The Daughter of Apollo

Chapter Six: Training Music and...Clowns?

Chapter Six-Training, Music, and....Clowns?

Connor was just dragged out of the Hermes cabin by a....clown? A clown?

The cabin burst into hysterics....until Travis met the same fate. The clown apparently decided one close-enough-to-a-twin wasn't enough. She had to have both. Katie won't like that. Blake and Daniel were on the floor laughing. Two other guys couldn't breathe. And Drew-being Drew-stood there texting away not noticing a thing....wait. Was that a red light? Oh, gods, he's videotaping it! This is gold! YouTube here I come!

Two more high-pitched screams erupted from outside. I stopped laughing long enough to look out the window. The clown had her claw-nails at the throats of the Stoll Brothers, who were whimpering like my older brother's puppy.

I stopped laughing to realize Drew (Aphrodite) had tried to fix her make-up after my make-up explosion, and the best she could do with it was a clown. Priceless! I grabbed my phone out of my jean pockets-thank gods I charged it a couple nights ago-and snapped a few pictures with it.

Then, being the nice person I was, pulled the window open and jumped out.

"Hey! Drew! Since when did you join the circus?" I laughed.

Drew glared at me, which looked funny with her clown make-up making it look like she was smiling and happy. Sort of like the Ronald McDonald clown.

"For your info, newbie, these two did this to me as a prank."

The Stolls shook their heads no.

"No! We didn't! We all stayed up last night-except for Jaycee over there, who went to sleep immediately. You can ask....DREW!" Travis shouted, his voice higher than it should have been.

"How am I supposed to ask myself?" Drew growled.

"No, not you Drew! That Drew!" Conner complained. I looked over my shoulder to see Drew-my brother in the window, videotaping or texting.

Drew (Aphrodite) spotted him and put on a very flirty smile. "Yoo-hoo! Drew! Could you come here a minute?"

My brother didn't even look up. He kept his eyes on the cell's screen.

I chuckled. "He's already taken. Madly in love if you ask me. Well, as madly in love as you can get when you're 18."

Drew (Aphrodite, man this is getting confusing!) glared at me, then Drew's phone. I laughed again.

"YO! DREW!" Drew looked up from his phone. "Get your lazy ass over here!" I shouted at him.

Drew jumped out of the window as I had and made his way over here, his eyes back on his cell's screen.

"Hmm?" He asked when he was next to me at last.

"We need to ask you a few questions."

"Mm'kay."

"What were you all doing last night?" Drew (Aphrodite) demanded.

"Well, we were all sitting in a circle, pretty much hanging out. Travis was teasing Connor about Ja-someone." Drew glared at Conner, as if he did something wrong as Conner flushed a deep ripe apple red.

The daughter of Aphrodite looked at Connor with interest. "So you like someone?"

"Uh...well...ummm...." The certain son of Hermes said intelligently.

"Oh, yeah. You've got a crush." Drew (Aphrodite) nodded. "If it's me, you're not my type." She flicked her hair behind her shoulder and stomped off; leaving the head counselors, me, and my brother alone, the only sounds being the sound of typing and birds.

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Two hours after training started, and I knew people were watching me about as secretly as Travis's hidden camera-which is to say, not so secretly.

The problem wasn't that I wasn't good at anything. It was that I was. In foot racing I always started with a burst of energy. In the mile run at school, I was always in the lead for a good three laps before the burst of energy was depleted and I could barely stand.

Canoeing was as easy as sleeping.

The rock wall with lava was definitely not as easy, but I managed to get to the top without getting completely scorched.

Pegasus riding? Pretty much the same as the horse-back riding I did when I was younger. The only difference being the whole these-horses-can-fly thing. I had even struck a bond with a pure white Pegasus with a golden mane.

Sword fighting and archery seemed to be, though, my top strengths. I beat quite a few of the Athena campers and half the Ares Cabin in sword fights, with many cuts, bruises, and some possible scars, as souvenirs. I had been taking a lot of fencing lessons lately, so I figured I had a bit of an unfair advantage. In archery class, I placed top, getting all bull's eyes, beating out the top Apollo archers.

Even though these classes were odd to me, they seemed about as natural as math, or science, or history, and all the classes came as easily.

Either I was plain weird or just plain talented, cause I didn't even truly try. But half-way through my classes I got bored and just tried not to die in the sword fights.

Head Counselor Drew the Clown would occasionally throw me a few clown smile/glares, while I laughed my head off.

After a while, Connor and Travis dismissed us for a 'free period', so I headed down to the beach, where I knew it would be peaceful-unless Percy and Annabeth were there-so I could clear my thoughts. Since I was going down there, I changed into jean shorts, and grabbed a towel, my song book, and a pen to write with.

I made my way down to the beach when I heard the soft strumming of a guitar coming from the Athena Cabin.

Must be Meg. I thought. Maybe she'd like to come with me?

I knocked on the door, and an eight year old boy answered. He had round Harry Potter glasses and a book bigger than an encyclopedia in his hands.

"Yes?" He sniffled as he wiped his nose on the back of his hand.

"Is that Meg playing the guitar? Is she in there?"

"Yes. She is. Why?"

"Well, could you get her for me?"

"Why?"

"Just get her for me."

"Who are you?"

"Jaycee Carter. Now can you get Meg for me?"

"Why?"

"Just get Meg!"

"What's the magic word?"

Of course. I closed my eyes as I mentally rolled them.

"Please? Can you please go get Meg for me?"

"Alright."

The little boy walked into the cabin closing the door in my face. Five seconds later, Meg opened the door guitar in hand and an irritated look on her face.

"Dillion just shut up! You don't need to know why everyone does and doesn't do stuff!" She screamed behind her.

She threw me an apologetic look. I just waved it off.

"So, what's up?"

"Well, I heard you playing your guitar, and I was just about to go down to the beach to write some lyrics. Want to join?"

Meg smiled widely. Ever since we were little we decided we wanted to be musicians. We discovered each other's talents. We could both sing, but she played guitar, and I wrote lyrics. When we tried the other way around....well. It wasn't pretty. I ended up buying her a new guitar.

"Sounds great! Let's go before Dillion asks us why."

We laughed and headed for the beach together, Meg strumming on her guitar lightly and me jotting down notes and lyrics. Words for either stories or songs.

Maybe we'd write a song about clowns...I smiled, inwardly laughing to myself.