Here it is! The first chapter to the sequel! Please read, and then tell me what you think. ^^ PS, to newcomers, to understand the story fully, please read the first book: Secret Life of a Juvenile Delinquent.
Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. And I'll never get enough money to buy it from Rick Riordan either.
Just Your Average Delinquent
I Get Carsick
Snowflakes descended onto the citizens of Manhattan everywhere, like a bizarre case of contagious dandruff. I tugged the thin coat around me and then crossed my arms, shivering as I waited for Trey to appear so we could take the subway back together from our school. As I checked my watch for the thirtieth time, I made up reasons why he was late. Forgot his jacket. Got sick and went home early. Got caught up in solving math problems. I snorted at the last one. More like he got in trouble. Again.
Trey was a pyromaniac. Well, actually he wasn't. He got sent to this boot camp of a school because he was fooling around with a lighter, got caught, and thanks to over reactive parents, was sent to this school, Tawson Academy, a private school for 'special' kids AKA a place where parents stuffed their delinquent kids and hoped they would become obedient.
It was my school too.
You could say that my school records weren't clean. In fact, you could say that my school records pretty much didn't exist. Before being sent to Tawson, I skipped school so often, terms would go by without me showing up. Not that I'd ever stayed at one school long enough for a term to go by without being expelled. Nope, I wasn't not the model child every parent wants.
A cold gust of wind blew right into my face and I wondered why the academy couldn't link the two buildings it was comprised of together. I mean, the building for the guys and the building for the girls were right next to each other. Then again, it probably was because they didn't want any relationships between the boys and the girls to occur. No romance whatsoever. That was the number one unofficial rule in the school. So I couldn't go in and wait for Trey in the building without being kicked back out by a teacher and possibly get suspended, which was the last thing my parents needed.
The café was just across the street. I looked down at my frozen fingers. Could I just pop into the store quickly and get my daily dose of sugar before Trey got out? I warmed the fingers up by rubbing my hands together though it did nothing to help.
Just then, the door opened a person slunk down the steps, under the watchful gaze of a teacher. The door swung shut again and he straightened up, suddenly a different person than before. He raised a hand. "Lena."
I scowled at him and stamped my feet. Stupid boots. I wished I'd ignored my mom's 'fashion' advice and put on ones that actually kept my feet warm. In fact, if there were such thing as combat boots that kept your feet warm in negative weather, I would buy them and put them on just to see my parents' reactions. "Would it kill you to be punctual? I can't feel my hands. Or my toes. If I got frostbite, you're paying my hospital bills."
He acted like he didn't hear my comment. "Mr. Johnson caught me chewing gum in class, and I got detention." He reached a hand up to push back a brown lock of hair in the wind.
"Just for chewing gum in class? Wow, they must hate you for what you did to the science classroom." Just a month ago, Trey had done exactly what the teacher told him not to do. The result was the entire room getting scorch marks on the wall, and the relocation of science class to another wing. Maybe Trey wasn't a delinquent before he went to Tawson Academy, but now he was – in school, anyway. As a message to his parents and to express his feelings, he'd transformed from an innocent kid wrongly accused to every teacher's personal hell. But outside of school, he was okay, and not too annoying of a travel partner.
"Well, on a brighter note," he said, his words forming a wispy cloud in front of his mouth, "Winter break's in two days."
"The weather told me," I sighed. "Can you believe it's technically not winter, but autumn? Winter's starting in… five days," I realized with a lurch in my stomach. It was December 16th. December 21st was the first day of winter, and the winter solstice, when all the gods met together on Olympus and discussed stuff… like the demititan camp.
Now you're probably think… what? Gods? Demititan?
So I'll explain.
I, Lena Evans, am more than a delinquent. I'm a demigod, which means that I'm half human, and my other parent's a god. A Greek god, you know, Zeus, Apollo, Athena? I'm the daughter of Poseidon. Which means I have all these awesome powers over the sea and can manipulate water, along with my half-brother, Percy, the son of Poseidon. Hmm, not so much a plain New Yorker anymore, right?
