Blessing of the Immortals

by Semajvii

The mysterious Blessing of the Immortals. A blessing first bestowed upon the primordials by Chaos, the creator of the Universe. The blessing forced immortals to mature physically and mentally in days. For some reason Percy Jackson has recieved a small form of the blessing. It forces him to mature many times faster then normal. With this power he pledges to protect the ones he loves

1. The Blessing

A/N: Second fic ever and first Jackson fic, so… yeah, probably not very good to be honest. Either way, I like my concept and hope you do to. Percy's powers are a bit different in this fic, but not entirely unique from canon. I plan to give him more control over earthquakes than he has shown in the books and control of other liquids and control of the temperature of liquids. I don't have complete understanding of the extent of his powers in canon so I don't really know how much they are going to change.

[Disclaimer: I'm not Rick Riordan. I don't own Percy Jackson or any other connected series.]

CHAPTER 1: The Blessing

[Sally's POV]

I awoke with a startle. Hearing the cry of a newborn waking me quickly, and feeling the soft shaking of the apartment. Even after a few weeks I still have not gotten used to hearing his cries and they wreck my nerves every time I hear them. I slid off the side of my bed and approached its foot only to trip on something I couldn't see in the dark and catch myself on the cradle found at the end of my bed. I stood up and stared into the cradle not being able to fight the slight frown that found its way to my face. As much as a I love my little Percy, he's a constant reminder of losing his father not so long ago; even if I understand why he had to leave. However, my frown quickly vanished as I scooped up my child and cooed to him quietly, slightly rocking him trying to calm him down.

As his crying slowed, the apartment stopped shaking, and he quieted in my arms, a smile found its way to my lips. He looked up at me as I stared into his beautiful sea green eyes before he yawned adorably and slowly closed his eyes falling asleep in my arms for the second time that night, thoughts of his father fading away as I looked at his sleeping face.

I held him for a while, afraid to put him down and accidentally wake him. As I stared down at him I thought of the strange things that have been happening since we've come home from that strange place his father took me to give birth.

It started when we first got home. After holding him for a few hours, feeding him when he needed, changing him as well, I lied him down in his crib so I could use the restroom. When I came back into the room a few minutes later I found him sitting up in his crib. I was shocked because all the books I read said he shouldn't be able to sit up on his own until he was at least four months old, but here he was sitting by himself trying to play with his cute, onesie-covered feet at barely more than a week old.

For the rest of the day I watched over my child with him in my arms or in his crib. Every time I lied him down he would shortly thereafter sit up and play with his fingers and feet again. Seeing as he could sit up on his own, even though I thought it strange, I decided to give him a bath. I brought him into the small bathroom in our apartment and held him in my arms as I filled the tub with about an inch or two of slightly warm water with some bubbles from the infant shampoo I put in first. After that I stripped him down and delicately put him in the water.

The moment I placed him in the water his slightly tired expression, from being up relatively late for an infant, suddenly turned energetic and playful. He sat in the water splashing and giggling to himself and I couldn't help but smile. The next instant my smile changed into a look of shock as I watched tendrils of water pull out of the tub and move around him as he giggled joyfully.

I didn't really know what to do, but I found myself slowly reaching forward and touching one of the tendrils and was shocked once again to see some of the water move up my hand before pooling on a slight scrape I received earlier that day from falling. It glowed for a second and the slight pain I felt from the wound slowly faded away. I was speechless as I watched the water fall off my hand, leaving it completely healed, into the tub along with the tendrils with one tendril unplugging the tub and the water flowing down the drain. I was speechless once again when I looked to my son to find him bone dry and waiting to be taken from the tub.

Similar things happened throughout the following days. He would love baths and playing with his tendrils. We went out in the rain once and when we came back in we were both completely dry. One of the weirder things that happened was that whenever he cried the room would seem to shake a bit. After a while of sitting in my chair thinking about my beloved son, I slowly fell asleep not to wake until the next morning.

-LINE CUT-

I woke up the next morning to the sound of soft gurgling in my arms. I groggily looked down and saw my son looking up at me with a happy smile on his face. I smiled back as I slowly got up from the chair I fell asleep in. I ran through my morning routine getting both myself and my son ready for the day before sitting down in the living room. Today was my first day back to work, I love my Percy but I don't like sitting idle. According to the discreet message his father sent me, someone that knows about all this weird stuff was coming to help watch Percy while I go to work. The message also told me that she was Percy's aunt, wasn't technically supposed to interact with Percy, and I shouldn't tell Percy or anyone about her… ever. I was content with that as long as my beautiful son was safe.

After a few minutes, I heard a knock at the door. Standing up, I first put Percy down in his cradle I brought into the living room earlier that day, then approached the door. Opening it I barely held back a gasp as I came face to face with one of the most beautiful women I've seen in my life, and the term goddess immediately came to mind. She was sweet-looking and beautiful in an unpretentious way, with an honest smile, warm brown eyes, and black hair framing her face in ringlets. She wore a modest dress and had no make-up on, but she didn't need it with her stunning natural beauty. I stood there gaping for a few seconds until I noticed the amused look on her face.

"Um- sorry about that." I said with a nervous chuckle.

She gave a soft smile and said in a beautiful voice, "I understand. It is not often a mortal such as yourself meets a goddess. It is very all right."

I was a tad shocked at the casual drop of the term goddess, until I remembered who her brother is and decided not to bring it up.

"Th-thank you, uhh…"

"Hestia," the now named goddess said.

"Hestia, right," I said then realized we were still standing in the hall so I gestured for her to enter and said, "Oh sorry about that, please come in."

She walked past me and I closed the door watching her walk up to the cradle and stand over it looking at my Percy. I approached the cradle standing by her side and for a moment nothing was said as we watched the innocent child playing with his toes.

Hestia broke the silence a few minutes later by saying, "I believe you must be getting to work. You need not worry about young Perseus. I used to be one of the Olympians and am still considered one of the strongest goddesses and while I don't like violence I am not averse to its use in order to protect those that need it."

Knowing that eased my mind a great deal. Knowing your child is under the protection of one of the strongest gods would help ease anyone.

"It is very reassuring to hear that. I put him in your hands for now, but before I leave I think I should warn you that Percy is a little different than other children as I believe you know. The strangest of things happen around him and I don't really know how to explain them." I looked over at her and for a second, I thought I saw worry in her eyes, but dismissed the thought as my imagination.

"Might I ask what sort of…strange…things happen to Perseus?" she asked.

"Well, for one, the house seems to shake slightly when he cries, he's only a few weeks old and he can already sit up on his own, earlier today it looked like he was trying to crawl, and whenever he takes a bath the water lifts from the tub and makes, sort of… tendrils… that he likes to play with. Oh, he also seems really fascinated with the horse toy I got him, if that means anything."

"Amazing. Only a few weeks old and already such power. He might be the strongest demigod I've ever seen at this age," Hestia said quietly. She turned to me with a soft smile and said, "Your child will be safe with me, now I believe you must be getting to work. You wouldn't want to be late on your first day back."

"Thank you so much for watching him. I don't know what I'd have done if you hadn't been able to," I said before laying a soft kiss atop Percy's head then turning and approaching the door, stopping to pick up my bag before opening the door and shouting over my shoulder as I walked out, "I'll be home at about four. Thank you again," and leaving the house, content in the belief my son would be safe.

-LINE CUT-

[Percy's POV]

I sat there playing with the wiggling-things (I believe the warm lady called them toes one time) as I watched the warm lady pass through the weird hole in the wall and yell something I couldn't hear. I don't know where she was going, but I do know I hoped she would come back soon. She is my most favorite person of the ones I have met so far and her not being here makes me not happy. I do not like not happy at all. I decided to make my feelings known by dropping the wiggling things and crying. It IS the only thing I could do beside the happy noises.

As I cried I felt the world shake like it normally does when I cry, before I suddenly felt something grab me under my dangling-things[arms] and pick me up. I continued to cry, missing the warm lady, until I felt something almost just like the warm lady, but still different. I liked that feeling very much so I calmed down enough to open my see-things[eyes].

