Merrily POV
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I hurried out of my house, narrowly dodging a Jack Daniels bottle aimed at my head. Luckily, school isn't very far away so I don't need anyone to drive me. Wait, hold up. I haven't introduced myself. My name is Merrily Evans. I am a fourteen-year-old, currently attending Liberty High School. It's only two weeks away from summer and I'm dreading it. I am a little short at five foot two and I have long, wavy blonde hair that I like to style in complicated braids. My eyes are gray-blue, which I've been told is a pretty color. I have been labeled as ADHD and dyslexic. I enjoy finding problems in old military strategies, the National Geographic Channel, and Greek mythology. I don't have any friends and my father is a baker during the day and alcoholic and abusive by night. Don't even get me started on my mom.
Anyway, as I'm walking to school, I get the feeling that something or someone is following me. I turn to look behind me, but nothing is there. I grab my books from my locker, ignoring the disgusting slurping sounds coming from the locker next to mine. Why can't Lana and that poor, unfortunate boy make out someplace else? I run from homeroom to my favorite class of the day, Greek mythology, taught by Mr. Avon. His classes are always so much fun! Once, we all acted out parts of the Giant War. Today, though, Mr. Avon was a few minutes late. When he finally arrived, he had two new kids trailing behind him.
The first boy gave off a feeling of dark power, which I found oddly attractive. He had raven black hair, dark brown eyes, and pale skin. He was short and thin at what I guessed to be around five foot six. The boy was wearing a black shirt with a skull on it, black jeans, black, torn up Converse and an Aviator's jacket. He was looking darkly around at everyone, his eyes stopping on me. When he saw me looking at him, his cheeks turned a light pink and he started twisting his skull ring.
The next boy made me want to yell "look out!". He looked like a Latino elf. He had curly brown hair and slightly pointed ears. He was about the same height as Skull Boy, and scrawny, though his baggy clothes seemed to hide it slightly. This boy was wearing a white button-down shirt with grease stains all over it with a pair of brown trousers held up by red suspenders. On his feet, he wore brown work boots. All-in-all he resembled a mechanic. All he needed was a tool belt to finish up the look. His eyes darted around the classroom furtively, stopping on me for a few seconds longer. His fingers were tapping out a strange pattern on his pants.
"Class, meet Leo Valdez and Nico di Angelo," Mr. Avon says, gesturing to each boy as he said their names. "Leo, you can take that seat next to Merrily and Nico, there's a seat by that window." Skull Boy, now known as Nico, skulked to his seat and averted his eyes from the window like he was allergic to sunlight. Leo bounds down the aisle and plops himself down in the seat next to mine.
As Mr. Avon begins talking, Leo pulls out various small items. These include wires, springs, pipe cleaners, washers, small screws, what looks like a pair of dismantles eyeglasses and a tiny watch repair kit. His fingers begin moving quickly as he begins to construct a tiny something right before my eyes.
I must have been staring because a few minutes later, Leo gives me a sideways look and says with a mischievous grin, "Close your mouth or you'll catch flies."
I quickly snap my mouth shut. "Why do you have all that stuff?"
"It helps keep me focused," is his reply. Leo pulls out tiny scraps of metal and a few hinges and turns back to his project before I can say anything else.
Suddenly, Lana Miller, a popular girl taps me on the shoulder while Mr. Avon's back is turned. "Merrily, right?" she asks, her voice honey sweet. "I think we should be friends. How about you come over to my house?" A warm feeling washes over me and for some reason, I want to be best friends with this girl and go to her house right away.
However, before I can answer, a warm, calloused hand grabs mine, snapping me out of my trance. I feel tingles running up and down my spine. Leo's face didn't look so buoyant and happy now. Instead, it was deadly serious.
"Actually, Merrily has plans," he says stiffly. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice one of Lana's posse hitting on Nico in the corner. Is that a knife?
"What plans?" Lana asks indignantly.
"We have a date," Leo says, his voice wavering ever so slightly.
"Excuse me?" I protest. "I never agr--" Leo squeezed my hand tightly, causing me to stop talking.
"Do you want to die?" he asks?
What kind of question is that? "Of course not!"
"Then follow my lead."
"A date you say?" Lana frowns.
"Yep," Nico says, coming up behind me. How did he get away from that girl? "I'll be third-wheeling."
"Well, how about I keep you company, Nico?" Lana croons. I gag. Leo snickers. Nico frowns.
