I. NAMJOON

the day had been bad enough even without the monster attack. 

namjoon woke up fairly early and by "fairly early" he meant at the crack of dawn. he found himself in the living room of the big house, passed out on the couch. he distinctly remembers re-arranging the schedule of activities last night with the other head counselors before they all called it in and retreated back to the cabins while namjoon had opted to stay. 

groggily, he began to detach himself from the couch and put on a new set of clothes before stumbling outside the front steps. he had to remind the new people in charge of the various activities about the change in schedule since chiron and mr. d weren't around to supervise their assigned tasks. 

nayeon was already outside, leaning against the railings of the stairs. she pointed out that his orange camp half-blood shirt was on backwards. 

she had offered help to him in conducting the director duties he had to do, although namjoon suspects it's the closest she could get to actually being the director since it was evident she had been jealous of him from the start.

nevertheless, namjoon needed all the help he could get even when it came in the form of a jealous daughter of dionysus.

"even chiron wasn't this early for cabin inspections." still looking half-asleep in his sun-printed pajamas, mark lee opens the door to the apollo cabin to let the two inside. his bedridden hair stuck out in all directions.

namjoon smiled apologetically. "i'm sorry, we're mainly here to inform you about the final change in camp activities." 

nayeon fished a notepad from her back pocket and began scribbling something down. "you're replacing chiron for archery classes." she told him.

mark's eyes widened at her words, he seemed more awake now. "w - what? but i - err, why me?"

the two exchanged looks before staring back at him. "well," namjoon shrugged as if the answer was obvious enough and mark must have been still too tired to realize it. "you're the best archer in camp. next to chiron, of course."

at that, mark's ears flushed bright pink in color as he stared down at his fuzzy sun-horse slippers. "oh, okay. but i have chariot racing to attend to."

"no worries," nayeon reassured him. "we've assigned someone else for that."

after several loud and raspy knocks, the door to cabin five swung open and taehyung's infamous scowl greeted them. "what do you want? it's not even morning!"

namjoon suppressed the urge to whimper and run. the children of ares had always intimidated him,  most of all the one standing in front of them  right now. he wanted to squeak, "we'll come back later!" so bad but nayeon had other plans that did not coincide with his. 

"cabin inspection," she briskly walked past him, entering the cabin full of sleeping time bombs a.k.a ares children. "and some reminders." 

taehyung's scowl grew more prominent when she passed by. "i thought dionysus appointed him." he jabs his thumb at namjoon who was standing idly behind him, favoring the comfort of being outside the ares cabin. 

"i'm helping." nayeon said in a clipped tone, like that was that. she walked over lee donghyuck's body, who seemed to have fallen from his bed during his slumber. "you do know you're supervising the chariot races from now on, right?" 

taehyung gave no indication that he did or did not know that, he merely crossed his arms and huffed. 

nayeon looked unamused. again, she began to jot something down on her notepad before looking up at him and cocking a single eyebrow.

"i have another class." he merely said.

"which one?" namjoon piped up carefully. 

"sword fighting." 

nayeon placed her pen and notepad down and nodded. "that's already been arranged."

taehyung shrugged and crossed his arms. even in his pajamas, he still looked menacing. namjoon slowly took a step back. "that's fine as long as it isn't taeyong."

"why?" namjoon blurted out without realizing it. he quickly clamped his mouth shut when taehyung turned to stare at him.

"because," he said in a low voice. "he would at it. he's better at making weapons than wielding them."

nayeon ignored his last comment about taeyong, while namjoon merely frowned as he wondered why those two never really got along.

"i - me?" jisoo, the head counselor for the athena cabin, pointed at herself. she raised her arms to re-do her bun but tendrils of her hair still fell and framed her face. "but i still have to teach greek mythology to the new recruits."

nayeon rolled her eyes. "you were there in the big house last night when we were re-arranging the schedule right?" she asked, although it sounded like she already knew the answer to that.

instantly, jisoo stiffened. her hazel eyes narrowed at the other girl. "yes, i was." her tone was indifferent. 

"then why are you still telling me you have another class to teach? we already assigned someone else to take over that, just stick to the new schedule, i mean it's not that hard." nayeon snapped at her, which made some of the athena campers stir in their sleep. 

namjoon thought she saw sparks flying in the air around jisoo as she took a step forward. he bolted and placed his body in between them right away, blocking nayeon from jisoo's eyesight which might have been a bad idea since jisoo was now glaring at him.

"i knew that, but you never told me i had to change my class! just re-arrange the time slot! and don't yell at me in my own cabin!" 

that was how nayeon and namjoon got kicked out of cabin six.

he turned towards his so-called "help", she really was an ironic person through and through. if anything, she had just made his number one task (which was to instill discipline and teamwork among his fellow counselors) a lot harder to pursue. "i think i can take it from here." he said, not bothering to mask his annoyance.

nayeon did not look apologetic, she crossed her arms and glared at the door of cabin six as if she could see jisoo behind it. "she always acts like a know-it-all, she's just pissed i corrected her."

