Chapter 3 (RW): So this is love?

Heather woke up drowsy, and her eyes were blurry. She fell in and out of consciousness for about two minutes until her mind was set on being awake. She looked around. The place smelled like honey and medicine. She looked to her left and noticed a blonde-haired boy lying unconscious in the bed beside her. To her relief, on her right was Logan, also unconscious.

She didn't have any memories of when she passed out; all she remembered was a flashing light and something sharp hitting her. Did the lightning finally hit her? Well, she would've been dead if that had happened.

The door opened, and a dark-skinned girl with black hair walked into the room with a cup of what she suspects is pudding. She began to spoon-feed him.

The boy woke up just a minute later. The girl immediately bombarded him with questions.

"What will happen at the summer solstice?" She asked.

"What?" the boy asked groggily.

She cautiously looked around. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"

"I'm sorry," the boy mumbled. "I don't..."

Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled his mouth with pudding. After a moment, Heather noticed he was out cold.

Another girl walked into the room, and once they caught each other's eye, they both stopped cold in their tracks.

The girl in her dream. That's her. They stared at each other for a long minute, neither of them speaking.

Heather opened her mouth but immediately closed it. The girl said nothing, just walked to the left side of her bed, grabbing a jelly square.

"Nectar squares," She answered without looking at Heather, sounding raspy yet gentle. "Can you move your hand?" Heather shook her head, her arms still feeling numb. The girl pursed her lips, letting out a reluctant sigh. "I'm the only one here," she muttered to herself before her attention went back to Heather. "Open your mouth."

Heather obeyed, and she was immediately hit with a sweet taste of honey and warm, hot muffins. Her body immediately gave off a warm feeling, and her vision began to clear better than previously. She looked back at the girl and noticed she was staring at her. The girl looked away from her towards the table beside her, tiny heat rising to her cheeks.

"If you're feeling better. You're needed in the Big House," The girl stood up and walked towards the room.

"The Big House?" Heather asked, making the girl turn back to her.

"I'll show you where it is," The girl said before walking out of the room.

Heather let out a breath, not because she can finally speak, but because the girl in her dreams is actually real.

𑁋𑁋𑁋𑁋

Heather walked towards a farmhouse. Heather couldn't pinpoint where she was, but on the side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture–an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena–except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun.

In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange t-shirts were chasing each other around in a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooden trail, some of them having wings.

"Heather!" Heather turned to see Logan running towards her. "I just got up, and I noticed you were gone, so I tried to find you. Dang, this place is big."

"I know," Heather muttered. "A girl told me to go to the Big House," She looked at the place in question. "I think this is it."

Logan huffed. "Well, looks like we're going in there."

Heather nodded, and the two walked towards the porch where two men sat across from each other at a card table. The girl who spoon-fed that boy pudding earlier was leaning on the porch railing next to them.

The man facing them was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of cherubs and looked as if a said cherub turned middle-aged in a trailer park.

The twins walked closer to the house, which was noticed by the girl.

"They're awake." She announced. She then paused a bit. "So is Percy."

The man whose back was to them turned and smiled at them. Well, Heather might have thought he was talking about only Percy.

"Ah, good," He said. "Now we have five for pinochle."

Oh, so he was talking to all of them. The man offered Percy a chair to the right of the cherub-looking one, while the twins sat on his left.

"Oh, I suppose I must say it," the cherub man sighed. "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."

"Uh, thanks." Percy scooted a little further away from the man.

"Annabeth," the other man called to the girl. She came forward, and he introduced her to Percy. "Percy, she nursed you back to health. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? And while you're there, get these two settled as well. We'll be putting them in cabin eleven for now."

"Sure, Chiron," Annabeth said. She glanced at the horn Percy was holding, then back at him. Heather guessed he wanted her to congratulate or praise him for getting it. Instead, she said, "You drool when you sleep."

Then she ran off down the lawn, her hair flying behind her.

The man turned to the twins. "We've never properly met, have we? What are your names?"

Heather took a breath. "I'm Heather Agulera, and this is my brother, Logan."

Percy looked back and forward at them. "You look like twins."

They gave him a confused look. "We are," they said in unison.

"Oh," Percy muttered. He then looked at the man. "So, you, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"

Heather and Logan's confused looks turned to each other. Mr. Brunner?

"Not Mr. Brunner," he said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron."

