THE LIGHTNING THIEF
Winter Solstice, after Giant War
Suddenly, a note fell out of the sky, along with a leather bound book, and landed right in front of Zeus. He picked it up and read in his loud, booming voice.
Dear Gods and Goddesses,
Here is a collection of moments, put together
The fates
P. s. Demigods will be coming in soon!
Another large flash lit up the room, and suddenly 10 demigods were in front of them. A bewildered looked past between them, as they looked around.
"Why are we on Olympus?" a blonde haired girl asked.
"the fates have made a book," Hestia explained gently. " Now, I know we met after the Giant War, but please introduce yourselves again." a large groan came from the handsome, black haired demigod.
"Why is it always me?" he moaned again. Then, realizing he should introduce himself, he stepped forward. "Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon," Poseidon smiled at his favorite son, who 18 years old.
"Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena," said the pretty blonde girl who looked about 18.
"Piper Mclean, daughter of Aphrodite," A unconventionally beautiful girl around 17 stepped forward
"Jason Grace, son of Jupiter," said a boy of about 17, with ice blue eyes and blonde hair.
"Leo Flaming Valdez, son of Hephaestus," A small, 16 year old elfish looking Latino boy caught on fire, and then stepped back.
"Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto," The youngest looking girl stuttered, her golden eyes round against her brown skin.
"Frank Zhang, son of Mars," A boy about 16 who was built like a wrestler said.
"Grover Underwood, satyr," A confident satyr wearing a Rasta cap nodded.
"Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades." A small, 16 year old kid in all black said.
With her ice blue eyes flashing beneath her thick eyeliner, the last girl stepped forward and declared, "Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, lieutenant of Artemis."
Leo piped up, "Um, Lord Zeus, could we have a chair or something to sit in now that the introductions are done?" Zeus snapped his fingers, and a huge couch appeared. The demigods(and satyr) settled down. Percy slung his arm around Annabeth and Piper snuggled up to Jason. Frank and Hazel held hands, and Grover sat next to Thalia and Nico.
"Who wants to read first?" Aphrodite said, barely containing her excitement.
"I will," Athena said
Athena looked down at leather bound book in front of her. "There is a note
This is Percy and annabeth's first meeting! Enjoy!
The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief. I'd just seen my mother vanish.
I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover-I wasn't going to let him go.
The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's.
They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."
"Princess huh?" Annabeth said, looking at Percy.
"I'm sorry Wise Girl!" Percy quickly covered, as he leaned over to kiss her. " I love you?"
"This must have been right after I defeated the Minotaur," Percy explained, "And before I really even knew who I was."
"You defeated the minotaur? Dude, you've done everything!" Leo exclaimed excitedly, while the rest of the Seven just shook their heads.
Grover rolled his eyes, and Thalia laughed. "Dam Annabeth, liked him for that long?" She said teasingly.
"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."
"And that's the end of that segment," Athena said. "Who wants to read next?" Apollo raised his hand
This is when Percy and Annabeth are formally introduced. Enjoy!
Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them.
"Ha, Annabeth had to spoon feed you like a baby!" Leo giggled.
"Shut up Valdez," annabeth mummered, her face turning a light pink.
The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple.
At this, Dionysus, who had been engrossed in a wine magazine looked up. "Johnson, if you are describing me," he let the threat hang in mid air.
He looked like those paintings of baby angels- what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park. He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my stepfather. "That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me.
"Perseus Jackson!" Mr. D exploded. " I do not look like a cherub, not am I middle aged!"
"I didn't know how awesome you were yet Mr. D!" Percy hurried, scrambling for words. The god looked less angry, and sat back down in his chair.
"He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron… ."
"Whoa, sorry Lord Apollo, but did I hear you say that I was just a camper?" Annabeth's gray eyes flashed as she looked for Grover.
He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.
First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.
"Mr. Brunner!" I cried.
"You didn't realize that Mr. Brunner was probably not his real name even after that?" Jason asked incredulously.
"He may be a Seaweed Brain, but he's my Seaweed Brain," Annabeth smirked, leaning in to kiss Percy.
The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers B.
"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."
He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."
"Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, if there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.
Dionysus growled from behind his magazine.
"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl.
She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."
Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."
She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image.
They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.
She glanced at the minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, You killed a minotaur! or Wow, you're so awesome! or something like that.
Instead she said, "You drool when you sleep."
"Omigods Annabeth seriously?" Piper exclaimed. "No wonder it took so long for you guys to get together!" Everyone, even Hades, was laughing. Thalia and Nico were rolling on the floor, along with some of the more immature gods (Cough Hermes Apollo and Ares). Percy and Annabeth were slightly embarassed, but it felt good to laugh. Apollo, once he regained control of himself, spoke up.
"Who wants to read next?"
"I will," said a quiet voice in the corner. Hestia was so silent, everyone had forgotten she was there. She took the book and opened it up.
"Yeah, you guys do fight all the time," Nico said. "Almost as bad as Percy and Thalia!"
"Shut up Death Breath," the son of Poseidon and the daughter of Zeus said in unison. Nico held his hands up in surrender, and Zeus and Poseidon glared at each other, remembering old arguments. The ever peaceful Hestia took that as a clue to read again.
"So far so good," I told Annabeth. "Ten miles and not a single monster."
"This is on our way west to find the Lightning Bolt," Percy explained quickly.
She gave me an irritated look. "It's bad luck to talk that way, Seaweed Brain."
"Remind me again-why do you hate me so much?"
"I don't hate you."
"Could've fooled me."
"No, you love him," Aphrodite said dreamily. The mentioned couple blushed.
She folded her cap of invisibility. "Look … we're just not supposed to get along, okay? Our parents are rivals."
Cue glares from Athena and Poseidon.
"Why?"
