The Third Camp

Chapter two: Carrie

Fred led Hailey and I to the highway, away from the school. I knew the short way to camp, but Fred insisted in taking the long way. Hailey was excited.

She shouldn't be. Camp Ops is hard. They press you as hard as you can go everyday, give you almost three hours of sleep, then press you even harder.

We were heading to Area 51, as it was known among the mortals. As we walked along the road, I thought back on today. Just before lunch I had run into a girl who was rather cute. She was nice, too. That day at lunch, I was told by Fred that I had to collect the girl named Hailey. I had been given a picture of Hailey and went searching. I had found her.

With the girl from the halls.

Soon the girl from the halls had been distracted by her other friend and dragged away. I was scared. I had been told that Hailey was guarded by a friend who was a demigod, and would take her to Camp Half-blood as soon as she knew that Hailey was like her, but had not been informed yet. We called her Neptuna, seeing as that was her parent.

I had collected Hailey and told her of her power, then asked her to meet me after school.

After school I went to the back parking lot. I waited for a moment then took out my notebook. The foolish mortals had thought that it was just paper. It wasn't. I quickly drew a bird and peeled it off the page. I wrote a note and sent it off to Camp Ops. I heard footsteps and stuffed my notebook into my pocket. The footsteps stopped and there was a bit of shuffling, then Hailey walked out from behind the school. I could sense that the daughter of Poseidon was close. Fred came trotting up to me and transformed back into human form.

"Behind the bush." He whispered in my ear.

"Got it." I nodded.

So Neptuna was behind the bush. Hailey walked over to us, a slight bit of irritation evident in her stance. Had she been arguing with Neptuna?

"Good. You came." Fred smiled at Hailey.

"What was your name again?" Hailey asked.

Oh yeah, she had definitely been arguing with Neptuna.

"I'm Fred. Fred Wolfe. And this is Carrie Martin."

I nodded in recognition as my name was brought up. Hailey smiled at me warmly.

Oh, great. She think's I'm cute.

The curse of being a child of Apollo: Good looks for eternity.

But sometimes good looks can come in handy... Had Neptuna thought I was cute? Had my Apollo charm worked it's magic on her?

Why am I thinking this?

Only about a second had passed.

"Can you explain to me why we couldn't continue our conversation at lunch?" Hailey had turned to me. "Who was the 'they' you referred to?"

I was about to answer, but Fred answered for me. I drifted back into thought. Neptuna had been quite the girl. During science, when I had accidentally hit her in the ribs with a yardstick, she had hit me in the face. I was pretty sure my nose was still bruised a little. Then we were sent down to the principal's office for roughhousing. Neptuna had gained detention, and left the office laughing. I had convinced her to skip class, but instead we went back and sucked up enough that Neptuna no longer had to go to detention. I wondered absently how many times Neptuna had been given detention.

"...Camp Half-blood?" Hailey was asking.

"No. Not there." Fred disliked Camp Half-blood.

"Uhg, I hate that place." I mumbled. "They don't take anything seriously." I thought about the intensity of Camp Ops.

Suddenly I was yanked out of my flashback and into present times. We had reached the base of Mt. Limen.

"Carrie? If you'll do the honors?" Fred gestured forward.

I took my hands and placed them on a smooth stone. Hailey watched in awe as the stone became metal, and the dirt fell away to reveal a huge metal door. Fred assisted me in shoving the door open. It swung away to reveal the familiar dark cavern Fred and I were used to.

In the middle of the dark room sat a woman, known as Dius Fidus.

The goddess of oaths.

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Sorry for the short chapter but I hope you guys still like it!