Epov

I disarmed the Ares boy and tackled him. His hulking figure crashed to the floor of the arena, and I held the blade of my sword to his throat.

"And that's match." I said smirking, pushing myself off the ground and holding out a hand to help him up, but his dark eyes narrowed and he slapped my hand away.

"Don't touch me Underfreak." He said furiously, pushing himself up on his own and brushing the dirt off his armor.

"Have it your way." I said shrugging, turning, and walking back to my friends who were all smirking.

"Nice work, Ev," my best friend Micah said with a grin and giving me a high five. He looked over my shoulder his eyes glittering mischievously. "Guess you put Broderick in his place."

"He's never liked losing to girls." I agreed turning with a smile to see the all Ares children were glaring at me.

"Then he really must not like you." Micah laughed. "Because you beat him every time."

Micah was the head of the Hecate cabin. He was tall and good looking, with stylish black hair streaked with red, dark skin, and deep blue eyes.

"Yeah, none of them really like me much." I said shrugging and turning back to Micah unconcerned.

Ares was one of the Olympians, and his kids tended to take that pretty seriously. While things had improved immensely for children of the Underworld Gods over the past few years at camp, there were still those that were made uncomfortable by us. Being a daughter of Hades, I tended to push the boundaries of those people a lot more than they liked. Underfreak was their term of endearment for me and my fellow Underworld friends, but mostly me.

At least we had cabins now. That was progress.

"Yeah, well they don't like any of us much." He said shrugging and together we walked back to the group of Underworld campers that had crowded at the Arena entrance.

"Good job Ev." Maya, Micah's girlfriend and a daughter of Nyx, said.

She was short with long black hair and wide brown eyes that were looking at me with admiration.

"Thanks My."

"Yeah you kicked Broderick's butt!" her little brother Sebastian said laughing.

Micah took Maya's hand and the group walked out of the Arena together towards the Dining Pavilion for lunch.

"Don't look now." Micah said his voice low and of course everyone glanced in the direction his head was turned. "But here comes the beautiful people."

To our left was a group of the Aphrodite campers all laughing and talking in rapid French as they too made their way to lunch. Well, they weren't all Aphrodite campers, but most of them were.

Good looking and popular, this was the power squad of the children of the Olympian Gods.

My eyes fell on the most attractive of the group, Cassian Holt. He was tall and tan with stylish dirty blonde hair and light green eyes. He wasn't the head of the Aphrodite cabin, but he might as well have been with the way everyone listened to whatever he said. He too was laughing, they were always laughing, and his arm was around his girlfriend April, a daughter of Apollo. She was pretty with long blonde hair, freckles, and deep blue eyes that were looking up at him in wonder. As if she couldn't believe that he was going out with her. Then again, that was how all his girlfriends had looked at them when he dated them, and he dated plenty.

I was so distracted looking at the group. I didn't see the step leading up into the Pavilion until I'd already tripped over it.

I crashed into the ground, sprawling in front of the tables people were sitting at, bringing the buzz of conversation that presided over them to a screeching halt.

"Freak alert." Someone muttered as several people started to clap. I let out a sigh and let my head fall on to my arms. The whole camp had seen that…

"Smooth," Micah said laughing and helping me up.

"That hurt." I muttered rubbing my elbow that had slammed into the ground.

"Are you alright?" Bethany, a redhead from the Hypnos cabin, asked anxiously as I dusted myself off.

"I'm fine." I said with another sigh trying to ignore the snickers that continued to follow me as I walked farther down the rows of tables.

It was only my pride that had been stung.

I glanced over at Cassian's group, who'd walked in behind us, to see they were all talking about what had just happened. His eyes met mine, and he was grinning slightly, it was obvious he'd seen the entire thing.

Feeling more embarrassed, I said goodbye to my friends, and made my way to my table.

Being the only child of Hades, and the only current child of one of the Big Three, I was always alone at meals.

