author's note: hello, sorryfor being MIA (again)! Thought I'd try something a bit different, and explore the actual consequences of the child of prophecy being female. This is pre-Percabeth, they're both fourteen, but it was interesting to write about them from a different angle.
The sky is blue, the sun is shining, and the birds are chirping. It would be a nice day if it weren't for Hunter Owens, the stupid Ares kid who is way too ripped for a fifteen-year-old, standing in front of Percy.
"No way," he barks. "No way the child of the prophecy is a chick."
The Ares kids aren't just typical jerkwads, Percy decides. They're advanced jerkwads. Jerkwads 2.0, new and improved. And she is totally going to tear them a new one, starting with Hunter, regardless of the fact that he's a year older and has forty pounds on her.
"What, you think you could do a better job?"
Hunter sneers – and seriously what kind of a name is Hunter? "Than a girl? Yeah. I do."
She reaches into her pocket for Riptide, then stops herself. What is she going to do, slice the guy in half? No, this is a good old-fashioned fistfight, one she's more than used to. All those years of being the school outcast taught her something. She's just about ready to throw a punch, tense and coiled, and from the looks of it, Hunter is too.
Something grasps her elbow firmly and yanks her away from Hunter. It's Alex, standing there with a book under the crook of one arm, like he was just heading back to his cabin for a long reading session (or whatever he does in his free time). "Hey!" Percy yells, indignant.
"Owens, don't you have some new campers to beat up on?" he says in an almost bored voice.
Hunter shifts on his feet, clearly still itching for a fight, but not that stupid that he'll readily pick one with a son of Athena. He's been around at camp long enough to know not to mess with Alex, and he only holds Percy's gaze for a moment before shrugging and walking away. "Whatever."
The moment he's out of sight, Alex whirls Percy around to face him, his mouth a thin line. "Seaweed Brain, do I have to keep you out of every fight around here? You have actual training to do."
"Yeah, but he was being a total dick—" she complains.
"He's an Ares kid. It's in their nature. You, on the other hand…"
"You don't get it, do you?" Percy shakes her head, brimming with frustration. "How could you get it?"
Alex doesn't flinch. "Oh, I get it –"
"No, you don't!" she's shouting now, her voice rising in volume, and she can't stop it. "You have no idea how many times I've heard that. Nobody thinks I can do it, Alex. Not even Chiron, I can tell. They – they think I'm too weak, or too fragile or whatever, to be the prophecy kid. It's just…" she can feel angry tears pricking at her eyes, but she won't cry, no way. Not now, not in front of Alex. "Just because I'm a freaking girl!"
He's taken aback. It's not what he was expecting, and Percy's shaken up now, knuckles going white as she clenches her fists. "Whoa," he says, touching a hand to her shoulder. "They don't mean that."
Percy looks down. "They do. It's just more of the same," she says in a bitter tone that is so not Percy it's disturbing. "I didn't ask for any of this. I don't even know what the prophecy is! And now people think I can't live up to something that I didn't even want in the first place."
He can every hear ounce of frustration and pent-up anger in her tone, and for the first time he realizes what it must be like for Percy. He's never given it much thought, but he supposes everyone had believed the would-be savior of Olympus was going to be… well… male. Percy's had two years of this, giving it all at camp and practically saving the world twice over, and still guys like Hunter don't think she can do it.
Something like fury flares up in his veins, and he has a sudden urge to go grab the Ares kid and see how he well he fares up against Alex's bronze dagger. It's so out of the blue that he feels startled. Alex is used to being the level-headed one, the one who leads with his head and not his heart, and it's strange being so angry on someone else's behalf.
"Nobody believes in me," Percy says quietly.
For a moment, Percy looks older than fourteen, and he can practically see it in the set of her jaw, the warrior that she's going to become. The hero she already is.
"It doesn't matter," Alex says resolutely. "Forget what they say. I believe in you."
He means it.
