MY SECOND DAD SAYS HI

It's been a week since I first came to Demigod Hotel. A lot's changed. I still go to Bronx Science, but instead of going back to my apartment near Queensboro bridge, I come over here. Commuting times are a lot longer, to say the least. On top of that, I take classes here as well, the ones for weapons anyway. I'm learning how to wield a sword and scythe.

Chiron recommended me to try as many things as possible to get a hint as to who my godly parent could be. So I did, even though I knew the answer. But I can't just announce to the public that I'm a son of Kronos. The gods would just kill Helen and me like they did our mother.

I attempted archery, but my aim was horrible. Helen's, on the other hand, was much better. She hit a bullseye ten times in a row from seventy feet. Meanwhile, my arrows hit trees, people, and a centaur in his tail. Everyone ran away from me. Yes, I was Yiannis, the man who struck terror with his unfathomably atrocious aim.

Vittoria taught me ancient greek. I sucked at learning languages, but I was able to quickly learn it. I realized Julien spoke in greek when he made that chariot appear. He simply asked Hermes to bless him with a ride in return for that gold coin. But, learning a new language is never fun, and I felt I was back at school.

I competed in foot races with the naiads, and I lost every time. I wasn't really good at sports, to begin with, but man, where they fast. I never knew water spirits could run so fast. They told me not to worry about it, as they had centuries of running from lovestruck gods.

The weapons classes, aside from the video game room, are the only fun things to do in DGH(an acronym for demigod hotel). The teachers are usually older people who've stayed at the hotel for quite a while, and they teach well. You can choose to either spar with them or practice on a dummy. I chose the former and got beat up pretty well. I thought I did a decent job when I sparred with my scythe teacher, but the guy who teaches swords is on another level. I'll have to stick to dummies for now if I don't want to be humiliated.

The past week wasn't the best, but today was the capture the flag match, so I tried to keep my spirits up. It was noon, so I headed for the dining room.

At lunchtime, the dining room was packed. Hundreds of campers sat and laughed with each other. Tables had a picture of a different god on them, and you sat based on who your godly parents were. I'm guessing it was a method to prevent things from becoming hectic in the dining room, but that failed. People stood up and yelled at each other.

I saw Helen sitting next to Julien and slid into the table they were at. "What's up?"

"Hey, Yiannis," Julien sighed. I could tell he had a rough day. "You don't look so good, Julien."

"Yeah, well, Anatasia has been giving me the death eye for a whole week now. Her siblings haven't been treating me better. They've irritated me quite a lot." Anatasia was the girl I shoved into a toilet. I knew that would make Julien's life difficult, but I couldn't help it. Nobody screws with my friends and gets away with it. "What about you, Helen? Everything's ok, not too gloomy?" Helen nodded. "I've made a new friend, Emilie Albrecht, a daughter of Apollo, around my age. She's been teaching me archery for the past hour." I smiled. People usually picked on Helen because she was an easy target, a young, crippled girl. Nobody stood up for her. I was glad she finally made a friend on her own and hoped for her sake that Emilie was a nice person. "That's good to hear, Helen. Julien, I've been wondering, who's team will I be on for capture the flag?"

"My team. The Zeus, Athena, Hermes, and Apollo teams are joining forces. We're going up against the Ares, Hephaestus, Dionysus, and Aphrodite teams."

"Let me get this straight: the Zeus team is comprised of the children of Zeus, the Ares team the children of Ares, and so on?" Julien nodded. "Yep. I'm a son of Zeus, so I'm on the Zeus team. Anatasia is a daughter of Ares, so she's on the Ares team."

"It's kind of confusing to call yourselves teams, considering you're all grouping up. Wouldn't it be better to just play as individual teams?" Julien shrugged. "Meh, some people said that. But we chose to not do anything about it because the game ends quicker with two teams than with eight."

Just then, Chiron appeared with a megaphone in his hand. "Attention! We have a capture the flag match starting soon! It will begin ten minutes from now. Be ready by then." He raised his glass.

"To the gods!" The whole room chanted with him as they filed out of the dining room.

