Hidden Away
Disclaimer: I own nothing, all credit goes to the owner/creator of Percy Jackson.
Summary: Cursed so that Athena can never sense her, Annabeth is constantly attacked by monsters. At age three she was found in an alleyway by Sally Jackson and grew up as Percy's 'twin' sister. When the lighting bolt is stolen Athena slowly begins to realize that the demi-god helping Jackson is actually her own daughter.
I Beat Up Some Campers, Annabeth Jackson (Chase)
I was woken by a woman's voice shouting in my head. Annabeth, wake up! It wasn't the most ideal way in the world to wake up but I was glad for it. Hovering above my face was a dagger that was about to come down and the adrenaline started pumping. I rolled off the bed towards the person who had the knife and tripped them over. The dagger rolled under the bed and I counted how many attackers there were. Five. Five large, beefy people attacking me and they were all kids who were slightly older than I was. I was taking in every single detail and I used a roundhouse kick to disarm the second person.
After that I just went right into attack mode. They ended up being on the defensive and judging by the looks on their faces they were really surprised by how well I was fighting. I did wake up about twenty seconds ago. I kicked and punched and ducked and rolled and managed to, by some miracle, perform a backflip over one of the kids as the fight led us outside. A crowd gathered and made a sound of awe when I did it but I didn't care. First of all I wanted to beat these kids into the ground and then I wanted to find my brother and make him pay for letting something like this happen to me.
The crowd got bigger and I got better at fighting. I had an entire strategy planned out in my head and every time I picked up one of theirs it would change to find a way around it. In the space of thirty seconds I had knocked all five of the kids on their butts and another thirty seconds later I was throwing the last one over my shoulder so they landed on the ground with the other four and were either unconscious or just barely conscious. The adrenaline started to wear off slowly once I knew that the danger had passed but what really made it go down was when I heard a familiar voice from somewhere in the crowd.
"Annabeth!" It was Percy and he managed to get to the front with a boy with blonde hair and grey eyes with him. The kid looked from me to the five kids lying on the floor and his eyebrows went into his hair line. It was obvious that he was impressed. "Oh, Annabeth, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," I said. "Where the hell have you been? I know we're twins and all but you really are the stupidest person I have ever met."
"Ah, so this is the Annabeth that you were talking about." A boy who was wearing sandals, a leather bracelet with beads on it and had a large white scar on his face said as he stepped forwards. "I thought you were exaggerating Percy. Turns out you weren't."
"Who are you?" I asked.
"Luke Castellan." He replied. "Son of Hermes. And you are?"
I thought that a bit stupid since he already knew my first name and that I was Percy's twin but I answered anyway. "Annabeth Jackson." I said and started sizing him up. He looked like the kind of person I could trip up easily. Then I realized he'd just said he was the son of Hermes and I looked directly at Percy with an accusing stare. "What. Have. You. Done?"
He blinked at me. "Huh?"
"Percy, I'm not an idiot. Either those campers pick on kids who are sleeping or you did something to rile them up. Which was it?"
He suddenly looked incredibly guilty and both the blonde haired boy who had followed him and Luke Castellan looked very amused.
"I... I... I tried to stop them?" He offered weakly and I glared at him.
"Percy," I said warningly.
The kids around us started to laugh.
"Okay, okay, I'll tell you. They wanted to dunk my head in the toilet because I'm a newbie and then something weird happened with the water and the next thing I know they're running over here to beat you up because they couldn't beat up me." He explained.
My eyebrows rose. "Percy, beating you up is the easiest thing in the world. How did five kids not manage to do it?"
"I'm incredibly lucky?"
I kicked him in the shin and he yelped in pain. He knelt down, clutching his knee and the kids started to laugh even harder. I had no idea where I was but then the crowd started to disperse and I could hear a deep voice shouting at them to move aside. What I saw next made me really confused. Mr. Brunner appeared but it wasn't him. The Mr. Brunner I knew was stuck in a wheelchair at Yancy Academy grading papers but this Mr. Brunner had a horses body from the waist and was walking through the crowd with ease. He looked at the five kids on the ground, then at Percy rubbing his shin and back up to me with that amused and exasperated look that he always gave me.
