The morning was already warm and humid at dawn. The sun peaked through the thick barrier of trees at the edge of camp, just at the perfect spot to shine bright in my eyes. I trudged along on the dirt path, hands curled around a giant cup of camp coffee. The ice had already melted and the condensation on the side of the cup was dripping down my fingers. Still not the worst I've ever had.

As I squinted past the sunlight, I could see Elena in the distance. She was with Kayla, a daughter of Apollo, taking practice shots at the archery range. There were a couple other kids, mostly Kayla's siblings- Eric, Will, Jack- and one or two Ares kids. Since I didn't want to interrupt their early morning practice, and also since it was too early for any words that came out of my mouth to make sense, I waited. I sat at the base of a particularly large pine tree and took small sips from my mug.

The only reason I was up at such a horrible hour was the fact that my classes officially started today. It wouldn't be long before I was expected to have everything ready, even though most of the kids I was teaching weren't even at camp yet. I wasn't even sure how many to expect for the first lesson. To top it off, despite the few days that had passed since I made the order, the macaroni still hadn't arrived yet.

Which led me to archery, at seven in the morning, on a Tuesday. Or, more importantly, to Elena. Toward the end of the lesson, or practice, whatever, I stood up from my spot and made my way over. "Hey Elena," I greeted, resting my hand on her elbow as she was putting her things away.

She jumped, and looked at me with startled eyes. "Emilie," she said, surprise coloring her tone. "What are you doing here?"

I looked over her shoulder to see Eric, who was staring at us. He quickly turned away when he caught my gaze, flushing bright red. "I'm up early to get stuff ready for my class. I was hoping everything would be here by now, but…."

"But?"

"The macaroni isn't here yet," I said quietly.

There was a beat of silence, and then a quiet snort. My eyes snapped back to Elena, who was trying to cover up her laugh with her hand. She must have seen something on my face, because she quickly said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but you have to admit that this is hilarious."

"It doesn't feel hilarious. How am I supposed to teach without macaroni? I'm ruined!"

"Oh, don't be so dramatic. I'm sure you'll be fine. There's still hardly anyone at camp, anyway. I'm sure you could improvise." Elena zipped up the last of her things into her bag and stood up straight, slinging it over her shoulder. She shifted her weight, motioning for me to follow her. I did.

"How do I do that?"

She rolled her eyes. "I have no idea. The kids are, like, seven right? They'll do whatever you say. Make them outline stuff. Or do your laundry." She laughed at her own joke, but it wasn't a horrible idea…

"Elena," I said suddenly, "you're a genius. I could kiss you."

"Please don't," she said, wrinkling her nose. "Are you really going to make them do your laundry?"

"What? Oh, no. But! Outlining is totally a bullshit lesson. It'll teach them patience, or something."

She and I talked for a few more minutes, walking to breakfast together. Since I was a more sleep-now-eat-later kind of girl, it was rare that I ended up attending the meal at all. Breakfast was a lot less strict than dinner or even lunch, with kids coming and going as they wanted for a few hours, sitting with anyone at any table.

I poked at some scrambled eggs and basically inhaled five pancakes. Elena talked about how she's been "really improving at her archery lately" and how she "hit the target three whole times." It didn't sound too impressive, but compared to her record of about zero target shots for the past six years, I would agree on an improvement. That is… if I actually believed her. No matter how much she said about the morning lessons and her inner zen, I was still convinced she was making it up, especially since the three shots happened before I arrived to watch that morning.

And, okay, it was a little bad, but I tuned out after a little while. I was still listening, sorta, but my attention was pulled away by Mr. D's table across the dining pavilion. There were three people sitting there, including Mr. D himself, his son Pollux, and his daughter Camy. Pollux looked half-asleep still, eating his cereal but not really all there yet. Camy looked really enthusiastic, talking at her dad about something really disgusting, and Mr. D looked like he wanted his whole body to melt into the floor. He rubbed at his temples and looked like he was counting down the seconds until he could leave.

It wasn't surprising. Mr. D looked and acted way different from his kids. Both Pollux and Camy had blonde hair, although Camy's was a lot darker than her brother's. Pollux was always more laidback and quiet, especially after his twin brother died. Cami had always been… very interesting. With the open pavilion, you never had to wonder how awkward their family meals might be. The clash of personalities was left out right in the open, for everyone else to see.

After breakfast I made my way to the arts and crafts section of camp. My lonely picnic table was there, plain and bare, so I grabbed a long sheet of paper (you know, like those cheap restaurants have on their tables) and laid it across. Then I threw down some crayons because it was all I could trust those seven-year-olds with at the moment.

