Have you ever been to a summer camp? Do you remember how impossible it was to fall asleep, with everybody whispering and laughing and sneaking around all night long?

Take that. Double it.

You'd think, after nearly three weeks, I would have gotten used to it. But this was one of the fuller cabins, even without the summer campers, and it was full of people who were apparently determined to never sleep, ever.

I didn't usually mind the noise so much, but it had been a long day of work, and my eyes felt like lead weights. Several campers had decided to race each other on the climbing wall. It would have been a normal fun activity, except that the climbing wall sprayed lava.

Seriously, where did they get it? Was there an active volcano nearby?

Michael had only taught me how to heal minor injuries, but it still took a lot out of me. When I left the infirmary every day, my legs were trembling and I was breathing hard. When I asked Lee about it, he nodded wisely and explained that we all got tired at first, but it would become easier over time.

Still, though, I loved work in the infirmary. I had never stopped cutting bandages-Michael wasn't kidding when he said we always would-but I was actually healing now, helping people, and a little tiredness wasn't really so bad.

I was only allowed to work with the supervision of one of my siblings, usually Michael, but I didn't mind that. They said I was a fast learner, and I could start work alone pretty soon.

The rest of the cabin wasn't as tired as I was, having been healing longer. I could hear two of my sisters, Harper and Phoenix, giggling right below me.

At least I had a top bunk.

I pulled a pillow over my head, reducing the voices and laughter to background noise, until I finally fell asleep.

XXXXXXXX

I was kneeling on a blood-soaked battlefield.

All around me were hurt people, dying people, anguished moans and cries for help filling the air.

Some people were already gone, rotting corpses crawling with maggots, surrounded by buzzing flies.

Others were almost dead, gasping their last breaths, fingers scrabbling in their own blood.

Still others seemed to have just fallen, sobbing for help, knowing they had no chance but not ready to accept it.

I was kneeling by a boy a few years older than me. I felt like I should know him, but I couldn't place him under the blood that soaked his face, hair, and clothes.

"Please…help…me," he whispered. His throat sounded as though it was coated with sandpaper.

I fumbled for bandages, medicine, anything, but I came up empty- handed. There was only me.

"Please…," the boy whispered. He coughed, and a dribble of blood ran down his chin.

"I- I'm sorry," I said hopelessly. "I don't-I don't know what-"

Suddenly his hand clamped over mine, yanking me down until we were face-to-face. His eyes burned like headlights through the coating of blood.

"Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Me," he hissed. "I asked for help, I was right here, and what did you do?" He dragged me even closer. "Useless."

Suddenly I realized why he seemed so familiar.

He looked like me. Exactly like me.

XXXXXXXX

"You know, you're being really quiet."

Harper scooted close to me, eyeing my bacon like she was planning on stealing it. She was about fourteen, and one of the kids who spent most of her time playing music.

I studied a piece of bacon as if it were a mildly interesting insect. "Nothing. It's just…has anyone ever died while you were trying to save them?"

Harper blinked. "N-no. I've never been around during a war-well, not yet anyway. Why? Are you worried?"

"No reason," I muttered, poking around my scrambled eggs. "Bad dreams."

Harper wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I leaned against her, holding back tears.

"Hey, we all have bad dreams," she said gently. "It's much worse for demigods. And even if somebody does die by your hands…well, it was going to happen. You did all you could."

I nodded, although I was still struggling not to cry. It's just a dream, I told myself. Just a dream, just a dream.

"Besides," she added, nudging my shoulder. "You're only ten. And you're an amazing healer, for the amount of training you've had. It's the one thing the whole cabin agrees on. It's likely that there'll be more people you can help than people you can't. And even if it's only one person you save…it means the world to that one person. They're alive."

I nodded again, actually beginning to believe it this time. I was a little kid, too young to spend the whole day brooding. And the camp had good bacon.

A few hours later, Harper was helping me sort salve jars in the infirmary. She glanced over at me.

"Can I ask exactly what your dream-''

Harper's next words were cut off by a splash that sounded as though a school bus had been dropped in the canoe lake.

We dropped the jars we were holding and scrambled outside and toward the lake.

At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. But no, there was indeed a school bus in the canoe lake. Look at that.

Before I could even begin to register what I was seeing, I realized that several people had clambered out of the bus and were standing on the shore. The tallest one said something I couldn't hear to one of the figures, then climbed back on the bus.

"Don't look!" Harper yelped, clamping a hand over my eyes and turning away. I saw a flash of bright light between her fingers, and then she removed her hand.

"Sorry. But if that was what I think it was, we would have gone blind if we looked at it."

I blinked. "Do you mean you think it was…"

She nodded. "I'm pretty sure."

I considered that, then grinned. "Wow. Our dad drives the Magic School Bus."

Harper laughed. "Yeah, I guess he does." She playfully rubbed my head. "Come on, let's go finish sorting the salves."

"Wait…," I said. "Who are the kids who got off the bus? Are they new?"

She shrugged. "I couldn't tell. Probably no one important. And we really do have to finish sorting, or Michael will have both of our blood."

On that fun note, we headed back to the infirmary.