Chap. 2

I looked around. I was back on my bunk at cabin seven. My snoring cabin mates lay beside me, some in funny positions, with their arms spread over the mattress or hugging their pillows. But they showed no sign of waking. I glanced at the clock hanging on a near wall. Four twenty. Of course no one’s awake at that time. I knew it was pointless to stay in bed, since there was no way I could sleep again, but I did it anyway. I kept thinking about the girl. It was clear she was one of the Hesperides, but what I really thought about were her words. “Your blood is close” What in the world had she meant? The clock kept walking slowly until it passed five.

Finally I couldn’t stand it anymore and I got up and headed straight to the bathroom. I opened the tap, removed my clothes and got under the water. It relaxed me a little, as it always did. I stayed there for a long, long time and then closed the tap. When I was dressed I opened the bathroom’s door, just to find that everyone was starting to get up from bed.

“Good morning” I said as enthusiastic as I could, for no one to suspect about my bad night.

“Good morning” answered a few ones, while the others hadn’t woke fully yet.

“You up so early? Today must be a very important day” laughed Sara, my best friend.

“I just couldn’t sleep anymore so I took a shower” I said as I shrugged. She punched me softly on the arm.

“Anyway, hot water?” she asked.

“Sort of. Maybe I was just lucky to bathe before them” I said.

“In that case, excuse me” she picked her clothes and ran for the bathroom, shutting the door close in Hayley’s face. I couldn’t help laughing though he gave me a murderous look. I raised my hands in surrender and walked back to my bunk.

I say it proudly: my bunk was a disaster. Paper balls and candy wrappers were all over the floor. Over the bed I had quivers full of arrows. It was a miracle I hadn’t stabbed myself in my sleep. One of my bows hung on the wall next to me and some others I had them under my bed, were I kept some fiction books as well, just to read when I got bored.

“Better fix that up” I turned and found Will Solace, our head counselor, standing behind me. He was still in his blue pajamas. His hair swept to one side.

“Today´s early inspection” he reminded.

“I’ll have it ready” I said. He nodded and got into the bathroom just when Sara came out, closing the door on Hayley’s face, again. I suppressed a smile and started cleaning my bunk. Once everything was in order I sat at the edge of the bed waiting for the others to be ready. My nose itched. The whole cabin stilled stank with perfume. Holding my breath, I started thinking about the dream again. Your blood is close. Four simple but very complicated words, which meaning I was far to figure out. Why a Hesperide had taken me to her garden just to tell me that? And what the heck did my blood has to do with anything?

“You ready people?” Will asked. I didn’t realize how much time had passed. Everyone was fixing the last details of the place. Sara was straightening beds. Kelly picked little papers from the floor. Even grumpy Jack, who never helped cleaning the cabin, was sweeping the entrance.

“Everything looks fine” said Catherine, Will’s second-in-command. He smiled at her and she seemed suddenly interested on the floor.I didn’t like to get into other people’s lives (Ha! Right, not even I believe that) but I could easily tell that Will liked Catherine way more than what he would admit, and she wasn’t completely indifferent.

“Okay” he said looking away from Catherine “If I’m not miscalculating, the inspection should begin...” we heard a knock on the door. Will smiled “now”.

Kelly opened the door and Leo Valdez stepped in.

“Wassup?” he grinned as he patted Will on the shoulder. I smiled. I guess we all loved when Leo was in charge of the cabin inspection. He argued that since he’s a mechanic, he can’t really be one to judge about cleaning. So he just walked around the place and pretended to check on everything, in case someone was watching, and then just threw a score according to the cabin’s reputation. Aphrodite, always a five out of five. Hermes, two out of five, even now it was less crowded. Hecate, a four or five, depending on the previous night’s magic duel. But that day, that was the tricky part for us. Since the incident, we didn’t know what to expect.

He paced back and forth among the lines of bunks, entered the bathroom, checked on the ceiling and wrote something on the inspection scroll.

