I was officially the worst demigod on the face of the earth. A defective demigod, if you will.

    Every morning, Danny would tutor me in Greek literature but it always took me nearly ten minutes before I could translate a normal sentence into English, whereas every ten year old in the room had no problem reading Homer. 

After that, I tried going to an arts and crafts class taught by a pudgy, bitter old satyr who kind of reminded me of Mr. D, but his name was Mr. Hedge. Our assignment was to create a simple clay vase with one of those spinning devices that mold clay. What did they call it...? A pottery wheel.

    Let's just say Mr. Hedge received an accidental five star clay mask facial from yours truly. It was safe to say I was officially banned from arts and crafts at Camp Half-Blood.

     My only shot at making a name for myself at camp was through training.

     That afternoon I had one on one battle training with Percy again, but since I had now been determined by my father, he was going to try to focus on me controlling my powers so I wouldn't sneeze lighting bolts and hurricanes.

Literally.

    However, no matter what Percy tried, I couldn't channel my powers like I had in the pavilion the day before.

    "Okay, just breathe in calmly. Focus on whatever element it is you want to control, and just try to bend it to your will. It's kind of like molding something out of mud or clay; you have to manipulate it. Ready?" Percy made manipulating the elements sound so easy, and he even made it look easy. I heard a group of water nymphs gasp as Percy bent water out of their coolers, levitating it in thin air effortlessly. Percy wasn't even flinching.

    "Now you try, Orion."

    Sure, yeah. I could do that. I was the daughter of Zeus, for crying out loud. This was supposed to be in my blood. I took a deep breath, rubbed my hands together and focused on the sky above me. It was the bluest I had ever seen during my time at camp and not a single cloud was in sight. The shimmering sun felt warm on my face, and I thought about my parents. How I couldn't see them, how they had dumped me off at some camp for freaks. I felt sad, abandoned and most of all, lonely.

    "That's it," Percy encouraged softly, "channel all of that emotion."

    I tried with everything inside of me to channel my sadness into the sky, but I couldn't even create a simple teeny, tiny storm cloud. I couldn't help but feel embarrassed of my tireless efforts. Everyone at camp seemed to have such an easy time controlling and using their powers.

 Off to my left, I saw a boy I immediately recognized from the Apollo cabin, tending to a camper with a sprained ankle. I watched his hands turn gold and glow with energy. The boy from the Apollo cabin was hovering his hands over the sprained ankle, almost trying to heal it. Moments later, the wounded camper stood up again as if nothing had happened. I felt pathetic.

    Percy was really nice about the whole thing at first, and even tried to comfort me by telling me it took a while for him to learn how to control or manipulate water like he could now. His words of encouragement eased my nerves a little, but they also didn't make me feel like any less of a chump.

    "You know what...I have an idea," Percy snapped his fingers, "stay right here. I'll be right back."

    I shrugged, watching campers in front of me slash at straw filled dummies and fire their arrows at red and white targets. Something inside of me couldn't shake the feeling that I wasn't like them; being a Demi-god didn't come natural to me at all.

     Percy jogged back over to where I was sulking, Danny following suit. He thought that maybe if  I was in the presence of my best friend, then I wouldn't be under so much pressure and stress. I'd be comfortable and perform better. Supposedly.

     Danny didn't make much of a difference, unfortunately.

    Nothing seemed to be working. I tried with all my might to control the wind currents around me but my efforts were in vain. Tired, frustrated and completely hopeless I sat on the dirt floor below and began to pray to my father for the first time.

    "Come on, pops," I groaned in defeat, staring up at the clear cobalt sky. "Give me something to work with?"

    Zeus ignored my call. There was no usual roll of thunder, no signs of lighting, and not even the slightest shift in the air to let me know my dad was at least watching. I guess he was on break, or doing his whole 'King of the Gods' thing.

    'Or maybe he just doesn't care', a nagging voice in my head nagged.

Percy tried a different approach. Fight or flight. He motioned to something the campers referred to as the climbing wall. I had seen it from afar during my tour and just assumed it was an ordinary rock climbing wall, but I couldn't have been more wrong. As we got closer to the wall, I noticed it was at least fifty feet tall in height. The wall wasn't just one sided, though. It was a three dimensional obstacle course with three different levels.

    I could see two campers scampering their way to the top, almost as if they were climbing for their lives. One of them wore a red long sleeved undershirt beneath their camp shirt; the other wore the same shirt but in blue.

    There were campers from all different cabins waiting for the two at the bottom, screaming, whooping and cheering with anxious vigor.

    "COME ON, ZACH! BRING BACK A TROPHY FOR THE APHRODITE CABIN!"

    "TWO, FOUR, SIX, EIGHT! WHO DO WE APPRECIATE? GO-OOO CINDY!"

     Suddenly a giant boulder came from the top of the wall and the red camper had no choice but to quickly dodge to the side to avoid getting every bone in his body crushed. He was now hanging off of one of the metal poles on the wall with one hand while the rock tumbled past him and crumpled onto the padded mats below.

    "So what happens if you don't make it to the top?"

    "Three, two, one," Percy counted down, as if he knew exactly what was going to happen before it ever did.

    "Aw man, I can't watch," Danny covered his small eyes with both of his hands. I didn't blame him.

