Gentle hands shook me awake as I groaned and rolled over, burying my face into my pillow.

"Miraaaaa, wake up," I could hear the whine in Percy's voice. I sighed and rolled onto my side, blinking up at him sleepily. "He's here," Percy said, pointing over his shoulder at Jake with a slight scowl. I stood up, rolling my eyes at Percy and giving Jake a smile.

"Hey, I got worried when I didn't see you around. Where have you been all day?" Jake asked. I glanced at the clock. It was already mid-afternoon, meaning I had slept a lot longer than I meant to. I heard Percy chuckle at my bewildered expression.

"Uh... I guess I was sleeping all day," I said sheepishly. Jake laughed, taking my hand as he dragged me outside.

"Well it's time to get you moving, lazy butt!" He said.

"Don't talk about my butt," I joked.

"Why not?" He winked, causing me to blush. I stuck my tongue out at him.

"So where are we going?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

"To pick weapons, silly. You can't be at a camp that trains kids to fight without having a weapon!" He said excitedly as we came to what looked like a storage shed. He swung open the door and I peered inside, seeing dozens of weapons of all different kinds lining the shelves and walls.

"How'd you know about this?" I asked, looking at a few of the guns in the wall, smirking when I saw a .22 long rifle, the same kind that I used to shoot with my grandpa.

"Few of the kids in the Hermes cabin told me about it," he shrugged as he tested the weight of a spear in his hand. I instinctively backed away from him. I knew what he could do with sharp objects. After I had seen what he did with a pocket knife and a piece of wood, I wasn't interested in getting too close. He put the weapon down when he saw my face. My attention was quickly shifted to a trident, a bit like the one Poseidon was often seen holding in paintings and sculptures of Greek gods. As soon as I touched it I felt a weight in my pocket. I reached in and found the necklace my mother had given me (A/N: if you don't remember, that was in chapter 3). I ran a finger down one of the points and almost dropped it as it magically elongated into a full-sized trident. "Sweet," Jake murmurs as I studied the trident in amazement. "Wish my mom gave me a weapon," he smiled. I tested the trident in my hand. Well balanced and extremely light, almost as if it was hollow. I could see the bronze tips similar to the ones on almost all of the weapons in the shed.

"Guess I'm covered in the weapon department," I said, watching as Jake picked up a xyston; a long, spear-like weapon with points at both ends. It was about his height when he picked it up before it grew to approximately ten feet long. I watched as he spun it in his hand, nearly knocking a shelf off the wall. "Looks good with you, but you need practice first," I laughed. He nodded, laughing along.

"We should go to the training grounds! We haven't done any cool demigod training yet," Jake said excitedly. I couldn't help but giggle and roll my eyes at his bubbly attitude. He really liked this whole new life.

We left the weapon shed together and headed over to the arena. A few kids were slicing up dummies and I saw a huge black dog chewing on some of the beheaded ones. A black haired kid whistled and threw one of the heads and the giant dog took off after it. I laughed, causing the ebony haired boy to turn around. He was pretty pale and looked European. Italian maybe? The giant dog bounded up behind him, carrying the dummy head in its mouth. I saw him smile, an expression that didn't look natural on him, like he didn't smile often. As the dog dropped the head at his feet he scratched behind her ears and she licked his face.

"Gross, Mrs. O'Leary," he said, pretending to be mad. I smiled and watched them until Jake got my attention by doing something stupid, of course. He tried to use his xyston to vault himself into the air. Naturally, he landed on his face. I couldn't help but burst out laughing as I helped him up. I heard a few other people around the arena chuckle. He smiled sheepishly as he stood.

We practiced hacking at some dummies for a little while, getting used to the feel of our weapons, before the dark haired boy from earlier came over. For a while he just stood and watched. Eventually he walked up to me after I had stabbed a dummy.

"You need to fix your stance. You're using a longer weapon so your stance should be a little wider so you can have a larger range of movement and have balance while stabbing. Here," he said, demonstrating. I mirrored his position, moving my legs about shoulder width apart. I tried stabbing the dummy again. He was right. I balanced much better and didn't feel like I would fall over if I were to over-exert. I gave him a grateful smile.

"Thanks, that helps a lot. I'm Mira, and this is Jake," I said, introducing myself and Jake, who was currently failing at trying to bat the head off of a dummy. I shook my head at him, chuckling.

"I'm Nico. I could give you a few more pointers if you'd like," he suggested. I nodded, thanking him.

We practiced for a while, Nico giving us tips and correcting mistakes. He was actually a really good teacher. Quiet and reserved, but he observed how we moved and taught us how to use that to our advantage. He didn't say many words but he got his point across.

After he parted to the infirmary (not sure why he went there), Jake and I practiced a little longer before walking to the strawberry fields to hang out before dinner. We ate a few strawberries and laid on the ground, looking up at the sky and talking over everything that had happened recently.

"Who do you think your godly parent will be?" I asked him.

"No idea," he shrugged. "Something cool like Zeus or Apollo probably."

I shook my head, laughing, "you're too lame for that." He gently shoved my shoulder with his. "You've got the looks," I said to keep him happy.

"I know I do," he said, smirking and giving me a wink. I rolled my eyes at him, trying not to blush.

"Come on, dinner time, dork," I said, getting up as the conch shell sounded. He got up and we walked to the dining pavilion together.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After dinner, all of the kids gathered around the bonfire. It was quickly becoming my favorite thing at camp. We went through the routine of singing and s'mores before something weird happened. I kid you not, Jake started floating. And it wasn't just a few feet off the ground. No, it was at least twenty feet in the air. Above him was a bright ball of swirling wind and light.

"Aether," I heard Chiron mumble. As Jake came down to earth Chiron repeated his conclusion, louder this time, "Jake, son of Aether, primordial god of light and upper air." Jake's face broke into a grin.

"Awesome," he laughed, running over to me and scooping me up into a hug, swinging me around. I laughed with him.

"What do you know, you've got a cool parent after all," I said.

"And a powerful one, at that. He is one of the first gods and a son of Chaos," (A/N: this is what I learned. There are many different theories about his parentage and I'm aware of that) Chiron stated.

"Sweet!" Jake jumped excitedly, like a puppy on a sugar high. I shook my head, laughing at him.

"Dork."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the campfire we all headed to our separate cabins. Somehow after a day of sleeping I was still exhausted, so I crashed in my bed without asking where Jake would be sleeping. I didn't hear Percy come in but I was already lost in a dream.