What I saw was amazing. There was a lady who looked just as pretty as the warm lady, maybe even more. I looked at her for a moment before reaching out and holding her nose. I saw her do the happy thing[smile] so I did the very happy thing[giggle]. I liked the new lady (I will call her the pretty lady) very much. The pretty lady looked at me for a little bit before saying something.

"Hello, young Perseus," she said quietly.

I stared at her before saying, "Hello pretty lady." Well that's what I tried to say, but it came out as weird noises no one could understand.

"It is very nice to meet you. Your father asked me to watch you for a while so he can work on what to do about our siblings if they find out," she did the not happy thing[frowned] then said, "I am worried for you young Perseus. I cannot watch you for long without the others knowing, and even worse you might have to be moved to the camp much sooner than we thought, especially if what your mother said was true," she stopped then did the happy thing and said, "Now then, let's see if we can test some of your powers. Maybe then we can decide when we must send you to camp. Hopefully it isn't any time soon." With that she walked around the house a bit.

As we walked I thought about what she said. I did not understand all the words she said. I don't know what a father is. I don't know who 'the others' are and I don't know what the camp she talked about is. I did know that something was wrong with whatever the camp was.

The pretty lady brought me into the bathroom and filled the tub with water. I did the very happy thing again and tried to get in the tub. The pretty lady held me back for a little before putting me in the tub. When she put me in the tub I felt very good. I like the water very much. I started doing the very happy thing very loud. As I patted the water I decided to show the pretty thing the wiggly water things.

I looked at the water and asked it to move in my head. I felt the weird feeling in my tummy and then the water did what I asked and the wiggly things came out of the water and started moving around me. I did the very happy thing louder and then looked at the pretty lady. She had a weird[surprised] look on her face, like when I showed the warm lady the wiggly things. I asked the wiggly things to move over to the pretty lady and when they got by her she reached out and touched it. I could feel her through the water and she was very warm like the warm lady. I liked it very much.

She pulled her hand back then looked at me and did the happy thing.

"That was very impressive young Perseus. Very, impressive indeed."

I got done with the bath and asked the wiggly things to go away. After taking all the water off me and going down the hole the last wiggly thing waved at me and the pretty lady before going down the drain completely. I looked at the pretty lady and did the happy thing while reaching out to be picked up.

She reached down and picked me up before bringing me to the living room. She placed me down on the floor with some toys before sitting on the couch to watch me. I played with the toys for a while, but they weren't very fun. I wanted to play with the pretty lady. I flopped on my tummy then pushed up with my dangly things and tried to move towards the pretty lady.

It wasn't very easy, and I fell down a few times, but I made it to the pretty lady's walk things[legs] and touched her stomp things[feet]. She gave me a weird look before reaching down and picking me up. She looked me in the see-things and I looked at hers.

For the first time, I noticed her see-things were not like mine or the warm ladies. They were glowing like the sun or that trash can the warm lady said was on fire. It was a nice glow, a warm glow, that made me want to fall asleep, but I wanted to play so I tried not to.

"Look at you," she said, "I thought you might have gotten the blessing, but I guess this proves it."

"What?" I tried asking slowly and it came out as weird noises that barely resembled words, but she seemed to know what I tried to say and got a weird look on her face again.

"Are you trying to talk?" she asked, "Can you understand me?"

"Yes," I tried to say with a nod of my head.

She stared at me for a few seconds before saying quietly, "Amazing. I've never seen they blessing in a mortal before."

"Bless-ing," I said slowly trying to understand. It came out weird again, but it was getting closer to right.

"Yes, blessing. It is something a higher being can give a lower being, that gives them powers. For example," She closed her eyes and seemed to glow a little. A little later I glowed as well for a little before it stopped. "I just gave you a minor blessing. I promised I would protect you, and this is the most I can do without the others knowing. My blessing protects you against fire."

"Oth-ers?" I asked, it started sounding like actual words now.

"The other gods, Perseus."

I just stared at her in confusion, which she noticed with a soft chuckle.

"You will learn in time, Perseus."

"Oth-er bless-ing?" I asked.

"Yes. You see, like I said earlier blessing are given to lesser beings by higher beings. The gods, titans, and even the primordials all have a blessing from the creator, Chaos. This blessing allows us to age within days of birth and reach maturity in no later than a week. It seems a small part of the blessing has been given to you from your father. It is miniscule compared to the gods, but it is there. From what I can see, you're physically and mentally aging much faster than other kids your age. You will mentally be at least a couple years ahead of your age in a few days. Even further in a few weeks. You'll reach mental maturity by the time you're sixteen. Physically, your accelerated growth should slow in two or three weeks, but you'll be at least a year ahead of your age before it's stops completely. It also seems to be rapidly advancing your demigod powers, but not your scent strangely, which is a very good thing. That combined with the fact that the Blessing of the Immortals acts as a natural deterrent for monsters, you won't have to go to camp until you're at least twelve."

"Wow…" I didn't understand everything she said, but I understood enough to tell it's amazing.

"Indeed. Now then, as your aunt I feel it is my duty to teach you. We'll start with speaking and see where we can go from there."

And that's what we did. For the pretty lady's (or Aunt Hestia's, as I learned) first visit we spent our time talking. At first, we said nothing of importance as I was learning how to form the sounds and says the words and the basics of speaking. As time passed, and I learned to communicate better, I started asking questions.

"Aunt Hestia, what is the camp you keep talking about, and who are "the others" you mentioned?" I asked.

She sighed slightly, seemingly expecting this question, before saying, "'The others', young Perseus, are your family. You are not supposed to know because knowledge of them increases your scent, but the Blessing of Immortals should cause this to wane. My brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews, and your uncles, aunts, father, and cousins. Each one is a god or goddess and they cannot learn about you."

I was confused and didn't understand why my family couldn't know about me, so I asked her.

"Perseus, years ago your father and uncles, came together and agreed that they would have no more mortal children. You were not supposed to be born, but your father and mother loved each other too much, which lead to you."

I was shocked, "I'm not supposed to be alive." I said quietly. "That's why my father left, isn't it? He doesn't want me." I started crying and the building shook slightly, but a warm embrace calmed be slightly and the room stopped shaking. I looked up into Aunt Hestia's face to see worry for me.

As she held me she said quietly, "I may not know everything, young Perseus, but I do know one thing. Your mother and father love you more than life itself. Your father looked so very unhappy when he came to me for help, leaving you was one of the hardest things he's done in his immortal life."

We sat silently for a few seconds before I gathered myself, "Thank you, Aunt Hestia," I said as I embraced my aunt as best I could with my small arms.

"Think nothing of it," I climbed out of her arms and sat opposite of her again.

"Would you tell me who my family is?" I asked excited to know more about my relatives.

"Okay, I guess I'll start at the beginning. It all started with Chaos…"

-LINE CUT-

We talked for hours on end. I learned of how the creator made the primordials, who in turn birthed the titans, and the giants, and the hundred handed ones, and so many others. Then I learned how the king of the titans, Kronos, birthed the gods. I was disgusted that I was related to someone who would eat his children to keep power, but I cheered when I learned Zeus saved my family then, with their help, stopped the titans. She also told me how they received their domains.

Then she talked about how the other gods where born. I was not very happy with Zeus when she told me the many stories of his affairs with other women, and I felt sorry for Hera, but I didn't hold any of that over the children born. When I learned of Hera throwing Hephaestus of Olympus I was mad, but there was nothing I could really do to change that. The story of Athena was gross and reminded me of Kronos eating his kids. I learned of how all the gods were born and some were fun to learn about, others were kind of gross. After that she told me stories of some of the greatest demigods to live, Heracles, Jason, Perseus (who was my favorite for some reason) and many others. Then she explained how the gods came to America which I thought was very interesting, and finally she told me about me. She told me about my parents, how they met, about their love, the day I was born. I absorbed that stuff the most. She also told me about the ancient laws and how they forbid the gods from interacting with their demigod children. I hated the ancient laws, but understood there was nothing we could do to change them. As we were talking about camp Half Blood, which I thought would be lots of fun once I had to go, my mother walked in the door. As we were laughing because of a story about Chiron's family she walked up behind us.

When I noticed her, I slipped down from the couch and clumsily crawled over to her. She looked shocked, but she still reached down and picked me up when I reached her feet. I hugged her as best I could before letting go.

