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CHAPTER ONE: BRYNLEE
My name is Brynlee. I'm 16 years old, and I thought I was a normal teenager. But I guess I was wrong. I have brown hair that’s not wavy but definitely not straight, and hazel eyes that always seem to change color in the sun. I live with my best friend, Leo, and his mom. We live in a small house in Houston, Texas. Leo's mom owns a mechanic shop; they've lived there their whole life. But, surprisingly, he only has a small accent. I moved in with them when I was 10. Leo is 15, has fluffy brown hair and dark brown eyes. He’s your average scrawny latino teen, except for the SEVERE ADHD that he does no job to hide. I moved in with him and his mom after I lost my mother. Because mine and Leo's mom were good friends, I had met them before. I try not to think about my mom too much but other than that I’m doing pretty good. I've got good grades, no friends but I’m friendly with everyone and Leo and his mom took me in like family so it was almost like nothing changed.
Almost.
Anyway, I'm wasting time here, so let's get to the actual story.
On the last Sunday in June, Leo and I were walking down a busy city street. We usually talked when we didn't want our mom to hear. Leo was wearing his normal outfit, a white ribbed tank top, and a grey hoodie with jeans. The dude rarely wears anything else. I was wearing my yellow tank top and blue skirt. I had a few accessories on like my amethyst necklace and a pair of earrings. Also a ton of bracelets. Yes, I'm extra. Leo reminds me every day. We turned down an alleyway and kept walking. This place gave me the creeps, but something pulled me farther down. Suddenly, we were in a forest. I was too busy listening to Leo to notice, so we kept walking. We were talking about his ideal mate when, out of nowhere, monsters started to attack us. Monsters that looked like they came straight out of my Greek history books. We were having such a nice talk. He always describes girls that are the complete opposite of me, and it kinda makes me sad. I’m not sure why but it does. You know what, never mind. So, like any good people, we tried to fight them. I’m going to be honest, we weren’t doing that great. Leo tried to hit one of these bird things with a stick and instead got dropped from 20 feet in the air. Ouch.
I heard a twig breaking behind me so I turned back, stick in hand like the sword I pretend it is, when this glowing lady appeared and all the monsters fled back into the trees. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. Who is this lady? And how bad does she smell? When she approached-Nope smells fine-, she gave us a liquid. “Here, take this. I know it's not much, but I promise it’ll make you feel better” She said in a soft, sweet voice. We were both skeptical at first, well, at least I was skeptical. Leo looked like he wanted to down it in one go. I smelled it and it smelled like the best hot chocolate you’ve ever tasted. After a minute or so I nodded to Leo and we drank it. We passed out.
Next thing we knew we were both tied up on chairs, our backs facing each other. In my defense she said it would make us feel better. The lady appears again, but this time she wasn't alone.
There are two other people there beside her, both wearing masks but it is obvious that one of them is a girl, and the other is a boy. One of the siblings came up to me and started to flirt with me. I tried to ignore it but he wouldn’t stop. It wasn’t until the girl hit his shoulder that he sighed and started loading us onto a hot air balloon and off we went into the night sky.
We were sitting in silence for a good, long, while when all of a sudden, the balloon pops and we start plummeting to our deaths. “If these are our last seconds together, I have something to confess” Leo spat out. “Now is not the time Leo” I say in a panicky voice, still trying to find a way to stop us from falling. “I ate the last cheese ball. What did you think I was going to say?” Just as we were about to hit the ground we stopped. A couple feet in the air but we stopped. A whole different glowing lady appears-What is with all of these glowing ladies and what is their secret???-and unites us from the chairs we’ve been in for the last… who knows how long.
A huge dragon came flying in after she untied us. I couldn’t even think but of course, Leo can. “Cool!” he says in the most excited tone I’ve ever heard-apart from that one time his mom got him ice cream and he freaked out-and willingly hops on the dragon. I’m a bit more hesitant because the last glowing lady we encountered tried to kill us and I truly did not like the power radiating off of her.
It’s so much you’d think she’s multiple people but alas, what other choice do I have? She looked really intimidating, I did not want to go back up in the air-I was still a little queasy, and I honestly just want to avoid getting into another fight so I climbed onto the dragon, reluctantly.
