A/N: Well thank you for those who reviewed! I give thanks to all the people that favorite and followed this story!
Disclaimer: I don't own any characters except for my oc's.
Chapter 2: Socks of Death and Losing Pants
"Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death," Athena stopped as everyone yelled at Percy.
"YOU SAW THE FATES?!" Everyone yelled at Percy, who flinched and scooted behind me to escape everyone's glares since he never told them about the fates.
"Lady Athena please continue before I get mauled by everyone that tries to get to Percy." I said, pleading to Athena because I do not want to get mauled for Percy's sake.
I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our math's teacher since Christmas.
Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodd's reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.
"Shelby not one word." Percy glared at me, right when I opened my mouth to comment.
I closed my mouth and pouted, while everyone laughed.
It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodd's had never existed.
Almost.
But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodd's to him, he would hesitate, and then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.
Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.
I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodd's with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.
"No! You are not allowed to meet her." Nico said, giving me a glare when I gave him a look saying that I wanted to meet her.
"Aw…" I pouted.
The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy.
One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.
I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from D's to F's.
"Been there done that. But I did manage to pull them up to either a high C or a B." I said, yawning laying back down as I used Rachel's leg as a pillow again.
"Why did your grades drop?" Athena asked, peering down at me.
I frowned at the question. I closed my eyes to clear any pain reflecting in my eyes that they could see, then opened up my eyes to answer the question.
"My parents got a divorce when I was in eighth grade. I'm a freshmen in college now. It was hard for a couple years. I was upset, it was hard to control my temper, my grades dropped from A's and B's to D's and F's. But I managed to bring them back up." I said, trying to keep the pain out of my voice as I answer the question.
"That's why you don't talk about your dad very much." Percy said, staring at me.
"Among other reasons that also go with the divorce. But yes, I don't talk about or to him very much anymore." I said, smiling sadly.
I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.
"That reminds me, what did you do to Nancy?" Percy asked, wondering what I did.
I shrugged. "Nothing much I just gave her some bad luck for a couple hours, like spilling her food and drinks on her, tying her shoes together, made a bucket filled with sardines dump all of it on her. I just did simple pranks like that."
Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot.
My eyebrows furrowed as I thought hard trying to remember what an old sot meant. I snapped my fingers when I remembered what is meant.
"Percy, it's the definition of Dionysus!" I exclaimed sitting up, pointing at the Wine God.
Everyone roared in laughter as Dionysus glared at me as he tried to strangle me with his vines but burst into flames before they could reach me, I stuck my tongue out at him in victory.
The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.
Fine, I told myself. Just fine.
I was homesick.
"You're not alone. When I go on trips to different states I get homesick, missing my mom." I said, smiling at Percy.
"Wimps" Ares mocked us.
"I'm sorry. Who are you to talk when you still leave with your mother? No offense to you Lady Hera." I said smiling sweetly with a hidden promise of pain in his near future.
I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.
"That doesn't sound at all like Paul." Rachel said, confused.
"It's not. Paul is my second step-dad. This one is my first step-dad." Percy said, glaring at the ground.
And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods outside my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.
I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.
As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.
The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room.
"Percy!" I gasped.
Hecate rolled her eyes. "You do it too." Hecate said scolding me.
I smiled sheepishly as I scratched the back of my head as everyone laughed.
Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.
I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.
I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.
I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.
I cheered only to stop when Nico covered my mouth with his hand to keep me from making any more noises.
I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.
I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.
I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.
I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said,"... worried about Percy, sir."
I froze.
I'm not usually an eavesdropper,
"Really? Because I remember a time that you used Annabeth's invisible hat standing behind Nico to eavesdrop on Zo-"I managed to say in a sarcastic tone to Percy before Nico covered my mouth again.
"What was she about to say?" Annabeth asked Nico and Percy narrowing her eyes at them.
"It's probably in one of the books!" Nico and Percy said nervously.
But I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.
I inched closer.
"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too—"
"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."
"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead line—"
"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."
"Sir, he saw her..."
"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."
"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."
"Poor Grover… Hey Hecate! Can we get Grover here?" I asked, finally managing to get away from Nico sitting far away from him as possible going in between Frank and Leo.
"Why not. But I will have to bring someone from your world if I am going to bring the satyr here." Hecate said.
My eye started to twitch. "When you say someone?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at my honorary mother.