She sighed. "How many reasons do you want? One time my mom caught Poseidon with his girlfriend in Athena's temple, which is hugely disrespectful. Another time, Athena and Poseidon competed to be the patron god for the city of Athens. Your dad created some stupid saltwater spring for his gift. My mom created the olive tree. The people saw that her gift was better, so they named the city after her."
" I personally like the salt spring," Percy said, but when Athena turned her gaze on him, he backtracked. "But olives are delicious!" Annabeth kissed and told him to shut is big mouth.
"They must really like olives."
"Oh, forget it."
"Now, if she'd invented pizza-that I could understand."
Everyone laughed. "Dude," Jason snorted," No wonder every major god has wanted to kill you at some point."
"Don't forget some of the minor gods too!" Thalia pointed out.
"I said, forget it!"
In the front seat, Argus smiled. He didn't say anything, but one blue eye on the back of his neck winked at me.
Traffic slowed us down in Queens. By the time we got into Manhattan it was sunset and starting to rain.
Argus dropped us at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, not far from my mom and Gabe's apartment.
Finally the bus came. As we stood in line to board, Grover started looking around, sniffing the air like he smelled his favorite school cafeteria delicacy-enchiladas.
"What is it?" I asked.
"I don't know," he said tensely. "Maybe it's nothing."
But I could tell it wasn't nothing. I started looking over my shoulder, too.
I was relieved when we finally got on board and found seats together in the back of the bus. We stowed our backpacks. Annabeth kept slapping her Yankees cap nervously against her thigh.
As the last passengers got on, Annabeth clamped her hand onto my knee. "Percy."
An old lady had just boarded the bus. She wore a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and a shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face, and she carried a big paisley purse. When she tilted her head up, her black eyes glittered, and my heart skipped a beat.
It was Mrs. Dodds. Older, more withered, but definitely the same evil face.
"Another Fury?" Poseidon said pointedly at Hades. Hades just shrugged.
I scrunched down in my seat.
Behind her came two more old ladies: one in a green hat, one in a purple hat. Otherwise they looked exactly like Mrs. Dodds-same gnarled hands, paisley handbags, wrinkled velvet dresses. Triplet demon grandmothers.
They sat in the front row, right behind the driver. The two on the aisle crossed their legs over the walkway, making an X. It was casual enough, but it sent a clear message: nobody leaves.
The bus pulled out of the station, and we headed through the slick streets of Manhattan. "She didn't stay dead long," I said, trying to keep my voice from quivering. "I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime."
"I said if you're lucky," Annabeth said. "You're obviously not."
"Your luck is awful punk," Ares said. Everyone thought he had been sleeping, but maybe he had sensed violence and woken up.
"All three of them," Grover whimpered. "Di immortales!"
"It's okay," Annabeth said, obviously thinking hard. "The Furies. The three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem. No problem. We'll just slip out the windows."
"They don't open," Grover moaned.
"A back exit?" she suggested.
There wasn't one.
Even if there had been, it wouldn't have helped. By that time, we were on Ninth Avenue, heading for the Lincoln Tunnel.
"They won't attack us with witnesses around," I said. "Will they?"
"Oh yes they will," Hades said darkly. Anabeth snuggled closer to Percy.
"Mortals don't have good eyes," Annabeth reminded me. "Their brains can only process what they see through the Mist."
"They'll see three old ladies killing us, won't they?"
She thought about it. "Hard to say. But we can't count on mortals for help. Maybe an emergency exit in the roof … ?"
We hit the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle. It was eerily quiet without the sound of the rain.
Mrs. Dodds got up. In a flat voice, as if she'd rehearsed it, she announced to the whole bus: "I need to use the rest-room."
"So do I," said the second sister.
"So do I," said the third sister.
"They need lying lessons," Hermes declared. "Obvious much?"
They all started coming down the aisle.
"I've got it," Annabeth said. "Percy, take my hat."
"What?"
"You're the one they want. Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can get to the front and get away."
"And he is not going to like that," Thalia said. "His freaking fatal flaw is loyalty."
But you guys-"
"There's an outside chance they might not notice us," Annabeth said. "You're a son of one of the Big Three. Your smell might be overpowering."
"YEah percy, yours is awful." Grover admitted.
"Thanks G-man," Percy said sarcastically.
"I can't just leave you."
"Don't worry about us," Grover said. "Go!"
My hands trembled. I felt like a coward, but I took the Yankees cap and put it on.
When I looked down, my body wasn't there anymore.
I started creeping up the aisle. I managed to get up ten rows, then duck into an empty seat just as the Furies walked past.
Mrs. Dodds stopped, sniffing, and looked straight at me. My heart was pounding.
Apparently she didn't see anything. She and her sisters kept going.
I was free. I made it to the front of the bus. We were almost through the Lincoln Tunnel now. I was about to press the emergency stop button when I heard hideous wailing from the back row.
"And Percy is probably going to make a rash decision?" Frank asked. The other demigods just nodded.
The old ladies were not old ladies anymore. Their faces were still the same-I guess those couldn't get any uglier- but their bodies had shriveled into leathery brown hag bodies with bat's wings and hands and feet like gargoyle claws. Their handbags had turned into fiery whips.
The Furies surrounded Grover and Annabeth, lashing their whips, hissing: "Where is it? Where?"
"Did they say it?" Athena asked, her interest spiked. As Hestia answered, Percy pulled Annabeth in and kissed her.
The other people on the bus were screaming, cowering in their seats. They saw something, all right.
"He's not here!" Annabeth yelled. "He's gone!"
The Furies raised their whips.
Annabeth drew her bronze knife. Grover grabbed a tin can from his snack bag and prepared to throw it.
What I did next was so impulsive and dangerous I should've been named ADHD poster child of the year.
"Actually, I think that goes to Leo," Percy joked.
"Team Leo for the win!" Leo shouted, flexing his non-existent muscles.
The bus driver was distracted, trying to see what was going on in his rearview mirror.
