Your Loyalty to Me

Welcome! Welcome! Now Let's Get FUNKY!!

The centaur at the top of the hall, who I figured to be Chiron, ordered everyone to be quiet. All the demigods  stopped talking and patiently waited for him to continue. Dionysus cleared his throat and stood up.

"There is a new camper here with us today, her name is Aria Waters," he gestured to me and everyone looked over at the Hermes table to where I was sitting. My face flushed pink at the attention and I sank back in my seat.
The wine god, being an insensitive robot, just ignored my discomfort and continued talking.

"She is not a demigod-" nearly everyone gasped at that.
"How did she get in then?" Said a voice from somewhere in the hall. Dionysus glared at whoever that was.

"Shut up and let me explain, child," he frowned.
"Aria was adopted by Zeus when she was nine and she has been a servant to the god Apollo ever since. However, Zeus didn't want her to die, so he sent her to a place called the EF, I don't know much about it and I don't care either," he took a drink from his Diet Coke as if to prove his point on how much he didn't care. I rolled my eyes.
"She came out again a thousand years later and began to serve Apollo again, half immortal."

"Half - immortal?" Asked a boy from the Athena table.
I nodded. "I can live for forever, but I can still die," I explained. He nodded and sat back into his seat again.

"I believe everyone has the same question now," Chiron said. "And that is where Aria will stay."
No one said anything. No one knew what to do. Until a boy from the Apollo cabin spoke up.

"Shouldn't she stay in the Apollo cabin? Because she serves him?" He suggested.
"Yes, but she's not a child of his is she," responded Chiron.

"Do you have a cabin to Hecate?" I asked excitedly. The campers shook their head. "No, Aria," said Dionysus. "Hecate is a minor goddess, we only have cabins for the Twelve Olympians."

I frowned. "That's not very fair."

"That's the way it is."
I sighed.

"I could stay in Arty's cabin," I offered. They all looked at me weird. "Oh, I, uh, meant Artemis' cabin," I fixed hurriedly.
"Why?" Asked Chiron.

"Because she has no children anyways and because she's closer to Apollo, being his twin and all."
No one seemed to have any objection to that. I beamed as Chiron signalled for everyone to get back to eating.

"Hey Aria, I'm Travis and this is my twin brother Connor, we're children of Hermes and in charge of his cabin," said a boy sitting opposite me. He was sitting next to a boy that looked like the exact copy of him.
"Hi," I smiled back.

"We're kind of the pranksters of the camp and you look like you're good at that," said Connor. I raised my eyebrows. "A-As in... Th-There's this mischievous sort of look to you," he fixed bashfully.

"I'll take that as a compliment," I answered. "And yeah, I have played a few tricks with Hermes. He's taught me a lot of jokes actually."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. How many times to you tickle an octopus to make it laugh?"

"... Eight?"

"Ten-ticles."
They took a moment to decipher it and then it was like the suddenly cracked the code at the same time. Like, you could literally see the light bulb beside their heads and the 'ting!'
We started laughing and it took a while to stop.

"That was so lame!" wheezed Travis.

"I know! Hermes really liked lame jokes. He thinks they're the funniest," I explained.

Connor was about to say something but then Annabeth came up to me and steered me away from the pranksters.
"Hey Annabeth! What's up?" I asked when she finally stopped by the river.

"Nothing, just... You're weird." She stated, looking at me funny. I stared back dumbly.
"As in, you don't look two thousand years old," she expanded, reaching up to play with the beads of her necklace.

I smiled. "I'm actually sixteen," I said.

"Really? I'm thirteen!" She answered, flabbergasted. "Yet, you look my age!" I chuckled.
She smiled and put out her hand. "I don't think we had a proper introduction. I'm Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena. My dad's name is Frederick an I have two younger brothers. My step mother and I don't get along very well though."

I shook her hand then pat her shoulder. "I'm sorry Annabeth. I lost my family when I was nine. I'm a wizard, I am the only person in the world who has magic. I know this because Hecate was never a goddess with a shock for men. I was her only student. I was trained by the god of war himself and I went through Tartarus itself, also known as the Eternal Forest for a thousand years. You have every right to call me weird," I smiled.

"Can I see it?"

"She what?"

"Your magic?"

"Oh... Uh, sure," I was kind of surprised because no one really asks me that. I conjured my wand by touching my bracelet and whispered a few words in the Ancient Language.
Blue whisps of magic flew from my wand and created a unicorn that ran around us in circles.

"Beautiful..." Annabeth whispered from behind me.

"Very beautiful," agreed another voice. I squealed and turned my wand into my sword, quickly swiping my leg at their feet making them fall to the ground. I pointed my sword at them.

All that happened so fast I barely had time to register who it was. It was the boy with sea green eyes and hair black hair and the smell of saltwater.

"Uh, sorry for startling you," he apologised as I helped him up. "I'm Percy Jackson, if you remember me."

"Of course I do, you're one of the first people I met here. And I'm sorry for... that. It's instinctual," I muttered.
Annabeth was still sitting in a cross legged position on the ground with her mouth open wide.

"YOU'VE GOT TO TEACH ME THAT!" She said excitedly, jumping up from the ground. I laughed and agreed with a nod of my head.

------------------------------------

I went to my cabin not long after to see that it was adorned silver with arrows placed around the door. It was beautiful.

I walked inside and flopped on my bed, thinking about the day I just had.
I learned that Percy was a son of Poseidon and he was also thirteen. He was kind of dumb, but something told me not to underestimate his intelligence.
I also learned about the Big Prophecy about Kronos rising again and Percy had something to do with it.

I met a few people from every cabin there was.
Clarisse La Rue Will Solace, Silena, Charles Beckendorf, Malcolm, adorable Tyson and Luke Castellan. They all seemed like nice people.
Well, I didn't meet Luke, I was told about him. Something about Annabeth liking him and Percy secretly telling me that Luke is not on our side. That he's turning away from good.

And as soon as I heard that, I thought, "Great. Not even a day in and there's already a freaking antagonist. Just great."

Annabeth and Percy told me that last year, Annabeth had gone in her first mission with Percy to the Underworld with a satyr named Grover Underwood. It'd be nice to meet him.

I sighed and closed my eyes. Apollo was right. I did make lots of friends and I did live it here.
But I can't say that I didn't remember him at all today.
It was quite the opposite.

Not even a day in and I'm already missing his crap songs and even crappier haiku's.
But overall, missing him.