Five minutes remained until the start of the match. My team's flag was about my height. It was firmly planted on the ground. There were tables stacked with weapons and armor parts. Julien lingered near me. "So, what are you picking?"

"I dunno. I guess I'll take a bronze helmet and chest plate, but I'm not fit enough to run around in full bronze armor."

"That's definitely true," Julien smirked. "So, what about weapons? You've been taking a lot of scythe classes lately. Are scythes your preferred weapon?" I scratched my head. "Well, not really. I just think they're cool. I usually use a sword, though. I can't throw, so spears are out of the question." Julien nodded. "Makes sense. Well, good luck out there. You'll need it on your first time." I nodded. "Have you seen Helen?"

"Don't worry. I made your sis promise to stay by my side at all times. I'll watch out for her, make sure she doesn't get too bruised up. See ya later," he waved.

I found Vittoria talking with some other girls near a creek, not too far from my team's flag. I approached her when she was alone(not in a weird way). "Hey, I was wondering what I was supposed to do?" Vittoria looked back at me. "Oh, yeah. You're playing defense. Stay here and pounce on anyone that tries to take the flag." I raised my eyebrow. "That's all?" She nodded. "That's all." She put on her bracelets and went invisible. "Why do I get such a boring job?" I muttered.

As the match progressed, I watched the whole show. Demigods parrying and countering each other, some falling to the ground and carried away by dryads, too injured to keep playing. I was just a spectator. I sat down, bored with nothing to do. Three other people guarded my team's flag to my right, and I'm pretty sure they were as bored as I was.

Suddenly, I felt a chill down my spine. Even though I couldn't see anyone, I could sense people hiding in the trees or bushes behind and in front of me. Pretty soon, I was surrounded by six people way bigger than me. They were clad in armor and carried a sword, a shield, and had a spear strapped on their back. I tried to get up on my feet, but someone almost slashed my head off. I bashed his legs with my shield, and he staggered backward.

"Not bad for a newbie," someone else said. I glanced behind me. "You guys know the flag is that way, right?" I pointed to my right. A girl nodded. "Yeah, but we don't care about that. We want to get even with someone that made our team leader look stupid."

An even buffer girl nodded. It was Anatasia. "You thought you could shove my head in a toilet and not get away with it?" I cocked my head. "What do you mean? Far as I know, we've never talked before."

"Don't play dumb, newbie. Vittoria told me all about it."

"She did? What'd she say?"

"That you pushed my head in the toilet and made Julien look like the culprit."

"Really? I never even seen you before, so I doubt you've seen me dump your head into the toilet. You sure Vittoria's not lying to you?" I made a mental note to myself to get back at Vittoria for this. Ares is the god of war. His children are likely to be good fighters, meaning the Ares team would be the biggest obstacle for my team. If Anatasia's Ares's team leader, I'm willing to bet she's the best fighter in DGH. Vittoria knew Anatasia would forget about the match and hunt me down if she learned that I shoved her head into the toilet. That would make it much easier for my team to snatch the other team's flag. I was bait, a decoy to keep Anatasia and her siblings busy. I had to admit it was a good tactic, but that didn't mean I like it.

"Vittoria and I don't really get along, but I don't see how she would gain anything by lying to me about who put my head in toilet water. I can't be sure that you're telling the truth, either, so..." she sneered, "pound the newbie!"

Another mental note: the last time I saw Vittoria, she turned invisible. I had no clue as to whether she was nearby or on her way to the enemy flag. Vittoria's pretty smart, but that means I need to be very careful around her. I can't just use my time stopping powers however I like, lest I want her to figure out I'm a son of Kronos. But then I realized I can stop time freely in this case. If Vittoria's going for the other team's flag, she'll be too far away to witness anything. I froze time around my whole school. The forest is more massive, but if Vittoria is nearby, I doubt I won't be able to stop time around her as well. Her invisibility won't protect her from me.

