I missed being at camp.
Before the Fates decided to throw me back in time, I had spent almost five days in a sleeping Manhattan, nobody to keep me company except my friends that decided to come fight by my side. Some of them I let down, some of them died because I asked them to fight.
Even though I have only been away from Camp Half-Blood for a short time, being in constant fighting made me miss the peacefulness of a war-free environment. Looking around camp made me smile, a smile for appreciating the small things. I watched as my friends, the friends that didn't know me yet, mingle around camp, their faces free of worry and stress from the war.
I didn't even listen to what Chiron was saying about the camp. I already knew everything anyway, from the pegasus stables to the moving climbing walls spewing lava. I was just focused on how everybody was so care-free. Nobody worrying about when the next big fight was going to go down. Nobody worrying whether they were going to die or not.
Chiron made his way to the cabin area, me following closely behind him. I looked over to the commons area, in the middle of all the cabins. The Apollo kids were shooting hoops, hitting nothing but net every single time. The hearth burning in the middle of the commons area, a small girl sitting next to it poking the glowing coals with a stick. As my stare lingered longer on Hestia, her head suddenly snapped towards my direction, her brown eyes staring straight at me. Something told me she knew something by the way she looked at me.
I hesitantly looked away from the goddess and followed Chiron to the Hermes cabin, the cabin that looked like it was a run-down hut. I still didn't get why the Hermes cabin got all the old, hand-me-downs of literally anything at camp. Maybe I could try and change that. They deserved better.
I wanted to run, away from Chiron and away from the Hermes cabin. I have already established that this was the past and that meant that I would see everyone that I have seen since I was twelve. That meant I was going to see someone I honestly didn't want to see.
Chiron started slowing down. I looked past him and saw Annabeth reading a book, standing next to the door of cabin eleven. My mind immediately translated the Ancient Greek on the front cover and I smiled when I realised it was a book about architecture. I had forgotten how obsessed she used to be over architecture and cool-looking buildings.
'Annabeth,' Chiron said, causing Annabeth to look at him. 'I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Cabin eleven,' he told me as he gestured me to go inside. 'Make yourself at home.'
I gulped and looked at the doorway like I was looking at the entrance to hell. I could feel my nervousness growing.
'Well, then,' Chiron said as he started making his way to the archery range. 'Good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner.'
I tried to gather my breath but seeing all the faces of the demigods, the unclaimed demigods and demigods that didn't feel wanted, made me uneasy. I looked around the crowded cabin and saw a lot of people. The Stolls were both sitting on the same bed, staring at me and the Minotaur horn in my pocket with a mischievous glint in their eyes. There were a lot of undetermined campers in the cabin, campers that had run away to join the wrong side. People that had, or will, try to kill me. People that I had no choice but to kill for the sake of Olympus.
I remembered everyone's lives I ended during those days of fighting. I remembered every single one of them. Some of them had even been my friends.
'Well?' Annabeth said as she poked me. 'Go on.'
I slowly walked forward, carefully minding the small tripping hazard I had fallen victim to too many times. I felt everyone's eyes on me as I walked into the cabin, people sitting on the bunks while some stood with their arms crossed, looking me up and down while also sizing me up.
'Regular or undetermined?' a voice asked. I looked over and froze when I saw Chris Rodriguez. So he hadn't turned yet. I didn't know whether that was a good thing or not.
'Undetermined,' Annabeth answered for me. I was too shocked after seeing Chris. He looked about the same age as I was before I was transported back in time, about sixteen years old. He didn't look like a person who would betray the gods. Then again, Luke hadn't either.
I ignored the groans as my eyes darted to the person approaching me. My breath hitched and my heart seemed to have stopped. I tried backing away but my feet seemed to be glued to the wooden floor.
'Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for,' a sandy-haired, blue-eyed demigod said as he walked up to me smiling. 'Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there.'
The face of Luke Castellan looked down at my twelve-year-old body. My hands instinctively went to my pocket but Riptide wasn't in there. Even if I did have my sword, what could I have done anyway? Nobody knew he had changed sides and nobody knew how I knew.
'This is Luke,' Annabeth said as she blushed a little. When she noticed me looking, she composed herself and removed any emotion from her face. 'He's your counsellor for now.'
I opened my mouth to speak but no words came out. All I could do was stare at Luke. I didn't know whether to be relieved that he seemed to have not turned to Kronos yet, or to be scared that he was standing right in front of me. Just looking at his scarred face reminded me of Kronos' glowing gold eyes and I didn't need that image in my head.
