craving |PERCY JACKSON| [book 1] UNDER EDITING

VI

BACK AT CABIN ELEVEN, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for dinner. For the first time, Percy noticed that a lot of the campers had similar features; sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. They were the kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers. 

Luke walked over to Percy, who was sitting on the floor with his Minotaur horn. He had the Hermes family resemblance, too. It was marred by that scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact, "Found you a sleeping bag," he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store."

Percy couldn't tell if he was kidding about the stealing part. "Thanks." He said,

"No prob." Luke sat next to Percy and pushed his back against the wall. "Tough first day?"

"I don't belong here," Percy answered, looking down at his shoes, "I don't even believe in gods."

"Yeah," Luke responded, understanding how the kid felt, "That's how we all started. And once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier."

The bitterness in his voice surprised Percy because Luke seemed like a pretty easygoing guy. He looked like he could handle just about anything, "So... your dad is Hermes?" He asked.

Luke pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and he scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. "Yeah. Hermes."

"The wing-footed messenger guy." 

"That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying Cabin Eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors." Luke explained and Percy figured that he didn't mean to call him a nobody. He just had a lot on his mind.

"You ever meet your dad?" Percy asked.

"Once." The younger boy waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell him, he'd tell him. Apparently, he didn't. Percy wondered if the story had anything to do with how he got his scar.

Luke looked up and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, Percy. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other. "

He seemed to understand how lost Percy felt, and he was grateful for that, because an older guy like him, even if he was a counselor, should've steered clear of an uncool middle-schooler like Percy. But Luke had welcomed him into the cabin. He'd even stolen Percy some toiletries, which was one of the nicest things anybody had done for him all day, besides Selena keeping him company and showing him around.

Percy decided to ask him his last big question, the one that had been bothering him all afternoon. "Clarisse, from the Ares cabin, was joking about me being 'Big Three' material. Then Selena. She said I might be 'the one.' What was that all about?"