I didn't mind it, not really, but it did kind of suck when I saw everyone else laughing with their siblings while I sat on my own. As much as I told myself I fit in with the other Underworld kids, the fact is, I was still a bit of an outsider. I was so much more powerful than the rest of them. While they were my friends, sometimes I felt like the saw me as more of a leader, than a companion.

'There are worse problems to have.' I thought dropping a fork into the shadow of my glass and catching it under the shade of the table where I had made it travel. 'At least you have friends.'

Most of my siblings had had it way worse off than I had when they'd first come to camp. At least I was accepted by some people here. That was a lot better than the children of Hades had had it in the past, and if I played my cards right, didn't upset too many people, or freaked out too many campers with my powers, I could make it better for future kids like me. And all my friends. I just had to keep my head down, keep my powers under control, and most importantly, not do anything to scare the Olympian campers.

I glanced over at the other tables, all eyes averting their gaze when they met mine. All except one.

Cassian had noticed me looking in his direction.

He raised an eyebrow but unlike the rest of the campers, he didn't look away. He smirked a little, clearly amused that I was staring and I found it was my turn to divert my attention.

Cassian wasn't like the other Olympian campers in his little power squad. He didn't seem to hate me and I had no idea why.

'Just keep your head down.' I thought refusing to look away from my hands resting on the table in front of me. 'Keep your head down. And everything will be fine.'

Though he didn't hate me, I knew I had to stay off his radar. Cassian was the opposite of a 'head down' personality. The last thing I needed was getting caught up with a person like him.

Cpov

"I swear she's such a spaz." Broderick muttered as Evelyn went to sit at her table, clearly trying not to look embarrassed after her fall and failing.

"A spaz you can't beat in the arena." I said and everyone laughed as he shot me a dirty look.

He glanced at April next to me before saying, "Shut up Cass." Sounding mortified.

He threw Evelyn a glare she didn't see, but kept his mouth shut which was probably a good thing. No need to start trouble for no reason.

Personally, I didn't see why our group of friends disliked her so much. She'd never done anything to us, in fact, she'd been nothing but polite to pretty much everyone in camp. Well, when she wasn't destroying them in the Arena.

I guess their main issue with her was that she was sort of in charge of the band of misfits at camp our group just loved to hate. I didn't quite understand it. I mean, who cared if their parents were from the Underworld? But I knew I could never express that view around these people. It would get me kicked out of this circle for sure, I'd be labeled an Underfreak lover, or something like that and they'd make sure anyone who mattered wouldn't talk to me.

"I'm just saying." I said innocently and Broderick continued to look annoyed.

I knew Broderick didn't like me very much. He'd had a crush on April for forever and didn't like that I knew that, and had gone out with her anyways. But what was I supposed to do? Not ask her out? She was pretty and she liked me. If I had to limit who I could date based on who other people liked, I would have a very limited selection. Crushes and infatuation spread like wildfire around camp, helped along by my cabin of course, but that was beside the point. People were fickle anyways. He'd probably move on and find some other girl to go after in a few weeks. I always did.

"Who cares how good she is in the Arena?" My sister Angela said with a frown. She was the head of our cabin, blonde and beautiful, as so many of my siblings were. Her light blue eyes were narrowed with distaste as she looked over Evelyn. "Just look at her fashion sense. I mean, it's bad enough the camp shirts are orange and we have to look at that all day, but she can't even stick to that."

Evelyn never wore the camp t shirt that most of the demigods did during activities. Instead, she usually wore dark t shirts, with some sort of band name on them, black skinny jeans that were always ripped, and combat boots that looked like they'd seen a lot of action, which they probably had. Being the most powerful demigod in camp, she must have attracted a lot of monsters when she was outside the boundaries, and seeing as she was always sent on the most grueling missions, she was gone a lot.

"You know, I don't think someone like Evelyn has a lot of time to think about fashion Ang." I said amused.