This was definitely Mr. Brunner.
"I take it you are expecting an explanation of where you are, Annabeth?" He asked with a small smile.
The blonde haired boy with grey eyes stopped laughing and frowned. "Wait, you mean she doesn't know about this and she was still able to..." He trailed off and looked at the five kids on the ground again. Then he got this really impressed look on his face. "I think you should be on my team in Capture the flag."
"Capture the flag?" I repeated with my own frown.
"Let us explain things to you," Mr. Brunner said. "Luke, are you going to stay or...?"
The boy shook his head. "I've been wondering who Percy's twin is ever since he mentioned her and my cabin isn't going anywhere. I can stick around a bit longer."
Mr. Brunner inclined his head in an understanding manner. "Let's go back inside the infirmary. I believe that your leg has begun to bleed again, Annabeth."
I looked down and realized that he was telling the truth. I hadn't even noticed it before but the bottom portion of my left leg was bandaged and a small dot of the white bandage had been stained red and it was slowly growing bigger. Percy hurried up from his kneeling position and helped me get back inside the infirmary as I had a limp when I walked. My leg stung every time I put weight on it and I held back the winces because I never winced for anything. Percy helped me over to the bed I'd previously been sleeping on and behind me Luke stooped down to pick up the dagger that I'd knocked out of a girls hand. His eyebrows went up.
"I must say I'm impressed, Annabeth." He said. "Must have been one hell of a surprise for you when the peace and quiet was disrupted and they came in here and jumped at you."
"Actually I was asleep," I admitted as I sat down on the bed. Luke's comments about how impressed he was did nothing for me. Growing up with Percy meant I got those a lot and I didn't much care for them anymore.
"I always said you could kill someone in your sleep," Percy mumbled and I elbowed him hard in the ribs. He let out an oof! and fell down onto the bed beside me. "Damn it, Annabeth. You've been awake less than five minutes and you've already managed to hit me twice."
"It's not exactly a hard thing to do, Percy." I said.
My brother glared at me.
"Alright, alright, let's have no more of that." Mr. Brunner said as he came inside behind us. "You will have plenty of time for sibling rivalry later. But now we must explain things to you Annabeth."
"You mean the reason you never told us you're a centaur?" I asked.
He nodded. "Precisely." He said. "Annabeth, do you remember all of those stories about Ancient Greece that I told you and Percy in my Latin classes?"
"Yes," I replied.
"Well, as I explained to Percy, they aren't stories. They are real. The gods are alive and the monsters that are around because of them are real too." He explained.
I stared at him blankly. "Real?" I repeated. "You mean to say that their children are real too?"
Percy gave me an odd look. "How do you know all these things? I never told you."
I rolled my eyes. "Percy I think it's fairly obvious that if the gods and the monsters they created are real that demi-gods are real too."
"Wow, that's a smart kid right there, Chiron." The blonde haired kid said to Mr. Brunner. "If she wasn't Percy's twin I'd think she could be -"
"Well she's not Malcolm." Mr. Brunner said. "We would know by now and she is twelve years old. Do you know what that would mean?"
The boy, Malcolm, suddenly had a guarded expression on his face. "Of course, sir. It can't be."
I had no idea what they were talking about but I did pick up on one thing. "Your name is Chiron?" I asked. "Like the trainer of heroes who was granted immortality?"
Mr. Brunner nodded. "Yes, that is correct."
"Do you believe all of this already?" Percy questioned. "Because it took me a long while to understand it."
"You'd need to with a tiny brain like yours Percy," I said with a cocky smirk.
Percy opened his mouth to retort but was interrupted by Luke coughing into his hand.
"I don't think there's any doubting that they're siblings, Chiron. Just look at their sibling rivalry. I don't have that with any of my half brothers and sisters." He said.
Chrion nodded. "I know, Luke. It's rather amusing if I'm honest."
"Very amusing," Malcolm agreed. "It's great to see Percy Jackson taken down a few pegs by his own sister."
