I BECOME SUPREME LORD OF THE BATHROOM
"Does he take like a huge dumb or something?" Conner asked his brother.
"Maybe he got bathroom privileges we don't" Travis shrugged.
"Shut up" Katie groaned rubbing her face. Her hands were already aching from hitting the two.
Once I got over the fact that my Latin teacher was a horse, we had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind him. I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times, and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back end the way I trusted his front.
Apollo and Hermes giggled like little girls at that making the rest roll their eyes at them.
We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, "That's him. " Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters. I wasn't normally shy, but the way they stared at me made me uncomfortable. I felt like they were expecting me to do a flip or something.
"Well the whole camp knows by now of what you did. They're probably expecting you to show off" Bianca shrugged.
"Too bad for them cause Percy doesn't show off" Grover said with a grin at his best friend.
I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realized-four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. I was checking out the brass eagle weather vane on top when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched.
"My oracle" Apollo said with a sigh. He was still very confused as to why she couldn't change vessels. The poor thing was reduced to a pile of old bones held by ancient magic.
"What's up there?" I asked Chiron.
He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic. "
"Somebody lives there?"
"No, " he said with finality. "Not a single living thing. "
"Chiron is good at this whole lying thing" Hermes mumbled.
"Technically he was telling the truth. The oracle isn't exactly alive" Artemis added and the frown on Apollo's face deepened.
I got the feeling he was being truthful. But I was also sure something had moved that curtain.
"Come along, Percy, " Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see. "
We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe.
Demeter sighed happily. She loved a good harvest.
Chiron told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses, " he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort. "
He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.
"You're even hampering the camps!" Dionysus grumbled.
Zeus rolled his eyes at his son.
I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music.
"I'm still learning" Grover mumbled.
"You'll get it soon" Thalia said with an encouraging smile.
I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D.
"Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" I asked Chiron. "I mean ... He was a good protector. Really. "
Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable.
Grover sank into his chair slightly.
To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill. "
"But he did that!"
"I might agree with you, " Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there's the unfortunate ... Ah ... Fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part. "
Grover sank even deeper into his chair.
"It wasn't your fault G man. The idiotic bull was not something you could have seen coming" Percy tried to cheer him up. It didn't work.
I wanted to protest. None of what happened was Grover's fault. I also felt really, really guilty. If I hadn't given Grover the slip at the bus station, he might not have gotten in trouble.
"He'll get a second chance, won't he?"
Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that was Grover's second chance, Percy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age... . "
"How old is he?"
"Oh, twenty-eight. "
"That's small for his age!?" Leo, Jason, Piper, Frank, Hazel and Percy said at the same time and looked at each other blankly.
"Satyr's age differently" Athena answered them.
"What! And he's in sixth grade?"
"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years. "
"That's horrible. "
"I agree with Percy. Must suck being a middle school student for six whole years" Leo nodded,
"It does" Grover mumbled.
"Quite, " Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career... . "
"That's not fair, " I said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?"
Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"
"He should have told you" Thalia stated.
"Thalia I'm sure Chiron is just tryinf to ease Percy into it" Annabeth said logically.
"Ease or not he has the right to know. He has a lot of questions and not many are being answered" Thalia scowled She hated when that happened. Especially if ti was her.
Percy looked at the older girl and tilted his head in thought.
But I wasn't quite ready to let the subject drop. Something had occurred to me when Chiron talked about my mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word death. The beginnings of an idea-a tiny, hopeful fire-started forming in my mind.
"Chiron, " I said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real ... "
"Yes, child?"
"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"
"Here we go again" Hades groaned. He was tired of demigods just waltzing into his domain before their time.
Chiron's expression darkened.
"Yes, child. " He paused, as if choosing his words care-fully. "There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now ... Until we know more ... I would urge you to put that out of your mind. "
"What do you mean, 'until we know more'?"
"Catching on" Ares smirked.
"He is so getting himself killed before his time" Aphrodite muttered then cringed at the look Poseidon was giving her. He had overheard her.
"Come, Percy. Let's see the woods. "
As we got closer, I realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans.
Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed. "
"Stocked with what?" I asked. "Armed with what?"
"You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?"
"How will he have those!?" Reyna asked incredulously. This Chiron sounded like a scatter brain at times then one of the wisest alive other times.
"Magic?" Leo asked lamely then cringed at the glare Reyna was giving him.
"My own-?"
"No, " Chiron said. "I don't suppose you do. I think a size five will do. I'll visit the armory later. "
I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armory, but there was too much else to think about, so the tour continued. We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much),
"I can imagine why" Hermes snickered.
the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights.
