Jason's p.o.v.
I took the little slip of paper with the clue and read it out loud.
"On the day of black sun, the moonlight will shine on the goddess of the moon.
Find the books in the place of knowledge and the second clue will be revealed. -D.T."
We paused, taking in what we had just heard.
"What does it mean?" Leo asked. I shrugged my shoulders.
"Well, it says that on the day of black sun, whenever that is, moonlight will shine on the goddess of the moon. And we have to find books in the place of knowledge to find the next clue." Piper restated.
"But that doesn't make any sense, I mean how can moonlight shine on a goddess, and what the hell is the black sun?" I cried, frowning in confusion.
"I don't know, what else is in the box?" Leo asked. I grabbed the box and looked inside. There was just the letter from D.T. and the key that could unlock any door.
"Just the letter and that key that apparently could open any door," I told them. Piper nodded but Leo kept staring at the box.
"Do you think it's works?" Leo questioned.
"What, the key?"
"Yeah, I mean how can a key open any door. All locks are designed differently with each assorted key." Leo claimed.
"I don't think this D.T. guy would lie to us. I mean, so far he seems to be serious about this. I don't think he would give us a key that actually didn't work." I explained. Leo still didn't look convinced. "Try it out then."
Leo looked at me, confused.
"Here?"
"Yep." I turned to Piper. "There's a lock on this trailer, right."
"There's a lock on the trailer, but I never use it cause I don't have the key to lock it back." Piper said.
"Well go see then. Leo." I tossed him the key. He caught it and stared at me, unsure what to do. "Go outside and I'll tell you when to put the key in and see if it works."
Piper and I watched as Leo opened the door to the trailer and walked outside.
Piper closed the door and locked it.
"Okay, try it out!" Piper wailed.
Leo put the key in the hole and turned. Piper and I watched in amazement as the lock turned and Leo came bursting through the door, a shocked expression on his face.
"It's like magic. The key just went in and opened it. It's impossible." Leo cried.
"Okay guys, let's just continue this on Monday. I gotta hang out with Thalia tomorrow." I suggested.
"That's good cause I got work with Calypso." Leo said.
Leo waved and walked out.
I packed the box up and put it away in the closet. Piper kept staring at me.
"Jason, what's wrong?" Piper asked, walking over to me.
"It's just that, until now, I really thought we could try out this mystery and quit. If this D.T. person can make a key open any door, then what else can he do. If we quit, what could he do to us and our families?" I said.
"Jason, that's why we're here. We're not gonna let you do this alone. We're here for you." Piper reassured me.
I nodded but really I knew the sad truth. That wasn't enough.
Percy's p.o.v.
Who can I trust? Who's a friend and who's a foe? Who do I think I knew? And do I really know them? Trust. It's a peculiar thing. It's like a piece of paper. Once it's crumpled, it can never be perfect again. And I, Percy Jackson, didn't know who to trust.
I walked into the kitchen. My mom was sitting on the counter, on her laptop, typing her story, headphones in her ears.
She looked as I walked into the kitchen.
She smiled, but even her beautiful smile couldn't change things. My father was Ari and, somehow, Philip knew my dad. How could Philip know my dad. It can't be a coincidence that Philip married my mom, and knew my father who he supposedly never met.
Okay Percy STOP. Just stop! But it wouldn't stop. The voices, the doubts, it was just tearing up my brain from the inside.
Mom looked at my vacant expression and took the earphones out of her ears.
"Percy, are you okay." Mom asked. I looked up from my plate of cereal.
I licked my lips and nodded.
"Mom, I'm fine," I told her.
She could tell I was lying. She could see it in my blue eyes. They shimmered with sadness and doubt.
"Percy, is there anything going on that I should know about?" She questioned.
"Mom, I said I'm fine." I shot at her in a dangerous voice.
She was taken aback at my outburst. Mom stared at me with a worried expression but shook it off.
"Okay then." and she went back to writing.
After breakfast, I found Annabeth waiting for me, in on my street, her black limo shining in the sunlight. I jumped into the limo.
Like me, Annabeth was pretty shaken at the fact that Philip knew my father back then.
I mean, initially we never actually trusted Philip but knowing that Philip kept this a secret means that somehow, he's connected to all of this.
"So are you trying out for the Capture The Flag Team?" Annabeth asked.
"I was planning to but there's no time. We have to look over the journal." I replied.
Annabeth eyes narrowed.
"No you are going to try out!" She ordered in a dangerous voice. "Percy, we can look at the journal after the tryouts! I know how much you wanted to be on the team and how hard you practiced. I'm not letting you quit because of this mystery. I can't believe I'm saying this but you gotta have some fun in your life."
We arrived at Vikus's shop. We walked in and everything looked the same.
"Vikus!" I called. Annabeth looked around. Where is he?
I heard footsteps and turned to the steps. Vikus emerged. Annabeth frowned. He had an unusual expression.
"I'm sorry but I didn't find anything!" He told us, his eyes wide-eyed, as he rushed up to us. Annabeth's eyebrows narrowed.
"But didn't you say-"
"The name Poseidon never appeared in the journal so can you please leave!" He snapped. What's wrong with him, he was so nice yesterday! He's acting like he's scared out of his mind.
"Is it okay, if we could take a look at the journal, see if there are any other names that we might recognize?" I asked him. He shook his head.
"No! I'm sorry but you really need to go! I'm really busy right now." He told us, scooting us outside and closing the door in our faces.
We started walking to school.
"What's wrong with him?" I asked.
"He found something in that journal. Something he didn't want us to see." Annabeth told me, her face expressionless. It's so strange how Annabeth can make these assumptions about people just by staring at them and examining their body language.
