In hindsight I probably should've taken up rock climbing during my time at Camp Half-Blood, since I enjoyed climbing away from my problems so much. 

I found myself on top of a giant boulder in the middle of the woods for the second time that week. Except this time there were no black clouds, no howling winds, and no rain. Truthfully, I almost wished there was. Everything was dead calm and still, and time seemed to be passing by slower and slower. 

    Instead of giving myself a headache with all the unanswered questions I had racing through my brain, I decided to give myself a minute to enjoy the beautiful sunset about to take place. 

    The sky above me was bathed in a coat of magenta and violet hues, battling for dominance against the approaching dark horizon. The sun was already beginning to melt into an array of orange shades behind the rolling hills and mountains in the distance of  camp. Not a cloud was in sight, almost like Zeus wanted me to soak up every bit of his realm before the sun became one giant rosy fireball and began to touch the glittering lake in the distance. Then it would disappear. I wished the sun would take me with it.

    Next to storms, sunsets and sunrises were my favorite things about the sky. Anything related to the sky was so endless, so big and infinite. I wondered what it would be like to be Zeus; he was in charge of anything from small showers to massive natural disasters. And he was my dad.

    At a young age, I began to notice how weather controlled the way people behaved. For example, if it was sunny, people were usually happy. If it was rainy and cloudy, people tended to be gloomy, sad, or sluggish. I wasn't so affected by it, but I did love to watch the effect it had on everyone else around me. Now I knew why. It was because I was Zeus' daughter. Me. The daughter of Zeus.

   The words resonated in my head over and over as if I were still trying to convince myself it was true.

   "I see you've found Zeus's fist again," Percy's voice pulled me back to my own personal hell; Camp Half-Blood. What was with this guy and showing up at times where I was emotionally unstable. It was like he had an 'Orion is going to implode' radar.

   "What?" I peered down to look at him. He was actually climbing the rock. Unlike our last meeting, he wasn't asking me to come down this time.

   He finally made his way up to the top of the boulder and sat crossed legged next to me before beginning to explain the boulder's weird name.

   "Zeus's fist. Some of the campers like to call it the poop pile but your dad doesn't really like that, so we just call it Zeus' fist. See it?"

    Percy balled his hand into a fist and gestured between it and the abnormally large chunks of rock we were sitting on. The joke was funny, and maybe if the circumstances were a little different, I would've laughed at his attempt to cheer me up. But I could only pay attention to the fact that Percy had just called Zeus...the Zeus, my dad.

    "Um, yeah...sorry, I'm not in the joke mood."

   "Don't worry about it. Finding out who your parent is can be rough. Especially when they're, you know, gods and stuff." 

    Yeah, gods and stuff.

  "I just...I don't think...can I ask you something?" I struggled to meet his eyes as I fidgeted with my trembling hands.

    He held up his hand, and dug into the pocket of his grey hoodie. "Before you do, I stole you something from the pavilion. Normally, we can't sneak food out of there easily, but I learned a trick or two from some Hermes kids." In his hand was a napkin containing the juiciest burger I had ever seen in my entire life. 

With so much on my mind, I had almost forgotten how starving I was. My stomach roared just looking at the burger. I took it from his hands without so much as an argument and began to scarf it down as fast as I could.

    "So, the question? Shoot," Percy turned to look at me. I knew his stormy green eyes were picking me apart, trying to find the chink in my armor.

    I nodded, wiping the excess mustard and ketchup from my lips. "When did your dad claim you?"

     He pressed his lips into a fine line, as if the memory almost pained him. "An...old friend of mine noticed I had a way with water. That I could manipulate it unlike any other camper could. One day we were playing a game of capture the flag and these bullies from the Ares cabin decided to beat me up pretty badly. I went into the water for some reason. Before I knew it I began to heal, I got stronger, and then out nowhere Poseidon's trident shone straight over my head for all of camp to see. If you ask me the whole claiming thing is kind of pretentious," he picked up a loose piece of gravel from a crevice in Zeus' fist and tossed it towards the lake. There was no way he'd make it from this far.

      Plop. The rock landed right in the center of the shimmering water and began to ripple outwards in all directions.

     I stand corrected.

    "Did you see what I...what happened to Stacy?" I nervously asked.

    Percy sat silently for a while; like he was debating which lie sounded best out loud, before sighing deeply and turning his body towards mine.

    "When I first got to camp, I was twelve. Before that, everyone who knew I was a demigod assumed I was just some naive kid who didn't know left from right and wanted to keep me that way as long as they possibly could. Ignorance is bliss when it comes to being a half-blood, after all. But it wouldn't be fair to you if I lied, would it?" He to me for confirmation and I nodded, hoping he'd just answer my question.

   "Yeah. I saw what you did, Orion. You...you created a full blown hurricane in the middle of camp the other day. When I found you here, you were almost directly in the eye of the storm. That doesn't just happen. It only rains within the camp barriers if we want it to. Today you summoned lighting out of thin air like it was nothing. I've only seen two people do that, ever."

    "Thalia and Jason," I recalled the other two children of Zeus and his Roman counterpart, Jupiter.

    Percy nodded grimly. "Being a child of the Big Three isn't a gift, Orion. It can be a heavy burden and most of the time it gets you killed. Yeah, the power is awesome once you learn to control it but sometimes, like today, you can't and it controls you. Just know that the other gods or monsters won't see you as a harmless teenage kid; they're looking at you as if you were a fully loaded machine gun aimed straight at them. You're a threat to them."

    Lovely. My dad's side of the family already hated me and I haven't even been over for dinner yet.

   "So, now what," I sighed. "Is there some sort of orientation or class for this? You've Been Claimed: Here's What Happens Next, How To Be A Hero 101, What to Expect When You're Expecting Demigod Death or Being A Child of The Big Three for Dummies?"

    Percy doubled over in laughter. It was the first time I'd ever seen him genuinely laugh since I'd been here. It was throaty, lively and contagious. He looked so much younger when he laughed and smiled. Percy's laugh almost made me feel as good as the nectar I drank the other day. And I couldn't resist joining in. It was the first time since I'd arrived at camp that I'd actually laughed. Here were two children of the most powerful gods on Olympus having a normal moment together. For a second I forgot everything that had led me to a poop shaped rock named after my dad's fist. It was nice to just feel like me again.

    "Well, tomorrow you'll move into your real cabin and you'll also start sitting at your pavilion table. As for your training, it'll continue as usual," I groaned in response, but that didn't discourage Percy from continuing.

    "And now we can focus on channeling your powers. Welcome to the Big Three club."

   "Okay. Two questions. Do we get matching club t-shirts, and...does this mean Mr. D is my brother now?" I jokingly gagged and Percy smiled.

  We watched the rest of the sunset in silence.