"That's okay Lana," he says. "I'll just read or something. Or eat cheese fries." I love cheese fries. Why is this relevant? Whatever. Lana moves next to Nico, letting a perfectly manicured nail run down his jawline seductively. I feel a twinge of jealousy.
Suddenly, Leo jumps. "Is that a bird?" I look up. Sure enough, a mechanical bird is flying in loops around the classroom. It dives down and begins pecking at Lana mercilessly.
"C'mon!" Nico yells. "Run!" But I can't run. I watch as Leo shoots a stream of flames from his hand and incinerates Lana. I'm frozen. Fire.... heat.... Nico grabs my hand and pulls me out of the classroom with Leo close behind. We burst out of the doors and continue running until we reach my house.
My house is actually an apartment above a bakery. My father owns it. Nobody notices the fact that my father is usually hungover, which annoys me. Nico, Leo, and I burst through the doors. I hold my side, panting uncontrollably. But Nico and Leo aren't even tired.
When I finally catch my breath I ask, "What was that back there?"
"Oh, that?" Leo says. "Um, Nico, you can do the honors."
Nico rolls his eyes and fixes me with a stare. "So you know about the Greek gods and stuff?"
"Duh," is my intelligent answer.
"Well they all exist," he says. "And you're a demigod."
"Well, there's only one problem with that explanation," I frown. "Demigods aren't real."
"Actually, they are," Leo says slightly apologetically. "My father is Hephestus and Nico's dad is Hades. We're here to take you to a place called Camp Half-Blood so monsters like Lana can't attack you."
"Woah, I know Lana's mean, but 'monster' is maybe a bit harsh?" I say.
"Nope," Nico says. "Lana was an empousa. They are female monsters that usually go after boys and try to seduce them into kissing them so they can eat their flesh. Often times, they use one of their powers; charmspeak."
My head is reeling. So I do what I do when there's too much information to process. I clear out all of my excess thoughts and focus on the main subjects.
"Let me go get my things," I say finally. "Anywhere is better than here. Also, help yourselves to anything you want." I run upstairs, tiptoeing past my father's bedroom. I grab a duffel bag and empty most of my closet into it. Five minutes later, I drag my bag downstairs, back to the bakery. Which is practically cleaned out.
"What the heck!" I cry. Nico and Leo's faces are covered in jelly, sugar, and cinnamon, and most of my father's stock is gone.
"Well, you said to help ourselves to anything we want," Leo says innocently, his mouth seemingly full of pastry. I see Nico tuck a sugar cookie into his pocket.
"I know, but I meant maybe one or two things!" I frown. "Not the whole store! My father will kill me!"
"Good thing you'll probably never see him again," Nico says, giving me a small half-smile and taking a bite out of a cinnamon roll. I roll my eyes.
"Let's go," I say. "How're we getting there?"
Leo stuffs more food into his pockets before answering. "We'll walk. I'm too lazy to fly Festus and Nico's doctor has forbidden him to shadow travel."
"Shadow travel?" I ask.
Nico cuts himself a slice of cake. "It's a form of transportation that can only be used by children of Hades or Pluto."
"Oh." Leo ducks behind the counter and comes back up with several to-go bags and plastic containers. Five minutes later, my father's store has been wiped of everything except anything with raisins, fruit, or oats.
So, toting our bags, we hail a taxi. Nico tells it to stop at the edge of a large blue farmhouse with strawberry fields. Nico and Leo grab their pastry bags and with me close behind them, hurry down the hill towards the farmhouse.
"Look out!" I hear Nico yell. I look behind me and there stands a giant hydra. I scream and run for the farmhouse, Nico and Leo not far behind. Just a few feet before the farmhouse, I feel myself passing through a cool barrier. I turn around a smile on my face. But it quickly fades. Nico is lying on the ground, with blood pooling around his face, and Leo trying but failing to ward off the hydra.
I drop my duffel onto the ground and with no expertise whatsoever, I grab a random sword off the ground and charge.
"Merrily, no!" Leo shouts, but I ignore him. I swing the sword up and succeed in slicing off one of its heads. Only to have two more grow in its place. So, I tuck the sword under my arm and grab Nico's limp body and begin dragging it towards the barrier. Leo comes up and helps me. Behind us, four other teenagers with weapons come to help us; two boys and two girls. One boy had black hair and sea-green eyes. He is tall and lanky and carries a long bronze sword. The second boy had floppy golden hair and blue eyes. He has no weapon, but a tiny plastic baggie and a canteen. The first girl has blonde, curly hair and gray eyes. She carries a long, bronze dagger. The other girl has medium-length, choppy brown hair and looks like a Cherokee Indian. I can't get a fix on what color her eyes were.
