Hermes Table (Open)

"Purple Mountain Dew, please," Rio sat at the edge of the Hermes table, where nearly half of the campers ate, staring at his empty glass as it magically filled itself with purple soda. The Hermes table was the dining area for both the undetermined kids like himself, and the no good, thieving children of Hermes. Rio had begun to notice that most of the Hermes children had elfish features such as upturned eyebrows and noses and a wicked smile that was usually seen just before they robbed some innocent demigod.

A lot of the claimed people found it fun to pick on the undetermined demigods because they didn't know who they're parent was. Rio had witnessed it many times, though it had never actually happened to him. He'd like to think that it was because everybody knew his mad skills with a sword and didn't dare to mess with him. The truth of it was that he had yet to meet many demigods at all. He knew three, as far as he could remember. Joey Singleton, Sionus Desperdo, and MacKenzie Cole. And those had only been brief meetings. Rio was so used to meeting somemone and never seeing them again that he often walked up to a random person, started a conversation and made up a stupid excuse to end it. That was how it had always been. Until, of course, his father had gotten out of the military and they went to London for six years. Then Arizona, North Carolina, and finally New York.

Rio's home would always be London, though, because he knew that place better than any other place he'd lived. He missed the rain of the UK, the heat of Arizona, and the southern hospitality of North Carolina. New York had none of that. It was cold pretty much all year round, the winds were brisk and it usually only rained near the coast. It never rained at Camp Half-Blood unless Dionysus was in a bad mood. Well, Dionysus was always in a bad mood, so only if he was in an extremely bad mood and felt like subjecting others to his discomfort.

Rio mulled this over in his mind as he sipped on his purple Mt. Dew. The demigod sitting next to him twitched in his seat, but even that small movement was enough to send Rio to the floor, drink and all. "Crap." He sighed, wishing that his cup had been filled with clear Mt. Dew. Rio grabbed his plate and went over to the fire, scraping a large portion of his food into it - he wasn't all that hungry anyway. Who was he to pray for, though? He didn't have a clue who his parent was, or even if it was a god or goddess. Whoever you are....Take this offering and send me a sign, please. Rio opened his eyes and looked around, but no sign came. All around him, demigods chatted loudly about the latest bit of technology or the latest gossip from the mortal world. Oh, well, Rio thouht as he returned to his temporary table, back to sitting on the edge of the bench.

MacKenzie sighed as she followed the members of Cabin Eleven up the hill towards the Dining Pavilion. She had made her first few days at Camp Half-Blood a memorable few, though not in the way that she had hoped. Every time she met someone she would find a way to make a fool of herself and was thankful for the chance to just sit and eat something. As she made her way into the pavilion she froze. It was going to be just as easy to make a fool of herself here as it would anywhere else. Frowning and heading to the over-packed Hermes table she squished herself onto the end of the bench. Staring at her glass she waited for someone to come and ask what she wanted or at least tell her where she could get a drink. Placing her head in her hands she sighed. It was going to be really hard getting used to all of this Greek stuff and even harder to start accepting it.

MacKenzie stood and followed the other campers towards the fire. She had been told that she was supposed to give up the best part of her meal to the Gods, they enjoyed the smell, but she didn't know who she was supposed to give it to. She watched some of the other kids say different names probably the names of their parent but MacKenzie wasn't sure who her parent was. When it was her turn she scraped off the best looking part and sighed. I'm not really sure if I believe whats going on here, but if you are out there...could you let me know? Sooner would be better than later... Finding that she wasn't going to get an answer at that moment she turned and headed back towards her table.

As MacKenzie made her way back towards the table for cabin eleven she watched as a boy slid off the end of the bench and onto the floor, spilling his drink. She recognized the boy as Rio, a boy she met down by the ocean, she frowned wondering if she should help him up. Figuring that if she tried to help him she'd only make it worse she continued back to her seat.

Rio glanced back and noticed MacKenzie from the Sound. His cheeks flushed a dark red as he realized that the girl must have seen him fall. Rio was sort of glad that MacKenzie hadn't helped him up - he didn't want to bother her with his problems when pretty much ever demigod at camp had problems of their own to worry about.

Most of the demigods drifted away, back to their cabins or over to the amphitheater for some fun and games. Rio stayed behind, though, absentmindedly sipping on a bit of experimental black Sprite. He had to admit, black was not a good color for a drink. Still, it tasted just like Sprite. Rio smiled and looked around, wondering if there was anybody he knew still in the dining pavillion. He glanced up and noticed MacKenzie. Now that the people had dispersed, Rio could see that the girl was sitting closer than he'd realized.

With a heavy sigh, Rio stood and walked the few steps over to MacKenzie. "Hey. Remember me?" He hoped that she would. Then again, they'd only seen each other once and that had been days ago.

MacKenzie ate in silence while the rest of the table talked amongst themselves. She wasn't sure if she should join a conversation or just continue being like she was. Invisible. She tried to tune out the other conversations but couldn't and decided that maybe if she listened she'd find someone that had something in common with her.

"I stole the speakers out of Apollo cabin" "I put red food coloring in Aphrodite kids' shampoo"

Shaking her head and realizing that all of the conversations seemed to be the same she tried to tune out again. This time it was more successful but still a little hard. The next time she looked up there was a boy in front of her and he had said something. "Huh?" When the question registered in her mind she blushed. "Yeah, I remember you. Rio, right?"

((Sorry its short. My muse died and I'm looking for a new one))