“Congrats guys” he said “I didn’t saw the mess after the bomb. It should’ve been super cool! But this place is in perfect order. Chiron may not believe me, but try to keep it like this just in case he wants to pass by” we all let out a sigh of relief. We’d been afraid we would have to take another night in kitchen patrol. Honestly, that work sucks.

You’ll see. The Hermes cabin, more specifically the Stoll brothers, enjoyed playing jokes on everybody, mostly on the Aphrodite cabin. The last time, they had thrown a good bunch of stinky dirty laundry into their bathroom and the smell stayed in the place for weeks. In revenge they designed a bomb, with help from some Hecate kids, that was magically programmed to spread a sick amount of perfume wherever it was tossed. But their aiming failed a little, well, it failed a lot, and the bomb landed in our place. What we didn’t know was that, apart from the perfume, the bomb also exploded literally, so it all turned into the worst mess ever seen. Not only were we punished for having such a disaster in the cabin, but after 4 days, the whole place stilled being suffocated with Channel N. 7

Leo actually laughed. It must’ve been our silly expressions.

“All right then. See you guys at dinner” he said as he headed back to the door.

“Why at…” I started saying but then stopped myself “oh right”.

Leo nodded “It must be ready for June and we’re barely half-half way” he said, getting a bit serious. But just as fast he recovered his typical grin and waved at us “Anyway, see you. Bye Dan” he punched my stomach and leaved.

“Well, this we must celebrate” said Will. Everyone cheered “But, later. I’m starving. Let’s go have breakfast” we all went out and marched to the dinning pavilion. We sat at our table and for once in days, we enjoyed a good meal without worrying about the amount of dishes we’d have to wash after. Then we started with our daily activities. Canoe riding. Arts and Crafts. Sword fighting. And my very favorite: archery practice. For me, there was nothing better than holding a bow, setting an arrow and shooting. We were playing this game Chiron invented. Sort of capture-the-flag but with movable targets and flying obstacles (courtesy of the Hephaestus’ cabin).

After a few rounds, one of the Athena campers we were competing with got injured by an arrow. Chiron called a break and took him to the infirmary. I sat a moment to wipe my sweat. It was still early February, but that particular morning felt almost as hot as a summer day.

“Hey looser!” my cousin Tabatha appeared next to me.

If you looked at her you’d never imagine she was part of my family. It was also true that we were far relatives, but still. She had red straight hair and dark green eyes. Her skin was as white as the snow and her pink lips seemed cotton candy. Absolutely nothing to do with me, with my dark brown and slightly curled hair and my blue eyes.

“Hey.” I said simply. She stared at me.

“What?” I asked.

“Well?”

“Well what?”

“What happened to you?” she asked.

“Nothing.” she raised an eyebrow. I could fool Sara or Will or the entire cabin. Maybe I could even fool the entire camp. But I could never fool Tabatha. She knew me even better than what I did myself.

“Fine” I sighed “I had a weird dream” I told her about the garden and the Hesperide and her unusual warning.

She frowned “Your blood is close? What did she try to say with that?”

“I have no idea. I mean, I have all my blood running through my veins.”

She slapped me on the head, as she always does when I say something silly. Now, I want to get it clear, silly for her. Being a daughter of Athena and all, she considers almost everything I say or do as silly.

“Ouch. What was that for?” I complained, rubbing my head.

“When people talks about blood it doesn’t always mean the red liquid, Dan. They can be speaking about your family, who has your blood” she explained.

I frowned “But if you’re my only family.”

“Exactly, so it clearly doesn’t refer to me, but to somebody else.”

“I don’t have anyone else.”

“Not as far as we’re concerned” she said.

“Are you trying to say, that we can have some other family?” She rolled her eyes.

“Of course that’s what I’m trying to say you idiot! What else can it be? By the way, you sure she was a Hesperide?”

“She has to be, there isn’t supposed to be anyone but them in that place, is it?”

But, well, the Hesperides are not the…. sharing type. Do you know which one was?” she asked.

I shook my head. She stared at her sword, with that look that meant she was thinking at all her mind's capacity. Just then, a shadow stepped in front of us.