Owl and Snake (EXTREMELY SLOW UPDATES)

Chapter One

It's Monday. The official worst day of the week. It doesn't matter that it's the last week of school. I'm tired and not at all ready for four more days of torture until it's the weekend again. As if to make it worse, it's cold out, so the entire middle school is stuffed into our cafeteria, which can only comfortably fit a third of us. My sister Elsa and her friends' table was full, so I'm over at a seventh grade table by myself. Where's Juniper? She should be here by now.
Juniper has been my best friend since last year. She helps me when the words just float off of the page, and she's always been the one to stand up for me when other kids are laughing at my ADHD.
She also hasn't been late once, and it's March.
I check the clock again. It's 8:09. Only three minutes until the bell rings. The cafeteria doors aren't opening more often than once a minute. Almost everyone's here.
Another seventh grader fills in the last spot at the table.
I bite my lip and twist my hair around my finger, nervously tapping my foot. The lunch ladies start to roll the breakfast carts back into the kitchens.
It's 8:11. The bell will ring any second.
The doors slam open so quickly, I think that the door stoppers are going to break off. Juniper is standing in the doorway, scanning the crowd. Normally she would quietly slide into the seat next to me, since she's almost late. But she doesn't. She stands there looking for me, her head high, completely calm.
Sometimes I wonder if I really know her.
Her eyes slide across the crowd before sticking on me. She marches over, grabs my wrist, and with ridiculous strength, drags me out.
I don't know what to think. Did I forget to study for a test that's worth twenty-five percent of my grade? Did I forget to finish a project, or are History quiz corrections due? What could possibly make Juniper act like this?
She drags me out the door and into the parking lot. What's going on? Juniper isn't old enough to drive. Is she?
No. She's not going for a car. She picks up a potted tree. What? She dragged me out here to pick up a potted tree?
I think that it's a Juniper. Maybe this is supposed to be symbolic.
She skids to a stop and starts talking to me rapid-fire, not at all the easy tone she usually uses.
"Alyssa. This will be a lot to take in, but, um, the Greek gods are real, and their children are called demigods, and you're one of them, and demigods get chased around by monsters, who can only be dead for so long, and the only safe place for demigods is camp Half-Blood, and you're a demigod, and we need to go there." She stops to take a breath. This can't be true. I must be dreaming. Where did all the sanity go? This isn't Juniper. Juniper isn't completely mental.
There's only one thing to do. I don't know if this is a dream or it isn't, but I'm going to treat it like it's real. So I step closer to a panting Juniper.
"So, if all this Greek stuff is real, what are you?"
"I'm a dryad. See? Here's my tree. It's only a sapling, since I needed it to be portable, but still." She waves her hand at the potted tree. So I was right! It is a juniper tree! But perhaps it isn't just for symbolism.
She runs over to the curb and throws what looks like a gold coin into the street, saying something too quiet for me to make out. The coin disappears into the asphalt, and a gray taxi appears, almost out of nowhere. Juniper climbs in.
"Coming, Alyssa?" She holds out her hand, but I don't take it. I plop into the seat next to her.
I reach down to buckle my seat belt, but instead of the normal plastic kind, these are metal chains. I decide I can live without it, or hopefully so.
I glance up to get a look at the driver, but there's three women up there. They all loom really old, with grayish sagging skin. They cackle and ask Juniper where we're going. Juniper says the camp name that she mentioned before, camp bloody or something. The car skids out into the street at about a million miles per hour.
I buckle my seat belt.
There's a lot of bickering going on up front, but I'm too afraid for my life to tell why. I close my eyes and pull my knees up my chest. Most dreams don't feel this real.
I pull my head up just enough to check on Juniper. She's only slightly pale, holding on to the chain seat belt in her hands but not buckling it. She leans a little into the turns, but otherwise looks just like she always does in the car - a little carsick and a lot bored. How come she isn't freaking out too? The Juniper I know would be. She's be screaming at the top of her lungs. But she just sits there swaying, and I'm starting to get worried for her. Did someone hurt her?
The cab swings to a halt on a dirt road, right in front of a huge tree. Juniper grabs my hand and drags me out, snagging her sapling as we go. We cross past the tree, and Juniper visibly relaxes. Her shoulders fall into their normal position, and her hands unclench. I didn't know how tightly wound she was. How well do I really know her?
She keeps pulling me, down a hill and over to a big blue farmhouse. She starts yelling as we get nearer. Juniper. She's yelling. This can't be right.
