Adira has never been a normal girl. Plagued by monsters and a mysterious past, she walks the streets of New York City alone. Soon she happens upon two young demigods who show her a magical camp for people like her.
She soon has friends-a family...
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I sat quietly in the backseat of Percy's Prius, with Percy driving and Annabeth in the passenger's seat.
After a few moments of silence, I quietly asked, "So... are you two, like, together?" It was a risky question, but I couldn't help but ask.
To my immediate relief, they simply smiled and nodded, leaning slightly closer to each other. They must have been together for a while to be that comfortable about it. I turned my head, out of questions, and proceeded to look out the window at the passing streets of Manhattan.
Percy then asked me, glancing at me through the rearview mirror, "Do you live around here? Like, do you have an apartment and a family?"
I briefly glanced at him, noticing his gaze flicking to mine in the rearview mirror, before looking down and shaking my head. "I... I don't have a family. Not anymore. I've been in the foster care system for years now. It's not that bad." I shrugged. My past was my past. And perhaps, thanks to Percy and Annabeth, I wouldn't have to deal with foster families and group homes anymore.
I glanced back at them to see Annabeth turned around in her seat, looking at me with pity. No-empathy. Did she know, at least a little bit, about what I was going through?
She turned to face forward again and spoke up, "I get it. I ran away from home when I was seven. I probably wouldn't have survived, but luckily enough, I met my friends Thalia and... and Luke. They brought me to camp. They saved me."
I nodded. Wow. What sob-stories we had. At least Percy had his mom. He was lucky.
I looked back out the window, bouncing my leg up and down in boredom and anticipation. My elbow balanced against the car door and my hand cradled my cheek.
We were beginning to leave the bustling streets. The city slowly transformed into a more rural landscape. Once all sign of human civilization disappeared and trees dominated the land around us, Percy pulled over to the side of the road and parked his car. We all exited the car, the doors slamming loudly in sharp contrast to the nearly silent woods.
We turned to hike a little ways into the foresty terrain, then we climbed a good-sized hill. At the top of the hill was a giant, beautiful oak tree, its expanding branches providing exquisite amounts of shade. Curled around the base of the tree was a small dragon.
Upon seeing the creature, I took a few steps back out of experience. But Percy reassured me that the dragon was, in fact, not going to try to kill me, and he gave the creature a small pat on the head. The dragon barely glanced at me before slumbering once more.
Before me was a giant, shimmering shield of sorts, creating a dome around a large area of land. A sign stood in the entrance, bearing the name 'Camp Half-Blood'.
So this was the camp that Annabeth and Percy had been talking about.
The amazing thing was, once I passed through the shield and under the sign, I didn't explode or experience any pain. I simply walked through it, as if nothing were there. Thank goodness. Today was not the day to die.
In front of me was a camp sprawling with people. Cabins were arranged in a Omega shape, and there was a large sunflower field near them. Kids were doing activities as there would be in a normal camp, but the activities were definitely not normal.
Some of the teens were doing archery, shooting bulls-eyes every time. Some were playing basketball, but one guy kept flying (literally flying) up to make a slam-dunk as a nearby brown-haired girl groaned in frustration. Some were even climbing up a rock wall with lava pouring down the sides of it, making it to the top in record time.
It made my legs itch to run around and do everything at once.
"C'mon," Percy said, leading me down towards the archery spot.
A line of kids with identical sandy hair pulled their arrows back in an orderly fashion, then shot. Most made perfect bullseyes. It was amazing how good they were.
One guy, after using his last arrow to make it in the very center of the target, turned around and spotted us. He brightened, a smile pulling on his face, and strolled towards us.
He was about my age, with golden hair and freckles spotting across his nose. He had warm brown eyes and a tall, athletic build.
"Hey," he said to me. His smile showed perfect white teeth.
"Hey," I replied.
"New camper?" He asked, eyes now focused on Percy and Annabeth.
"Yeah," Percy responded. "Meet Adira."
"Hi Adira. I'm Aaron," he replied, the same grin spreading across his features. "Do you want to try it?" He asked when he found my gaze wandering to the targets and bows and arrows.
"Well, yeah," I said. "But I might not be very good." Aaron laughed as he lead me over to where he had been shooting earlier. Ha handed me his bow, but as I attempted to hold it like the people around me, I realized that it was probably too big. He noticed this, and went and grabbed a smaller bow that fit me perfectly.
When I put down the bow to go and retrieve the arrows from the target, Aaron grabbed my arm to stop me. "Don't go get the arrows while others are still shooting. That's dangerous. An arrow could stray and hit you."
"Oh." I cringed. "Oops."
"It's okay, you just have to wait until everyone else is done shooting. Like... right now," he said as everyone put down their bows and lifted their quivers to retrieve their arrows.
Aaron went and gathered his arrows, then lifted his bow, quiver at his side. He nocked an arrow, showing me how to properly put it in place. I mimicked his movements. He drew the arrow back, telling me to pull the string to the tip of my nose, and to hold it so that the string is right beside it. Then, he told me to aim the arrow right above the bullseye area of the target. Then he released the arrow, and it flew straight to the middle of the target.
I gazed in astonishment at this, but then Aaron told me to try to shoot. I hesitantly drew the arrow back to my nose, the released it. The arrow hit the ground about a foot in front of the target.
"Oh. Guess I missed," I shrugged.
"Don't worry about it. For most people it takes months of practice," Aaron replied.
"And for you? How long did it take you?" I asked, curious.
"Oh, not very long. Apollo's my dad, and he's the god of archery, basically, so... most Apollo kids are a natural at it."
"Which probably means that I'm not a child of Apollo," I grinned.
He laughed again. He had a nice laugh. It sounded like summer and light and joy. I liked it. "Yeah, maybe not," he said.
I turned around to notice that Percy and Annabeth are gone. Oh well.
Aaron, noticing this, offered, "Can I show you around camp?"