It didn't take long to prep everything. When I finished, I sat down on the bench and waited, twisting my hands together, not quite nervous but… okay, nervous. This was the first time Chiron had ever expected me to be responsible for anything. Or anyone. Chiron put more faith into us demigods than we maybe deserved. But it would be fine, totally, completely fine. I could totally handle it. I was an Adult.

So I waited at my table, my leg bouncing, waiting for the kids to arrive. It took twenty minutes, but a group of them all came at once. It was a line of four, all of them smiling and talking to each other, and I quickly jumped to my feet. I smoothed down my camp t-shirt and tried to look like I deserved being in charge (I didn't).

"Hello," I greeted with a smile, counting over them. Yes, definitely four, three boys and a single girl. The boys looked like triplets, with sandy blond hair and dark green eyes. The one in the middle had his two front teeth missing.

The kids greeted me with a chorus of hellos, and found their way to the table, sitting on the bench that was too big for them. The girl seemed to be taller than the boys, and the boys all squeezed together on one side and the girl on the other. I assumed she wasn't related to them at all with her jet black hair and dark skin. We wouldn't know for sure she was claimed in a few years.

I clapped my hands together, gathering their attention. "All right, kiddos! Today we're going to practice drawing pictures before we get to any fancy gluing. On the table is some paper and some crayons, and you guys can draw whatever you want to make macaroni art of later, okay? Any questions?"

One of the boys raised his hand, "What do we draw?"

I forced a smile. "Anything you want, uh…" I squinted, "Bradley?" I thought that was the right name. He didn't correct me so I took that as a good sign. They were the Hermes triplets that arrived two days before and were claimed as soon as they entered the camp borders. Chiron was not thrilled to hear about it, they would give him a lot of suffering in the years to come.

Bradley raised his hand again, "What if we don't know what we want?"

"Then draw whatever you can think of."

A pause, then a raised hand. I sighed, "Yes, Bradley?"

"I can't think of anything."

The others had already started drawing. "Then draw what you see. Draw the trees, or draw me." He squinted his eyes at my face, and then nodded, scribbling furiously. His tongue stuck out of his mouth in concentration.

I sat back down at the empty spot at the end of the table, watching them. After I gave my instructions, I didn't do much else but make sure they were where they were supposed to be. I didn't feel much like a teacher, more like a… glorified babysitter. But babysitting was a lot less stressful, so it felt like a small victory for me. At least Elena was probably in the same boat I was, I could barely see her all the way across the lake.

Peering over the table, I took survey of what the children were drawing, a bit curious. The boys' art didn't look like much of anything just yet, but I was at a weird angle. Bradley was hunched over his, and his brother… was tracing a rock. I wasn't sure when he had gotten up to get the thing, but he was curving his crayon around the edges of it onto the paper. I frowned. It wasn't even a good rock. I would have picked a better one.

The girl, though, swerved lines across the table with her left hand. She looked like she was doodling some sort of bird, which was a start. She didn't look like she hit her head too many times so she was immediately promoted to my favorite student.

Exactly fifty-five minutes later, class was officially over. I shooed the students away, watching them walk to their next class long enough to see their backs disappear. I turned back to the table to examine the final results:

Definitely a bird. The triplets drew some sort of… mess. The rock outline was the best, and the portrait of myself looked like a lumpy cloud or something Picasso would draw. The drawings looked really sad, mostly, but they would have to work. I gathered the long paper, folded it up carefully, and tucked it into my clipboard with the rest of my things for the class.

I hoped the macaroni would arrive in time. I wasn't sure how many classes I could do without actual instruction. Someone was eventually going to find out that I procrastinated too long.

Oh well, today was done. I wouldn't have to stall for much longer.

Just kidding. Apparently I was gonna have to stall for a lot longer.

I was in the arena, in the full armor, practicing wrath blows with my borrowed sword when I got pulled aside by Percy. He was the instructor, just having made it to camp in time to teach his first class. When he showed up, he was still in his shorts and camp tee-shirt, a duffle bag pulled across his shoulders. I had asked him if he had unpacked yet, and he laughed a little, and said, "No way. I'm here to avoid my responsibilities."

"With more responsibilities?" I had asked.

"Yep!" he said enthusiastically, and sent us to fight as he got his armor on.

So I thought that was our once-a-summer conversation, the one that usually happened when Elena awkwardly leaves us alone together. When Percy pulled me out of the way, I was a little surprised by what he had to say.

"Sartey wants to talk to you." He pointed his thumb over his shoulder, and I leaned over a little bit to see a satyr pacing back and forth, right outside the entrance.

