The other Grace/HoO fanfiction

(1) The Flying Chariot

Diving in the cold river of camp half-blood in the middle of December wasn't one of the top things in Layla's bucket list. The water was so cold she would have certainly frozen to death if she stayed another second there. Not to mention that she hated water since she was a child (what can I say, it wasn't her father's element). It was a good thing that she had high cold tolerance, however, that alone was not enough to help her survive, and that because Layla didn't know how to swim.

Luckily, after of 37 seconds of pointless hand movements she grasped a piece of wood that was floating on the river. She stood there for a moment gasping for air wondering what had happened. The pieces of broken Chariot she saw at the river banks gave away whose fault was that near death experience. Short-tempered as she was she got out of the river with her fists clensted in order to have a nice little chat with a certain son of Iris.

She pushed aside all the campers that were giving dry towels to the passengers of the Chariot and stood next to Annabeth and an extremely beautiful brown-haired girl.

"Are you dumb or are you dumb?" Butch simply waved the question aside as he was used to the daughter of Zeus and the pointless arguments between them.

"This is the third time I nearly drown because of you. And you are supposed to be good at controlling the Pegasi." She said loudly again.

"It's the second not the third time. Learn how to count." His calm and unbothered tone angered her even more, if that was possible.

"Whatever." She said blowing a piece of blond hair from her face. "Still, you really have o-" She was interrupted by a sound coming from behind her. She turned around and faced a boy that looked like a Latino Santa's elf. He was choking trying to suppress his laughter.

"You think it's funny?" She asked him raising her voice slightly and giving him intimidating look. He gulped.

"No, no. Of course not." He said quickly. Layla was about to say something nasty. Thankfully for the elf-like boy she was interrupted by Drew Tanaka stepping forward.

The daughter of Afrodite examined the newcomers from top to bottom although she seemed to pay more attention to the blondy.

"Well. I hope they are worth the trouble." She said with a look the made Layla wanting to punch her in the face. Gods, how much she hated that bi-.

"Gee. What are we your new pets?" The Latino elf asked with a snort.

"No kidding." The other guy, the blondy, spoke up. "How about some answers before before you start judging us - like, what is this place, why are we here, how long do we have to stay?" Layla looked at the boy as he spoke. He looked vaguely familiar. With his blond hair and his sky blue eyes. He almost looked like- No, it couldn't be him. Mother said that he had died.

"Jason, I promise to answer your questions." Said Annabeth. "And, Drew all demigods are worth saving. But I'll admit the trip didn't accomplish what I hoped."

Jason. Layla's heart skipped a bear at the name. Her brother too was named Jason. That was too much to be coincidence.

"Layla, can you hear me?" Annabeth's voice brought her back to reality.

"What? Yeah, I totally heard everything. But- uh- can you say it again? Just to be sure." She replied unsurely.

The wise girl signed. "I asked if you can take Leo and Jason to the big house while I am  giving Piper a tour around the camp." Her tone was kid but that was clearly placed as an order and not a kind request. Layla only nodded in response.

"You still haven't told me what does get claimed means." The girl that Layla assumed was Piper asked impatiently.

As if on cue, red light filed the place. Above Leo's head was now floating a fire hammer meaning that he was claimed by Hephaestus.

"That is claiming." Annabeth replied.

"What did I do? Is my hair on fire?" Leo asked anxiously trying to get rid of the floating symbol of his godly parent. It was Layla's turn to laugh at him.

"This can't be good, the curse..."

"Shut up Butch." Annabeth cut the son Iris off. "Leo, you've just been claimed-"

"By a god, That's the symbol of Vulcan, isn't it?" Jason said.

Layla frowned in surprise. So Jason didn't know anything about the camp but knew what claiming is. "Jason, how did you know that?" She asked.

"I'm not sure." He scratched.

"Vulcan?" Leo panicked once again. "I don't even LIKE Star Treck." At this point Layla started laughing receiving a confused look from the boy.

"Vulcan is the Roman name for Hephaestus, the God of blacksmiths and fire." No other than Annabeth explained. She then turned to Layla and said "That means we have a change of plans. Layla and Will, will you please give Jason and Leo a tour. Take Leo to cabin 9 and then go with Jason at the big house." Again it was placed as an order and not a request. Layla couldn't help but feel slightly intimidated by the smart girl.

"Sure, Annabeth." Will replied for both of them.

"What's cabin 9? And I'm not a Vulcan." Leo protested.

"Come on, Mr Spock, we'll explain everything." Layla said once again laughing at the boy's dramatic reaction. She then put her hands in his shoulders steering him towards the swordfighting arena.

"And these are the cabins. There is one for each God's children. Over there is cabin 9, hephaestus cabin." Thirty minutes later, Layla and Will had finally finished showing the new campers around and were about to show Leo his cabin.

"About the cabin. That rainbow pony dude, Butch- he mentioned a curse." Leo recalled.

"Ah... Look, it's nothing. Since Cabin's last head consellor died-" Will started to explain.

"Died? Like, painfully?"

"Would you look at that? Aren't the cabins so..." Layla's voice slowly faded as she noticed the unamused look the others were giving her. "How about you let your bunkmates tell you about the curse? I'm done explaining."

"Yeah, where are my home dawgs? Shouldn't their counsellor be giving the VIP tour?" Layla facepalmed.

Fortunately for Leo, Will seemed to have more patience than she did. "He, um, can't. You'll see why."

"Curses and death this keeps getting better and better." Leo said sarcastically and for once Layla agreed with the boy.