"Hello, Mommy," I said happily.

Her eyes widened as she stared at me in open mouthed shock.

"I… Uh-…" she stammered for a bit trying to catch up, before calming down and looking towards Hestia, "I suppose this is a demigod thing?" she asked hesitantly.

"You could say that, but it's more of a Perseus thing," she said.

"A…Perseus thing," she said sounding a little confused.

"Yes. Perseus is the only demigod I've ever seen with the Blessing of the Immortals…"

After that she went on to explain the blessing, what it meant for me and our future, ext. ext. She then explained the blessing she gave me.

"So… Percy doesn't have to worry about monsters?" Mom asked.

"Well… he won't until his scent naturally overpowers the blessing in about twelve years. At that point, he'll spend at least his summers at camp."

"And he will age a lot faster?"

"Yes, he will mentally and physically be ahead of his peers, but personally I think it would be better to keep him with his age group, to help him learn to interact with people his age."

"I… understand. And thank you for watching him for me, there's no words to describe how much I appreciate it."

"There's no need to thank me, I'm happy to help. Now, with that I'll take my leave. I'll be back tomorrow to watch Perseus."

"Good bye, Aunt Hestia!" I yelled as my aunt left through the front door.

"Good bye, young Perseus."

-LINE CUT-

And that's how are days went bye. Mom would wake me up each morning and get me ready before we'd sit and wait for Aunt Hestia to show up. Aunt Hestia would arrive, and Mom would leave. Then Aunt Hestia would teach me a lot of things. Stuff about the world, about history, about science, about art, about numbers and letters, she taught me how to read and write. She told me about dyslexia and how it normally would keep me from reading, but since I had the Blessing of Immortals I should be able to learn to cope with it. Above all, though, she taught me about our family, going as far back as the creation of everything. Once I was able to move around properly, Aunt Hestia asked me If I wanted to start doing exercise. At first, I didn't see a reason too, but she then told it would help me survive once the blessing's anti-monster field was overpowered, so I agreed. When Mom got home each day I would give her a hug before giving a hug to Aunt Hestia as a good bye, and then I would sit and talk about all the things I learned that day, or I'd show Mom all the things I learned to do.

Like Aunt Hestia said, the Blessing of Immortals help me grow really quickly. I learn things really quickly, which hasn't seemed to slow down, and I got bigger really quickly which, like she said, seemed to slow down after a few weeks. My powers have grown as well, but I only get to practice those when we visit our cabin in Montauk, a place where we don't have to worry about people seeing us, because it's pretty secluded.

When I turned five [Mentally around nine] I started going to school, and I stopped seeing Aunt Hestia as much. I started missing her really badly after a few days, but I remembered I would see her once summer came so I didn't let her absence keep me from being happy about going to school.

My first day of school was… educational. It's not that I learned anything they were intentionally trying to teach us, but I did learn how ahead I truly am. For one, I was bigger than everyone, which was expected, but not by so much that I looked completely out of place. And two, I knew everything they were trying to teach us.

I did have fun though. I would sit at my table and I would do any work the teacher asked me to do, but when I wasn't specifically told to be doing anything I was normally sitting there drawing or writing to improve my handwriting. The teacher called on me a few times to answer questions, I think she was trying to catch me not paying attention, but I always knew the answers so after a while she left me alone. I talked to the other kids and they were nice, but they couldn't really hold a conversation so I stayed to myself more often than not. After school, Mom would pick me up and we'd spend the rest of the night like we normally do, talking about our days.

The days went on with me learning nothing, but one day that changed. We were in the library, and we were supposed to be looking at picture books (I was the only one that knew how to read), but I snuck off to find something interesting to read. As I walked through the aisles of the library I came across a section of the library I hadn't visited before. When I saw it for the first time I had to hold back a scream of excitement. I had come across an entire section filled with course books. Each grade has a course book they use to teach their year. I stole the teachers course book one day in class, and read it to find that I did, in fact, know everything in the book already, which wasn't much of a shock.

There were lots of course books, multiple copies of each year's book. I walked up to the first-year book and opened it, a quick skim through and I found nothing I didn't know already. So, I moved on to the second-year book… to find, once again, I knew everything in the book. I continued on and it wasn't until I got midway through the fourth-year book that I found anything I didn't already know. So that's where I decided to start. Before I could do so, however, I needed to get the book out of the library. I wouldn't have enough time to properly educate myself if I tried to do it only when I came to the library and I knew they wouldn't let me leave with it.

I thought about just sneaking it in my bag, but then remembered the scanner at the door would know if the book was checked out or not and would alert the librarians with an annoying sound I thought was out of place in a library. After taking a few minutes I came up with a plan to get the book out of the library.

After about twenty minutes we were called by the teacher to go back to class. As we were walking towards the exit I slipped an un-scanned book into one of the other kid's bags. When the scanner started beeping when he walked past it the kid started freaking out and just stood there, in that moment I slipped pass the scanner and into the hall. The teacher moved the kid back into the library and the beeping stopped. After a few minutes of the kid getting a stern talking to by the librarians (which I did feel a tad bit bad about, but he didn't get any real punishment so I didn't care very much) we walked back to class with no one the wiser of the book I stole.

The rest of the day went by as normal and when I got back home I ran to my room (which became mine when I turned one) after telling my mom I had homework. She looked a little confused since I normally completed all my work at school, but she didn't say anything except 'Okay Sweetie' as I ran by her. I closed my door, ran to my desk (which Aunt Hestia gave me when I turned three as a place to do work so my stuff didn't clutter the house), flipped on the lamp and pulled out my book. For the next few hours I sat at my desk and read through the book. I read through every page multiple times, soaking in as much content as I could. I knew somethings already, but there was enough stuff I didn't know so that the unquenchable thirst for knowledge I learned from my time with Aunt Hestia was being sated for the time being.

When dinner came around I ran out and decided to spend the rest of the night with my mom. I told her about the stuff I learned from the course book, and about where I learned it. I, however, didn't tell her about stealing the book (because let's face it, that's what I did). She was happy I was finding something to do at school, and even told me she was proud of her genius little boy. I loved the praise whole heartedly.

The year went on like that, I spent my time in class practicing my art skills and handwriting or quickly rushing through the work they gave me. When I would finish a book at home, I got a new one from the library (I decided to keep the ones I finished because I couldn't think of a way to get them back in the library). I picked a new kid as my scape goat each time, to not create a pattern. Then I would learn from that book. The school only had course books up to grade eight, so I knew the system wouldn't work indefinitely, but there was more than enough content to last me the entire year and part of next year. I didn't focus entirely on learning either. I remembered what Aunt Hestia taught me about exercise so I would exercise at home as well. That was the routine I followed until the end of the year.

The end of the year wasn't very special. The last day consisted of a party where the kids got food and candy and a lot of time to sign year books and such. I didn't let any of the kids in my class near my year book. I had seen the way they write and I didn't want multiple pages of my book filled with useless scribbles. I did, however, get my teacher to sign my year book. She scrawled down some cheesy nonsense about how much she loved having me in class. I knew it wasn't true. We had barely spoken at all throughout the year, she taught me nothing so I didn't care much for her as a teacher. I had only gotten her to sign it because I know my mom would notice if the section was empty.

In other news, I had gotten through the fourth- and fifth-year books and had started on the sixth so the year wasn't completely wasted, and my drawing skills had increased a lot. Something I kept from the teacher and the other students. I didn't want them to ask any questions about it. I had also gotten stronger physically. I wasn't overly muscular like some of the athletes I've seen on TV, but the muscles I did have were dense and developed for use rather than showing off. I was the strongest and fastest kid in class, which would make sense do to my status as a demigod, but I got the top spot in physical education without even trying so I guessed I was more developed than even a demigod my age would be.

As the last day of school ended, I could be found calmly waiting for the day to end and my mother to pick me up. Lost in my thoughts of what I would do with my summer I didn't notice my mother approaching me until she placed a hand on my shoulder.

I jumped a little, then, noticing who it was, I smiled and said, "Hi, Mom."

"Hello, Sweetie," she said while reaching out her hand for me to take.

I stood up and we started walking. My mother waved to the principle watching over the parents picking up their kids, who waved back.