"Well she should." Angela said stubbornly as some of the others started to filter off towards the tables to start lunch. "I mean she's not completely hopeless in the looks department. She'd actually be sort of pretty if she put in a little effort."

I frowned at this, not really sure what to say.

Evelyn was pretty, in her own sort of way. She was average height for a girl, with long jet black hair and dark eyes that hid her emotions unless she was in combat. She was thin, but in a wiry sort of way, seeing as she was so strong from training in the arena. She had cunning features, that I knew would intimidate some people, but they didn't intimidate me. People generally didn't intimidate me. That was one of the advantages of being an attractive person. Usually, you were the one making others nervous.

"Ugh, I don't know why we're talking about the Underfreak anyways." Angela continued sourly. "Let's change the subject."

"Hey, I'm going to go." April said gesturing towards the table her siblings were at, and I noticed she looked a little uncomfortable. April hadn't really hung out much with my group of friends before we'd started dating, she'd talked to Broderick in the Arena a few times, but other than that, she'd never really spent that much time around us. I got the feeling she didn't quite like the hostility shown towards the camper's whose parents belonged to the Underworld, but knew she didn't want to start a fight by bringing it up.

"Alright." I said and she gave me a hopeful smile.

"I'll see you later?"

"Sure." I shrugged and she beamed at me.

She gave me a kiss on the cheek and jogged over to her siblings and I noticed Angela give me a shrewd look.

"That didn't sound very enthusiastic." She accused and the friends that were left gave me an interested look.

I shrugged again but Angela continued to press.

"Are you going to break up with her?"

"Not right now."

"Why not?" Darren, a boy from the Athena cabin asked.

"Who else would I go out with?"

"So you're just going to lead her on?" Broderick asked angrily. "Do you even like her?"

"She's pretty." I said mildly and he let out a frustrated noise.

"Gods you're a prick Holt." He spat and then stormed off to his table, no doubt to swap battle stories with his siblings until he felt better.

"What's his problem?" I asked looking at Angela as the others said their goodbyes and we started walking towards our table as well.

"You shouldn't antagonize Broderick," Angela said reprovingly. "You know he really likes her."

"So?" I asked. I'd dated plenty of girls that Broderick had liked over the past few years, he always got over it.

"So you should be more respectful of people's feelings." She chided. "And that goes for April too. I think Broderick's right. If you don't like her, don't lead her on."

"I never said I didn't like her." I said shrugging and she rolled her eyes.

"You know what I mean Cass." She said sounding a little exasperated. "All this heart breaking is going to catch up with you some day. I love you, but Broderick's right. You can be a bit of a jerk sometimes."

"If I'm such a jerk, why do I have so many friends then?" I asked grinning. "Why wouldn't people just avoid the oh-so-jerk-like Cassian Holt?"

"Because you're too damn good looking." She said with a slight laugh. "And you know it. You know people are too busy staring at your pretty boy face, to be listening what's coming out of your smart mouth."

"Look I don't even know why Broderick's complaining. He'll get his chance to ask her out. When I break up with her, all he has to do is be her shoulder to cry on. He'll get her on the rebound, it's that simple. In fact, one might even say I'm helping him. There's no way she would have gone out with him while she was still holding out hopes for me."

"Gods you really are a jerk." She said shaking her head and taking a seat opposite me.

I felt a pair of eyes on me, and looked up to see Evelyn looking in our direction.

I felt an eyebrow rise and a familiar smirk making their way across my features as interest peaked within me. Her expression was impossible to read and she looked away, but my eyes lingered on her, wondering what was going on in her mind. I didn't get an answer however, as Angela called my attention back to her.

"I mean don't you care how others feel at all?"

"No." I said shrugging and looking away from Evelyn to focus on Angela. "People don't care about my feelings, just how I look. So why should I care about theirs?"

"Well that's sweet." She said sarcastically.

We continued to debate the pros and cons of me breaking up with April for the next ten minutes, when our table was approached a tall girl with fiery red hair, tied back in braids, and pale blue eyes that looked a little anxious as they settled on Angela and I.