I’m very fond of flying in general but my near death experience almost five minutes ago definitely ruined it for me so I kept my eyes shut as hard as I could to avoid having a panic attack.
After a while of repeating to myself in my head that we wouldn't fall again, Leo elbowed me in the shoulder. OUCH. “Bro just open your eyes, it’s awesome” “yeah for you” Even with my comment I opened my eyes. Wow. He wasn’t kidding. The view from up here on a-nope, not even going to think about it.
I was looking around and obviously looking down-because that’s a great thing to do when up in the air hundreds of feet-when I saw a group of people fighting…Fighting!? Wait a minute… I got the weird glowing lady to let us down to see what was happening and yeah, there are two people, not much older than us, fighting a bed of scorpions without anything but their bare fists. I’m not sure why I did it, but I went up to one of the scorpions from behind and stabbed it in the stomach with a dagger that was conveniently placed on the ground while the rest of them fled. The weird glowing lady pulled a small notebook from a non-existent pocket and nodded her head towards me before writing something “good work Brynlee, that was efficient”
She continued writing in her notes while I looked at the other kids there. One of them is a girl, 5'7-ish, brown hair, tan skin, and has a black t-shirt and a pair of jean shorts on. I shift my gaze over to the other one, a boy… I feel a weird sensation when he looks back at me, almost as if we’re connected somehow… Nah, that’s crazy. He looks 6ft, blue eyes, blonde hair, and wearing a green t-shirt and an actual pair of jeans. Jason. I don't know how I know, but that is his name and I know I’m right. I wonder if he’s having the same thoughts or if he knows my name.
In the middle of my conversation with myself, the weird glowing woman interrupts “Oh my goodness, stop awkwardly standing there and introduce yourselves. These are the people you are going to be with for the rest of your life, might as well make a good first impression” I almost glared at her before remembering the events that happened with the other glowing woman and shiver. I am the first one to speak and introduce myself as the weird glowing woman said “Hi. My name’s Brynlee.” I look over at Leo, expecting him to do the same but instead he’s glaring at me like I just stole his spotlight, which is probably what he’s thinking before he introduces himself. “I’m Leo, the cooler one out of the both of us”
I elbow him. Hard.
The others introduce themselves shortly after Leo, only waiting a few seconds to stop themselves from laughing “I’m Piper” She gestures to her friend. “This is Jason.” I stared blankly at her. I was right. Jason waves and smiles at me and, like an idiot, I just stand there and stare at him with wide eyes. Leo nudges me and I snap out of it “Not good at interactions, I guess?” Jason says and Leo snickers.
“She’s normally very good at interacting. You should’ve seen her in school last year. She was all over the-” I pretty much smack Leo in the mouth while I cover it, not wanting him to say more than he already has. Talking about what I did at the other school would be so embarrassing right now. We are not getting into that.
We all got on the dragon and start talking the day away. Literally. We were all in the middle of laughing from something Leo had said when we all realized we’d landed a few hours later. I barely got to look around before the weird glowing lady was talking again. “Here’s your stop. This is where I bid you a farewell. It was a pleasure meeting and helping all of you.” I went to say thank you but she was already up in the air. She disappeared almost as quickly as she came. I truly didn't know what to do and it seemed like no one else did either. I looked at Leo, who looked just as confused as I was, before looking at Jason and Piper, thinking maybe they had something to do with it. After a few minutes of just standing there, a girl pops up behind us. She has blonde hair tied up in a ponytail, and stormy grey eyes. She had on jean shorts, an orange t-shirt that said something like “camp blood” and a dagger in her back pocket. She looked nice enough, but not if you got on her bad side. We all look towards her, expecting her to say something before she looks behind her and shouts
“They’re here!” All of us look around confused before another girl runs up behind her. “What do you mean, Annabeth? Chiron said we weren’t expecting anyone else-” The other girl pauses and looks Leo up and down before meeting his face and smiles. Leo smiles back and even though it is probably to be friendly, it seems like more. For some odd reason I feel a twinge of jealousy. Not because I like Leo but for some weird reason I do. We’ve known each other for so long and he’s never smiled at me like that before. Whatever. I don’t care.
