A Very Cold Reunion

Hailey was beginning to wonder if Dusty had brought her to the wrong place. Sure, it looked pretty much like your average summer camp...until you noticed the teens swordfighting with ACTUAL WEAPONS, the freaking GOAT-LEGGED PEOPLE, and the weird cabins. One of them even had a severed boar head tacked up above the door. Hailey shuddered and glanced at the older girl walking next to her. Piper looked relaxed and happy, the feather in her long brown braid fluttering in the wind.

“So, while we’re walking, go ahead and tell me about yourself,” Piper began, cheerfully nudging her. Hailey laughed nervously and twisted a wispy strand of hair around her fingers.

“Well, uh, my full name is Hailey Lawrence, and I’m 15-” she began, hesitantly. “I, um, I don’t know exactly what’s going on...some crazy stuff happened at my school earlier and...”
Hailey’s voice trailed off.

“Let me guess,” Piper said sympathetically. “Monsters.” Hailey stopped dead and looked at Piper in awe and confusion.

“How’d you know?” she asked, bewildered. Piper smiled at her encouragingly.

“Trust me, it isn’t that unusual. Wanna tell me what happened, though?”

“You’re going to laugh...” Hailey sighed. Piper shook her head, dead serious.

“Was it...snake people? Angry half-lion, half-dogs?” Piper queried. Hailey blinked.

“Demon baby,” she muttered.

“Hmm,” Piper frowned. “I think I remember Hazel saying something about...go on...”

“Um, it...threatened to kill me because I was eating a sandwich. Something about nasty wheat and oats are better...and then it turned into oatmeal.”

“A karpos!” Piper said, triumphantly. “You were attacked by a grain spirit. Trust me, you’re lucky it wasn’t any worse. Percy got attacked by, you know, Pasiphae’s son...half-bull.”

“The Mino-” Hailey stopped in confusion when Piper shook her head vigorously, the vivid blue feather in her hair flopping wildly.

“It’s better if you don’t say the names, trust me.”

“Wait,” Hailey said. “So...mythological monsters are real? Then why isn’t everybody getting attacked all the time?”

“Because it isn’t just the monsters that are real,” Piper said, stopping and grasping Hailey’s arm. “All the old Greek myths? They’re real. The gods, the monsters...and the heroes--the demigods.”

Hailey didn’t know what to say. She searched Piper’s face, looking for any sign of humor. “You’re...you’re messing with me,” Hailey whispered, her face even paler than usual.

“Trust me, Hailey,” Piper continued. “You’ve never seen one of your parents, except for maybe special occasions, have you?”

Hailey’s mouth dropped open. “I’ve never met my mom,” she murmured. “My dad told me she would be back someday, that she had only left because she had an important job somewhere else...”

“That’s because,” Piper whispered, gripping Hailey’s arm even tighter, “your mother is a goddess, Hailey.”

“A...a goddess? But which one? And if she’s a goddess, why couldn’t she have come to visit me at least once? And why didn’t my dad-”

Piper’s eyes met Hailey’s, her kaleidoscopic, colorful gaze making Hailey pause and blink.
“You’ll find out soon, Hailey. I promise. And now I think I owe you a bit of an explanation. This place, Camp Half-Blood, is made specially for demigods like you and me, you know, to keep us safe.”

“So...everyone here is a demigod?”

“Well, all the campers are related to a god in some way. Some of them, but only a very few, are the children of other demigods. Usually, we don’t...we don’t really live long enough to have kids,” Piper sighed, her eyes cloudy. She shook her head slightly. “Also, as you may have guessed, your friend Dusty is a satyr (you know, half-goat), and our camp counsellors are also...unique. You’ll find out soon,” she said cheerfully.

“Which god are you related to?” Hailey asked.

“My mom is Aphrodite,” Piper said, rolling her eyes. “I get my gift of persuasion from her. In other words, I can use charmspeak to persuade people or monsters to do stuff. I stole a BMW, once, but...now I use my powers only for good!” she laughed.

“Whoa,” Hailey breathed. “But I don’t really have any powers or anything.”

“You might not have really obvious ones, or maybe you just haven’t had a chance to use them yet,” Piper shrugged. “If you do, you’ll find out soon, probably after your godly parent claims you.”

“So what happens when I’m claimed, or whatever? And what about my dad?” Hailey asked.

“You should be claimed very soon, now that you’ve arrived. Gods usually wait until you either turn 13 or come to camp before they claim you, so monsters can’t find you as easily. Anyway, now that you know all of this, we should take you to Chiron and make sure your dad gets an explanation of what’s going on, and find out whether or not you should stay here.”

Before Hailey could reply, shouts and laughter erupted from the cabin right next to them; Cabin 11. A tanned, athletic boy burst through the door and sprinted down the stairs; Hailey recognized him as the guy who had grinned at her earlier. Another camper flew out of the door after him, and in an attempt to trip his pursuer up, the first boy vaulted over a nearby bench. Upon landing, he tripped and tumbled to the ground, but recovered quickly and rolled to his feet directly in front of Hailey.

“Welcome to Camp Half-Blood,” he gasped breathlessly, flicking his hair out of his face and shoving something into her hands, his brown eyes sparkling mischievously into hers for a split second before he took off again.

“Who’s he?” Hailey asked, half-laughing as she watched him go. Piper looked at her and smiled knowingly.

“That,” she replied, “is the holy terror known as Kyle Marconi, son of Hermes and expert pickpocket. Whatever he gave you is probably stolen.” Hailey gazed down at her hands and laughed out loud. It was nothing but a crinkled piece of paper that read:

Joke’s on Piper, I didn’t steal this ;)
See ya around,
Kyle Marconi a.k.a anything but Macaroni

Hailey handed Piper the note, and the daughter of Aphrodite giggled. “You know, Hailey,” she said, “I don’t think I’m the only one who’s hoping you can stay.”

Hailey blushed and looked away, watching as Kyle spun around and waved, before being tackled by the camper who was chasing him. “I guess not,” she whispered, laughing softly. She had a sneaking suspicion she was going to like it here.

Notes

Yay! An early update! I was bored, so I wrote the next chapter. It's mostly dialogue, but hey, Hailey has to find out about the demigod world somehow! Give me suggestions, etc. etc.
Hope you enjoy, and thanks again for reading!