Chapter Nine
Percy
Friday, August 6th
The rest of the meeting was super boring, at least to Percy. They talked about stuff like stocks and rates and a bunch of other stuff he wasn't even going to try to understand. Percy supported his head with his hand and his elbow was on that table. It was only two hours into the three hour meeting. Nico was already asleep, believe it or not, sleeping soundly as his head rested on the table. Bianca had found interest in making shadow puppets on the table, curtesy of the fluorescent lights hanging above. Thalia had been staring at the floor for an hour and Jason—Percy thought he tried to look like he was listening, but he was starting to fail. Hazel's eyes were wondering, particularly to the doors around the room. Percy was starting to wonder what was behind those doors. He was in the middle of yawning when he heard something that sparked his interest.
"—Chiron had spoken to us earlier," Zeus was saying, "and said he wanted to start their first mission three months from now. They'd raid one of K's hideouts, in Hawaii I believe, and check up on K's status, as his actual whereabouts are unknown."
Percy kicked Thalia under the table and she sent him a death glare, 'What?' she mouthed.
'Did you hear that?' he mouthed back. She shook her head in response. Percy held up three fingers, 'First mission in three months.'
'Really?'
Percy nodded, 'And, it's in Hawaii.'
She gave him a confused look, 'What?'
'Hawaii,' he repeated. She cocked her head to one side. Percy shook his head, 'Never mind.'
Thalia turned to Jason and whispered something in his ear with her hand covering her mouth. Jason leaned forwards and Percy nodded his head in clarification. The three of them tuned back into the conversation.
"Our children have yet to get to know their powers," Poseidon explained. "They're tied to emotion. When the six of them became angry, they unintentionally used their powers. We know they have powers, they just need to be taught to use them properly. I suppose we would do it but our one smidge of free time was given to the carnival."
"You're going to the carnival?" Hermes asked. He raised an eyebrow, "May I ask why?"
From what Percy gathered, Apollo and Hermes were best friends. They were constantly talking quietly with each other or laughing but they were, at times, extremely useful. Apparently Artemis and Apollo were twins. Those two were constantly bickering when Apollo wasn't too busy sharing a laugh with Hermes. All of the Olympians seemed to be fairly young, in their mid to late thirties to their early forties.
"Because the only way to regain our children's trust is to let them do whatever they want," Hades explained. He seemed kind of glum about it.
"What did you do to lose their trust in the first place?" Athena inquired. She was always asking questions.
Zeus frowned, "We'd rather not go into it."
Thalia put up her hand and smiled sweetly, "I would." Zeus stared at his daughter. He didn't seem too happy.
And she lunched into the entire story, with Percy and Jason adding in things Thalia had missed. Nico was still sleeping, and Hazel and Bianca weren't even paying attention anymore (not that they were before).
"And now they have to take us for brunch tomorrow," Thalia finished.
"Um, excuse me, when was this decided?" Zeus looked at his daughter who shrugged.
"Just now. You're free at eleven tomorrow, remember?"
Zeus grumbled and crossed his arms.
"Well now time is almost up," Poseidon frowned down at his watch. Percy looked up at the digital clock on the wall. It was now 6:28.
"I suggest we go into overtime," Demeter suggested.
Percy groaned loudly, "But I'm hungry."
"We'll have to order in," Zeus agreed and took out yet another device from his pocket. He spoke into it, "Ron, let the chef know we're eating in, as we are going into overtime. Also, bring in twenty menus."
"No problem," a voice replied.
No more than thirty seconds later a man rushed into the room holding a stack of professional looking menus. As he passed them out recognition lit up Thalia's face. "Hey, you're that guy at the front desk."
He nodded as he continued to walk around the table. By this time both Bianca and Hazel had confused looks on their faces. "What's going on?" Bianca asked as a menu was placed in front of her.
"We're ordering in," Jason explained.
Ron had stopped when he got to Nico, "Is this boy dead?"
"Um, no?" Bianca answered.
She nudged her brother several times until he groggily lifted his head up. "Huh?" He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He looked at his sister questioningly.
"Its dinnertime," she shrugged as she opened her menu.
Percy looked over his own. There was a list of appetizers, entrees, main courses...and big fancy words. He had been working really hard on his dyslexia this past summer and it seemed to be working because the words didn't mix up nearly as much as they used to. When Ron came around holding a small flipbook, Thalia confronted him again, "So you're an undercover waiter too?"
Ron rolled his eyes and asked for her order. Five minutes later everybody had struck up conversation with one another as they ate. Percy was talking to all of his cousins.
"They said that our first mission was in three months," Percy explained. "We're gonna raid K's hideout in Hawaii."
"I could use a nice vacation in Hawaii," Thalia said as she stabbed her fork into her meatballs. "Too bad we'll be too busy working."
"I'll be thirteen by then," Percy announced as he sipped his Sprite…which he had asked for blue.
Bianca nodded as she cut into her slice of turkey, "Me too."
"What's with you and the colour blue?" Jason asked as he pointed his fork at Percy's Sprite.
"It's my favourite colour," Percy explained. "At my house, my mom goes out of her way to make my food blue. At first we we're just trying to make a point to my ex-step-dad, Gabe, and now it's just our thing."
"I wish all of my food was purple," Bianca muttered as a couple of extra waiters swept in and collected their plates. "I wasn't done with that!" Bianca huffed as they disappeared through a door.
Ron came back out and collected their dessert orders, "Can I have a blue slice of cake?" Percy asked. "Make that two slices."
"I want a purple slice of cake," Bianca decided. Eventually, they had all ordered a cake of their favourite colour. When the extra waiters came out with their food, instead of slices of cake, they had each received a miniature cake.
"Wow, I wish Ron was my assistant," Thalia said as she licked her lips.
Hazel took another bite of her cake, "This is really good."
Everyone else nodded in agreement. Ron came back out, overseeing the waiter's as they took the plates away. Thalia waved Ron over. He seemed reluctant, but eventually walked towards them. "Yes?"
"Give our kudos to the chef," Percy said.
Ron actually smiled, "Will do."