I stamped my foot on the ground. I stopped time around me within the largest radius I could reach, which was probably a little more than a city block. I whipped out my scythe(the one I got from the dracaena) and slashed everyone around me. It was pretty easy since they couldn't move, and now they all sported a gash on both their chest and arms. I also disarmed them and hid their weapons in a patch of bushes. When I let time flow again, Anatasia would have no doubt I shoved her head in the toilet. I injured her, and she didn't even see me do it or was able to stop me. It's very similar to the toilet situation. I hid behind a tree and waited for a few minutes. My team should be coming back with the other team's flag by now. That should distract Anatasia enough to keep her from putting two and two together. I let time flow again, and sure enough, I saw Julien scampering with a bunch of my teammates back to my team's flag. Julien had the other team's flag in his hand.

Anatasia and her siblings were dazed. When they came to their senses, they realized they were bleeding, and their weapons had mysteriously disappeared. Anatasia saw Julien with the flag. "Damm it! Vittoria set me up!" Anatasia sprinted towards Julien, but it was too late. My team had already won the game. Cheers erupted throughout the forest, but I ignored them. My eyes were focused on Vittoria, who made herself visible again. So she was nearby after all.

"That was a clever prank you pulled on me." Vittoria dropped her bracelets. "You surprised me. Did you know I was watching you?" I shook my head. "No, I didn't. I just knew there was a possibility you were nearby. If you're going to have me act as a decoy, you should at least give me a heads up."

"I stayed nearby so I could help you in case you needed it, but," Victoria shrugged, "it seems you're capable enough on your own. How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"You know, that freezing power you have. One second I thought Anatasia had you, and the next, she and her siblings were wounded, and their equipment had disappeared, along with you. How were you able to do that?"

"It's a power I noticed I had since I was little. I don't know how exactly it works, but I am aware it can quote-unquote freeze people, as you said. But that's all I know. More importantly, we won the match. Cheer up, will you?" A faint smile appeared on Vittoria's lips. "I suppose you're right. We won the match because of you, so it wouldn't be fair to interrogate you like this." I nodded. "Absolutely. Although, all I did was stall. It was a team effort."

A loud growl echoed through the forest. Vittoria and I rejoined our teammates, but they all tensed up. "What's happening?" I asked. "What was that weird noise?"

"Judging by the sound, I'm assuming we have a hellhound on the loose. Everyone, break up into teams of two and look for..." We didn't have to look for the hellhound. It had already found us.

This particular hellhound was a lot scarier than the previous ones I'd seen. It was as big as my room in the hotel. It had spiky black fur, and its fangs that looked like large serrated knives protruded out of its mouth. The eyes were the scariest part. They were bloodred, and they bore right into me. The beast was after me.

My teammates charged, but the beast swatted them aside with its paws. Julien and Vittoria told me to run, but the creature jumped over them and landed right on top of me.

I was going to stop time, but then I realized the creature wasn't biting me but licking me? I giggled as its wet tongue brushed my body. "Ack, ok, enough, I give, I give. Augh, Ewww, now I'm drenched in dog spit!" I petted the dog, and it sat on its legs and wagged its tongue. Chiron cantered over. "A hellhound! How in the name of Olympus did it get here?" He readied his bow but lowered it when he saw me. "Yiannis, what exactly are you doing?"

"I'm petting him. I didn't know hellhounds could be so cute and friendly." Chiron looked on, agape as I played with the hellhound. "Yiannis, you... you're..."

"I'm what?" I saw Vittoria and Julien with the same expressions on their faces. "Ok, what's going on?" I asked. "Is it really that surprising to see a demigod befriending a hellhound?"

Julien nodded. "Yes. We have a pretty bad relationship with monsters, to begin with. Although it is possible to befriend a hellhound-"

"hellhounds typically only befriend the children of a certain god," Vittoria added. Her face was covered with terror. "The god who lives in the Underworld."

Everyone looked above me. I looked up and saw a purple helm above my head. My teammates, Julien, Vittoria, and Chiron, bowed down before me. "Um, what's going on?" I asked. "Your father has claimed you. All hail Yiannis Cirillo, son of Hades, the god of the dead."