The Sleepover
Disclaimer: If I owned these books/characters, why on earth would I be writing a fanfic about them? Honestly, people!
Percy's P.O.V.
The swirling vortex of sadness and anger started with a visit from one of my best friends.
At breakfast, just after we all finished eating and Chiron was about to make announcemants, something really, really weird happened (and trust me, I've seen some bizarre things). We heard the rumbling sound from the sky; not thunder, though. It was more like the clank of gears and chains.
That's when the moon fell from the sky.
Well, not quite. A glowing silver chariot was flying towards us, over the horizon. It was pulled by glowing winged deer, and in it was two people...two familiar looking people.
I said, "Is that...."
Everyone was looking at the chariot, and I'm pretty sure everyone knew who it was.
Artemis, goddess of the moon, and Thalia, daughter of Zeus.
The chariot landed next to cabin eight, and Thalia and Artemis stepped out as everyone raced toward them (of course, Chiron was fastest with his horse body).
"Greetings, campers," said Artemis. "Don't mind me, I'm just dropping off Thalia. She'll explain to you."
"Good-bye, Lady Artemis," said Thalia.
"Good-bye, Thalia. Enjoy the party."
With that, she stepped back into the chariot, and as if on cue, the winged deer started up. My ADHD made me wonder if she could talk to them, like I could talk to horses, or if they were house trained.
Me, my friend Annabeth, and our friend Grover the satyr ran up to greet Thalia. Chiron also came with us.
"What are you doing here?" asked Annabeth. "I mean, not that I'm not glad to see, I just mean--er, you know what I mean."
"Hi to you too," Thalia said, but I could tell she was happy to see us. "I had the greatest idea ever! I'm surprised no half-blood has ever thought of it! A cabin sleepover!"
It was a cool idea. Surprisingly good.
"A sleepover?" asked Annabeth. "Really? That's...genius!"--I figured that meant it was one of the best ideas in the history of the Earth, since Annabeth was a daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdon--"We could invite all of our friends!"
I made up a list and voiced it. "Me, you, Thalia, Grover, Tyson, Nico, Rachel...wait, that's gonna be a lot of people. Where do we host it?"
"Um, hello?" Thalia said pointedly. "Daughter of Zeus here! Zeus has the biggest cabin in camp!"
"Oh..." I mentally slammed my head into my head. Duh!
"Chiron," said Grover, "can we have a sleepover?"
The centaur thought about it, and then said, "Yes, you may. But...uh...hmm, for the first time I don't have any cautions to give." That meant nothing could go wrong. I hoped.
Of course, I was wrong.
After that, we walked to cabin one and planned the event.
Hours later, as we finished dinner, I headed toward the Zeus cabin with Tyson (who was, luckily, visiting) and Annabeth.
We met Grover and Juniper (Grover's girlfriend) along the way.
"Hey guys," said Grover.
"Hey, Grover," I said. "Hi Juniper," I added to the Dryad.
They both seemed kind of tense for some reason. I had a feeling they had a fight. That didn't happen a lot. I mean, their relationship was, admittably, dysfunctional, but hey, so were most things at this camp.
We reached cabin one by the time we saw Rachel (in what she called her "Oracle uniform," the tie-dye outfit that the former Oracle had worn) walking the same direction. We waited for her outside the door.
"Hi guys!" she said. We all said hello (I was still kinda weirded out by Annabeth's friendliness towards her) and knocked on the door.
Thalia opened the door and welcomed us inside.
To my surprise, I saw a shadow that didn't belong to anyone on the wall.
"Oh," said Thalia as she saw me looking at the shadow. "Yeah, Nico's here. He's just stuck in shadow travel. Apparently there was some error with the darkness."
I wasn't quite sure how darkness could have an error, but it was fun thinking of how it was possible. I imagined a shadow factory down in Tartarus that spewed darkness, and one of the springs in a darkness-machine getting loose.
Finally, Nico pushed himself out of the shadow.