"Sword and spear fights?" I asked.
"Cabin challenges and all that, " he explained. "Not lethal. Usually. Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall. "
"Usually?" Percy asked in a squeaky voice.
"Eh we have injuries from time to time" Clarisse shrugged.
Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.
"What do you do when it rains?" I asked.
Chiron looked at me as if I'd gone a little weird. "We still have to eat, don't we?" I decided to drop the subject.
"So should have shown him the video" Dionysus shook his head. What he hated more than campers were campers that didn't know anything.
Finally, he showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were without doubt the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen.
Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory. Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at.
Patrons of the mention cabins grinned proudly. Apollo though had to close his mouth instantly because his sister was pointing her arrow at a very dangerous place.
They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops (which were more my speed). In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined firepit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.
"He noticed me?" Hestia asked in confusion. It was rare for demigods to notice her. Not rare, it was almost unheard off.
"Is that a bad thing?" Percy asked the goddess.
Hestia shook herself out of her shock and shook her head again. "No it's just rare" she smiled warmly at him.
The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.
Zeus and Hera smiled at the mention of their cabins.
"Zeus and Hera?" I guessed.
"Correct, " Chiron said.
"Their cabins look empty. "
"Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two. "
"As it should be" Hera scowled at her husband.
Zeus though was busy polishing his lightning bolt with his toga, whistling without a care in the world.
Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot. Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians. But why would some be empty?
"First time anyone called us mascots" Hermes muttered.
"Doesn't sound that bad to be honest" Apollo mumbled.
"Yeah because you're already a clown. Us? We don't like to be associated to one" Ares snorted.
I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three. It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor.
"He felt the pull" Amphitrite muttered. She didn't know why but a smile had made its way to her lips realizing that the boy was finally home.
I peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!"
"Why not? It's not like he would kill the boy for it" Amphitrite frowned.
"Chiron doesn't want to take any chances" Annabeth defended the activities director.
Before he could pull me back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone. There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down. But there was no sign anyone had ever slept there. The place felt so sad and lonely, I was glad when Chiron put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Come along, Percy. "
Poseidon frowned as he read. Percy would not like it in their then.
Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers. Number five was bright red-a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists. The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me.
Ares grinned at the mention of his cabin.
Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on me and gave me an evil sneer. She reminded me of Nancy Bobofit, though the camper girl was much bigger and tougher looking, and her hair was long and stringy, and brown instead of red.
"I take offense to that!" Clarisse complained.
Percy turned to the demigod and tilted his head. True there were some similarities between them but it was rude to point it out. "Sorry I guess" he apologized.
I kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other centaurs, " I observed.
"No, " said Chiron sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here. "
"Yay for the party ponies!" Apollo cheered and high fived Ares who was grinning. Say what you want but the god of war loved a mean party.
"You said your name was Chiron. Are you really ... "
He smiled down at me. "The Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am. "
"But, shouldn't you be dead?"
"Percy! You can't just ask people whether they should be dead or not! That one is purely saved for your enemies" Hermes advised with a grin.
Percy looked at the god and could do nothing but nod. Some of these guys were just plain loose in the head.
Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about should be. The truth is, I can't be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish ... And I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed. "
"He'll always be needed" Annabeth said with a smiled.
Leo though had a frown on his face.
I thought about being a teacher for three thousand years. It wouldn't have made my Top Ten Things to Wish For list.
"Doesn't it ever get boring?"
"No, no, " he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring. "
"Why depressing?"
"Because he had to see the people he love die in front of him" Leo said with a sigh. It was just like his mom. He had to see her being taken away, though he hadn't had to see her die luckily.
Jason looked at the boy with a small frown and rubbed his back gently.
Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again.
"Oh, look, " he said. "Annabeth is waiting for us. "
The blond girl I'd met at the Big House was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven. When we reached her, she looked me over critically, like she was still thinking about how much I drooled.
"Probably" Thalia nodded.
I tried to see what she was reading, but I couldn't make out the title. I thought my dyslexia was acting up. Then I realized the title wasn't even English. The letters looked Greek to me. I mean, literally Greek. There were pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns, like those in an architecture book.
"It probably is one" SIlena said.
"Annabeth loves architecture" Beckedorf explained.
"Annabeth, " Chiron said, "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?"
"Yes, sir. "
"Cabin eleven, " Chiron told me, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home. "
Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a reg-ular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on old. The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor's symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. What did they call it... ? A caduceus.
Hermes grinned at the mention of his cabin.
Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center.
The grin instantly fell. "You all are so bad at claiming your children! Just claim them will you! Otherwise that might come to bite you in the ass!" the god groaned.
