|shiny and stabby|
—On the central green, a group of campers was playing basketball. They were incredible shots. Nothing bounced off the rim. Three-pointers went in automatically.
"Apollo's cabin," Annabeth explained. "Bunch of showoffs with missile weapons—arrows, basketballs."
"Hot" Camilla blurted. She tended to blurt a lot around hot people.
"They're the children of the sun god"
"Not really what I meant, Annabeth"
They walked past a central fire pit, where two guys were hacking at each other with swords.
"Real blades?" Piper noted. "Isn't that dangerous?"
"That's sort of the point," Annabeth said. "Uh, sorry. Bad pun. That's my cabin over there. Number Six." She nodded to a gray building with a carved owl over the door. Through the open doorway, Camilla could see bookshelves, weapon displays, and one of those computerized SMART Boards they have in classrooms. Two girls were drawing a map that looked like a battle diagram. It looked boring.
"Speaking of blades," Annabeth said, "come here."
She led Piper and Camilla around the side of the cabin, to a big metal shed that looked like it was meant for gardening tools. Annabeth unlocked it, and inside were not gardening tools, unless you wanted to make war on your tomato plants. The shed was lined with all sorts of weapons—from swords to spears to clubs like Coach Hedge's.
"Every demigod needs a weapon," Annabeth said. "Hephaestus makes the best, but we have a pretty good selection, too. Athena's all about strategy—matching the right weapon to the right person. Let's see..."
Camilla loved shopping, even more so when they were looking for deadly and sharp objects. She eyed everything in the shed.
"You're drooling over swords" Piper noticed when she looked at her.
"They're sexy!" Camilla tried to defend herself.
Annabeth handed Piper a massive sword, which she could hardly lift.
"No," they all said at once.
Annabeth rummaged a little farther in the shed and brought out something else for Camilla.
"A shotgun?" Camilla asked.
"Mossberg 500." Annabeth checked the pump action like it was no big deal. Camilla made a show of swooning into Piper's arms. The brunette, however, let Camilla fall onto a table, making no effort to catch her. "Don't worry. It doesn't hurt humans. It's modified to shoot Celestial bronze, so it only kills monsters."
"Ow, rude" Camilla massaged her back as she made sure she wasn't poked by any weapons. She looked at the gun. "Too flashy and... how many bullets do you guys produce a year? I'd say not many since it would take a long time and they'd get used up pretty quick. Reusable weapons are better, no worry about running out"
Annabeth gave her a nod of appreciation.
She put the shotgun back and started poking through a rack of crossbows.
"I want something sexy" Camilla told her. "Something that screams: I AM BISEXUAL AND I AM SINGLE AS FUCK"
"Not sure why you'd want to advertise the fact that you're bitchless, but to each their own, I suppose" Piper muttered.
"Oh fuck you, McLean"
"Dagger?" Annabeth turned around with a shiny, short, but wide dagger that caught Camilla's eyes immediately. It was the length of her forearm, and very different from everything else in the shed. In Annabeth's other hand carried a sword with a matching design.
Unlike all the other swords in the shed, this one was shorter and wider. Both had matching leather grips and a comfortable amount of space to hold the weapons. The two weapons were meant to go together, no doubt. The sword would be the main weapon while the knife was more of a backup or to be used in case of very close range combat.
The closest Camilla had ever come to sword fighting was when her dad played pirates with her when she was seven. (Of course, that had been a front to train her to be quiet so he could teach her to break into shops without setting off alarms) But she couldn't keep her hands off the weapons for a second longer.
She needed them. They were made for each other, she thought poetically.
"Great, now she's having inappropriate thoughts about metal on a stick" Piper whispered loudly to Annabeth as Camilla walked to the blonde and took the weapons from her.
Annabeth just frowned like Camilla had gone on a date with her grandma.
Or as if Camilla had just confirmed a suspicion for her.
"That's a Roman spatha" She said. "And a pugio"
"I'm sorry, a what now?" Camilla snorted as she turned the weapons over in her hands, her own expression staring back at her through the gold.
