Demigods: Camp *Still open*

Lexie

We started off the race fast enough. We weren't in the lead right away, but we were gaining fast. The first chariot we came up on was the Apollo chariot. Alex and Ebony lurched far ahead at first, but had slowed down since then. I urged the horses forward so the chariots were side-by-side. I looked at Ebony and yelled, "See you at the finish!" We raced out in front of them. I heard a definite crack and realized that Alex had latched onto our chariot.

"Jack! The Apoolo chariot has latched onto us! We need to cut it loose!"

"Okay," Jack yelled back; I could barely hear him. "Let's wait until the turn. Then they'll head off the track!"

"Good plan!" I went back to concentrating on the track. We blew past Charlie and Nick (and stuck a javelin in their wheel for good measure). We came up to the first turn.

"Jack, Lexie, thanks for the free ride!" I could hear Alex laughing behind us. Jack and I simultaneously turned back and smirked. I was ready. As soon as we hit the turn I turned the chariot, sharp.
"Now!" I yelled. I saw the Apollo chariot flip over. I also saw Alex's arm break. Oh well, minor injuries were to be expected. I turned to high five Jack and when I turned back I was hit in the face with a cloud of stink. I held my nose. The smell was horrible! That wasn't our biggest problem though.

I hear people fighting behind us, but I decided just to focus on the track ahead of me. All of the sudden, smoke flared out from behind me, stinging my eyes. I cursed. I couldn't see.

"Jack, can you see anything?"

"No!" Great, just great. Just our luck. The culprits pulled up beside us. Trent was driving solo with the Hermes chariot on the other side of him.

"Fight as hard as you can Jack! I'll try to keep us on a straight path!" I didn't wait to see what had happened, I just focused on the track. I heard a loud gasp from the spectators. I looked around for a crashed chariot, but then I noticed that everyone was looking at the sky. Trent was flying. We had to stop him or else he was going to win. Jack was way ahead of me. He throw his javelin and hit Trent in the thigh.

Ou chariot and the Hermes chariot had collided a while ago, but we were both to worried about making sure Trent wouldn't hit us to do anything about it. We bolted forward, getting closer to the finish line. It was just Ares and Hermes making a dash to the finish line. Who would win, the messenger or the fighter? Unfortunatly for us, someone else was silently creeping up behind us.

Andreas

Wow, I'd never seen a chariot race before. It was so cool! It was definatly more interesting than watching the local football team play. One of the chariots was down already, I think the Apollo cabin, and one of the girls had broken her arm. What suprised me was how fast the rest of her cabin was able to help fix her up. It was cool.

But the coolest thing definatly had to be when that dude Trent started to fly. I thought he was going to win for sure, but then Jack threw a javelin at him and it stuck in his leg. Then this girl got up out of the stands (mind you she jumped over my head) and conjured a dark cloud to make sure Trent didn't hit the ground. As the cloud floated closer to us I could see the javelin sticking out of his leg. It was kind of cool looking. However, I was upset he got hurt.

I drew my gaze away from the cloud and the mysterious girl and focused back on the race. Lexie was still tied for the lead. I was just going to get up and cheer her on when I saw another chariot coming up on them fast. They had some pretty good weapons, which made me scared for Lexie. Instead of cheering her on, I ended up shouting a warning to her. It was too late though. This wasn't going to end well.

Nick~ Hermes

Now, it was time for the big boys. Oh yeah. As we came up behind the Ares chariot I pulled out jar of bees. Yeah, you hard me, big ol' honey bees. Charlie's eyes got wide, "You aren't going to..." I smiled and nodded. I knew Ares cabin would so get back at me for this, but it would be worth it. Taking careful aim, I chucked the jar into their chariot box. The glass jar broke open and five honey bees buzzed out and started stinging Jack and Lexi. They desperately swatted at the little stingers and pulled back from the top. Charlie pulled forward and was about to take their place in the lead, but suddenly a jar of green gas sailed into our chariot. Crap!

"Get it out! Get it out!" Charlie screeched at me.

"I'm trying!" I yelled back. The jar was covered in some kind of sticky formula that made it permanently glued to our chariot. "Abandon ship!" I yelled, the spark had almost eaten the whole wick. I got ready to jump off our chariot, painful yes, but it's better then getting blown up.

"The horses." Charlie told me. At first I had no idea what she was talking about, but then she jumped onto our Palomino's back and beckoned at me to follow her lead. It sounded much better then my idea. I jumped onto the horses back and slashed at the harness, just as the chariot exploded behind us.

