☾ The Child of Artemis ☾

6. One Child of Artemis Jumps on the Bed

          I ran back to my cabin, shut the door, and ran to the one bed in my cabin. I climb onto it and jump on it. I'd say the only good thing about living in the city is living in a house with a bedroom with a bed. Really, you can have some fun jumping on your bed. (Hunter opposes my idea. Nigel is neutral.) I attempted a flip, then all of a sudden, the cabin door opened at the wrong time. "Cabin inspections," the yellow stick eating guy says.

         I slam my head on the floor. "Hello," I said stupidly, still on the floor.

        "You know, your cabin is supposed to be clean when we do cabin inspections." he says in a serious tone.

          "But," I stood up to confront him, "I didn't know and my cabin is plenty clean."

          "But," he states, "your cabin is not clean, neither are you, and your bed is messed up."

          "But," I argue, "I am too. And so is my cabin and the bed."

          "Go take a shower and organize the cabin."

          "I don't know what show wars are."

          "Shower. It's when you clean up and put on clean clothes."

          "I'm sorry, I don't think any of that will happen."

          Yellow stick eater, which I realized was Nico di Angelo, glared at me and left. I glared back before he left and decided not to do what he said. A few minutes pass with me standing there, doing nothing, until I hear a knock on my door. I took a little peek, and the Asian girl I saw earlier, waved at me. She had her hair cut shorter than mine, and wore blue rimmed glasses.

         "Is the son of Artemis here?" she asked.

          I opened the door slowly and replied, "Yes."

          "Um..." she started, "do you have any advice on the Hunters of Artemis?"

          "No, I don't know about the 'Hunters of Artemis.' "

          "I was thinking about joining, but I decided not to, kind of."

          I let her in my cabin and said, "What are Hunters of Artemis?"

           She came in and explained everything about the Hunters of Artemis. "The Hunters of Artemis are a group of girls who swear to stay single forever and ever in return for eternal youth. You still can die from other things like injuries. They go out hunting with Artemis, basically, like sidekicks. I thought about joining, but was reluctant because of two reasons. One, none of the hunters like boys very much and I'm afraid that I will hear some trash talk about them. Second, there are no other boys in the group, lessening my chance of making some friends."

          "Wow, did my mom tell them to hate boys so very much?"

          "Yeah, I am interested in the hunting and archery part, but I want some good, permanent friends. I just make better friends with boys."

           "Maybe I can persuade my mom to let some boys join, but for now I guess we can be mates?"

          She smiled. "Sure. I'm Faith Ford."

          "Nico McAngelico."

          We shook hands and she left, but I followed. I took a good look at Camp Half-Blood. Some of these activities didn't seem so bad. I learned some Ancient Greek, then did some other stuff that I don't remember or care about. The worst part was lunch. I sat alone at my own table this time. Everyone was whispering about me. Most people said that my birth was a big mistake. I was not so happy about that. Also, Mr. D. was on lunch duty, so he just stood there complaining to himself. I snuck over to the Apollo table, and didn't get a very friendly welcome. Nico di Angelo glared at me. "Nico, don't glare at him," Will Solstice scolded.

          "Hi, Nico," Uncle Apollo whispered.

          He chuckled a little. "Can I sit at your table?" I asked.

          "Sure," everyone agreed, except Nico di Angelo who grumbled, "No."

          "You aren't so welcoming to me, di Angelo," I told him.

         di Angelo rolled his eyes at me. Will gave him a warning look. "Why aren't you welcoming?" I asked di Angelo.

          Will had to answer for him, "He's not in his best mood today."

          di Angelo spoke back, "Not in my best mood today?!" He pointed at me. "He did terrible at cabin inspections! I told him to go take a shower, and I can tell that he didn't do that! But also, he keeps glaring at me and giving me rude looks!"

          "You do it too!" I shot back.

          "I did not!"

          "Did too!"

          Will mediated the argument between me and di Angelo. "Both of you, please stop. I don't want you two arguing."

         "Go back to your table, Nick Marinara!" Mr. D. demanded.

          "Okay, Mr. Pee." I said loud enough for everyone to hear.

          Some campers laughed, including Faith Ford. Mr. Pee growled at me and we exchanged glares for a while. I didn't eat a bite of my food, and lunch was over. After lunch it calmed down a bit. I had wrestling, (I beat the crud out of my brothers. Nigel cried because he didn't win, that idiot.) and wood-chopping. (I was the best at it since I have chopped wood in the jungle before.) Next was free time. I met some new campers. Annabeth and Malcolm were Hunter's siblings. Nigel had two other girls that were his sisters. I had no other siblings at all. Annabeth introduced me to her boyfriend, Percy.

          Percy introduced me to his sister, "This is my sister. All I can say is that she is annoying, but funny sometimes."

          His sister, I knew already. "Hullo, Nico." Faith Ford said.

          "You're the daughter of Poseidon?!"

          "Yeah. I like Cabin 3. How do you like Cabin 8?

          "Huh?"

          "The Artemis cabin. How do you like it?"

          "It's got some nice beds..."

          I shouldn't have said that because Hunter was right next to me. "Nico... you did it didn't you?" he sternly said.

          "Did what?" I lied.

          "Sorry, I have to deal with my brother, but also not my brother." Hunter quickly said, dragging me to my cabin.

           I did not like the fact that Hunter called me "his brother, but also not his brother." "Hunter, am I in trouble?" I asked, sounding innocent.

          "Yes, because you jumped on your bed again!" he scolded.

          Let me tell you that this happens all the time. "I am okay though."

          Hunter felt my head and pointed to it. "No, you aren't! I can feel your lump! Did you know that you get lumps on your head because—"

          He told me this fact many times before, so I decided not to listen. "Hunter," I said after he told me his amazing scientific fact on why you get lumps on your head, "you know that I will never listen to you, ever. Because I'm older."

          "Sentences do not start with coordinate conjunctions: 'because,' 'and,' 'or,' 'but,' 'yet,' and 'nor.' You're only older by a few months, and you're shorter. I have to play big brother since you won't be a big brother."

          I ignored him and left. He actually has never been this annoying before. Leaving my cabin, I overhear Faith talking about some other camp. "What other camp is there?" I ask her.

          "I'm sure you'll have fun there. My friend can teleport you there in no time."

         "Okay, where's your mate?"

           di Angelo taps me on the shoulder and sighs. "I'm her friend."

          He teleports me to the other camp.