AN: I own nothing. Not even a muddy pair of boots.

Camp Life

By: Chalkfourone

Post The Last Olympian, Pre The Lost Hero.

"Hey."

"Hmm."

"Hey, uh, you know how I never, like, get wet? When I swim?"

" . . . Yeah?"

"It doesn't work with sweat."

" . . . What a hard life you must live, Seaweed Brain."

They both roll their eyes and laugh, even though it's pretty true. The sounds of bronze-on-bronze, wooden manikins losing limbs, and grunting, hard at work demigods fill the arena. The sun is beating down hard, and Percy and Annabeth are sitting (sprawled) in the bleachers on the north end, where pine trees on the hill the arena is sitting against offer some meager amount of shade. On the arena floor, Clarisse is shouting orders to an untidy phalanx of newly arrived demigods who have never held a ten-foot spear or an infantry shield taller than they are. Chris Rodriguez stands behind her, a patient look on his face, discreetly helping the tiny boy on the edge of the formation readjust the breast plate that is much to big for him. Their group shares the floor with Jake Mason's sword fighting class, another group of eleven, twelve, and thirteen year olds in ill-fitting armor, walloping the practice manikins with rusty, notched swords in unison as Jake calls out encouragement and advice. Annabeth checks her watch.

"Don't you have to go back out there soon?" she asks.

"Yeah," Percy says, stretching lazily before reaching for Riptide, sitting innocuously on the stone bench next to him in pen form. Percy shoves the pen in the pocket of his gym shorts, swiftly kisses Annabeth on the temple and begins to make his way down the steps toward the leader of Hephaestus Cabin, who, on seeing his replacement, brightens up and calls the class to halt.

"Thank the Gods," Jake says, his brown eyes glittering mischievously, when Percy gets within hearing range, "I thought you were going to sit up there with your girl all afternoon and leave me stuck here with these hooligans." He throws a wink over his shoulders to the class, who grin hesitantly. Percy feels for them; he knows exactly what it's like to suddenly be thrown into a completely new world filled with monsters and Gods and demigods and Zeus knows what other surprises.

"Well, it was tempting," he shoots back, "but someone has got to show these poor, misguided souls how to actually use a sword."

"Hey, lay off!" says Jake, throwing up his hands and laughing, "I'm a builder, not a fighter."

His face lights up and he adds, "Speaking of which, I've got this new thing I gotta show you - it's like a sort of automatic crossbow-thing, on these wheels - five hundred quarrels a minute! I mean, it's gonna be a bitch to make five hundred arrows every time, but- still! Think of how we could defend Thalia's Hill!" He beams.

Ever since about a week after the Battle of New York, the camp had been swarmed with panicking, exhausted satyrs with hordes of newly discovered demigods in tow, followed by scores of monsters, some left over from the Battle, hoping to score an easy meal. It seemed like every couple of hours Clarisse was leading another assault force to Thalia's Hill to chase off the opportunistic hellhounds, dracaenae, cyclopeses, and even a couple of drakons. They hadn't actually lost a camper yet, but Percy knew it was only a matter of time. If Jake's new weapon worked, it could seriously help the defense effort.

"Alright, dude, I'll swing by tonight. Go get some rest." Percy pauses as Jake starts past him toward camp, waving to his former students, and shouts, "And take a shower!" toward the builder's back. Jake flips him the bird, grins, and jogs out of the arena, narrowly avoiding disembowelment by the spear of one of Clarisse's slightly more wayward charges.

Percy turns to his class. He doesn't recognize any of them, though he notes a telltale pair of stormy grey eyes on one younger boy and an older girl who looks like a slightly short clone of Katie Gardner. They stare back at him skeptically. It's probably, he muses, the fact that Jake is head-and-shoulders taller than him, with arms that look like they crack drakon skulls for fun. In addition, Percy wears no armor and doesn't appear to have a sword either.

"Okay!" He says cheerfully, clapping his hands together. "Who here thinks they can take me?"