I gave Percy an exasperated look. "I knew you'd done something," I grumbled.
"Shut up," He grumbled back.
"Annabeth do you believe that the gods are real and that demi-gods themselves are real?" Chiron asked.
I thought for a moment. Me, Percy and Grover had been fighting a Minotaur and that was a monster from Ancient Greece that was defeated by a demi-god. Then there was our mother... I put that thought way at the back of my mind. I was supposed to be looking after the idiot who couldn't do it himself so I shouldn't be breaking down about it.
"Yes," I replied.
"Well then, what would you say if I said that both you and Percy are demi-gods?"
That was a no brainer. "I'd say that Percy is a very weak demi-god."
"Hey!" Percy shouted.
"Oh come on, Percy. I couldn't miss the opportunity."
"You little -"
"I can see that you do not need much convincing," Chrion cut in. "For the next few days you will have to sleep in the infirmary, Annabeth. You should be well enough to fight in time for the Capture the flag game on Friday night if we are lucky. The place you are in is called Camp Half-Blood and when you get out of the infirmary you will be staying in the Hermes cabin. Luke here will be your counselor until your godly parent claims you and then you will move to that cabin. Understood?"
I nodded. "Got it."
"You got all of that so quickly?" Percy asked. "How?"
I sighed dramatically. "Well Percy, people have this thing called a brain," I said sarcastically. "And it means that idiots like you -"
"I got it, Annabeth. You're smarter than me." Percy said with a roll of his eyes. "You could have just said so."
"I didn't think you'd understand."
"You did not -!"
"Why doesn't Percy go with Malcolm to the armoury and I'll give Annabeth a tour of the camp?" Luke suggested.
"Or we could do that the other way around," Malcolm said. "He is staying in your cabin after all and you wouldn't want him to get hurt would you?"
"Are you saying that you won't look after him?"
"I'm saying that someone who speaks so insensitively about Cabin 7# has no place around me."
Percy had a guilty look on his face. "What's Cabin 7#?" I asked before he could stop me and Malcolm's face became stony and his eyes narrowed.
"It's the second Athena cabin." He said.
"Athena cabin?"
"The place where all of Athena's children stay," He explained. "One of her children went missing and she built another cabin just for them that was better than any other cabin and directly across from ours. Nobody except for that person can get inside."
I frowned. "I don't see how that's such a bad thing if she cares about her child enough to build them their own cabin."
Malcolm's eyes narrowed even more. "It's a bad thing because it shows that she cares more about that child than she cares about us."
"Well none of you have ever gone missing have you?" I asked. "Athena would have always known where you were and when you lose something you like it even more once you find it. Besides, it's just a cabin with a symbolic meaning that's supposed to be good for all her other children."
"I hardly think -"
"Wait," Chiron interrupted. "Luke how about you take Percy to the armoury now. This is going to become a very heated debate."
Luke nodded in understanding. "I know what you mean, Chiron. Let's go Percy. Things aren't going to get any prettier."
Once they had left the room and Chiron had excused himself to return to his archery class me and Malcolm started to argue. We argued for a long time even though it was more of a loud debate than anything else. He never once made me speechless as I searched for the answer but I did it to him several times. Slowly, the debate started to go down to a normal noise level and it finished with me making Malcolm speechless again. He got this impressed look on his face and started to explain things about Camp Half-Blood. I knew that he wasn't going to bring up much about Cabin 7# anymore so I just listened to everything he had to say.
I liked the sound of the Athena kids. Malcolm was their head counselor. They spent all of their time expanding their brains by reading things from the library in their cabin, planning out battle strategies or doing whatever they wanted which usually involved some kind of educational thing. I was liking Camp Half-Blood already. Malcolm told me which kids to avoid and about the five who I'd beaten up. They were from the Ares cabin and the girl who had been leading them was named Clarisse and she was best to be avoided if you couldn't handle her. Then he said that I obviously could handle her and to just make sure she never caught me by surprise.
