Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Heroes of Olympus, Trials of Apollo, or any other of Rick Riordan's works in any form. Credit for those go to him and the publishers.

      I awoke the next morning to the sounds of rock music blaring through the cabin. I rubbed sleep from my eyes as I swung my legs to sit on the edge of my bed. Looking up to the skylight I could see a bright streak go across the sky. I glanced up at Lee in the bunk above me.

     "Dad," he grumbled. "Always wakes us up at the crack of dawn so we can see him driving the sun chariot."

     "Every morning?" I questioned.

     Lee just nodded, and I groaned in response. Just what I always wanted, waking up at six in the morning to watch my dad drive across the sky. That was when I noticed something, my leg didn't hurt. I stood up and gradually put weight on my right leg to test it. It seemed fine.

     Lee must have seen how confused I was. "Half-bloods heal faster than mortals, especially with a little nectar and ambrosia," he explained. "Now hold still" Lee said as he cut my cast off with a dagger.

     Once my cast was off I examined my leg. It was perfectly fine, except for a scar about four inches long on my thigh.

     Lee shook me out of my thoughts by speaking again. "Come on, Jacob. Breakfast is soon."

     I followed everyone out of the cabin and back to the dining pavilion. Breakfast was pretty similar to dinner, but with pancakes and lots of fruit instead.

     As I sat down after scraping part of my plate into the fire Will sat down next to me. "Hi," he said.

     I gave a little smile and nod, "Hey."

     "We didn't get much of a chance to talk last night, so I thought that I'd come say 'Hello'," Will started. "So, how has camp been treating you?" he continued.

     "It's been interesting," I replied. "It's all so new and different, I'm still taking it all in. It's weird to not be looking over my shoulder for monsters all the time."

     "I'm sure," Will laughed.

     We made small talk until the rest of the cabin seemed to be finishing up.

     "So, what exactly do we do?" I asked Will.

     "We train," he replied, simply. "Like this morning we have pegasus riding."

     "Pegasus riding?" I asked, my face paling.

     "Oh, you'll love it."

     I wasn't so sure about that. The idea of riding something that flies without much protection from falling sounded terrifying.

     "Then we have a masters' archery class with Chiron before lunch," Will continued.

     Wait, what! Masters' Archery? I had never even handled a bow, and I was going to a class for the masters? "Sounds fun" I replied, trying not to show how panicked I was. Flying sounded terrifying, and then I had to go to a masters' class. Couldn't I have a beginners class instead?

     I followed the rest of the cabin down to the pegasus stables. Once there Lee and our instructor explained how to ride a pegasus. One by one, the rest of my cabinmates made a run on a pegasus.

     "Are you ready?" our instructor asked. She was a child of Demeter, Sydney I believe her name was.

     "Oh no, I'm good," I replied. "I think I'll just watch today."

     "Suit yourself" Sydney replied before swinging onto a mottled white and black pegasus.

     I watched for about two hours as my cabin ran drills on the pegasi. Before long, it was time to move on. As we were walking towards the archery range I noticed the girl from the infirmary sprinting be towards the cabins.

     "Who's that?" I asked Will.

     "Oh, that's Annabeth, Daughter of Athena," Will replied. "She's been here longer than a lot of people."

     "She looks about my age."

      Will just shrugged. "Some find their way here at a young age."

      We made a quick stop at our cabin so people could grab their bows, and as we were heading out I noticed Annabeth coming out of the Hermes cabin before sitting on the step with a book. As we were nearing the archery range I noticed Chiron walking with Percy towards the cabins. That was when I realized, we didn't know who Percy's dad was. They must be putting him with Hermes with the rest of the unclaimed. It just didn't seem fair, why weren't the gods claiming their kids? Were they ashamed of us?

     I was shaken out of my thoughts by Lee. "Alright guys, Chiron isn't here yet so let's just warm up with some practice shots" Lee announced.

     "If he isn't here in 15 minutes that means we can leave, right?" I heard one of my sister's joke.

      We all laughed at that. Lee just shook his head before taking his place at one of the targets, he was quickly joined by some of my brothers and sisters. I watched as they started just pouring arrows into the targets faster than I thought was humanly possible. You would think the speed would throw them off, but no. They all had a nice cluster right in the center of the targets. Hades help an monster that faced the Apollo cabin! Some other campers trickled in while my siblings were shooting, I assume they were from other cabins because I had never seen them before.

      After a couple of minutes Chiron galloped up to us. "I apologize for my tardiness children," Chiron said. "Now, let us begin." Chiron paused to scan the crowd of campers before him. His eyes finally rested on me, and I gulped. "Mr. Firth, would you please come up here. As this is your first lesson, I would like to analyze your skill level" Chiron stated, gesturing me to join him.

     All eyes turned to me, and I gulped once again. Lowering my eyes I made my way to Chiron.

     "If I remember correctly you have a bow, yes?" Chiron asked.