"Why?" I whispered, pulling my helmet off.

Percy shrugged, and said. "No idea. Good job on your technique, though. See you back inside."

"Thanks—" I started to say, but he was already halfway back to the class. I left the arena, my armor clacking against itself. When Sartey saw me, he immediately bucked up straight. He looked like every other satyr on the planet, scruffy and skinny, with questionable fashion choice and extreme anxiety.

"Are you Emilie?" he asked.

"Yes," I replied, raking a few fingers through my tangled hair. The helmet was really hot, so my sweaty hair stuck to my face. At least there was a nice breeze to cool me off. "Percy said you wanted to talk to me?"

"U-uh, yeah. You got a call at the Big House."

He stopped talking, and I waited a few moments for him to keep going before I realized that he wasn't going to. "Who was it?" I asked, crossing my arms impatiently. The armor made it kind of difficult, but I was determined.

"Some macaroni company."

I rolled my eyes, "Okay, what did they say?"

Sartey pulled out a piece of paper from the front pocket of his fanny pack and bent over it, reading it aloud to me. "Hello, this is Mac from Roni Inc., looking for an Amalie Reynolds—no, sorry, Emilie. Just wanted to tell you that you don't… actually... have a legitimate address. Normally I'd think that this shipment is a prank, but you already paid for it? So, we'll get it to you. Somehow. It'll just be a while. Anyway, feel free to call us back to clear this up. Thanks."

"That's… very specific," I said after a moment, processing it.

"I remember phone calls perfectly," Sartey said. "Ever since a scary mortal mother called looking for her son and I screwed it up. Never again," he said darkly, looking into the distance.

"Okay," I said strangely, looking behind me and seeing nothing there. "Well, thanks."

He nodded, and then promptly shoved the whole piece of paper into his mouth. I turned around on my heel to head back to practice, but turned back around in one complete circle to ask, "Did you get the callback number?"

Sartey looked at his empty hands where the note was, and then said though a mouth full of paper, "No."

I let my face fall into my hands. Great.

Practice after that was mostly just getting out all of my nervous energy. I had a macaroni class with no macaroni and no backup plan. Percy, seeing my torment, asked what was wrong and suggested I use the dozens of spaghetti boxes in storage. Who did he think I was? The spaghetti art teacher? I would be ruined twice over.

After I exhausted myself, I went and showered, and then chilled out around the hearth with a few other kids. It was later in the day, and as the sun started to set, the air settled into a nice temperature where the heat from the flames wouldn't make your face melt off. Not that Hestia would allow that, at least. Hearth-related deaths didn't do much for familial morale.

It was maybe an hour or so later when Elena came back, fresh from the beach. She was actually wet for once, dressed in her shorts and bikini, a towel around her shoulders. She liked getting wet sometimes, felt closer to the ocean that way (and the fact that the sea salt made her hair look great, and she loved walking through camp showing off how pretty she was to all her exes.)

She looked pretty tired though, so I only ran to catch up with her on her way back from the showers. I had to walk twice the speed to keep up with her long strides. "Where were you?" I asked, because she was only supposed to be gone for a few hours, not all day. I needed to tell her— "Percy's back!"

"I know," she said distractedly, "I saw him in our cabin."

"Oh," I said, and asked, "What do you think's for dinner?"

"Probably barbeque," she responded, as if it was every different.

"Fair," I replied, and we went off to eat dinner, separating to our own tables as soon as we got there.

Surprisingly, for the first time since graduation, Nico was at the Hades table. "Nico," I said, more amazed than surprised, "What are you doing here?"

"What are you talking about?" he asked moodily, as if he thought I would take the attitude from him. His expression was all sorts of sour, his nose scrunching up the way mine did when I was unhappy, and his long hair covered the glare that was probably in his eyes. Even if I didn't know him as well as I did, it would have been obvious that he was pouting.

"Um, I don't know if you've realized this, but I haven't seen you in like six months since winter break. I don't even think you live in our cabin anymore—the only thing of yours in there is that creepy skeleton hanging on the wall. I haven't taken him down only because he screams at me when I try."

His shoulders seemed to sag, looking even more pathetic now than when I sat down. "That's Eugene, he reminds me of home. Will wouldn't let me put him up in his cabin."

"Nico."

He sighed. "Will is spending the weekend with his mom upstate, and she wouldn't let me go with him this time."

I tried really hard not to roll my eyes, mostly because Nico looked like a kicked puppy. "Look, I get that this codependency you two've developed makes it really hard for you not to mope, but don't. Besides! Capture the flag is on Friday, and Will will be back just in time for the pre-war meeting right before. So cheer up, shut up, and eat your chicken."

