The Daughter of Apollo

Chapter Three: My Cousin is Awesome

Chapter Three-My Cousin is Awesome

He stood there, talking to a girl with blonde, curling hair, whom I'd seen only in pictures he'd shown me. He and the girl hadn't noticed me and Meg standing there, frozen in place.

For what felt like years, the girl's eyes flickered toward us for a millisecond, and she and my cousin were now turned and staring at us, as we stared back at them.

I didn't know what I should be feeling. See, his mom married my uncle, making his mom my aunt and him my cousin. So it generally surprised me to see him in a place like this. His messy black hair all in his face, covering his eyes that always gleamed with happiness. But behind the happiness, you could sense the sadness. Maybe that's what attracted all the girls. Last time I visited, I swear I saw half of New York teens staring after him as he and I walked back to my uncle's apartment.

The girl was the first to speak. "Uh, hello. You guys must be the new campers Nico was sent to get." She, like everyone else has so far, stuck her hand out for me to shake. I again just stared at it, not moving, frozen like a statue. Meg on the other hand, took it. "I'm Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."

Meg nodded, like she expected that answer. "Meg Andrews. Un-claimed."

"S'okay. You're what? 14? You'll be claimed by the time campfire comes around tonight." Annabeth then turned to look at me. I was still staring at my cousin, drinking in the fact that he was here, in this place.

Meg snapped her fingers under my nose. I shook my head, out of my trance. I stuttered, "J-Jaycee Carter."

Annabeth looked me up and down, and it felt as if she were looking through me and staring directly at my soul. Looking at and reading every secret I have or had like I was a book. I shuddered, feeling uncomfortable.

"Annabeth, you're obviously making Jaycee uncomfortable." My cousin spoke up. I shot him a 'thank you' look. Annabeth blushed a little.

"Sorry." She muttered.

"S'okay." I sighed, relived that she stopped looking me over. Then my cousin surprised me even more by pulling me into a big bear hug.

My arms were down at my sides in the awkward position that clearly said, 'GET THIS WEIRDO OFF ME!'

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Meg holding back her laughter, doubled over even, in her futile attempt not to crack up. I could also see the surprise and shock displayed on Annabeth's face.

When my cousin had pulled back from his death hug, I almost killed him. He knows I don't like to be touched, and people interaction just really wasn't my thing.

"PERSEUS JACKSON! You know I don't like to be touched!" I screamed in his laughing face. Annabeth looked confused, and maybe a little angry.

"Percy," Annabeth said calmly, tapping her foot in impatience, "is there something you forgot to tell me?"

Annabeth's lips formed a thin line, and I instantly knew that Percy was going to be in big trouble.

"Uhh, well, Wise Girl, you see, Jaycee is my cousin. She's Paul's niece." Percy explained, with a sheepish smile on his face. I noticed Annabeth relax a little, but her expression was still hard and stern. Percy let out a nervous laugh.

"Well, will you look at the time? The sun's going down already! How time flies when you're learning about a whole new world of Greek Mythology!" Meg chuckled nervously, and pushed me towards the pavilion, where you eat meals, when a conch horn blew in the distance.

Percy and Annabeth walked together, hand-in-hand, a few steps behind us, deep in a whispering conversation that only the two of them could hear.

"So, your cousin is a demigod." Meg started. Then she held her hand out to me like she was holding a microphone. "How does that make you feel?"

I tried not to smile, and did my best to keep a straight face. "Well, it was quite a shock." I pretended to wipe away a tear. "But I guess we always knew it," I patted my heart now, "right here."  

Then we started to laugh. We were laughing so much we had to stop to catch our breath. When were finally able to accomplish breathing normally, we trudged forward again, Percy and Annabeth ahead of us now.

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When we stepped into the pavilion, some of the noise stopped. Lots of people looked over at us. Some looked like they were placing bets on something, cause I kept seeing a constant exchange of money. I looked up and scanned the tables looking for Connor and Travis.

They were kinda hard to miss.

Connor was waving his hands wildly, and Travis stood on the table, feet carefully placed so as to not step in food and was shouting our names, but was drowned out by the sounds of everyone else's conversations. I quickly grabbed Meg's arm and dragged her over to Travis and Connor-who were calming down, seeing as we were speed walking over.

As we passed, quickly and-mostly-silently, people would stop and stare at us long enough to get a feel for what we looked like. I saw a few boys staring at Meg, and I noticed her obvious blush. I could feel the eyes of a few people myself. I instantly felt a little self-conscious.

I hadn't done my best with my black-brown hair, now glinting red in the sun light. It was down and ratty and tangled. My clothes were obviously tattered, cause that's how I liked it, but they weren't the best fashion statement. I could already see the looks of disgust from some girls at one table. Though I noticed one girl I recognized, Amber, sitting there smiling at me. I gave her a small wave.

We were a few steps away from the Hermes table. Just a few more steps and maybe people would stop looking at us.....

But Mr. D chose that moment to stand and make an announcement. He said from his seat, "We have two new campers, Jocelyn Casey and Marie Adrian...." Chiron whispered something in Mr. D's ear. "....er, I mean, Jaycee Carter and Meg Andrews. That is all."

Now everyone was looking at us. Some were whispering. The same girls at the table with Amber were pointing at something we were wearing and laughing. I pulled Meg the rest of the way to the Hermes table where Connor and Travis were sitting, eating their dinner peacefully.

I kept grumbling about stupid fashion-obsessed girls, and their clown faces, and their immediate gag-reflex perfume.

I sat down in the empty seat next to Connor, and filled my plate, when I noticed some people getting up and going somewhere. Were they going for seconds?

Connor nudged me, and I got up and followed him to big fire, ablaze in a vast assortment of oranges and reds and a little blue signaling that it was really hot, that was so beautiful and matched the sunset perfectly.

I noticed people scraping their food into the fire and muttering something. Meg stood behind me looking just as confused as I felt. Why would someone burn their food? Aren't they supposed to eat it?

Soon, Connor was up. He scrapped part of his food into the flames and muttered, "Hermes," under his breath. I was up next.

I scrapped part of my food into the inferno, not knowing what to say, so I just said, "My dad...whoever he is."