'Are you okay, Percy?' Luke said as he put his hand on my shoulder. I had to stop myself from flinching or judo-flipping him, whichever decided to come first. 'You look like you've seen a ghost.'
I nodded stiffly. I could hear some chuckles coming from the occupants in the room but the only thing on my mind was how Luke Castellan was less than a foot away from me.
'Come on, I'll show you the volleyball court,' Annabeth said emotionlessly as I let her drag me out of the cabin. Only when my foot stepped landed on the ground outside was I finally able to breathe properly.
'Jackson, you have to do better than that.' Annabeth said sounding frustrated.
'What?' I asked a little dazed. My mind was still disoriented from the encounter earlier.
I watched as she rolled her eyes and mutter under her breath, 'I can't believe I thought you were the one.'
I took several deep breaths to calm myself down. I didn't know why but seeing Luke, this Luke, so carefree and happy, like he wasn't going to stab me any second, made me scared. What happened to him to turn such a happy teenager living a good life to a psychotic, murdering monster hosting the essence of the Titan Lord? I just didn't get how he could change so fast or, rather, hide his true feelings for so long.
'Look, I'm sorry,' I tried apologising. 'It's just that...Luke looks like someone I used to-I used to know.'
Annabeth's grey eyes looked at me, trying to detect any lies in my words but she must have found none because she sighed and started walking away.
'Hey, wait up!' I said as I jogged after her. 'Look, I don't know, okay? It's just that-seeing him reminded me of someone I lost. I froze, that's all.'
It wasn't really a lie. I had known Luke before he turned. He was one of my only friends before I was claimed and he was one of the only people that stood by me when I finally did end up being claimed. Not many people knew this but when he betrayed us, I had lost a friend that day.
Annabeth looked at me sympathetically, 'I'm sorry. I didn't know.'
'It's alright.' I said as I waved my hand dismissively. 'So Chiron told me this is a camp for demigods.'
'That's right,' Annabeth said, her eyes widened slightly. 'You're taking this very well for someone who...just lost their mother.'
I tensed but relaxed when I realised Annabeth didn't mean to rub it in. I looked over at her and interrupted her just as she was about to apologise.
'This doesn't really surprise me as much as I thought it would,' I said as I looked around at all the demigods doing their daily activities. 'I mean, gods and goddesses are actually alive and are still doing the things they were doing back in ancient times? I guess my brain just shrugged and accepted it.'
I saw Annabeth try to suppress a smile but she was unsuccessful. I had to fight my own smile from showing. I missed making her smile.
'So you believe the "myths".' Annabeth asked me after she calmed down.
'I guess so,' I replied as I took out the Minotaur horn from my pocket. 'I did just fight a huge bull-man that shouldn't even be alive right now. I mean, how was he here? Didn't the Minotaur die like thousands of years ago?'
I mentally prepared myself for a long explanation about how monsters don't really die and are really archetypes, whatever that meant. Annabeth opened her mouth to reply to me but a voice spoke up, causing me to grin and grimace at the same time.
'Well! A newbie!'
Annabeth and I turned over to see a group of burly kids walking in our direction, shoving each other and being overall doofuses. Clarisse herself was leading the group towards me, grinning like a maniac. I didn't know whether to be glad she was okay or to try and run because of the look on her face.
'Clarisse,' Annabeth said annoyed. 'Why don't you go polish your spear or something?'
'Sure, Miss Princess,' Clarisse snarled. 'So I can run you through with it Friday night.'
'Errete es korakas,' Annabeth scoffed in reply. 'You don't stand a chance.'
'We'll pulverise you,' Clarrise snarled again before turning towards me. She looked me up and down, like she was inspecting a piece of meat at a butcher. 'Who's this little runt?'
'Percy Jackson,' I said before Annabeth could introduce me. 'And you are?'
She stood up straighter, 'Clarisse la Rue, daughter of Ares.'
I was about to say I was a son of Poseidon but I remembered that nobody knew that yet. Instead, I resolved to the next best thing: insulting Clarisse.
'Ares...the war god?' I asked innocently.
'You got a problem with that?' Clarisse sneered as she stepped a bit closer to me.
'No, not at all,' I replied. 'It explains why you guys are so...nice looking.'
