I felt a slight tingling sensation as we passed through the border. Terran, Jake and I were still on top of the hill, but instead of an old strawberry farm we saw what looked like the strangest camp ever.

There was a large, pale blue house to our right, a bunch of smaller houses almost directly in front of us, organized in a Greek Omega Ω, some fields that appeared to be for training of some sort, a strawberry field on the edge of the woods to our left that gave the whole camp a pleasant smell and lastly, a rock wall with... Is that lava?! (A/N: not entirely sure how accurate this is to Rick's description but I'm trying based on what I remember and the image in my mind.)

My head spun as I tried to take it all in. I blinked and shook my head a few times to make sure I was fully awake. Sure enough, I was. I glanced over at Jake to see him having a similar reaction to mine, a bewildered expression on his face. I shifted my gaze to Terran who smiled widely before pulling us in the direction of the blue house.

Jake and I stumbled along behind him, trying to stay standing. Soon we were in front of the house. It was fairly nice, the blue and white trim went well together, though some parts of the house looked newer than others, like it had been repaired.

As Terran half skipped, half dragged us up the porch steps and into the house I managed to gain my footing and pulled my arm out of his grasp, wincing slightly from his grip. "I can walk, thanks," I muttered, rubbing my sore wrist. Terran gave a short nod and dropped Jake's wrist as well before again leading us through the house.

We stopped outside of a door that was slightly ajar. I could hear Frank Sinatra's voice blaring from inside. Terran pushed open the door and the music immediately shut off. I peaked inside and saw a man sitting in a wheelchair. He smiled kindly, deepening the crinkles around his eyes.

"Come in, don't be shy," he said. Jake and I stepped inside the room, which appeared to be an office, and took a seat in front of the desk. The man removed the large boom box from his desk to see us better. "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. I hope your trip was safe?" He said the last part as if it was a question. Instead of answering, I shrugged. I still wasn't entirely sure what was going on, so I didn't know if I would use 'safe' as a word to describe it. The man nodded in understanding. "Then let's get down to business. I do not know how much you have already been told, so I'll start from the beginning," he said. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is when I got the entire lo-down on the demigod stuff. I'll spare you the gritty details.

When Chiron, as he introduced himself, finished explaining the whole 'gods are real, you're half god, monsters want to kill you' thing, I had a major migraine. This was a lot to process at once and with all the crazy stuff that had happened, I just wanted to sleep.

Chiron seemed to notice this and nodded to Terran, who had been chewing tin cans in the corner by the door. "Please take them to the Hermes cabin," he addressed politely. Terran nodded and trotted out the door with Jake and I in tow.

As we walked towards the cabins, I noticed other people and creatures for the first time. I had been so caught up in my own little world that I hadn't even noticed the teenagers practicing hand-to-hand combat and archery and the satyrs (as Terran had called them while explaining what he was) frolicking in the strawberry fields. I also saw some girls with greenish-tinted skin turn into trees and back again.

I winced as I felt a stab of pain through my skull. Jake noticed and gave me a concerned look but I just nodded at him, silently telling him I was fine.

Terran walked up to a cabin with the number 11 above the door. He swung the door open and allowed us to walk inside. The first thing I noticed: It. Was. Packed. There were sleeping bags on the floor and every bed was taken. There were small objects littered about the room, giving it a somewhat homey feel, like a child's playroom.

"You'll be sleeping here until you're claimed by your godly parent," Terran said, interrupting my thoughts. "I'll see if I can get the Stolls to find you two a sleeping bag... Not to share, I meant a sleeping bag for each of you... I mean that would be weird, unless you didn't mind. You know what? I'm just gonna shut up," Terran rambled, blushing profusely. Jake and I chuckled and I felt my cheeks start to burn.

Terran quickly left the cabin shortly after that and Jake and I were left to find a spot to fit us. After a few minutes of stepping over sleeping bags and dodging piles of clothing we found a corner barely large enough for us and my stuff.

"Oh man, we didn't bring your things," I realized aloud. Jake simply chuckled.

"I'm pretty sure you've stolen enough of my clothes that you brought with you to keep me dressed," he smiled. I smiled because it was true. I had a bad habit of taking his hoodies and pants, which were way too big for me but they were really comfortable, so I didn't care. He set down my bag and I looked through it. Sure enough, I had quite a bit of his clothing with me. I grinned sheepishly and handed him some of his stuff, keeping a hoodie or two for myself, but he didn't need to know that. He smiled warmly and took his stuff, setting it in a neat pile in the far corner.

Just then, two blonde boys with blue eyes who looked very similar to each other came into the cabin, clamoring around noisily.

" 'ey I'm Connor," one said. "And I'm Travis," the other finished. "We're not twins," they said together. I held back a laugh. I already liked these two.

"These are for you," Travis said, tossing us the sleeping bags he and his brother had been carrying. Jake caught both and I rolled my eyes.

"Show off," I muttered. "You love it," he smirked. I blushed and scoffed at him, taking my sleeping bag and turning away so he couldn't see my crimson face. I could see Connor and Travis smirking from the corner of my eye. I stuck my tongue out at them, somehow knowing exactly what they were thinking. They just smirked more and stuck their tongues out back.