“Did I die?” Leo whispers to me. “No Leo.”
“Then why is there an angel right in front of me?” I ignored his attempt at trying to flirt with a girl he just met. When I look over, Annabeth is giving the other girl a death glare, not looking away until she does, which leaves all of us just standing there for a moment. Annabeth sighs and turns to the girl
“The thing we’ve been waiting for all summer?” Everyone looks a little bit more relaxed at the knowledge that someone knew where we were and knew what we were doing here, but we still don’t know what we’re doing. I follow suit even though my mind is racing with thoughts. Of course Leo is the first one to talk out of all of us. “I’m not sure what any of you guys are talking about but, who’s that hot girl behind you?” Everyone looks at Leo before looking at the “hot girl” he was talking about. She had wavy blonde hair flowing around her shoulders. Her eyes were sea green and she was dressed in an off-the-shoulder top and jean shorts. But what scared me the most was that she had a sword strapped to her shorts. Both girls were clearly Greek. The glow of their hair and the shape of their noses gave it away. Who were these people? Maybe because she was so different from me, Leo liked her. He would honestly never date me. She blushes, obviously flustered by Leo's comment, but she smiles. A genuine smile. Leo doesn’t get many of those.
Annabeth snaps in front of her face, almost making it look like she’s trying to get her to snap out of a trance before speaking “We’ll explain everything later. The “hot girl” is Sadie, and I’m Annabeth. The only other thing we’re allowed to tell you is that everyone you guys are looking at right now-including yourselves-is a demigod” Everyone is silent, including me, trying to process the information. Then Piper speaks up
“Well, my name's Piper McLean, this is Jason Grace and the other two are Brynlee Theanos and Leo Valdez." Leo waves, but the rest of us just smile and nod. Annabeth and Sadie look like they're used to this sort of stuff, so Sadie continues.
“Now come inside, don’t worry, we don’t bite” Piper looks like she’s about to start having a seizure with how many thoughts are going through her head
“Inside where?” She finally manages.
“Gods! How many more questions are you guys going to ask! We’re just trying to help!” Annabeth is so angry it looks like she might burst into flames. Sadie chips in, trying to take hold of the situation and calm Annabeth down.
“Everybody calm down. Of course they’re curious, don’t you remember my first time here? I was all over you.” Annabeth calms down a little bit but doesn’t say anything, most likely so she doesn’t get angrier. “I know you guys are curious but right now we just need you to cooperate with us. I promise you’ll get all the answers you want in time but we need to keep moving” Sadie says since Annabeth wouldn’t speak.
“NO! I’ve been through so much today and the absolute least you could do for us right now is tell us where we are!” I say without thinking… Okay, maybe I did think about it but right now I’m too tired to feel sorry for these people I've just yelled at. Annabeth looks like she’s about to kill me but Sadie says
“Calm. Down. This is Camp Half-Blood. A safe place for demi-gods to fight, train and go on adventures during the summer. Demi-gods like us” She gestures to the whole group, not just her and Annabeth.
“Hold up demi-gods?” Jason asks. Annabeth sighs, clearly annoyed and agitated by the fact we’re questioning words we’ve never heard before that she probably uses on the daily. Sadie and her exchange looks before Sadie speaks again
“Half mortal and half god. That’s what a demi-god is” I’m honestly kind of confused too. Obviously Leo didn’t understand either as right afterwards he says
“Cool, my dad is god” Sadie glances at Annabeth and Annabeth smiles before it fades away. Sadie turns back to us
“Like a Greek god. Not God, god” I don’t really believe her for a second and I don't understand so I blurt out
“Which one?” to which Annabeth glares at me before rolling her eyes and strutting away. Yes, I mean strutting, though it seems to be her normal walk because she doesn’t put a lot of thought into her steps. Or maybe she does and is really good at hiding it. Who knows? Before Annabeth can take more than ten steps Sadie grabs her shoulder and pulls her back to us, glaring at her in the process.
