The Hermes cabin was as disorganised as ever. They didn't really seem to care that a newcomer was coming. The top bunks were decorated with cascading sheets that almost touched the ground while the bunks below just contained a scrunched up sheet like a scrunched up paper. There was little spot reserved, seemingly for Percy, with a sheet and a little cushion that functioned as a pillow. Luke's responsible for this I thought. He was the only tidy person in this place. All the determined and undetermined came to this cabin, so it was as always full of people. The tens were fighting over something, others were sitting calmly, trying to clean up the dirty cabin which was no easy feat. I didn't see Luke anywhere though. I decided I really did not want to do this right now. I closed the door with nobody noticing me and sat down in the near benches, pulled out my architecture's guide in greek, which I always had just in case, and began reading. I've always really liked reading, even though I have dyslexia. It's a pesky thing that almost all demigods have. Fortunately, my dyslexia didn't act up when I was reading in greek. Like my brain was wired to only understand greek, which made sense, considering I was quite literally the daughter of a greek God.

Some time passed before I had to set down my book. I knew almost everything about architecture, but just in case I got every book on it, just to see if I missed something that I could learn. So far, no luck. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw both Chiron and Percy approaching, horse hooves making the same sound I always knew that indicated Chiron was free from those wheelchair legs that he used for newcomers like Percy. I never understood a wheelchair, but Chiron said it was simpler magic. I guess it's really hard to get a job as a teacher when you're a horse from the waist down. Percy was close to breaking his neck from looking, trying to consume with his eyes everything he could.

"Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have mastery's archer class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?" He asked.

"Yes sir." I responded politely. Satisfied with my answer, he turned to face Percy.

"Cabin eleven," Chiron told him, gesturing towards the door. "Make yourself at home." Though it was best that Percy did not make it his home. Being an undetermined kid for too long could make you resentful. For some reason, I didn't want this to happen to Percy. The Hermes kids stopped messing around as soon as they saw Chiron, and all now stood formally, bowing to him. I mentally rolled my eyes. Percy still didn't enter.

"Well then," Chiron said, realising this was his cue to leave, "Good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner" And ever so elegantly, turned and galloped away, leaving me with the undetermined new kid. The Hermes cabin stopped bowing and looked at Percy. He seemed to be debating wether he should enter or not.

"Well?" I prompted, impatience creeping up my tone, "Go on." Percy stepped inside and tripped. With what he tripped I had no idea. Snickers could already be heard from the Hermes cabin. Great first impression. I sighed mentally.

"Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven." I announced.

"Regular or undetermined?" Someone in the group asked.

"Undetermined" A collective groan resonated through the cabin, as the interest of basically everyone shifted to whatever else. I couldn't blame them. I was either handing them a half-brother, or more likely I was handing them a complete stranger who could have nothing in common with them. It was Luke who stepped up to greet Percy, his soft blond hair waddling through the air.

"Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there." He pointed at the spot I had earlier seen. I didn't know how I hadn't seen Luke before. He was one of the tallest and the oldest of the cabin, though I tried not to think about his age. He got close to as he pointed, his strong muscular arms too close for me. I could only hope that my face wasn't blushing at his revealing orange tank top.

"This is Luke," My voice must've been an octave higher than before because Percy turned his head and stared at me oddly. I begged my cheeks to return to their normal colour. I noted that Percy was perceptive. "He's your counsellor for now" I said, my voice returning to normal.

"For now?" He asked. I was probably going to make an annoyed remark, but Luke stopped me.

"You're undetermined," He answered, not a hint of impatience in his voice, "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travellers." He explained in a swift and fluid way, like he had rehearsed it and said it many times, but at the same time, it came out naturally. Percy didn't seem entirely satisfied with his answer, much less with the spot that was now his. He clutched his minotaur, either because he had remembered that Hermes was the god of thieves or because the faces of the Hermes cabin were not very encouraging for him. Either way he stared reluctantly at everyone. They were all strangers to him after all. Now he was supposed to live with them. I understood the feeling. It was like college, except worse. Much worse. At least I was with my half-brothers. Percy didn't look like a Hermes kid.

