Rumors about what happened in the bathroom with the butch girl Clarisse spread like wildfire. Wherever Percy and I went together, the kid campuses pointed at us and murmured something, usually using the words "toilet water". Or they could've been staring at Annabeth, who was still pretty much drenched.
She showed us a few more places—the metal shop, arts-and-crafts, a climbing wall that sprayed lava and dropped boulders and tried to squish you if you weren't quick enough.
After seeing all of those fun activities, we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.
"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."
"Annabeth," Percy said quickly. "We're sorry about the toilets."
"Whatever."
"It wasn't our fault," I tried to defend, but the words sort of lost the meaning behind them as I realized it really was our faults. I had no idea how, but Percy and I forced water out of the faucets and the toilets. The water just knew we needed saving, and responded.
"You two need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said suddenly.
"The what?" Percy and I asked at the same time.
"Not who. What. The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron."
Percy stared into the lake, and I knew why. Why couldn't someone just give us a straight answer?
I moved toward Percy and glanced at the water with him. I gasped in surprise when I saw two teenage girls sitting at the bottom of the lake toward the base of the pier with their legs crossed. They were about twenty feet beneath the surface. They wore blue jeans and almost glittering green t-shirts. Their brown hair floated loosely around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved at Percy and I as if we were long lost friends.
I glanced to my brother, and he shrugged. We both waved back.
"Don't encourage them," Annabeth told us, but it seemed mostly directed at Percy. "Naiads are terrible flirts."
"Naiads," Percy said, his green eyes showing the entirety of the overwhelmed emotions that he and I both felt. "That's it. I want to go home now."
Annabeth huffed and frowned at them. "Don't you two get it yet? You two are home. This is the only place on earth safe for kids like us."
"Safe for the mentally disturbed kids?" I asked with a frown, almost trembling again as the buildup of the day and the experience with the Minotaur completely sank in, and… oh, I want to go home.
Percy noticed and pulled me closer to his side.
Annabeth answered my smart-aleck remark. "I mean not human. Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."
"Half-human and half-what?"
Percy and I traded wary glances, and I leaned on my twin a little heavier. We both knew what it was. After all of this stuff, there was no way we couldn't know. My arms tingled—the weird they did when our mom would mention our dad.
"God," I whispered almost weakly. My voice was louder for the next statement. "We're half-god."
Annabeth nodded. "Your father isn't dead. He's one of the Olympians."
"That's… crazy." Percy said, gently supporting me.
"Is it?" Annabeth asked. "What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?"
"But those are just—" Percy cut himself off, and I knew why. He almost said myths again. "But if all the kids here are half-gods—"
"Demigods," Annabeth corrected. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods."
"Then whose your dad?" Percy finished.
Annabeth frowned deeply, her hands tight around the pier railing. I realized then that Percy had poked a sensitive topic.
"My dad is a professor at West Point," she replied flatly. "I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history."
"He's human."
"What?" Annabeth asked. "You assume that it had to be a male god that finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?"
I snorted. "Yeah, Percy. Women can choose their man just like a man can choose his woman. We have free will."
Percy frowned at me, but otherwise ignored my comments. "Whose your mom, then?"
"Cabin six."
"That doesn't really help us that much," I pointed out. "Don't know what cabin that is."
Annabeth straightened. "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle."
I was impressed. She sounded pretty cool.
"And our dad?" Percy and I asked in unison.
"Undetermined," Annabeth replied, "like I told you before. Nobody knows."
"Except our mom," I grumbled, "she knew."
"Maybe not, Jayme. Gods don't always reveal their identities."
"My dad would have. He loved her." Percy said with an air of finality.
Annabeth looked at my twin cautiously, like she didn't want to burst his bubble on it. "Maybe your right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way you guys will know for sure—your father will send a sign claiming you two as his children. Sometimes it happens."
"Sometimes it doesn't?" Percy asked in surprise.
Annabeth looked at her hand, which she was sliding over the railing. "The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always… Well, sometimes they don't care about us. They ignore us."
I had a sudden realization I couldn't help but mention. "Is that why that kid on the roof—Ben—was so upset?"
"Ben's been here since he was a baby," Annabeth explained. "His mortal—human parent died when he was a baby and whoever his godly parent was dropped him off here and never claimed him. Still hasn't. Chiron raised him from then on."
I looked down, suddenly partially understanding why he had reacted so poorly.
I glanced at Percy and we silently agreed to change the subject.