Me and Charlie rode safely off the field. I was disappointing but I turned my horse to see how the race would end. Jess and Just, the Dionysus chariot, swerved around the around the Ares chariot and managed to get second place in the end. Jack and Lexi were tough and managed to ignore the bees, and stay in the race to get third. With Hermes cabin in first. I rode over and congratulate my cabin mates. "Good job, guys!" I gave them each a high-five.

Chiron galloped over and placed wreaths on their heads. "The winners of the Chariot Races!" Everyone cheered, and Spirit and Desert both had big smiles on their faces.

~ Spirit Jones~

We won! I grinned as Chiron placed the wreaths over Desert and my heads. Desert grabbed my hand and raised it above our heads. I blushed, which was unlike me. I couldn't belive we won! And without as little trickery as possible. My smile faded but only for a second. Nick was smiling, but he was probaly thinking of the the next prank he was going to play. Before I knew it the Hermes cabin was carrying Desert and I off to the cabin. On the way I high-fived Jack and Lexi, who had each escaped with only one sting each. We reached the cabin and all my siblings went inside I can tell Desert wants to stay, but my siblings sweep him inside. I stand there for a second, staring at the sky. Looking down, I see something shimmering on the ground. I reach down and pick it up.A necklace. It was shaped liked a butterfly with Spirit engraved on the back. A note was stuck to it.
Spirit,
Tell him.
,Dad
Dad. Wow. I felt like crying. Of corse I had to tell him now and soon.
Dad, I felt like I had to pray to him but not for meHelp Desert be claimed. Please.
I turned and walked into the cabin.

>Ok, I'm speeding things up a bit, to the camp singalong (that's one of the things in Percy Jackson that I've always wanted to do)<

Alex~ Apollo

I sat at the camp fire, eating my own deluxe smore's. A roasted marshmallow wedged between two chocolate chip cookies. Mm mm good.

Apollo cabin led the camp into the camp songs, as usual. I guess we were just natural singers.

We started out with some of the camp favorites: "Down by the Aegean," "I am my own Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandpa," and "This Land is Minos's Land." Pretty soon everyone was hollering along. The bonfire rose to a good 15 feet, and I smiled as I watched the front row's marshmallows burst into flames. Everyone was in a good mode after the Chariot Races from this morning.

Charlie came and sat down next to me. "How's your arm doing?" she asked.

"Pretty good. At least, as good as a broken arm can get."

"Yeah, your lucky you have siblings like that."

I noticed a little longing in her voice and I realized for the first time that it might be lonely being an only child. I felt kinda bad for her, I mean, I can't imagine life with out all of my brothers and sisters, no matter how hectic it can get. "Hey," I said bumping her shoulder in a friendly gesture, "you can borrow a couple of my brothers." We laughed together. "But, no, really," I said turning serious, "any time you want, you can hang out with us." She nodded, and gazed at the fire.

Nick~Hermes

"Just right." I said, pulling the smore from the fire. Normally I wouldn't mind if it was still white and raw, or burnt and black, but tonight I was making one for another camper. "Here you go." I said plopping on some chocolate and graham crackers and handing it to Kassie.

"Thanks," she said quietly, almost cautiously. She was kinda new at camp. Ever since she joined she's been doing the whole-watch-your-back type of thing.

"No, I didn't poison it." I told her. She smiled, which surprised me, and took a bite out of her smore.

"Mmmm, it's good." she closed her eyes and chewed slowly. "Don't you just love marshmallows?" I shrugged and she looked at me like she was looking at me for the first time. "Wait, your that one guy that doesn't have any taste buds," she said.

My cheeks turned red, something that never happened to me. But I shook it off and pretended not to care. "What? So now I'm known as the guy without taste buds?" She shrugged and looked away, but I could see her smiling.

Desert Strohschein – unclaimed

I pulled a burnt black marshmallow off the stick. Today had been one of the best in my life I had paused all my worries aside. I was just basking in the attention and Spirit. I was so conscious of myself she was sitting so close to me. Suddenly on a whim I grasped her cool hand in mine. I hoped desperately mine wasn’t sticky from my S’more. I was so surprised she didn’t instantly pull away I almost let go myself.

