Percy: A Different Kind of Genius

I was running to the Commons when I bumped into Katie Gardener. She was on her way to the Hermes cabin. Hmm, wonder why? (I'll explain later)

I asked her if she knew if Jason was in his cabin. She told me he was and we went on our separate ways.

A word about Jason Grace. He's a son of Jupiter, Zeus's Roman counterpart. Jason is a Child of Rome, from Camp Jupiter in the Bay Area near San Francisco. He's currently staying with us until his exile ends in September (long story about that. But Reyna is not someone you want to get mad and Octavian is not very welcoming). So he's staying in Zeus's cabin. Oh, and he's a blood brother to our friend Thalia Grace, who is the lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis.

He and I were switched by Hera and she stole our memories. There, I said it, happy? She stole our memories, sent me to the Roman camp after eight months, and did the same to Jason sending him to Camp Half-Blood. It was about the second Great Prophecy, and the Giant/Gaea War. Greeks and Romans had to join forces. But I'm not going into any more detail. It's too long and painful (and it makes me angry) to recount.

Anyway, I knocked on the door to Zeus's cabin. Jason answered the door, saw me, and gave a warm smile. Jason had close cropped blond hair, electric blue eyes, and a scar on his upper lip (he tried eating a stapler when he was two).

"Hey Percy, how are things? I heard you were helping out the new girl," Jason said. News travels fast.

"Yeah, I am. Look, could I come in?" I asked him. The less people who knew about this, the better.

"Um, sure. But Hunter's here and Piper will be coming soon, will that be a problem?" he asked me a little confused. I shook my head and stepped in. Jason closed the door behind me.

Hunter was sitting on one of the bunks. Hunter is a son of Hebe, the youth goddess, and a demigod I can strangely actually remember that wasn't in a prophecy or a war captain. He's a French Canadian. He was brought to camp before he could learn English (however that worked), so he currently could only speak French. Jason and Piper worked together to teach him English; Frank Zhang helped out too if he ever stopped by for some reason.

Hunter was only 15, he had a pale complexion, green eyes flecked with brown, and light brown hair. Most people stayed away from him, no one really knew his past, and the language barrier kept most people away. Only Aphrodite kids could understand him, but they weren't normally that friendly – except Piper.

"So what's the problem?" Jason asked me. I looked at him directly in the eyes before replying.

"The new girl, Cora, she has no memory," his eyes widen and he started to get a little agitated. Me and him both knew how serious this was.

"Really? She's not a Roman is she? Because Lupa is not going to really help an unknown Greek again after the last disruption, as she put it." He was worried, he missed the Romans. The same way I had missed Camp.

"No. There's no tattoo and she doesn't wear a probatio tablet. But we just heard her speak to Naiads, in Nailaic. And she wasn't even aware of it," I explained to him. He started pacing back and forth.

"You've got to be kidding; not Roman yet turning up out of the blue with no memory. She was like how I and the Romans are with Latin? Like how the Aphrodite and Venus kids are with French?" he asked. I nodded, he inhaled sharply. "Well, what are we doing here? She may not be Roman, but I want to go meet her." I nodded grimly and turned to go out the door. Then I remembered Hunter. An idea popped into my head. I ducked back in, grabbed a very confused protesting Hunter and pulled him along with us.

We raced over to the Big House. Chiron was in wheelchair form, with several cards on the table. He must have been playing pinochle when Annabeth and Cora arrived. Cora was looking lost, can't say I don't blame her. Chiron had a deep frown and looked very concerned and worried. Annabeth was deep in thought.

Chiron nodded to me and Jason, but raised an eyebrow at Hunter. I didn't know where to start. Thankfully Jason did.

"Hi, my name is Jason. You must be Cora," he introduced himself.

"You're Jason?" she asked. "The guy I've heard mentioned about five times?"

"Um, yeah, that's me . . ." he mumbled, face a little red.

"Okay, and why do people seem to act like I'm repeating something dealing with you?" she queried. It was clear she was becoming more comfortable around us. Jason just looked at all of us. Chiron cleared his throat.

"Excuse me, but there will be time to discuss that later. Percy, Jason, we just discovered that Cora also speaks in Latin," Chiron cut in, informing us.

"Really?" Jason asked her. Cora shrugged and looked at us as if we were crazed.

"I still have no idea what you people are talking about. I'm not talking in different dialects!" she protested. Once again, I don't blame her; I was like that at the Roman camp with Ancient Greek.

Now, I had almost forgotten about Hunter. He was still standing behind me. But seeing as he had almost no idea what we were saying, and that he hadn't been introduced. He walked around me and just gazed at Cora, his body tense and his expression unsure but also mildly hopeful.

"Ah Percy, why did you bring Hunter?" Chiron asked me.

"Well, seeing as I heard Cora speak to Naiads, and since he was about to get a lesson from Jason and Piper, I thought that this might be a way to see if she spoke another language," I told him. Annabeth glanced at me, then came over and laced her fingers through mine. It was normal enough, but I knew that meant that she thought it was a good idea too.

"I see," Chiron replied. He nodded to Hunter, gesturing to introduce himself.

"Bonjour," he said quietly. "Je m'appelle Hunter."

"Bonjour," she replied, "Faites tu savez qu'ils parlent de?" Everyone just stared at her. She replied in perfect French with an accent and everything – maybe she was a daughter of Aphrodite (though she didn't look it). Hunter gave her a curious look, but then a faint smile played on his lips.

"Non. Tu parles en français?" he asked her. Cora frowned. She wasn't aware of this either. And for all you people who don't know French; Cora asked him if he knew what we were talking about. He said he didn't and asked if she spoke French. Maybe I ought to be a translator for them . . .

"Non. Je parle Anglais. Je ne parle pas Français." She told him confused (she said she speaks English and doesn't speak French). Hunter's face also changed into confusion.

I cleared my throat, "Uh, you just spoke to him in French."

"No I didn't," she protested.

"My dear," Chiron started quietly. "Hunter is a French Canadian; he currently only knows how to speak in French."

"But . . . but all I hear is English!" she cried.

"If you may, I would like to conduct a test with you," Chiron asked her.

"What sort of test?" she replied warily.

"Nothing painful. I would just like to see how far your knowledge of languages goes. May I?" Cora gave a small nod.

So Chiron started asking her some things in different dialects. She talked back perfectly. She got more and more confused and nervous as it went on.

They went on for ten or fifteen minutes. When they were done we had all pretty much zoned out. Chiron clapped his hand to bring our attentions back. It took me a minute to focus on what Chiron was saying.

"Well, it appears you know just every language known to humans. This brings up the question how. Do you have any clue how you know this?"

"No!" she exclaimed. "I'm just speaking English!"

"Look, I know it's hard to believe, but you are speaking other languages," Annabeth told her gently walking over placing a hand on her shoulder.

"You know, it's actually pretty cool. I mean, you can talk to anyone. And that might mean something good . . ." I told her. She glared at me, oops, wrong thing to say.

"What? Are you crazy? I swear I'm not talking differently!" She was distressed. "On top of that I have some creepy voice inner voice in my head and – and-" She burst into tears and ran out of the Big House porch. We watched her run off towards the woods.

"Go after her. All of you," Chiron instructed. We nodded and headed off after her. This girl was like some freaky genius, smart as Athena herself (don't tell Annabeth!). But though to me it was as clear as day, to everyone else it might not have be. Especially to Cora herself.