Spoiler
Warning! You are about to read a post by a horrible speller whose computer does not own a spell check. You were warned.
I guess it all really started on that one day. It was a while ago, and the appearance was very short. But non-the-less, it was the second Saturday in September when this story began. One of my fiends, Matthew, was leaving to deliver an important messege to a friend, and I was begging to come along.
"Come on, Matthew! Please? I haven't been out of camp for ages." I pleaded with my honey colored eyes.
Mattew shifted his weight from one hoof to another, looking unsure. That's right, I said hoof. And no, Matthew is not my pet goat, he's a Satyr, and at the moment, the target of my puppy-face. "Look, you can take it up with Chiron." He said, "But I gotta do whatever he goes by! I don't want to get introuble with Mr. D."
I didn't like that idea, I knew Chiron wouldn't be as easy to win over, but there was nothing else I could do.
You see, I've lived in Camp Half-Blood almost all of my life. Yep, that's right, I live in a camp. But when you're like me, you don't have much of a choice. Because when you're like me, you have one parent who's a mortal and one who is a god. A greek god. Crazy, right? Well that's the story of my life. A living myth. And right now I was so desperate that I was willing to risk my life. On what? A football game.
"Hey, Chiron?" I asked as I opened up the door do his study. Chiron was my teacher, coach, trainer, and over all parental guardian. And also second in charge at this camp.
At the sound of my voice, Chiron turned around and swished his tail, his body almost as long as the desk he was working at. Did I mention he was a centaur? "Yes, child?"
I started talking really fast, "Matthew is going out of camp to give a messege to a friend who is a protecter for a kid in a high-school in New York."
Chiron sighed, "Ashlin, I already-"
"And I haven't been out of camp in forever. And it's only a couple minutes away-"
"Ash-"
"And I've never been to a football game and I-"
"Ashlin!" Chiron raised his voice and I quickly shut my mouth. Chiron snorted (you know, like the sound a horse makes when it's getting impatient) and I sat down in the chair behind me. "I was going to say," He started with a stern look. "that that is an excellent idea."
My face instantly lit up and I jumped up and hugged Chiron's lower, furry body. "Thank you!"
He laughed, and then pulled me away and looked at me with his kind, but serious brown eyes. "But don't tell the other campers. I don't want this getting around. Imagine what that would be like. Every camper would want to get out of camp, and then where would we be?" He smiled and nicked my cheek with his finger. "Now, I trust you, be responsible. And watch over Matthew for me, would you?" He raised his eyebrows at me expectantly and I nodded solemnly. "Good, now go get ready. You don't want to be late for your first football game."
And ready, I got. I sprinted all of the way back to the cabins. When I got there, everyone was already lining up in front of their cabins for supper. There was a greek god for every cabin, and every cabin had its own personality. Zues, the king of the gods, had the biggest and finest cabin -of course- with marble pillers and a looming door way. On the other extreme, Hermes' cabin was small, wooden, and a dull green, but even that was hard to see because of all of the paint that was chipping off.
I walked up to my cabin, a radiant golden one, and pushed past my siblings who were gathering in the door-way. "Hey, where are you going, Ashlin?" One of my brothers called. All of us were only half siblings, but we lived in the same cabin.
"I, uh, Chiron gave me permission to skip out on supper. I'm not feeling well."
A few of them looked at me suspiciously, but thankfully Corbin, our cabin counciler, took charge. "Leave her alone, guys," he said, "if Chiron said she can skip, she can skip."
I prayed a quick blessing for Corbin, and ran inside. And I got busy. I dug through my drawers and found some black paint to paint strips on my face, I pulled out my wallet and managed to gather some USA dollor bills for buying food from the consution-stand, and even raided through my brothers' closets to find a jersy to wear. Finally I was ready and met Matthew at the top of Half-Blood hill.
"Wow, you look like you're going to be playing in the game instead of watching it," he said after looking at me.
"Shut up," I said and playfully punched his arm.