“You won’t know which god is your parent until you come inside” Sadie said and it honestly sounded like bait. Trying to get us to go with her and of course, Leo immediately starts walking towards her, before I grab his shirt and pull him back, staring him down.
“Who are your gods then?” Asks Piper with a sweet voice, if I knew who my god was I would've told her.
“If we tell you will you stop being stubborn and come inside with us?” Annabeth says in a stern but pleading voice as if silently asking us to cooperate. Piper smiles, knowing she won and replies fast
“Of course we will.” She stares at us down, obviously wanting us to cooperate so I think for a moment before nodding
“Fine” I say in the most monotone voice I can. Annabeth sighs while Sadie starts to tell us
“I am the daughter of Poseidon, the sea god. She is the daughter of Athena, the goddess of war.” Leo grins and says
“Well, that explains the short temper. Wait, don't Poseidon and Athena hate each other?" Annabeth ignores him but is obviously fazed by what he said
“Now will you guys come in?” She asks again in a harder voice than before. I let go of Leo's shoulder so he could continue walking inside, without me stopping him this time. Leo skips happily in the direction of Sadie and Annabeth while me, Jason and Piper walk slowly behind him. We all walked over to a camp and it felt like I walked through an invisible wall when we got closer. The camp didn't seem that big, kind of underwhelming. Just a little blue house and a lake. Annabeth and Sadie led us
further into a forest and we saw a massive wall of fire. Jason, Piper, Leo and I all are panicked so I look to Sadie and Annabeth to see if they are just as distressed as we are, but no. They’re acting like this happens all the time. Are demi-gods really that destructive? Sometime in the middle of my thoughts Jason says
“Uhm I think your camp is burning down” Jason points to the forest fire and they just shrug it off. What kind of a camp is this? And are we really safe here? Sadie starts walking towards the wall of fire, which concerns us all-except Annabeth.
“You’re about to walk into the-” Piper gets cut off as the wall of flames parts into two, leaving us a path to walk through. Jason is staring a little too much and then again, I feel that same feeling of jealousy. I want him to look at me that long but so far I’ve gotten one glance and a few shrugs. I try to push the feeling down but this one doesn’t go away. If I don't do something about it I'm going to explode.
“I… Uhm… How…. Yo-.... What?” I can’t say anything. Literally speechless. I shut my mouth before I attempt to say anything else and miserably fail.
“Cool” Leo spurts out while following after her. I facepalm. I swear sometimes it seems like I am a babysitter and not his sister. I pull him backwards toward me and smack him on the arm.
“-wall of fire” Piper finally finishes, also looking in amusement and skepticism to walk in after them. I’m so glad to see I’m not the only one who doesn’t think this is the best idea. Sadie walks further into the departed wall of fire before turning around and holds her arms out in a welcoming gesture.
“Welcome to camp half-blood” looking around, I see how massive this place is. Nestled in the trees are 13 cabins. There's a rock climbing wall, an outdoor amphitheatre, a dining pavilion, and so much more. I don't see a lot of people though. Annabeth still looks grumpy from before and says
“It’s not much of a camp anymore. More like 30 kids” She mumbles to herself, though we could still hear it. Sadie sighs at her comment, obviously agreeing with it but not wanting to say it out loud.
“Okay, let’s go get you guys claimed” She says in a less enthusiastic tone but still trying to be optimistic. We all walk into the camp, taking in the surroundings and trying to adjust to it when Jason asks
“What do you mean by 'claimed’?” I’m still young…” He obviously didn’t understand what she said. I mean, neither did I but at least I didn’t make it ten times as awkward then it was before. Leo's eyes widened
“Oh… That sounds painful…” Sadie looked like she was struggling to not laugh, but she managed to say,
“Don’t worry it’s not what you think it is and it’s actually kind of fun, and not at all painful. It also may involve fire” Leo's eyes widened and he grinned so big I almost thought he was the grinch. I wonder what’s going through his head right now. Annabeth rolls her eyes. Is she ever happy?
“Let’s go down to the lake and we’ll explain everything when we get there” she starts to walk down to the lake and Jason follows her, curious as to what she’s actually going to do to him and I don’t think he’s the most innocent out of all of us… Once we walk down to the lake, Annabeth is telling Sadie something but quickly stops when we arrive. She straightens up and looks at Sadie, not wanting to talk and making that very clear.