"How long will I be here?" He asked, almost whining. Luke remained his composure.

"Good question," Luke congratulated him, "Until you're determined." He finished. Stupidly, Percy was not done with his questions.

"How long will that take?" That triggered full on laughter from everyone but me and Luke. Chiron had very clearly not shown him the orientation video. I was starting to get a little bit annoyed with, but I couldn't just let everyone laugh at him.

"Come on, I'll show you the volleyball court." I said.

"I've already seen it." He complained. More laughter. Was he really that dumb or was he just pretending?

"Come on" This time I grabbed his wrist and unwillingly accompanied me outside, with me still dragging him, and with the Hermes cabin still laughing.

"Jackson you have to do better than that" I said after we were far from hearing range. It felt weird to call him by his surname, but I wanted to emphasise my point. He stared at me dumbfounded, as if there was nothing wrong with his previous decision making in cabin eleven.

"What?" I rolled my eyes. I had the sudden urge to strangle him to make him understand.

"I can't believe I thought you were the one" I almost said aloud, but the thought quietened down to a whisper to myself when it came out. It was something I hadn't thought about ever since he woke up. I didn't know how I seriously believed for a moment he was the one that would get me out of this place. The disappointment hitting me hard when I spoke the words. Percy now stared at me angrily.

"What's your problem? All I know is I kill some bull guy-"

Don't talk like that!" I interrupted. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?" I said, even though I had mostly been referring to me. Percy seemed to miss that.

"To get killed?"

"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?" The urge to strangle him coalesced once again, but I pushed it down. I struggled to remember when I was like him, scared on camp at seven. Back then I had Luke with me to explain it all and besides, I had fought many more monsters than just the one. At first I held an irrational fear towards the option to go out there alone again. But after 5 years here, my opinion on that matter did a 360. I wanted to get out there, itching to do it in fact. Someday Percy would agree, just not today, and that annoyed me. Percy shook his head.

Look if the thing I fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories..."

"Yes."

"Then there's only one." He pointed out dumbly.

"Yes."

"And he died, like, a bazillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So..." He trailed off, expecting me to answer.

'Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed by they don't die." I responded, deciding that I was too lazy to fully explain and mentally cursing at Chiron for not having explained it to him thoroughly himself. Percy looked very annoyed at my answer.

"Oh, thanks. That clears it up." He said, sarcasm laced in his voice. It was clear that I would have to further explain.

"They don't have souls like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they re-form."

"You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword-"

"The Fu..." I stopped short. No need to scare him more than he already was, "I mean your maths teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad." I decided that it was best not to tell him that his maths teacher reformed much faster than a normal monster.

"How did you know about Mrs Dodds?" Percy asked, something like embarrassment showing on his face, which contradicted his earlier statement about the bull-guy.

"You talk in your sleep" I said. It wasn't anything abnormal, basically all demigods did it, when their nightmares became too vivid. Even more embarrassment flashed across Percy's face.

"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers right?" He asked. I decided that he was definitely perceptive.

"You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all." A distant thunder was heard, the storm raging outside the camp's safe borders, louder than before. The storm had persisted for weeks now.

"Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?" He whined, "Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of bunks over there." He pointed to Zeus' and Hera's cabins. I was pretty sure that Luke had already explained this to him before.

"You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or... your parent." I stared at him, expecting him to answer.

" My mom is Sally Jackson, she works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least she used to." He responded melancholically.

"I'm sorry about your mom, Percy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."

"He's dead. I never knew him." He said robotically, like he'd explained this to thousands of kids and other parents. I sighed.

"Your father's not dead, Percy."

How can you say that? You know him?" He said, sarcasm placed on his voice.

"No, of course not."

"Then how can you say-"

"Because I know you. You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."

"You don't know anything about me." He replied with a little bit of arrogance. I was starting to get really annoyed with him.