Now about demititans. They're the children of a human, and a titan. They're like demigods but probably stronger because their daddy/mommy on the immortal side are stronger than the gods. But the gods are ruling, and you already know that. If you don't… the human race exists, which pretty much is a huge clue that titans aren't ruling planet Earth. Anyway, us demigods had a place to train and be protected by monsters. Demititans didn't, which I was hoping to change, after meeting a guy at West Point who was a demititan and nearly killed me – but that's a different story, and obviously, my feelings about him changed. Zeus let me present my idea to the council back in June, and the date I'd be presenting was coming up real soon and I was getting nervous.
"Lena? You okay?" Trey asked. It wasn't typical of me to suddenly fall silent if I wasn't super angry at him, but it was happening a lot more now. He grabbed my shoulder and I came face to face, staring angrily into his brown eyes, wondering if I should slap him and ask him why the hell he just did that. But he just pointed to the café. "Do you want to get something?"
I lowered my hand. "I'm fine. Let's just get back home, okay?"
He nodded. "Christmas. Are you sending any presents?"
"Just my family, cause that's mandatory. Can you really imagine me sending a box of chocolates to Ms. Falk?" I was referring to a beaky eyed teacher who looked mean enough to take out the whip and threaten everyone with it, though of course, that wasn't allowed. "Nope, didn't think so."
He exhaled. "You see, the other day, I was doing some Christmas shopping with my sister, and you know how you told me about the combat boots you wanted –"
I interrupted him and grabbed his wrist. "Do you hear something?" We were right before the stairs that would descend down to the subway station.
"No…" Trey said slowly. "As I was saying –"
"Shush!" I said and turned toward the faint voice that was calling me from a far away distance. My eyes locked onto a cab. Not a yellow cab like the ones surrounding it, but a gray one, that seemed to look like smoke. Like it was made of smoke. "That taxi, there," I said and pointed.
Trey blinked. "What? They're all just taxis…"
"You don't see a gray one?"
"No."
"Then you're mortal."
"Wha –"
"Lena!" Someone stuck their head out the window and waved.
"Percy?" I yelled back, although I'd already figured that it was him. What was my half-brother doing in a cab made of smoke? As I watched, the cab veered from the opposite lane and drove over to this side, stopping a bunch of cars in their tracks. They beeped impatiently and the cab screeched to a stop. I ran over to the window. "What are you doing here?"
"Picking you up," he said. "Let's go! These drivers won't wait forever."
"Percy –" I threw my hands in the air. "You could've called or something, and given me time to get ready –"
"You have your sword?"
"Yeah." In my backpack, now made of some special material as the blade always ruined the material of the previous backpacks.
"Your dagger?"
"Yes, but –"
"Then let's go." He looked at me blankly like he didn't get why I wasn't getting into the car.
"Lena?" Trey called a few feet behind me. He sounded wary. I turned around and saw that he was holding his cell phone in case anything happened. Gee, when did he become so overprotective?
"Hey, I got to go now. Now, now. When you get back, can you tell my mom I'm off to camp?" I opened the door and Percy slid over a seat to let me sit down. "Don't worry, I'm not being kidnapped. Just tell her that, okay?"
"Camp? It's winter!"
"See you Trey!" I shouted as a farewell and rolled up the window. The cab started driving away, leaving him on the sidewalk, looking pretty frustrated and sad at the same time. I tore my gaze from his figure, which still didn't descend underground, to the front window of the cab. "Drive slower, will you?" I said to the driver, and then realized it was an old lady. "Ma'am?"
She cackled and I pressed into the back of the seat, feeling something lumpy behind me. "Anger likes it just right," she said and jerked the wheel sharply to the right to avoid an incoming trunk. I got thrown onto Percy, and my head hit the window. Ow…
"What cab did you pick?" I asked him. "The Express?" He had some heavy chain buckling down. I stared.
"Buckle up," he advised.
Even though I'd just banged my head pretty hard, I decided that was just overkill, and instead of buckling it on, hung onto the chain tightly. And then noticed there were three old ladies at the front, not just one.
"Give me the eye!"
"I'm driving."
"Excuses!" One old lady dove and reached for the lady that was driving. She let go of the steering wheel and a symphony honks rose up. "You've had it for too long!"