"Chiron?" Logan asked. "Like the Centaur, Chiron?"

Chiron nodded. "That is me."

"Okay," Percy looked at the cherub man. "And Mr.D...does that stand for something?"

Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at Percy like he'd just belched loudly. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."

"Oh. Right. Sorry."

Heather and Logan looked at each other again.

"Is this Dionysus?" Heather signed, her silent curse coming back.

"That's exactly what I was thinking," Logan signed back. He didn't want to be rude and speak out loud so suddenly, so he chose to speak in sign language to her.

"Isn't he supposed to be on Olympus?" Heather asked.

Mr. D cleared his throat, making the twins turn to him. "You know it's rude to speak about someone when they're right in front of you."

"Sorry," Logan said. "My sister has this curse where she can't speak most of the time. We didn't want to say anything out loud cause we thought it might be rude. Well, I did. She can't speak."

"You know sign language?" Heather asked.

Chiron smiled. "We've dealt with deaf and mute kids throughout the years," he explained. "We decided to have a class for different kinds of sign language to make their time here easier."

Heather nodded as Chiron turned to Percy. She spotted the girl from her dreams walking towards the house.

"Hey, Chiron!" She called out, making him and Mr. D turn to her.

"Oh, Clarisse, what a pleasure," Chiron said, giving her a gentle smile.

The girl, Clarisse, locked eyes with Heather once again. Heather still couldn't get over the fact that the girl from her dreams was actually real.

Clarisse managed to turn away from Heather to look at Chiron. "We need more straws for the dummy."

Chiron nodded. "I'll have the Hephaestus kids on that," he said. "Oh, Clarisse, would you mind showing Heather and Logan around the camp?"

Clarisse looked at them again before she groaned. "Fine," she huffed. "Come on."

The two looked at each other before following Clarisse out of the Big House.

The entire time, Heather kept glancing at her. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD t-shirt under a camouflage jacket. Her hair was long and stringy and brown. It gave her an army-style look, which Heather admitted looked interesting. She had a 'gruff girl' style that made her stand out.

Clarisse walked them to the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables, the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where they held sword and spear fights.

There was also an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.

Finally, they got to the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. Each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right); they looked nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory. Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. Seven seemed to me made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight. They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops.

In the centre of the field was a huge stone-lined fire pit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.

The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two. Looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns white marble boxes with heavy column in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles, lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.

"Zeus and Hera?" Hera guessed, looking at Logan.

"Yep," Logan replied.

Cabin eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin. The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was a caduceus.

Annabeth was sitting on the steps of the cabin when the trio walked towards them. Chiron and Percy were there as well.

"Thank you for the tour, Clarisse," Chiron told her. "Annabeth will take it from here."

Clarisse looked at Heather, who was staring at the cabin with a look of confusion on her face.

"Are there any cabins for Hades?" She suddenly asked, looking at Chiron, Annabeth, and Clarisse, who she finally noticed was staring at her.

Chiron shook his head. "I'm afraid there aren't any cabins for him as he is not one of the Olympians."

Heather's brow furrowed in frustration, but she said nothing.

Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him, they all stood and bowed respectively.

"Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, you three. I'll see you at dinner."

He galloped away toward the archery range.

The kids weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at them, sizing them up.

Logan pulled Heather back. Heather looked around and noticed a blue cabin right beside cabin 1.

Heather pulled on Logan's shirt. "Can't you stay in that cabin over there? That looks like Poseidon's cabin."

Logan looked over at the blue cabin as well. "Huh. I guess I could. But should we tell them that I'm a child of Poseidon?"

Heather looked at cabin eleven and then cabin 3.

"Meet cabin eleven," Annabeth spoke, getting the twins' attention.

"Regular or undetermined?" Someone asked.

Annabeth looked at Percy, then at Heather and Logan. "Undetermined," she answered.

Everybody groaned.

Heather and Logan exchanged looks. The cabin was full beyond its limit. Two or three more people might make it burst.

A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward. "Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for," he looked at the three of them. "We could fit in three more campers, in a spot right over there."

The guy was about nineteen, tall and muscular, with short-cropped hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.

"This is Luke," Annabeth said, though her voice got higher, and Heather could have sworn that she saw her blushing. "He's your counselor for now."

"For now?" Percy asked.