I felt her squeeze my hand. My eyes met hers as I squeezed back. There was so much confusion in her eyes. So much doubt. I tried to tell her that everything was going to be O.K. with my eyes, but hers just glazed over as she pulled her hand away and gazed into the fire. I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t know what to do. If she didn’t tell me I couldn’t help her.

The rest of the night was ruined for me. I kept thinking of what the problem was, and being at the camp made me think of my dad. Or mom? I suddenly realized that it could be either. My mother had never said a word to me about it. I gave a small gasp. What was going on with me? It seemed that each day I lived I realized I knew less about myself than I thought. Was my name even truthfully mine? I consoled myself by thinking about all the things I knew were me. How I loved my s’mores, Burnt Black. My favorite color, green. My little sister that I loved.

By now it was very late. Almost everyone had gone to bed. The stars were bright above us. “Sprit, want to go look at the stars?” I asked. She knew what I really wanted to do. I could see it in her eyes. She sighed.

“Alright.” What was weighing her down so much? We walked to the volleyball court. Silent. I sat down in the cool sand and spread out my arms.

“Look at this. Amazing right?”

~Kassie-Zeus~

I shrugged off the urge to tell him that wasn't what I meant. Insead, I whispered, "I think it's pretty cool. You don't have to worry about the food you eat, you can eat it and not care about if it's discusting." I could only hope it didn't come sound as bad to him as it did to me, and I felt my cheeks turn red as I looked away.

Woah, woah. Hold that thought. I was blushing? I never blushed, this was a first, but talking to him aways made me do things I had never done before--since I first talked to him. I felt my stomach flutter, and I couldn't hold back my smile. What was with me? I'd never felt this way before--in front of anyone--so why was I feeling weird in front of Nick? He was just another guy, right?

Just another guy? He makes you happy, no guy is capable of that, the voice in the back of my head said.

Shush, I commanded of the voice. But the inner me had a point. No other guy was capable of even making me smile, unless they were doing something stupid. And I had the urge to tell him this, but what was I going to say? I could imagine how this would go down.

"Nick?" "Yes?" "You make me happy" Then he'd--no doubt--give me a look saying that he thought I was crazy.

I sighed and finished off my smore, ignoring the nagging to jus blurt my thoughts out.

I'M HAPPY WHEN I'M AROUND YOU! I screamed on the inside. On the outside, I was fighting to keepa blank expression, but I figured Nick could see that my cheeks were burning redder than ever.

Perfect, I thought with lots of sarcasm.

Charlie Rae Browen – 15 – Poseidon

I wondered if it was so obvious that I wished I had someone to hang out with. Yeah, when I was home my mother was really fun, but she wasn’t my age. She may act like it at times, but it wasn’t the same. Then when I got to camp nothing changed. I was still by myself wondering from cabin to cabin wishing I was someone’s best friend. But, I wasn’t so I just had to deal with it.

But, even though I was resentful that she could tell so easily what was on my mind I certainly wasn’t going to turn down her offer. Maybe this year I would have best friend. I tried to imagine what it would be like. At school I was always the weird girl that dressed funny and didn’t belong to any group. I gazed into the fire. The loud singing was a background nose. I smiled and started to sing too. First just a whisper, I hated my singing voice, then a shout. The flames again rose high in the air. I laughed out loud as we repeated a verse.

“Well,” I half shouted over the horrible singing “I am going to go take you up on my offer and talk to Nick. Kassie is soo blushing. I might be able to save her from Nicks teasing. To think, she is so new.”

“O.K,” Alex nodded. “see you around." I walked over to Kassie and Nick.

“What are you guys doing? Nick are you being your sinful self and playing tricks on the new girl?” Nick smiled.

“Of course not.” He gave a sly smile.

“Sure.” I said. I met Kassie’s eyes for a sec and I could tell she was relieved, but trying not to show it. I kept my cool.

“No, really!” Nick defended himself. “She was just telling me all the benefits of having no taste bugs.” He said in such a sarcastic voice I found it hard to laugh. Out of the corner of my eye I say Kassie turn even a brighter red. I felt bad that she was the joke of our conversation, but I couldn’t just change the subject now.

“Hmm, personally I really can’t think of any good side effects. What were yours Kassie? I am really very interested.” I sat down on an empty log next to her.

Andres-Ares

So my meeting with Mr. D and Chiron went well enough. They just told me all about camp and stuff. Get this, Mr. D is really Dionysus, the wine god. I thought that was so cool! Not to mention Chiron is a centaur! I asked him if he could give me a ride one day. He got kind of mad. They both told me to be careful because as a son of Ares I'm short tempered and blah, blah, blah. Whatever. I already knew I got mad easily. No one had to tell me that.