Still invisible, I grabbed the wheel from him and jerked it to the left. Everybody howled as they were thrown to the right, and I heard what I hoped was the sound of three Furies smashing against the windows.
"Hey!" the driver yelled. "Hey-whoa!"
We wrestled for the wheel. The bus slammed against the side of the tunnel, grinding metal, throwing sparks a mile behind us.
We careened out of the Lincoln Tunnel and back into the rainstorm, people and monsters tossed around the bus, cars plowed aside like bowling pins.
Somehow the driver found an exit. We shot off the highway, through half a dozen traffic lights, and ended up barreling down one of those New Jersey rural roads where you can't believe there's so much nothing right across the river from New York. There were woods to our left, the Hudson River to our right, and the driver seemed to be veering toward the river.
Another great idea: I hit the emergency brake.
The bus wailed, spun a full circle on the wet asphalt, and crashed into the trees. The emergency lights came on. The door flew open. The bus driver was the first one out, the passengers yelling as they stampeded after him. I stepped into the driver's seat and let them pass.
"Can you imagine how scary it was for those mortals?" Apollo shivered.
The Furies regained their balance. They lashed their whips at Annabeth while she waved her knife and yelled in Ancient Greek, telling them to back off. Grover threw tin cans.
I looked at the open doorway. I was free to go, but I couldn't leave my friends. I took off the invisible cap. "Hey!"
"Together forever," Percy whispered in Annabeth's ear. "I'll never leave you Wise Girl."
The Furies turned, baring their yellow fangs at me, and the exit suddenly seemed like an excellent idea. Mrs. Dodds stalked up the aisle, just as she used to do in class, about to deliver my F- math test.
Every time she flicked her whip, red flames danced along the barbed leather.
Her two ugly sisters hopped on top of the seats on either side of her and crawled toward me like huge nasty lizards.
"Perseus Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said, in an accent that was definitely from somewhere farther south than Georgia. "You have offended the gods. You shall die."
"Look at how well that turned out," Percy said cheekily. Annabeth lightly smacked him.
"I liked you better as a math teacher," I told her.
She growled.
Annabeth and Grover moved up behind the Furies cautiously, looking for an opening.
"I was trying to distract her without you dying," Annabeth admitted. "Honestly, I did like you."
I took the ballpoint pen out of my pocket and uncapped it. Riptide elongated into a shimmering double-edged sword.
The Furies hesitated.
Mrs. Dodds had felt Riptide's blade before. She obviously didn't like seeing it again.
"Submit now," she hissed. "And you will not suffer eternal torment."
"Nice try," I told her.
"It just ends there," Hestia said, confused.
"Who wants to read next?" Hestia asked timidly.
"i will!" Apollo exclaimed
Percy and annabeth blaming their parents for their problems.
"Why are they blaming us?" Poseidon and Athena said in unison. They looked at each and blushed. Annabeth and Percy shrunk back in their seats, nervous for this chapter.
Something fell to the ground next to my foot. It took all my willpower not to look. I could feel warm ooze soaking into my sock, little dying snake heads tugging at my shoelaces.
"We had just killed Medusa, I think," Grover said. The three friends looked at each other and grimaced.
"Good Gods, you guys have the worst luck," Thalia snickered.
Annabeth came up next to me, her eyes fixed on the sky. She was holding Medusa's black veil. She said, "Don't move."
Very, very carefully, without looking down, she knelt and draped the monster's head in black cloth, then picked it up. It was still dripping green juice.
"Are you okay?" she asked me, her voice trembling.
"Yeah," I decided, though I felt like throwing up my double cheeseburger. "Why didn't … why didn't the head evaporate?"
"I love spoils of war," Ares growled.
"You would," Athena said. Ares thought for a moment, his brain too small to process what Athena was saying.
"Once you sever it, it becomes a spoil of war," she said. "Same as your minotaur horn. But don't unwrap the head. It can still petrify you."
Grover moaned as he climbed down from the grizzly statue. He had a big welt on his forehead. His green rasta cap hung from one of his little goat horns, and his fake feet had been knocked off his hooves. The magic sneakers were flying aimlessly around his head.
"The Red Baron," I said. "Good job, man."
"I feel a haiku!" Apollo interrupted himself. The entire throne room hit their heads. "Grover is the Red Baron, he saves his friends from Medusa, Grover is the Red Baron." Apollo grinned, looking extremely pleased with himself.
"That wasn't even a proper haiku!" Athena cried, looking scandalized. Apollo shrugged and kept reading.
He managed a bashful grin. "That really was not fun, though. Well, the hitting-her-with-a-stick part, that was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? Not fun."
"Well duh," Leo and Nico said at the same time.
He snatched his shoes out of the air. I recapped my sword. Together, the three of us stumbled back to the warehouse.
We found some old plastic grocery bags behind the snack counter and double-wrapped Medusa's head. We plopped it on the table where we'd eaten dinner and sat around it, too exhausted to speak.
Finally I said, "So we have Athena to thank for this monster?"
"PERSEUS JACKSON!" Athena exploded out of her chair
Annabeth flashed me an irritated look. "Your dad, actually. Don't you remember? Medusa was Poseidon's girlfriend. They decided to meet in my mother's temple. That's why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple, they became the three gorgons. That's why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She's still sweet on your dad. You probably reminded her of him."
"Annabeth," Poseidon said disturbingly calm. "Did you just blame me for this?"
My face was burning. "Oh, so now it's my fault we met Medusa."
Annabeth straightened. In a bad imitation of my voice, she said: "'It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?'"
"Forget it," I said. "You're impossible."
"You're insufferable."
"You're-"
"Fighting once again!" Most of the demigods finished.
"I'm honestly surprised you guys are a couple the way you fight sometimes." Leo said.
"True love," Piper interjected dreamily. When Jason stared at her, she crossed her arms defensively.
"Hey!" Grover interrupted. "You two are giving me a migraine, and satyrs don't even get migraines. What are we going to do with the head?"
