Out of Nowhere

Chapter 5

I pull myself out of bed at 5:00 am out of habit. I look in the mirror in the bathroom an discover that I look like a mess. I pull my hair up roughly and summon a swim suit and cap out of my backpack. I pull on basketball shorts and a blue t-shirt, grab my sword/ goggles, and slip out the door all without waking a snoring Percy.

I don't know how early we're aloud to be up, but since it's almost summer, the sun is peaking above wispy gray clouds all ready.

I walk over to the docks and see a dark figure sitting on the edge. I sit down beside the person to find that it's Nico.

"Morning," I say. He looks at me.

"You don't have shoes on." Is his first remark. I laugh.

"And you don't have a shirt on." He looks down, seemingly surprised to find that out. I laugh again. I stand up and start to take my shirt off. Nico gives me a weird look.

"I have a swim suit on, idiot." He turns back to the water. Soon I'm diving into the water. I swim a few yards then realise something. I'm perfectly dry. I'm sitting here in the water perfectly dry.

I sprint back to the dock and pull myself up next to Nico. I yank my goggles down and my cap off. I turn and stair at Nico.

"I- I'm dry," stammer. He looks at me, "Um, maybe it's a Poseidon thing." He says.

I jump back in the water and think, wet, wet, wet, wet. When I push back on to the dock, water rolls down my body. I grin, never loving that sensation so much.

"Try breathing while at the bottom, I know Percy can do that," Nico informs me. I dive back in and sit on the bottom with no effort at all. I hold my breath for as long as possible, which is a while, but I finally run out of air and try a breath. It feels like regular breathing. I laugh. Some curious fish swims around me, I try talking to it.

Hi. I just found out I'm a daughter of Poseidon. How's life as a fish?

The fish answers in a board voice in my head, It's dull. We just swim around doing nothing. Sometimes it's fun to meet heros like you, or nice monsters. I laugh and kick back up to the surface.

Nico is looking around frantically. "I thought you, like, drowned!"

"You really think I would drown?" I ask. He's about to answer, but I don't give him a chance. I grab his arm and yank him into the water, laughing the whole time.

"Hey! I hate swimming!" Nico yells, trying to keep his head above water.

"Do not panic, young student. Just kick up. Here, I'll help." I move my hand in a swirling motion. The currents bend themselves under Nico, keeping him upright. He spits out a mouth full of water and glares at me, causing me to laugh harder.

When he continues to glare, I say in a fake 'girly' voice, "Aww, you can't stay mad at me." I smile sweetly at him. His expression softens.

I dive under the currents supporting him and lie on my back in the sand on the bottom. I grin up and can make out his face looking down, also grinning.

I push off the bottom and burst out of the water on his other side. He lets out a strangled yell as the currents below him are disrupted and he's thrown back under the water. I use the currents to push him back to the surface and toward the dock.

He pushes him self up, back onto the dock, accidentally showing off his muscles. I stare for a second then come to my senses and swim over to the dock myself.

I use the water to propel me up and gracefully step onto the dock, grinning at my awesome new abilities. "This is so cool!" I yell and do a mini happy dance, almost falling back into the water. Nico has his hands over his mouth, trying hard to hold in a laugh. I sigh and roll my eyes, "Go ahead and laugh." He cracks up as I focus on getting us dry.

Dry, dry, dry. Nico, dry, dry, dry. I feel my arms and legs and find not a single drop of water. Nico is starring down at his body like it's invisible. I stifle my own laugh.

I pull on my shorts and shirt, grab my cap and goggles, and glance at my watch, 6:55 am.

"Nico, let's go wake up Percy." His evil grin is unnerving. He must have something in mind. We race to the Poseidon cabin and sneak in the door. I set down my cap and goggles and step over to a snoring and drooling Percy.

"WAKE UP, SLEEPY HEAD! IT'S 7:00!!!" I yell at the top of my lungs. At that moment Nico waves his hand over Percy. "WHAT!" Percy sits up, fast, banging his head on the bunk above him and reaching for his pen/ sword. Instead of grabbing his sword, that is in my hand, he knocks over a glass of water on himself.

He jumps out of bed, but that's when his brain finally registers the scene. Nico and I are rolling on the floor, laughing hysterically. I'm holding his pen in my hand.

Annabeth opens the door, fully dressed. "Percy, what-" then she understands what happened and starts laughing too.

"Wha- what d- did you d- do?" I ask Nico between laughs. We finally recover from our laughter, wiping tears from our eyes.

"Instant cold. He felt freezing temperatures for a solid 30 seconds," Nico replies.

"Yeah," says Percy, shivering, "Don't ever do that again."

Percy gets dressed and Nico gets a shirt before we head up to breakfast.

The campers, and some fabled 'seven,' defeated the titans and giants and some other people/ monsters one month ago, so we get to sit wherever we want at meals today. I sit between Nico and Annabeth. On Annabeth's left sits Percy. Beyond that I have no idea who these people are.

"Hey guys, this is Ames," says Annabeth. I get a bunch of hi's and hello's. They start with the guy on Percy's left and go around the table, Nico giving me whispered commentary.

"I'm Jason."
"Rule follower, son of Jupiter."
"Piper."
"Charm speak, daughter of Aphrodite."
"Hazel."
"My sister with awesome powers."
"Frank."
"Animal shape shifter, Son of Mars."
"Leo!" He yells with enthusiasm.
"Son of Hephaestus, and not right in the head."
"Calypso."
"She's like an actual goddess or something."
I know who Calypso is from the myths, so how did she get off the magical island? I'll have to ask later.
"Rachael."
"She's the Oracle, don't even ask why."

I enjoy my meal a lot and have fun getting to know all the people at my table, well, until we hear someone yell, "There's a person on half-blood hill!"