As we were walking to the bus station my mother looked down at me and asked, "How was your day Percy?"

I thought for a few seconds about what I wanted to tell her before saying, "It was… interesting?" though it sounded more like a question then a statement.

"Interesting," she said with a deadpan look and tone.

I sighed before saying, "Okay, you got me. All we did was sit around talking and eating food. Seriously, Mom, why waste an entire doing nothing? Well, I guess from their standpoint it's normal for six-year olds to like sitting around, doing useless things. Well, whatever. I got a lot of time to practice drawing and I even got my teacher to sign my year book!" I said the last part with fake excitement in my voice so my mother wouldn't worry, which she saw right through, even if I didn't know it.

"Well, I know you haven't been very happy with the school," she said, "So, I talked to your principal and she mentioned that, while you could skip a few grades, she thought it would be better if we found a gifted school for you."

My face lit up with actual excitement as I asked exuberantly, "Really? Do you think I could?"

I saw her frown a little bit before saying, "There's no doubt in my mind that you could, but the only schools anywhere near us are boarding schools." I hadn't heard that term before and was slightly confused, which she noticed because she's the best mom in the world.

"It means that you'll have to spend the school year in a dormitory at the school," she elaborated for me.

My face fell slightly as I heard that. I would get a better education and could hopefully find people capable of at least intelligent conversation, but I wouldn't see my mother throughout the year.

"Oh," I said.

"Yes, I thought you might think that. We don't have decide now, but the deadline for admissions desiring scholarships, which we'll definitely need to pay for it, is the end of June."

"Okay, Mom," I said, "I'll tell you what I think before then."

"Thank you, Sweetie," she said as she we climbed on the bus.

The ride home was uneventful. I filled my mom in on the specifics of my day, she told me what she did as well. Then we sat in silence for a while, enjoying the hum of the wheels on the road, lost in our thoughts of the future.

When we got home, I walked to my room and sat at my desk, doing nothing but thinking about what I wanted to do. The decision didn't come to me, and my thoughts were eventually interrupted by a knock at my door and a soft call of, 'dinners ready' on the other side. The rest of the night was filled with chatter about useless things before I decided to go to bed, earlier then I normally do. It was a restless night, filled with restless thoughts.

I woke up early the next morning and lied in my bed until my mom opened the door.

"Sweetie," she said, "I have to leave for work soon. Aunt Hestia is here to watch you."

Those words seemed to break me out of the slump I had been in since our conversation the day before. I bolted out of bed, through my doorway, and stopped in the doorway of the living room to see Aunt Hestia sitting on the couch. She smiled at me and I smiled back before running at her with a cry of, "Aunt Hestia!" and jumping into her opened arms. We embraced for a few moments before she pulled back and looked at me.

"Hello, young Perseus. I take it you missed me?" she said.

I might have been upset about her calling me Perseus, I had become partial to Percy near the start of the school year, but I was so excited to hear her so I just smiled and nodded before saying, "I missed you so much Aunt Hestia. I have so much to tell you."

"I missed you as well, Perseus. Why don't we say goodbye to your mother, and then we can catch up on our past year?" she asked.

"Okay," I said before jumping down and giving my mom a hug to her legs. "I'll miss you," I said.

"I'll miss you as well, Sweetie," she said as she placed her hands on my back. A moment passed before she stepped back, grabbed her bag, and walked through the door, closing it behind her.

I turned to Aunt Hestia and smiled.

"So how was your year Perseus?" she asked me.

"Well, Aunt Hestia, first please call me Percy, I think Perseus is to stuffy."

"Okay, Percy. If you insist."

"And secondly, my year was interesting to say the least. The first part of the year was wasted siting in class 'learning' things I already know. On the bright side, I got a lot of time to practice drawing. My knowledge level was stagnant for a while until I found some upper-grade-level course books in the library. Once I found those, I started teaching myself when I could and continued drawing in class, so the year wasn't a complete waste of time, but it was so boring at times I actually fell asleep in class!" I yelled the last pat indignantly.

Her laugh was melodious and for a second, I was offended about her disregard for my situation, but I quickly got over it and also saw the humor in the situation.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Let's all laugh at Percy for being too smart for school." I said with a sarcastic tone and a slight smile on my face. That seemed to make her laugh ever harder which made me smile.

Once she got her laughter under control she sighed and said, "I forgot just how much I love our conversations Percy."

I smiled and said, "I love talking to you to Aunt Hestia."

"So, you're not learning anything from your teachers. Are you at least getting along with the other children?" she asked with a somewhat worried look on her face.

I sighed and said, "I don't dislike any of the students."

"But you also don't particularly like any of them, do you?" she said.

I looked down, sighed again, and quietly said "No," before I looked up and said progressively louder as the tirade went on, "But that's not my fault, six-year olds can barely string together a proper sentence. How am I supposed to find companionship in a bunch of people who sound like they're mentally challenged or something? I mean really, the second smartest kid in that class could barely even spell his own name by then end of the year, and I'm supposed to converse with them? Really?"

She laughed again and for a moment I was still quite upset, but I sighed and gave a slight smile seeing the humorous side to this as well. A kid barely over the age of six, sat and ranted about his peers being too moronic, in his opinion, to properly converse with. It's pretty funny.

"I can see how that would be upsetting, have you talked to your mother about it?" she asked.

"Yes, and that's an entirely different problem I face," I said without elaborating.

She had a puzzled look on her face and seemed to be waiting for me to explain, when she realized nothing would be forthcoming she said, "And why is that, Percy?" in a quiet tone.

I paused before speaking, debating on whether I wanted to tell her or not. It's not that I didn't want her to know, it's that I didn't like thinking about it too much because I always seemed to her upset. I eventually decided that she would be one of the ones to best help me through this so I eventually said, "Mom said she talked to the principle, and the principle said the school could administer some tests to see if I can skip grades, but she also said that she believes skipping grades wouldn't be in my best interests, that she believes skipping grades would just earn me the animosity of my peers."

"Did she give a better solution?" Aunt Hestia asked.

"Yeah, she did. She suggested a few private schools in the area. Schools that are for gifted students working above grade level, but… all of the schools she suggested and the schools that Mom could find are boarding schools," I said with a slight hitch in my voice, trying to keep from crying in front of one of the two people I respect in my life.

I couldn't keep the tears from falling, however, when I felt a pair of warm arms around me. I let the flood gates release and cried into her arms.

"Shh, Young Percy. It's okay," she said quietly into my ear.

"I-I don't know what to do," I got out in between sobs.

"I know Percy. I know. But, this is a decision you will have to make. I know you don't want to leave your mother for the year, but I also know that your mother would hate herself if she was the reason you didn't do something like this. I know it will be hard, and I know there will be tough times, but this is a possibility I don't think you should pass up."

I calmed down and slowly stopped crying. As I did I noticed the room also stopped shaking. 'Oops, I didn't even notice I started shaking. I should learn to control that better,' I thought sheepishly. For a few moments we sat in silence, her embracing me and trying to comfort me and me keeping quiet for fear that speaking again would lead to more crying, ergo more building shaking. After about an hour I finally calmed down enough to speak without fear of crying again. "Thank you, Aunt Hestia. I think I've made my decision."

"You're welcome, Percy. I'm just glad I could help."

"Well, you did. I guess I'll have to decide which school I want to go to," I said, voice still somewhat quiet from the emotions I had been feeling moments ago and their lingering effects on me.

"I think I can help with that, Percy. My niece, who's also your cousin, has set up a school I think would be perfect for you. She was a bit straight forward in naming it, but I guess she was focused on more important things. Either way, the school is the best in New York and arguably the best in the world. It was the first gifted school erected in the US and has been call Athena's School for Gifted Youngsters since its creation. It is famously hard to get into, but that's for typical children. With your intelligence, you should be able to get it in with zero problems and I would even bet on you getting the scholarship you need. And before you ask, it is a boarding school."