“Who wants to go first? Get claimed, I mean.” Leo looks delighted, probably having the same thought as Jason, and walks up to Sadie.
“I’ll claim you any day” Sadie bursts out laughing, not able to hold it in anymore and has to hold onto Annabeth so she doesn’t fall over. After a good minute of laughing she finally calms down enough to say
“No, be claimed by a god, like figuring out which god is your parent not…” Sadie took a deep breath and never finished the sentence. I didn’t think she was going to but when she didn’t, I knew I was right.
“Spit in the water” Sadie told Leo, who was already agreeing the moment she ended her sentence.
“Of course M’lady. Do I just spit in here or?..” Sadie leads Leo over to a stepping stone above a ledge that dips into the lake. The drop from it is only a few feet taller than Jason, but still enough to scare someone who’s afraid of heights. Now I’m not afraid but I don't like heights and that might be a problem, considering everything we’ve done or need to do involves heights. Leo walks up on the stepping stone
“Easy.” He spits in the water and I was honestly waiting for some explosion but nothing came. Nothing happened. Weird. “What do I do now?” Leo asked, stepping off of the stone and stumbling into Sadie before winking. Maybe that was intentional. Oh well. Sadie grins at him and helps him turn around
“Look behind you” Sadie's voice was very comforting there. Almost too comforting. Kinda like Black Widow. She seduces men to gain their trust, and then kills them. I still felt skeptical about her. Her and Annabeth seemed like they could be a good allys, but horrific enemies. Leo looks around his shoulder and all of us do the same when his eyes widen. I look around and yup, same reaction. In the sky there’s a floating name-Hephestus. I try to recall what it could mean before Sadie says
“It was Percy's idea. The whole spit in the water and know your god. So people don’t feel left out when they aren’t claimed, especially since he was claimed very shortly after he arrived at camp while some others were waiting for years. Like me and Annabeth for example. He also wanted a funner way to get claimed since waiting was no one's favorite thing to do.” Everyone nodded and murmured at the idea of making something better than waiting. This Percy guy seemed smart, I wonder where he is right now… Everyone seemed sad whenever someone brought him up or mentioned his name.
“So is someone going to tell us who this Percy is or are we going to keep imagining he’s a hottie when in reality he’s not?” Asked Leo which got Annabeth really flustered, so much so that she had to look away while Sadie talked but then it looked like she was about to break down too. I thought she was flustered but I heard sniffling as Annabeth walked a little to calm herself down. Poor girl.
“Percy was a demi-god like you and me, a great one but…” Sadie ran her hand through her hand to calm herself down. “He died here about a year ago and it’s hitting everyone hard, us especially. Percy was my brother and Annabeth's boyfriend. We’re getting better but it’s still hard. I was there when it happened. I’m sure all of you know the feeling.” Talk about ruining someone's mood, this ruined everyone’s mood, including Leo’s normal, playful jokes.
“Oh..” Leo said in a sad voice. “I didn’t know.. I’m so sorry…” I get this is a sad moment but what!? I’ve never heard Leo apologize, even when he made me bleed that one time with a knife when we were younger. Good times.
“Percy sounds like a great guy, here or not. Sorry for your loss.” Piper pitched in and Sadie nodded
“He was the best.” I thought this through before I said it but I still feel it’s a bit harsh
“Okay I’m sorry and all but right now I couldn't care less about whoever this Percy guy is. What I would like to know, and would prefer everyone to think about, is why- Annabeth was it- is in such a rush and she needs us to be from one place to the other but won’t tell us anything and you’re just letting her run around without reasoning! Also…” I took a deep breath, running out of air from talking so much and so fast. “What’s that thing you’ve been waiting for all summer and what does it have to do with us?! What are we getting ourselves into?!” Oof. I didn’t mean for it to come across so harsh and rude but no one was acknowledging any of it and it needed to be said. Harsh or not, I was not ready for what Sadie would say next and, to be honest, I don’t think any of us was.