Haunted || Leo Valdez

7 - Piper is the Beauty Queen. Screw You, Drew

Rebecca sat near the back, under the banner of Hades. She could still see what was going on, but no one would see her.

Rebecca spotted Jason in the front next to Annabeth. Leo was nearby, sitting with the Hephaestus bunch under a steel-gray banner emblazoned with a hammer. Standing in front of the fire, the Apollo campers with their guitars and lyres were jumping around, leading a song about pieces of armor, something about how their grandma got dressed for war. Everybody was singing with them and making gestures for the pieces of armor and joking around. It was possibly the weirdest thing—one of those campfire songs that would've been completely embarrassing in daylight; but in the dark, with everybody participating, it was kind of corny and fun. As the energy level got higher, the flames did too, turning from red to orange to gold.

Rebecca wished she could really be a part of it. She wished she could be as normal as a demigod could get rather than the Camp's most hated person.

Finally, the song ended with a lot of rowdy applause. Chiron trotted forward. He brandished a spear impaled with toasted marshmallows, which made Rebecca smirk slightly. "Very nice! And a special welcome to our new arrivals. I am Chiron, camp activities director, and I'm happy you have all arrived here alive and with most of your limbs attached. In a moment, I promise we'll get to the s'mores, but first—"

"What about capture the flag?" Clarisse yelled. Grumbling broke out among the Ares kids, sitting under a red banner with the emblem of a boar's head.

"Yes," the centaur said. "I know the Ares cabin is anxious to return to the woods for our regular games. "

"And kill people!" one of Clarisse's brothers shouted.

"However," Chiron said, "until the dragon is brought under control, that won't be possible. Cabin Nine, anything to report on that?"

He turned to the Hephaestus kids. Leo winked at Rebecca and shot her with a finger gun, to which Rebecca responded by rolling her eyes.

Nyssa stood uncomfortably. "We're working on it. "

More grumbling.

"How, Nyssa?" Clarisse demanded.

"Really hard," Nyssa said. "But we may have found help, so we might be rid of the dragon sooner than expected."

She glanced very pointedly at Rebecca, which let the campers know who the help was. Now if Rebecca tried to back out, she'd face the entire camp.

Reluctantly, Rebecca stood. "Since my dad is Hades, I have the ability to sense things underground. I can sense metals, so hopefully I'll be able to help find the dragon."

"Why didn't you volunteer before?" Shane Kovak demanded.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I was under the impression that you all wanted me to stay away from you," Rebecca said through gritted teeth. "It's all good and great that you're willing to act decent to me just so you can get me to help you, but can you please decide whether you despise or tolerate me?"

Shane shut up and Rebecca and Nyssa sat down to a lot of yelling and complaining, which caused the fire to sputter chaotically. Chiron stamped his hoof against the fire pit stones—bang, bang, bang—and the campers fell silent.

"We will have to be patient," Chiron said. "In the meantime, we have more pressing matters to discuss."

"Percy?" someone asked. The fire dimmed even further, but Rebecca didn't need the mood flames to sense the crowd's anxiety.

Chiron gestured to Annabeth. She took a deep breath and stood.

"I didn't find Percy," she announced. Her voice caught a little when she said his name. "He wasn't at the Grand Canyon like I thought. But we're not giving up. We've got teams everywhere. Grover, Tyson, Nico, the Hunters of Artemis —everyone's out looking. We will find him. Chiron's talking about something different. A new quest."