By the end of her little speech about Athena's School for Gifted Youngsters, I was amazed at the prospect of attending such a school. I knew who Athena was, of course. I learned about all of the Olympian gods, their immediate families, and many minor gods from both Aunt Hestia and books I found in the school. And as it turned out, Athena was one of my favorite gods, behind only Aunt Hestia, for obvious reasons, and Poseidon because I believe him to be my father, and even though I believe that and know Poseidon doesn't get along with Athena I've always loved Athena. From Aunt Hestia's stories, I could tell she was a bit prideful, but I knew who her father was so I really couldn't blame her. What fascinated me was her status as goddess of wisdom, and architecture, and really all things intellectual including the arts. With the exception of my believed father's domains, her attributes of intelligence and wisdom were the ones I attributed to myself the most. I've loved learning for as long as I can remember, so the thought of going to a school established by basically the god of learning was amazing to me. It solidified my decision even more.

A look of determination came across my face as I said, "I don't want to leave Mom, but… this is something I can't pass up."

"Very good, Percy. Now, in the meantime, we can study for the entrance exam and tomorrow I can bring the application. We can talk to your mother about it when she gets home."

And that's how my summer went. My mom said it was a great idea for me to go to Athena's school and even though we knew I would be away from her for the year we also knew it was for the best. So, I studied with Aunt Hestia during the day. Everything from math, to history, to art and anything in between we could think of. Aunt Hestia didn't know what would be on the entrance exam, but she did know it was meant for highly advanced first graders with intelligence levels generally a few grade levels higher than normal at the most, so I, working on things almost seven years ahead of my grade, should be able to pass the test with ease.

Even though I knew she was right and believed her when she said the test should be easy I still found myself worried as time went on. It was so bad that I spent almost every waking moment studying. That's not to say I gave up on my physical exercises, on the contrary I worked even more on them then normal with all the free time I had. I even started practicing with a dull sword Aunt Hestia got me, but if I wasn't eating, sleeping or exercising, I was studying. I finished the sixth-year course book in about a week of staying up late at night for study time and then I went through the seventh, which I stole shortly before the year's end for extra reading material during the summer, in three more weeks.

At the end of that I still had three weeks until the entrance exams so I decided to reread all the course books I had stolen. But midway through my first book I realized how much that was wasting my time, so, in absence of ways to learn, I decided to turn to my art. I had been working with Aunt Hestia with art during the day, and while she wasn't the god of art she did have hundreds of years to practice which made her masterfully good, so she had a lot to teach me. During my late-night study periods, I practiced my art. It was fun and I got a lot of practice. My days repeated like that, wakeup, Aunt Hestia would come and teach me things during the day, then I practiced my art at night before going to sleep. It was one of the best times of my life, and even though I faced the stress of the entrance exams I was truly happy.

-LINE CUT-

The day of the entrance exam arrived, and as my natural clock awoke me, like it did every other day. I was nervous, but it wasn't the mind-numbing nervousness that I'd been feeling the past few days. It was more of a passive nervousness you feel when doing something important. A nervousness that makes you think a thousand thoughts at every moment, and keeps you on your toes because you know there is no making mistakes. It's either pass or fail, win or lose, live or die. Your hands still shake, you're still worried, but you can work through it.

I slipped out of bed and forwent clothes like every other day. I was going to skip my morning exercise, but I realized not releasing my pent-up energy would just make me more nervous. So, I mechanically went through the motions. I found out that, as a demigod, my muscles won't atrophy meaning I don't technically have to exercise as much as I do, but I also know living life as a demigod won't be easy once monsters start coming for me. Consequentially, I've gotten into the habit of working as hard as I can even when I feel off, or nervous like this morning.

By the end of my workout I was sweating profusely and breathing pretty hard. This was normal for me, however, so I walked to the corner of my room and picked up my sword. It wasn't the greatest sword in the world, and it wasn't supposed to be. Aunt Hestia said that if I could be great with a bad sword I would be unstoppable with a good one. So, I used a dull, unbalanced, unnecessarily heavy sword. I wasn't the best with it, I could tell. I did only have a few weeks with it and, presumably because of my demigod status, I'm not horrible. That doesn't mean I'd win any fights with anyone even slightly experienced, but I would last longer than a few seconds.

I went through the motions, like I do every morning. Slashes, jabs, parries, one-handed, two-handed, left-handed, right-handed, ext. ext. I loved working with the sword about as much as I loved learning. There was something about the way the blade, even the crappy one I was using, cut through the air that I fell in love with. It was relaxing and exhilarating at the same time in perfect balance. The time I spent with my sword was one of the best parts of my day.

Once I decided I was finished, I put my sword in its place, before grabbing clothes and heading for the shower. I learned long ago that showering after exercise would heal my stressed muscles and would keep me from being sore all day, so I approved physically much faster and I didn't have to deal with the soreness often associated with rigorous exercises. Another thing I started doing was practicing with my water control during my showers. I've always had pretty much perfect control of it, but recently I've been working on creating solid constructs by increasing the surface tension of the water. I'd also worked on changing the temperature of the water, which was very difficult at first, and still was, but I'd gotten considerable better at it and could do it in small amounts now without feeling completely drained afterwards.

After my shower, I got dressed and went to the kitchen to get breakfast before we left. My mother was sitting at her desk writing, like she did most mornings. I ate some fruit and yogurt and drank some milk. We still had about an hour before we needed to leave, so I pulled the small sketchbook I keep in my pocket out, and started a quick sketch of my mom. It wasn't perfect, and it wasn't supposed to be, but it was pretty well done and she told me so when I showed it to her. I have lots of drawing of my mother, she happens to be one of my best models, along with Aunt Hestia. I draw other things as well, from landscapes to people, from realistic to cartoonish, I draw everything, but I love drawing people the most. We were silent as the time passed, with her focusing on her writing and me on the picture I was drawing of her. The silence was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"That must be your aunt," Mom said.

I smiled and ran to the door, pulling it open for Aunt Hestia to come in.

"Hello, Aunt Hestia," I said.

"Hello, Percy. Are you ready to go?" she asked.

"Yeah. I'm a bit nervous about it though," I told her.

"It's okay to be nervous, as long as you can work through it, you'll eventually realize you have no reason to worry. Now, do you remember what I told you about this mist?" she asked.

I was a bit confused at the sudden, seemingly unconnected, question, but I answered anyways, "Yeah, the mist is a mystical force controlled by the goddess Hecate. It hides the mystical world from most mortals, but demigods can somewhat see through it and clear-sighted mortals aren't affected by it at all. You also said that the Blessing of Immortals will increase my natural sense of the mist allowing me to feel when the mist is in effect around me, alerting me to the presence of something from our world."

"Very good, Percy. I ask because I wanted you to remember it for your day. Your blessing will prevent monsters from actively seeking you out, but if a monster happens upon you, it is more likely for them to attack, because of your seemingly week appearance, than to run because of the deterrence of the blessing. This means, if a monster does appear today, you will have to be prepared for it. So, I have brought a gift for you, a gift from your father," she said as she held out her hand. In her hand was a ballpoint pin.

I deadpanned at her and said, "That's a pen."

"Yes," she said like it made all the sense in the world.

"A regular ballpoint pen," I said.

"No, a magic pen. If you are attacked I want you to pull out this pen and uncap it. You will know what to do with it when the times right. Also, do not attempt to use the pen as a writing utensil… at least not yet. It will just be more trouble than it's worth," she informed me.

I thought she was playing a joke on me, but I reached out and took the pen anyways. I put it in my pocket then thought of something, "What if I lose it?" I asked.

"You can't," she said and then, answering the question I was obviously about to ask, she added, "It's enchanted. It will return to your pocket no matter what. If you don't have pockets it won't return to you, but the moment you gain an item of clothing with pockets again it will reappear."

"Wow," I said. I knew no one would take the time enchant a pin like that if it wasn't something special. So even though it looked and felt like an ordinary pen, I knew it was something special.

"Thank you, Aunt Hestia, and if you see him can you thank my father?" I stated then asked.

"You're welcome, and of course I will. Now, let's say goodbye to your mother and then I'll take you to the school."

I murmured, "Okay," as I ran to my mother to say goodbye.

-LINE CUT-

The trip to the school was… interesting, to say the least. It wasn't uncomfortable, well except the blinding light, but it did feel a bit disconcerting. Aunt Hestia said it was called flashing, an ability all godly being had in which they assumed their true form for the split second required for them to 'flash', or teleport in laymen's terms, to anywhere in the world they want to go. It felt really warm as a flash of light forced me to close my eyes. When I opened them again we were in a completely different place.