"Will!" Leo calls. "Nico needs medical attention." The blonde-haired boy rushes over with his plastic bag and canteen. We carry Nico back through the barrier. After gently laying him on the ground, the blonde boy, now known as will, pours a few drops of golden liquid from the canteen into Nico's mouth. Nico's eyes flutter open as his head wound begins to close.
"Here," Will says, handing Nico a small brown pastry. While Nico nibbles on the pastry, I turn my eyes to the war waging on the hydra. The tan-skinned girl seems to be talking the hydra to sleep. The second the hydra falls over, the raven-haired boy swamps it in water, clearly drowning the creature. As soon as it turns into gold dust, I turn my eyes back to the blue house and strawberry fields. Only now, there's a giant forest there.
"C'mon, let's get to camp," Nico says, getting shakily to his feet. "I have to train more."
"Oh no you don't," Will admonishes him. "I am sentencing you to two days of bed rest!"
Nico pouts, which looks absolutely adorable. "Two days?" he whines.
"One if you're good," Will grins. Nico literally looks like a puppy when he says this. Leo snickers. Suddenly, Puppy Nico is nowhere to be found.
"Can it firehead," he frowns. Leo grins.
"Okay Merrily," Leo says. "Meet the rest of the crew. This is Percy," he gestures to the raven-haired boy. "This is Piper." Tan girl. "And this is Annabeth." Blonde girl.
"Hi," I say shyly.
"Hey!" Percy says. "Let's get you to Camp Half-Blood. Leo here can give you a tour since Nico won't be available." Nico scowls, but his eyes are twinkling, so I know he's only kidding. I grab my duffel and Leo carries the pastry bags. As we walk over the hill, we pass a giant pine tree with a golden fleece and a dragon. Somehow, this doesn't freak me out. At this point, golden sheepskins and dragons are the least of my worries.
We pass the tree and come out in a large selection of cabins, all vastly different from one another. One of the cabins is all black. One has seashells and stuff all over it. One is rather practical and has books all over the front porch. I rather like that one. We bypass all of those and stop at a cabin whose porch is extremely messy, so I have to watch my step.
"You'll be staying here for the time being," Leo explains as Percy, Annabeth, Piper, Nico, and Will walk off. "This is the Hermes cabin. New demigods stay here until their godly parent claims them." Before opening the door, Leo gives me a warning. "Look out for the Stoll brothers. Real tricksters those two." I nod my head seriously as Leo opens the door.
Inside is very crowded and slightly messy. Tons of campers mill around talking and laughing. I'm pretty sure I saw a neat stack of tomatoes, but I wasn't entirely sure.
"Hey," a boy with brown hair and an upturned nose comes up to us. "This a newbie?"
"Yep," Leo says. "Merrily Evans. She just needs a spot to sleep and then I'll continue the tour."
The boy leads us over to a rather cozy corner on the floor. "Here," he says. "I'll get you a sleeping bag and anything else you need before we turn in for the night." I set my duffel down.
"By the way," I say. "I never got your name."
"Travis Stoll," he says, extending a hand. Leo slaps my hand away.
"Trap," he says. I look up at him confused.
"Trap?" I say.
Leo nods. "Yup," he says. "One of my powers is that I can sense traps and Travis here had one of those electric things on his hand."
I look up at Travis. "Seriously dude?" I say. Travis has the grace to look slightly guilty. Leo and I quickly leave. We walk through the camp and Leo points out everything of interest: the dining pavilion, the cabins, the climbing wall, the strawberry fields, the training arena, and the list goes on.
A horn blares out. "That'll be the dinner horn," Leo says. "You'll eat with the Hermes cabin."
"Okay." I walk over to where who I think is Travis is sitting. Only, this Travis is slightly smaller. "Woah, are you Travis's twin or something?" I ask.
"Nah, I'm Connor," he says.
"I'm Merrily," I say. "How do we get food?"
"Just picture your absolute favorite meal," Connor instructs. I close my eyes and picture a delicious bowl of coconut lime soup and a steaming plate of rice.