"wha - corrected her?!" namjoon shook his head. "that was rude and disrespectful to your fellow head counselor, and she had a point. we didn't assign her to a new class until now! i'm serious nayeon, i can take it from here. you don't have to help anymore." 

he thought she would argue with him, but he was surprised and sort of pleased when she pivoted and stomped her way back to her cabin while muttering a string of colorful curse words in greek under her breath. 

namjoon sighed heavily, he looked at the sky. daylight began to break through, no doubt apollo was cruising above the clouds with his sun chariot this very moment. 

he closed his eyes and prayed to the olympic gods for strength and guidance. he was going to need it especially since he's about to run a camp with a bunch of idiots who can't even get along with each other.

after breakfast, where he had informed the rest about their schedules, namjoon met up with the satyrs.

since chiron was not around to oversee every transaction and delivery for the crates of strawberries, he assigned some elder satyrs to the job since he figured namjoon would already be struggling with his fellow demigods alone. (which, he was. struggling, that is.)

in the mortal world, the site of camp halfblood looked like a field of strawberries due to the mist. the mist was what kept mortals from finding out about their world, the world of monsters and demigods and gods. 

their alias was "delphi strawberry services", they packed and delivered strawberries as their cover and perhaps as a source of livelihood of some sort. the satyrs and children of demeter often tended to the plants and nurtured them with their nature powers and reed pipes music. 

while scanning the field, he saw a few demeter children working alongside the satyrs. then he spotted mina a few feet away, and he frowned. 

"that's not right. she's - oh, gods." 

his figure blocked the sunlight that was pouring down life into the sapling that she had just planted. mina looked up at his face and realized her mistake right away. 

she jumped up to her feet as if she had been electrified by zeus' lightning bolts. "namjoon, i - oh no, the pegasi! i'm so sorry! i completely forgot!" she quickly took of her gardening gloves and straw hat like they were on fire. 

"it's okay, mina." he tried to reassure her by cracking a small smile. namjoon wasn't angry, he just wanted her to go to her right schedule which was winged horseback riding. "come on, i'll take you to the stables. i'm on my way to the forges anyway."

mina apologized profusely to namjoon and each time she did, he said it was okay. it was still early, he doubted that the students would even be there yet and the pegasi were still in their stables.

of course, he proved himself wrong when an angry duo blocked their way. 

"who's the one in-charge for the pegasi?!" shrieked kim jennie, a visible pegasus feather was stuck in her hair. she had a purple bruise on her arm but namjoon thinks she was more concerned with her bad hairdo as she tries desperately to fix it with her bare hands. "they're loose and out of control! they tried to trample us!"

beside her, lee taeyong nodded angrily. "they started to eat the metal we were using for forgery and crafts. now we're short of celestial bronze for the others to practice on and i tried to calm the pegasi down but living things never listen to me." he added the last few words as a sort of reminder to them, in case they forgot how bad he was with dealing creatures of life and soul compared to automatons and machines. 

namjoon saw from the corner of his eye that mina began to lower her head in shame. 

"alright, alright," namjoon held his palms up to them. "i understand the situation, we're going to resolve it as quick as we can and -"

namjoon didn't get to finish because taehyung appeared in front of him out of nowhere. he clutched his heart as it had increased its pace, beating rapidly in surprise. 

taehyung held up a large piece of golden wood before throwing it to the side carelessly. "i smashed a chariot into bits." he deadpanned.

taeyong whirled his head and grabbed him by collar. "you what?" the hephaestus kids had built those chariots and a single one took months to perfect, namjoon couldn't blame him if he felt personally attacked and offended. 

"guys, please!" namjoon instinctively pushed apart the two, but taeyong lashed out at the other with his arms and hands to get a hold of taehyung again, who was now glaring at him. "can we not right now? please, let's all -"

"namjoon!" shouted another distressed voice.

now what, namjoon thought helplessly before turning to see his sister lisa running towards them. "what is it, lisa? i'm kind of in the middle of something." 

either she ignored the tension and possible fight that would erupt between the two hostile male demigods any second now or she was completely oblivious to it. she looked at namjoon only, her features laced with concern. "there's nobody manning the lake for canoe and swimming lessons and there are a few demigods who are eager to jump into the lake without life jackets or knowledge of how to swim." 

"what? that's stupid." jennie commented while pulling taeyong's arm. 

it was indeed stupid, but demigods are often reckless and impulsive. a trait that had seemed to exclude nobody, not even the most rational individuals of their kind. it's like they have a natural tendency to either look for trouble or have trouble find them, there's no in between. 

"just - just talk to the naiads," namjoon said, pertaining to the water nymphs that lived in the lake. he waved her away while he dealt with taeyong and taehyung. both of them needed to be placed in separate camps, he should tell chiron that once he's back. oh, how namjoon wishes he come back soon. "they will help."