"No?" I raised my eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."

"How-"

"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too." His face shifted from shock to embarrassment.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Taken together it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD- you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want to see you seeing them for what they are."

"You sound like... you went through the same thing?" He asked tentatively.

"Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you wouldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."

"Ambrosia and nectar." He echoed.

"The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it. You're a half-blood." I stared at Percy to gauge his reaction. His head seemed to be spinning, searching for a way to make it make sense.

"Well! A newbie!" Clarisse emerged from nowhere with three of her goons. She wore the same camo jackets as if she was in the army. Seems like she took the Percy rumours to heart a little bit too much. I sighed.

"Clarisse," I said, emphasising the annoyance in my tone. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"

"Sure, Miss Princess," She taunted, "So I can run you through with it Friday night."

"Erre es korakas," I cursed her in greek, "You don't stand a chance." I said confidently. I could see Clarisse's competitiveness rising up.

"You don't stand a chance." She said smugly, but her eye twitched, giving away what she thought the outcome of Friday would be, "Who's this little runt?" I was pretty sure he knew that he was Percy, bus like always he was putting a huge show to scare him. Percy didn't really seem all too bothered, probably due to having dealt with bullies before.

"Percy Jackson, meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares." That made him blink.

"Like... the war god?" He asked. Clarisse sneered.

"You got a problem with that?"

"No," Percy composed himself. "It explains the bad smell" He quipped. Funny. Clarisse didn't think so.

"We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy." She growled.

"Percy."

"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you"

"Clarisse-" I tried.

"Stay out of it, wise girl." She said. Percy gave me a look of encouragement. If he didn't fight like he did against the Minotaur he was going to get crushed though. He gave me the Minotaur horn and turned to face Clarisse who had taken advantage of his distraction and gained the jump on him, dragging him by the neck. Poor Percy didn't see it coming. She dragged him to the girls' bathroom, for it to be even more embarrassing, with Percy kicking and punching the air, struggling to get out. Percy didn't offer too much resistance though. Clarisse's goons didn't even participate, just laughed and taunted him behind Clarisse's back. I couldn't watch, but at the same time didn't want to leave Percy alone with them. I entered the bathroom with them.

"Like he's Big Three material," Clarisse entered one of the bathroom stalls, "Yeah right, Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking." Clarisse laughed. Percy was now on his knees bending over the toilet bowl, Clarisse's hand on his neck, pushing him down slowly. Percy trembled, refusing to give up. Then something happened. The plumbling rumbled and groaned, the pipes all shuddering. Water leaked out, until it coalesced into a huge blast of water that flew and pushed Clarisse into a shower stall, soaking her entirely as she screamed. Her friends went to help her but met the same fate. Other toilets exploded and six more streams blasted them in their backs and out the door, Clarisse accompanying them on the ride. Compared to them, the water gently sprayed me until I was soaking wet as well, but glad I hadn't been pushed out the door. I parted my wet hair to see Percy in the only dry spot of the whole bathroom, a nice, perfect circle of dry floor. His eyes told me that he didn't know how he just did that. He stood up shaking.

"How did you..." I sputtered incredulously.

"I don't know." He responded. Almost absentmindedly, he walked to the door with me, where Clarisse and her friends lay on the now wet ground, covered in mud. A bunch of campers were now watching and enjoying the show, having been previously startled by the commotion. A look of absolute hate flashed across Clarisse's face, which didn't match his friends' shocked and gawking expression.

"You are dead now, new boy. You are totally dead." She swore. Percy didn't seemed fazed, was almost smug and confident about it.

"You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth." He said. Clarisse stood up, the intention of tackling Percy clear in her body language, but her friends held her back as she regained her senses and spouted some more curses. I stared at Percy, not knowing what to feel.

"What?" Percy asked annoyed. "What are you thinking?" He demanded.

"I'm thinking," I said, still figuring out a plan, my gears still turning before I answered, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag." I settled for.