Legends, Percy Jackson

ix. she's a communist!

     "What the━"

     He pointed above her head. She looked up. A huge, slightly transparent, golden scythe symbol glowed over her head, lighting up the area around her.

     Somewhere towards the end of the Hermes table, someone shouted, "She's a communist!"

     "No, stupid," another voice answered from another table. "That's the symbol of Demeter."

     ". . . Oh."

     "Symbol of who?" she asked the Stolls. "Am I claimed now?"

     "You're claimed alright!" A feminine voice said from behind her. Nina turned. There was a dark-skinned, dark-haired girl with her curls pulled back into a braid. She smelled of earth and ivy. She wore a wide grin. "Welcome to Cabin Four. I'm Katie. It's nice to meet you, sister."

     Nina's face stretched into a small smile. Beside her, she could hear Nico let out a faint "woah!" The symbol over her head was already fading into nothing. Around the other tables, demigods and Hunters bowed their heads in respect. She looked around a little closer. Bianca over at table eight beamed with what Nina thought might have been pride. Nico, beside her, looked a little let down, but also very awed.

     "Come sit with us!" Katie said, a kind hand laid gently on Nina's shoulder. She nodded to say okay.

Nico suddenly locked eyes with her, alarmed. "You're leaving me?!"

"It'll be okay," she said gently. One of her hands made its way to his arm, comforting. "These idiots will stay with you," she told him, with a nod towards the Stolls and proceeded to ignore the offended Hey! that the words received. "I'll see you after dinner, alright?"

". . . alright," he agreed after a moment. The uncertain sheen in his eyes transformed into something more excited. "Your mother has 5000 attack power," he breathed. "I can't believe this. First my sister is a goddess and now your Mom can take down enemy deities faster than━"

"Bianca isn't a goddess," she explained tentatively, though the objection fell on deaf ears. "I'll see you later, buddy."

"Bye!" Nico waved cheerfully, already halfway through a thorough explanation on how Demeter wins against Hermes in Mythomagic easily, while Connor disagreed heartily that in real life Hermes would sweep any time, any day! and Travis argued Demeter has plants, what do we have, winged feet?

Hesitantly, Nina stood and followed Katie across the pavilion towards table four. Only three other half-bloods resided there, all looking back at her with grins.

They passed by the Aphrodite table on the way over, and as they walked by, Silena gave her a wink. (It made Nina feel all gooey inside.) A guy from table five gave her a mean, narrow eyed look as Katie guided her past them.

A blonde girl sitting at her new cabin's table let out a little laugh. "Hi, newbie. Welcome to Demeter Cabin." She stuck out a hand for Nina to shake, which she took lightly.

Katie, as she sat back down, said, "The table's usually a little more crowded than this. Over the summer, anyway. That's when most of the other half-bloods are around."

"I know," Nina told her as she took a seat. "I saw that in the orientation film," she explained, unable to hide the bit of distaste in her voice when she thought about that smug son of a bitch Sun God singing loudly as he explained which Cabin numbers matched to which Gods.