"A pugio" Annabeth repeated. "It's a thrusting dagger—"
Camilla snorted.
"—used for close combat, assassination, and suicide. When Julius Caesar was assassinated, the conspirators stabbed him with pugiones."
"You're just making words up" Camilla looked at the blonde, "Pudgy what-the-fucks" She laughed. "They're cool though, I'll take them. the pudgy and the spat whatever"
"Spatha"
"Mmmhmmm don't care. It's shiny, it's stabby. Ergo I need it"
"Are you sure?" Annabeth asked. "It's Roman"
"So am I?" Camilla snorted, "Hello? Romani?"
Annabeth frowned. "One of my half brothers' found it in California. Which is weird cause the Hephaestus cabin claims to never have forged anything like this and there's no way any monsters would make this"
"Don't care" Camilla repeated.
Piper was eyeing her with discomfort when something in the corner of the shed caught her eye.
"What is that?" she said. "A knife?"
Annabeth dug it out and blew the dust off the scabbard. It looked like it hadn't seen the light of day in centuries.
"I don't know, Piper." Annabeth sounded uneasy. At least Camilla had taken the pudgy what's-it's-name along with a spatha. But Piper didn't look interested in any other weapon. "I don't think you want this one. Swords are usually better."
"You use a knife." Piper pointed to the one strapped to Annabeth's belt.
"Yeah, but..." Annabeth shrugged. "Well, take a look if you want."
The sheath was worn black leather, bound in bronze. Nothing fancy, nothing flashy. Camilla watched Piper's long fingers wrap around the polished wood handle. When she unsheathed it, she found a triangular blade eighteen inches long—bronze gleaming like it had been polished yesterday. The edges were deadly sharp.
"It suits you," Annabeth admitted. "That kind of blade is called a parazonium. It was mostly ceremonial, carried by high-ranking officers in the Greek armies. It showed you were a person of power and wealth, but in a fight, it could protect you just fine."
"I like it," Piper said. "Why didn't you think it was right?"
Annabeth exhaled. "That blade has a long story. Most people would be afraid to claim it. Its first owner... well, things didn't turn out too well for her. Her name was Helen."
Camilla let that sink in. "Wait, you mean the Helen? Helen of Troy?"
Annabeth nodded.
Suddenly, Piper didn't look very excited at having the blade in her hands. "And it's just sitting in your toolshed?"
"We're surrounded by Ancient Greek stuff... and Roman apparently." Annabeth said. "This isn't a museum. Weapons like that—they're meant to be used. They're our heritage as demigods. That was a wedding present from Menelaus, Helen's first husband. She named the dagger Katoptris."
"Meaning?"
"Mirror," Annabeth said. "Looking glass. Probably because that's the only thing Helen used it for. I don't think it's ever seen battle."
Camilla watched Piper look back at the blade, doubt and curiosity lingering in her expression. She never seemed like much of a fighter to Camilla, but she could hold her own when she was really angry. Camilla had seen Piper's deadly accurate throws in dodgeball when Isabel or some other bully said something stupid.
Even if she wasn't looking for any weapon other than a small dagger, Camilla was sure she could handle herself.
Piper gasped softly, looking at something in the blade, though Camilla couldn't see. Piper dropped the blade.
She looked like she'd seen a ghost. A pint of blood drained out of her face and her skin looked ashen. She looked like she might collapse at any moment.
Camilla held out her hand, just in case she would have to catch the girl if she fell.
"Piper?" Annabeth shouted to the Apollo kids on the court, "Medic! I need some help over here!"
"No, it's—it's okay," Piper managed, she shifted closer to Camilla's outstretched arm, holding onto her shoulder for support.
"You sure?"
"Yeah. I just..." With trembling fingers, she picked up the dagger. "I just got overwhelmed. So much happening today. But... I want to keep the dagger, if that's okay."
