Page 20 of The Wild Zone

Clarisse curled her lip. “I’ve really got to punish the perky out of you, Kim. Everybody, fall in!”

The Ares kids formed a quick, evenly spaced line, and I hurried to the back of it. Clarisse led the way to the common area, where the other cabins were also assembling. The only person not scrambling into line was a little girl who sat at the edge of the fire pit, leisurely tending the flames with a stick. She caught my eye and smiled.

There was something odd about that kid—her calm aura, her long Greek dress, and the way the sunlight seemed to blur her outline. I remembered seeing her yesterday when I first got to camp, but everyone else had walked right past her like she was invisible. Maybe I was hallucinating her.

Just like Clarisse had said, roll call started promptly at 7:45. A pretty girl with long dark hair and blue eyes stood to one side with a clipboard.

“Welcome to our new campers. I’m Silena Beauregard, counselor-in-training for the Aphrodite cabin.”

She smiled and then started calling off names from her clipboard.

It was a way briefer greeting than I’d received from Clarisse but somehow also way nicer. The first three cabins were easy—Zeus, Hera, and Poseidon—because none of them had any campers present.

Silena started at Cabin Four. “Carolina Aponte?”

“Here!” called a girl with flowers woven in her hair.

As Silena checked off the children of Demeter, I scanned the lines for my comrades in misery from last night. Zuri stood with the Apollo kids. She was squinting in the morning sunlight like it annoyed her, which was funny, since her dad was the sun god.

Harper stood arm in arm with his fellow Aphrodite kids as if they were about to bust out singing “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.” He was in sweaty running clothes, like he’d gotten up early to jog a few miles around the camp, which I couldn’t even imagine wanting to do. At least he seemed to have been accepted right away, and why not? He was ridiculously good-looking and easy to get along with, which did not make me jealous at all.

Benny milled around in a crowd of Hermes kids and unclaimed demigods. Apparently, the Hermes cabin didn’t do “lining up.” Despite his lack of sleep, Benny looked alert and ready for anything. Maybe he was used to getting up early on the family farm.

In turn, all three of them caught my eye, each asking the same silent question. I shook my head. No sign of Grant.

Finally, Silena appeared in front of me with her clipboard. “Katie Kim?”

I gave her a big Charybdis smile. “That’s me!”

Silena tilted her head. “A friendly child of Ares. I didn’t know he made those.”

“Just keep it moving, Beauregard,” Clarisse grumbled.

“Aww, somebody’s grumpy this morning.” Silena winked at her, which made Clarisse’s cheeks turn red.

When Silena called Grant’s name, there was no answer.

“Grant White?” she tried again.

Silence.

The campers all looked around as if Grant might suddenly pop out from behind a building.

“Where’s your other newbie?” Silena asked Clarisse.

“Obviously not here.” Clarisse glared at her, clearly not willing to elaborate.

“Oookay.” Silena whistled under her breath. “Guess we’ll have to circle back to that.”

She moved on to the Athena cabin.

“Anna— Oops, no.” Silena scribbled on the clipboard. “Annabeth’s giving mortal school another shot this year, so she’s actually out.”

Once roll call was over, we filed into the dining pavilion for breakfast. I had already gridded out where everyone sat the night before, each cabin to its own table. Four of the tables were empty. According to the stories Silas had shared with me on the road, Zeus, Hera, and Artemis didn’t currently have kids with mortals. It was forbidden for Zeus, not a good look for Hera, the goddess of marriage (and Zeus’s wife), and not of interest to Artemis.

The fourth empty table belonged to Poseidon, who had also been forbidden to have kids, but oops. His son Percy Jackson had shown up last year and apparently caused a huge commotion. Percy only attended camp during the summer, though, so he wasn’t here now.

Even at the occupied tables, there were plenty of empty seats. I’d heard that fewer than half of demigods stayed at camp during the school year. I wasn’t sure if I was grateful for that or not. On the one hand, it meant fewer people to worry about. On the other hand, it meant less of a crowd to hide in.