"I know what you do," Nico smirked.
"That was very stupid of you Seaweed Brain," Annabeth whispered in Percy's ear.
"I know, I love you Wise Girl," Percy whispered back, They snuggled farther into the couch, Frank and Hazel were sitting there in amazement, not believing what had all just happened.
"What do you think about Pothena?" Aphrodite asked suddenly. "You know, Poseidon and Athena?" A stunned silence met her speech, and then the room burst into incredulous laughter. Athena and Poseidon still looked embarrassed and disgruntled when the laughter died down.
"Alright, who wants to read next?" Apollo declared. Hephaestus raised his hand, and the book was transferred to him.
"Is it still in my POV?" Percy asked, crossing his fingers.
"Looks like it," Hephaestus said, looking sympathetic.
"Schist!" Percy exclaimed. He and Hazel looked at each other and cracked up. Hephaestus took that as a cue to read.
Oh, how I love the Tunnel Ride of love
"Is that…" Hephaestus looked at Annabeth.
"Yup." She answered. Everyone just looked confused. "You'll find out later."
The sun was sinking behind the mountains by the time we found the water park. Judging from the sign, it once had been called WATERLAND, but now some of the letters were smashed out, so it read WAT R A D.
Ares looked very pleased. "HA, that's when I sent you guys to get my shield."
"Yeah, that wasn't fun," Percy murmured, wrapping his arms around Annabeth.
The main gate was padlocked and topped with barbed wire. Inside, huge dry waterslides and tubes and pipes curled everywhere, leading to empty pools. Old tickets and advertisements fluttered around the asphalt. With night coming on, the place looked sad and creepy.
"If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date," I said, staring up at the barbed wire, "I'd hate to see what she looks like."
"Excuse me?" Aphrodite popped out of her daydream. "Is that an insult to my beauty?"
"No, he just was clueless, and still is," Annabeth covered.
Percy," Annabeth warned. "Be more respectful."
"Why? I thought you hated Ares."
"He's still a god. And his girlfriend is very temperamental."
"You don't want to insult her looks," Grover added.
"Who is she? Echidna?"
"Okay, did you just think I was that butt-ugly monster? I am beautiful, hell, I can even look like Annabeth!" Aphrodite changed until she was a splitting image of the girl sitting next to Percy. She tossed her curly blonde over her shoulder and huffed. Percy relaxed form the position of surrender he was in.
"No, Aphrodite," Grover said, a little dreamily. "Goddess of love."
"I thought she was married to somebody," I said. "Hephaestus."
"Yeah," Hephaestus glared at Ares.
What's your point?" he asked.
"Oh." I suddenly felt the need to change the subject. "So how do we get in?"
"Maia!" Grover's shoes sprouted wings.
He flew over the fence, did an unintended somersault in midair, then stumbled to a landing on the opposite side. He dusted off his jeans, as if he'd planned the whole thing. "You guys coming?"
"Oh Grover, I would have loved to see that!" Thalia laughed.
Annabeth and I had to climb the old-fashioned way, holding down the barbed wire for each other as we crawled over the top.
The shadows grew long as we walked through the park, checking out the attractions. There was Ankle Biter Island, Head Over Wedgie, and Dude, Where's My Swimsuit?
"Oh my gods, who named those! Those are totally….AWESOME!" Leo screeched.
No monsters came to get us. Nothing made the slightest noise.
We found a souvenir shop that had been left open. Merchandise still lined the shelves: snow globes, pencils, postcards, and racks of-
"Clothes," Annabeth said. "Fresh clothes."
"Yeah," I said. "But you can't just-"
"Watch me."
She snatched an entire row of stuff of the racks and disappeared into the changing room. A few minutes later she came out in Waterland flower-print shorts, a big red Waterland T-shirt, and commemorative Waterland surf shoes.
"Ewwww, surf shoes are weird." Piper said. Annabeth gave her a light-hearted glare.
"Well, it was all I had!"
A Waterland backpack was slung over her shoulder, obviously stuffed with more goodies.
"What the heck." Grover shrugged. Soon, all three of us were decked out like walking advertisements for the defunct theme park.
We continued searching for the Tunnel of Love. I got the feeling that the whole park was holding its breath. "So Ares and Aphrodite," I said, to keep my mind off the growing dark, "they have a thing going?"
"Seriously, you hadn't figured it out? I honestly don't understand how you are the savior of Olympus sometimes." Nico said in amazement.
"That's old gossip, Percy," Annabeth told me. "Three-thousand-year-old gossip."
"What about Aphrodite's husband?"
"Well, you know," she said. "Hephaestus. The blacksmith. He was crippled when he was a baby, thrown off Mount Olympus by Zeus. So he isn't exactly handsome. Clever with his hands, and all, but Aphrodite isn't into brains and talent, you know?"
"She likes bikers."
"Yeah, I'm tougher than you punk," Ares sneered.
"Did you forget that I beat you?" Percy retaliated, standing up.
"Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth pulled him down while Aphrodite cooed.
"Whatever."
"Hephaestus knows?"
"Oh sure," Annabeth said. "He caught them together once. I mean, literally caught them, in a golden net, and invited all the gods to come and laugh at them. Hephaestus is always trying to embarrass them. That's why they meet in out-of-the-way places, like …"
She stopped, looking straight ahead. "Like that."
In front of us was an empty pool that would've been awesome for skateboarding.
"You skateboard? Me too!" Jason said looking surprised.
"Awesome! We should go after all this is over!" Percy yelled. The two boys started chatting.
"Sorry to interrupt to your guys' bromance, but we really should read," Thalia butted in.
It was at least fifty yards across and shaped like a bowl.
Around the rim, a dozen bronze statues of Cupid stood guard with wings spread and bows ready to fire. On the opposite side from us, a tunnel opened up, probably where the water flowed into when the pool was full. The sign above it read, THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE!