"'Who here thinks they can take me?' Really?"

"Well, it is a good training method. And way more fun then those learn-all-these-different-moves-by-swinging-your-sword-at-the-dummy thing Mason was having them do. Besides, our oft-lamented dear brother was rather fond of that one, as I recall, and look how he turned out."

"Too true," Conner Stoll agrees, leaning against the low wall surrounding the arena floor. "Although I think I'd rather climb the rock wall at full blast, maximum lava, for two whole hours, than cross swords with ole' Mr. I-Beat-Up-Titans-For Fun Jackson for five minutes."

Travis Stoll watches Percy's third challenger go down hard and agrees wholeheartedly.

They sit in silence for a few moments, listening to the dulcet tones of Ms. LaRue as she verbally abuses a little kid who accidently tripped over his spear (They're pretty sure it's illegal to say stuff like that to kids). Then Travis says, "Hey, you wanna go stick some itching powder in Will Solace's blankets? He was trying to chat up Katie this morning. And, I mean, I know we've done the whole itching powder thing like a million times, but it's a classic, tried-and-true."

"Dude . . . you really need to ask her out. This is getting ridiculous. And I'm pretty sure he was only asking her to get rid of that poison oak that was growing under the Apollo cabin."

There's a pause.

"So . . . you're in?"

"Dude, of course."

Jesse's feet hurt. And his head, and arms, and the gash on his side, and pretty much his whole body. He can't remember how long they've been running, only that he's reasonably certain he should get like an honorary Olympic medal for this or something. He also knows that whatever's been chasing them hasn't slowed down this entire time: In fact, he's pretty sure it's sped up.

Behind him he hears Amanda stumble, and without looking back he reaches, grabs her arm, and hauls her forward.

Jesse has only known Amanda for about seventy two hours, but it already feels like he's known her his whole life, which is really weird, although in the face of everything else that's happened in those seventy two hours, it's not on the top ten list of most weird things, or even the top fifty. He met her when Brian, his new neighbor- turned-badass-half-goat-guy, like, smelled her on the wind or something, in this little town in Tennessee a day into their epic journey (or frantic escape from his elderly neighbors' poodle. Which, in their defense, transformed into a raging, homicidal jet-black mastiff roughly the size of a Hummer, and tried to eat them). They picked her up hiding from her mom's new boyfriend, whom she swore had only one eye, and not in the cool pirate way. To make a long story short, Jesse, Amanda, and Brian have spent the last three days trekking North up the eastern seaboard towards New York, where Brian swears there's a some kind of summer camp thing where people like them (and what the hell is that supposed to mean?) can be safe, dodging monsters and police (Amanda swears the whole dropping-the-SUV- filled-with-weird-dog-fish-things-into-the-canyon incident was not, repeat, not her fault, and any of y'all that mention it again will very quickly regret it, so there.) The entire way. And now, in the middle of this sweltering hot forest, mere minutes from their destination, something- some really big something- is chasing them. And Jesse knows they can only run so much farther.

And as soon as this thought crosses his mind the forest abruptly thins, then fades all together and they are sprinting across a field towards a hill crowned by a very tall, majestic pine, and Brian his gasping, "That's it, that's it," and Jesse thinks maybe they have a chance-

And then the ground explodes underneath them, and Jesse find himself gazing dazedly up at the clear blue sky at least twenty-five feet from where he'd been a second before. He looks around, getting to his feet, and spots Amanda getting woozily to her feet, thank God, she's okay, and Brian already up and running, waving his arms and hollering-

Whereupon Jesse notices three things. The first is a new group of kids, three young ones like him and an older one like Brian, charging out of the forest. The second is a trumpet, or some kind of horn, sounding over and over again from the direction of that hill. And the third is a gigantic purpleish-greyish thing, fifteen feet thick and forty long, it's only visible feature a gaping maw, erupting from the ground and heading in their direction.

