Delphic: Chapter Two

II: Table Seven
The next day was Thursday.

Lunch, the period that everyone in camp looked forward too. And today, after a hard day of attempting to ride the pegasus, I was beat.

I'd never had luck with animals. When I was five I fell off of a horse and broke my arm. When I was eight a flock of geese chased me through the park to grab my peanut butter sandwhich, and when I was thirteen we visited a butterfly preservation for school and I wasn't allowed to leave the habitat until one their more rare specimens decided to fly off of my head. As it turns out, spending six hours standing in a greenhouse is not as fun as it seems.

Needless to say, it didn't turn out well. I ended up on stable duty for the third time in a row while a seven year old girl rose up and out into the clear summer sky.

And I was inside the stables shoveling poop.

So after a long, long time spent at the bathroom sink washing my hands, I stood eagerly in the line for lunch with my tray in hand. No sign of Meri or Irwin, surprisingly, but they were busy people.

.....Irwin was busy, anyway.

Today for lunch the nymphs served some sort of cheesesteak with a dish of fruit, and two fluffy rolls. I grabbed my goblet and stopped by the fire, dusting half of the cheesesteak off my plate before joining my table.

It was a lot like school, pleasingly enough. This was my first technical year at Camp Half Blood so I wasn't really sure of what to expect. Last year I'd stayed cooped up in the cabin for five days before asking my mother to pick me up - didn't even bother trying an activity or even eating with my siblings. The idea of even having siblings was too much to swallow - no pun intended.

I'd gotten used to it of course. My younger siblings spoke about school and what activities they were looking forward to - little Robin was most excited for capture the flag tomorrow, as she kept repeating, while Pierce was more interested in going down for swimming practice.

I was just beginning to pick off my last piece of bread when Meri sat down. She had a full cheesesteak, two pieces of bread and no fruit, the usual. Her goblet shimmered with a crystallline liquid - water, probably. Meri was very physically aware and that put my apple juice to shame.

"Have you seen Irwin?" I asked through a mouthful of bread. She stopped chewing for a second, her eyes slatted forward, and swallowed.

"No." Back to eating. Meri wasn't one for words.

I noticed something different today. Her unruly hair was now pulled back, completely straight, into a natural bun at the back of her head, where stray pieces of hair stuck out in a way that reminded me immensely of Irwin's hair.

"I....like your hair."

She ignored me. As I returned to the last chunk of my bread, I noticed Pierce and Robin had stopped talking once Meri had arrived, Robin in particular looking a bit distracted with half a baked potato still jutting out of her mouth. My half-sister did have that effect on people, I guessed, even though Irwin and I didn't mind. We were the best of friends, best of siblings. The three amigos, if you will.

When the pleasant drum of conversation at our table began again, I was full and ready for a long nap- which I could definitely take during Greek History if I was careful enough with my timing. I stretched my arms skyward in my seat and felt my ribcage expand with a yawn.

Across from me, Pierce's eyes lit up.

"Tues," He said, pointing behind me. "Is that...is that Irwin?"

"Can't be." Robin stated firmly. "Look at his hair, it's too short."

"But look at his arms!" Pierce countered as I turned to look. "Those are the same biceps he used to put me in a headlock in wrestling! I'd know them anywhere."

The next table over belonged to the Hephaestus cabin. Yet standing at the foot of their table, hands spread across the tablecloth, it was definitely Irwin. Those long strikes of blonde hair were gone now, shaved down to pitiful little stalks on his head, a very average haircut. He was wearing an orange tanktop and jeans with those black, mud crusted boots - his giveaway.

"Meri, look at his hair!" Meredith turned slightly, side-eying him, and I swear I saw her spit something onto the floor in surprise.

"It's funny that you both did somehing to your hair today, huh?" Robin said excitedly, clenching her fists together. Meri ignored her and returned to her sandwich as usual.

Turning back around it looked like Irwin was about to come back to us. Immediately to his left was Jane Lài, his Chinese girlfriend who despite her appearance could easily kill someone with a feather of all things, and he gave her a chaste kiss before grabbing his tray and taking a seat on my left.

We ate in silence and awe of his new haircut before he swallowed hard and shook his head, the thin strands waving slightly.

"Haircut." Pierce said flatly, still clenching his sandwich just inches from his mouth. Irwin let out a gutteral laugh and pounded his chest with one hand.

"Thought I'd try something new - saw it in a magazine. Do I look good?" He grinned proudly and looked down at Robin, who blushed and turned away.

"I like your old hair more." Pierce mumbled through his steak.

"I think it's stylish, but it's not really.....you, I guess." I added quietly, hands folded on the lunch table.

"What do you think, Mer?" Irwin ruffled his hair slightly, trying to gain some sort of muss. "Yes, no, maybe, so--"

"I have to go." She said plainly, hurrying away from the table with part of a biscuit stuffed in her cheek. Her tray sat abandoned on the table with half a sandwich still remaining, which Robin managed to sneak off with during a trip to the "bathroom".

That was when things....changed.

Irwin brought a plum to his lips but before he could take a bite, his eyes sprang open completely, almost unnaturally. The plum dropped to the table with a splat, leaking juice down the cloth and on my arm. Before I could ask what was wrong, he smashed his temples with his palms and groaned, collapsing backwards over the bench and onto the stone floor.

At the same time, on the other side of the pavilion and further down, someone shrieked.

"She fell! She fell!" A girl from the Demeter table sprang up, significantly above the other campers, and disappeared onto the floor. I couldn't see who'd fallen, but I had an idea.

My legs swung over the bench and I dropped to my knees next to Irwin, who was still clutching his head. His lips parted to show his teeth gritted together harshly, and I noticed he'd even chipped a bit off his lower set.

"Robin!" I heard Pierce getting up, and then a clang as his knee met the bench of the table and he planted face first into the ground. Across the way on his side I heard the Ares cabin chortle, though no one made a move to help him.

Jane was hurrying over from her table and kneeled on the other side of Irwin. "Pierce!" She shouted at me, gently touching her boyfriend's face. "Help Pierce, I'll take care of Irwin."

A girl from Aphrodite whizzed past me as I stood up, looking for Chiron no doubt, and I noticed a few kids from Hermes running in Robin's direction. As I rounded the table, a sudden flash in my vision caused me to panic and stumble.

It was a black flash, the shadow in light. That little stumble forced me down onto my knees, at which point Paul from the Ares table realized that this wasn't actually a joke or an accident, something was physically happening to us at table seven.

"Where's Chiron?" was the last I heard as my vision blurred with the image of the grey pavement.

--

The oracle.... Someone whispered, echoing around me. Everything was dark, terrifying, all except the voice that filled my ears. Where are you, Miss Oracle?