Grover crept toward the edge. "Guys, look."
Marooned at the bottom of the pool was a pink-and-white two-seater boat with a canopy over the top and little hearts painted all over it. In the left seat, glinting in the fading light, was Ares's shield, a polished circle of bronze.
"This is too easy," I said. "So we just walk down there and get it?"
Annabeth ran her fingers along the base of the nearest Cupid statue.
"There's a Greek letter carved here," she said. "Eta. I wonder …"
"Oh….." Leo said. "What kind? Video?" He directed the last question towards his dad. Hephaestus nodded, looking kinda sheepish.
"Grover," I said, "you smell any monsters?"
He sniffed the wind. "Nothing."
"Nothing-like, in-the-Arch-and-you-didn't-smell-Echidna nothing, or really nothing?"
"Oooo, low blow," Hermes said. Percy blushed.
Grover looked hurt. "I told you, that was underground."
"Okay, I'm sorry." I took a deep breath. "I'm going down there."
"I'll go with you." Grover didn't sound too enthusiastic, but I got the feeling he was trying to make up for what had happened in St. Louis.
"No," I told him. "I want you to stay up top with the flying shoes. You're the Red Baron, a flying ace, remember? I'll be counting on you for backup, in case something goes wrong."
Grover puffed up his chest a little. "Sure. But what could go wrong?"
"I don't know. Just a feeling. Annabeth, come with me-"
"You did not just do that," Thalia was doubled over, hysterically laughing.
Aphrodite squealed something things about Percy always loving Annabeth, and other love gibberish. The said couple just blushed.
"Are you kidding?" She looked at me as if I'd just dropped from the moon. Her cheeks were bright red.
"What's the problem now?" I demanded.
"Me, go with you to the … the 'Thrill Ride of Love'? How embarrassing is that? What if somebody saw me?"
"Nobodies there?" Frank asked confusedly.
"Who's going to see you?"
"Only about all of Olympus," Hephaestus whispered.
But my face was burning now, too. Leave it to a girl to make everything complicated. "Fine," I told her. "I'll do it myself." But when I started down the side of the pool, she followed me, muttering about how boys always messed things up.
"Words of wisdom," Artemis nodded.
We reached the boat. The shield was propped on one seat, and next to it was a lady's silk scarf. I tried to imagine Ares and Aphrodite here, a couple of gods meeting in a junked-out amusement-park ride. Why? Then I noticed something I hadn't seen from up top: mirrors all the way around the rim of the pool, facing this spot. We could see ourselves no matter which direction we looked. That must be it. While Ares and Aphrodite were smooching with each other they could look at their favorite people: themselves.
"I am amazing," the said gods mentioned at the same time.
I picked up the scarf. It shimmered pink, and the perfume was indescribable-rose, or mountain laurel. Something good. I smiled, a little dreamy, and was about to rub the scarf against my cheek when Annabeth ripped it out of my hand and stuffed it in her pocket. "Oh, no you don't. Stay away from that love magic."
"Jealous much?" Nico teased. Annabeth looked down and whispered something around the lines of maybe, but nobody really heard.
"What?"
"Just get the shield, Seaweed Brain, and let's get out of here."
The moment I touched the shield, I knew we were in trouble. My hand broke through something that had been connecting it to the dashboard. A cobweb, I thought, but then I looked at a strand of it on my palm and saw it was some kind of metal filament, so fine it was almost invisible. A trip wire.
"Oh," the whole room sighed as they figured ought what was going on.
"Wait," Annabeth said.
"Too late."
"Kelp Head, duh!" Thalia just shook her head. Annabeth kissed him(again)
"There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta. This is a trap."
Noise erupted all around us, of a million gears grinding, as if the whole pool were turning into one giant machine.
Grover yelled, "Guys!"
Up on the rim, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. Before I could suggest taking cover, they shot, but not at us. They fired at each other, across the rim of the pool. Silky cables trailed from the arrows, arcing over the pool and anchoring where they landed to form a huge golden asterisk. Then smaller metallic threads started weaving together magically between the main strands, making a net.
Athena and Poseidon turned to Ares. "Did you seriously send my daughter into a trap?" You can guess who said that.
"Um, yes?" Ares obviously had no idea what was going on, as always.
"We have to get out," I said.
"Duh!" Annabeth said.
I grabbed the shield and we ran, but going up the slope of the pool was not as easy as going down.
"Come on!" Grover shouted.
He was trying to hold open a section of the net for us, but wherever he touched it, the golden threads started to wrap around his hands.
The Cupids' heads popped open. Out came video cameras. Spotlights rose up all around the pool, blinding us with illumination, and a loudspeaker voice boomed: "Live to Olympus in one minute … Fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight …"
"Oh my gods, you guys are being broadcasted to Olympus, on the Tunnel Ride of Love, together!" Jason just shook his head. "Honestly, I've never met people with such bad luck."
"Hephaestus!" Annabeth screamed. "I'm so stupid.' Eta is H.' He made this trap to catch his wife with Ares. Now we're going to be broadcast live to Olympus and look like absolute fools!"
We'd almost made it to the rim when the row of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic … things poured out.
Annabeth screamed.
It was an army of wind-up creepy-crawlies: bronze-gear bodies, spindly legs, little pincer mouths, all scuttling toward us in a wave of clacking, whirring metal.
"Spiders!" Annabeth said. "Sp-sp-aaaah!"
Both Athena and Annabeth shivered. Percy pulled Annabeth closer to him and whispered sweet things to her.
I'd never seen her like this before. She fell backward in terror and almost got overwhelmed by the spider robots before I pulled her up and dragged her back toward the boat.
"Thank goodness for Percy," Athena suddenly blurted. Everyone looked at her, and got all defensive. "What? He saved Annabeth so many times!"
"Miracles do happen," Percy told Annabeth, both of them with looks of surprise etched onto their faces.
