Percy looked down onto the valley he had grown to know so well. Camp Half Blood, his home-away-from-home lay before him. He had had a pretty peaceful school year, only one monster attack. He figured the other Gods and Nico had convinced Hades to go easy on him, especially now that he was the 'Savior of the World' and all that. He took a deep, satisfying breath, smiled, and headed down toward the outline of Chiron, half-man and half-horse. Little did he know that this was going to be the wildest summer yet.
"Percy!" Chiron smiled as Percy walked down from the hill, his duffel bag over his shoulder. "Good to see you!"
"You too, Chiron!" Percy said. He realized Chiron had been talking to a few younger demigods, and politely stepped back so Chiron could finish talking to them.
"And the truth is, you don't know your other parent because they are…. Gods."
"Whooaaa…." One of the kids said. The other looked at Chiron skeptically, trying to detect if he was just kidding. When she seemed to figure out he was kidding her cynical face turned to one of awe, filled with curiosity.
"I'll explain more later, but here, I'd like to introduce you to someone very important. This is Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon. Last year he defeated the rath of the evil titan Lord Kronos." Chiron put his arm around Percy shoulder.
"Ha, it wasn't just me, I had some good friends help."
"Wait, are you serious. Is this all some sort of joke, like those hidden camera TV shows?" the girl who had been doubtful before had that same disbelieving look on her face, arms crossed.
"Truth is…. Yep it's all true," Percy got down on one knee and pulled out his sword/pen, 'Riptide'. "Check this out," he uncapped the pen and it lengthened into a sword.
"Whooaaaa….." the other kid said again, and the girl had a new look of anticipation on her face.
"That is so sweet! Oh my Gods, this is totally awesome! I hope I'm a daughter of Aphrodite, or Ares would be cool, or-" Percy straightened up and handed her the sword. "Wow, you're letting me try it out? AWESOME!"
"Watch out, it's sharp," he said as they ran off.
"You know you're not getting that back," Chiron smiled.
"Haha, it'll return to my pocket soon enough anyway. So how's Camp been, construction going good."
"Yes, everything's…. fine," he paused for a moment at took a quick, half second side glance at Percy. He noticed.
"Whoa, wait, what is not fine? And hey, where's Nico and Annabeth? Shouldn't they be here to greet me?"
Down in a Shady Groove by the Canoe Lake
"Oh, Nico… What am I going to do?" Annabeth sat next to the son of Hades, her flip flops on her other side and her toes dangling into the water.
"I don't know, girl, I don't know. I think you just have to tell him."
"But he's going to be furious," Annabeth started to cry softly, leaning her head on Nico's shoulder. "Gods, if only that night had never happened!"
"Hey, there's nothing you can do about it now," Nico tried to calm her. "Everyone makes bad decisions in life, it's just what we do to make things right after is what really counts," Nico stroked her hair.
"You know, you are so much more sympathetic and kind then Percy. Thank you for being there for me." Annabeth wiped away her tears and sat up.
"So are you going to tell him?"
"No… I'm going to wait for a bit. Let things sort out in my head, you know."
"Oh yes, I know. So you're still not going to tell me exactlywhat happened right?" Annabeth glared at him. "Just checking." He looked at the shadows falling from the trees that surrounded the patch of wood. "It should be dinner soon. Time to reunite with Percy."
Annabeth nodded, but when the conch horn finally blew she gave a little gasp and looked like she was going to burst into tears again.
"Shh… shh.." Nico helped her up and wiped away her tears. "Play it cool. Let things get back settle and get back to normal, then we'll deal with it."
"Ok, ok." Annabeth sighed. "Oh, everythings going to change now, isn't it."
Nico said nothing, but while they walked up towards the pavilion he thought about it and agreed.