Clarisse's face turned red with rage, 'We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy.'
'Percy.'
'Whatever. Come on, I'll show you.' Clarisse said as she motioned for me to follow her.
'Clarrise-'
'Stay out of it, wise girl.' Clarisse glared at Annabeth.
I had to fight back a smile. I hadn't realised that the nickname I gave Annabeth came from Clarisse. No wonder she was annoyed the first few times I called her that.
Before I knew it, Clarisse wrapped her arms around my neck and started dragging me towards the bathrooms. I didn't fight, just letting her drag me by the neck. I needed to clear my head anyway.
Clarrise and her siblings entered the female toilets laughing at me. I wrinkled my nose in disgust when the smell reached my nose. I still didn't get how the gods couldn't afford better toilets. The stall doors were halfway from falling off the hinges. The floor looked like it hasn't been cleaned in a decade and the taps were slightly, no, really rusted.
Clarisse shoved me hard into one of the first stalls and I fell on my knees. I placed my hands on both sides of the disgusting toilet bowl as Clarisse tried to push my head in the scummy water.
'Like he's "Big Three" material,' Clarrise snickered as she started pushing me harder. 'Yeah right. Minotaur probably-'
I interrupted her by sending an arc of water over my shoulder and into her open mouth. She spluttered on the dirty unflushed toilet water and stumbled back. I felt the familiar tug in my gut as every single pipe in the building burst, water spraying everywhere.
I relished the feeling of power at my fingertips, the feeling of controlling the water around me. I didn't know how long I was kneeling facing the toilet bowl but it felt like forever before I realised what I was doing. My control of the toilet water instantly disappeared as I stood up shakily. What had I been thinking? What was I doing?
I looked behind me to see Clarisse and her siblings on the floor outside, toilet water still dripping from their wet hairs. They were too shocked to do anything, if their wides eyes were anything to go by. Annabeth was standing next to a sink, water still spraying out of its split pipe. Her grey eyes were wide with surprise, her blonde hair flattened across her face.
'How did you-'
'I don't know,' I said stiffly. I was still disturbed at my feelings when I was controlling the water. Since when was I like that? Since when have I lost control like that before?
I slowly trudged outside, my mind still dazed from before. The feeling when I controlled the water...that one part of me that goaded me to keep going, the part that told me to kill everyone. To drown them.
I shuddered as I tried to keep the thought out of my head. I was so unfocused that I nearly tripped over Clarisse, who was still on the muddy ground glaring daggers at my face.
'You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead.' she growled at me.
All I did was wave my hand at her dismissively as I tried to get the smell of sewage out of my nose. I felt Annabeth walking behind me and I could also feel her intense stare trying to break through my skull. Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore. I stopped and turned around to face her, Clarisse being dragged back to her cabin in the edge of my vision.
'What?' I said, trying not to snap at her.
'I think,' she said, her scrutinising eyes studying me like an insect under a microscope. I had gotten used to that look over the years. 'I want you on my team for capture the flag.'
All thoughts about me losing control instantly vanished from my mind. My head snapped to Annabeth as soon as those words left her mouth. I haven't played capture the flag since the war started. The last time we had played it was just before the quest into the Labyrinth.
'Capture the flag?' I asked trying not to sound so excited. 'Is that a game you guys play?'
Annabeth rolled her eyes and started walking away.
'Hey!' I called after her. 'I was just asking.'
'Didn't you watch the orientation film?' she said as she rolled her eyes again. She brushed aside her wet hair and tried wiping her hands on her equally wet shirt.
'Orientation film?' I asked, genuinely confused. Chiron had never shown me the orientation film before. Maybe that was why Annabeth always thought I was such a Seaweed Brain. I wondered what warranted Chiron to not show me what they showed every new camper. Was I really that special?
'You didn't watch the orientation film?' Annabeth asked mortified.
At the shake of my head, she groaned, 'What was Chiron thinking?'
I shrugged and she rolled her eyes. Again. 'We play capture the flag every week. There are two teams and each of the teams has to...well, capture the other team's flag. Simple.'
I nodded along to everything she was saying. I hated pretending I didn't know something. It made me look dumb. Well, dumber than usual.
'So when is the next game?' I asked, the excitement in my voice clearly noticeable.
'Friday,' Annabeth replied before turning to stare me right in the eyes. 'You are a very interesting person, Percy Jackson. I hope we can be friends.'