It's big and fast and it apparently knows where they are, despite its lack of visible eyes, and Brian is screaming "WORMS! WORMS! WORMS!" at the top of his lungs, and Jesse wonders if he just means worm, because there's only one, when the others decide to make their entrance, burrowing up and out of the ground, and Jesse thinks they've just about had it, when the worm closest to him, its mouth opened wide, abruptly loses its head.

And suddenly there's chaos, armored figures sweeping down the hill brandishing spears and screaming frankly bloodcurdling warcries; Jesse spots a blood red standard being held over the main group, bearing what looks like a pigs head on it; and then the worms head crashes down beside him (sans body), and standing casually on top of the head is a tall, tanned guy with dark hair, wearing an orange T-shirt and carrying a freaking golden sword (Jesse's already jealous). The guy spots Jesse and grins, offers a sort of lazy salute, and says, "How's it hangin'?", his New York accent clear.

Before he can answer, Sword Guy apparently spots something interesting over Jesse's head, and says, "Hold that thought, I'll be right back.", and leaps off his victim and away towards the sounds of battle raging behind Jesse's back.

Jesse knows that a battlefield is probably (definitely) not the best place to just lay around, but he can't help it; he hasn't gotten a decent night's sleep in what seems like a century. A minute later the clouds drifting across the sky are obscured by a pair of worried eyes he now notices are the exact same color as the sky above them.

"Hey," he says, not knowing what else to say. Amanda just sighs.

"Hey yourself." she drawls, collapsing next to him and joining his mid-afternoon vigil.

"Brian okay?" Jesse asks, noting that the clashing and smashing and shouting behind him has stopped.

"Yeah. He was talkin' to some other guy who looked just like him. I mean, with the horns and hooves an' that."

He ponders this in silence for a moment.

His pondering is cut short by a shadow falling over them.

"Am I interrupting something?" asks the shadow's owner, a skinny kid dressed in tight-fitting black jeans, a black As I Lay Dying shirt with the sleeves ripped off, and a sardonic smile on a pale face. "Because if I am, I can come back - "

Jesse knows Amanda well enough by now to restrain her before she can deck Smirky Guy, but before she can wail on him Sword Guy runs up, his shirt now splattered with gore but without even a scratch on him, and a totally hot older blonde girl keeping pace with him.

"Nico! I - Oh, there you two are, we couldn't find Brian's kids," he adds upon spotting Jesse and Amanda. "You guys can head over there," he points to the hill with the tree- "get freshened up, get some rest . . ."

"I'll take them," says the girl, kissing Sword Guy's cheek and turning to them.

"My name's Annabeth," she says kindly, reaching out and pulling Amanda's hand from around Smirky Guy (Nico?)'s neck.

"You can come with me- you're safe now," she adds, "We'll get you to the Big House; I'm sure they've got food already waiting, and you look hungry -"

"No."

Annabeth's steel grey eyes widen for a second at Amanda's outburst, then narrow. Jesse tenses slightly and inches in front of her, but Amanda just snorts and shoves him back. Annabeth's friends stop mid-argument and look over. "Excuse me - " Annabeth begins, anger lacing her tone, but Amanda interrupts her.

"I want to know what the fuck is going on! I want to know why we almost just got killed by giant worms, why everything seems to be out to get us since last month, why y'all are running around with swords, and, and -"

The two guys with the aforementioned swords look sympathetic (or at least, the orange T-shirt guy does, heavy metal guy just isn't smirking anymore). Annabeth starts to say something, then stops and sighs.

"Look," she says, "it's complicated. It's a long story, and you probably won't like hearing it. It gets easier though."

She turns her gaze away for a second, and sighs again.

"That probably just confused you more. Let's just go over the hill, have a seat, eat a little, and I'll tell you everything. I promise."

"They seem alright."

"Are you fucking kidding me? I said five words to that girl and she tried to strangle me!"

"Yeah. She'll fit right in."

"She doesn't look like she's related to Clarisse though . . ."