"I am talking about one of your brothers." Hecate said, giving me a look that says I won't be able to change her mind.
"Why would you do this to me?!" I groaned, burying my head in my hands.
"Because I can. I'll be back as soon as I can with the satyr and one of your brothers." Hecate said as she vanished in a black fog.
The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.
"Good going." Nico snickered, but ended up being smacked on the head by Percy.
Mr. Brunner went silent.
My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.
A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.
I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.
A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on.
A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.
Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."
"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."
"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."
"Don't remind me."
The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.
I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.
Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.
Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.
"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"
I didn't answer.
"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"
"Just... tired."
I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.
"Satyrs can sense emotions." Dionysus said, rolling his eyes at Percy's stupidity.
"I know that now." Percy grumbled.
I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.
But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.
The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.
For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.
"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."
His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.
I mumbled, "Okay, sir."
"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."
My eyes stung.
Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.
"Right," I said, trembling.
"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"
"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."
"Percy—"
But I was already gone.
On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.
The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.
"Hey!" All the Gods declared, glaring at Percy as I snickered to myself.
"I didn't know!" Percy said trying to defend himself.
They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.
What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.
"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."
They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.
The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had,
So there we were, together again, heading into the city.
During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.
Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.
Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.
A bright flash filled the room, I had to shield my eyes cause of the brightness. When it was over, I saw two people standing by Hecate looking at us in confusion and excitement.
I see a tall satyr with curly brown hair, brown eyes, small horns, Caucasian skin, chin wispy beard and hairy brown goat legs. The other person is my brother Spencer. Spencer is 5'5 with brown hair and green eyes. He is currently wearing a blue Minecraft shirt and blue basketball shorts.
"Introduce yourself." Zeus said, looking down at the two of them.
"Grover Underwood, satyr, Seeker and the Lord of the Wild." Grover said.
"Lord of the Wild?" Dionysus asked raising his eyebrow.
"That's right he found Pan, it's in one of the books." I said, hugging Grover as he came over to our group to sit down.
Spencer looked over to me for help. I stand up and roll my eyes as I walk over to him.
"This is Spencer, he is one of my little brothers. I have two little brothers and an older brother." I said, poking him in the head.
He gave a wave since he was unsure why he is here.
"What are you doing that Hecate sent me here." Spencer asked as he walked over to everyone else with me.
"We are reading the Percy Jackson series, then the Heroes of Olympus series afterwards." I said as we sat down.
"Ooo... Wait don't you have a crush on one of the characters in the book?" Spencer asked all of a sudden remembering what I told him a while ago.
"NO!" I said panicking a little as I said it a little too quickly.
'Not good. Not good!' I shook my head vigorously telling him to stop.
"Yes you do! What was his name? … Well I don't remember his name but I remember you said it didn't matter since he is attracted to the same gender." Spencer said, nodding to himself that he remembered what I told him.
"Lady Athena PLEASE continue reading!" I asked, pleading for her to keep reading as I ignored Nico and Jason staring at me being the only two that know what Spencer was talking about.
I said, 'looking for Kindly Ones?'"
"Scared the crap out of me." Grover muttered, as he glared at Percy.
"Sorry." Percy said.
Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"
I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.
Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"
"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"
He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"
"Grover—"
"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodd's, and ..."
"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."
Everyone laughed.
His ears turned pink.
From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.
The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:
Grover Underwood
Keeper
Half-Blood Hill
Long Island, New York
(800) 009-0009
"What's Half—?"
"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."
My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.
"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."
He nodded. "Or...or if you need me."
"Why would I need you?"
Why would I need you?"
It came out harsher than I meant it to.
Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."
I stared at him.
All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.
"Grover," I said, "What exactly are you protecting me from?"
There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs.
The driver cursed and steered the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.
After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have
We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.
The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.
I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.
All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.
The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.
I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.
"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"
"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"
"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"
I quickly scooted over to Percy, punched him hard on his arm and scooted all the way back beside Frank and Leo away from Nico for a bit.
Percy rubs his arm relieving the pain as he glances back and forth between Nico and I trying to figure out what was going on between us that is making me act that way.
"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."
The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.
"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."
"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."
"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.
Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.
Her two friends balled up the electric blue socks, leaving me to wonder who they could possibly be for- Sasquatch or Godzilla.
At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.
The passengers cheered.
"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"
Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.
Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.