     I nodded while twisting my ring. "Why am I here instead of with the beginner class?" I asked Chiron while activating my bow form. I heard a couple gasps as a bow suddenly appeared in my hand.

     Chiron smiled slightly. "Because I believe that you belong here," he responded while handing me a quiver. "Now, if you would please demonstrate."

     I sighed and took the quiver. This wasn't going to end well, I was so going to embarrass myself. That thought process quickly died as I grabbed an arrow from the quiver, something about this just felt right. I nocked the arrow and drew back the bow without giving it much thought. Pointing the bow downrange I steadied myself, and fired. The arrow flew straight and true, striking the target with a nice thud. The arrow was in the center ring. Not quite a bullseye, but close. To say I was surprised is an understatement. I thought for sure that the arrow was going to completely miss and hit some random camper. I lowered my bow and just kinda stood there shuffling my feet.

     I felt a hand clap on my shoulder and I looked up to see a beaming Lee. "Nice shot lil' bro!"

     I blushed a little and mumbled, "thanks".

     Chiron cleared his throat, bringing my attention back to him. He seemed to be slightly smiling. "Do it again, but hold your form before firing if you would Mr. Firth."

     I did as he asked, and Chiron slightly adjusted my footing and arm positions. I looked at him once he had done this, and he nodded. Taking that as a sign to fire I sent my arrow towards the target. Bullseye. I grinned, this was fun.

     "Alright, resume what you were doing before I arrived," Chiron ordered. "In 15 minutes we shall switch to the moving targets."

     Wait, what? Moving targets? Everybody rushed up to the range as I just tried to process what Chiron just said. I glanced to my right, and noticed Lee just pouring arrows into the target. They were all landing in the center ring, some shots even split arrows that were already there.

     "Mr. Firth," Chiron said. "Could you please get started."

     "Oh, uh, sorry Chiron" I replied, stumbling over my words.

     I scrambled to start firing down the range, doing the bast to imitate the stance Chiron had put me in. As I sent arrow after arrow into the target Chiron stood by me, occasionally offering tips, critiques, and suggestions. Once I had finished all the arrows in my quiver I gazed at my target, and felt a swell of pride in my chest. All of my arrows were clustered in the inner ring. Glancing around I saw that the targets of my siblings were in the same state, most even better than mine. I glanced at Chiron and he gave me a slight nod, a slight smile on his face. Not long after everyone had finished shooting.

     "Well done," Chiron said. "Let us move on to moving targets, shall we," Chiron announced as he clapped his hands.

     I gazed back down the range to see that the targets were now floating, and moving in every direction. The weirdest part though, all the arrows were no longer embedded in the targets. I followed everyone over to where the quivers were, and grabbed one for myself. Reaching my spot I once again started firing down the range. Long story short, let's just say I'd rather the monsters I shoot at are standing still.

     "Well done today, heroes," Chiron announced after everyone had finished a few rounds of the moving targets. "Now, I believe that it is about time for lunch."

     The horn sounded for lunch immediately after Chiron had said this, almost like it had been waiting for Chiron to say that.

     I followed my cabin back to the dining pavilion silently, my thoughts consuming me. The camp seemed nice enough, and my siblings were great. Something irked me though, this all felt too chaotic. I like everything to be nice and organized, everything needs to have a place so that things can function. Shouldn't the cabins be working together as a group so that we can better fight monsters?

                                                                   <        ^        >

     Whispers floated around the dining pavilion that night at dinner. Apparently, there had been an incident that afternoon in the toilets involving the new kid - aka Percy - and some Ares campers. From what I heard, this girl named Clarisse dragged him to the girl's bathroom - something she apparently does to all newbies. Thank the gods I was able to fly under the radar - with some of her siblings to give Percy some swirlies. That wasn't what people were talking about though, what happened next was. Apparently, there had been a freak accident where all the water from the toilets shot out and pushed the bullies out of the bathroom.

     Dinner was just wrapping up, and I was talking to Will about what has now become known as The Great Ares Soak when Chiron pounded his hoof to get our attention. Mr. D sighed as he stood up. "Yes, I suppose I better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello," he said sarcastically. "Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday." Capture the flag, that sounded fun. "Cabin 5 presently holds the laurels," Mr. D continued, a bunch of gloating cheers coming from the Ares kids. "Personally, I couldn't care less. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson," Mr. D said, which was then followed by a whisper from Chiron. "Er, Percy Jackson. Now, run along to your silly campfire. Go on," he finished with a sigh.

     Everyone cheered as we headed down to the Amphitheater, myself included. I may not want to lead the sing-along with my siblings, but it was fun nonetheless. I was really starting to like it here, I could get used to this life.

A/N: Hey Y'all, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! If anyone is actually reading this, I apologize for not updating for over a month. I kinda got burned out on this story because I didn't think anyone was actually reading it so I switched over to my other story titled The Male Hunter.

If you're reading this, have a great day!