I woke up to Dylan shaking me. "Get up Forge. We have to clean the cabin before breakfast."
I yawned and rubbed by eyes, hoping that this wasn't a common thing at camp half-blood. I reluctantly sat up and swung my legs over the bed. Everyone was busy straightening their sheets, getting dressed or brushing their hair. I grabbed my glasses from the side of my pillow and slid them on. Beams of sunlight lit up the room like a Christmas tree from the windows. The storm must've passed over because nobody was running to the windows with excitement. That reminded me, I had to talk to Zac. He had some explaining to do.
Dylan gave me an orange camp half-blood t-shirt and a pair of brown shorts. I put them on, surprised to see that they fitted me perfectly, and followed the others outside without making my bed. We all made our way up to a dining pavilion lined with white marble columns. Dylan told me that each cabin had its own table and he led me to the Hermes one. We could all barely fit on the one table, I had to squish next to Dylan on the end of the seat. The other tables were quite empty. Most of them had two or three at most. I spotted Zac sitting by himself, obviously at the Zeus table. He was talking to Chiron and judging from their serious expressions, the conversation was about last night's fiasco.
I soon noticed a blazing hearth in the middle of the pavilion. I didn't see the point in burning it while the sun was out.
I nudged Dylan. "Hey, what's the fire for?"
"We use it to offer a part of our meals to the gods." He answered.
I raised an eyebrow. "By burning it?"
He snickered. "You'll see."
Finally breakfast was ready. I was about to dig into my bacon and eggs when I remembered the hearth. Dylan and a couple of others from our table got up and started walking to the fire.
"C'mon." Dylan called to me.
I followed them with my plate and watched as a girl with plaited dark brown hair and blue-grey eyes scrape a piece of bacon into the flames. As she turned around, she looked directly at me for a moment as if she was judging how long I'd survive in a battle, then walked away.
As I scraped a piece of egg into the fire, a hand clasped my shoulder. "Hey rookie."
I turned to see Zac with two other boys. The first one was not quite overweight but getting there with black curly hair and soot all over his face. The second boy had short black hair and blue eyes that reminded me of a crystal clear lagoon. Both boys were almost as tall as Zac, meaning I felt extremely short.
"Hey Zac," I said. "Was everything ok last night?"
His smile faded a little. "Don't worry about that, today is your day! We're going to show you around."
The large boy stepped forward. "My name is Lance, I'm a son of Hephaestus and best known for blowing things up!"
He spoke with a deep, powerful voice that made me jump a little.
The other boy smiled. "My name is Aiden. My father is Poseidon, God of the seas. I'm a little more down-to-earth than these two."
Zac and Lance laughed and slapped him on the back. The three of them were obviously very close.
"C'mon guys." Zac said. "We'll let Forge finish his breakfast."
"Then can we do something fun?" Lance asked.
Zac nodded. "We're going to meet Katie, Rika and Lexi at sword training."
I started heading back toward my table but Zac stopped me. "I talked to Chiron and he said we can all sit at my table. Since there's nobody else but me."
I smiled and carried my plate over to his table. I sat next to Zac on the opposite side to Lance and Aiden.
"So, how long ago did you get here?" Aiden asked.
Zac answered for me. "Last night."
"What happened last night?" Lance asked with a mouthful of bacon.
"An ambush, enough said." Zac muttered.
"But-" Lance started, but stopped as Zac shot him a glance.
"Well," Aiden said. "I'm sure you'll love it here. We don't often have to deal with situations like that. Although, now that we know that Zac can blast things away pretty fast with his lightning, I'm sure there's nothing to worry about."
Zac looked up from his plate of eggs. "So you saw."
"Everyone in the camp saw!" Lance yelled. "I was up on the roof of cabin nine cheering!"
"I saw it too." I said. "It was incredible."
Zac looked up at the sky. "It wasn't easy, I was only able to summon the bolt because it was our last resort. Then I fainted afterwards."
Aiden stood up. "Well, it was awesome."
Lance nodded in agreement with a full mouth once again.
I gulped down the last of my breakfast and the plate magically disappeared when I put it down. I looked at Zac with a puzzled expression and he just laughed. "You'll get used to the magic here."
The other plates on the table disappeared and a bunch of demigods left the pavilion, heading in different directions.
"Well," Aiden said, standing up. "I suppose we should go to the sword training arena."
Zac nodded. "Right."
I stood up and saw Dylan wave goodbye before walking back toward the cabins. I felt bad for leaving him at breakfast, but I didn't have time to apologise.
Zac, Aiden, Lance and I left the pavilion and walked down the hill to a large rectangular building where three girls were standing at the door.
"Zac!" A girl with dark brown hair and mysteriously purple eyes called out.
Zac jogged toward them. "Hey girls!"
They all seemed excited to see each other except one girl with very dark red hair and an angry expression.
"Great." She said sarcastically. "You're here."
Zac laughed. "Nice to see you too Lexi."
"Don't call me that!" She scowled.
Lance, Aiden and I caught up and Aiden put himself between the two. "Now, now, Alexis. Just because your father is the war god doesn't mean you need to pick a fight with everyone."
Alexis grunted. "You just don't want to be around when I get angry, do you?"
The third girl stood next to Aiden, facing Alexis. She was the same girl that I saw at the pavilion, the one with the dark brown hair and blue-grey eyes.
"Lexi." She said in a soothing voice. "Calm down."
Alexis crossed her arms and ceased arguing, but she still looked mad.
"How about introductions." Zac said. "This is Forge. He arrived last night."
I noticed how he didn't mention that he had escorted me to camp.
"Hey." I said, trying to sound confident.
"Forge, these are my best girl friends." Zac continued.
"This is Katherine." He pointed to the girl with grey eyes.
She gave me a soft smile. "Daughter of Athena, the goddess of wisdom. Also the goddess of battle strategy, but that's not exactly my strong point."
"I'm Rika." The girl with the purple eyes piped up before Zac could speak. "Daughter of Hades at your service."
Zac looked at Alexis. "And obviously, this is Lexi."
Suddenly her hair flared red. "If you call me that one more time!"
Lance rushed forward and held Alexis back as her hair blazed like it was on fire.
Zac drew his sword cautiously and stepped in front of me. "Don't worry Forge, she has these moments but they pass quickly."
As if on que, Alexis' hair went back to its darker shade. Lance let go of her arms and shook his hands like they were just in an oven.
"Well," Rika said. "On that happy note, let's go inside!"