The new place didn't look very different then my neighborhood at first, but I noticed that the building and people all got considerably wealthier as we continued to move around. I suddenly felt very out of place in my Walmart bought clothes and realized for the first time what true wealth looked like, I was slightly unsettled.

I didn't let the blatant difference in classes affect me though. After the initial shock and awe of seeing so many wealthy people I returned to my confident walk and calculating stare at everything around me. You can learn a lot by watching the things around you. I noticed the few subtle glances thrown my way and the many more not-so-subtle glances thrown Aunt Hestia's. I understood it, of course. I have always thought Aunt Hestia was stunningly gorgeous, that didn't change the fact that my aunt was getting openly ogled, which upset me for some reason even if Aunt Hestia didn't seem to notice them at all. I threw some glares at the guys, but they didn't seem to care which just upset me more. Just because I looked like a seven-year-old didn't mean I couldn't kick their ugly asses.

After about twenty minutes we came up to a giant school, and I mean GIANT. The main building alone looked like it could hold twenty of my old schools, and there were at least four other building that I could immediately see. It was absolutely massive. Aunt Hestia looked nonchalant as we stopped walking. Looking in front of us I noticed we were standing in a long line of parents and children around my age. We were presumably waiting to get through the large security gate I could see far ahead of us.

I looked directly ahead of us to find a woman holding a young girl's hand. The girl looked to be about six, my age, and the lady looked to be about as old as my own mother. The women was beautiful. She had shoulder length red hair and a lean body that seemed slightly muscular from labor rather than exercise. She was wearing jeans and a jacket over a plaid shirt. She wasn't very tall, about five four. The girl was equally beautiful. She had black hair that went slightly past her shoulder, she was wearing jeans and a jacket. She was shorter then me by about four inches placing her at a round three nine.

I then noticed that the girl was also looking at me. I considered not saying anything because the kids at my school never seemed to care, but there was something about her that incited me to speak.

"Hello," I said.

She gave a soft 'eep' and hid behind her mother's legs and I gathered from her response that she was quite shy. I smiled at her before speaking.

"What are you doing?" I asked steadily, but without any accusations of wrong doing, like asking a friend what they were doing over the weekend.

She was quiet and said nothing at first, but she hesitantly leaned slightly into view, avoiding eye contact as she hesitantly said, "I-I'm not g-good with people."

"Ooh," I said, "That makes sense. I'm not particularly good with people either. Especially the kids at my old school. They were all blundering dunderheads who could barely form a coherent sentence. It got to the point that I actively avoided speaking with them."

She smiled slightly before quietly saying, "I-I know how you feel. I c-couldn't really get along with the k-kids at my school either. They weren't v-very smart."

I smiled brightly at her before saying, "I know right. I started school excited about learning, but I could tell by the end of the first day I was smarter than the average kid. I mean really, none of them even knew the alphabet! Seriously, A-B-C, it's not that hard to remember."

She giggled quietly. I noticed she wasn't hiding behind her mother's legs as much, which made me smile.

"My names, Perseus, but I prefer the name Percy," I said, "Might I ask for yours?"

She hesitated a little before saying with a small smile, "I-I'm Theta. It's nice to meet you Percy."

I smiled brightly at her as I said, "It is very nice to meet you, as well, Theta."

She smiled at me and by this point was fully out from behind her mother and standing in front of me.

"Do you know how long we'll have to wait?" I asked her.

"I think I heard my mom say the doors opened in about twenty minutes and then we'll have to go through registration a few at a time which will hold us up a little longer," she said in her quiet tone.

"Hmm, that's not very long I guess. At least I have a pretty girl to talk to while I wait," I said with a grin.

Theta's reaction was pretty comical. At first, she looked confused at what I meant, but then the meaning donned on her and she blushed furiously before stuttering out, "Th-thank you for c-calling me p-pr-pretty. No one besides my mother has called me that before," with a cute smile and an ever-persisting blush.

I smiled back as I said, "Well, I don't know why that is. I think you're one of the prettiest girls I've ever met."

She blushed slightly more, but then got a saddened look on her face as she looked down saying, "Y-you don't mean that."

I gave her an aghast look, like that statement personally hurt me as I said in a grandiose manner, "I most certainly do mean that! Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."

She looked at me with a somewhat shocked at and somewhat confused look. I guess she didn't get the reference. It's a bit much to expect most people to recognize every Shakespeare quote and even more so for kids our age. That man was a genius, but the old English dialect can be hard for most people to understand.

It was at that time I noticed many people staring at me with agape expressions, and Aunt Hestia with an amused expression.

My cheeks gained a slight hue as I said, "Sorry for interrupting your conversations. It won't happen again."

They all looked at me in unconcealed shock before they slowly went back to their conversations, or lack thereof for most of them.

I turned back to Theta and sighed slightly before saying, "It was Shakespeare."

Her expression didn't become any less confused so I elaborated.

"The poem," she gave me and understanding expression, but I continued nonetheless, "It was written by Shakespeare. It means I find you as beautiful as a summer's day, but unlike summer your beauty doesn't give way to fall. It is eternal," I explained.

She still looked slightly confused, but then shook her head and said, "You must be really smart if you can understand something like that! I've tried reading some Shakespeare, and I understood almost none of it."

She was speaking much louder than before. I guess the possibility of having intelligent conversation with someone near her age was as exciting a concept as it was for me.

"Yeah, I get that. Old English is hard for most adults to read, that you understood even a little of it is impressive. I only understand it because my aunt's been teaching me Old English since I was four, two years of experience and a great teacher would be enough for anyone to understand it," I said with a smile.

She looked at me shocked for a moment before saying, "You're only six," in a questioning tone.

"Well, yeah. Why do you ask?" I inquired, even though I knew the reason.

"I-It's just that you look older than all the boys that were in my class and you wouldn't be the only older kid taking the test if you were," she told me.

"Well, I'm not. I've always been ahead of my peers. My natural accelerated growth and the fact I've been doing exercise for almost as long as I can remember just put me ahead. I may look like a seven or eight-year-old, but I'm actually only six," I explained with a smile.

"I-uh guess that makes sense. I'm only six as well as and as you can see," she said gesturing towards herself, "I'm average height."

"Yes, you are. I can also tell that you are above average in the intelligence department, if I'm not mistaken," I told her.

"You most certainly are not mistaken," she said with an air of confidence I found interesting, "I was the smartest kid in my grade at my old school, but that's not that much of an accomplishment when the next smartest kid is barely capable of reading more than three letter words."

I chuckled at that and said, "That's so true. I had no idea how they expected me to converse with those kids. I tried talking with some of them, but not even five minutes passed before I realized they could barely put together a coherent sentence!"

"Oh my god that's so true," she said laughing.

I smiled at her and said, "At least I've finely found someone I can actually talk to who's not my mother or my aunt."

"I know what you mean. My mom was the only person I've been able to talk to for a while, but I've been okay with that. I love my mom," she told me with a smile.

"Amen to that," I smiled at her.

We continued talking for a while. About ourselves, our old schools, our parents. We had a lot of things in common. I learned that she was also really intelligent. She was reading at a twelve-year-old level, she was working on beginner level algebra. She was amazed when I told her I was reading at about a sixteen-year-old level, I was currently midway through a book on basic geometry, and started learning about biology. What we had most in common, however, was our love of history. Mine stemmed from the drive to learn as much about the demigods of the past to learn about my family, hers stemmed from a general love of stories of the past.

I learned that she lived on a farm with her mother and that she loved learning about the different crops they grew. What interested me the most, however, was learning that she had never met her father before. She said she was told by her mother that he worked in Italy and couldn't visit. I explained how I also didn't know my father because he had to work which we bonded over for a few moments. At that point, the line started moving forward. We walked together and we continued talking. Once we got to the front of the line we split up for a few seconds to get signed in and then got together afterwards to walk together to the test center.

We stopped outside the test center doors to say goodbye to our guardians before we pushed the door open to walk into a giant room. There were many rows of desks that went until the back of the room and at the front of the room was a large chalk board with the words 'take a seat and wait' written out in large bold letters. I started walking towards a seat when I noticed Theta still staring at the board. I approached her and said, "Are you okay?"

