The Hunters of Artemis: The Return of the Hunters

Chapter 5: My Choice

The dinner bell rang and all the campers came out of their cabins in lines. Anna and Jack had to do the same and I saw Anna come out of the Athena cabin as Jack came out of the Aphrodite cabin. So that's why he has movie star looks!

I saw Anna smile at me before I followed her into the dining pavilion. I still hadn't chosen which cabin I would be in, but after meeting a few more campers from each, I think I knew which one was the better contender.

Twiddling my thumbs, I stayed on the skirts of the pavilion, watching the other campers do their thing. It would be better to watch and see what they do than to try and do the same and mess up and embarrass myself.

They all did very strange things. Getting their food, they stood up, table by table, and threw some food into a fire. Why would they waste food like that? Did they know how many starving people there were in Haiti, Africa, India? It was insane.

"Hey." I turned and saw Colin next to me. I looked forward, trying to ignore him. "Listen, Rhea. I'm sorry about what I said earlier. I shouldn't have been so rude to you."

Yeah, you're darn right about that. Instead of saying that, I said, "It's okay... I suppose..."

"If you want you can come and eat with Cabin 7 and me." 

I pretended to think for a second before accepting his invitation. "Fine. Just don't make any comments about who I am. 'Kay?"

He nodded. "Gotcha." He led me over to a table of girls and boys who smiled welcomingly at me. I could see a few similarities, like the way they smiled: easy-going, not strained. Also, I noticed something else. Almost all of them were blonde. Like me. There was the odd redhead or brunnette in there, but there were mostly blonds. It was... almost familiar. I smiled back and sat next to a nice looking blonde girl with blue eyes. 

"Hi," I greeted. 

She smiled. "Hi. I'm Willow Jenkins. What's your name?" The name certainly fit her. She was tall and slender, with thin, nimble fingers and feathered hair. 

"I'm Rhea Montgomery. Have you gone here long?" I asked, grabbing a knife to cut my brisket.

She nodded. "Ever since I was eleven. I'm fifteen now."

"This is my first day. I'm thirteen and... well, it's going to take some getting used to if I'm being honest..."

Willow laughed. "Don't worry about it. It always does." 

For the rest of dinner, we talked about our lives before camp, and she told me about the Apollo cabin. From what she said, it seemed like a nice place to stay. I think I might like it here...

______________________________________________________

One Month Later

It was August, and the sun shone down and beat on the volleyball pit where I was helping the Apollo cabin win against the Demeter kids. It wasn't hard. These people played soft while we were out to win. 

I cheered as I slammed the ball over the net and it crashed into the sand, giving the Apollo kids the winning point. "Woo hoo!"

"Nice one," said Colin. His blond hair was plastered to his face with sweat, but he grinned at me. He'd gotten a lot nicer in the past month. He treated me like a normal person, and even a friend instead of a mutant he had been forced to take care of, which is how he treated me for the first few days.

"Thanks," I replied. 

I heard clapping off to the side. I turned adn saw Anna grinning at me. "That was awesome, Rhea!"

I gave her a thumbs up. As the players dispersed, I walked through the sand to retrieve my shoes, which I had taken off halfway through the game. 

 Anna flipped her brown hair and smiled. "Come on. Apparently there's someone here to meet you."

"Who?"

She shrugged. "No idea."

A boy ran up to us. "Hey guys. Did you tell her?" It was Jack: my other best friend at Camp Half-Blood. 

"Yup. We're heading there now." Anna's green eyes melted a little when she looked at Jack and I could tell she had a crush on the son of Aphrodite. Then again, who wouldn't? With his floppy brown hair and killer smile, he had half of the girls falling for him.

Together, we walked up to the Big House, where I saw Chiron sitting in his wheelchair talking to a very familiar man. 

"Dad!" I cried, breaking off from Anna and Jack and running towards my father. 

He turned around and grinned. "Hey, girlie! How're you liking camp so far?"

I smiled. "It's been great. I just won volleyball!"

"Good for you, sweetie!" 

I looked around for the person I noticed was missing. "Hey... Where's mom? And why are you here? Not to be rude or anything..."

Dad looked down before sighing. "That's... That's why I'm here. Your mother... Mom's been kidnapped."