"So? I watched Katie Gardner tie the Stolls to a tree yesterday and then beat them with a stick. Something about shaving cream in her little brother's sleeping bag . . . The point is, being a child of Ares is completely unrelated to female ferocity."

"Well . . . yeah. And, I mean, Annabeth."

"Yeah. Exactly."

". . ."

". . ."

"So. How's it going with that daughter of Hecate? The one who keeps changing her name?"

"Yeah . . . I think it's actually 'Skye Sora Nightflower' this week."

"Wow."

"Yeah, tell me about it. Why is it that the only girls I ever attract are always really freaking weird?"

"That bad, huh?"

"You have no idea."

"What did you do, show her your Mythomagic collection?"

"You fucking-"

Juniper watches Nico chase Percy around the field, waving his sword and shouting rather gruesome threats while Percy laughs.

"Demigods," she murmurs to herself, "are so weird."

"Man . . . I can't believe we ran out of itching powder. That's just wrong."

"I have to admit, though, that the beetles were a nice idea. That was a good one."

"Thank you, dear brother."

"You're very welcome, dear brother."

"I hope Katie doesn't connect the dots though. I still have bruises from that sticking."

"Hah, sticking- "

"Shut up. Oh! Here he comes-"

"He's going inside-"

"Hah, going inside-"

"And three . . . two . . . one . . ."

It had been a really weird day, thought Amanda, daughter of Apollo, as she walked back to her new cabin. But really, all in all, it hadn't been that bad once they got into the camp, and everyone was welcoming them, and she finally knew the truth and she finally belonged-

Once she got over the golden glowing sign spinning over her head, and met her new brothers and sisters, and she didn't have to run anymore, it was a good day.

The door and outside to Apollo Cabin are plain and unassuming, but inside it's always well lit and open and airy, with big tall windows and musical instruments and poems written all over the walls, and big, nice bunks for everyone; it was like living in paradise or something.

Kara and Vinnie, the twins with bunks near the doors, are the only people inside- everyone else is still in the showers, Amanda figures. Kara's playing a slow, haunting tune on her acoustic guitar, but when her eyes meet Amanda's she grins and her fingers dance along the strings, the music turns light and fast and some how sort of South American-feeling, and Amanda dances a little as she moves to her new bunk, her worldly possessions- a picture of her mom, a silver pocket watch that apparently belonged to her grandfather, her muddy, ratty boots that she walked most of the way here in, and a mall photo booth strip of her, Jesse and Brian they had taken somewhere on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. - stashed around it, along with the bundle of clothes her new siblings immediately offered her upon realizing she had a filthy white tank top and a torn, bloody pair of jeans to her name, and the bag of toiletries those nice twins from the Camp Store generously gave her free of charge (though they did giggle a lot when they did, which she thought was odd). It's still not much, but it's more than she had yesterday. It's a start. And what had Annabeth said? 'It gets easier'. There was that to look forward to.

Her thoughts are interrupted when Will, the oldest and sort of the unofficial leader, breezes in, his hair still wet from the shower. Kara's song turns into the Imperial March and Will laughs before dramatically marching to his bunk. On the way he tosses a salute to Vinnie, absorbed in his copy of Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo, and a wink to Amanda, who waves back shyly. Kara asks her what kind of music she listens to and she begins to reply- country, country, more country-but is cut off when yelling fills the upper floor of the cabin-

"AUHGHH! YOU FUCKERS! YOU MOTHER FUCKING FUCKERS!"

And Will sprints down the stairs, yanks open the door, still turning the air blue, leaps outside-

Laughter fills the air outside the cabin, and Amanda, utterly bewildered, turns to Kara and opens her mouth to ask what the holy hell that was about, but her half-sister just rolls her eyes and says, "Don't worry about it. It's just camp life."

AN: One and done. So. How was that? Decent? Not so decent? Tell me about it either way. I added the Worm monster because it seemed like a cool idea, and there is as similar beast from The Eye of the World by the stunningly talented and much missed Robert Jordan. Is that cool with y'all? Or no?