Sisters of Opposition

After talking to Chiron, Percy and Annabeth led us to cabin eleven, which was the Hermes cabin. The two boys, Travis and Connor showed us where we could leave our packs and where to wash up before dinner. Then, we were led down to a dining pavilion, told how things were done at meals, made an offering to the gods, and than sat down to dinner.

I didn't really talk much, but Carina didn't seem to have an off-switch. She kept asking a ton of questions to everyone at cabin eleven's table, trying to figure out who was a child of Hermes and who was unclaimed like we were. I was beginning to think that the other campers were getting fed up with her when the weirdest thing happened. A glowing lightning bolt appeared
above her head.

Chiron got up and spoke, "All hail Carina Montrose, daughter of the god of the skies!"

Everyone got up and knelt to my sister, but I just sat there looking at her in shock. Zeus? Our father was Zeus? Why was he only claiming her? And then it hit me, because nobody ever wanted me. Chiron cantered over and led Carina away from the Hermes table to the table for cabin one, where she was left to have dinner alone. Part of me felt bad for her. She had never had to be alone without crowds of people fawning over her in her life. Now, because I was a reject, she was alone.

Everyone started talking about the daughter of Zeus. Apparently, the last daughter of Zeus nearly died and for a few years had been the spirit of the pine tree we were nearly killed at near the top of the valley. She was since fixed by the golden fleece and became the lieutenant of Artemis and her Hunters. Children of the Big Three were rarer than I thought and apparently their lives sucked.

I tried to stay unnoticed for the rest of the meal, but that wasn't easy. People knew Carina came in with a freak of a sister and noticed that only she had been claimed, so after the shock of the daughter of Zeus being claimed calmed down, the big news seemed to be about the sister who hadn't. Everyone wanted to know how defective I had to be in order for one of the gods to break their oath, which had been made on the River Styx, to claim their children by the age of thirteen.

My rage was building more and more. I was ready to explode. It wouldn't have been the first time I'd gotten into a fight. Then he walked into the pavilion and went up to Chiron. Everyone went silent for a moment and then started whispering about him. Apparently, he was a son of Hades, who had been hidden in a place where time stands still since World War II until recently. Even though I was a freak in this place, he seemed to out-freak me. I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Campers! We have decided to have a game of capture the flag tonight! After dinner, everyone prepare yourselves, and meet at the canoe lake!" Chiron said as he walked out of the pavilion with the son of Hades.

Before he walked out of the pavilion, his eyes seemed to lock with mine, and for a minute, he seemed almost shocked to see me. It confused me, but I had bigger things to worry about. Capture the flag? I had a feeling that a this camp it would be a little more serious than it was at school.

Pollux, the son of Dionysus, Percy and Carina teamed with the Athena, Hephaestus, Hermes, and Apollo cabins versus the rest of the camp. It seemed uneven to me, but at least my sister and I were on the same team. Then the son of Hades walked over.

"Hey, Percy, Annabeth, Pollux. I'm with you guys."

"Hey, Nico," said Percy.

We figured out our plan and spread out as we waited for the whistle. I noticed that Nico stayed close to me. I wasn't sure if I was comfortable about that or not, but I didn't have time to worry about that. The horn blew and I could hear the other team storming our side. It wasn't long before a group of the sons of Ares found me.

"If it isn't the reject," one of them said.

"Reject. That's a six letter word. Is that a record for you?" I asked him.

"I'm gonna kill you," another said.

"Is that the entirety of the vocabulary of those in your cabin?"

They rushed at me, and I just wanted them to stop. I clapped my hands together and a fissure opened up in the ground. Nico ran to my side.

"Don't go interfering where you don't belong, Son of Hades!" the ringleader exclaimed.

"Pick on someone your own size, like a gorilla. Wait, they're smarter than you," Nico replied.

The sons of Ares ran off in another direction to find the flag. Nico turned to me, spinning me to face him.

"How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Open the ground like that?"

"I didn't do that. They said you did. Didn't you?"

"I can, but I didn't. You did. How did you do it?"

"I don't know."

"Come with me."

We left the woods and Nico took me back to the dining pavilion. He showed me what looked like a healed scar in the floor of the marble.

"When I was ten years old and found out my sister Bianca had died, a group of kinda undead warriors chasing Percy Jackson found him here, when he came to tell me the truth about her. I didn't know my father was Hades at the time, but I wanted the attack to stop. I yelled and I opened the ground, swallowing them up, sending them back to the Underworld where they belonged, and then it closed up. That was the night I stopped staying at Half-Blood full-time. I only come back from time to time now. What you just did is just like what I did that night."

"But my father can't be Hades."

"Why?"

"Because my sister was claimed tonight by Zeus. Our mother never told us that we weren't full siblings."

"She wouldn't if she went and did something as stupid as having you to spite Zeus. If she openly admitted that for all of these years, he may have killed you long ago."

"So, Carina may not be my full sister?"

"I'm not sure. I know what you just did is definitely not a trait of a child of Zeus though."

"I guess we'll have to wait until I'm claimed then."

"I guess so. Let's just wait here until the game is over. There's no point going back into the woods."

We didn't wait that long, but we went to the amphitheater where the campfires were held to wait for the rest of the camp. Nobody seemed to think anything was wrong, at least until Percy walked in and saw us sitting off alone.

"Are you two okay? You bowed out kinda early," he said.

"Yeah. Some jerks from the Ares cabin tried to start with Kylie here. I opened a fissure in the ground and then we left the game to talk. She was a little freaked out."

"You sure you're okay, Kylie?" asked Percy.

"Yeah. I'm okay. Nico's been great. I don't play well with others anyway. They like to try to beat me up."

"Not here they won't. I won't let them. Promise," Percy said.

"Thanks," I said.

Percy went and sat with our team, but Nico and I stayed together. We were just getting up to leave when all of the noise in the amphitheater stopped. I looked up to see a glowing symbol above my head. Carina looked confused. A lot of the campers looked scared. Percy looked like he was going back and forth between pissed off and sympathetic.

"All hail Kylie Montrose, daughter of the god of the Underworld," Chiron said, as he and everyone but Carina and Nico knelt to me.

Notes