There were lots of things to do at Camp Half-Blood. Malcolm said that there was training all the time where kids learned to speak in Ancient Greek and fight with all sorts of weapons against monsters. I then asked what he had meant by him wanting me on his team in Capture the flag on Friday night. The cabins each chose their sides and fought against each other until one team got the enemies flag and got it back to their own one. I realized that it was kind of like that games me and Percy had used to play when we were younger and asked which cabins were on Malcolm's team. He said the names of a few gods and then one that made me rethink being on his team.
"... the Ares cabin are too. When our two cabins are together we never get beat." He said.
"But the Hermes cabin is on the other team?" I asked.
Malcolm nodded. "Most in there can't use a sword right and we don't want them on our team."
"And yet me and Percy are staying in the Hermes cabin," I pointed out. "If you don't want Percy on your team then I really can't be there either. The Ares cabin will hate us both by now and there is no way I am leaving him to get beaten up by a bunch of oafs. No offence to the other cabins obviously."
"None taken," Malcolm said. "You must really love your brother to stay on his side after everything."
I frowned. "What do you mean 'after everything'?"
"Nobody told you?"
"Told me what?"
Malcolm sighed. "Well, some of us here at camp went on a field trip to Olympus on the winter solstice. The gods started acting really strange. We didn't get told anything other than something really important had been stolen."
"How could someone steal something from the gods?" I asked.
"Hermes did it as a baby," He said. "Stole Apollo's chariot. I don't know if anyone below a really powerful demi-god could have done it and they'd have to know where things on Olympus to get them. It might have been a god helping someone or something else. I'm not really sure."
I thought that was a little odd but decided to leave it. After a few more discussions I felt a sharp pain in my leg and looked down at it. I realized that we had completely forgotten about my leg bleeding again and we changed the bandages and cleaned it up a moment later. Malcolm explained about the ambrosia and nectar thing that mortals couldn't use because it was lethal to them. That just sealed the deal. I really was a demi-god and so was Percy. You know, I really thought that Percy would turn out as a shop assisstant and not as some powerful demi-god. Well, to me he wasn't all that powerful but you know what I mean.
I tried putting some weight on my leg and it felt much better so Malcolm offered to give me a tour. I was still limping around but it didn't seem to bother anyone and Malcolm said that it was really common in Camp Half-Blood to be injured so I just accepted that. He showed me everywhere that Percy had been and a few other places that Chiron hadn't been able to show him just yet. I found out that the Hephastus kids preferred to spend all of their time in the forges making armour and weapons for themselves. The mess hall didn't have a roof and when I asked about what they did when it rained Malcolm just gave me an odd look. I dropped the subject.
We then went to the cabin area and I got to see Cabin 7# for myself. It looked way better than any of the other cabins and had this huge blue shield surrounding it. That was why nobody could get inside or near it. It made the Ares cabin look like a hovel and they weren't shy about giving the cabin a sneer every time they walked past it. I figured that Athena must have a personal vendetta against Ares because putting a cabin like that beside one like his was clearly sending a message that they did not get along well. Maybe he had done something and Athena had taken a personal offence. I wasn't sure.
After Malcolm had explained a bit more about the cabin that his mother had built we went to visit his own cabin. The first Athena cabin. I didn't see what all the fuss was about because the inside was like a dream come true for any braniac but Malcolm stayed firm in his reasoning. It was favoritism. Although, if what people thought about the gods was true then I assumed that they would be used to favoritism by now. None of the other people in the Athena cabin seemed to be open about their feelings on the cabin. Malcolm said that nobody in the cabin, not even he himself, could hate the owner of the cabin. They mourned for that person once every year on the anniversary of their disappearance and another one was coming up soon.
I liked the Athena kids right away. Most of them had blonde hair and grey eyes like mine except my eyes were stormy and more intense. They thought I might be their half sister for some reason but then Malcolm said that I was Percy's twin sister and I got some really suspicious looks. I overheard some whispers about rivalry with Poseidon and got confused but Malcolm just showed me around and told me to ignore them. So I did. The Athena kids seemed really interested in me because according to them people had known that Percy existed but not that I existed. I found that a little insulting but they assured me that they were just curious.