The demigods looked at the gods. They looked to be genuinely considering this.
Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.
"Well, then, " Chiron said. "Good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner. "
He galloped away toward the archery range.
I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at me, sizing me up. I knew this routine. I'd gone through it at enough schools.
"Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on. "
So naturally I tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of myself. There were some snickers from the campers, but none of them said anything.
Unlike in the books, the demigods were laughing at the unfortunate son of Poseidon. Even the gods looked slightly amused.
Annabeth announced, "Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven.
"Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked.
I didn't know what to say, but Annabeth said, "Undetermined. "
The demigods sighed. They hated seeing the faces of their fellow campers who were yet to be claimed. The look of depression and the feeling of not being accepted by their parents was not something anyone was fond of.
Hermes and Hestia were glaring the gods who seemed to shrink slightly.
A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward. "Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there. "
The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty cool. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.
Hermes smiled at the description of his son. He wouldn't say it out loud but Luke was his favourite.
"This is Luke, " Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow. I glanced over and could've sworn she was blushing.
Thalia punched Annabeth on the shoulder lightly with a grin.
"Shut it" Annabeth grumbled rubbing her arm. She too was blushing like her counterpart in the books.
She saw me looking, and her expression hardened again. "He's your counselor for now. "
"For now?" I asked.
"You're undetermined, " Luke explained patiently. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers. "
I looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given me. I had nothing to put there to mark it as my own, no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bag. Just the Minotaur's horn. I thought about setting that down, but then I remembered that Hermes was also the god of thieves.
"Aw man" Hermes pouted. He loved it when his children stole stuff.
I looked around at the campers' faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, some eyeing me as if they were waiting for a chance to pick my pockets.
"How long will I be here?" I asked.
"Good question, " Luke said. "Until you're determined. "
"How long will that take?"
The campers all laughed.
The gods sighed as Hermes and Hestia glared at them again.
"Come on, " Annabeth told me. "I'll show you the volleyball court. "
"I've already seen it. "
"Come on. " She grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside. I could hear the kids of cabin eleven laughing behind me. When we were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that. "
"What?"
She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one. "
"What's your problem?" I was getting angry now. "All I know is, I kill some bull guy-"
"Some bull guy" Apollo snorted.
"Don't talk like that!" Annabeth told me. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"
"To get killed?"
"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"
"To survive?" Athena raised an eyebrow at her daughter.
Annabeth felt too embarrassed to talk.
I shook my head. "Look, if the thing I fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories ... "
"Yes. "
"Then there's only one. "
"Yes. "
"And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So ... "
"I didn't know gajilion was a thing" Hermes muttered.
"Because it isn't" Artemis rolled her eyes. Trust a boy t come up with stupid words.
"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die. "
"That really clears things up" Leo muttered.
"Oh, thanks. That clears it up. "
"Hey we think alike" Leo high fived a very confused but grinning Percy.
"They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they re-form. "
I thought about Mrs. Dodds. "You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword-"
"The Fur ... I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad. "
"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"
"You talk in your sleep. "
"Of course I do" Percy groaned.
"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?"
Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her. "You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all. "
"Hades' torturers are called kindly ones? Who names these things!?" Leo asked incredulously.
"Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?" I sounded whiny, even to myself, but right then I didn't care.
"I hate it when that happens" Ares muttered.
"The thundering?" Aphrodite asked.
"The whining" Ares answered and was rewarded with a heel to his forehead.
"Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there. "
I pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or ... Your parent. "
She stared at me, waiting for me to get it.
"My mom is Sally Jackson, " I said. "She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to. "
"I'm sorry about your mom, Percy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad. "
"He's dead. I never knew him. "
"Never knew him? Yeah probably. Dead? Not so much" Conner said in a creepy rumplestiltskin like voice that creeped everyone out.
Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids. "Your father's not dead, Percy. "
"How can you say that? You know him?"
"No, of course not. "
"Then how can you say-"
"Because I know you. You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us. "
"You don't know anything about me. "
"No?" She raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them. "
"How-"
"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too. "
"Anny that's creepy" Thalia muttered and received a slap on the arm for it.
I tried to swallow my embarrassment. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD-you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battle-field reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are. "
"You sound like ... You went through the same thing?"
"I keep forgetting that Annabeth has the same problems as us" Silena muttered to Beckendorf.
"Yeah. With how much she reads its easy to forget" Beckendorf nodded.
"Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar. "
"Ambrosia and nectar. "
"The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it. You're a half- blood. "
A half-blood.
