Camp Hermit-Blood - The Sea of Monsters

Ren

Ren thought he knew jerks. The camp director was Mr. D, probably the grumpiest person on the planet. Heck, his own dad had tried to kill them for fun.

But Tantalus was worse than both of them combined.

The new activities director was a ghost who the gods had brought back until the problems with Thalia's tree could be solved. That gave Ren the tiniest bit of hope about Scar, but that was soon stopped when word got around that he was from Punishment.

"It's the myth," one of Ren's siblings muttered. "Tantalus' eternal punishment was to always be hungry, but never be able to eat."

That was proven when Tantalus reached for a plate of roast, only for it to zip down the table and commit suicide in the fire. The gods were getting extra tonight.

"Food hates this guy," Ren muttered back. "Sucks to be him."

Several of his fellow Ares children snickered.

Tantalus stood up. "So," he said. "I will be your new activities director. I am very..." he gritted his teeth as if what he was about to say was a lie, and then turned it into a smile. "... excited to meet you all."

The campers didn't cheer. They didn't do anything.

"We have a matter to attend to," Tantalus continued. "Our friend Percy Jackson brought a monster into camp."

He pointed a bony finger at Tyson, who seemed to try to shrink in his chair

The campers all got up and threw a portion of their food into the fire, and then they all started eating.

Grian wandered over to Ren, looking terrifyingly more hyper than usual. "Hi!" he said, as if they had never met before. "Travis showed me something. It's called Pepsi."

Oh no, he's found the caffeine. Everybody run for your lives.

"You shouldn't be having that," Ren said, taking his magic goblet away from him.

"Aww," Grian said disappointedly, and walked away. "Travis! He stole my soda!"

"And for good reason!" Gem said to him.

"Just don't let him find coffee," Ren heard someone from the table next to him say.

The rest of dinner passed very quietly. Nobody wanted to risk angering the dead guy.

But at the end of dinner, when everyone was finishing up their dessert, Tantalus made an announcement that seemed to cheer up (some of) the campers. But only some.

"We will be bringing back the chariot races,' Tantalus declared while chasing a bowl of potatoes around the table. "I don't know why that old horse got rid of it in the first place. It was only one camper that died, and from what Mr. D tells me, he was an annoying one."

Mr. D nodded in agreement, which wasn't very comforting. Although, even he didn't seem to like the new activities director.

The campers whispered to each other. Ren knew what a chariot was. He had never ridden one, though. But they looked fun. And incredibly dangerous.

After that announcement, they all went to the campfire.

It was about the excitement level of the day when Chiron announced that Luke was a filthy traitor. Not exactly in those words. The Apollo cabin strummed halfheartedly on their instruments, the rest of the campers mumbling the words of a stupid campfire song.

It was not a good day.

It was only made worse when Tango went to the Hermits who were still in the Hermes cabin, told them something that made them exchange horrified glances, and then walked over towards Ren.