Chapter 2: It's Worse
"You wish, Seaweed Brain," Thalia said, shifting her bucket of popcorn just out of Percy's reaching fingers.
He stuck his tongue out at her. "Pinecone Face."
"Kelp-"
"Shut up, the movie's starting!" Annabeth hissed at her boyfriend.
"Why do you always blame me? I-"
Annabeth shushed him again and he slumped back against his lawn chair in annoyance. The glare from the screen illuminated the other campers' rapt faces. For such short notice, the Hephaestus cabin had done a great job of converting the amphitheater into a high-tech, surround sound, outdoor theater.
The movie, it turned out, was pretty good… well, during the opening credits at least. From there, the quality dropped as fast as the Stoll brothers could run away from the scene of their latest prank.
To spare you the details, we'll just say it was awful.
Painfully, excruciatingly, you-can't-be-serious awful.
By the last scene, the fury in the crowd boiled over, causing a full-scale riot.
"Why am I not in the movie?"
"My dad doesn't look like that!"
"Where in Hades is the prophecy?"
"I know! What happened to the Mist?"
"And the original mummy Oracle?"
"They. Forgot. My Tree. How am I going to protect the borders if I'm not there?"
"I look old! I don't look like that at all! And I'm a very peaceful person! I don't carry around a knife!"
"I do NOT have straight brown hair. I was NOT eighteen. I did NOT like Percy that way. I did NOT use a bow and arrows. I…"
"I killed Mrs. Dodds! And I drenched Clarisse with toilet water! And Riptide is not a click pen! And the pearls were a gift from my dad! WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THAT?"
Chiron stamped his hoof on the pavement several times before the campers were quiet enough to hear him. "It's nearly curfew. You should return to your cabins immediately."
Grover sniffled as he was pushed along in the current of people leaving the amphitheater. "They messed up everything. The cast is all wrong. The plot is all wrong. The setting is all wrong."
Juniper patted his back. "Well, look on the bright side. At least they got the names right."
"That's pretty much the only thing they did get right," grumbled Thalia. "I still can't believe they forgot my tree. And Luke didn't come up with the idea to steal the bolt, Kronos manipulated him. It wasn't his fault!"
"I don't know what was up with the staying underwater thing, though. Only seven minutes? Lame," said Percy. "Although I did like all awesome my water powers."
Annabeth gave him a playful shove. "You so could not have done that back then. If I remember correctly, your water powers extended to toilet plumbing and water rides. Which reminds me, they didn't have the scene at Waterland, either."
"And what about Ares?" Grover said.
"And the Lotus Casino and Hotel? Lady Gaga, really?"
Chiron watched the last few stragglers disappear into the darkness in the direction of the cabins.
Something had to be done about this disgraceful movie.
But what?