"Percy!" I gritted my teeth. "Who the hell are these nannies?"
"Sorry, it's the fastest way to camp. These are the Gray Sisters and they operate a taxi service."
"Fastest? I'll say. Are you insane?" I gripped the handle of the door in case I had a sudden urge to bail. The seatbelt now truly looked like a life saving device. I hurriedly strapped it on when the cab came to a halt.
"Give the tooth!"
"The eye! The eye!"
"They're blind?" I asked horrifyingly. "Give her the eye?"
"They only have one." Percy explained, closing his eyes so he didn't have to see the traffic whooshing by us.
"In total?" He didn't answer, so I took it as a yes. The scenery was moving past so quickly I couldn't even look out the window without feeling sick. I grabbed my backpack with one hand, the other still on the handle of the door, and then decided it had served me enough and deserved to be puked in. "One more spin and then –" The cab whirled around wildly and stopped in the middle of the intersection of Broadway and 42nd street. I shut my eyes and cars squealed past us and drivers slammed onto brakes. I clutched my stomach and pushed the bag away. I won't throw up. I won't throw up.
The taxi drove up the bridge double the speed limit, avoiding cars and switching lanes twice every second. My ears tried to block out the sound of their arguing but then I felt something land on my hand and I screamed, seeing it was a slimy tooth.
"The 'ooth," one of the old ladies said, turning to face me. The other old ladies fell silent. I saw that her eyes were sunken and shrank against the car door, timing exactly when I should jump. The tooth landed somewhere under my foot.
"No," I said shakily. "No tooth. If you're going to kill us –"
"The 'ooth!" she urged and I quickly scooped it up and was prepared to throw it to her face, grateful I had gloves on, no matter how thin they were. Then I stopped.
"No," I repeated. "I won't give it to you if you drive like maniacs."
"Not another one!" she wailed and reached out with her thin arm. But because she was blind, she missed easily and I dodged her fingers.
"Drive slower!"
"Please," Percy said, looking a little green himself.
"Slower, you could've gotten a bus ticket," she grumbled, which sounded weird without a tooth. "Tooth."
"Slower."
The lady at the wheel slowed down considerably. I whipped the tooth towards her face and they were back at bickering for it, but at least we weren't dying anymore.
"Change your mind about the fastest way to camp?" I asked Percy.
"Who wouldn't?" He fiddled with his pen, his hands now free from clutching the seatbelt for dear life. I recognized it to be Riptide, the pen that transformed into a sword. "Are you ready for the winter solstice?"
"Is this why we're going to camp?"
"I thought you'd probably like it better if you had a bunch of campers coming with you. Going to the winter solstice meeting is like an annual field trip for Camp Half-Blood."
"Then thanks for picking me up. I don't know I would've spent the next few days at home. Now tell me the real reason you're picking me up."
He looked out the window. "I got a call from camp, asking me to come immediately. But the matter's more to do with you… so I spent all day trying to locate you in Manhattan."
"What matter?" I asked him, but he didn't say anything for the five minutes I continuingly asked that, so I decided to fall silent and just go with the flow.
The ladies at the front squabbled, and the car began to speed up again. I sighed loudly, but it couldn't be avoided, and held in my lunch as best as I could as we weaved in and out of the traffic.
~0~
Thanks to the gray sisters' crazy driving, we got to camp in less than an hour. I opened the door and almost toppled into the snow, hoping the Christmas tree wouldn't mind if I threw up all over it. But a few steps forward, it was easier to keep my mouth shut. I slammed the door and Percy paid the sisters. He joined me by Thalia's tree – although it no longer hosted the spirit of Thalia, people still called it that – and we walked down the hill towards the Big House, together.
He was muttering something under his breath, like "Hope Mr. D doesn't liquefy me for bringing her…" which sounded extremely reassuring. I twisted my fingers with the strap of the backpack, feeling the circulation cut off and then let go, letting the blood flow through. We went up the porch steps, and Percy opened the door in front of me.
The Big House looked exactly the same. I shook the snowflakes out of my hair, but they melted quickly leaving me wet and cold on my head. Then I wiped my boots on the welcome mat and waited for Percy to give me instructions.