"Grover?"
"Yeah?"
"What are you not telling me?"
"Everything." Everyone said, staring at Percy.
He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"
"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodd's, are they?"
His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodd's. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."
"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."
He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.
He said, "You saw her snip the cord."
"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.
"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."
"What last time?"
"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."
"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"
"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."
This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.
Grover glared at Percy. "Some promise."
"Sorry you were freaking me out." Percy said.
"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.
No answer.
"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"
Again everyone shivered.
He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.
"That's the end of the chapter. Who is going to read next?" Athena said, asking me whose turn it is to read.
"I'll read it." Artemis said, taking the book from Athena.
"But first, we will take a break to eat then get back into the book." Zeus said, making food appear in front of us.
"Okay." Everyone chorused together as everyone except for me started eating since I went and hid myself to have a couple minutes alone.
I hid in the shadows eating my own food that I have from my bag, in the corner of the room being able to blend in with the black clothing I am wearing. I thought I wouldn't have been bothered as I ate my food when Nico plopped down next to me.
"Next time you want to eat alone, find a better hiding place one that I can't be able to sense you in. Or solidifying to keep you from leaving until I tell you something." Nico said, using his abilities over shadows to wrap it around my waist to keep me from leaving the corner.
He was just about to say something else when Zeus said that we were going back to reading the book. Before he could focus back towards me, I used that distraction to get the shadow from my waist and scurried over to Thalia to sit next to her.
He glared at me when he came over to sit down, sitting next to Leo.
"Grover Unexpectedly Loses his Pants." Artemis began.
"Why is this chapter called this?" Demeter asked Percy.
"I don't know. I didn't write it." Percy said shrugging.
"The chapters are pretty much based on what the chapter content is about, which is usually the case. We have to read to see why this chapter is about Grover losing his pants." I said grinning at Grover.
"If it makes you feel any better to know, Shelby lost her pants before." Spencer said, grinning at a chance to embarrass me more in front of everyone.
My face turns red from embarrassment. Everyone turns toward me to hear how I lost them.
"It was one time! We were at a lake, Spencer and I were inner tubing and during it my swimsuit bottoms came off, I tried grabbing them as I let go of the tube but I lost them." I said, glaring at Spencer.
Everyone laughs.
Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.
"You shouldn't have." Grover said, glaring at Percy.
"I said I was sorry!" Percy said.
I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to be sixth grade?"
Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.
"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.
A word about my mother, before you meet her.
"She's awesome!" Annabeth, Rachel, and Grover said together.
"The best." Thalia said.
"Makes yummy food that is blue." I said, picturing the blue cake and cookies.
"Amazing and Kind." Nico added.
Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.
Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program.
Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.
The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.
I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile.
My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.
See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.
Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.
She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.
Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nick-named him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.
I wrinkled my noise at imagining the smell of Gabe. While everyone scrunched their noses in disgust at the detailed description.
Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.
I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.
Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."
"Where's my mom?"
"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"
"Ass." I muttered to myself quietly.
That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?
Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.
I gagged along with everyone else.
He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.
"WHAT?!" Poseidon roared.
"Dad, calm down! Whether or not he hit me there is nothing we can do to him anyways. He is dealt with." Percy said, calming Poseidon down.
"I don't have any cash," I told him.
He raised a greasy eyebrow.
Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.
"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"
Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy.
"Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."
"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.
Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.
"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."
"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"
I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.
I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.
"Hey Percy…" I started.
"No you cannot go stab them." Percy said, knowing what I was going to ask.
I pouted, causing everyone to laugh.
Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds,
Or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.
But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.
Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"
She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.
My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room.
"Aww..." All the girls and Goddesses cooed, making Percy blush.
Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few grey streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad.
I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.
"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"
Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.
"Lucky… I want some candy…" Spencer muttered.
I rolled my eyes and chucked a bag filled with candy (skittles, starbursts, and sour patches) that are his favorites at him. It hits him right in the chest. When he looks through the bag his eyes light up.
Everyone that is sitting around me gives me the puppy eyes and pouting, wanting candy. I sighed as I take out a huge bag from my backpack filled with all kinds of candy putting it in the middle of the group.
We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?
I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.
"Aww…" All the girls said.
From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?"
I gritted my teeth.
"Can I please go and stab him?" I asked, pleading for some violence towards Gabe.
"I said no!" Percy said, glaring at me.