I was reeling with so many questions I didn't know where to start.
"The beginning sounds like a good place" Will nodded.
Then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!"
I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin was sauntering toward us.
Clarisse threw a glare at Percy.
Percy shrugged apologetically. "Sorry?" he asked lamely.
Clarisse huffed and looked away.
She had three other girls behind her, all big and ugly and mean looking like her, all wearing camo jackets.
"Clarisse, " Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"
"Sure, Miss Princess, " the big girl said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night. "
''Erre es korakas!" Annabeth said, which I somehow under-stood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!' though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded.
"It does" Hestia said and looked at Annabeth with a motherly glare.
Annabeth shrunk slightly, looking like a kid caught stealing a cookie from the tray.
"You don't stand a chance. "
"We'll pulverize you, " Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow through on the threat.
"Stupid observant runt" Clarisse muttered to herself.
She turned toward me. "Who's this little runt?"
"Percy Jackson, " Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares. "
I blinked. "Like ... The war god?"
Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"
"No, " I said, recovering my wits. "It explains the bad smell. "
"That was a good one" Ares laughed.
"He also means that you stink kinda" Aphrodite pointed out making a face.
"Babe I'm the god of war! I shouldn't smell good. I should smell like war" the god of war grinned.
Clarisse looked at her father in surprise. She was way to stunned to attack Percy for the insult.
Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy. "
"Percy. "
"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you. "
"Clarisse-" Annabeth tried to say.
"Stay out of it, wise girl. "
Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it, and I didn't really want her help. I was the new kid. I had to earn my own rep. I handed Annabeth my minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but before I knew it, Clarisse had me by the neck and was dragging me toward a cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the bathroom. I was kicking and punching. I'd been in plenty of fights before, but this big girl Clarisse had hands like iron. She dragged me into the girls' bathroom. There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. It smelled just like any public bathroom, and I was thinking-as much as I could think with Clarisse ripping my hair out-that if this place belonged to the gods, they should've been able to afford classier johns.
"Oh they were classy. Put a hundred kids in one place and see how classy things turn out" Dionysus scowled. He loved those bathrooms.
Clarisse's friends were all laughing, and I was trying to find the strength I'd used to fight the Minotaur, but it just wasn't there.
"Like he's 'Big Three' material, " Clarisse said as she pushed me toward one of the toilets. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking. "
Her friends snickered.
Clarisse scowled at the boy but her lips would twitch at times.
Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers. Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head toward the toilet bowl. It reeked like rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets. I strained to keep my head up. I was looking at the scummy water, thinking, I will not go into that. I won't. Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach.
Amphitrite smirked seeing her husband grin like a mad man.
Sea gods and their water bending obsessions am I right?
I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. Clarisse's grip on my hair loosened. Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind me.
The twitching stopped and Clarisse looked down right murderous.
I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again, hit-ting Clarisse straight in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her butt. The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward into a shower stall. She struggled, gasping, and her friends started coming toward her. But then the other toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away. As soon as they were out the door, I felt the tug in my gut lessen, and the water shut off as quickly as it had started. The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn't been spared. She was dripping wet, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place, staring at me in shock.
The Annabeth in the room though looked angrily at Percy who was keeping his eyes away from Clarisse and Annabeth.
I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around me. I didn't have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing.
I stood up, my legs shaky.
Annabeth said, "How did you ... "
"I don't know. "
We walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. She gave me a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead. " I probably should have let it go, but I said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth. "
"Good one!" Travis roared with laughter, no longer being able to hold it back.
The gods too looked amused. In case of Hermes and Apollo though, they had disappeared under their thrones, rolling and laughing their asses off.
Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.
Katie and Silena had to hold down Clarisse as she struggled to strangle Percy.
"Clarisse sit down" Hestia said calmly.
Clarisse looked at the goddess and slowly sat down.
Hestia turned to Percy and motioned to Clarisse. Percy sighed and looked at the girl. "Sorry about blasting you with toilet water" he muttered.
Clarisse gritted her teeth but one look from Hestia and she slumped. "Fine. I'm sorry too. For trying to dunk your head in" she grumbled.
Hestia leaned back in her chair and sighed. These kids were just as a bad as their parents.
Annabeth stared at me. I couldn't tell whether she was just grossed out or angry at me for dousing her.
"Probably both" Thalia snickered.
Annabeth kept her glare at Percy. Though she did turn it on Thalia for a moment.
"What?" I demanded. "What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking, " she said, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag. "
Poseidon sighed and passed the book to Hera. His son a strong demigod. And that meant he would attract monsters. Something he was not looking forward to.