When Percy came into the area where the cabins where with Luke a few hours later I was sat on the steps of the Athena cabin with Malcolm and two others reading books that were written in Ancient Greek and debating about different things. I never brought up Cabin 7# because of how sad they all looked when they would catch a glimpse of it out of the corner of their eye. I saw Luke whisper something into Percy's ear and Percy got this understanding look on his face. That meant that either he accepted my new friends which was unlikely or he knew why I was hanging around with these kids which was the most likely.
"Is your brother like you?" One of the Athena kids asked.
I shook my head. "Nope."
"Not even a little bit?"
"Well, we both have short tempers and the same parents. But other than that we're not that much alike."
"Isn't that a little bit uncommon with twins?"
"With identical twins it is but with un identical twins it happens sometimes."
"Well it's dinner time at seven thirty and that's in a few minutes. Do you have to go and look after your brother until then?"
"For the safety of everyone in the Hermes cabin I probably should." I said and stood up. "Bye."
"Bye Annabeth."
I walked over to Percy who was on his way inside the Hermes cabin. He waited for me to catch up since I was still limping and was going to be for the next couple of days.
"How'd it go?" He asked.
"Surprisingly good," I said. "The Athena kids are nice."
"Really? Malcolm doesn't seem to like me that much."
"That's probably because you're such an insensitive person, Percy. You speak without thinking."
"Don't you? No, wait, I forgot that it's impossible for you to stop thinking."
I smacked him on the back of the head. "Shut up, Percy."
"Let's just go inside."
We walked inside the Hermes cabin and over to a small spot on the floor that was vacant. It looked as though me and Percy could just about squeeze into it if we were lying down and sleeping there. I realized shortly afterwards that this was where we were supposed to be sleeping until we were claimed by our godly parent, our father, and I was suddenly glad that my injuries meant I had to stay in the infirmary. Apparently head injuries like the one I had just above my left eyebrow were taken very seriously at Camp Half-Blood and they wanted to make sure there was no permanent damage done.
Percy set the Minotaur horn down on the floor and we both sat down together. I got a good look at the Hermes cabin. It was filled with demi-gods who were horsing around. I remembered what Malcolm had said about the Capture the flag games. The two sides where usually led by the Ares and Athena cabins but this time they were on the same side. Apparently the last time there was a Capture the flag game it had been taken by an Apollo camper and now they were running one team. The Hermes cabin and the Aphrodite cabin were on their team this time with all the other cabins on the other team.
"How has your day been?" I asked.
"Confusing," Percy admitted. "And depressing. Yours?"
"You mean aside from the fact that I only woke up because five kids were trying to beat me up when I was defenceless?" I said. "It was depressing too. I just can't believe that mom is gone."
Percy sighed. "What do we do now, Annabeth? We've got nothing. Only each other left. How are we supposed to go on?"
"I don't know," I replied. "But I do know one thing. We're going to get through this, Percy. It's going to be fine once things sort themselves out. Mom got us a place to stay before that thing took her away from us. We shouldn't let things get us down when she would have wanted us to be happy. Maybe we'll just wait until we're claimed and then things will get better."
"I sure hope so," Percy said.
"Hey," Luke interrupted our conversation and came to sit down beside us. "What'ya talking about dwellers?"
"What we're going to do now our mothers gone," Percy replied.
Luke inclined his head in an understanding manner. "I know what you mean. Lots of kids here have nothing left and don't know what they're supposed to do for a long while. I'm sure you two will figure it out eventually."
"What about our father? Will he help us?"
I noticed how tight Luke's face got. "The gods are strange things Percy. They only care about what makes them more powerful and safer. Demi-gods are just an add-on they don't need."
"But the gods must care about their children."
"No. They care about power and making themselves look good. That's all."
"If that's true then why was Cabin 7# built?" I asked. "The story behind that proves that the gods must care. Athena at least."
"She probably just wanted to make the others look bad."
"Or you probably just want to come up with reasons to justify your argument that have no literal meaning or evidence behind them," I retorted.