Annabeth hesitated. Then she waved off the Apollo kids. "Okay, if you're sure. You turned really pale, there. I thought you were having a seizure or something."
"I'm fine," Piper promised, though she didn't look very fine. She moved away from Camilla's arm looking everywhere except at the girl. "Is there ... um, a phone at camp? Can I call my dad?"
Camilla wished she was as smart as Annabeth who seemed to be calculating a million possibilities, trying to read Piper's thoughts.
"We aren't allowed phones," she said. "Most demigods, if they use a cell phone, it's like sending up a signal, letting monsters know where you are. But... I've got one." She slipped it out of her pocket. "Kind of against the rules, but if it can be our secret... Camilla, you can use it after Piper if you want"
Piper took the phone gratefully, her fingers trembling. Camilla wanted to ask her again if she was okay, but the girl stepped away from them and turned to face the commons area.
"I don't have anyone to call, but thanks for offering" Camilla told the blonde.
"Really?" Annabeth narrowed her eyes. "no family? no one?"
"No one that cared enough about me to keep me around" Camilla pressed her lips in a thin line. She didn't like talking about family, at least not the family she was related to by blood.
Her eyes drifted to Piper. A few feet away, she was out of their hearing range. Camilla could see her lips move, the way her eyebrows drew in frustration, but she couldn't make out what the girl was saying.
From the corner of her eye, Camilla could have sworn she saw some movement— a woman standing far away. But Camilla knew her eyes would be closed. Just like she knew her expression would be steely calm, her dress green like the grass she was standing on.
For years, the only family Camilla knew was her dad. When she was five, her dad was arrested for the first time. It was only for half a year, but Camilla had no where to go in that time. However, there was a woman that she remembered fairly well.
Camilla remembered running away from foster homes after all the people started arguing. For some reason, no one ever liked her. She remembered the same woman she saw now, helping her, coaxing her to make her foster families fight more.
Who cares if they don't like you. Camilla, you my dear are special, you don't need to be liked. You just need to weaponize your natural... charm.
But Camilla knew whatever she had was the opposite of charm.
Then there was the time the sleepy woman told her to pickpocket and as amoral as she was, she helped Camilla at a time no one else did.
But after her dad got out, he had to file for custody again and somehow he won. Which is why things went smoothly... at least for a decade.
So Camilla was here now, at a Camp full of magic, so why was she thinking of a woman she hadn't thought of in years?
She blinked and the woman had vanished. Or maybe the woman hadn't been there at all. Maybe it was just a trick of the light. Though Camilla could have sworn...
Piper cursed loudly. She walked back to Annabeth and Camilla and handed the blonde her phone.
"No luck?" Annabeth asked.
Piper didn't answer.
Annabeth glanced at the phone display and hesitated. "Your last name is McLean? Sorry, it's not my business. But that sounds really familiar."
"Common name."
"Yeah, I guess. What does your dad do?"
"He's got a degree in the arts," Piper said automatically. "He's a Cherokee artist."
Tristan McLean. It was too much of a coincidence to not be him. Though he was far from just a Cherokee artist.
Camilla had several proofs that the man was Piper's dad.
1. The same last name.
2. Both were native American.
3. She knew Piper came from money.
But the one thing Camilla could never understand was why Piper wouldn't flaunt the fact that her dad was a world famous actor.
Camilla didn't have much to brag about in case of her dad. But if Tristan McLean was Camilla's dad, she would never complain about anything at all.
Sure, rich kids loved to bitch about how they never got parental love and affection. But as someone who had to live on the streets when she was just five years old, Camilla could do without attention. Money was what really mattered.
"Oh." Annabeth didn't look convinced, but she put the phone away. "You feeling okay? Want to keep going?"
Piper fastened her new dagger to her belt. "Sure," she said. "I want to see everything."
Camilla had done the same, though her spatha hung awkwardly at one side and her pugio on another.
All the cabins were cool, but none of them struck Camilla as hers. No burning signs appeared over her head.
Cabin Eight was entirely silver and glowed like moonlight.