"Until you're determined," Luke explained patiently. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."

"But wouldn't we also live in Hestia's cabin?" Heather asked. "She's the goddess of the hearth and home, so she should also harbor the undetermined campers."

Luke tilted his head. "Yeah, but she doesn't have a cabin. She takes care of the Hearth in the middle of the cabins."

Heather pursed her lips as she continued to look around. Some of the campers' faces were sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly. They were waiting to pick their pockets.

"How long will I be here?" Percy asked.

"Good question," Luke said. "Until you're determined."

"How long will that take?"

The campers all laughed.

Logan opened his mouth, but Annabeth grabbed his hand to silence him.

"Come on," Annabeth told them. "I'll show you guys the volleyball court."

"We've already seen it," Percy said.

"Come on."

Annabeth dragged us outside. The other kids in cabin eleven were laughing behind them.

The four of them were only a few feet away when Annabeth spoke. "Jackson, you have to do better than that."

"What?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath. "I can't believe I thought you were the one."

"What's your problem?" Percy asked, getting angry. "All I know is, I killed some bull guy–"

"Don't say that!" Annabeth told me. "You know how many kids at this camp with they'd had your chance?"

"To get killed?"

"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"

Heather and Logan stood together in silence.

"Should we leave?" Heather asked.

Logan huffed and then nodded. The two tried to walk away, but Annabeth stopped them.

"You two aren't going anywhere," She told us. "I still want to talk to you two."

The twins gave her confused looks, but they stayed still.

"How did you get here?" She asked them, then she looked them up and down. "You two have been oddly silent since you got here."

Logan shrugged. "Well, my sister doesn't speak a lot, and we've only been here for a day, so there isn't really anyone to speak to."

"Do you always speak for her?"

"She has a curse where she gets mute for a while," Logan explained. "It happens suddenly, so we don't know when she can't speak or how long. So, if people don't know sign language, yes, I do speak for her."

"We almost got killed after the cabin in our village collapsed," Heather explained.

Annabeth looked at the two of them as if she didn't believe them. She then turned back to Percy.

"Look," Percy continued. "If the thing I fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories..."

"Yes."

"Then there's only one."

"Yes."

"And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So..."

"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die."

"Oh, thanks. That clears it up."

"They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they're primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they re-form.

"You mean if I killed one accidentally with a sword–"

"The Fur...I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad."

"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"

"You talk in your sleep."

"You almost said Fury, right?" Logan asked. "Hades's torturers."

"You shouldn't call them that," Annabeth told him. "Not by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all."

"Is there anything we can say without it thundering?" Percy said, sounding whiny. "Why can't we stay in the other cabins? Why is everybody so crowded together in Cabin Eleven? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."

Percy pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth's face paled. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or...your parent."

That made the twins exchange another look.

"My mom is Sally Jackson," Percy said. "She works at the candy store at the Grand Central Station. At least, she used to."

"I'm sorry about your mom, Percy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."

"He's dead. I never knew him."

Annabeth sighed. "Your father is not dead, Percy."

"How can you say that? You know him."

"No, of course not."

"Then how can you say–"

"Because I know you. You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."

"You don't know anything about me."

"No?" Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of most of them."

"How—"

"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD–you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course, the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."

"We don't have dyslexia," Logan mentioned. "We have autism, which I think is worse."

Annabeth nodded. "It ups your senses a lot since they are so similar."

"Huh," Logan hummed.

"You sound like... You went through the same thing." Percy said.

"Most of the kids here did," Annabeth explained. "If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."

"Ambrosia and nectar."

"The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand, and you'd be dead. Face it. You're a half-blood."

"Well! A newbie!" A familiar voice yelled.

Clarisse sauntered towards them. She had three other girls behind her, all big and mean-looking, all wearing camo jackets.

"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"

"Sure, Miss Princess," Clarisse said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."

"Erre es korakas!" Annabeth said.

"Go to the crows?" Heather signed to Logan.

Logan nodded.

"You don't stand a chance," Annabeth continued.

"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. She turned to Percy. "Who's the little runt?"

"Percy Jackson," Annabeth said. "Meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."

Ares? Heather looked at Clarisse more clearly. Her permanent scowl, the way she clenched her fist before unclenching it. She was definitely the daughter of the god of war.

"Like...the war god?" Percy blinked.

Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"

"No. It explains the bad smell."

Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."

"Percy."

"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."

"Clarisse—" Annabeth tried to say.

"Stay out of this, wisegirl."

Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it.

Clarisse's eyes locked onto Logan's, and her smile widened. "Two for one, huh?" she chuckled. "Even better."

Heather's eyes narrowed at her and croaked out a small, "Don't touch him."

Clarisse looked at Heather, and her glare softened as she looked over her face. It was as if she didn't want to forget it.

"If you don't want any trouble, I suggest you stay out of this as well," Clarisse told her. It surprised everyone else with how she spoke to Heather compared to everyone else.

"Why?" Heather asked. "You're scared to mess with me? You don't even know me. Think I'm too weak for a little prank?"

Clarisse's expression didn't waver. Instead, she let out a menacingly low chuckle. "I'll deal with you later," She said before turning back to Percy.

Percy handed Annabeth the minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but Clarisse put him in a headlock and dragged him towards a cinder-block building. The bathroom.

He was kicking and punching. Clarisse dragged him into the girls' bathroom. Heather and Logan moved to another side of the building. They could hear some shouting but couldn't make out what was being said.

They then heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. The next thing they knew, Clarisse and her siblings were stumbling out of the bathroom, wet. The twins looked to see that the entire bathroom was flooded. Heather looked at Logan, who looked back at her with a confused look.

"That wasn't me," Logan protested.

"How did you..." Annabeth said as Percy stood up.

"I don't know."

They walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her siblings were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping, and she smelled like sewage.

"You are dead, new boy." Clarisse declared. "You are totally dead."

"You want to gargle with toilet water, Clarisse? Close your mouth."

Her siblings had to hold her back. They dragged her towards cabin five while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.

Heather walked away from the scene, Logan following behind her.

"We should tell Chiron and Dionysus about our parents," Heather said.

"Why?" Logan asked. "So we can't risk...whatever that was happening to us?"

"No," Heather huffed. "So that when Percy's parentage is finally revealed, you won't have to have a cabin by yourself."

𑁋𑁋𑁋𑁋

Later that day, Heather was in the woods alone, not yet going to see what they made of the scraps they had for her in cabin eleven.

Her back was against a tree as she listened to the wind rustling the trees around her. The first time she had a bit of peace in a long time. And it was nice.

Footsteps came towards her. Thinking it was Logan, she didn't think to open her eyes just yet, knowing he would probably sit beside her and they would both sit in silence, a thing they had a habit of doing when they found each other alone in a peaceful environment.

"You have some guts," Heather opened her eyes to see Clarisse standing no more than five feet away from her. "Think you're so tough standing up to me to protect your brother?"

Heather frowned. "I won't have any problems with you if you won't have any with me. I just want to stay alive. Isn't that what we all want?"

Clarisse chuckled. "That's all us demigods are good for. But what's good about staying alive if you can't fight for it? Victory is the true gain here."

"That's why you started a fight with Percy?"

"Prissy didn't kill a minotaur."

"How do you know?"

"That small wimp? Anyone could have guessed."

Heather looked at her carefully. "There's no point in fighting the weak," She started. "If they don't have any leverage to stand on in the first place. Is your father all about 'survival of the fittest'? But what is that if your opponent doesn't have the same capabilities as you? You didn't fight him because you thought he was weak. You picked on him because you thought he could rise to your level, even though he's a newbie, and wanted to prove yourself wrong."

Clarisse pursed her lips, glaring at her. "You're a smart-mouthed girl."

"That's possibly the nicest thing you said all day."

Clarisse marched forward and, without warning, grabbed Heather's chin and lifted it so their eyes met. Heather watched as Clarisse's eyes darkened. Heat rose to Heather's cheeks as they watched each other in silence for what felt like forever.

Finally, Heather spoke, surprising herself with the number of words she let out today. "Are you having dreams of me, too?"

Clarisse didn't let go, but her silence spoke louder than words could. She was.

Finally, Clarisse let out a low breath. "I am not letting you fill my head," She muttered, hesitantly but firmly letting go of her chin. She walked away. Heather watched her retreating figure, her mind overrun with emotions too fast she could barely think.

Is this a crush? Heather almost laughed. Of course not. They just met each other today. This is not a crush.

Heather took a slow breath to calm herself. Is she going crazy over a girl she just met? No... Right?