"So we're stuck here?" Percy asked. "That's it? For the rest of our lives?"
"It depends," Annabeth told us. "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a chains of Aphrodite or Demeter, you're probably not a real powerfully force. The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble—about ten or eleven, but after that most demigods make their way here or get killed off. A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them."
Percy and I traded wary glances.
"Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that."
"So monsters can't get in here?" I asked, raising both eyebrows.
Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by someone on the inside."
"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?" Percy asked, sounding thoroughly confused and just as concerned.
"Practice fights. Practical jokes."
"Practical jokes?" Percy and I asked at the same time.
"The point is," Annabeth completely dodged their question. "The borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm."
"So… you're a year-rounder?" Percy asked.
Annabeth nodded and pulled a necklace with five clay beads of different colors on it from under her orange shirt. It was exactly like the one that Luke had, except hers had a golden ring on it that looked like it was from a college.
"I've been here since I was seven," she explained. "Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college."
"Why did you come so young?" I asked curiously.
She frowned and twisted her necklace. "None of your business."
I raised my hands in surrender.
"So we could just walk out of here right now if we wanted to?" Percy asked, changing the subject almost defensively.
"It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless…"
"Unless?" Percy and I asked in unison once again.
Annabeth's expression showed how irritated that their shared statements were making her. It didn't mean they were going to stop. "Unless you were granted. But that hardly ever happens. The last time…"
Her voice trailed off. Whatever it was, it wasn't good.
"Back in the sick room," Percy started, "when you were feeding us that stuff—"
"Ambrosia."
"Yeah, that. You asked me something about the summer solstice."
I frowned at my twin. "You didn't tell me that."
Percy shrugged slightly.
Annabeth tensed—it was visible in her shoulders. "So you do know something?"
"Well… no," Percy admitted. "Back at my old school, JJ and I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?"
Annabeth clenched her fists. "I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong on Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so normal."
I was suddenly startled. "You've been to Olympus?"
"Some of us year-rounders—Luke and Clarisse and I and a few others—we took a field trip during winter solstice. That's when the gods have their big annual council."
"But…" Percy asked for me. "How did you get there?"
"The Long Island Railroad, of course." Annabeth replied calmly, and much too simply. "You get off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special elevator to the six hundredth floor." She glanced between us like we should've already known this. "You two are New Yorkers, right?"
"Oh, yeah," my twin and I said together once again. But I was almost positive there were only one hundred and two floors in the Empire State Building, not six hundred. I refrained from saying anything, though.
"Right after we visited," Annabeth continued, "the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting. A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. And if it isn't returned by summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you guys came, I was hoping… I mean—Athena can get along with just about anybody, except for Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon. But, I mean, besides that, I thought we could work together. I thought you two might know something."
Percy and I shook our heads. I glanced at my brother and understood that both of us wished we could help her, but we were too hungry, too tired, and too overwhelmed to ask anymore questions.
"I've got to get a quest," Annabeth muttered to herself suddenly. "I'm not too young. If they would just tell me the problem…"
I was suddenly distracted from the rest of her mumbling at the smell of barbecue smoke floating around the camp from somewhere nearby. Annabeth must've heard our stomachs, though I hoped she didn't, because she told Percy and I to go on, that's she'd catch up later.
We left her on the pier while she traced her finger over the railings in patterns that looked like a battle plan.
When we returned to cabin eleven, every kid in there was talking or horsing around, including the kid Ben, the unclaimed one that had broken his arm. As I glanced around the room, it was surprisingly easy to see which children were related through their godly parent Hermes in the cabin. Many of them had sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, and mischievous smiles. They definitely looked like the kind of kids that teachers would just know caused trouble. Nobody paid Percy and I as we slipped over to our spots on the floor beside one another, and we sat down the the Minotaur horn.
The counselor, Luke, walked over after finishing his conversation with the boy with the broken arm. He had the family resemblance too, but it was marred by the scar on his right cheek. His smile was still cute, though. Oh no, what's happening to me?
"Found you guys some sleeping bags," he said with a smile, but he only sat down one that he had in his arms. He turned around to yell, "Ben! Bring that other sleeping bag!"
The scrawny kid that fell off the roof of this cabin scampered over quickly, holding a second rolled up sleeping bag. "Here, Luke," he said, tossing it with his hand that wasn't confined by a sling.
Luke caught it. "Thanks, kid. Come say hi to our new campers. You know, the ones you freaked out when you fell off the roof."