"Ouch," he rubbed his shoulder and looked at me with sad, goat eyes.
"Oh stop being a wouse," I laughed. "Come on," I called over my shoulder as I started down the hill, "lets go to a football game!"
The game was even better then I thought it could be. I ate and ate and ate. Hot-dogs and cheese-burgers and popcorn and a bunch of other junk food the nimphs would never let me eat. I even got Matthew to give me some of his money so that I could get a pretzel. I cheered at every touch down (no matter what team scored), and did all the crowd cheers that the cheer-leaders had us do. And looking at all of these people, I really wish that I could just be a normal teenager and have a normal life.
But Matthew brought me back to reality. "Hey, Ashlin," he whispered, nudging my elbow, "You see number 12? The one on our team? He's a cyclopes. I can smell him. And when he came close, I think I saw that he had only one eye."
From then on, I watched number 12 carefully and saw that he was right. But it was hard to tell, and it looked like it was just the trick of the eyes, especially with his helmet on, but I knew better.
The game was close, we even went into over-time, which Matthew explained is what the teams did when the score was a tie. They just kept playing until someone won. And apparently it was rare, so I guess I was lucky that I got to see my first, and only, football game went into over-time.
When the game was finally over, we stood up and I followed Matthew as he weaved through the crowd to find his friend.
Finally he said that he found him and I spotted a man about 20 years old who was smiling and waving at us. He had curly hair which was covered with a french beret, and a shirt that was splattered with paint. I was assuming that "Mr. La Vine" -as he introduced himself- was playing as an art teacher. You see, the elders of the grove send Satyrs, called "Protecters", out to different schools to sniff out any demigods that might be around, and protect them. So it was safe to assume that Mr. La Vine was a protecter at this school, and that the boy at his side was his "student" and the child he was protecting.
"So, Matthew, I see that you've managed to find us." Mr. La Vine, said with a beaming smile. He then turned to the boy and quietly said to him, "I have some buisness with these people. You can get back to the orphanage alright by yourself?" he said carefully, and I realized that this was a sore subject for the boy.
"Yeah, sure," the boy said, and Mr. La Vine beamed at him. "Good! I'll see you tomorrow."
He walked off and Matthew and the teacher grasped fore-arms. "So, what was my messege?"
Matthew smiled and got a far away look like he was pulling out a memory from his brain. "Your wife says to stay out of trouble and to keep your eyes off of the other nymphs or she will show you how else you can use your paints. She also says that she loves you and to keep safe and that she will have home-made black berry pie ready for you when you come home." Mr. La Vine closed his eyes happily as if he could already taste the pastry. "And she says that she is doing fine. And that she hopes you don't mind that you'll be coming home to a fat wife, because the baby is growing."
"Thank you, friend." Mr La Vine said, smiling.
And during all of this, I was just standing in the back ground, watching this scene. "Really," I whispered to Matthew, "we came all of this way, and the important messege was this?"
Matthew smiled, "yes," he whispered out of the side of his mouth. Then, turning his attention back to Mr. La Vine, he asked. "Did you notice that you have a cyclopes among your midst?"
He nodded, "I did."
"And have you determined his loyalty?"
"I haven't," the man said, looking worried. "But I'm keeping an eye on him," he assured us.
Now, you're probably wondering how two Satyrs can be standing in the middle of a football crowd, chatting, without anybody noticing. It's quite simply, really. They put on fake legs and feet, and then the cover them up with jeans and shoes. Like I said, simple, although Matthew tells me that it's uncomfortable. And they still have this cute little goat gait when they walk that fake legs can't cover up, so they normally carry around a cane or some kind of walker, or just go without and look like they're crippled.
"Well," Matthew was saying, "we had better get going. I have to get this girl back to camp." He pointed to me. I rolled my eyes. But we shook hands and Mr La Vine said thank you again, and we started heading back to the camp car.
And that was the end of that day. Back at camp, I went to my cabin and layed down, and dreamt of playing in football games, and going to prom, and having an art teacher.
