𝒊. 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒

𝒗𝒊.

It didn't take Noelle long to pack. She only had extra change of clothes and a toothbrush to stuff in a backpack Luke had stolen from the camp store for her.

What the most embarrassing thing was moving her stuff out of the Hermes cabin and into the Artemis cabin. In the rain. She had gotten looks from everybody as she took her first and final trip moving things into cabin eight. She glared at the observers and they looked away from her intimidating stare.

She didn't have much to move into the Artemis cabin, hence only taking one trip. She only had a small bag of things to take over, even then the bag wasn't full. She only had two pictures, one set of clothes, and an extra pair of shoes in the bag.

One picture was of Noelle laughing and looking at the person behind the camera, a smashed red velvet cake in her hand. The cake's vanilla icing had splattered onto her black T-shirt due to the impact it made with her father's face.

Her father had wiped the icing from his eyes and mouth. In the photo he had the icing in his hand and it looked like he was about wipe it on Noelle. After the photo was taken, that's exactly what he did.

Noelle loved that picture. She was ten at the time and it was her father's birthday. But that's not why she loved it. She loved it because it was the day her father's girlfriend, Emily, and the one taking the picture, proposed to him.

The other picture was of Grover, Annabeth, and Noelle. Chiron had taken it with a disposable camera and when Noelle went to Rhode Island for the winter she got it developed.

Noelle and Annabeth had menacing looks in their eyes but smiles on their faces. Grover was running away screaming. They all had light coats on because Chiron had let snow into the camp. Which was why the girls were holding snowballs in each hand.

Except Noelle had her left hand empty. Chiron had taken the picture at the perfect moment so that it was easy to tell the snowball had just left Noelle's hand and was hurtling toward the satyr.

Noelle felt better having these pictures to put by her bunk. It made the cabin a little more homelike.

Inside the cabin was two rows of bunks, hugging the walls. There were eight bunks in each row. The walkway in between the rows of bunks led to the bathroom, which was painted silver and had silver everything in it. Noelle decided to take one of the two bunks closest to the bathroom.

She put her small bag of things on the bed, not bothering to unpack since she was leaving soon. She set her backpack on the bed and decided to scour for any drachmas or mortal money left by any Hunters.

She stuffed a small bag of drachmas and mortal that she found into the backpack before zipping it up and slinging it over her shoulder. She patted the belt the was looped through her jean shorts, making sure she had three Celestial bronze throwing knives on both sides. Once she was sure she had everything she left the cabin and bounded up the hill to where Chiron and her friends were waiting for her.

The camp store loaned Percy one hundred dollars in mortal money and twenty golden drachmas. Chiron told him that the coins might come in handy for non-mortal transactions-- Noelle agreed, but Percy looked confused. He gave Annabeth, Percy, and Noelle each a canteen of nectar and a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only in emergencies, if they were seriously hurt. It was god food, Chiron reminded them. It would cure them of almost any injury, but it was lethal to mortals. Too much of it could make a half-blood very, very feverish. An overdose would burn them up, literally.

Annabeth was bringing her magic Yankees cap, which had been a twelfth-birthday present from her mom. She carried a book on famous classical architecture, written in Ancient Greek, to read when she got bored, and a long bronze knife, hidden in her shirt sleeve. Percy told Noelle he was sure the knife would get them busted the first time they went through a metal detector, but Noelle knew better.