Our Lives in Athens
We Decide to Defy Gravity
You know how you get really upset when someone totally tries to take over space and you get kind of possessive? That sort of runs in the family. Not my dad, no, but my uncle. He hates it when you go into his territory. Especially if you're a demigod by the name of Percy Jackson.
Percy's my 'cousin,' in a way. His dad's Poseidon. My dad's Hades. They're brothers, making Percy and I cousins. Half cousins. I'm physically three years younger than him, but in reality I should be close to…seventy? I don't know, I was never really good at math. But our uncle is Zeus, who's also the father to our friend Thalia, god of the sky. He doesn't really like it when other demigods go flying in airplanes.
Apparently Chiron didn't care. Camp Half-Blood was going to the land of our ancestors; we were headed to Greece.
Annabeth, a daughter of Athena, was excited to be visiting Greece. She had gone with her father a few years back, in fact, it was about a year before I met her and Percy. Annabeth and Percy had been dating for a year, and so far no one has been able to be a more disgusting couple. They're always together. As in, NEVER APART. Beside that, Annabeth's one of the bravest people I've ever known. She'd been on her own since she was seven and has taken matters into her own hand on more than one occasion.
Thalia, the daughter of Zeus, is a Hunter of Artemis. She'll be with us, too That means she has sworn off boys and stays the same age for the rest of her life. She's known Annabeth since she was eleven and Annabeth was seven. While they were traveling to Camp Half-Blood she was killed and her dad turned her into a tree. She 'came back to life' when the Golden Fleece was placed around the pine tree she was turned into. Thalia's really into the whole punk scene; she can be kind of scary if you don't know her.
Grover's the awkward, funny, satyr who is not keen on flying. Yeah, half man, half goat. It's a little freaky. He was Thalia's protector and then he was Percy's. Now he's in some Council of Cloven Elders or something like that. I haven't really taken the time to ask him; I haven't seen much of him. He's dating Juniper, a really clingy tree nymph, but she's good for him. They're like a match made in heaven, except when Artemis is around. He also has a thing for Jesse McCartney. Gross.
Percy, as I've mention before, is a son of Poseidon. That means Zeus really doesn't like it when he's in the air. Percy is basically the greatest thing that has ever hit the Earth. He was one of the four that saved the face of the planet against Kronos, this really evil guy who took over one of those four's body. Percy is the poster child of Camp Half-Blood. He holds the record for the most quests given out to a single camper. Granted he did take over two quests that were not his, even if he was the one to make them work.
Me? I'm Nico di Angelo, son of Hades. I hate flying anyway.
It was Travis and Connor's brilliant idea to go to Greece. Annabeth was the first to agree, which was a first for her. After the genius that is Annabeth agreed, everyone else did. Except for me and Percy. Sure, we do want to go to Greece, to learn about our parents in a way, but we really don't want to fly there. Zeus is not our number one fan.
Just a few hours ago, I was sleeping peacefully in my cabin. Now, I'm sitting impatiently in a plane, waiting for it to just take off already. Sitting next to Grover aimlessly texting Juniper and Will Solace trying to test out new poetry wasn't helping. At least Percy and Annabeth were sitting across the aisle from us, on the left side of the plane.
There was a really annoying couple across the other aisle. Will was lucky to have the extra seat so he could avoid talking to them.
The pilot came on and told us to turn off all electronic devices. Grover reluctantly turned his cell phone off and shoved it in his pocket. One of the good things about being a demigod is not having to worry about a cell phone. Having one is like a front row seat to your own funeral. Monsters just come lining up your door step, ready to kill you at any moment.
Once we in the air, I looked behind me to make sure I wouldn't be disturbing anyone, and leaned my seat back. I plugged in the earphones and turned on the little television. There were a dozen channels to chose from, half of them were documentaries, which Annabeth would no doubt have trouble choosing from, the other half were either dorky television shows or the one movie channel. Only one movie.
And it was, of course, My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
The next chapter will be the Pangloss Tours gang.
Rick Riordan's new book, The Lost Hero is part of the Heroes of Olympus series, a spin off of Percy Jackson. NONE of those new characters are going to be in this story. There's too many demigods now. It's hard to keep off, even for a die hard fan like me :)
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-Michelle