Gracie Jackson

~ Part 8 ~

As I walked to the dining pavilion for dinner, Fiona came running up to me, out of breath.

"Chiron needs to talk to you," she said. I ran towards the dining pavilion to where Chiron and the rest of the campers were waiting. Chiron looked at me then nodded to the far corner to where a familiar satyr was waiting.

"Grover?" I asked. I hadn't seen him since I was like seven years old. My parents saw all of their friends and family from the Greek side every summer and reported back to me, but seeing him in person was much different. A few campers from my table turned to see what was happening when I ran towards Grover and hugged him. Some campers gasped, while others muttered stuff like "stupid newbies" and shook their heads. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Connor sitting alone at his table, staring at me like I was nuts.

Grover took a second to realize who I was and had to look at Chiron for confirmation before saying, "Gracie Blofis! Wow has it been a long time since I've seen you!" I realized he had called me Gracie Blofis, indicating that he was in on my secret. "How was your time at Camp Jupiter?" he announced. If all the campers weren't watching before, they were now. Over at the Demeter table, Rose and her friends started snickering. I looked at Gover and he nodded, assuring me that this speech wasn't just to embarrass me.

"After spending my whole life in New Rome, I'm glad to be back with my Greek heritage." It was a simple response but when I said "back" Chiron's tail twitched, warning me that I was close to revealing myself. He stepped forward and motioned me to my seat.

"Tonight we will have the first game of Capture the Flag of the summer." he said, "The head counselors of Athena and Ares will take turns picking which cabins they would like on their team, Athena you're the Blue Team and Ares you're the Red Team, but for now, we eat!" A blue cupcake immediately appeared on my tray, I ran to the offering flame, hoping nobody had seen the dead give away of who my father was, and burnt the cupcake in honor of both Poseidon and Athena, praying that I wouldn't make a fool of myself during Capture the Flag.

When dinner was over, my cabin members started talking strategy, "We will need the Apollo Cabin on our side if we want to win, they just got a new supply of sonic arrows," Fiona said. She pulled out a map of the woods surrounding the camp. I studied the map and knew exactly what we should do.

"We need a sneak attack plan," I said, "a few people who can get to their side without being seen while everyone else defends the flag or pretends to be offense. If we keep Ares and the Demeter Cabin busy, then we should have no problem getting their flag back to our side." Everyone at the table stared at me, not sure what to say.

"So you really were raised as a Roman," Fiona said, "your plan doesn't sound very Roman though, that plan is straight Greek. How are we supposed to sneak past both the Ares and Demeter Cabins without getting caught?" she asked. I looked over at Connor, who was staring off to the water at his table.

"You shouldn't be asking how, but rather who," I said.