Camp Half-Blood (A Percy Jackson Fanfic)

Chapter 8: Game, Set, Match

I'd officially been at Camp Half-Blood for two weeks. The little boy, the girl who was only a few years younger than me, and the preteen boy, had all been claimed.

I was really surprised when the little boy ran around the archery ring with a flaming sign above his head. I didn't imagine that that's how the claiming took place. I thought it was some big ceremony.

Clarrise was overjoyed, to say the least. "That's my brother! This little boy's gonna be a fighter! I can tell!"

But I was even more surprised when the little girl screamed in the middle of the night with a golden lyre gleaming above her head. Luke informed me that Apollo had claimed her.

The preteen boy got claimed at dinner the night before. Almost immediately after we finished eating. Hermes had claimed him, so he didn't have to worry about packing a bag like the other two had.

But me and the other girl were still unclaimed. Which was getting on Percy's and Chiron's minds, as campers were supposed to be claimed before the age of thirteen. And while I was fifteen, I guessed that the other girl was around sixteen.

Luke was persistent with activities. I did great at archery, never got (seriously) burned on the climbing lava wall. No one could come close when we raced in canoes (besides Percy, but I thought he'd cheated). Sword fighting was a breeze and crafting came naturally, though that wasn't a skill that many people didn't possess.

My parent must have been a -no pun intended- god.

It didn't help my relationship with the other girl at all. She wasn't especially good at anything. At least, anything she actually tried. She seemed like she had a quick mind and she was fairly good on the rock wall, but she didn't seem particularly interested in anything else.

She was my partner for nearly everything, Luke said it was because since I was pretty much ok at everything, it would inspire her to try to compete and do better.

It didn't really work.

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Percy and I talked a little since the Amphitheater incident. He was much nicer to me, but a lot more secretive too. He was hiding something. And I was going to find out what.

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"You don't actually go to school there. Do you?" I asked him, pointing to a high-rise that looked like the school building.

We sat on the hood of my car, facing the New York skyline. It was peaceful, and didn't at all make me homesick, this was home now after all.

He looked at me. Smirked, and then set his gaze back on the horizon. "Nope." He said, popping the 'p' sound.

"Then what do you do?" He shifted uncomfortably on the hood of the car.

"I-I used to hop around schools a lot." I raised my eye. What did he mean?

He laughed, "I mean, I didn't exactly go to the same school year after year."

"Oh. How often?"

He looked at me again. His face full of happy shame. "Eight schools in seven years." He laughed again.

Oh. Wow.

"I've got one school in one day."

We looked at each other and burst out laughing.

The rest of the night was spent telling jokes and laughing and telling stories about ourselves. Percy had been in a huge mess the pervious year. A war in New York. A whole war, right on our doorstep. And we'd never noticed.