Nico grumbled something under his breath but he did what I told him to, biting sadly into a chicken leg and looking wistfully at the Apollo table.

The rest of the week passed by quickly. More campers arrived, more were claimed, and more signed up for my class that I was just pretending not to freak out over. On Friday, around two-thirty, all of Blue Team met up in the Big House to discuss battle strategies.

Over the last summer, the teams of capture the flag shifted based on new alliances. On our side were the cabins with smaller numbers (with the exception of Apollo, Will and Nico could never be split up like that.) So, for example, Hades and Poseidon teaming up wasn't too bad because there were only two members in each cabin. Even with our Big Three powers, the Ares cabin alone had us outnumbered ten to one. Also on our side was the Nyx, Hecate, and Dionysus cabins, paired with a couple others. The small-cabin alliance didn't work in our favor last summer, but we were determined to make up for it.

Will led the meeting this time, walking into the room with a plan already in mind. Camy had gotten us the most private place to talk that we could find, using her connections with her dad to get us the conference room that was only used every once in a while. When I asked her how she did it, she said that she just wouldn't leave her dad alone until he gave it to her. Very admirable of her. A tactic I approved of.

Will selected the Tri-Delta strategy. It was hard to take him seriously with Nico octopussed all over him, but Will seemed to make it work. Everyone was in agreement that this strategy, one that hadn't been used for a while, was sure to work.

The Tri-Delta strategy was a pretty simple one. It could only work with small numbers, which is why it hadn't been used in the past couple years. There were three main teams, each a group of three. The rest, or spectators, acted as distractions or bait for the opposite (red) team. One team guarded the flag, the other went to go get the other team's flag, and the third team helped trap or transport other people to the Blue Team jail. Easy, right?

The outline of the battle strategy didn't take very long at all. Will, with the help of Nico and Percy, described it to everyone. Then we got divided into our teams.

"Alright, Percy, you're on guard duty. You're with Elena, and uh… Camy." In the back, I saw Camy throw her fist in the air, getting the position she wanted. Elena and Percy smiled at one another, the Poseidon duo paired up yet again. "Hide the flag somewhere full of water—over by the creek?"

Percy nodded at him. "Got it," he said, and tapped at the map of camp that rested on the table, right in the middle of the creek, maybe halfway down.

"Recon…" Will hummed, eyes scanning over the room. Nico shifted in his position next to him, and Will said, "Oh no. Your sister is here, she can do it. You're with me."

"What? Oh alright," Nico responded, not putting up any bit of fight at all. Usually it was Nico and Will who went and captured the flag. Hades kids could shadow travel and pop up every twenty feet or so. This way, you could suddenly appear in enemy territory, look around for the flag, and disappear before anyone captured and/or maimed you.

"Pollux and Lou Ellen are with Emilie," Will announced, finishing up the meeting. "Everyone else grab two partners."

Alex, son of Nyx, spoke up from his spot towards the front of the room. "Will, don't make us lose the damn capture the flag game because you didn't want to part from your boyfriend!" Next to him, an Iris kid nodded in agreement.

"Hey!" Will argued, "We have Emilie! She's, uh... she's an adult! She's… competent?" He turned around to Nico, whispering, "That was the word you wanted me to use, right? 'Competent'?" When Nico nodded, and rolled his eyes, Will faced the room again, "Yes! She's competent!"

"Wow, thanks guys," I said sarcastically, mirroring my brother and rolling my eyes. I didn't have the best track record with capture the flag—back during winter break, I lost us the game by breaking my arm and dropping the flag when I got attacked by a monster in the woods. But it wouldn't happen again.

I looked over at Lou Ellen, who grinned mischievously at me. My gaze moved to Pollux, who was listening to Will address him, "Pollux, please try not to 'accidentally' maim yourself again. I'm tired of stitching you back together." When I locked eyes with Pollux, I realized Will was talking to me.

"And on that note Emilie you should probably also not do anything."

I twisted around in my seat to look at Will, back and forth between him and Pollux, never sitting still. "What? I'm the lead!"

"Yes, and you're gonna be super tired. Try not to die, thanks." Another pause, and then, "Okay, everyone meet at six!"

"Hey, Lou," I said, my arm reaching behind my back, twisting at a weird angle, "can you strap me into my armor? I can't get it."

Lou Ellen laughed but strapped my breastplate to my side, even tightening it to fit my small frame. One of the negative things about being short is that nothing fit you properly—even life-saving armor.

After she and I helped each other get ready, I looked over my shoulder, "Are you good, Pollux?"

