Lies [Sequel to Secrets]

Part Seven:

Part 7:

Silena took Zoe, Alex and Charlie over to the Unclaimed Cabin.

"A few years ago, while we were upgrading some of the main cabins, the campers had to sleep in the Hermes cabin, and it got really cramped in there so Chiron decided to make an unclaimed cabin. Anyone can stay in it, but so that it doesn't just feel lonely and there as a sort of 'afterthought', we've dedicated the cabin to Hestia because she's the goddess of the hearth, and that's homely." Silena explained, but mainly to Zoe since Alex and Charlie were arguing in the background.

Zoe stared at the small cabin. It was small, but not too small. Sort of in between. There was a porch out the front with a few chairs and a table, and the outside of the cabin was painted white, with grey windowsills. A glass sliding door was the entrance to a large lounge room with a hearth fireplace up against the wall and two doors to either side of the room; one for the girls, and the other for the boys. Couches littered the lounge room, but not in a messy way, they were in a more ordered position around the hearth.

But the thing that Zoe liked the most about this cabin was that it seemed comforting, like home, somewhere to go if you were sad or just needed a hug. Then she saw the eight year-old girl tending the hearth. She was wearing a dress and her brown hair was tied back in a low ponytail. As if sensing that Zoe was watching, she turned and waved, her eyes like gentle flames stroking firewood.

Then Zoe blinked and the girl was gone.

•••

That night, at the campfire, Alex introduced Zoe to Michael and Sammy.

Michael was tall, and had shaggy blonde hair that hung over his eyes, which changed colour every ten seconds, like a kaleidoscope. He was wearing an orange 'Camp Half-Blood' shirt, one that Zoe had seen multiple campers wearing, and jeans.

But compared to Sammy, Michael was like a fly. Sammy was tall; he towered over the other four, and had a dark african-american skin tone. His hair was close-cropped dark brown and he had eyes like gold bars.

The campers sung classic campfire songs (but with a demigod twist) while the Apollo cabin played their instruments and everyone roasted marshmallows on a stick. Well, everyone except Zoe.

She sat off to the side, hesitant to join in the singing and eating marshmallows. Beside her, Alex was giggling at a joke Michael had just told her. Zoe liked Michael as much as she liked Charlie; not a lot. The two boys were too arrogant, too handsome and too ... well, too perfect to be human.

She looked at Michael, who was taking a pink marshmallow out of a gigantic bag. Zoe stared at him as he popped it into his mouth.

"Do you want a marshmallow?" Michael asked her, holding out the bag.

"You're wasting your time." Zoe replied cooly, pushing the large bag aside. "I only eat candy if it's blue."

"Of course." Michael withdrew the bag. "But why blue?"

Zoe thought for a moment. "The sea is blue, the sky is blue; duh."

That line was her favourite. When her friends asked why she only ate blue lollies, she told them that. And when she told her dad that she had told them that, he had said that she was a 'true Jackson' while Zoe's younger brother Ethan had scowled as he ate a red jellybean.