Finding Home: A Demigod's Journey / Discontinued

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

Travis has the same hair color as Chrissie, but other than that, they look nothing alike. He's tall and brawny, while she's medium height and more petite. His friendliness seems genuine, but so does the intense stare he's giving my the Beats earbuds hanging out of my pocket. Travis is definitely the son of Hermes.

The other two campers finally catch up. The girl is maybe 18, and looks like a football player. She's wearing an iron breastplate over her jeans and shirt, and her hair is pulled back by a red bandana.

The second guy looks about 16, and his shaggy blonde hair has a purple streak in it. He makes a sloshing noise when he walks, probably because of the three canteens attached to his belt. He must get thirsty a lot.

Chrissie breaks the silence.

"This is Abigail Phillips and Esme Evans." She says and nods towards each of us.

The brawny girl steps forward.

"Clarisse La Rue, head counselor of Ares cabin. Nice to meet you both." She quickly shakes our hands.

The canteen dude shakes my hand. "I'm Pollux, head counselor of Dionysus cabin."

Ares, Dionysus, and Hermes. What did that make me?

Pollux picked up my bag. "C'mon." He says. "The Big House is this way, and Chiron wants to meet you."

"Wait," I said. "Isn't Chiron that dude from the Greek myths? Like a teacher or something?"

Pollux laughed. I couldn't help but grin as I noticed his adorable dimples.

"Yea, he's a teacher. And a centaur." We walked for a few seconds before I stopped.

"Wait, what? Are you being serious?" He laughed again. It's very rare to meet someone who's laugh is neither hilariously stupid or plain out annoying. Pollux is one of those rare occasions.

"Totally not kidding, Esme."

We walked up the rest of the hill in silence. Abbie and Chrissie were walking with the other demigods, just a few feet behind.

As we reached the crest of the hill, I gasped, admiring the view. The forest encircled the camp like a letter U, and stretched as far as I could see. Shining blue water touched the other side of camp. The camp itself was as unique and inviting as Disney World. With at least thirty different buildings I could see, it seemed much larger than Chrissie had made it out to be.

"Like it?" Chrissie asked, sauntering up beside me. "We've expanded a lot the past few years."

"It's...." I started. Pollux stared at me, anticipating my next words.

"Beautiful." I sighed.

~

"So, who's my godly parent?" Abigail asks as she saunters up the steps to the Big House.

A middle aged man in a wheelchair comes through the front door. His legs are covered with a brown blanket. A smile appears on his face when he sees us.

"Your godly parent will claim you soon, I'm sure." He says.

"Chiron!" Chrissie shouts. She rushes up the steps and throws her arms around Chiron's neck.

"It's so good to see you!" She says.

Her sudden show of affection startles me at first. Then I remember that she came to camp when she was eight, and, as she told me on the way over here, Chiron was basically a dad to her.

"I'd like to speak with both of the new demigods in my office." Chiron says sternly.

~

Five minutes later I'm sitting at Chiron's desk. His office is pretty messy, with all sorts of knick-knacks on shelves and stacks of paper on every available space.

He leans forward in his wheelchair and looks towards Abbie.

"You first. I'd like to hear your story."

Abigail's smile fades. She's only eight, but her story is very sad. Most adults haven't been through what she has.

"Well..." She starts.

"I never knew either of my parents. My dad's name was Isaac Denver, and he gave me up when I was a few days old. He couldn't take care of me properly. I've never met him, or my mom. I don't even know what her name was."

Chiron looked sympathetic but a tiny bit bored. I know he probably heard sob stories like this a lot, but seriously? What Abigail wasn't saying was that her dad was a drug-addict. The only good thing he ever did for her was give her up.

"Don't worry about your mom too much. She'll claim you soon, and then you'll, hopefully, get to meet your siblings."

Abbie's eyes almost popped out of her head.

"Siblings?! Like, brothers and sisters? Older or younger?"

Chiron chuckled and leaned back into his chair.

"Perhaps both."

I hear a knocking noise and turn to see Chrissie standing at the door. Her eyes stay fixed on Chiron, and she taps her hands on her wrist as if it was a clock.
She clears her throat.

"Abbie, why don't you come with me and let me give you a tour? You can get your camp shirt, if you'd like."

Abigail jumps up.

"Yes, please!" She turns to Chiron. "Thank you for the talk or whatever and I'll see you later."

She waltzes out the door with Chrissie and barely remember to shout back, "See you later, Esme!"

Sometimes I forget that she's only nine.

I'm already slipping off into a daydream (hey again, adhd!) when Chiron calls me.

"Ms. Esme." My eyes dart back to him.
"Your story, please."

My hands wiggle into my pockets and out again. I start playing with the tiny fake diamond ring on my finger, twisting it again and again. What if my mom was Aphrodite? Does that mean I could turn into a dove or something? Gods, I hope not. That'd be beyond weird.

"Esme?" Chiron's friendly expression has hardened and I can tell he's growing impatient.

"Sorry." I mutter.

"I'm fifteen. Lived with my parents, until I was eleven. Regular, mortal people. My dad was a lawyer assistant, and my mom worked part time at a organic grocery store."

Chiron nodded solemnly.

"Ok, basically, I believe in the whole, 'gods of Olympus' are still alive or whatever. I've seen proof of that. But what I don't believe, what I'll never believe, is that I'm a demigod."

"And why is that, Ms. Evans?" The centaur looked skeptically at me.

I swallowed.

"My parents. They were married for 16 years, and they loved each other a lot. For me to be a demigod, one of them would've had to have cheated. I could never believe that they did that."

"Ms. Evans, did you ever think that maybe you were adopted? As a baby?"

I stood and grimaced as the chair squeaked across the wood floor.

"That's insane." I nearly shouted.

Chiron stood as well, but held his calm expression. Mine was long gone.

"It is not the only possible answer, but there's a good chance of that. Or possibly that only one of them is your real parent."

"Excuse me?!" My cheeks heated up.
"My parents are dead, and this is how your going to talk about them? Have you no respect?!"

Chiron raises his hands, as if to say, let's talk about this.

"No. You can insult me all you like, but they are OFF LIMITS."

And that's the last thing I said to the camp advisor before slamming the door.