She startled slightly and said, "Yeah, sorry about that. I have dyslexia it was just taking me awhile to read the board."

At that I smiled at that, and told her, "That makes sense," as we continued on to take a seat. We conversed lightly for about half an hour about our favorite history stories. The room slowly filled with other potential students until finally a young woman walked in. I watched her walk to the front of the room, and as I watched her I noticed a slight shimmering around her form that I had only seen a few times before. It was the shimmer that appeared around things cloaked in the mist. As I realized this I watched the mist slowly dissipate from my vision and I saw her for what she was. She was beautiful, undoubtedly more so than before actually, but the contours of her face adjusted slightly, her skin now had a light blue tint to it, and her hair, which was a dark brown, was now a deep blue.

My breath caught in my throat for a second. What was she and what was she doing here? Was she going to hurt us? What did she want? Those thoughts rushed through me head until I pushed them aside and realized the obvious. The school is run by Athena, it's probable the staff won't be entirely human. She must be someone Athena brought in, and if she has the favor of the wisdom goddess then she must be intelligent, which means she deserves my respect. 'Huh,' I thought, 'a teacher I can actually respect. That's new.'

The lady walked to the front of the room before facing the class and scanning the room for a second. Theta and I were a few rows back, but I swear I saw her eyes linger on me for a second longer than anyone else. I wonder why?

Once she finished taking stock of the room she said in a calm tone, "Hello everyone. My name is Galene and-,"

"No way!" I accidentally let out in excitement.

"I'm sorry, is there a problem?" she asked.

At this point I noticed everyone staring at me in confusion, even Theta, so I, having the decency to look sheepish, said, "Sorry. Galene is just the names of one of my favorite Greek goddesses. I didn't mean to sound out. It won't happen again." I said. It was true as well. One of my favorite ways to pass time was reading about my family history. I read about Galene in a few places and was really interested in her, she was my favorite nereid actually.

Galene looked a bit surprised by my words, but shortly after shook it off and said, "Very well. As I was saying, I will be your room monitor today. I will be making sure no one cheats, and I will also be here if anyone has any questions." As she finished, the door opened once again and another lady walked in.

The new lady, at first, seemed to be very tall, but, like with Galene, that didn't last long and as the mist dismissed I realized it wasn't a very tall woman, it's was a harpy. Or at least what I thought was a harpy, from the descriptions I've read in books and gotten from Aunt Hestia.

"This is Anna," said Galene, "She will hand out your test packets. When you receive yours, place it in front of you and wait for further instructions." As she said this the harpy hovered around the room dropping test packets on people's desks. When she got to me she dropped the packet on my desk and then stared at me for a few seconds before moving on. Once everyone had a test packet in front of them the harpy flew to the front of the room and perched herself on the side of Galene's desk.

"Now that everyone has a packet, I want you to open and remove their contents when I say so. Inside you will find a sealed test booklet, an answer sheet, and a directions card. I want you to read and follow the instructions on the directions card to the tee. Do exactly what is on the card no matter what it says," we were told, "Now, you may begin."

I opened the packet and pulled out the materials. I found the booklet, the answer sheet, and a sheet of paper. When I pulled the directions card out I noticed it was slightly covered in the mist. The illusion lasted only a second or two under my eyes before it slipped off. I also noticed everyone else's cards were also covered in a thin layer of the mist.

I looked at the card to find a letter that read:

Dear Applicant,

You have met the requirements to participate in our special examination. This examination will be completed at a later time, and will require different testing materials that we will provide for you at the time of testing. Be aware that the special examination is generally considered more difficult than the average exam. You are not being forced to take it, but it is an opportunity few get and the difficulty in the exam is considered when your application is reviewed.

If you do not wish to take the special exam, then do the following:

1: Use only the pencils provided, found in your desk, to fill out sections A to E on the top of the answer sheet.

2: Carefully unseal the test booklet and put any trash to the side.

3: Fill in the bubble on the answer sheet corresponding to your answer.

4: You will have four hours to complete all the sections of the test.

5: If any scrap paper is needed for the math section, you will find some in the desk.

6: When time is called put your pencil down and stop, you will then receive further instruction.

7: If you have any questions during the testing period, please raise your hand quietly to get the attention of your room monitor.

8: Your desk also contains a small bottle of water, an eraser, and extra writing utensils.

If you wish to take the special exam your instructions are to sit quietly and wait for the test to complete. When the testing period is finished, sit quietly and wait for the other applicants to leave the room. Your room monitor will be back shortly after to give you new instructions. Your guardians have already been informed of this possibility, so you have no need to worry there. While you wait you may not converse with the other applicants, you may not leave the room without the explicit permission of your room monitor. You may use the materials found inside your desk as you desire to help pass the time as long as you do not disrupt the other applicants. Make your decision quickly and follow the corresponding instructions. Thank you for your time.

Cecrops

There were many things in the letter that shocked me. The first being its mere existence. I guessed that every instruction card was actually this letter coated in the mist, but only a thin layer so an untrained demigod would be able to easily see through it. A way to test for demigods and clearsighted mortals. I was also shocked that they had apparently already informed Aunt Hestia somehow, but I guessed there was some charm work in place.

What surprised me the most, however, was the name at the end. Cecrops was an Athenian king who, in common mythology, is said to have created the Greek alphabet. Aunt Hestia told me Athena actually gave him the knowledge and he stole her credit. I would have thought he was killed because of that, but his name was on the letter so I guess not. It could have been the Orphic poet, but I seriously doubt that.

My decision was easy enough to make. Whatever reason they have for looking for demigods couldn't be very nefarious. The school was run by Athena, and while she might hold a grudge against some gods/goddesses and by extension their children, Aunt Hestia told me she was indifferent towards most demigods, favoring her children above all else. Aunt Hestia also told me she respected people with strong minds which boded well for me even if Poseidon was most likely my father.

So, I put the letter down and sat quietly for a few seconds. I decided quickly that while sitting quietly for a few hours wasn't impossible I would find more interest in the materials in my desk. I opened the desk and took out the stack of paper, a few pencils, and the water bottle. I placed them on my desk and stared at the materials for a while. I could draw which would help pass the time very well. Or I could practice my water control, but judging by the "discreet" glances Galene was throwing me, probably for the mention of my interest in her or maybe because I wasn't doing the test, I wouldn't get away with that. I wouldn't keep my demigod status a secret, but the knowledge of my father was, I wasn't supposed to be born after all. I looked back down at my things and decided I would draw a picture.

I debated drawing Theta, but feared that my continued observation of her could be misconstrued at an attempt to disrupt her or the others testers. I also thought of drawing something from memory, but decided otherwise. Then I thought of drawing Galene. I had no reason not to. There was no way to misconstrue observing the room monitor as a way of disrupting the others, and she was one of my favorite goddesses so I'd have a memento from the tests at least. I looked up and saw that Galene had started walking around the room. Probably making sure no one was cheating.

I watched her for a while before I got to work. I knew it would take most of the time given, but I had no qualms with that as I also didn't care how long it took me. I didn't rush and by the time I finished there were only a few minutes before the testing period was over. I put my things down and waited. I watched the room, noticing only now that Galene's prowling had brought her near my desk.

She stopped right next to me and stared at the picture I had drawn. She continued staring at it and I noticed she looked somewhat shocked. I understood that it was because I had drawn her un-mist-cloaked self. After a moment she seemed to shake her shock off and give me a contemplating look before continuing her walk around the room.

When she got back to the front of the room she glanced at the clock before turning to the room and saying in a sturdy tone, "Your time is up. Please place your pencils on your desks and follow the post testing directions you were given on your instructions card."

When she said this people started getting up and leaving the room. Once people stopped leaving the room I noticed that the only people left in the classroom were me, Theta and one other girl with blonde hair. I looked to Theta and smiled as I stood up and said, "Follow me." I picked up my picture and made my way to the other girl in the room.

We stopped in front of the girl and I said, "Hey. I'm Percy and this is Theta," as I gestured to myself and then Theta

She looked at me and smiled, "My name's Annabeth."

I smiled at her and said, "It's nice to meet you."

She looked like she was about to say something when she stopped herself and stared at me for a few seconds before gasping and saying, "You were the one that yelled out at the start!"