     Molten lava spewed from the top of the wall like a volcano. It wasn't enough to kill you, but enough to probably singe your eyebrows and arm hair off. Kind of like my pal, Stacy.

    The blue camper pushed herself off a metal beam, lined up with the one above it and was finally able to lunge towards the top of the tall structure. She wasted no time, tackling the golden ring that seemed to be hovering in the air before raising it for the audience to see. The wall erupted with blue confetti as the audience cheered wildly.

    "I was really rooting for Zach," Percy shook his head. "Never bet on Aphrodite kids. You'll do better, I hope."

     "What?" I choked on thin air. "You don't expect me to climb that do you?"

     "Of course I don't. I expect you to win. You wouldn't want to disappoint Mrs. O'Leary, would you?" Percy smirked at his pet dog knelt at his feet. 

Dog was probably the wrong terminology. Mrs. O'Leary wasn't any ordinary pocket poodle; she was a ten foot tall black, shaggy mastiff with glowing brown coals for eyes and teeth almost the size of my entire arm. Percy said she was mostly friendly and only attacked on command. Or when she was really hungry.

    She hadn't had lunch yet and I didn't want to make her upset.

    "Next up, Oregon Vega from the Zeus cabin will now face Perry Johanssan from the Poseidon cabin, blah blah blah, Camp Half-Blood is not responsible for any injuries and deaths associated with the following competition. Competitors take your places," I did a double take as Mr. D announced the race on the speakers above us. Percy failed to mention his participation in the rock climbing event.

    "I thought I was the one training here," I hissed at him, my eyes fixated on the wall in front of me. Sunk into the ground was a giant metal pole; one I  had to get over to get to the first level of the obstacle course.

    "Figured some friendly competition might do you good."

    "In that case, may the best camper win."

    "Oh, I will," Percy gave me a mischievous and unsettling smile.

    "On my mark," Dionysus boomed. "Get ready. Begin!" There was no countdown, just the sound of a horn indicating our time had begun.

    I sprinted towards the wall, getting a running start in order to leap over the metallic pole in my way. I used every muscle in my legs to boost my way up to the first level, dodging the horizontal  poles coming right at me.

    "ORION, LOOK OUT!" I heard Danny's voice shriek from below. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Percy charging straight towards me. I tried my best to channel every ounce of strength within my body. Instantly I began to feel the wind currents bending to my every will.

    Whoa.

    I pushed outwardly, sending a wave of air directly towards Percy.

    Suddenly, he was a good fifteen feet away from me. The air knocked him straight onto his butt. That bought me enough time to latch onto a rope ladder, leading up to the second level of the wall.

    "Oops," I smiled down at Percy who could only stand and watch me advance. I could practically feel the golden ring in my own hands.

      The second level of the climbing wall was a gyrating wheel, changing speeds and directions every couple of minutes. I had just enough time to calculate the velocity and power of my jump before the speed and direction of the wheel would fluctuate again.

    "You gonna jump or what?" Percy had already caught up to me, launching his body weight to the climbing wall above. I couldn't let him win. This was my one shot at proving myself to him and everybody else at this stupid camp. I was not going to be second best.

I leaped into the air, channeling the air currents below my feet to boost me higher.

    I slammed my body only the metal poles above, groaning as I tried to evenly distribute my weight against the slippery shifting metal poles.

    "You're fast, I'll give you that," Percy smirked and pulled the metal pole closest to his left hand towards his body. Almost instantly the one underneath my left foot disappeared; my balance shifted unevenly to my right side as I struggled to find a placeholder for my left foot. Then it clicked. The poles were levers.

    I clasped two hands on the pole closest to my left hand and began to climb until I was inches from the final level. Just for fun, I pushed the lever below my right hand.

    A pole appeared right between Percy's chest and belly button, knocking him back down onto the gyrating wheel.

    "Sorry Wonder Boy," I called out. But I really wasn't that sorry at all. I was about to win this thing.

     I hoisted my way up to the final level and began to climb the rope leading up to the golden ring. I was panting now, studying the ring in front of me in complete awe as the campers below me chanted, "ZEUS! ZEUS! ZEUS," over and over like a mantra. Power and strength coursed through every inch of my veins. 

This is probably how Hercules felt after defeating monsters, or how the invincible Achilles felt after winning a battle. I took the ring in my hands and held it above my head in victory. The campers erupted into a deafening roar of cheers as Mr. D announced my name over the loudspeaker. I had beaten the camp's climbing wall record by two whole minutes.

    When I finally reached the bottom of the wall, Percy was icing his stomach while Mrs. O'Leary licked sweat off of his exhausted face.

    "Sore loser much?" I smirked at Percy as he made his way over to where I was standing; clean, calm, collected and not a scratch on my body. Okay, maybe I was a little sweaty, and my legs felt like putty and every muscle in my body was screaming in agony, but that was it. 

   "Uh, daughter of Zeus much? That was...insane."

    "You should have seen yourself!" Danny rushed to my side, dabbing sweat off my forehead. "You were like PUSH and he was like UGH! And you just pow, pow, WHAM! Right in the stomach!" 

    I laughed and turned my attention back to Percy, who was studying me head to toe. "That's it. I have to have you on my team tonight. I don't know what I'll do if Chiron doesn't put you on my team."

    "Are we playing dodgeball or something?"

    "Not exactly. It's Friday. Here we play a little game of capture the flag. Camp Half-Blood style."