"Hey, cousins," he said. "Well, cousins, mortal, satyr, and dryad...no offence, guys!" he added quickly to Rachel, Grover, and Juniper.
"None taken," Rachel said. "Besides, I'm not just any mortal, am I? I'm the Oracle," she said proudly.
"Yes, and finally the Oracle isn't an 'it'," I said. "It still feels weird that the Oracle isn't a rotting mummy that spews green smoke."
"You know, I've been wanting to learn that green smoke trick," she said mysteriously. "Hope none of you are afraid of snakes."
"I am," said Juniper.
"Really?" I asked. I was kinda surprised.
"Yeah, what's so weird about that?" she asked, shrugging.
"I dunno, I guess it just seems odd that a Dryad is afraid of a common woodland animal like snakes. It reminds me of Thalia's--"
I stopped myself before I could explain Thalia's fear of heights, which was ironic since she's the daughter of Zeus.
She gave me her triple-mega death glare, and I could imagine steam coming from her ears and fire from her nostrils.
"Thalia's what?" asked Nico.
"Percy," Thalia said, trying with difficulty to keep her voice calm, "could I talk to you outside...alone?"
Before I could respond, she dragged me out the door and behind the cabin.
She didn't say anything for a while, and I got up the bravery to ask, "You're going to murder me and make my bones into arrows, aren't you?"
"Well," she said angrily, "I'm definitely tempted to! I told you not to tell anyone about my fear of heights!"
"I know, I know, I'm sorry!" I told her. "I didn't tell anyone though!"
"They're going to deduce SOMETHING from what you said, Percy! I really SHOULD kill you!"
"Umm...okay, I'll make it up to you! I'll..." I couldn't believe what I was about to say, so I tried to spit them out fast. "I'lldowhateveryawant."
She perked up, probably ever so slightly noticing what I said. "What was that?"
I sighed. "I said, I'll do whatever you want. Not forever, though! Just anything to make up for it, as long as it doesn't mean me killing myself."
She smiled evilly. "All right. This could work. Hmm...how about we go back inside, have everyone play truth-or-dare, and I dare you to kiss Clarrisse on the lips?"
I practically barfed. "W-what? Thalia, I said I would do stuff that WOULDN'T kill me!"
She laughed. "Okay, okay. No kissing the demon spawn."
"I didn't say she was demon spawn. We've actually sorta become friends. I'm just in absolutely no way attracted to her!"
Her smile faded away. "You see, with any other camper, or even Rachel, I'd torture you and insist I believed that you DID like her. In this case, however, I believe you entirely."
"Wait, back up the chariot here," I said, something she had said catching my interest. "You don't actually think I like Rachel, do you?"
"Did you at one point?"
I hesitated, but when I realized I was just telling Thalia, I said, "Yeah. Yeah, I think I do--did."
"Hold it, you said 'do!'" She smiled. "I have the perfect thing to get back at you with."
"What?" I instantly knew what she was going to do. "Thalia, no, please! I-I'm begging you, don't tell Annabeth I said that! I didn't mean it! It was like a typo in speech! You know how jealous she gets!"
"Exactly." She turned and ran back inside, and I chased after her.
"Thalia, n--" But when I got in the door, she was already whispering something to Annabeth, who was turning red.
I growled deep in my throught. "Thalia...."
Finally, my cousin THOUGHT about what she just did! I could see in her eyes, she felt regretful. But obviously, Zeus's genes were taking their toll (wait, gods don't have genes...eh, whatever). She was too proud to admit what she did was wrong.
Annabeth awkwardly turned away from me and went to talking with Grover, who looked curious as to what happened, along with Juniper and Rachel. Tyson just continued talking about different metals to Nico, who also looked oblivious.
"So, light celestial bronze is best for most weapons?" Nico was asking Tyson.
"Yes," said the Cyclops enthusiastically. "Makes weapons easier to carry, but still strong. Most weapons use medium-level, though." My ADHD acting up, I wondered how Tyson learned all this. I guess the Cyclopes in the underwater forges knew more about metal than even the son of Hades.