Ben grinned, his strange silver eyes sparkling. "Oh yeah. I do recognize you guys. I'm Ben, Ben Maddox."
"Percy Jackson," my brother introduced himself, and then looked at me. "This is my twin sister, Jayme."
"Jayme," Ben said with a nod. "Cool name. Nice to meet you guys."
Jayme nodded back slightly. "Nice to meet you too."
Luke ruffled Ben's reddish tinted brown hair and smiled before the unclaimed boy scampered off.
Luke turned back to us. "Oh, I also stole you some toiletries from the camp store."
Percy and I traded glances. Was he kidding?
"Thanks," Percy replied for the both of us.
"No prob." Luke sat down beside Percy, pushing his back against the wall. "Tough first day?"
"We don't belong here," Percy answered. "Neither of us even believe in gods."
"Pretty much everyone here started like that," Luke told them, but on his next statement was almost bitter. "But believing in them doesn't make it any easier."
Percy and I traded surprised glances. The bitterness surprised us both. Luke seemed pretty easygoing, like he could take anything in stride.
"So your dad is Hermes?" Percy asked.
I froze when Luke pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, terrified he was going to assault Percy, but instead he just scraped mud off the sole of his shoe. "Yeah, Hermes."
"The wing-footed messenger guy," I clarified.
"That's him," Luke affirmed. "Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors."
I snorted. "He's the jack of all trades god? You'd think he'd have a bigger cabin."
Luke snorted in laughter, though it still looked like he had a lot on his mind.
"You ever meet your dad?" Percy asked after a moment.
"Once."
Percy and I waited patiently for more elaboration, but it never came. Neither of us would push either—he would've told us if he wanted to.
Luke looked up a moment later and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, guys. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other."
He seemed to understand how wholly lost Percy and I felt. I couldn't help but feel thankful for that. Most of the time, older kids—counselors or not—would steer clear of middle school losers like we were. Luke had surprised Percy and I both by welcoming us into the cabin with open arms. He'd even stolen stuff for us, which—besides Percy's comforting—was the nicest thing anybody had done for us all day.
Finally, Percy brought up the question that both of us were wondering about. "Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about us being 'Big Three' material. Then Annabeth said that we could be 'the ones'. She said we should talk to the Oracle."
"What's all that about?" I finished for Percy.
Luke frowned and folded his knife. "I hate prophecies."
Percy and I looked at each other before turning back to Luke and asking together, "What do you mean?"
His face twitched around the scar. "Let's just say I messed everything up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hadn't allowed any more quests. Annabeth and Ben have been dying to get out into the world. They've pestered Chiron so much he already told them that he knew their fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn't tell her the whole thing, but he said they weren't destined to go on a quest yet—apparently it said they'd go together. But they had to wait until… two special people came to camp."
"Special people?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Don't worry about it, kid," Luke assured. "Annabeth wants to think that every new camper that comes through it at least half of the omen she's been waiting for. Ben's less of a control freak. He knows it'll happen when it happens. Now, come on, it's dinnertime."
The moment Luke announced it to us, a horn blew in the distance. Somehow I could tell it was a conch shell, even without ever hearing one before.
"Eleven, fall in!" Luke ordered.
The twenty kids in the cabin (give or take a few) filed into the commons yard. We lined up in order of seniority, so of course I was dead last, just behind Percy. It seemed a little unfair to me, since Percy and I had the same seniority here, but since he was three minutes older than meI let it slide. This time. What surprised me more than that was that the kid Ben was just behind Luke in seniority. I hadn't noticed it before, but he also had five of those clay beads around his neck.
That did not help how I felt about this whole claiming thing. If Ben had been here five years and never been claimed, what chance did a loser like me have?
I tried to wipe that thought from my mind as we marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs flanked one side as they came up from the meadow, and naiads emerged from the canoeing lake on the other side. A few other girls popped straight out of the woods—literally. Percy and I gaped as we saw a girl that looked about nine or ten jump from the inside of a maple tree.
I looked curiously around the pavilion when we arrived. Torches blazed near every marble column; a central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub; there was a table for each cabin, every one with a white tablecloth that was trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was ridiculously overcrowded. Percy squished himself onto the end, but half of his butt was still over the edge. I had to sit in the floor beside the table, which made Percy look thoroughly irritated.
I glanced around and noticed Grover sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few other satyrs, and two rotund blonde boys that looked a lot like Mr. D. Chiron stood off to the side, probably because the picnic table was too small for the centaur.
Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious looking athletic kids with the same stormy gray eyes and sandy blonde hair she had.
Clarisse was at the Ares table, having apparently gotten past being hosed down in the toilet water because she was laughing and belching alongside the rest of her nasty cabin.
I was jarred in surprise when Chiron stomped his hoof onto the marble floor, and the place fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"
Everyone but Percy and I raised their glasses. "To the gods!"
Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and barbecue. I was so happy, and I could see Percy was too.
Luke looked at Percy and said, "Speak to your glass. It'll give you whatever drink you want—nonalcoholic, or course."
Percy and I looked at each other curiously. I took my cup off the end of the table. "Cherry coke," I said, though it almost sounded like a question.
The cup filled with sparkling caramel liquid.
Percy and I were both thoroughly impressed before we smiled mischievously at one another.
"Blue Cherry Coke." We said in unison.
The liquid in both glasses turned a bright shade of cobalt blue.
I sipped it carefully. Perfect.
Percy and I gently clanked our glasses together in a toast to our mother.
"She's not gone," Percy reminded me. "Not permanently, anyways. She's in the Underworld—"
"—and if Olympus is real, so is that." I finished for him. "We can get her back."
"Here you go, Percy," Luke said, sliding him a platter of smoked brisket.
Percy loaded his plate full before filling mine.
I was about to dig in when a figure plopped into the floor beside me, much to my surprise. It was Ben, the scrawny unclaimed kid with the strange silver eyes.
"Before you started chowing down," he started with a smile, "come with me. And bring your plate."
I wasn't sure why, but I trusted him and followed. Percy followed Luke to do what looked like the same thing.
"It's an offering for the gods," Ben explained, tapping the bottom of his plate in a rapid rhythm with his broken arm. "We're supposed to give the best piece of our meal to them."
"That seems grossly unfair," I said with a frown. "And hard to figure out. What if I think the best part of the meal is a ripe strawberry, but they think it's an apple?"
Ben laughed and smiled at her, which was surprisingly cute from the chubby face it came from. He was still tapping the bottom of his plate as he answered. "Good point. I guess they just go by our opinions."
He reached the bathtub sized brazier and pushed forward his three juiciest strawberries. "For… whoever."
That suddenly reminded me that he was unclaimed too, and I felt a little less humiliated about pushing my food to an unknown deity. I stepped up next and tossed in a few of my ripest green grapes. "Uh, what he said."
I was surprised when I smelled the smoke, which didn't smell at all like smoke. It was like hot cocoa and brownies and cookies, grilling hamburgers, wildflowers, and a million other pleasant smells. It was like the gods lived off the stuff.
I walked back to my seat on the floor, and Ben joined me again.
"Don't you want to sit with the others?" I asked in surprise.
He shrugged. "Gives everyone else a little more room, not that my scrawny butt makes much difference. Besides, you looked lonely."
"I have my brother."
"And he's too busy staring into space to pay any attention."
I wanted to argue, but he was right.
There was a glint of mischief in Ben's silver eyes a moment later. "Watch this." He reached up and tapped the shave-and-a-haircut beat on the table.
Bum-bum-da-bum-bum
Luke replied with the last two beats on the table.
Bum-bum
Ben repeated it, and this time half the table replied.
He did it one more time, and then the entire Hermes table and another nearby table that I assumed was the Apollo table all replied with the last two thuds on the table.
He looked at me with a grin.
I grinned back, laughing a little.
Ben and I talked as we ate until Chiron pounded his hoof down again to get the attention of all the campers.
Mr. D got up with an exaggerated sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."
There was a loud, ugly cheer from the Ares table.
"Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have two new campers. Peter and Jackie Johnson."
Chiron muttered something.
"Er, Percy and Jayme Jackson." Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."
Everybody cheered, and Ben hopped to his feet, helping me to mine just after. Percy and I walked beside each other, Ben close to my side as he led us to the Apollo cabin's sing-along in the amphitheater.
We sang songs about the gods and ate s'mores, joking around with one another. The greatest thing was that it didn't feel like anyone was looking at us strangely anymore. We felt like part of the family.
We all fled back into the cabin after the sparks from the campfire were bouncing into the sky and a horn blew.
Percy and I collapsed on our borrowed sleeping bags, and I thought about our mom—the good things, like her smile, our bedtime stories, and how she would keep the bedbugs from biting.
"Goodnight, Percy," I said quietly. "Don't let the bedbugs bite."
He smiled back at her. "You either, JJ."
I rolled over to sleep after my long first day.