"Seriously Shelby? You always say you want to stab or bite someone. Then other times you say that 'my bear will eat your liver' and 'my cow will devour your soul'." Spencer said, shaking his head at my behavior.
The Gods and the quintet that don't know me very well (Jason, Leo, Frank, Hazel, and Piper) looked at me in confusion, while the others snickered quietly to themselves knowing why I say them.
I shrugged. "I don't like cussing very much, instead I say 'I will bite or stab you' and 'my bear will eat your liver' or 'my cow will devour your soul' when I am annoyed at someone or angry. But sometimes if I am really mad I do tend to cuss at people.
"But you say it all the time!" Spencer said obnoxiously.
"Yes, yes I do. I say it all the time because I get annoyed quite often by either you or Logan." I said, raising my eyebrow at him.
My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.
"Percy I'm glad your mom has Paul now and not some other guy." I said, smiling towards Percy.
"How do you know?" Spencer asked.
"The books, if you actually finish the first series then you would know what I am talking about and I actually meet them." I said, sticking my tongue at my brother.
For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself.
I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.
Until that trip to the museum...
"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"
"No, Mom."
"Liar!" Everyone shouted.
I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.
"Your mother would have understand, she's clear sighted." Poseidon said, surprising his siblings that Percy's mom was clear sighted.
"I didn't know at the time, I thought I was crazy! I didn't want to tell my mom crazy things." Percy said.
"Clear sighted? What's that?" Spencer asked, not knowing what it meant.
My eye twitched in irritation. 'If you read the whole series and not have stopped on the first book you would know what it means.' Is what I wanted to say but instead I said this.
"Clear sight is the ability to see through the Mist, the force that hides the truth from most humans. Some humans are born with this gift. The Mist is a supernatural force controlled by Hecate that twists a human's sight from seeing monsters, Gods, Titans, and various other mythical creatures and supernatural occurrences by replacing them with things the human mind knows about and can comprehend which includes seeing magical weapons, as Percy's sword Riptide sometimes appears as a rifle or a baseball bat. Sally Jackson- Percy's mom, and Rachel before she became the Oracle of Delphi, has the ability to see through the Mist." I said, explaining the whole clear sight and the Mist to Spencer.
"Right… And how do you know all that?" Spencer asked.
"Listen to me very carefully." I said, with firmness in my voice.
"Okay…" Spencer said.
"READ THE BOOKS!" I growled.
He puts up his hands giving me an 'I surrender don't hurt me' gesture as he scoots back a bit away from me.
She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.
"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."
My eyes widened. "Montauk?"
"Three nights—same cabin."
"When?"
She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."
I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.
Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"
I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.
"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."
Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"
"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."
"He better." Poseidon muttered darkly, causing everyone to shiver in fear as the room becomes humid.
"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."
Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"
I quickly plugged my ears knowing what is coming, giving Annabeth, Thalia, Hazel, Piper, and Rachel a discreet sign to plug them with me.
"WHAT?! HE DID NOT JUST SAY THAT!? YOU CAN'T PUT A BUDGET ON CLOTHES?!" Aphrodite screamed, making everyone in the throne room deaf for a few seconds from how loud she screamed.
All the guys except for Tyson, glared at me for not warning them beforehand that she was going to scream in outrage. While the girls I told to plug their ears gave me thankful smiles.
"Yes, honey," my mother said.
"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."
"We'll be very careful."
Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."
"How about kicking you where the sun doesn't shine." I muttered evilly.
Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.
"DO IT!" Ares shouted, wanting the violence.
"Shelby thought like Percy!? The world is coming to an end!" Leo exclaimed while I rolled my eyes.
But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.
"Aww." Ares whined.
Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?
"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."
Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.
"Yeah, whatever," he decided.
He went back to his game.
"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"
For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.
But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.
An hour later we were ready to leave.
Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.
"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."
Percy and Grover burst out laughing remembering what happened to Gabe's car. I snickered quietly. Everyone gives them weird looks.
"You'll see." Percy choked out in mid laugh.
Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.
Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the stair case as if he'd been shot from a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.
"I still don't know how he did that." I muttered.
"Don't over think it. I still don't know how I did it." Percy chuckled.
I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.
Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in. I loved the place.
We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.
As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.
We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine.
We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.
"What's with all the blue food?" Zeus asked.
I guess I should explain the blue food.
See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.
