Tales of Camp Half Blood

Tale 14; Ares Cabin Pride

News broke early in the morning about the new kid that had arrived overnight. Tatiana of Yugoslavia and Matthias from the Apollo cabin had apparently left in the middle of the night to go heal some newbie in the infirmary. A newbie who apparently killed the Minotaur all by himself with no training.

Sherman hadn't believed it at first, but the news had come from Tatiana of all people. She wasn't the type of person to go around spreading false rumors like the Stoll's or Cecil. Annabeth and Chiron being absent from breakfast only added more credence to the gossip, and by the time they were done eating almost everyone at Camp believed the rumors must be true.

And oh gods, Clarisse was not happy about it. Which meant Sherman wasn't happy about it either by association. This kid shows up and beats one of the most dangerous monsters on his first day? It was utter bullshit, Sherman may have only been at camp for six months, but Clarisse had been here for four years. If anyone deserved the chance to prove their worth fighting a monster or going on a quest it was his big sister. Not the newbie, and certainly not that stuck up Athena girl Annabeth either.

There wasn't much anyone could do about it until he got with the program and woke up though. So Sherman found himself stuck playing volleyball with some of the other kids at around midday despite the fact he wanted to march up to the big house and give this new kid a piece of his mind.

They were playing a two v. two game, with Sherman and his sister Loretta on one team, and Connor and Will on the other. Normally he wouldn't choose to hang out with the youngest son of Apollo, the guy was like a smaller version of his older brother. And Lee Fletcher might be nice and laid back, but he was also so self-righteous and strict about rules. And it seemed Will was very set on emulating that attitude as well. It was always, ' you can't say that it's too mean', 'don't push Drew just because she doesn't like your idea', 'Lee said we're not allowed to do that.' On and on and on.

But if he wanted to play with Connor, then he had to deal with Will as well. The two of them were best friends somehow. Sherman would never get how a troublemaker like Connor ended up as Will Solace's best friend, but here they were.

He was about to serve the ball when suddenly Will blinked in surprise and nudged Connor's shoulder, "that's him!" He said in a hushed whisper. Sherman's eyes darted to where Will was pointing to see Chiron walking down the hill with a kid at his side.

If it weren't for the Minotaur horn clutched in his hand then Sherman would have never placed him as the new kid everyone had been talking about. He was probably a year or two older than Sherman, so around Clarisse's age, and he had messy dark hair. But the guy didn't look like much as a whole, he was scrawny and disheveled with a somber look on his face.

"That's him?" Loretta snorted, her tone matching Sherman's sentiment, "he looks like a wimp."

As if he could hear what they were saying, the kid's eyes darted over to them. His frown only deepened and he soon turned back to listen to whatever Chiron was telling him.

Seeing him in person only made Sherman more mad, the least he could do was have the decency to look tough or prove that he was worth getting to fight the Minotaur.

He glanced at Loretta, raising an eyebrow and his sister met his gaze with a smirk. This kid wouldn't last a day at camp, and now that he was finally out and about it was time he learned his place here.

"Gotta go, see you later," Sherman called to Connor as he and Loretta began to walk back towards the cabins as quickly as possible.

"What!" Connor groaned, "but we just started playing!"

"It's ok," Will assured his friend cheerily, "we can go get Mary and Lacy to play. I'm sure they'd be happy to!"

Sherman scoffed as they walked away, now he was really glad he wasn't sticking around with them. The last thing he wanted to do was hang out with that insufferably bubbly Aphrodite girl and Will's timid sister.