"Soooo..." Connor drawled. "You two together?" Travis asked, getting right to the point. I sputtered and Jake shook his head chuckling.

"No we're not. Just best friends," he replied. Ouch, I had to admit it stung a bit when he said 'just' like it was nothing, but I brushed it off.

"Mm might wanna keep her close," Travis said thoughtfully. "She's a pretty one and she'll definitely be popular with the guys." I blushed impossibly darker, moving my hair to cover my face, which was something I did when I was embarrassed. I didn't really think I was all that pretty. Average, maybe.

Connor winked as both boys turned to leave, "just keep an eye on her," he called over his shoulder to Jake.

They walked out of the cabin and we were once again left alone. I unrolled my sleeping bag and set it on the ground, trying to get it in the least uncomfortable position possible, which was near impossible since the cabin was practically overflowing with stuff. The mess didn't bother me so much. It was chaotic, but comfortable. Jake unrolled his sleeping bag beside mine and we sat down on top of them, facing each other, letting a comfortable silence hang over us.

"Do you understand any of this?" He asked suddenly. "Not a bit," I responded, smiling slightly. "Good, I though I was the only one," he laughed. "I think it will get easier though. Everyone else seems to understand what is going on," I shrugged. He nodded slowly in agreement.

We fell into another comfortable silence before I heard a conch shell in the distance. I tilted my head, listening to it before standing up. "I think that's a signal to go somewhere," I said. Jake nodded and stood up and we walked out of the cabin together. We saw other campers heading towards a large pavilion so we followed the crowd.

When the large group of people started to disperse, we discovered we were in a dining pavilion of sorts. It was probably late afternoon, so I guessed it was dinner time. I saw Connor and Travis waving us over so I took Jake's wrist and pulled him along to the easily most crowded table. I saw a few of the other campers giving the two of us curios looks, some of them sizing us up or checking us out.

We quickly found an empty spot and sat down, both of us slightly embarrassed by the looks we were getting. Chiron stood up at the head table and I saw his centaur form for the first time. I'll admit, it was kind of weird to see a man and a stallion melded together, but it was also enchanting in a way. Maybe it was just the horse-crazy part of me talking.

He gave a short speech, saying something about capture the flag on Friday, which caused some cheers to erupt from the crowd, and reminding the campers of the 'no people of different godly parents and opposite gender are allowed to be in a cabin together' rule. I saw him giving a pointed look to a dark haired boy, who had green eyes similar to mine, and a blonde, curly-haired girl. They blushed and smiled innocently. I chucked softly.

Chiron then went on to introduce Jake and I. We both gave shy waves as the attention of the campers was once again turned to us. After that, Chiron dismissed us to eat.

The talking immediately commenced as peoples' plates filled with food. I frowned slightly in confusion.

"Just think of the food and drink you want and it'll appear," Travis shouted over the noise. I nodded and focused my attention on the goblet first. Soon enough, it was filled to the brim with root beer. I smiled to myself and turned my attention to the plate. The first thing that popped into my mind was my mom's shepherds pie. Immediately it appeared on my plate, along with a side of my favorite blue cake. I was a little saddened by the thought of my mom and leaving her behind, but I was quickly distracted by campers standing up and brushing some of their food into the bronze braziers of fire. I followed their lead and dumped some of my food into the fire. Oddly enough, it smelled rather pleasant, not like burning meat.

I sat back down and took a bite of the shepherds pie. It tasted just like my mom's, which made me miss her a little less because I felt closer to her in a way.

I dug in and quickly finished the pie before taking a bite of the cake. I glanced up to see Travis and Connor watching me curiously and whispering to each other.

"What?" I asked, my mouth still full of cake. I quickly swallowed. "Nothing," they answered. "The blue just... Reminded us of someone," Connor said vaguely. I gave them a curious look but shrugged it off as I turned back to my cake.

I finished eating and pushed away my plate, stuffed. I looked over at Jake to see him finish the final few bites of his pizza. He had a pizza problem, I swear. Whenever he could eat pizza, he did. Eventually everyone started leaving the dining pavilion and Jake and I stood up, walking back the Hermes cabin side by side.

A/N: okay, quick little important authors note here, please read. First of all over 2,100 words! Holy Hera that's more than usual. I actually had more I wanted to add to this chapter, but that would take a long time and I thought this would be long enough to publish. Also, all ships will be canon. Meaning Percabeth, Jiper, Solangelo and so on. I'm sorry if you don't ship it but I'm basing everything off the way Rick wrote it. Also, I have not read House of Hades nor Blood of Olympus (I'm sorry, I didn't have House of Hades and I couldn't find it and I didn't want to move on until I had it but I have it now so I'm working on it), though I am aware of generally what happens, but if I get anything wrong, please correct me! Which leads me to another point, if you see any spelling/grammar mistakes, please feel free to leave me a comment and I'll fix them. Thank you guys so much!

-nocturnal_writer
P.S. Feel free to ask me questions in my Ask the Author book. I really need some.

P.P.S. You people who read these Author's Notes are the best. Sorry if they get annoying.