"Artemis?" Piper guessed.
"You know Greek mythology," Annabeth said.
"I did some reading when my dad was working on a project last year."
"I thought he did Cherokee art."
Again, Camilla thought back to her theory. Last year, Tristan McLean starred in a movie about Greek Mythology and Camilla was really glad he wasn't her dad because holy shit that man was hot. Obviously, she didn't say that in front of Piper.
Piper looked like she'd been caught in a lie. "Oh, right. But—you know, he does other stuff too."
Annabeth, though, didn't seem to make the connection.
"Anyway," Annabeth continued, "Artemis is goddess of the moon, goddess of hunting. But no campers. Artemis was an eternal maiden, so she doesn't have any kids."
"Oh." Piper seemed kind of bummed out, Camilla didn't blame her. Artemis sounded cool.
"Well, there are the Hunters of Artemis," Annabeth amended. "They visit sometimes. They're not the children of Artemis, but they're her handmaidens—this band of immortal teenage girls who adventure together and hunt monsters and stuff."
Camilla perked up. "That sounds cool. They get to be immortal?"
"Unless they die in combat, or break their vows. Did I mention they have to swear off boys? For eternity."
"I could live with that" Camilla grinned.
"No dating in general" Annabeth added, seeing the spark in her eyes. "Romance and... otherwise is all banned"
"Oh," Camilla said. "Never mind."
Annabeth laughed. For a moment she looked almost happy, and Camilla thought she'd be a cool friend to hang out with in better times.
Forget it, Camilla reminded herself. You're not going to make any friends here. Not once they find out.
They passed the next cabin, Number Ten, which was decorated like a Barbie house with lace curtains, a pink door, and potted carnations in the windows. It was kind of cute, in Camilla's opinion. The pink wasn't very bright or the kind to give you a headache. And the different pastel shades of it really worked together.
They walked by the doorway, and the smell of perfume made Piper gag. Camilla rolled her eyes.
"Gah, is that where supermodels go to die?"
Annabeth smirked. "Aphrodite's cabin. Goddess of love. Drew is the head counselor."
"Figures," Piper grumbled.
"You sound like a twelve year old who never grew out of her I-hate-pink-and-I'm-not-like-other-girls phase" Camilla snorted. "So it's pink and it's cute and it smells like a hundred different perfumes, big deal."
"I didn't say anything against them" Piper defended herself.
Camilla just rolled her eyes.
"They're not all bad," Annabeth agreed with Camilla. "The last head counselor we had was great."
"What happened to her?"
Annabeth's expression darkened. "We should keep moving."
They looked at the other cabins, but Camilla just got more depressed. She wondered if she could be the daughter of Demeter, the farming goddess. Then again, Camilla killed every plant she ever touched. Athena was cool. Or maybe Hecate, the magic goddess. But it didn't really matter. Even here, where everyone was supposed to find a lost parent, she knew she would still end up the unwanted kid. She was not looking forward to the campfire tonight.
"We started with the twelve Olympian gods," Annabeth explained. "Male gods on the left, female on the right. Then last year, we added a whole bunch of new cabins for the other gods who didn't have thrones on Olympus—Hecate, Hades, Iris—"
"What are the two big ones on the end?" Piper asked.
Annabeth frowned. "Zeus and Hera. King and queen of the gods."
Piper headed that way, and Annabeth and Camilla followed, though the blonde didn't act very excited. The Zeus cabin reminded Camilla of a bank. It was white marble with big columns out front and polished bronze doors emblazoned with lightning bolts.
Hera's cabin was smaller but done in the same style, except the doors were carved with peacock feather designs, shimmering in different colors.
Unlike the other cabins, which were all noisy and open and full of activity, the Zeus and Hera cabins looked closed and silent.
"Are they empty?" Piper asked.
Annabeth nodded. "Zeus went a long time without having any children. Well, mostly. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, the eldest brothers among the gods—they're called the Big Three. Their kids are really powerful, really dangerous. For the last seventy years or so, they tried to avoid having demigod children."