The things were coming out from all around the rim now, millions of them, flooding toward the center of the pool, completely surrounding us. I told myself they probably weren't programmed to kill, just corral us and bite us and make us look stupid. Then again, this was a trap meant for gods. And we weren't gods.
"Really, I hadn't noticed!" Dionysus's sarcastic voice floated over the top of his magazine.
Annabeth and I climbed into the boat. I started kicking away the spiders as they swarmed aboard. I yelled at Annabeth to help me, but she was too paralyzed to do much more than scream.
"Thirty, twenty-nine," called the loudspeaker.
The spiders started spitting out strands of metal thread, trying to tie us down. The strands were easy enough to break at first, but there were so many of them, and the spiders just kept coming. I kicked one away from Annabeth's leg and its pincers took a chunk out of my new surf shoe.
"Good, get rid of those ugly things," Piper shuddered.
Grover hovered above the pool in his flying sneakers, trying to pull the net loose, but it wouldn't budge.
Think, I told myself. Think.
The Tunnel of Love entrance was under the net. We could use it as an exit, except that it was blocked by a million robot spiders.
"Fifteen, fourteen," the loudspeaker called.
Water, I thought. Where does the ride's water come from?
Then I saw them: huge water pipes behind the mirrors, where the spiders had come from. And up above the net, next to one of the Cupids, a glass-windowed booth that must be the controller's station.
"Grover!" I yelled. "Get into that booth! Find the 'on' switch!"
"Good idea, but knowing you, it isn't going to work." Frank shook his head.
"But-"
"Do it!" It was a crazy hope, but it was our only chance. The spiders were all over the prow of the boat now. Annabeth was screaming her head off. I had to get us out of there.
Grover was in the controller's booth now, slamming away at the buttons.
"Five, four-"
Grover looked up at me hopelessly, raising his hands. He was letting me know that he'd pushed every button, but still nothing was happening.
I closed my eyes and thought about waves, rushing water, the Mississippi River. I felt a familiar tug in my gut. I tried to imagine that I was dragging the ocean all the way to Denver.
"Could you do that?" Leo asked, his ADHD piping up.
"Shut up!" the room yelled, for it was getting suspenseful.
"Two, one, zero!"
Water exploded out of the pipes. It roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders. I pulled Annabeth into the seat next to me and fastened her seat belt just as the tidal wave slammed into our boat, over the top, whisking the spiders away and dousing us completely, but not capsizing us. The boat turned, lifted in the flood, and spun in circles around the whirlpool.
The water was full of short-circuiting spiders, some of them smashing against the pool's concrete wall with such force they burst.
Spotlights glared down at us. The Cupid-cams were rolling, live to Olympus.
A few people gasped, but most were to engrossed in the story.
But I could only concentrate on controlling the boat. I willed it to ride the current, to keep away from the wall. Maybe it was my imagination, but the boat seemed to respond. At least, it didn't break into a million pieces. We spun around one last time, the water level now almost high enough to shred us against the metal net. Then the boat's nose turned toward the tunnel and we rocketed through into the darkness.
Annabeth and I held tight, both of us screaming as the boat shot curls and hugged corners and took forty-five-degree plunges past pictures of Romeo and Juliet and a bunch of other Valentine's Day stuff.
"Were you holding tight to each other?" Aphrodite said slyly.
"I honestly don't remember, I was so scared of the spiders." Annabeth answered, her facing turning red.
"I was concentrating on the water," Percy chimed in.
Then we were out of the tunnel, the night air whistling through our hair as the boat barreled straight toward the exit.
If the ride had been in working order, we would've sailed off a ramp between the golden Gates of Love and splashed down safely in the exit pool.
"The Golden Gates of Love?" Thalia and Artemis both gagged.
But there was a problem. The Gates of Love were chained. Two boats that had been washed out of the tunnel before us were now piled against the barricade-one submerged, the other cracked in half.
"Unfasten your seat belt," I yelled to Annabeth.
"Are you crazy?"
"Unless you want to get smashed to death." I strapped Ares's shield to my arm. "We're going to have to jump for it." My idea was simple and insane. As the boat struck, we would use its force like a springboard to jump the gate. I'd heard of people surviving car crashes that way, getting thrown thirty or forty feet away from an accident. With luck, we would land in the pool.
Annabeth seemed to understand. She gripped my hand as the gates got closer.
"On my mark," I said.
"No! On my mark!"
"Yeah, Percy's ideas normally fail," Grover said.
"Guys, this is my best friend! My life is sad." Percy pouted, causing Annabeth to laugh and kiss him again.
"What?"
"Simple physics!" she yelled. "Force times the trajectory angle-"
"Fine.'" I shouted. "On your mark!"
She hesitated … hesitated … then yelled, "Now!"
Crack!
Annabeth was right.
If we'd jumped when I thought we should've, we would've crashed into the gates. She got us maximum lift.
Unfortunately, that was a little more than we needed. Our boat smashed into the pileup and we were thrown into the air, straight over the gates, over the pool, and down toward solid asphalt.
Something grabbed me from behind.
Annabeth yelled, "Ouch!"
Grover!
Everyone gave the goat man a standing round of applause. He bowed, grinning.
In midair, he had grabbed me by the shirt, and Annabeth by the arm, and was trying to pull us out of a crash landing, but Annabeth and I had all the momentum.
"You're too heavy!" Grover said. "We're going down!"
"Yeah Percy, lose a few!" Thalia screamed from the other end of the couch.
"I'm perfectly fit, thank you!" Percy yelled back.
We spiraled toward the ground, Grover doing his best to slow the fall.
We smashed into a photo-board, Grover's head going straight into the hole where tourists would put their faces, pretending to be Noo-Noo the Friendly Whale. Annabeth and I tumbled to the ground, banged up but alive. Ares's shield was still on my arm.