Thalia walked over to me and said, "Uh, Percy, I have a bit of bad news...."
My gut did a somersault. "What did you do, Thalia?"
"Well, apparently, Annabeth is pretty mad at you--"
"Is she going to break up with me?" I whispered. The thought made my gut, brain, and heart all hurt like they were just dipped in the River Styx (and I know what that feels like, too).
"No! Never! You guys are way too perfect for eachother, she wouldn't have the heart." She sounded uneasy, though. "It's just...well, you see...she definitely wants to talk to you."
The way she said it made me know she meant "She definitely wants to pound you to a Percy-pulp," but it seemed like something other than my coming doom was bothering her.
"What else?"
She hesitated, but said, "Well, she started talking to Juniper about how angry she was at you, and Juniper talked about how she and Grover had had a fight and..." We were definitely related, because she blurted out what she said next quickly, "Juniperisbreakinupwithgrover."
Sadly, I understood what she said, and nearly shouted at her. Of course, since we were in a small crowd, I resisted.
I looked over at Annabeth. She definitely looked steamed enough to cook a lobster on her skin. But that's nothing compared to what Juniper looked like. I'd never seen a Dryad look so murderous. She blushed so much her skin was completely green, and if it weren't for the fact that she was a wood nymph, and looked like she might strangle any of us at any second, she would've looked like she was about to barf.
But she wasn't human. And she was angry.
Thalia had just split up the most perfect nature spirit couple that Camp Half-Blood had ever known. And I knew it was kind of, almost my fault for almost giving away Thalia's secret fear, but...I mean, come on! Cut me some slack! Thalia had gotten the worst revenge possible! It spread past me getting pounded by Annabeth; it meant Annabeth was upset (the thought tore me apart, knowing it was about me, even if it definitely wasn't the first time), and Juniper was upset to the point of being able to slash Ares's head off, and Grover was about to get a break up with the love of his life! The upsides: I had an excuse to yell at Thalia later, and Nico, Tyson, and Rachel were left out of it. Or at least, that's what I thought.
Nico took a break from discussing Stygian iron with Tyson to come talk to me.
"Hey, er, Percy?" He suddenly looked awkward. "Um...I overheard you and Thalia talking outside."
The words nearly took the breath out of me. Someone else knew. Knew about Thalia's fear of heights, for one thing. And knew that she had framed me.
"What?" I asked, shocked. "Wait...you were inside. How did you overhear us?"
"Oh, that. Yeah, well, I was sort of..." Here comes the fast-talk of us Big Three children. "Eavesdroppinginoneofyourshadows."
"Whose shadow?" I asked.
"...Yours."
I tried to let that sink in. I wasn't really mad at the kid. Kinda upset with him for eavesdropping, but not mad. As long as Rachel didn't know, this couldn't get worse.
"Okay, you can back me up then!" I said. "You can explain everything to Annabeth! And then...and then I'll get pounded by Thalia, because now you know her secret and you'll have to tell Annabeth about it."
"Not neccessarily."
A/N: This has been chapter numero uno of my numero uno fanfic. =)
Connor Stoll: When do me and Travis come in??
Clarisse: I was invited, too! But no WAAAY am I going to play the part Thalia suggested. *Shudders*
???: I have a part too, you know!
Me: Hey, guys, be patient! Especially you, dude that is not Connor or Clarisse. You play a minor role.
???: I'm too awesome to play a minor role!
Me: ...Have you READ the books?! You...agh, you know what, no. You'll be included, but I'm not telling you off right now. I don't want to spoil the element of DUN DUN DUNN OMG SURPRISE!!
???: It will be pretty shocking when I come in, won't it?
Me: Yeah, whatever. Anyway, this has been the first--
Clarisse: And last, if you don't include me.
Me: --chapter of the Camp Half-Blood Sleepover. And thank you for the added comment, Clarisse. Shall I have Percy break your next electric spear?
Clarisse: Don't test me.