"CHIRON! CHIRON! I'm back, and I brought her! CHIRON! Where is everyone? CHIRON!"
We get to the house and she drags me up the front steps. Really bad music from the seventies spills out the open front door. Juniper shoves me in.
A white horse waits for it. No. Not a white horse. A brown-haired man. No. A centaur. It's a centaur, from mythology class. He turns the dial on the radio, and the volume drops. "Juniper? You're back?"
"Yes. I've brought Alyssa. She's a demigod, clearly."
"Oh, good. Has she been claimed?"
"No, but she's clearly a daughter of Athena. She's afraid of spiders, likes to make plans, insanely organized, and crazy smart. There's nothing else for her to be!"
"Ah, well. Before we're sure, she should go to the Hermes cabin."
"What? But Chiron, she deserves to be where she belongs, not with all those thieves. Really!"
"We need to be sure."
"But Chiron!"
"No."
"But -"
"No."
"Please -"
"No."
"Chiron -"
"NO."
Juniper falls silent. I don't know what to think. What do I say? What's going on?
She looks at me apologetically. "I'm sorry, Alyssa. You have to go to the Hermes cabin, where all of Hermes' kids stay. They're thieves, Alyssa. Don't mess with them." She looks so disgusted.
I follow her back out the door, and she leads me to a U of cabins. I don't get a good look at them because she immediately leads me to a normal-ish building with peeling paint. She pokes her head through the open door.
"TRAVIS! Get out here!"
A tall-ish boy with curly brown hair steps out. His face is decorated with an evilly mischievous smile, and his eyes glitter in a way I don't like. "Chill, Juniper. So it's a newbie?" He glances at me. "Claimed?"
"No. But she's clearly a daughter of Athena, so she won't be stuck in here for long. Don't steal too much of her stuff, please."
"Of course not." His grin widens and he steps off to the side and moves his arm in a grand gesture, like he's presenting the room. There's way too many kids for this one room. There's barely any floor space left, let alone bunk space. The boy points to a spot on the floor. "You can have right there."
I step over a whole bunch of grumbling people. They glare at me, but they let me by. I plop down in the little spot. The guy joins me.
"I'm Travis, head of the Hermes cabin." He holds out his hand, and I shake it. When he pulls back, my hand feels cold. At first I think it's just the absence of his hand, but she. I glance down at my hand, there's no diamond ring on my pinkie. Just a brilliant ring tan. I jump to my feet and glare at Travis. He stands up too and waves the ring above his head, calling out teasingly as he backs away. Everyone circles up, clearly expecting a show. I'll give them a show.
I jump at Travis, and he falls onto his back, rolling so I'm underneath him, but I use his momentum to keep us rolling. We keep going, bouncing about the room as we grapple for my ring. I finally pull it out of his sweat-soaked hand and kneel on his chest triumphantly, putting the ring back on my finger. I slap him, hard, before standing. I can already see the beginnings of a bruise where my hand hit him. I feel a kind of smug happiness seeing the look on his face - a mixture of shock, anger, and respect.
"Hey Connor! This newbie slapped me!"
A replica of Travis appears. He's the same, all the way down to their freckles, but somehow the look on his face is sexier. I have to stop myself from blushing. Since when was I such a girly-girl?
Travis points at my hand mark on his face, and Connor cracks up. "What did he try to steal?" He gives me a sideways glance, and I realize that he's talking to me. I can barely catch my breath.
"My diamond ring." I hold up my hand so that he can see my pinkie. His smirk gets wider and sexier.
"Ooh, Travis, looks like you messed with the wrong newbie!" He laughs, and rolls his eyes at me. Oh god. "Sorry about him. Try not to be offended. He's like this to everyone." I can't help but make a snappy retort. He's hot, sure, but I'm still me.
"And somehow, by some ridiculous misfortune, no one has slapped him? I'm honored." I curtsy as best I can, and Connor is clearly having to force himself to not laugh. Travis looks extremely offended.
"Hey! Some ridiculous MISFORTUNE?"
Connor smirks again. "She has a point, Travis." He turns to me. "Welcome," he says with a bow, "to the Hermes cabin. I hope you enjoy your stay."
"Oh, the fun has already begun." I let out a smirk of my own and turn to walk out. I turn from the door, to find Juniper or maybe just explore, and behind me I hear the Hermes cabin erupt into cheers and laughter. I smile a little. I'm glad I could entertain them.
