Chapter 53: Hermes Cabin
Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on old. The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor's symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. What did they call it . . .? A caduceus.
Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center.
Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.
"Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, Percy. James. I'll see you at dinner."
He galloped away toward the archery range.
We stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at us, sizing us up. We knew this routine. We'd gone through it at enough schools.
"Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on."
So naturally my little brother Percy tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of himself. There were some snickers from the campers, but they stopped once i glared at them, also none of them said anything.
Annabeth announced, "Percy Jackson. "James Jackson., meet cabin eleven."
"Regular or undetermined?" Somebody asked.
We didn't know what to say, but Annabeth said, "Undetermined."
Everybody groaned.
A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward.
"Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy and James. You guys can have that spot on the floor, right over there."
The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty cool.
He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather bead necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.
"This is Luke," Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow. We glanced over and could've sworn she was blushing. She saw us looking, and her expression hardened again. "He's your counselor for now."
"For now?" We asked.
"Both of you are undetermined," Luke explained patiently.
"They don't know what cabin to put you both in, so you both are here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."
We looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given us. We had nothing to put there to mark it as ours, no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bags. Just our enchanted pendent necklaces that can turn into a sword, ring, a pen or a chain. That his big brother James made from the Minotaur's horns and Magic. Obviously we didn't think about putting our changing forms pendent necklaces on our spot. Because Hermes was also the god of thieves.
We looked around at the campers' faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, some eyeing us as if they were waiting for a chance to pick our pockets.
"How long will we be staying here?" We asked.
"Good question," Luke said. "Until you're both determined."
"How long will that take?"
The campers all laughed. "Come on," Annabeth told us. I'll show you guys the volleyball court."
"We've already seen it"
"Come on."
She grabbed Me and my little brother's wrist and dragged us outside. We could hear the kids in cabin eleven laughing behind us.
When we were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you guys have to do better than that."
"What?"
Chapter 54: Finding out about our father
She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."
"What's your fucking problem?" My older brother James was getting angry now. All I know is, James my older brother killed some bull guy and saved our mom----"
"Don't talk like that!" Annabeth told my little brother Percy. "You guys know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your guys chance?"
"To get killed?"
"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"
We shook our heads. "Look, if the thing we fought really is the Minotaur, the same one in the stories . . ."
"Yes."
"Then there's only one."
"Yes."
"And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So . . ."
"Monsters don't die, James. Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die."
"Oh, thanks. That clears it up."
"They don't have souls, like you guys and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they re-form."
"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?"
Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her. "You guys shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all."
"Why do we have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway?
Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."
Percy pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. James. It depends on who your parents are. Or . . . Your parent."
She stared at us, waiting for us to get it.
"Our mom is Sally Jackson," we said. "She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station.
That's not what I mean. I'm talking about your guys other parent. Your dad."
"He's dead. We never knew him."
Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids. "Your guys father's not dead, Percy. James."
"How can you say that? You know him?"
"No, of course not."
"Then how can you say-----"
"Because I know you both. You guys wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."
"You don't know anything about us."
"No?" She raised an eyebrow. I bet you both moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."
"How-----"
"Diagnosed with ADHD.",,,
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign.You're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you both alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, James, not too little. Both of your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you guys medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want your both seeing them for what they are."
"You sound like . . . you went through the same thing?"
"Most of the kids here did. If you guys weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."
"Ambrosia and nectar."
"The food and drink we were giving to your little brother Percy to make him better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd both be dead. Face it. You're both half-bloods."
A half-blood.
We were reeling with so many questions we didn't know where to start.