HERE IT IS!

Yayy! Sorry this took forever, school has been chaotic :P But I'm back now, and so is this storyyy!

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero.

You would think that after 10 months of sulking around camp and spending my days summoning random spirits just to have a conversation, I would be happy when summer rolled around and campers returned for their vacation. Ecstatic, even.

But when Percy knocked loudly on my cabin door after his arrival, waking me up at the ungodly hour of 10 a.m., the only thing I felt was annoyance.

"Nicooooo?" he called out. "Where art thou, uh, Nico?"

I attempted to grunt in reply from where I was buried under a mound of blankets, despite the warm summer weather, but if I did manage to make a noise it was inaudible to my dearest cousin standing across the room.

Unsatisfied, he decided to annoy me even more and flip on the light switch, causing the room to flood with obnoxiously bright light.

I didn't respond, and soon enough I heard footsteps making their way towards me. Before I knew it, he had dragged me out of bed and was forcing me to come outside and greet all of our (a.k.a. his) friends.

Walking outside, I was almost trampled by all the campers running around and greeting their friends and siblings with hugs and screams of delight. You could hear everybody sharing stories about their school year, what they got for their birthday, their numerous failed relationships, and various other boring things. Aphrodite girls squealed joyfully and complimented on each other's new haircuts and outfits. The sky was cloudy and thunder boomed loudly, but that didn't seem to dampen anyone's good mood.

It all annoyed me to no end.

Camp Half-Blood looked like an entirely different place when there were more than just fifteen campers.

The quiet, empty cabins were now filled with campers rushing inside to claim the best beds, or ones next to their favorite siblings. The volleyball court that nobody bothered using in the cold winter weather now had a few young boys playing on it. Thalia's tree, which had stood on the top of the hill alone for so long, was now crowded with kids saying goodbye to their parents or lugging their luggage out of the camp van.

I spotted a few familiar faces in the crowd, but most looked new to me to me. A couple of the new kids looked a bit overwhelmed by the amount of demigods running around and screaming. A pair of boys looked at each other nervously, and a little girl clung to an older kid's side. When I first came to camp I was overjoyed, so I couldn't quite understand why one kid that stood off to the side looked like he was about to empty the contents of his stomach.

I ignored him, and kept walking alongside Percy. He had just graduated high school a few days ago. That is, unless this past year has gone unbelievably horrible for him and he ended up flunking every class. Honestly, I wouldn't put it past him.

But we all know that didn't happen, since he has a genius daughter of Athena as his girlfriend just a phone call away; who I'm sure was more than happy to help him when he decided to procrastinate on writing an essay for US History, or maybe an assignment for calculus. Really, it could be anything and she would have no problem spending 3 hours on the phone with him trying to help him pass his senior year.

Speaking of this brilliant girlfriend of his, he had insisted before we go to the dining pavilion we had to go and meet up with her. Annabeth had arrived a few days before, and was in the Athena cabin most-likely working on some architectural masterpiece that would blow the minds of all the college professors she would soon have.

I quietly followed Percy to the familiar cabin, silently hoping no more annoying kids would come up and ask if he was really the guy who saved Olympus. It was really horribly irritating.

Percy had already seen Annabeth – since she was obviously the first one he visited once he got here earlier this morning – so luckily there was no disgusting romantic moment when we walked through the door. He walked over to Annabeth, put his arm casually over her shoulder, and pecked her on the cheek. I rolled my eyes, and sat down on a trunk sitting in front of a bed.

"Nico and I were going to get some food, so we decided to drop by and see if you wanted to come." said Percy. She smiled for a moment, but then frowned.

"I would, but I really have to finish this math packet first." she picked up a thick packet off of her bed and waved it in the air.

"Math packet? But… it's summer!" I told her, as if all of the academic junk that she memorized had taken up so much of her brain that there wasn't any room for remembering the seasons.

She sighed, "Obviously. But if I'm going to one of the most prestigious schools in America, I have to come prepared! I can't just hope to remember everything I learned from grade 1 to 12! I have to practice, practice, practice!" she insisted. Percy glanced over at me; we both knew she was being ridiculous and that she graduated as valedictorian of her high school, but once she gets something into her head there's no convincing her otherwise.

"Alright," Percy started, "Well, we can wait, right Nico?"

"Uh… I guess…" Really, I didn't want to. But as pathetic as it was, I had nothing better to do than sit here and wait for my cousin's girlfriend to finish her math packet in the middle of June. What has my life become?

Annabeth smiled. "Awesome. Okay, it'll only take me a few minutes, I promise!" She sat down at one of the many desks and working spaces in the Athena cabin, and began quickly scribbling down answers and mathematical equations on the packet, flying through page after page.

And still, it began to bore me.

Percy was fine; it seemed he had become accustomed to this. He sat down next to her and watched as she effortlessly solved question after question.

Soon campers started coming into the cabin and talking with each other. I guess they were all used to Percy constantly being in the Athena cabin, but they stared at me like I was a 5-headed hydra (that's actually a bad example, because when you see a five-headed hydra you don't stare at it, you run away as fast as you can).

I ignored the rest of the campers, but was immediately bored.

After 2 minutes, I began to tap my foot.

After 5 minutes, I started to play with a pencil on the floor until I got bored and snapped it in half.

After 10 minutes, I resorted to pacing around the room.

After 15 minutes, I had laid down on one of the beds and tried to see how far I could throw a crumpled piece of paper up into the air without it hitting the ceiling.