"Tried to avoid it?"
"Sometimes they... um, cheated. I've got a friend, Thalia Grace, who's the daughter of Zeus. But she gave up camp life and became a Hunter of Artemis. My boyfriend, Percy, he's a son of Poseidon. And there's a kid who shows up sometimes, Nico—son of Hades"
"Ah, let me guess— the resident emo?" Camilla snapped her fingers.
Annabeth gave her a small smile, "Don't call him that to his face though, he might turn you into a ghost"
"He can do that?"
Annabeth went on, "Except for them, there are no demigod children of the Big Three gods. At least, not that we know of."
"And Hera?" Piper looked at the peacock-decorated doors. She looked like the cabin bothered her, though Camilla wasn't sure why. The only feeling she got being that close to the cabin was that she wasn't supposed to be there.
It just felt wrong.
"Goddess of marriage." Annabeth's tone was carefully controlled, like she was trying to avoid cursing. "She doesn't have kids with anyone but Zeus. So, yeah, no demigods. The cabin's just honorary."
"You don't like her," Piper noticed.
"We have a long history," Annabeth admitted. "I thought we'd made peace, but when Percy disappeared... I got this weird dream vision from her."
"Telling you to come get us," Camilla said. "But you thought Percy would be there."
"It's probably better I don't talk about it," Annabeth said. "I've got nothing good to say about Hera right now."
Piper looked down the base of the doors. "So who goes in here?"
"No one. The cabin is just honorary, like I said. No one goes in."
"Someone does." Piper pointed at a footprint on the dusty threshold. On instinct, she pushed the doors and they swung open easily.
Annabeth stepped back. "Um, Piper, I don't think we should—"
"We're supposed to do dangerous stuff, right?" And Piper walked inside.
Camilla cursed. Why was she hanging out with Piper anyway? She wished she'd gone off with Leo, or even with Jason and the hot girl that seemed interested in her.
Hera's cabin was not someplace Camilla would want to live. It was as cold as a freezer, with a circle of white columns around a central statue of the goddess, ten feet tall, seated on a throne in flowing golden robes. Camilla had always thought of Greek statues as white with blank eyes, but this one was brightly painted so it looked almost human—except huge. Hera's piercing eyes seemed to follow Camilla.
At the goddess's feet, a fire burned in a bronze brazier. Camilla wondered who tended it if the cabin was always empty. A stone hawk sat on Hera's shoulder, and in her hand was a staff topped with a lotus flower. The goddess's hair was done in black plaits. Her face smiled, but the eyes were cold and calculating, as if she were saying: Mother knows best. Now don't cross me or I will have to step on you.
There was nothing else in the cabin—no beds, no furniture, no bathroom, no windows, nothing that anyone could actually use to live. For a goddess of home and marriage, Hera's place reminded Camilla of a tomb.
Piper froze. They weren't alone. Behind the statue, at a little altar in the back, stood a figure covered in a black shawl. Only her hands were visible, palms up. She seemed to be chanting something like a spell or a prayer.
Annabeth gasped. "Rachel?"
The other girl turned. She dropped her shawl, revealing a mane of curly red hair and a freckled face that didn't go with the seriousness of the cabin or the black shawl at all. She looked about seventeen, a totally normal teen in a green blouse and tattered jeans covered with marker doodles. Despite the cold floor, she was barefoot.
"Hey!" She ran to give Annabeth a hug. "I'm so sorry! I came as fast as I could."
They talked for a few minutes about Annabeth's boyfriend and how there was no news, et cetera, until finally Annabeth remembered Piper and Camilla, who were standing there feeling uncomfortable.
"I'm being rude," Annabeth apologized. "Rachel, this is Piper and that's Camilla, two of the half-bloods we rescued today. guys, this is Rachel Elizabeth Dare, our oracle."
"The friend who lives in the cave," Piper guessed.
Rachel grinned. "That's me."
"So you're an oracle?" Camilla asked. "You can tell the future?"
