Demeter's Destiny

I spent as much time as I could in the shower. Soaking my muscles from the car ride. After a while I figured I should face the rest of the day. I dried off the best I could and put on the clothes that Delilah had gotten for me. The shirt was the bright orange shirt that I had seen the other kids wearing. On the front it said Camp Half-Blood. The jeans fit my waist well enough, but they were about 2 inches too short. I put on the socks when I realized all I had for shoes was my sneakers. I groaned. What I wouldn't give to have my boots. I wore my boots everywhere, so I felt awkward in anything else.

Knowing I looked like a hot mess I shuffled out of the stall. Delilah was still staring in the mirror. Without really looking away she handed me a brush. I quickly pulled it through my hair and put it with the rest of my shower stuff. Finally she tore her gaze from the mirror and gave me a once over.

"Hmm. I misjudged how long your legs are. Don't worry your stuff will be here tomorrow morning. You can use my makeup if you want, but hurry or we'll be late to eat," she said and handed me her compact.

"Um, no thank you. I don't really wear makeup," I responded, handing it back.

"Oh well we can't have that. Don't fret, I'll take care of you. You have such a beautiful face. Can't let that go to waste as mother would say," Delilah stated giving me a wink.

"Thanks, I think," I mumbled. Something I'm sure I was going to regret. Delilah pointed me to an open cubby in the shower house and then we headed to lunch.

When we arrived at the eating pavilion most everyone was already there. Delilah pointed me in the direction of the table that Chiron and Rowan were sitting at. There was also a man wearing a loud leopard print shirt. Delilah walked over to a table and sat with the girls she had waved at earlier. They must have been her sisters from Aphrodite. I sat down next to Rowan. Everyone settled down as the man in the leopard print shirt stood up.

"Apparently we have a new camper. Aubrie Swimmingson..."

"Willamson," Chiron muttered.

"Right, Willamson. May you be successful and whatever," he said and raised his glass. Everyone else repeated him and drank from their glasses. I followed suite and took a drink. To my surprise it was chocolate milk, my favorite. Then on my plate appeared my favorite food, spaghetti! I could handle this.

"Oh Aubrie before you start. This is Dionysis, or Mr. D as we like to call him," Rowan introduced and motioned towards the leopard print man. My jaw dropped.

"The Dionysis? Like the god of wine?" I whispered. I'm sure my eyes were bugging out of my head.

"The one and only," the man replied, "I take it you're the new girl. I won't ask much, just don't be any trouble like that Peter Johnson kid..."

"Percy Jackson," Chiron interrupted.

"Whatever," Dionysis replied.

"I don't know who that is sir, but I promise to cause the least amount of trouble possible," I stated.

"Good good. See to it that you do. Now eat something before you start catching flies in your mouth." I shut my mouth and promptly started eating. Mr. D didn't seem scary, but I figured I should probably listen. Eating seemed to be a noisy occasion. I scanned the other tables while I ate. Most if the tables were full of kids. I saw Delilah at one, and Rocky and Leo at another. But there were a few that only had one or two at theirs. That was sad. I really hoped I didn't end up at one of those tables. It had been kind of a lonely life with just my dad. Most of the kids at school had lots of siblings to play with or do school work with. I always wanted a brother of sister to talk to. As I take in the scene in front of me my eyes keep drifting back to Rocky's table. He was chatting with a girl next to him. Now that he was cleaned up some I could tell that he had jet black hair and slightly tanned skin. His hands were stained black, probably from grease, just like my dad's from working on the tractors. Whatever the two were talking about must have been funny because Rocky kept laughing. I took my eyes off of Rocky and looked at the girl. To my surprise she looked just like Rocky. Well quite a bit more feminine, but same hair color, same eyes, same nose. Same down to the grease stains. Rowan elbowed me.

"Who are you looking at so intently?" she questioned.

"No one! Um, just looking," I stammered. I could feel my blush reaching my hairline.

"Uh huh. Don't forget, I've been your best friend for two years. You used to give David that look." I just rolled my eyes and kept eating. Rowan snickered. Soon I was done and I noticed the other kids started dispersing. I walked over to Delilah who was waiting for me by her table. She stood up when I reached her.

"You ready for your VIP tour?" she asked somewhat sarcastically. I nodded and we took off. WE went east first and crossed a creek. A bit past it was a giant rock climbing wall. Delilah introduced me to a couple of demigods there and then we headed south. She showed me the ampitheater, the pine tree with the golden fleace and dragon guard, the arts and crafts cabin, and the strawberry fields. We stopped for a bit at the pegasus stables. There were so many of them. It made me miss Bucky, my horse at home.

"Hi, you must be the new girl Aubrie," a voice behind me said. I turned around and saw a very attractive boy with sea-green eyes. He was holding hands with a blonde girl with grey eyes.

"Erm, yeah," I mumbled. The pegasus behind me nudged my back. I turned and patted his face.