After 20 minutes, I stood up, walked over to Percy and said,

"Okay, if this is how we're going to spend the rest of the day, I think I'll just get back to my cabin before it's too late." I mock saluted them and turned to leave, but unfortunately some idiot had decided to leave their trunk right behind my legs. As I attempted to pivot and turn, I tripped and fell onto someone else, knocking them down with me.

I stood up, prepared to shout out angry accusations and try to make it look like I wasn't as clumsy as it had just appeared, but I was momentarily surprised when I stared down at the victim of my fall and immediately recognized the familiar face.

"Jill?" A roll of her eyes assured me it was in fact Jillian Mistero, daughter of Athena and possibly the most sarcastic girl alive.

"Wow. You remembered my name. Now I feel so darn special!" she replied and held out her hand, waiting for me to help her.

I grabbed her hand and pulled her up, which was when I realized she had grown. Like, a lot. Last year she had just been leaving her awkward early-teen years, but now I could easily picture her strutting down the halls of high school (although I know she would probably be hurrying to class – rather than strutting – so she could get a seat up front and begin copying down the notes as oppose of mingling at the lockers, but still).

"Déjà vu, eh?" she said.

I stepped back (almost tripping over the stupid trunk again, but luckily managing to catch myself in time) and gave her a closer look. She was dressed in the same horribly unattractive orange t-shirt as everyone else, and she had on denim shorts and converse; which, if memory serves right, was close to what she wore almost every day last year. But this time around, she looked so… different.

Her skinny kid-ish legs were now longer, fuller, and more muscular (but not in that disgusting women body builder kind of muscular, more like she was doing a whole lot of running in her spare time). Her hair was still blonde and wavy, but instead of being pulled back into a ponytail or sloppy bun, it was down and hung over her shoulders and down to her back. I knew it wouldn't be that way for long, since she had an array of colorful hair bands hanging loose around her wrist.

Before I could notice any other changes, Annabeth had stepped over the trunk and was giving her sister a hug.

"Look how much you've grown! You look like a model!" Annabeth gushed.

"And look who we have here, Miss High School Graduate!" said Jill, causing Annabeth to grin.

While they were talking, I slipped past them and snuck out of the cabin and into the chaos that was Camp Half-Blood. Two kids ran past practicing their swordsmanship, while the one of the cabin leaders ran after them, shouting "No! You can only use your swords in the designated areas! Stop!" I laughed, because he had bigger issues to deal with than two reckless kids being idiots.

Like, for example, the Hecate girls standing next to a few daughters of Aphrodite, making a "magic perfume" that they said would set a love spell on any guy that got a whiff, but would most likely turn the eager teenage girls into rabbits for a day. In fact, they something similar last year to a few unsuspecting sons of Apollo; the Hecate girls told them it was cologne that would turn them into "chick magnets". It did, actually. But only if by "chick" you mean "bird".

For two whole days they had flocks of winged creatures chasing them around camp.

It must've been horrible for the poor guys, but it was hysterical to the rest of us. That's what they get for trusting daughters of Hecate. Has everybody forgotten about Circe? You know, that crazy daughter of Hecate that used to turn guys into pigs, but then got even crazier and started to turn them into guinea pigs instead?

Annabeth still tells the story of when "C.C" turned Percy into a helpless rodent, and she had to come to the rescue while the oh-so-wonderful son of Poseidon was 4 inches tall, sitting in a cage with a hamster wheel.

It really was quite entertaining to hear while sitting around the fire.

I walked past a girl giving directions to the bathroom, and another who was telling a new camper that at night werewolves come out of the woods and if you forget to lock the door they'll come inside and eat you. I smiled at the horrified expression on the kid's face.

I ditched the idea of going back to my cabin, and decided to head over to the dining pavilion instead. I was tired of eating nothing but potato chips and soda, and decided to actually have a meal for once. I didn't know how long Percy and Annabeth would be, and I really didn't feel like waiting for them, so I just sat down and ate possibly most delicious meal ever made: pizza, waffle fries, and a chocolate milkshake.

Like the beginning of every summer, Chiron calls a camp meeting in the afternoon to welcome new and old campers, and talk about the camp rules. Having already heard the speech 3 times, I spent the majority of the time picturing what it would be like to have wings; even though they wouldn't be useful to me, since if I ever got over 2,000 feet into the air I would undoubtedly be shot down with one of Uncle Zeus' lightning bolts.

So we all sat around the campfire like a horrible clichéd summer camp movie, and listened as the Apollo kids attempted to get everyone singing along with their songs. But everyone was too excited, and you could barely hear the poor kids trying to sing over everyone's talking. Eventually, Chiron gave up and dismissed everyone for the night.

A daughter of Aphrodite already had her arm around a muscular guy, while two daughters of Demeter sat on the steps to their cabin and braided flowers into their younger sister's hair. As I walked past and the flowers began to wither, the sisters glared at me. A son of Apollo, Jason, strummed his guitar happily as he made his way back to his cabin. Travis and Conner attempted to herd all of the new unclaimed campers into the cabin; but everyone was pushing and shoving so they told all the campers that all the noise they were making would attract the harpies. The kids shut up and made their way in quietly.

I walked into my familiar cabin, and laid down on the soft bed. From a few cabins over, I could hear some girls gossiping about the cute new campers and somebody having an argument over who was stronger.

I smiled. Everything was back to normal.

At least, for a little bit.