Mark

The last days of school were slowly ending . I went downstairs to get a snack. Mom was busy working. She's collaborating with a friend of hers , also an architect, on a town hall and she's talking on the phone in greek. My mom is quite a linguist. Aside from most european languages she can also speak hindu, mandarin and hebrew. She's always working. Sometimes I feel ignominious because I always get C's , but its not my fault. I have dyslexia and dyscalcula. She says I just don't try, but not everyone can have a work ethic like her. She's designed most of the New York skyline. My dad says he understands but how could he? He created one of the biggest sea conservation charities in the world. When I started highschool , all the teachers thought I would be a child-prodigy because they had heard about both my parents. Finally they realized it's just plain old me.

There was a knock on the door. My mom motioned to me so I opened it. Outside was a middle-aged man with a tattered hat and worn down clothes. He had a twinkle in his eye and gave me a big hug. "Mark ! How have you been? Goodness I haven't seen you since you were three! How old are you , 15 now! You're tall and you look just like your Dad! How's highschool? Where is Amelia? Wow New York is such a change from Borneo!" My mom came running through ,ecstatic. "Grover!" They started babbling in Greek and I was very very confused so ran to get Amelia. I forgot to knock... " What is it now, Cynthia and I are busy!" She gave her friend Cynthia a sigh, being the brat she was. She was about the most infuriating sister you could imagine. A nosy know-it-all who was the apple of my mother's eye and always recieved perfect test scores.

"You won't believe it, a strange man just showed up at the door from Boro."I exclaimed incredulous.

"Borneo?"

"Whatever! He gave me a big hug and mom is talking greek to him."

"Well I know you're awful at lying so why don't we go see." she said with an amused expression. Cynthia gave a nod. We slunk round the corridor to spy on the strange man.

"Percy will be getting home soon."my mother said

"Percy! I have to tell him news !"Grover exclaimed

"Would you like to stay over for dinner?"

"Don't mind if I do! Oh, and can I take my shoes off, I don't want to scratch up your floor."

"Of course you may."

I had never seen my mom so amiable in her life. The visitor removed his shoes, but where his feet should have been were dirty hooves. I didn't understand, was I dreaming?

My sister had enough nonsense and marched over to Mom."What is going on!' she demanded

My mother gasped " Cynthia!" She rushed over to cynthia ,clapped her hands and in a lulling voice said "Cynthia go home."Cynthia, in a trance walked right through the door. My sister was panicking because she couldn't understand, which never happened to her. I was bewildered and both looked at my power did she hold?

"Oh shit. I knew this day would come."she worriedly said to the man.

"Have you not told them! Gods!" the visitor exclaimed

"Grover please." She started to cry. " The oracle said , well Chiron advised me to go to the oracle because two halfbloods aren't supposed to have kids. The oracle said that the day I told them , something would happen, something awful. So I just put it off. And now I don't know what will happen." They began to debate in greek. "OK" she finally said making a brave face.

" Amelia and Mark, take a seat." I was too shocked to question so just obeyed."Remember the gods of Greek mythology, well they're real. Mount Olympus relocated to the Empire State Building and New York is the equivalent of Athens. Sometimes gods have relationships with mortals, which is how your dad and I were born. That's why you don't know some of your grandparents, two of them are gods.I am the daughter of Athena"

She unwound her necklace of the owl from around her neck."Godess of wisdom and battle strategy. Your dad is the son of Posiedon , god of the sea. Grover is a satyr , half goat. There's also a camp situated by New York that houses young halfbloods in danger and other mythical creatures."

We just sat in silence for a while taking it all in. With such ridiculous information , you would wonder why we wern't laughing but I never before had seen my mom cry. A world governed by gods. What about the other mystical creatures. How powerful were my parents? There are four grandparents, two are gods, therefore am I half god? But I knew inside that it didn't work that way. Two famous parents with a loser kid.I felt slightly jealous and a little ashamed. I knew I could never be as great as them.

There was a jingle and the door opened to my dad. he beemed cheerily. " I told them." Mom said meekly.

"Oh shit." he bit his lip.

"Everythings fine. I'm just going to warm up the leftovers."

My dad gave a big sigh. Then he saw Grover. They rushed towards eachother and embraced.

"I never thought you'd make it back alive.I have so many things to tell you."

"Empathy link." smiled Grover and they both all sat down together and Amelia and Grover had a hearty discussion about conservation efforts in Borneo.