"Ha, he likes you. I'm Percy by the way, son of Posieden. And this is Annabeth, daughter of Athena," the boy introduced. I smiled and shook both of their hands.

"Jo-Jo. If you want you can come down here anytime you want to visit him. There's also a mounted battle class you can take. If Percy says he likes you then I'm sure he'd love it if you spent a lot of time down here," Annabeth explained.

"Really? That's awesome! I miss my horse pretty bad. I think Jo-Jo and I could be good friends," I replied as a gave Jo-Jo a kiss on the nose. Jo-Jo snorted and gave a little whinny which made Percy bust up laughing. We talked a little bit more before Delilah and I decided to move on with our tour. Next we went to the armoury. I recognized a lot of the kids that were sitting at Rocky's table, including the girl who he had been talking to. When she noticed us there she put down the sword she was working on and walked over.

"Oh hey Aubrie! I was wondering when I was going to meet you. I'm Regina Roberts, daughter of Hephestus. I'm also Rocky's twin sister. I heard you guys kinda had a run in," she sais as she shook my hand. She left my hand black, which I wiped on my pants out of habit. That was before I remembered they weren't mine. Delilah grimiced as she watched.

"Yeah, I mean I watched something blow up in his face," I said. Regina just grinned.

"Leave it to my bother to mess something up. I like to think I got most of the talent, and the good looks of course," she joked. Though even through the grease and dust there was no denying she was beautiful. "Oh and don't worry about the stains on your pants. With how dirty we get here the launders are expert stain removers," she said after she noticed how worried Delilah was over my dirty pants. I've been here half a day and I was already dirty. We said our goodbyes and moved on. Delilah quickly showed me the arena. There were a bunch of kids sparring under the direction of older kids. Then we went to the cabins. Delilah showed me each cabin in turn. She explained that the Hera and Artemis cabins were just honorary because they were the virgin goddesses, though the Artemis hunters stayed in the Artemis cabin when they visited. She also explained that the fore in the middle was in honour of the goddess Heista. In all there were twenty cabins. Eleven of them were women. And if you took out Hera and Artemis that left nine as my potential mother. Delilah must have seen my anxiety.

"Hey, I know it's hard not knowing where you belong. But you'll be claimed tonight at dinner. For some reason they like to wait before claiming. Why don't we go back to my cabin and wait for dinner. I can try out makeup on you!" she encourage. I tried to keep my groan internal. While that didn't exactly sound fun, it sounded better that doing nothing. As we walked to the Aphrodite cabin I saw Rocky standing outside the Hephestus cabin talking to a couple of younger campers. He saw me approaching, waved me down, and motioned for me to come over. I told Delilah I'd be right back and walked over.

"Hi! It's Aubrie right?" he asked. I nodded. "How do you like camp so far?"

"Well it sure is different from home. I think I'll feel better once I know where I belong, and I get my own clothes," I replied.

"Maybe your a daughter of Hephestus!" piped in one of the younger kids. Rocky frowned at that.

"Oh no, I have a father. My mother is the mystery," I told them. Rocky instantly looked relieved. I grinned to myself.

"It won't be a mystery much longer," Rocky reassured me. Delilah coughed unusally loud over at the Aphrodite cabin.

"I guess I should go before she hurts her throat," I said heasitanly," I'll see you later."

"Oh yes you will," he replied with a wink. I blushed and scurried over to the Aphrodite cabin. Delilah pulled me inside and sat me down in front of a lit mirror. A second later there was a boy standing behind me too. He was about my height with platinum blonde hair and eyes the color of Delilah's. There was no denying he was the son of Aphrodite. He was absolutely gorgeous!

"Oh perfect! Adam, this is the new camper Aubrie. Would yo like to help me spruce her up a bit?" Delilah asked the dazzling boy. He nodded and grinned, reveling perfect teeth. Adam knelt down in front of me and grabbed my chin, turning my face this way and that.

"Some children of Aphrodite can only see the beauty on the obviously beautiful, and stay where they feel comfortable. While others possess the ability to see the beauty in everything and make it known," Adam's voice nearly sang," luckily you are already quite beautiful so it will be very easy for me to just enhance what is here." I felt my stress relax away as Adam and Delilah fussed over my hair and face. I don't know how long I sat there, but eventually they finished. They stepped back and revealed their work. I gasped. I looked amazing. My hair was in loose curls and shined more than it ever had before. My makeup was subtle, but brought out features I never knew could be so beautiful. There was a light dusting of pink/purple shadow in my eyelids making my chocolate brown eyes seem bigger. And my lips shimmered. All I could do was stare at my reflection.

"Thank you both so much!" i managed to finally say.

"Just think of it as the beginning of our blossoming friendship. You should feel honoured," Delilah stated matter of factly. I grimaced at the thought, but I couldn't take my eyes off of myself.

"Come on, it's dinner time. Let's go show you off," Adam insisted. He took my hand and pulled me out of the chair. Dinner already? Now I was getting nervous. I was finally going to find out who my mother is.

Notes