"i did!" lisa did not get her cue to leave, her eyes glaze over mina before turning back to namjoon. "i tried calling them but i think they'll respond more to a child of demeter at best." 

mina, who was awkwardly trying to pull taehyung back, looked at lisa with a frown etched on her face. "huh? but i still have some pegasi to attend to -"

"aha!" jennie pointed accusingly at mina and sneered. "so you're the irresponsible demigod that's not in their post!"

mina, who namjoon had known to be one of the most reserved and level-headed person in camp, glowered at the daughter of aphrodite. she didn't reply, but the weeds around jennie's feet started to curled in between her ankles and lower leg, making her shriek and let go of taeyong. 

she began to advance towards mina with a scowl and taeyong took a step forward and raised his fist while taehyung and mina walked towards them to meet head-on with equally murderous expressions.

"guys!" namjoon pushed them all back before a serious fight could happen and stood in the middle. he grumbled as he eyed all of them, including lisa. he really didn't sign up for this. "can we please just do our jobs?" he sounded desperate, even to his own ears. 

he had not wanted to be director, much less a head counselor. when chiron and his siblings appointed him with such a position, he initially declined. leadership is such a tough, stressful business that he would physically recoil at the thought of being some sort of leader. the only reason why he's even a decent head counselor was because of his younger siblings, they needed him to guide them but being a leader of the whole camp? that was a whole new level of pain, it could either make you or break you. he never wanted to be walking around camp with a constant migraine. it's barely half way through day one and namjoon is already sick of all of it, he wishes dionysus hadn't chosen him. 

but alas, he was here and he couldn't let mr. d or chiron down. before the rest would continue to taunt and throw insults at each other, namjoon cleared his throat and stood up in his full height. "stop that," he told them. even if he didn't have jennie's charmspeak abilities, they obeyed reluctantly. "please, just go back to your jobs. mina, gather the pegasi and bring them back to the stables for your lessons. taeyong, find some extra metal in the shed and go back to forging. jennie, do whatever you were assigned to do. taehyung, i will personally put you on clean-up duty in the stables for a whole month if you so much as park a single chariot incorrectly by the time i reach your station. and lisa," he sighe d and turned to his sister. "go grab another child of demeter, or a satyr, who's not busy and help convince the naiads to supervise the water lessons. did i make myself clear?" he looked at all of them.

they nodded and muttered things like "yup!" "sure," "okay, whatever" before slowly dispersing off.

namjoon slouched, his head hung low as his shoulders bent forward. he let out a tired sigh as if spewing those instructions to them had taken almost all of his energy. who knew knocking some sense into some demigods would be so troublesome and tiring? definitely not namjoon. 

with another sigh (he seemed to be doing that a lot these days), he trudged towards the arena and hoped at least some people were doing their jobs right. 

II. JISOO

to be clear, jisoo was no expert swordsman. why namjoon had assigned her to sword fighting, she hadn't a clue. she was about to tell namjoon and nayeon that when the latter literally snapped at her and jisoo didn't even say or do anything! 

the next time jisoo sees nayeon, she'll make sure to turn her into an olive tree or a mulberry bush. her mother's sacred plants.

the campers had compiled their own list of best sword fighters based from training, observations and games. jisoo wasn't even on the top ten. on the topic of sword skills, her brother hoseok clearly out-leveled her but jisoo never forgets that she's a child of athena as well. 

although her skills lay somewhere else in the spectrum, she uses them to her full advantage like all proper children of athena do. 

for one, jisoo was light on her feet. she was quick and stealthy, something yuta must've underestimated when he challenged her upon knowing she was the replacement for taehyung.

she's sure that he saw this as a major downgrade, as taehyung arguably had the best set of skills in wielding all sorts of magical weapons, including swords, among the rest of the campers. he was also number one on the makeshift list aforementioned. 

yuta was number four but jisoo easily blocks his attack as he jumps at her from out of nowhere perhaps wanting to surprise her but jisoo, as said, is quick. 

she rolls over to his right and when he turns his sword, stunned that she had managed to block him, she pars his next strike more effortlessly than the last. 

jisoo adjusts her stance and swings her sword, it's tip almost grazing the skin on his neck if he hadn't stumbled backwards on his own two feet. 

she levels her weapon with his and they begin to hack at each other, celestial bronze against celestial bronze, the blunt impact of their weapons clashing reverberated all across the arena.

her students, most of them the youngest and newest members of the camp, looked at the two with a mixture of awe and fear. "uhh, this looks less like a stimulation and more like they want to purposely kill each other." one of them said loudly to the rest. the others nodded in agreement. 

jisoo executed a perfect back flip that would probably make other gymnasts cry as she avoids yuta's close-ranged attacks. she twirls her sword's handle in her hands, the blade spinning in the air and glinting in the sunlight that streamed in. 

yuta lunges without hesitation, aiming to strike and as she had predicted. jisoo side-steps and in a flash, she hits his sword-wielding hand with the of her own and it falls with a loud clang before yuta could even realize he had been disarmed in less than a second. 

her students cheer and clap. jisoo turns to smile at