"Open your eyes," Connor says. I open my eyes. There is a.... half plate of soup and rice? Then I look at Connor's plate and find the other half of my food.
"Connor!" I protest. Connor doesn't answer and leads me over to some brass bowls with fire. I freeze. Fire.
"Hey, are you okay?" Connor asks, snapping me out of my trance.
"Uh yeah," I say. "Do I just burn some?"
"You learn quickly my little grasshopper," Conner grins. I scrape part of my food into the bowl, trying to ignore the waves of heat emitting from the bowl. I whisper a silent prayer and then go back to my seat. I quickly imagine up some more food and eat it before Connor has the chance to steal it.
Then the room goes silent as a.... woah is that a centaur? Connor later tells me his name is Chiron and he runs the camp now that Mr. D is back at Olympus.
"I hope you all have had a very enjoyable afternoon," the centaur says. "Tonight's game will be Capture the Flag!" The room erupts in cheers. "Team Red will be Posioden, Demeter, Ares, Athena, Hephaestus, Apollo, and Hermes and Team Blue will be Aphrodite, Hades, Iris, Hypnos, Nike, Hecate, and Tyche. "
Just great. I'll be competing against Nico. Everyone in the dining pavilion disperses and heads off to go get ready. Connor leads me over to the armory.
"Okay, so why don't you pick out your armor and weapons and get dressed?" Connor says and then leaves me alone. The first thing I do is braid my hair into a fabulous, intricate braid. Then I try to find some form of armor that I can move in, but there is none. So I just strap on some wrist protectors and wrap some duct tape around my tank top under my shirt. A small, silver and bronze dagger catches my eye, so I strap that to my waist. Then, it's time for Capture the Flag.
I get stuck on river patrol. Nobody comes across me until about ten minutes into the game. Then I run into Nico. He seems to emerge from the darkness. I can't see behind him. He makes to fight me but pauses.
"Um, h-hi Merrily," he stutters. "Could I pass? Please?" At this point, Nico is redder than a tomato.
"Not a chance," I grin, and make to knock him out with the butt of my knife, but before I can a sword slices through Nico's abdomen and I see a tall, broad figure sprint away through the woods. "Nico!" I cry as he slumps to the ground. I catch him before he falls. "Help!" I yell. "Nico's hurt! Help me!"
Nico's eyes are glazed and half-closed. I hold my hand over the wound to try and stop the bleeding, all the while, screaming for help and coaxing Nico at the same time. The horn blows to signal someone has won, but I barely notice. Why is no one hearing me? I give up calling.
I pick up Nico bridal style and sling him over my shoulders, his blood running down my neck. Somehow, I know the right thing to do is to get him to the infirmary. I make my way quickly, and silently through the forest until I come upon the wooden building. I drop Nico, who is barely breathing, on one of the beds, and go to search for some nectar. I can't feed him anything right now.
I find some nearby and hurry back to his side. I pour three drops into his mouth. The wound begins to close. Another drop. Nico's breathing evens. Right then, Will bursts in the door and begins assessing the situation. I gather I am no longer needed here and hurry back to where the rest of the camp is. Chiron seemingly isn't aware of Nico's condition as he talks on the podium. I stride up the steps and Chiron quickly backs away. The crowd falls silent.
"Who stabbed Nico?" My voice is deathly calm. "Whoever did, I will find you and I will make you suffer if you do not come forward right now." A brown-haired girl with a stocky figure and who is, honestly, quite ugly, steps forward.
"I stabbed the little brat," she spat. "Whatcha gonna do? Stab me back?"
"I challenge you to a duel," I say, not thinking. "Loser is at the mercy of the winner for the next three weeks." The girl grins.
"Deal." I jump off the podium and the crowd parts so that the girl and I are standing alone in the circle.
My dagger is pathetically small compared to the girl's sword, but I'm not worried. I watch the girl's movements carefully and guess where she's about to aim. I block it and move around her arm, twisting my wrist precariously so that the butt of my dagger lands on the weak spot of her thumb. Her sword clatters to the ground.
"Remember our deal," I say. The group of campers, who had been cheering and/or jeering went silent. I was confused. Had I done something wrong? Then I notice the faint gray glow above my head. I look up and see a gray owl floating above my head.
"All hail Merrily Evans, Daughter of Athena, goddess of war and wisdom."
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TADA there's the first chapter! Please rate and review!