The Second Jackson- Piper McLean book 1

Teddy Bears Tell The Future

Lani

On the way out of camp, Hazel bought me and Percy a chocolate muffin, a cherry muffin, an espresso drink, and a raspberry iced tea from Bombilo the two-headed coffee merchant.

Percy inhaled his muffin and drank his coffee, though I simply nibbled at my muffin and I was slow to drink the iced tea. Percy was looking around, probably thinking about sleep. I noticed one person saw the brand on my arm, they began pointing it out to the people around me. I shrank down, covering it with my hand and trying to focus on my food. Percy noticed my discomfort and gave me back his flannel. I smiled gratefully, slipping it on as he looked towards a building with steam coming out of a row of chimneys. Laughter and watery sounds reaching our ears.

"Bath house" Hazel explained, taking notice of our gaze, "We'll get you in there before dinner, hopefully. You haven't lived until you've had a Roman bath"

Percy sighed in anticipation, but I felt uneasy, deciding to finish my muffin and tea rather quickly now that there were so many whispering voices around us.

As we approached the front gate the barracks got bigger and nicer. Even the ghosts looked better, with fancier armor and shinier auras. I tried to decipher the banners and symbols hanging in front of the buildings.

"You guys are divided into different cabins?" Percy and I asked in unison.

"Sort of" Hazel ducked as I kid riding a giant eagle swooped overhead. "We have five cohorts of about forty kids each. Each cohort is divided into barracks of ten- like roommates, kind of"

I multiplied the numbers quickly, sometime math came easily to me, "You're telling me there's two hundred kids at camp?"

"Roughly" Hazel nodded.

"And all of them are the children of the gods?" Percy clarified.

"The gods have been busy" We joked in unison.

Hazel laughed, "Not all of them are children of major gods, there are hundreds of minor Roman gods. Plus a lot of the campers are legacies- second or third generation. Maybe their parents were demigods, or their grandparents"

I blinked, "Children of demigods?"

"Why? Does that surprise you?" Hazel questioned. Percy and I sharing a look.

"I don't know, I guess it just seems like a foreign concept" I shrugged.

"These Legos-" Percy started.

"Legacies" Hazel corrected.

"They have powers like a demigod?" Percy finished.

"Sometime. Sometimes not. But they can be trained. All the best Roman generals and emperors- you know, they all claimed to be descended from the gods. Most of the time they were telling the truth. The camp augur we're going to meet, Octavian, he's a legacy, descendant of Apollo. He's got the gift of prophecy, supposedly"

"Supposedly?" Percy questioned.

Hazel made a sour face "You'll see"

That didn't make me feel to great. Didn't this Octavian guy have not only my fate, but my brother's in his hands as well?

"So the divisions, the cohorts, whatever-" Percy began, not knowing how to ask our question.

"You're divided according to who your godly parent is?" I finished for him.

Hazel stared at us, "What a horrible idea! No, the officers decide where to assign the recruits. If we were divided according to god, the cohorts would be all uneven. I'd be alone"