I wander through some strawberry fields and then stroll down to the docks. I sit down at the edge, hanging my feet off over the water. I swing my gray converse. They look so normal, the same shoes I was wearing this morning before everything went insane. They haven't changed. But I have.
There's some pretty girls at the bottom of the lake, and I'm not even surprised that they're there. They wave, and I wave back.
Someone taps me on the shoulder. It's one of the girls from the Hermes cabin.
"How can I help you?"
"Do you need help finding someone? You look so lonely down here. I can show you around if you want. I'm, Emma, by the way."
"Oh, a tour would be great! Thank you!" I breathe a sigh if relief. It's good that people are here so nice to me - I don't know what I'd do otherwise. I'm glad I don't need to find out.
She offers me her hand, and I take it. I walk beside her back up the dock.
"That was pretty cool. What you did back there, I mean. None of us would have done it. Well, as much as I'm qualified to say 'us'. I'm unclaimed."
"Well, you must have been there for a while, right? I think you can count yourself as one of them. And it is a diamond ring, after all. It would be horribly expensive to replace."
Emma laughs. "I guess. But really, no one has ever gotten their stuff back. Ever. You might want to double-check that he didn't take anything else."
I pat all of my pockets - my phone is there, my wallet is there, my crumpled up math homework is there. Nothing's missing. I tell Emma so.
"Wow. That's really odd. He never let's anyone off that easy. No one else has ever slapped him, though." She gives me an appreciative smile. "It's already purple, you know."
"I refuse to be guilted. He deserved it."
Emma laughs. "Maybe he did."
I work up my nerve. "So, Travis's twin was the one who came out and laughed at him, right?
She laughs again. "Yeah, that's Connor." She gives me an odd look. "You're lucky he thought you were cute. Normally people who slap Travis get a slap from Connor."
If I had been holding something, I would have dropped it. "He thought I was cute?"
The look on my face must be ridiculous, because Emma takes one look at me and cracks up. "You think he's cute! Wow. He's going to like this!"
"Excuse me, you're not going to tell him." I give her the sternest look I can muster. She giggles.
"Yes, I am!"
"If you tell him, I'll give you a copy of my hand on your face, too."
She giggles harder. "Okay, okay, I won't tell him. But trust me, I will blackmail you with this every chance I get."
I glance to my right. It's an arena, kind of, and there's dummies everywhere. I point to it. "You wanna go?"
"C'mon. We'll get you a sword."
There's a shed full of swords and knives and bows. I see it immediately. It's a beautiful bow, wooden but wrapped with gold. A quiver of golden arrows waits beside it. I pick them up, and Emma raises her eyebrows. "A sword, silly." I huff and pick up several. None of them suit me, and even though Emma doesn't know much about sword fighting, she agrees with me. We walk over to the Hephaestus forge, and she gives me all of the gossip about Camp Half-Blood (it turns out it's not called camp bloody). When we finally get there, I know all there is to know.
Emma knocks, and a Hispanic boy with curly brown hair opens the door. He's cute, but not really my type.
"The super McShizzle at your service."
"Leo, this is Alyssa, and she's new. Can you make her a sword?"
"Sure!" He rubs, his hands together, and sparks jump between them. I guess he's a person who can control fire? Nothing could surprise me anymore.
We follow him into the building, weaving between worker after worker, until we finally get to wherever Leo decided we should stop. His hands begin to flame, and he melts metals, measures my wrist, my fingers, my palm, my weight, and my strength; he has me swing a sword a few times to get a sense of what I can do (almost nothing). He glances up at me while he works. "So you're the one who slapped Travis?"
"Yes." I don't know if I should be proud or scared, but Leo nods, impressed.
"That guy needs a good smack every once in a while. You don't have a bruise, though. Didn't Connor slap you back?"
"No."
"What!?!?" He gives me a closer look before nodding knowingly. "Ah, he thinks you're cute."
Emma laughs. "He so does. And Alyssa thinks he's cute too! It's so funny, since Connor always slaps people back. ALWAYS. And he didn't!" She laughs some more, and Leo joins her. I turn an odd shade of red.
"Leo, is the sword done yet?"
"Yup. Here it is." He hands it to me, hilt first, and I flip it between my hands. It feels perfect.
"C'mon, Emma! Time to see who's really the better sword fighter!"
When we get back to the dummies, there's a black-haired boy and a blonde girl sparring. It's insane. How does anyone do that?
