The Camp Half-Blood Tournament                           

  By Lily Chase

My name is Holly Victor, I’m 15, and my mom is Nike goddess of victory. My mother is not the easiest person or god to get along with,then again most gods aren’t. Oh my dad is a mortal which means he is only human. I was sitting in my cabin at Camp Half-Blood which is a camp for half bloods.

 I heard a noise outside my cabin and I looked out the window. There were campers outside like normal but they looked annoyed. I went out to see what was happening. 

“What happened?” I asked my sister, Laurel, who was standing on the deck in front of our cabin. 

“The dryads want the best volleyball players and the campers want us.” she said. I looked out to the crowd gathered around the cabin and they looked back at me. 

“ What do they want us for? I asked my sister.

“They want you more than me but still.” She said

“But why?”

“The dryads want to have a volleyball tournament against the campers.” 

I looked at her “oh,ok lets play.” 

She rolled her eyes “whatever, what team?”

“Duh, campers”

“Let us practise.”

The campers let us go to the court and Laurel and I stood in the middle of the court and picked the best players we knew.

“Lets have the Nike cabin and some of the Hermes cabin.” I said.

“ Which members of the Hermes cabin do you want?” a camper asked 

I point to the people I want and my sister agrees with me.

“Lets go meet the dryads.” 

We go meet the dryads that will represent them.

One comes up to us 

“Lets set the rules, shall we.” she says

We go to the forest, the campers welding celestial bronze weapons. 

“Ok we’re here, what do you want for rules.” the dryads which I learned to be Bluebell.

“There will be no cheating, no having others cheat for your team that goes for both teams.” I said looking at the Hermes cabin players. They looked at me sheepishly. 

“ Ok those will be the rules.” says Bluebell. “ You must go before you get hungry.” 

“ Yes, lets go everyone.” my sister says. 

We leave the clearing and go to the dining pavilion. I see Chiron and go up to him.

“ What is a good time to use the volleyball court?” I ask. 

“Ah, yes I was wondering when you would ask that. Let me think. I think you could use it this weekend if you would allow the other campers and dryads to watch.” 

“ Of course they can.” I said smiling. I walked to my table for the Nike children and my sisters and brothers asked when we could do the tournament.

“Chiron said we could do it this weekend, so we’ll see when the dryads want to do it.” I said.They all nod and we go to the fire to give our mom part of the food, which we do every meal. 

Later, we went to the campfire which is magical. The flames take their color to the mood of the campers there. When we got there everyone was talking about the tournament. When we entered everyone looked at us, then started talking again as it had gone silent. We went to sit down at our seats and I called the hermes players over to talk. They came over to us and sat down.

“ We will go to the forest after breakfast to see when the dryads want to do the tournament,then we will start practice.” I said. They all nod and get up, but I call one named Alice back.

“Yeah?”

“If I catch your cabin cheating I will make sure you don’t play.” I said, glaring. She laughs

“Ok, we won’t.” I let her leave and I turned to talk to my boyfriend James, who is a son of Apollo. 

“Will you watch?”

“Of course I will. How could I not?” He said smiling and taking my hand. Chron calls for everyone to get to their cabins and the people who are left leave. At my cabin my siblings bombard me with questions.

“When do we start preparing the court?”

“When do we meet with dryads?”

“OK EVERYONE LETS LEAVE HER ALONE!” Everyone looked at my sister, who is the cabin counselor, 

“ We have a big day tomorrow as we have to practise. Lets get some good sleep. Lights out when everyone is in their bunks.”

The next morning I woke up to find I’m the first one awake so I used that to get ready in my orange Camp Half-Blood shirt and jean shorts with my hair up in a messy ponytail that I knew would send the Aphrodite cabin into fits. I sat on my bunk when the rest of my cabin woke up.

“Someone is up early.” Laurel says. “ Did you at least get a good night’s sleep?” 

“Yes, I did, Thank you very much.” I said. After the rest of my cabin gets ready Laurel calls for us to get in line so we can get out of the cabin to go eat. I waved to James, who was sitting at the Apollo table, and went to my table. After breakfast, I went and gathered the team. We went to the volleyball court and I left Laurel in charge so I could talk to Bluebell. After I got back I had the team start serving the ball to each other. We practised until lunch, I let the team take a break to eat. I stayed behind to practise more, when I heard someone call my name. I looked over my shoulder and saw James walking towards me. 