I watched her jog back to her cabin, her blonde hair bouncing up and down. Even though she was covered in sewer water, I couldn't help but stare.
I shook my head. The Annabeth from my time didn't feel that way about me. This twelve-year-old version of her definitely wouldn't.
I tried avoiding the Hermes cabin as much as possible as I waited for dinner. I visited the various basketball hoops around the commons area and asked the Apollo guys if I could play. They included me in their games but I was pretty sure they did that so that they could play against a person that sucked.
I stopped playing basketball after a while. Not only were the Apollo guys destroying me, but Lee Fletcher was also playing. I couldn't look at him without thinking back to the battle inside camp. Thinking about the battle led my mind to every single demigod that died that day. I figured it was best if I avoided them for now.
I was walking around aimlessly until I neared the burning hearth in the middle of the commons area. Hestia sat there, stoking the fire with a stick in her usual nine-year-old form. I stopped and looked around. Nobody else seemed to notice her. I wanted to talk to her but she wouldn't have the memories. She wouldn't recognise me.
I blinked. I was three feet away from the hearth. I looked back to where I was standing before and turned back to face Hestia, who hadn't even looked at me yet. I looked back again, wondering whether I was dreaming or whether I had just subconsciously gravitated towards the peaceful aura of the goddess.
'Lady Hestia.' I said with a small bow. Hestia looked up for the first time and surprise graced her facial features.
'Hello,' she said simply. 'How may I help you?'
I sat down next to her, careful to give her space, 'I just want to talk.'
'Not many demigods recognise me,' Hestia remarked as she placed down her stick. 'Tell me, what is your name, young one?'
'Percy Jackson, milady.' I answered.
'Well, Percy,' she looked at me, her eyes staring straight into mine. 'You are far older than you seem.'
My heart seemed to stop beating, 'I don't know what you mean.'
'You know exactly what I mean,' she said in a low tone. I looked into her eyes and were surprised to see little balls of flame as her pupils. The fire was intimidating, but the look in her eyes dared me to lie. And if I did, I wouldn't like the result.
'I don't know who you are,' Hestia started. 'And I don't know how you are in that body, but you better tell me the truth now.'
'Milady, I don't-'
'I'll give you one last chance to reconsider your words, demigod.' Hestia interrupted me, the fire in her eyes burning brighter by the second. Who knew such a peaceful goddess in the body of a child could be so scary?
'Alright, alright,' I relented after a while. I had no intention to feel the wrath of the eldest child of Kronos. 'I-I'm from the future.'
My words must have been unexpected because the fire in her eyes died instantly, confusion replacing the wariness she had a second ago.
'So that is why...' she said to herself before looking at me. 'I am terribly sorry, Percy. I didn't mean to scare you.'
I was so confused, all I could say was, 'Uh huh.'
'It's just that I have never met anyone like you before.' Hestia said before picking up her stick and started stoking the fire again.
'What do you mean "anyone like me"?' I wasn't that special, was I? I mean, I'm just an ordinary demigod.
Hestia smiled at me warmly, her expression returning to that of the peaceful and calm goddess I knew. 'It is not well known I am also the goddess of children, Percy. Your...soul isn't that of a twelve-year-old, not the age you are supposed to be. I can tell because you are in the body of a child, without the soul of a child.'
I blinked. So the Fates transported my soul into the body of my preteens self. I didn't know what to make of that, except that I knew to slap all three of the Fates the next time I see them.
'I am sorry to mislead you, milady,' I apologised. 'I will be off now.'
'I should be the one that is sorry, Percy. I nearly incinerated you,' Hestia said shaking her head. 'And please. Call me Hestia.'
With one last smile, her form shimmered and vanished from sight. The stick she had been holding fell into the fire to join the infinitely burning heap of wood. I would have stood there forever but the sound of Luke shouting snapped me out of my thoughts.
I ran to cabin eleven still thinking about the talk with Hestia. I took my place at the back of the line just as Luke led us to dinner. I couldn't keep the smile off my face at the thought of having Hestia as a friend this early on into my journey. It was nice knowing her the few days before and during the Battle of Manhattan.
As I sat down on the overly crowded Hermes table, I felt someone's stare on me. I turned to the Athena table and smiled at Annabeth, earning yet another eye roll but a smile nonetheless. As a dryad placed a plate of smoked brisket, I couldn't help but think that this journey back in time wouldn't be all bad.