Emma leads me to the opposite side, and randomly slashes with her sword. I slash back. Soon she's pushing me, trying to get under my guard, but I block all her strikes and make a few of my own. Soon she's backing up, trying to stop me from hitting her, but then her back hits the wall and I knock her sword out of her hand, pointing my blade at her heart. She laughs between pants.
"You're sure you've never done this before?"
"Very."
She slides to the ground, and I plop down next to her, panting. Emma gives me a little smile.
"Maybe you should try against someone better than me."
"Like who?"
She points at the pair of older kids sparring on the other side. I shake my head. "No way."
Emma grabs my hand and drags me over to them, before asking if I could spar with one of them, her voice rising to a yell. They stop and look at me.
"I haven't seen you around. What cabin?" The blonde asks.
"She's unclaimed. Just got here today."
"Why don't you do it yourself?" It's the boy.
"She already beat me."
The blonde laughs. "Okay, then. I'll do it. Over here?"
I follow her over, a again, she initiates it. Maybe that's what you're supposed to do. She's clearly not struggling, but she seems surprised when I try to make a few passes of my own. She laughs.
"Wow, you're a natural! I'm Annabeth, by the way."
I don't have enough breath to reply, but I think she understands. She laughs again, and strikes with a particularly good aim.
I don't know how I know what to do, but somehow I see that her guard is pretty low because of the strike, and if I can twist my sword just so-
Annabeth's sword clatters onto the ground, and her eyebrows shoot up. "Good grief, Alyssa. So you've never done this, ever?"
"No."
"Hey, Percy! Come see what this girl can do!"
The black-haired boy walks over. He's cute, I guess, but not like Connor. More like a rebel, like the skater boys at school. He's too old, at any rate.
"She's not half bad, huh?" He glances down and sees Annabeth's sword on the ground. One eyebrow disappears into his hair. "Did you drop your sword just now, or did she knock it out if your hand?"
Annabeth turns pink. "She knocked it down."
Percy turns to me and uncaps a pen, which elongates into a sword. I frown in confusion. "Can mine do that?"
He laughs. "No, I don't think so. Who made it for you?"
"Leo." Emma steps into our little circle, saving me from saying I don't remember. Annabeth nods appreciatively.
"He did a good job. It's an impressive sword. Somehow it suits you."
I look down at the sword. I guess it does suit me. Maybe? I'm not sure. It looks a little too strong, too powerful. I'm just your typical eighth grader.
But if I was a typical eighth grader, would I have been able to do that with my sword?
I look up, and Percy's looking at me expectantly, like he wants me to say something.
His left side isn't guarded.
I swing my sword up so that it's almost touching the side of his neck. "The element of surprise means the upper hand." I lower my sword. "And the upper hand means you don't die."
Percy stands there, and I think he must be in shock, but with a movement so fast that I almost miss it, he swings his sword at my arm, but somehow my sword is there first, blocking him. We dance across the arena, using everything we can for leverage. We aren't playing by the rules.
I drop to a crouch, and he swings his sword down. Height is always an advantage - I know that much. But I can work with it. I roll to the side and then to the front, whizzing past him and hacking at the backs of his knees before I roll to my feet. He barely stops me from chopping off his tendons. He smiles and starts to fight harder. He's just been warming up.
When his sword is finally pointed at my throat, we're both drenched in sweat. Before he can announce his victory, Annabeth's little dagger is at his neck. He freezes.
"See, Seaweed Brain," she says with a smile, "Most demigods don't travel alone."
Soon we're all laughing, and Percy smiles at me admiringly. "You're really good, for a beginner. You'll have to take some sword fighting classes." I just nod. I can't talk yet. He seems to understand, and he helps me up.
Emma grabs my arm. "We need to get back to our cabin, or we'll be late for dinner." She drags me back to the Hermes cabin, where she gives me a hair tie so that I don't look like a hobo. A conch shell sounds (I know what a conch she'll sounds like from marching band drills), and we line up, with me at the end since I'm the newest. We march out to the dining hall, which is actually more of a pavilion, with a table for each cabin. I slide in next to Emma, and she shows me how they drop their best food into the fire for the gods. We giggle our way through what looks like a home-cooked meal, the kind that a health freak would make, but still delicious. When we all gather around the campfire, laughing and singing together, I feel like my definition of home has been completely altered, and where I used to live, with Elsa and mom and dad, will never really feel like home again.