The World Has Changed : Percy Jackson

New Friends

Percy POV

I pulled my two friends in the front door.

"Chiron, these two helped me before.. Well, you know." I run my hand through my hair. "The tall guy is Avery and the girl is Samantha, Sammie for short. I'm pretty sure both of them are demigods."

Chiron smiles, "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood! Percy, next week the Gods want to have a meeting about your quest. I'd advise you to stay here tonight, and go see your mother tomorrow.

Guilt washes over me at the mention of my mother. I'd left her for two years without any kind of message that I was O.K.

"Yeah. I want to see Mom." I say.

Chiron scratched his beard. "Percy, a couple of weeks ago the mother of a child of Apollo was killed in a car accident. The baby was brought here and, well, I was wondering if you would ask Sally to take care of the child until she's old enough to come to camp."

I nod excitedly. "Yeah, of course!"

"Good! Now, I believe these two need a tour from the best demigod camp's ever had." Chiron chuckled.

"Yeah, well I'd be glad to do it for him, instead." I earned a punch in the side from Sammie.

We spent the rest of the day strolling around camp and I got beat up a few times for leaving, but I didn't mind. I took my friends to the climbing wall and raced to the top (I won, obviously) and we went to the strawberry fields to sneak a few for ourselves. Finally, I took them to the ocean. It was sparkling with a light I'd never seen before. There was no surprise when Sammie relaxed completely in the sand. Avery started building a sand castle along the water's edge. I was impressed with the detail he put into it.

"You could be a Hephaestus kid." I commented.

Avery smiled, "Yeah? I do like making things."

I nod, "Tonight at the camp fire you may be claimed."

Both of them looked excited. I already knew who Samantha's parent was, but it needed to be kept secret for now or there may be trouble. The conch horn sounded in the distance.

"Come on. I think I can let you two sneak in at my table. They usually don't allow new campers to sit anywhere but the Hermes table, but you two are special."

Sammie giggled and Avery rolled his eyes, "Sounds like a stupid rule to me."

"It is." I agreed.

We all plowed up the beach and towards the pavilion. Both of them looked extremely confused at the empty dishes put before them.

"These plates are magical. You think of whatever you want to eat, and voila! there it is. For example," I thought for a moment. Boy, I really missed food while I was gone. "Pepperoni pizza with extra cheese, please."

Four slices of perfectly made pizza appeared on my plate and my cup filled with blue cherry coke.

"Cool!" Avery said a little too loudly.

"Oh, and be sure to always order extra. We make offerings to the Gods and Goddesses. Apparently they like the smell."

Samantha gave me a funny look. "Burnt food smells good? Ew."

I just shrug, "Don't ask me." She giggles.

Samantha ends up ordering a piece of chicken with fries and a pickle on the side. Avery gets a cheeseburger with double on all the toppings. That kid is skinny, but don't let that fool you. He eats like he's starving all the time.

When we get up to the brazier, both of them want me to go first. I scoop a slice of pizza in the fire and say a quick thanks to all of the Gods and Goddesses then pour half my cherry coke in for Hestia. I step to the side and let Avery go. He took half the toppings off his burger and slid them all in. He tossed in a couple of chips for good measure. Sammie picks off a chunk of everything and murmurs quietly to herself. We all sit and eat in silence. My mind wanders off to thinking about our journey and the pain I went through. Sammie snapped me out of my vision.