Young Wild

Chapter I

Two Years Later

"Ok, bye Carman!" I called across the archery range to my best friend.

Yes, Carman. The girl with the curly, red, shoulder-length hair, cocoa eyes, freckles everywhere,  and the most amazing shot ever. The daughter of Apollo. The serious badass. My best friend. Too bad she came with the annoying boyfriend who she claimed she wasn't dating.

"See ya!" she called back.

I jogged off toward the beach where I was meeting Ryan; the kid who'd saved me from the ants that first day I was at camp--son of Demeter, brown hair that could only be described as "milk chocolate-y," and Caribbean eyes.

I was just coming over the rise when I saw the fortress. It was amazing. It was made of old palm branches and fallen tree boughs all lashed together into a teepee. There were tropical flowers all over it and the Long Island Sound came up to just about the open front. There were even the cheap little beach chairs I love inside.

Damn, this kid knew me.

I squealed and sprinted over to Ryan all dorky in his Camp Half-Blood shirt and awkward swim trunks. I hugged him.

"Hey to you to."

"Sorry. Hi." I slipped off my shorts revealing the bottom of my swim suit and dipped my ankles in the water. It felt really good to kick back after a long week of training. Ryan followed close behind.

We had a splash fight (I won) and then I decided to grab my book and read. Ryan, acting like the twelve-year-old he isn't, built a sand castle.

I pulled out one of my favorite classics and started eating the lunch he had packed for me. Chocolate muffins with peanut butter. I was three pages in when I caved. I leapt off my lawn chair and started helping Ryan with the sand castle.

It was already really tall with three towers and decorated and designed so that if it were like a mermaid's palace and it was under the sea and you swam by, you probably wouldn't know it was a palace.

I grabbed some seashells and placed them at the base and around the moat. I even found a sand dollar for the door. When it was done, I wanted to shrink down like a mini mermaid and live in it.

"I have an art class in an hour. We need to start cleaning up," Ryan pointed out.

I nodded and helped clean up. I didn't have to question his art class. I'd seen his art. He needed that help... but you didn't hear that from me. We were walking back to camp when Ryan pulled out a pink hibiscus and put it in my wave-tousled carmel hair.

"Perfect."

I rolled my eyes.

I went back to my cabin. It was almost time for dinner.

"So, here's our little unclaimed girl," called Travis Stoll.

"Shut up,'' said Connor elbowing him in the stomach. "You remember when we were still unclaimed."

"Yeah, but ever since that battle--Doesn't matter." I knew he didn't want to mention Percy. "Fact is, she should be claimed, but isn't. Parent must not want her."

"I think of it this way; all the gods are fighting over me. Your parent is stuck with you," I retorted.

"Sassy," calls Jill. The only other unclaimed in camp. We were bunkmates because of our shared mysterious parentage.

I smiled and plopped down on my bed.

At the pavilion, I hardly ate thanks to a belly full of chocolate muffins. I asked Chiron if I could be excused and I tell him I'm only going to my cabin to read. He approves.

I jog to the border to say hi to Peleus the dragon. I scratch his scaly little head and sit down next to him. My toe falls over the border. I look at Peleus. He gives me the you-seriously-would-not-even-dare look. I nod. Oh, yes, I would. I stand again. I push my leg across. Then half of me. I clap my hands above my head. Then I push my whole self across. I walk quietly until I'm far enough away. I start to sprint.

"EEEEEEEEEEK!" cries something in the distance.

Monsters. No, no, no.

"Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea!" I huffed, running as fast as my legs would carry me back to the border and Peleus and my safe warm cabin. But something catches me in the ankle. I trip and land face first in the dirt.

"Pleh! Pleh, pleh!" I spat, dirt flying from my mouth. A worm wiggled away into the soil and I touched my lips horrified. 

"Sorry. But, you know you can't just leave camp like that!" scolded Carman. "You really need to be more careful."

"Ah, the scariest of monsters," I said standing up and walking away. Over y shoulder, I called, "I really don't care I got permi-"

And then I tripped again. This time, I tried to catch myself with my other foot, but I was too slow and awkwardly uncoordinated. I landed wrong on my ankle. Hard. 

"Ow! Ow, ow, ow!" I screeched. Louder than the monsters.

"Oh, my gods! Adds, are you alright?"

"I-I, I think I broke my dignity. And maybe my ankle," I whimpered rubbing my throbbing ankle.

"I'll snap it back into place."

"Wha--OUCH!"

"Sorry. Had to be done."

"Addalynn!" Ryan. 

Good. My big goon. He can help me back to camp.

"Good, Ryan! Help me."

He sighed.

"Please? Before it's too late and I never walk again?" 

"Melodramatic, are you?" he grunted, lifting me from the ground and dragging me back to camp where Chiron waited impatiently by the border. 

"You're mad, aren't you?" I asked as Ryan set me down and wrapped an arm around his shoulders so he could help me to the infirmary. 

"No. I'm not mad. More... disappointed. I trusted you, Andrews. I got you that book so you would try to sneak off." 

I bowed my head and limped away. 

"Great. Now watch what Karma drags in," Carman grumbled and walked off.