"Yeah," he replied curtly, "let's go."

Holding my hands out to both Lou and Pollux, I said, "Alright, let's do this." I counted down from three, and on zero, we charged directly for a tree, disappearing into the shadows before we could juggernaut ourselves right into it.

From then on, it was kind of like the game whac-a-mole… only with more draining super-shadow powers, less whacking, and more demigods with swords charging at you once you crossed enemy lines. Every time I would appear, we would only have a few moments before someone would hear us, or before we knew the flag wasn't anywhere near where our eyes could see.

After a couple of shadow-jumps, Lou Ellen suggested we move by foot for a few dozen yards.

"Good idea," I whispered to her, and motioned for Pollux to keep close. We still all held hands, which was kind of gross because we were all sweaty- and also a little weird because while Lou and I were friends, I didn't really know Pollux all too well. Anyway, we walked in stealth-mode for a little while, managing at least ten or twelve minutes without being spotted.

Then the Red Team found us.

It was two Ares kids and a Hephaestus girl, who was sporting a pretty wild spear-and-shield combo, which looked more like a computer than my mom's five-year old laptop back at home did. I pulled Lou Ellen and Pollux into a shadow, but it was a flaky jump at best, transporting us only ten feet away. I was already too tired to shadow travel again, lagging behind and having to be dragged along by Pollux.

Lou separated from us, keeping the Hephaestus girl away by making a mirage around her weapons, making them invisible. It wouldn't last for long. Pollux let go of my hand and grabbed my arm, hauling me behind him. "Get the flag!" he shouted, and pointed to the pile of rocks the flag was presented on—Zeus' fist.

"What about you?"

"Forget about me!" He shot a couple of arrows, but the Ares boys got too close for that kind of weapon. Instead of running away, Pollux fought them off with his bow, whacking them on the head with it like a club.

I was frozen, a little dazed from the jumps but also a little amazed that he would throw himself at them so suddenly. He didn't even think about it.

Lou Ellen came up behind me, her hand gentle on my elbow. "Come on, Emilie," she whispered, "we have to get to the flag."

"What about Pollux?" I asked.

"Go on without me!" he exclaimed dramatically, answering my question. The Ares guys were starting to overpower him, so Lou pulled me away. I stumbled behind her. The shadow travel was really starting to affect me. I was pretty tired, my eyelids weighing down like they were a thousand pounds. The rest of me felt like I hadn't slept in three days.

"Are we really going to leave him?"

Snorting, Lou Ellen said, "Oh yeah, he shouldn't have been so careless."

We sprinted to the red flag as quickly as we could. I was definitely slowing her down, but even like this, I was the better climber. Lou fought off the two guards, and I climbed up the pile of boulders, my hands curling around the staff of the flag. All I would have to do was hold on, jump into a shadow, and show up on Blue Team's side. Okay, deep breath, first pull out the—

Suddenly, the ground began to tremble. I could barely hold on to the flag, let alone keep myself balanced. It took a moment for me to realize it was an earthquake, and then another moment after that for me to realize I was falling.

The flag was still in my hands by the time I hit the ground and passed out.

When I woke up again, it was completely dark outside.

My head, and actually my entire body, ached. It felt like a monster had taken my head and split it open against the edge of a bowl like an egg, scrambling me up for a nice demigod breakfast. Even in the darkness I felt disoriented, unable to figure out where I was or how I got there.

All I knew was that I was on a porch with a couple of other sleeping kids. I tried to sit up, and managed to see through the window behind me. There wasn't much to see, the room inside (the Big House, maybe?) was completely dark except for the light coming from the camp TV.

Actually, as my eyes focused, I could see Mr. D inside, watching the TV. He was hanging off the couch, the bright neon lights from the screen making him look like a zombie. Or maybe that was my head? The entire world was spinning, so there was a good chance I was hallucinating.

Fortunately, I was able to settle into my chair before blacking out again. At least there was a pillow.

Hello readers! Sorry for late update. I just transferred universities but now I'm roommates with Riley! It's actually really funny, today is our 6 year anniversary of this story. We're STILL somehow writing this thing.

Not only that, but some weird stuff is going on at our college. We live in a building dedicated to Zeus, right next to the Dionysus building (bae), and other dorms are named after Greek stuff, like Beta and Castor Halls (which is the twin brother of Pollux!). The name of the stadium in the city we live in is Emilie's alternate name in the novel we're writing, and I just went on a date with a man who's a "director" who is suspiciously older than me. It's okay though, I'm an adult ;)

Anyway, thank you all for reading and being so patient with us! Are there any crazy weird Greek occurrences going on in your lives?