"Okay Annabeth lets just remember that I'm your brother here. Not Luke." Percy reminded me but I just rolled my eyes. So what if Luke wasn't my brother?
A conch shell horn blew in the distance. I could tell that it was a conch shell horn because I'd heard Mr. Brunner, or Chiron, use one when he was outside demonstrating to some fifth graders. Luke shouted to the other campers in the cabin and we all filed out into the commons area where we lined up. Me and Percy where at the very back as we'd arrived at camp two days ago and Percy had to go in front of me because I'd arrived a few seconds after he did which was not my fault at all. I got stuck in this thing and then there was a bright golden light and I hadn't told anyone about it yet. Percy only knew that I'd came in after he did.
I was really miffed by that but managed to calm down after giving Percy a good punch in the back. He turned around and punched me right back in the arm. I returned the favour and things were about to get ugly when the Hermes cabin started to move out and we had to start walking. We were both grumbling under out breaths.
"I'll get you later."
"Bring it on."
We walked in a line all the way to the mess hall. The other cabins were either in front of us or coming along beside us. I noticed that the Hermes cabin was the last one to go inside for some reason and figured that it was because there were so many of us and not enough space for us all to go in at once. Me and Percy stayed close together even though we kept whispering threats to one another of pain and punches. There were thirteen tables in the mess hall for all of the cabins and I couldn't help but look at the one for Cabin 7#. It didn't have a scratch on it which made me frown because if the Ares campers were as bad as Malcolm had said they were then the table should be a pile of wood.
Table eleven was so overcrowded that me and Percy had to rush to get any seat at all. We just managed it and some poor kid ended up sitting with half his body on the floor and the rest of him on the seat. It looked really uncomfortable. Table five was the Ares kids and they were belching and laughing like slobs behind us. I really didn't like it. There was lots of noise until Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor and straight away everybody went silent. He raised his glass in the air.
"To the gods!" He shouted.
Everyone else raised their glasses as well. "To the gods!" They shouted.
There were things that had followed us into the pavilion that started to come forwards. Wood nymphs they were called. They had food too. We had also been followed in by naiads and satyrs who were now sitting at many different tables. Grover was sitting with Dionysus at table twelve and the Apollo kids were sat at table... seven. I frowned. That was odd. I noticed that the table for Cabin 7# didn't actually have a number on it and just the words Athena 2 in shiny bronze letters at one end. Maybe it was because the number thirteen was considered unlucky in some cultures and the Ancient Greeks thought it unlucky too.
Me and Percy looked at our cups with frowns on our faces. Some of the other kids had actually had a sip or two from their own and that was really confusing.
"Speak to it," Luke said from beside Percy. "Tell it what drink you want. Non-alcoholic beverage of course."
Percy spoke to his cup and it became his favourite fizzy drink that mom, by some cooking miracle, had managed to turn blue. I looked down at my own cup not knowing what to say when it filled up with a blue drink too. I frowned and Percy leaned over me to see it. He was also frowning.
"Either I've gone death or your cup just filled itself up automatically," He commented.
"What?" Luke asked, leaning over to get a good look. "Wow, that shouldn't have happened. Nothing short of the gods can tamper with these things."
"Maybe Annabeth just thought about it and that's what made it work?"
"It's possible although you'd have to be a really strong demi-god for that to happen."
"Great," Percy grumbled. "I'm doomed."
I snickered at him and he glared back at me in response.
Chiron, who was standing to one side now because there was no more room for him in the main area with all the nymphs moving around, whispered something to Diodonyus. He nodded and stood up. Everyone fell silent.
"Just to let you know, there are two new campers here today." He announced. "Peter and Annie Johnson."
Chiron whispered something else.
"What? Oh..." Dionysus cleared his throat. "I mean, Percy Jackson and Annabeth Jackson... wait, there are two of them?" He then asked Chiron who nodded. "Well then, I guess we're all surprised."