"This way," he said and led me to a room I'd never been in before. He closed the door and sat down in the last available chair and everyone else in the room stared at me.
At first, I wondered why the hell all these people decided to meet together. There was Travis and Connor Stoll, and Katie Gardner, as well as Clarisse la Rue and Percy's girlfriend, Annabeth Chase. Then I realized they were all camp counsellors, and well, I wasn't one. Chiron looked surprised to see me here.
"Um, is there anywhere I can sit?" I asked them. The counsellor for Morpheus's cabin got out and disappeared into the back room. She reappeared with a chair and set it down next to Percy's. "Thanks," I said and sat down.
"Well, we definitely didn't expect you," Travis said the obvious.
"I didn't expect myself here either," I snapped. "But Percy said whatever you guys are discussing is related to me." All eyes shifted him and he looked down at the table.
"She is," Percy addressed the table and then looked up. "How do you think you can just leave her out?"
Clarisse said something like, "Prissy."
"So anyone want to give me a clue?" I asked. "What are we talking about?"
Chiron clopped his hooves uncomfortably. He nodded towards Connor Stoll, and said, "Show her our new camper."
"Why me?" Connor protested.
"She temporarily resides in your cabin," Chiron countered. "Young man –"
I cut him off. "Wait, temporarily? Is she already claimed or something?" I watched Chiron frown and he waved us out, dismissing us. Connor got out of his chair. I followed him. "Is it just me, or is everyone like pissed at me?"
Connor had traded his mischievous grin for a grim expression. He looked oddly serious, which was usually not a word you used to describe him. "Come on Lena." He opened the door. I slung the backpack over my shoulder and went into the cold again.
The cabins weren't too far from the Big House. We jogged through the snow. Connor was only wearing an orange t-shirt, but he didn't seem too concerned. My jeans got soaked and I shivered from head to toe as Connor happily – well, not happily – trudged ahead. Finally we reached Cabin Eleven, which I was surprised to see still intact, because it was so worn down and everything I had expected it to have toppled under the weight of the snow.
Inside, it was warm, and mainly empty, save about four campers. I was surprised to see that. Usually the cabin was crowded, but when the summer campers were gone, their numbers had diminished greatly.
The four of them looked up at me. I tried not to flinch and we stayed in awkward silence until Chris Rodriguez gave a tiny smile and pointed to the back of the cabin. I looked past the ark shadows and realized what I'd mistaken as a blanket was in fact another camper.
The girl wasn't moving, but utterly still. She was sitting down and looking at a blank page with such intensity, you would've thought she was studying for something – if the page wasn't blank. At least I thought she was looking at the page. Her head was bowed down towards it but her back was towards me. I could only see she had black hair running down it, full of twigs and leaves. I took a few silent steps and laid a hand on her shoulder.
Her head whipped around so fast I fell onto my butt in surprise. For a moment, I rudely stared into her eyes. They had an uncanny emptiness in them, despite the dark colour. I hesitantly put the hand back on her shoulder, noticing how she flinched as I did so. Her gaze dropped to my hand and then back at my eyes.
"I'm Lena," I said. "You're a new camper, right?" She was probably younger than me. A few months. A year at the most. "Who are you?"
The girl kept looking at me, so intently it felt like we were in a staring match. I felt my hand side to the floor and turned to Connor.
"She can talk, right?"
He had been looking at anywhere but her. "She can. But I think she prefers not to."
I waved a hand to her. "She always like this?"
He frowned. "I've only heard her speak once. To say who she was. Yesterday."
"She was here since yesterday? Then who is –" I stopped, because there was a faint whisper behind me. "Can you say that again?" I asked the girl.
She didn't, and we relapsed into silence again as we waited for her with bated breath. When she did, it was spoken as the softest whisper and I had to strain my ears to hear her. "Diana. Daughter of Phoebe."
Once again, read and review! Unfortunately, I'm not sure how often I can update with school in session - I had plenty of time over the weekend... But the next update will be in three days, if everything goes to plan. Then I'll try and work out a schedule from there.
Until next time! ~^^~
