I sighed and walked out of my cabin, closing the door behind me.

"Alright," I said, "let's go."

Soon enough, I found myself leading them towards the horses, Pegasus, and other mythical equestrians.

"Thanks!" they said, and ran off towards the instructor.

Since Camp Half-Blood doesn't exactly have a lot of money to hire teachers, and there isn't a surplus of older demigods that are willing to spend their summers at camp instructing snotty kids, it isn't uncommon for a camper to be teaching a class.

So, I wasn't too surprised when the instructor that the kids ran up to was no other than the oh-so-familiar Hailey.

Okay, just kidding. I was pretty surprised.

I couldn't hear what she said to the kids, but she pointed them over towards two horses all ready to go, and then climbed onto her own.

I had assumed the class had already started, since the other kids were already mounted high on their horses with those funny looking black hats on. Everybody was at least 2 feet taller than me when they were sitting on the animals, and they were all dressed in light colored clothes so they wouldn't get too hot from the sun.

I stood at a respectful 5'8" in black jeans and a red shirt.

Basically, I stuck out like a sore thumb.

It wasn't long before the instructor noticed me and her horse began to trot over.

Looking down at me from the height of her horse, she smiled. "Ah, look who has returned! You here for the lesson, or just for the delightful smell of horse poop?"

"Although they both sound tempting, I was just showing those kids how to get here. And now I must go. So… bye." I turned around and began walking away, but she, along with her giant horse, followed me.

"Aw, you have to go so soon? I was hoping you would wanna stay and clean the stables while I took the campers around the trails…" She laughed at her joke, and readjusted herself on the saddle.

"I wish I c-" Cutting me off, a strange sound traveled across the camp.

It sounded like a cry, but from a mutant beaver, or something just as weird.

The kids on the horses stared around in confusion. Hailey opened her mouth like she was about to ask what that was, but soon another scream echoed throughout the camp. And this one was very human.