I gave her a sheepish smile and said, "Yeah, that was me. I did say I was sorry about that."

"I didn't actually care, I was just surprised you knew the name Galene. I haven't found anyone who knows about her as well," she said.

I smiled at her and said, "You can't expect many people to have read the Theogony. Even the best translations can be pretty hard to understand and from what I've seen of the world most people don't want to spend hours trying to understand millennia old stories. I almost gave up halfway through it myself, but either way I made it through."

She stared at me in shock before saying, "You've actually read the Theogony!"

"Well, yeah. How else would I have known about Galene?" I asked confused.

"W-Well my dad read the Theogony to me, so I thought yours might have as well," she said bashfully.

"Oh, that makes sense. But I've never met my dad so the prospect of him reading me a book is pretty low," I said somewhat downtrodden.

"Oh," she said, "Well I've never met my mother so I understand how you feel."

"I-I've never met my dad either," Theta spoke up for the first time.

I smiled at them both and said, "Look at us. Just a group of bastard kids who only know one of there parents. Three peas in a pod. The three amigos. One for all and all for one and all that stuff."

We sat around talking for a while longer. After about fifteen minutes Galene came back in, stood in the door frame, and said, "Follow me please." I got a questioning glance from Theta and Annabeth, to which I just shrugged, stood up and followed Galene out the door with Annabeth and Theta at my right and left respectively.

As we walked down that halls Galene glanced over her shoulder at us and said, "Because you three have met the requirements for the special exam you have automatically been accepted into the school. You will be placed into housing with the others who met the requirements this year and the years before this. Unlike the other houses in the school you will not attend classes with your house mates, instead the exam you are about to take will determine which house or houses you will attend classes with. There is one exception to this rule, however, which will be explained at a later date. Everything you need to know about the school system will be explained at a later date, for now you should worry only about the test you are about to take." With that we entered a giant gymnasium and were led to the opposite side of the room.

"In through there," Galene said pointing at a door, "Are the changing rooms. You will find proper attire waiting for you. Put it on before retuning here, leave your things in a locker. Girls to the left, boys to the right. Haste would be appreciated."

We walked through the doors and I waved to the girls before heading right into the boys changing room. The room was fairly large with a multitude of lockers lining the walls. There was a table in the middle of the room and on the table was a set of exercise clothes.

The shirt was red with a flag I saw in a book about present day Greek on the back. If I remembered correctly it was the flag of Athens. The shirt was pretty tight fitting, but I was used to it as I've worn similar clothes when I exercised in the past. The shorts were also red, were pretty loose fitting and went down to a few inches above my knee. There was also a pair of running shoes and socks on the table in the same red color.

I stripped down to me briefs and slipped the clothes own. I patted my right pocket, felt the pen Aunt Hestia gave me and smiled. Then I sat on a bench to slip on my socks and shoes before lacing said shoes, doing some light stretching, and heading for the door to the gym. As I approached the door I saw Theta and Annabeth coming from their locker room. I smiled at them as I pushed the door open and held it for them. The smiled back and I closed the door as we walked into the room. We approached Galene and waited for more instructions.

"Okay. We will start with some physical aptitude tests. This will be a series of test to gage your physical abilities in the following areas: strength, speed, endurance, and flexibility. We will start with a strength test. Please follow me."

We followed Galene to a large metal circle at one side of the gym. In the middle of the circle was a large metal bar that was about four feet long laying in the middle of the circle. There was a screen in the floor near the circle and as we approached it I saw the display read 0lb.

"This test is simple. Walk over and pick up the bar. You may use any means necessary to do so as long as you stay in that circle. The bar will get progressively heavier as time moves on. The moment the bar touches the ground your score will be set and the test will be over. Your results will be displayed here."

It did seem pretty simple, but a multitude of questions were still flowing through my head. Was it technology that made the bar heavier or was it some sort of magic? She said we could do whatever we wanted as long as we stayed in the circle, so does that mean we can use any demigod powers we might have? And if we can how can I use mine to help?

One question I had, though, I thought might actually be answered.

"Will we ever do these tests again?" I asked.

Galene stared at me for a second before saying, "Yes," with no further explanation.

'Okay,' I thought, 'I can experiment with my more asinine ideas late, for now let's just get a good score on this test.'

With that I stepped forward and asked, "May I go first?"

Galene, seeming to be excepting a question like this, said, "We normally go in alphabetical order because it's not often that new applicants like going first, but if you would like to, you may."

I smiled at her and stepped forward into the circle. I did some quick stretches before I stepped up to the bar reached down and picked it up.

"When you are ready state your full name loudly and clearly and then say test start," Galene told me.

I took a deep breath and held it for ten seconds before letting it out. I closed my eyes and cleared my mind as I began focusing on my demigod powers. I could feel the moisture in the air. I saw a clear picture of it in my mind as it was blown around by the air conditioner. As it was stopped by the people and objects and the walls in the room, creating a pretty accurate 3D map of the area in my head. This was something I learned to do long ago when Aunt Hestia taught me about the benefits of meditation. The first time I did it I could barely see the area a few feet around me. Now, I could see the entire room and slightly outside it as well.

I focused more and I started feeling the water running through the pipes in the walls, I felt the saliva in the girls' mouths, the small amount of water on their eyes. When I focused more I could feel the blood running through their veins and at that point I suddenly felt like I was standing next to an ocean. I focused my senses on that and found that it was closer to a calm sea then the vast ocean I felt at first. When I focused on it even more I realized it was Galene and I understood what was happening. Galene is the goddess of calm seas so it makes sense that my powers would recognize that.

I let my powers slip as I opened my eyes. I could still feel the moisture in the air, but the presence of the calm sea was gone. I glanced at Galene and inhaled somewhat sharply when I saw her giving off a slight glow. I understood that it was an effect of my powers, the visualization of her connection to the sea, but I wasn't expecting it. The longer my focused on my powers were let up, the less Galene glowed, until the glow slipped away all together. I could still feel the moisture in the air and knew what to do.

I took a deep breath and said, "Perseus Jackson, test start."

Almost immediately the pole started getting heavier. For a while it wasn't very difficult, but as time passed it started getting harder and harder to keep the pole in my hands. When it got to the point that it felt almost impossible to hold up I put my plan into place. I focused as well as I could and slowly pulled the moisture out of the air around me. It was water in its purest state and with a little manipulation was completely invisible to the naked eye. It wasn't a lot of water, but it was enough for my plan. I moved it around the bar and around my forearms. Then I told the hold the weight for me. Slowly I felt the strain slip away until it became relatively easy to hold the bar up.

It didn't last forever, mind you, as there was only a small amount of water holding the bar up, but it was enough drastically increase my score. By the time the bar touched the ground the screen in front of me read 250lb. I breathed heavily as I let the water disperse back into the air and took a few moments to collect myself. When I looked to the others I wasn't surprised to see shock on their faces.

I smiled at Galene and said in a deservedly cocky tone, "What's next?"

-LINE CUT-

A/N: I didn't really want to end it here because I had the entire test planned out, but I decided to end it here as the chapter was getting pretty long. Next chapter will finish up the physical tests, educational tests, the school system will be explained slight and that's what I have planned for now, depending on how long that is I add more than that.

Okay, a lot of this came out of thin air here and believe it or not my original concept was just: Percy's powers are stronger. But that led to the question: Why are they stronger? Which led to the decision that they would be advancing really quickly, which led to the question: Why would they advance quickly? Which led to the thought: Gods mature really quickly, I wonder why that is? Which led to the Blessing of the Immortals idea. Which led to this.

Update periods will be pretty long, sorry about that, but I don't have a lot of time to write, I also have two other fics that I'm working on. One for My Hero Academia (Which already has a chapter up that you might like) and the other is a Naruto story I'm still working on. All that together means I can't get chapters out really quickly. And if you look at my My Hero fic you'll see that I haven't updated that in months which happened because a lot of personal stuff came up that kept me from writing and when I finally got back in the head space for writing I couldn't get this idea or the Naruto fic out of my mind. Either way I'll be working on all three of these fics as inspiration for each comes to me.

Well anyways, thanks for reading and if you got the pseudo X-Men reference you're great.