"Oh good," Ares sighed. "What? I forgot!" was his answer to al the stares he received.
Once we caught our breath, Annabeth and I got Grover out of the photo-board and thanked him for saving our lives. I looked back at the Thrill Ride of Love. The water was subsiding. Our boat had been smashed to pieces against the gates.
A hundred yards away, at the entrance pool, the Cupids were still filming. The statues had swiveled so that their cameras were trained straight on us, the spotlights in our faces.
"Show's over!" I yelled. "Thank you! Good night!"
"Only Percy would say that," Hazel shook her head, once again impressed by her friend.
The Cupids turned back to their original positions. The lights shut off. The park went quiet and dark again, except for the gentle trickle of water into the Thrill Ride of Love's exit pool. I wondered if Olympus had gone to a commercial break, or if our ratings had been any good.
I hated being teased. I hated being tricked. And I had plenty of experience handling bullies who liked to do that stuff to me. I hefted the shield on my arm and turned to my friends. "We need to have a little talk with Ares."
"I meant to ask you, did you save that video?" Annabeth directed to Hephaestus. He nodded, and the next fifteen minutes were devoted to laughing at the video on The Tunnel of Love. After everyone had thoroughly enjoyed the video of Percy and Annabeth on the Tunnel Ride of Love, Aphrodite decided it was time for business.
"I will read next!" She declared, causing everyone to sit back down, the demigods on the couch and the gods on their thrones. "Oh look, a note from myself! I am so pleased about how this turned out!" She squealed.
This is after the end of Percys quest, Luke's scorpion had just bitten Percy, Annabeth is caring for him
Percy mumbled under his breath something along the lines of "No good…Water no help…Freaking hurt like Tartarus…." Annabeth smiled and laced her hand in his.
I woke with a drinking straw in my mouth. I was sipping something that tasted like liquid chocolate-chip cookies. Nectar.
"Best stuff in the world!" Jason and Percy said at the same time.
I opened my eyes.
I was propped up in bed in the sickroom of the Big House, my right hand bandaged like a club. Argus stood guard in the corner. Annabeth sat next to me, holding my nectar glass and dabbing a washcloth on my forehead.
"Here we are again," I said.
"You idiot," Annabeth said, which is how I knew she was overjoyed to see me conscious.
"Yeah, nice way of showing it," Nico scoffed. Annabeth responded by kissing Percy deeply. Thalia, Artemis, and Athena all gagged, while Aphrodite snapped her fingers at them.
"Shhhhhhhhh," She hissed loudly. "You're ruining the moment!" At this, the couple broke apart, blushing lightly. Aphrodite sighed and shook her head at the three girls.
"You were green and turning gray when we found you. If it weren't for Chiron's healing …"
"And here is where the anger comes in," Percy smiled. "That's when I know I've screwed up."
"Now, now," Chiron's voice said. "Percy's constitution deserves some of the credit."
He was sitting near the foot of my bed in human form, which was why I hadn't noticed him yet. His lower half was magically compacted into the wheelchair, his upper half dressed in a coat and tie. He smiled, but his face looked weary and pale, the way it did when he'd been up all night grading Latin papers.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Like my insides have been frozen, then microwaved."
Hermes started to speak, but Aphrodite cut him off. "Let's keep reading!"
Percy rolled his eyes at Annabeth and whispered "The sooner the better." She nodded in return.
"Apt, considering that was pit scorpion venom. Now you must tell me, if you can, exactly what happened."
Between sips of nectar, I told them the story.
The room was quiet for a long time.
"I can't believe that Luke …" Annabeth's voice faltered. Her expression turned angry and sad. "Yes. Yes, I can believe it. May the gods curse him…. He was never the same after his quest."
"Were you seriously in denial about Luke for a while?" Jason asked curiously. Piper smacked his arm.
"I thought I loved him for a long time, but I just loved him as a brother. Percy is the only one for me." Annabeth replied strongly, gazing with her steel cold eyes at Jason. He raised his hands in surrender, and she laughed, curling closer to Percy. Frank, Hazel, and Leo watched in amazement, but the other demigods knew how much Percy meant to the daughter of Athena. Athena mentally approved of her daughters dedication.
"This must be reported to Olympus," Chiron murmured. "I will go at once."
"Luke is out there right now," I said. "I have to go after him."
Chiron shook his head. "No, Percy. The gods-"
"Won't even talk about Kronos," I snapped. "Zeus declared the matter closed!"
Zeus raised an eyebrow, and Percy looked back at him, not scared in the slightest. The King of the Gods backed down and motioned for Aphrodite to keep reading.
"Percy, I know this is hard. But you must not rush out for vengeance. You aren't ready."
I didn't like it, but part of me suspected Chiron was right. One look at my hand, and I knew I wasn't going to be sword fighting any time soon. "Chiron … your prophecy from the Oracle … it was about Kronos, wasn't it? Was I in it? And Annabeth?"
"Is always right," Percy answered his own question. Annabeth laughed, and everyone nodded in agreement.
Chiron glanced nervously at the ceiling. "Percy, it isn't my place-"
"You've been ordered not to talk to me about it, haven't you?"
His eyes were sympathetic, but sad. "You will be a great hero, child. I will do my best to prepare you. But if I'm right about the path ahead of you …"
Thunder boomed overhead, rattling the windows.
"All right!" Chiron shouted. "Fine!"
"I've never actually seen Chiron get angry," Leo noted.
Nico shuddered. "It's not pretty."
He sighed in frustration. "The gods have their reasons, Percy. Knowing too much of your future is never a good thing."
"We can't just sit back and do nothing," I said.
"We will not sit back," Chiron promised. "But you must be careful. Kronos wants you to come unraveled. He wants your life disrupted, your thoughts clouded with fear and anger. Do not give him what he wants. Train patiently. Your time will come."
"Assuming I live that long."
"Gods, be a pessimist Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth exclaimed.