"What's up Mandy?" I asked. She was the head of the Athena cabins and was one of the few girls in my age range at camp that I'd never imagined dating. It's not that she wasn't pretty. Mandy was too smart of all the games that I usually had to employ to win over girls. Plus, she had a boyfriend. I might be willing to date a lot of people, but I never messed with an existing relationship.

"I need your guys' help." She said still looking worried and I frowned. It took a lot to ruffle Mandy, she was one of those calm and collected type, almost scarily so. It was what made her such a good battle strategist, her team almost always won in capture the flag.

"What happened?" Angela asked in concern, obviously picking up on Mandy's trepidation as well.

"Well, one of my brothers, a few of them actually, got in to it with a kid from the Hecate cabin earlier this morning." I felt my stomach sink, and Angela winced as Mandy continued. "They roughed him up pretty bad from the sounds of it, and you know who the head of their cabin is. Who he's friends with."

"Evelyn wouldn't do anything." I said shaking my head.

"Not right now she wouldn't. But we're on opposite teams this week for capture the flag." Mandy said anxiously. "And you know what that means."

While fighting was supposed to be controlled and confined to training areas like the woods and the Arena, capture the flag was a special case. Every week each cabin's best used their abilities with almost no hold backs, and things got pretty brutal, and with Evelyn's powers…

"I wouldn't put it past Micah to convince her to target them in the game." Mandy continued. "You know how protective he is of his siblings."

"What was the fight about?" I asked and she shrugged.

"Dunno, I think it was over a weapon, but that's not the point."

"What do you want us to do?" Angela asked.

"Convince her not go after them, before she makes any promises to Micah. Use your Charmspeak if you have to."

"Nope." Angela said holding up her hands and shaking her head. "No. I am not going to try and Charmspeak the Underfreak."

"But-" Mandy started, but Angela cut her off.

"Do you know how hard it is to charm powerful demigods?" Angela asked narrowing her eyes at Mandy. "Let alone a child of one of the Big Three? Not happening." She shook her head again. "If you want someone to help you, try Cass." I felt my stomach tighten slightly, but I was careful to keep my expression neutral. "He usually gets the best results with the Princess of Darkness anyways."

This was true. It wasn't often, but occasionally, we needed to make deals with the Underworld campers. Usually to avoid fighting in situations like this, and I was generally the one who was told to work it out with Evelyn. I wasn't exactly sure when this working relationship between her and I started, but it seemed to work fairly well. Maybe that's why I wasn't bothered by her like the others were. I was more used to being around her. I knew her better.

I glanced at Mandy who was looking at me anxiously, as if nervous about my answer.

"Sure." I said with a shrug, working to control the smile that was threatening to cross my features. "I'll talk to Evelyn for you. But what's in it for me?"

She hesitated before answering.

"I'll get the Ares cabin to do your guys' chores for a week. They owe me a favor."

"Make it two."

"There's no way they'd agree to that."

"Then I guess I'm not talking to Evelyn." I said with a shrug and returning to my breakfast, knowing she'd cave.

"Alright fine." She said sounding irritated and I smirked. "Two weeks."

"Great." I said grinning at her.

She glowered in response and pointed a finger at me.

"But that's only if she agrees to leave them alone during the game, alright?"

"Don't worry." I said easily waving this away. "She will."

She gave me one last suspicious expression before turning and walking back to her table.

"That's a tall order to fill." Angela said looking at me from over her orange juice as she took a sip "You sure you can get her to agree not to go after the Athena kids?" she glanced at Evelyn for a moment then back to me. "Micah is her best friend, and he is not going to be happy about this."

"It'll be fine." I said, unconcerned.

"Oh yeah?" she asked skeptically. "And how do you know that?"

"Because I'm charming." I said winking at a girl at the Ares table. She blushed and looked away, and I felt myself smirk. "All the ladies love me."