"More like an obedience one." I snorted, getting a high five from Thalia and Annabeth.
When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.
Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.
"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."
Everyone looked at Percy and Poseidon noticing what the book said.
Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."
I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.
"I don't care about that, Percy." Poseidon said.
"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"
She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."
"But... he knew me as a baby."
"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."
I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.
"I did visit you." Poseidon admitted.
I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me...
I felt angry at my father.
Poseidon became tensed bowing his head in shame.
Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.
"I don't feel that way anymore." Percy said, understanding why he did what he had to do.
"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"
She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.
"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."
"Because you don't want me around?"
"Percy!" Annabeth, Thalia, and Rachel angrily yelled.
Percy flinched. "I was ashamed as soon as I said it."
I regretted the words as soon as they were out.
"Good." Everyone said, nodding to themselves accepting it.
My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away." Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy.
"Because I'm not normal," I said.
"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."
"Safe from what?"
"Oh nothing, just Zeus and Hades and some monsters out to get you." Nico and I said.
She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me-all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.
During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.
"Why was Brother Cyclops at Percy's school?" Tyson asked.
"I sent him to make sure Percy was alright and safe." Poseidon said.
Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.
"Like Hercules." Ares said.
The room becomes tense at the mention of Hercules. Percy and Thalia were glaring at the ground. Some of the seven, mostly Jason and Piper were also glaring at the ground at the mention of Hercules.
"What's the matter with them?" Zeus asked, not getting why everyone is angry at Hercules.
None of the Seven, Grover, Tyson, Rachel, Thalia, or Nico wanted to say anything. I shook my head and sighed.
"It's explained in two books. One in this series, and the other in the Heroes of Olympus series. He deserted and betrayed Zoe, and he is an A class jerk. More will be explained in the books." I said, keeping the anger out of my voice.
In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.
I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.
"Percy…" Everyone groaned.
"At the time, my mom and I weren't alone in years and she hadn't had a vacation in a while either." Percy explained.
"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy-the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."
"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"
"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."
"Camp Half-Blood!" All of the Seven, Tyson, Rachel, Nico, Thalia, Grover, and I cheered.
"Why are you cheering?" Spencer asked me, in confusion.
"I've been there before. I can stay in any cabins I want, but I mostly just stay in both Percy's, and Annabeth's cabin. Or the Artemis cabin when Thalia and the other hunters are at the camp. Sometimes I stay outside to be with nature and the animals." I said, shrugging.
"Does Chiron and I know?" Dionysus asked, surprising us that he is paying attention.
"I think so. Neither Chiron nor you said anything when I first started staying in the cabins. I mean I was able to enter the camp when I'm not a demigod, but I do have the abilities of one… More like all of them, but that doesn't happen until around the fourth or fifth book of this series, which I don't exist in at all." I said.
"You don't? How is that possible?" Apollo said, staring at me confused.
I face palmed as I groaned at his stupidity knowing how Artemis feels now. Artemis rolled her eyes and shot an arrow at his leg.
"Oww! Why did you do that sis?" Apollo shouted in pain.
"Because you are an idiot and don't call me sis!" Artemis said.
y head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born— talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?
"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."
"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."
She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.
That night I had a vivid dream.
"Hate your dreams Percy, something bad always happens." Annabeth, Thalia, and Nico said
It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.
Everyone gave Zeus and Poseidon pointed stares.
The eagle swooped down and slashed at the horses muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagle's wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.
"Hades." Zeus and Poseidon said together.
"Not Hades." The ones who knew who it really was muttered.
I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!
"Ha! I won!" Zeus said.
We rolled our eyes at his behavior.
I woke with a start.
Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.
With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."
I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.
Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.
"I wonder who that will be…" I said, rolling my eyes.
Grover slapped the back of my head while Thalia shocked my arm.
My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.
Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.
"How is that possi…? Oh. I get it." Leo said.
"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"
"We could have avoided what happened if you didn't break your promise!" Grover said glaring at Percy.
"I said I was sorry! And I know!" Percy said.
My mother looked at me in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.
"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"
I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.
"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"
I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on—and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be...
My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"
I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs Dodd's, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.
She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"
Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.
Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.
"That's the end of the chapter. Who wants to read next?" Artemis said.
"I will!" Leo said excitedly.
He jumps up and takes the book from Artemis's hand and plops back down by Jason and Piper to read.