"More like the future mugs me from time to time," Rachel said. "I speak prophecies. The oracle's spirit kind of hijacks me every once in a while and speaks important stuff that doesn't make any sense to anybody. But yeah, the prophecies tell the future."
"Oh." Piper shifted from foot to foot. "That's cool."
Rachel laughed. "Don't worry. Everybody finds it a little creepy. Even me. But usually I'm harmless."
"You're a demigod?" Camilla perked up. Her hair was seriously pretty and her freckles were cute too. Gods, did being a Halfblood come with some sexy DNA?
"Nope," Rachel said. "Just mortal."
Camilla frowned. So not Halfblood sexy DNA.
"Then what are you ..." Piper waved her hand around the room.
Rachel's smile faded. She glanced at Annabeth, then back at Piper and Camilla. "Just a hunch. Something about this cabin and Percy's disappearance. They're connected somehow. I've learned to follow my hunches, especially the last month, since the gods went silent."
"Went silent?" Piper and Camilla asked.
Rachel frowned at Annabeth. "You haven't told them yet?"
"I was getting to that," Annabeth said. "For the last month... well, it's normal for the gods not to talk to their children very much, but usually we can count on some messages now and then. Some of us can even visit Olympus. I spent practically all semester at the Empire State Building."
"Excuse me?"
"The entrance to Mount Olympus these days."
"Oh," Camilla shrugged. "Sure, why not?"
"Annabeth was redesigning Olympus after it was damaged in the Titan War," Rachel explained. "She's an amazing architect. You should see the salad bar—"
"Anyway," Annabeth said, "starting about a month ago, Olympus fell silent. The entrance closed, and no one could get in. Nobody knows why. It's like the gods have sealed themselves off. Even my mom won't answer my prayers, and our camp director, Dionysus, was recalled."
"Your camp director was the god of... wine?" Piper narrowed her eyes.
"Can we get free wine?" Camilla asked the important questions, even though Piper swatted her arm.
"No, he'd been banned and it's a—"
"Long story," Piper guessed. "Right. Go on."
"That's it, really," Annabeth said. "Demigods still get claimed, but nothing else. No messages. No visits. No sign the gods are even listening. It's like something has happened— something really bad. Then Percy disappeared."
"And Jason showed up on our field trip," Camilla supplied. "With no memory."
"Who's Jason?" Rachel asked.
"My—" Piper stopped herself before she could say "boyfriend". She sounded physically hurt at having to say, "—My friend" She shook her head and focused back on the two girls in front of her. "But Annabeth, you said Hera sent you a dream vision."
"Right," Annabeth said. "The first communication from a god in a month, and it's Hera, the least helpful goddess, and she contacts me, her least favorite demigod. She tells me I'll find out what happened to Percy if I go to the Grand Canyon skywalk and look for a guy with one shoe. Instead, I find you guys, and the guy with one shoe is Jason. It doesn't make sense."
"Something bad is happening," Rachel agreed. She looked at Camilla, and Camilla felt an overwhelming desire to tell them about her dream, to confess that she knew what was happening—at least part of the story. And the bad stuff was only beginning.
"Guys," she said. "I—I need to—"
Before she could continue, Rachel's body stiffened. Her eyes began to glow with a greenish light, and she grabbed Piper by the shoulders.
Piper tried to back away, but Rachel's hands didn't seem to budge.
Free me, she said. But it wasn't Rachel's voice. It sounded like an older woman, speaking from somewhere far away, down a long, echoing pipe. Free me, Piper McLean, or the earth shall swallow us. It must be by the solstice.
Camilla grabbed the redhead by her wrist, trying to pull her hand off and Annabeth tried to help her, but it was no use.
Piper's eyes clouded and her knees buckled as she collapsed into Camilla's arms.
My theory is that Piper thinks she's "Not like other girls" cause she thinks other girls are so hot and has a low self esteem due to being bullied due to racial stuff.
In short, she has internalized misogyny because she's a lesbian lmao