"But I'm your pessimist," Percy pleaded, with big baby seal eyes.
Chiron put his hand on my ankle. "You'll have to trust me, Percy. You will live. But first you must decide your path for the coming year. I cannot tell you the right choice…." I got the feeling that he had a very definite opinion, and it was taking all his willpower not to advise me. "But you must decide whether to stay at Camp Half-Blood year-round, or return to the mortal world for seventh grade and be a summer camper. Think on that. When I get back from Olympus, you must tell me your decision."
I wanted to protest. I wanted to ask him more questions. But his expression told me there could be no more discussion; he had said as much as he could.
"He probably could have said a lot more Kelp Head," Thalia argued. "He just wanted you to stop asking questions."
"Well, they were very intellectual questions Pinecone Face," Percy retorted.
Leo looked around confused. "What's intellectual?"
"Not you," Annabeth said under her breath. Percy laughed and kissed her.
"I'll be back as soon as I can," Chiron promised. "Argus will watch over you."
He glanced at Annabeth. "Oh, and, my dear … whenever you're ready, they're here."
"Who's here?" I asked.
Nobody answered.
"They always have conversations without me understanding!" Percy exclaimed, looking miffed.
Chiron rolled himself out of the room. I heard the wheels of his chair clunk carefully down the front steps, two at a time.
Annabeth studied the ice in my drink.
"What's wrong?" I asked her.
"Nothing." She set the glass on the table. "I … just took your advice about something. You … um … need anything?"
"Wait, did you say you took his advice?" Frank asked. Percy gaped in mock hurt at him, and Annabeth rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, the only good stuff he has spit out." Percy smiled a endearing smile, and she cuddled closer, clinging as tight to him as she could. Aphrodite was beside her self, and could barely read from ecstasy.
"Yeah. Help me up. I want to go outside."
"Percy, that isn't a good idea."
I slid my legs out of bed. Annabeth caught me before I could crumple to the floor.
"She caught you? Cough weak cough."
A wave of nausea rolled over me.
Annabeth said, "I told you …"
"I'm fine," I insisted. I didn't want to lie in bed like an invalid while Luke was out there planning to destroy the Western world.
I managed a step forward. Then another, still leaning heavily on Annabeth. Argus followed us outside, but he kept his distance.
By the time we reached the porch, my face was beaded with sweat. My stomach had twisted into knots. But I had managed to make it all the way to the railing.
It was dusk. The camp looked completely deserted. The cabins were dark and the volleyball pit silent. No canoes cut the surface of the lake. Beyond the woods and the strawberry fields, the Long Island Sound glittered in the last light of the sun.
"What are you going to do?" Annabeth asked me.
"I don't know."
"I'm glad you did what you did," Annabeth whispered, hugging Percy even tighter.
"Me too Wise Girl, me too," Percy murmured, kissing her head. This time, Piper and her mom cooed.
I told her I got the feeling Chiron wanted me to stay year-round, to put in more individual training time, but I wasn't sure that's what I wanted. I admitted I'd feel bad about leaving her alone, though, with only Clarisse for company….
Annabeth pursed her lips, then said quietly, "I'm going home for the year, Percy."
I stared at her. "You mean, to your dad's?"
She pointed toward the crest of Half-Blood Hill. Next to Thalia's pine tree, at the very edge of the camp's magical boundaries, a family stood silhouetted-two little children, a woman, and a tall man with blond hair. They seemed to be waiting. The man was holding a backpack that looked like the one Annabeth had gotten from Waterland in Denver.
Do you still have it?" Grover asked, looking pointedly at Annabeth. She shook her head sadly.
"That's unfortunate, it was a good backpack," Hermes said wistfully. No one was sure whether to laugh or hold a funeral for the poor backpack.
"I wrote him a letter when we got back," Annabeth said. "Just like you suggested. I told him … I was sorry. I'd come home for the school year if he still wanted me. He wrote back immediately. We decided … we'd give it another try."
"That took guts."
She pursed her lips. "You won't try anything stupid during the school year, will you? At least … not without sending me an Iris-message?"
"Ha, Percy's always stupid," Nico said. The love goddess took it a different way.
"Aw, she cares for him!" Every single person in the room was annoyed with Aphrodite
I managed a smile. "I won't go looking for trouble. I usually don't have to."
"When I get back next summer," she said, "we'll hunt down Luke. We'll ask for a quest, but if we don't get approval, we'll sneak off and do it anyway. Agreed?"
"Sounds like a plan worthy of Athena."
"I do think of great plans don't I?" Athena bragged
"No." was Poseidon's terse answer.
"It was theoretical idiot! You weren't supposed to answer it!" Percy sighed, and conjured a huge wall in-between the bickering gods. He nodded to keep reading.
She held out her hand. I shook it.
"Take care, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth told me. "Keep your eyes open."
"You too, Wise Girl."
I watched her walk up the hill and join her family. She gave her father an awkward hug and looked back at the valley one last time. She touched Thalia's pine tree, then allowed herself to be lead over the crest and into the mortal world.
For the first time at camp, I felt truly alone. I looked out at Long Island Sound and I remembered my father saying, The sea does not like to be restrained.
"Heck no," said Hazel, remembering their trip to Alaska.
I made my decision.
I wondered, if Poseidon were watching, would he approve of my choice?
"I'll be back next summer," I promised him. "I'll survive until then. After all, I am your son." I asked Argus to take me down to cabin three, so I could pack my bags for home.
Percy released the wall, barely even sweating. Everyone look amazed. It was like they had forgotten how powerful he was.
"Well, are we done?" Percy asked.
"Nope, not even a tenth done!" Aphrodite sounded so cherry, Percy was sure she was enjoying herself too much. The said couple just groaned, and stood up.
"Well, I want a break," Jason declared, standing up too. The demigods looked at the gods, and when they nodded, all the half-bloods walked out of the throne room, ready to relax.