The Camp of Legends

3. We get an info dump from the table of nerds

Hannah led us back to the cabins and pointed out Cabin 6, Athena's cabin.

'I got to head back to my siblings,' she said, walking away.

'See you,' I called after her.

A conch shell sounded. At least it sounded like a conch shell. (We have a tiny one at home, it's the only thing that'll get everyone down for dinner.) Suddenly there was a noise like a stampede. I looked around and realised that it was the hoards of campers coming out of their cabins.

'What do we do?' I whispered to Alden.

At that moment, Isabel saw us, probably looking really lost. She waved us over and shouted something to the girl at the front of their line. The girl looked us up and down, then shrugged and began to lead the cabin to the dining pavilion.

I took in the scene of the very chaotic mess hall. All of the tables that had campers at it, seemed to be close to overflowing, the only calm ones were the tables with no one at them at all. At table 12, only two satyrs, Mr D and Chiron, who was standing beside the table, were sat there.

Where are you? I thought. I wanted answers about the boy at the lake. I needed a name first, though, to find him because I doubted my bad physical description would cut it. I finally spotted him at table 11. Hermes. 

'Figures,' I huffed. I tried to be quiet enough so that nobody would hear me, but of course Alden did.

'What?' He questioned, trying to see what I was looking at.

'Isabel,' I called to the older girl who seemed distracted with her own thoughts. She blinked at me beside her evidently having forgotten that I was beside her. 'Who's that boy at table 11? The one with brown hair and eyes. He's our age.' I added after seeing many boys with brown hair and eyes at the table.

'Oh, him,' she responded, peering over heads, 'his name's Jack. He been here since he was eight. Why?' She added smirking at me.

I blushed and crossed my arms, 'He tried to prank us. But I soaked him with water from the lake so we're nearly even. I just want to know who he is.'

The rest of the table was now looking at Alden and I. Alden was squirming under their gazes and I started to feel self conscious.

Did I do something wrong. He hurt my brother what did they expect. I guess I did leave that out. Whoops, all these thoughts came to me in a millisecond. 

The girl who led us into the mess hall, bursted out laughing. She was quickly followed by the rest of our table.

When she had gotten her laughter under some control, she called out to someone on table 11. 'Hey, Finn!' The boy she was calling glanced up from his conversation. He looked about seventeen, and was surprised at her outburst. 'Looks like our newest campers taught Jack a well needed lesson! The little shit hasn't shut up about how a prank has never backfired or that he's "unprankable"! He needed a shower anyways.' She then crumpled into another fit of laughter. I joined in at the sight of Jack's embarrassed face shrinking under the glares of his cabin mates.

A near silence fell around the hall when Chiron stamped his hoof on the marble floors of the pavilion, the only noise being the snickers still coming from our table. 'To the gods!' He toasted, raising his glass.

'To the gods!' We chorused back. Wood nymphs came forward with plates of barbecue, cheese, and fruit. The campers then stood around a bronze brazier and offered their food up to the gods.

We managed to find out a lot about what's going on at camp due to Alden's non-stop stream of questions and the Athena kids' non-stop stream of answers to accompany them.