This is a special Thanksgiving (for those who celebrate it) chapter (even though it isn't thanksgiving, its close!), because it is holiday about being thankful, and I am so thankful for all of you and your support! There will still be a Christmas special as I promised, so be on the look out for the too! Before we begin, I just want to quickly ask you all a favor. Go check out my friend AdamDressler, cause his crossover story between Star Wars and Throne of Glass is honestly really good, like 10/10 would recommend! I can't wait to begin writing this for you all... so I'm going to stop waiting! Enjoy!
Percy:
I had known that school was going to suck the day after I let my secret out. There was no way around it. My peers had been wondering who Water Child was for years, and now that they knew, and now that they knew who was controlling a competition that could yield such an amazing reward, they would make my life a living hell trying to get some kind of edge.
And I had been right. The moment I walked into school, it seemed that I had made a hundred new friends, and just as many new enemies.
Everyone was vying for my attention, trying to be subtle about asking for hints about the next challenge, or asking me to help them win. Obviously, they weren't being as secretive as they thought they were, and it was frankly just annoying.
I had almost regretted signing my name under Water Child the moment I had posted the blog post. I didn't really, since secrets like that had ruined the best thing about my life, and I was hoping that Annabeth would see that she was worth more to me than my secrecy, but this, all the fake people around me, was awful. Just awful.
After being dumped by the love of my life, I had just wanted to go to class and do nothing the rest of the day. That was never going to happen, but now I could see that there was an even smaller chance of that happening.
The one good thing, I began to realize as people melted away with the ringing of the bell, was that I would be able to go on my blog page and read the secrets people were posting. I was sure that most of them would be random things that wouldn't do a lot for anyone, things like "I love anime" or "I'm not really an A+ student" and the like, but I was hoping that there would be a few things that would really be able to help someone feel lighter and more open.
Boy, was I not prepared for what I had started. The first thing I noticed when opening my blog up in homeroom was that there were multiple people already who had come out through the challenge.
It was heartening to see, and it felt good to know that these people had found a place where they could be true to those around them without having to go through the pressure of finding the right moment, as many of the people who privately emailed me expressed. I
I suppose that even if my life sucked at the moment, it was nice that I could help out everyone else's.
The day went by slowly, and horribly. It had been a blessing earlier this year that Annabeth was in most of my classes, since it meant I got to spend the day with my incredible girlfriend. But now... now it was awkward, and every time I saw her, and every time that her glance brushed over me, cold as a statue, my heart broke into more and more pieces.
One upside though, was that since everyone already knew who I was, I didn't have to hide my computer when opening to my site. Looking at the leader boards, I could see quite a few names in red already, and I had a suspicion that more would come after this task, more so than usual since I had given my peers only two days to complete it.
I filtered through the responses, reading each of them and going back and forth between them and the leader board, checking off names that had already done what I had asked them too, moving them ahead into next round. The prize got bigger each hour, as at the beginning of the competition, to allow for people with genuine fears of anything to buy their way out of one single task the entire challenge. It seemed that many cowards were choosing that this time too, and paying the twenty dollars I had set the price at. The prize was over $2,000 now and still growing.
More and more names were going green each time I checked onto the site.
Which meant that I would have to post a new challenge soon. I wanted to make this one hard, and not straightforward. Something that would take real wit to figure out, and that would thin the still very large herd of people in the competition. With the school year approaching December, I would have to go at a quicker pace than I was.
So I drafted the next challenge in a Google Doc.
Dear Olympus High,
This challenge is going to be harder than any before it. To continue on, you must decipher the below riddle:
black and yellow
one all agree is mellow
you will find your next task soon
under the light of the full moon
beware of the creatures in the night
as you move to the one without sight
complete this swiftly
and you will see
just how nifty
a badger can be
~Water Child, Percy Jackson
It wasnt my best work, but it would do. I wanted the students to go to our local geek shop, called the Werewolf Moon (Hence full moon and creatures in the night), run by Midas, a blind man (without sight) and take a picture with a piece of Hufflepuff merchandise (hence black, yellow, mellow, and badger). Many people would be losing with this task. Many.
But frankly, it was time to thin the herd a bit. To make this a real competition.
Plus, I was in pain and hurting, so I didn't feel bad about making someone else feel like that when they got out. I was eager to see some more names in red.
Red, to match my bleeding heart.
Just as I was closing the doc down, making a mental note to post it when I got home, I looked up from my computer screen and saw Annabeth walking towards me.
*Evil laugh* you all asked for a chapter, and here you got one! Enjoy that cliffhanger until Christmas! Tell me what you thought, I love hearing your feedback! Till next time! Bye!