“Hey.” He said, waving “ Thought you might want something to eat.”

“Thanks.” I took the food and sat down on the grass and he sat with me.

“ You’re sweating so badly.” He said laughing. He put his hand on mine. I smiled at him and put my head on his shoulder.

“Hey lovebirds!” I look around to see Lacy, daughter of Aphrodite, coming round the benches. “You might want to get to the cabins before the harpies get you.” I looked up at the sky to see that it was almost dark out.

“Oh, yeah guess we should.” I said laughing “We do have a big day tomorrow.” I get up and head to my cabin just in time for my sister to say lights out. The next day I got up and headed to the bathroom to get ready for the game so I put on an old tank top and volleyball shorts. My sister came in and did the same as me. After that I had her braid my hair and I did the same to her hair. I went out to put on my knee pads and shoes. I let the rest of my cabin get ready for the game.

“ Make sure you have water to drink.” I say to the cabin “You need to make sure you have a good breakfast but make sure that it’s small.” They all nod and get in line. We get to the pavilion and sit down. I have a small granola bar which I give a bit to the gods. After I eat I wait for Chiron to get to the announcements. When he does the first thing he announces is that the volleyball tournament is today. Everyone starts cheering and yelling. Chiron has to stamp his hoof against the ground to quiet everyone down. He calls me and my sister to come up. We look at each other and head up.

“What’s up?”

“I want a fair game, understand.”

“ That is our rule.”

“Good, go get your team I will ref.” We go get our team and head to the Big House where we would get ready. If there were any injuries the Apollo cabin would be on standby. I hear the people sitting down around the court then hear the conch shell being blown, which signals it’s time to go out. I lead the way as I was chosen to be captain of the team. We make our way to the court and as we approach I see the dryads already there, even though it’s a longer walk to the court from the woods than from the house. 

“ LET THE GAMES BEGIN!” Chiron shouts. We begin by serving. It was going great until I heard a cry of pain. I looked around to see that Laurel was on the ground. I rushed over to her and asked what had happened. She was crying but managed to tell me that there was a root sticking out of the ground that she didn’t see. I looked around, confused because the only tree that was visible was Thalia’s tree which was on the hill. I looked at the dryads, who were looking away from the scene. I helped get my sister off the court and I asked a camper if they had seen anything. They said that they had seen one of the dryads use their magic. I went up to Chiron and told him what the camper saw.

“Oh! PENALTY ON THE DRYADS FOR USING MAGIC!”

“WHAT! WE DID NOTHING!” one said looking a little embarrassed 

  “Really are you sure?” I asked, looking at all of the dryads.

“Fine we did.” The crowd gasped and started to yell 

“CHEATERS!”
“YOU DON’T DESERVE TO WIN!”

  “SETTLE DOWN!” Chiron yelled. Everyone started to calm down and let            Chiron say what he had to say.

 “DRYADS ARE TO TAKE AWAY ONE PLAYER FOR TWO MINUTES!” 

“WHAT THAT’S NOT FAIR!” 

“YEAH!” The dryads started yelling, but Bluebell stopped them.

“We do not take well to that but we will do it.” the dryads started to complain but Bluebell raised her hand 

“That or we will forfeit.”

“NO!” 

“FINE! Who do you want to take out?”

“Meliai.” one of the dryads walked off the court and sat down on the grass. The rest looked annoyed but they let it go. 

“ON WITH THE GAME!” We continued the game, which we got to serve first. The conch shell sounded and the game stopped. We waited to find out who was the winner. 

“THE WINNERS ARE THE CAMPERS!” The crowd went crazy and ran to give us hugs. I stood there stunned and looked at the dryads, who were looking upset. I walked over to them, getting looks from the campers, and held my hand out.

“Good job. Do you want to come celebrate with us?”

“Why? we didn’t win.” Bluebell said

“This was for fun so we all win.”

“That’s fair. We’re in” we smile at each other and walk back to the group.

“LET’S PARTY!” 

We went to the beach to party, which our camp director Mr.D took care of . I was standing in the ocean when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked behind me and saw James standing there. He put his hand in mine and I put my head on his shoulder. He moved his head to kiss me on the head but I moved my head at the same time so we kissed each other.  After we went back to the party