Now I was sitting as far away from the campfire as I could. Every time it grew, I moved. I really didn't feel like getting my hair burned off. Lexie and Jack didn't seem to care though. They were still sitting in the first row, singing as loud as they could. Lexie was actually a good singer which really suprised me. I don't know, I just can't see her as a singer.

The campfire had reached about 15 feet. I wasn't sure it could get any higher. Keen came over and sat next to me.

"Hey Andres. How you likin' camp so far?"

I smiled at her. "It's awesome! When do we start training?"

She laughed. "You are definatly a son of Ares. There's no doubt about that. Now you know this camp osn't all fun and games. We're training for the real deal."

I nodded my head. Of course I knew. Chiron had drilled that in my head. I was just about to tell her something when Lexie and Jack walked over.

"Hey Andreas, let's go back to the cabin. You need a bunk." Lexie told me as she slung her arm around my shoulders and walked me back to the cabin.

Lexie-Ares

Andreas reminded me so much of Brain it wasn't even funny. I felt like I had some attachment to this kid; well you know, besides the fact that he's technically my brother. I felt like I needed to protect this boy. And that feeling would get me in trouble one day. But that's another story.

Right now I was walking him back to our cabin, my arm draped around over his shoulders as a friend might walk another friend down the hall. I could tell he enjoyed having me as company. The poor kid had been lost and forgotten. I wondered if his parents even noticed he was gone. I hope his mom wasn't like mine. She cried her eyes out when Brian and I left.

Anyway, we walked into the cabin and I gave Andreas his choice of bunk. He looked around for a while, thinking.

"Which bunk is yours?" he asked me. I pointed to the one in the corner. "Can I bunk above you?"

The cabin was completely silent. I could feel Keen and Jack's eyes burning a hole in my back. They were both wondering what I was going to say. Sure I liked this kid, but I had never let anyone sleep in Brian's empty bed. No one. Not even for a night. I looked at Andreas and I could see right through him. He was scared and alone and I was the only one who he trusted. I had no choice.

"Sure." Andreas let out an excited yelp and climbed up onto the bed. I tunred to face Keen and Jack.

"I thought you didn't want anyone to sleep on his bed?" Keen asked me.

"Yeah, but this kid is different. Do you see how much he looks like Brian?"

Jack just shook his head. "Let's just get some sleep. We have a long day ahead of us tommorrow."

I agreed and we all went to sleep. Or everyone else went to sleep. I stayed up for a while staring at Brian's pictures, silently asking him to fogive me. I felt attached to this new kid. He might end up being my best friend.

Jack

I had never seen Lexie like that. She almost seemed... Nice. I chuckled to myself at the thought. She would so kick my butt if I ever said anything, but I could laugh with myself.

I walked over to my bed and got in. I still couldn't believe we lost the chariot race. I think Lexie and Keen were taking it better than me. I was just unable to comprehend losing something to someone other than Lexie. And now we had Andreas, and I still wasn't sure on how to take her. She must hold the Ares fight that we all have otherwise she would have never been claimed. I just haven't seen it yet. I looked over to Andreas and Lexie. They were preoccupied with getting their beds ready, so I went over to Keen.

"What do you think of him?" I asked.

"Well, Lexie likes him, so she must be alright." Keen said.

"Yeah." I said, but I was still unconvinced, "Well I hope he fits in alright." I gave Keen a pat on the back and went to bed.

Ah, Ithy? Andreas is a boy.

Oops, my bad.

New day everybody!

>Monday<
Tristen Vine ~ Satyr


Me and Lexi stood with our faces only a couple inches away, with only the volleyball net in between us. The ball had sailed out of bounds and I could swear on Zeus that one of her team mates touched it before it went out.

"It was my point!" I yelled in her face, again. My team nodded in agreement. "Out on you!" one shouted.

"Was not, twerp! Keen didn't touch the gods forsaken ball! You need glasses, Vine," She growled back.

We had been arguing like this for awhile now, both of our faces red. It's times like these when I wish we had a referee. We could take a vote, but everyone on my team would agree with me and everyone on Lexi's team would agree with her.

I looked around and saw Cassandra in the shadows, watching us argue. I called her over, "Hey, Cass, come here!" She shrugged and walked over. "Who's point was it?"