Chapter 4.
I chat with my father in the big house through face time. Dad explains how he knew that Liam was a half blood but he was shocked to find that I was too. Even more when he found out we have different mothers.
Our father is an ex solider, he had served fifteen years before Liam was born and left the military at 33. I know that Aphrodite's true love was Ares the war god, not Hephaestus her husband, because love and war go together. I guess Aphrodite was attracted to dad because he fought in Iraq.
My mother, Athena, is the goddess of strategic war as well as wisdom and owls. I guess she was attracted to my dad for the same reason.
Chiron told me to never use a phone as it's like putting yourself on the map to every monster within 100 miles. I've never had a phone. Dad said that he doesn't want us relying on technology too much so he has a flip phone. Samantha believes it causes brain cancer and will kill us which I'm not sure about. But it turns out they'll kill me by inviting a party of monsters to me.
Anyways, lunch.
I'm a picky eater. The pickiest. I have a list of safe meals to eat when we eat out that most restaurants serve. That list isn't needed here.
An endless supply of whatever you want. Tell your magic plate or your magic goblet and it fills itself up. So, with all the options there are, I choose fish and chips that we used to get every Friday night when we were living in England. We lived in the North East, not a beach resort but even our closest beach with it's grey sand and grey skies had a chip shop on every street.
I sit at the Athena table. The only other person sitting with is Malcom. His eyes are stormy grey, much darker than my silver grey eyes. He smiled at me when I say down and greeted me but other wise we ate in silence.
"So, how long have you been coming here?" I ask, nervously.
"Since I was ten. So, seven years." He answers, fidgeting with the beads in his necklace.
"Seven beads, one for each summer." He explains. I nod, I've never seen Liam's necklace.
"I'm head of the Athena cabin, it used to be our sister, Annabeth Chase but she left with Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon, to study in New Rome last year. They were pretty big here, especially Percy, so get ready to hear their names frequently."
After lunch, Liam shows me around the cabins.
The first is Zeus, Liam tells me it's always lightning in there. That must be comforting to listen to at night.
The phrase 'looks can be deceiving' has never applied more than it had done to Hera's cabin. White and gold on the outside, heated with torches. Stone grey inside.
The Ares and Athena cabin are very different. The Ares cabin is painted with red handprints and surrounded with barbed wire. Swords and Knives decorate the walls and the cabin is in chaos.
The Athena cabin has a row of neatly stacked bookcases on the far wall and maps line the other walls, turns put they're for planning battles. There is a desk at the end of each bunk and the windows are tinted grey to symbolise our eyes. I know Athena was known for her grey eyes, which is probably where the link between grey and wisdom came from.
The Aphrodite cabin is like walking into Barbies dream house. The bedding, curtains and flowers are all pastels. There is a mirror that takes up a whole wall and it smells of perfume. Liam dumps his bag on a top bunk by the window. He jumps up and I follow.
"So, I never thought I'd be giving you the tour." He says. The brightly lit room causes his blue eyes to sparkle, his skin looks alive and like always, he's freshly shaved.
"Do you want to build a fort? Our cabin head, Drew, hates mess. And us, actually. She used to be our head until Piper McLean made her stand down. Then when she left to study in New Rome, so Drew got her old role back." He grins.
"I can make a better one than you." I bet.
"Challenge accepted, ten minutes. Starting, now." He points to the clock above the door and I scramble down to the opposite bunk.
I think I won.
I used two bunks and the floor is covered on blankets and pillows. I hung some blankets down the bunks and some across, to create a roof. I made the 'walls' so that you could lean against them with some weight without collapsing by adding chests to each side. Pillows lay on the floor for comfort and I lean against the bed.
"Come and look." Liam calls. When I crawl out by separating two sheets in the middle, I see that he had cheated. Three blankets hang from the sides of the top bunk so the bottom bunk is hidden, like a four post bed. "Well that's not fair, you just threw blankets over the edge."
"So did you."
"Hey, it took me ages to get that roof right." I argue with fake anger.
"By the way, I brought snacks." He pulls out a bag of Cheetos, some cans of coca-cola and a bunch of bags of sweets. "You're not allowed out of camp unless you have a quest, so I packed ahead. Come in and we'll get fat before the evening when most campers arrive."
We spend the afternoon hidden in walls of cotton and polyester telling jokes and sharing stories about friends and family. "Remember that time you dropped Andrew down the flight of stairs?"
"that was Grace!" I exclaim. "Remember that time she cut her hair too?"
"So did you."
"Yeah, but mine wasn't wonky. Dad didn't even notice."
"What do you think they're doing now?" I wonder.
"A don't know. They're probably moaning about how you're here and they're not."
"Grace wants everything I have!" I complain. "And if she can't have it she just takes it! I got a necklace the other week on sale and I know she stole it!"
"She took my favourite ear phones last week, I don't know what for because she can't keep a secret phone or some thing, her mouth is too big."
"You have a secret phone?"
"MP3 player, my mate Callum downloaded some songs onto it. It isn't a phone and doesn't have wifi so it doesn't attracts any monsters."
"Fair enough."
"You know what I never understood?" Liam asks.
"What?"
"Lazy town. It's three real people talking to puppets all day."
"And singing."
"Can you imagine what it would be like though. Oh hello piece of fluff," he starts laughing, he tried to continue but he carries on giggling. I can't stop myself and I find myself laughing too. I fee like we're close siblings, doing normal sibling things. We were having fun. Until we were interrupted by a girl screaming.
"Oh my gods! Someone's doing it in our cabin!" She screams.
"Dear gods, why?" Liam groans.
"Who's that?" I smile, even though I think I know it's his cabin councillor.
"Dreeeeew. Whyyy?" Liam moans before tearing down the blanket that had been our wall.