"Leo if you make my book catch on fire, I will hurt you." I said, glaring at Leo.
He gulped. "Okay."
"Good!" I said giving him a smile.
"So… How do you not exist in the books?" Apollo asked, dodging an arrow from Artemis.
I glanced at Hecate quickly getting a nod to go ahead and explain to the Sun God.
"Because I wasn't written in it by the Author, who wrote the books. But I am able to go to other worlds/dimensions because of what Fate did to me.* Sometimes I end up in the worlds on accident and other times because I am bored at home I want to meet my favorite characters from books I read, movies, and TV shows." I said.
"How does going to other worlds work?" Hermes asked curiously.
"I make portals that throws me out of them sometimes. Then on the accidents I try doing things I see on my TV shows not knowing that it will actually work and end up sending me to that world. Other times my TV is a portal to a field of different TVs that lead to other worlds. I really don't know how those work but when I make the portals, my energy and a bit of my blood is needed to make it." I said, scratching the back of my head.
"It throws you out?! That's hilarious!" Ares and Spencer laughed.
My eye twitched in irritation as I glared at the War God and rolled my eyes at Spencer used to his laughing on the portal matter.. 'How would you like it if you made a portal then threw you out afterwards…' I thought glaring at Ares.
"Were the side effects of you being thrown out of the portal?" Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Hades, the quintet, Hestia, Demeter, and Dionysus asked, while Aphrodite, Athena, and Artemis were thinking.
I scowled. "Sort of." I said not wanting to elaborate much about it.
"You either put too much or too little energy into it." Athena concluded.
"Pretty much." I said, grinning at Athena knowing that she would be able to figure it out.
"What's your thoughts on beauty?!" Aphrodite asked smiling, clapping her hands together in glee at whatever so just thought of.
"I believe inner beauty is what truly counts." I said giving it a moment of thought.
Aphrodite's smile dropped a bit giving me a frown. "Don't you want to put make up on and look pretty?" She asked, staring at me in confusion.
"Well yes, but I only really put all of my makeup on when it's a special occasion, like my birthday, special events and holidays. Other times I only put mascara, and eyeliner on. I believe that true beauty in a women is reflected from in her soul. The caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows. Our personality, intelligence, grace, politeness, charisma, integrity, congruence and elegance are what I think truly matters. If someone wants to enhance their appearance a bit there is nothing wrong with it." I said, answering from my heart.
Aphrodite looked at me in silence. A few minutes pass with her silently staring at me when she gives me a megawatt beaming smile agreeing completely with my answer.
"Any good with weapons?" Ares asked, at the same time as Artemis asking her own question.
"You don't have a problem with the animals when you stay outside?" Artemis asked, glaring a bit at Ares for asking at the same time as her.
I ignored Ares question and proceeded to answer Artemis. "Nope, not at all. I feel more at ease being outside with animals when I am upset about something or I need some peace and quiet."
"Interesting." Was all she said.
"Weapons!?" Ares growled at me not liking that I ignored him.
I rolled my eyes. "You need to chill… Let's see… Bow and arrows, anything that involves throwing things: axes, knifes, and clubs. Slingshots, spears, shurikens, boomerang, chakrams, kunai, and crossbows. I hate guns, but it doesn't mean I don't know how to use them. Any blunt weapons really, Bo staffs. Tiger claws are pretty much the only hand or fist weapons I know. Some of the shortswords. Almost all of the swords. Knifes and daggers. But the main things I am good at are Katanas and two bladed swords like the flame-bladed sword." I said listing them off not noticing everyone's shocked expression.
"Any more questions or can we continue reading now?" Zeus asked everyone.
No one says anything as we all look around seeing if anyone had any more questions but no one did. So Leo began reading the next chapter.
…
A/N: AAND THAT'S THE END OF THE CHAPTER! So two questions I have for all of you. One, should I keep Nico gay, make him bi, or straight? Two, any more characters to send back to read the books and who will it be? Please review or pm me for any ideas, I will greatly appreciate it. Keep a look out for the Percy Jackson story that will be posted in a month or two about my oc Shelby transported into the Percy Jackson universe sometime in the fourth or fifth book in the first series. I'm not sure yet and I don't quite have a title yet. Any whose I'll try to update as quickly as I can.
* Read Fiction Becomes Reality or Backlash Wave of a Portal to find out.