I had no idea what he meant until I remembered what I got told in the Athena cabin. People knew about certain demi-gods and they had been watching Percy for a long while. Then they guessed that Chiron and Grover must have seen me and realized that we were twins and that they had just missed it because of the powerful aura coming off of us both. I still didn't understand that at this point. Most of the campers, the ones who had no idea that I even existed started looking towards our table to try and find me. But with twenty kids all sat in one place it was pretty hard for any of them to see me at all. I was really grateful for that.
The wood nymphs served food after that and I stopped Percy before he could eat anything when I noticed the other campers getting out of their seats and moving to the large fire pit in the middle of the room. Luke told us both to follow him and we did. There were kids throwing the best things on their plates into the fire but I didn't see what for. Then they would sniff sometimes and walk away. I couldn't smell a thing. Not even the smell of something burning. That just made me even more confused. Percy decided to ask Luke in the most 'subtle' way possible what they were doing.
"Offerings to the gods," Luke explained. "They enjoy the smell."
"The smell?" I asked.
"Yeah, helps them out with stuff. I'm not sure what but it's still something we have to do."
I didn't ask any more questions. When me and Percy got up to the fire we exchanged a look of awkwardness. You see, we had no idea who to make this offering to so I just used the sign language we made up to go with Plan B. Make a request in your head that the offering goes to the person it's supposed to. We did that and Percy got the look on his face like he did at Montauk which must have meant he could smell it. I didn't smell anything for a moment but then I did. It was just like my moms smell but different. More comforting and soft. But that wasn't possible. My mom was the best person in the world and I would find her again.
We went to sit back down and then started to eat. As we ate we started to talk and laugh just like the other kids were doing. There was just one difference with us though. We wouldn't talk to any other camper at all. They'd try to start a conversation and we'd close it in record time. Well, I say we but I really mean me. Percy didn't know how to end the conversations because of how clueless he is so I had to help him out a lot of the time. I went to take a sip of my drink to find out what it was but stopped dead in my tracks. Not because I knew better than to drink from something when I didn't know what was inside but because of something else.
There was an owl in my drink. Not literally in it but on the surface of the blue liquid. It was made of golden lines and looked very familiar but I just couldn't place it. A moment later, the 2D outline of the owl disappeared and I was left blinking stupidly at my cup. Percy snapped me out of my daze with a grumble about my personal hygiene. I lost my temper. We got into a loud argument about who was worse than who and everybody looked at us because of it. The Ares kids looked confused at first but then got these ugly grins on their faces and started watching us like we were part of an entertainment show on TV.
Chiron was about to step in but Dionysus stopped him. He looked like he was anticipating something and had a look that almost mirrored those of the Ares campers. You can pretty much guess that things weren't pretty after that. Percy threw the first punch but I caught it and slugged him in the gut hard enough for everyone to hear it. Then we got into a wrestling match where I totally owned my brother. He got himself humiliated at first but then he hit one of the Ares campers who went to fight him and then got decked. We both smirked at him, then at each other and hi-fived right there. Chiron stepped in when Dionysus saw that the entertainment was over and took us both outside much to the outrage of the now unentertained Ares kids.
"Percy, Annabeth," He said sternly with his arms crossed. "That kind of behaviour is unacceptable. Fighting may be allowed in certain places but the mess hall where the gods can see it is not one of them. How do you explain your actions?"
Percy looked at me.
"The primal instincts of siblings is to fight and that was a demonstration of it. Sibling rivalry is, at times, unavoidable and completely out of our control." I explained. "We had no control over our actions in there."
"None?" He asked with disbelief.
"None." I lied. "Percy wouldn't have been able to deck that Ares kid if we had been in control of our actions. It was because the adrenaline was pumping."
Chrion obviously did not believe me but my argument was air tight. Either he said that there was no such thing as sibling rivalry or that we weren't related, which was impossible because we were twins and every god is related to one another. He gave Percy a stern look and sent him back to the Hermes cabin. I actually got escorted back to the infirmary because Chiron said that I had proved to be the most troublesome out of the two of us and that I had more fighting skill than Percy. He also banned me from fighting with Percy until he had learned a thing or two at camp but I knew that wasn't going to happen. I decided to humor him for a while though.