"Why wouldn't he want us to see something? Isn't he trying to help us find my father?" I asked her, stuffing my hands in my pockets as wind blew on us. It made my skin tingle.
"Maybe he is, but something happened on that day that Vikus doesn't want us to know. Something important." She said, frowning. "We have to see that journal."
"But how? I mean Vikus made it pretty clear that we're not allowed to go into his store."
"I don't know how yet, but we are going to see that journal and find out what happened to your father that day. I promise."
Leo p.o.v.
I walked into my science class, with my books tumbling in my hands.
Calypso was sitting in the seat next to me, reviewing her notes like the perfect goody goody two shoes, she is.
"Hey, Calypso could you ever take a break from the land of knowledge?" I asked.
Calypso looked up from her work and rolled her eyes.
"Leo, you know that I want to graduate early and get out of this forsaken town!" She scowled."
"I wish you would stay. Then I would have someone to bicker with." I cried,
putting on a fake sad face.
She smiled and hit me on my shoulder.
"Oh would you shut up!" She cried. She looked around the classroom and added,"I should probably go get the lab stuff, since you have no idea what we're doing."
I clutched my chest, mockingly affronted. "I do too know what we're doing. We're dissecting a frog."
She didn't look impressed. "We're dissecting a frog in order to get its stomach out so that we could measure the amount of acid it takes to digest it's food, more specifically."
I grumbled on about girls and their know-it-all attitudes as Calypso went to the lab stations and grabbed out materials.
She came back with odd looking objects, many which I recognized as the things Athena had held up for the class to see.
"Which ones a spatula?" I asked as she set the materials down, still standing beside the table.
Calypso held up a silvery thing that did not look like a spatula.
I frowned. "What kind of spatula is that?"
"A scientific one." She handed it to me. "I'm gonna go get the frog."
"Wait," I said just as she turned to leave. "Aren't you know, scared of frogs. Isn't that like one of you girl's unspoken rules?"
Calypso looked incredulous. "What, that we're scared of frogs? No." She rolled her eyes just as Stephanie Gardner squeakily screamed "Ew! Get that thing away from me, Issac."
Calypso frowned at my pointed look. "Well, I'm not scared of them." I watched her as she walked away, picked up the tray at the far end of the class and brought it back to our table.
She sat down and slid it between us.
The frog was about the size of my hand, if not a little bigger. It was lying on it's back, it's fat, white belly facing the ceiling. I had no idea what kind of frog it was but it was definitely not your everyday amphibian: it bared a strange leopard-like-pattern on it's side and (presumably) it's back, and was the color of, well, vomit. It's eyes were open-two-shiny beads of yellow swimming in a circle of opacity- as if it were not dead but paralyzed. I sniffed it. It didn't smell like a frog, it smelled like a hospital drenched in antiseptic. And judging by the layer of skin that winked at me from it's body, the frog was probably drenched in it. Or something sanitary like that.
"How cute," I commented. "Let's name him George."
"What if it's a girl." Calypso replied, poking it with an instrument that looked like something that belonged in an horror movie. "It's probably a girl."
I scoffed. "What are you, a frog whisperer? There is no way that's a girl. Look at those manly patterns."
I put my gloves on and grabbed George by his two front legs as if it looked like it was standing on the tray on its two hind legs. Calypso cried out.
"Leo!" she hissed. "Athena said no playing with the frogs!"
"Well, Athena isn't here, is she?" I replied scandalously. It was true. Our science teacher had left the class to get more gloves or something.
"Put Georgina down." She ordered.
I raised my eyebrows. "Georgina? How dare you insult his manliness by giving her a girl's name!"
Calypso face-palmed, but I had a feeling the act was done in an effort to hide her smile.
"You're an idiot."
"I'm the idiot who gave you a job." I pointed out. "And the same idiot who is about to make a frog dance."
Calypso removed her hand from her face and looked at me. "What are you-"
But her voice was cut off by the wondrous sight of a dancing frog.
George definitely had a talent. I asked Bobby to drop a beat for me (he went with Gangnam Style) as I tilted George from left to right, all while holding his two front legs so that it appeared that he was dancing the Gangnam Style dance on his own two feet, on of his webbed soles lifting off the tray as the other landed on it.
The sound of Calypso's laugh was music to my ears. Because God know it wasn't Bobby's terribly tone-deaf voice,"Ayyyyyy, sexy frog-gay! Op op op-oppa Frogman Style!"
After a minute of that, I bent George's arm so that it was against its stomach and made him tilt downwards in a low bow.
"Encore!" Bobby cried.
"Thank you-ribbit-thank you," I spoke for George in a chipmunk like voice. I had always thought that if frogs could talk, they would have chipmunk voices.
"What is going here?" Athena cried, angrily, nearly dropping of latex gloves, she had cradled in her arms as she stood at the foot of the door.
The door behind her closed shut with a faint click, and the classroom suddenly became dead silent, as if Athena had turned everyone to stone. But then one familiar voice cut through the heavy stretch of soundlessness like a scalpel cutting through frog skin.
"It was Leo's idea!"
Bobby's voice.
All I could think was that he was lucky he already broke his arm.
Piper's p.o.v.
The smell of fresh leaves entered my nose. I smiled to myself as I enjoyed the beautiful day that had come forth in this world. It reminded me of the gifts this world had given us.
Our hangout spot, which I had stumbled upon and instantly liked because it reminded me of the actual Garden Of Eden (minus the evil snake, of course) was nested in between two tall brick buildings that made up Demigod High School.
Our spot contained these people.
Originally it was Leo, Jason and I but then Frank and Hazel joined since they knew Jason. Then Thalia and Phoebe joined our little gang after she was rejected by her CTF friends, then Calypso joined after she started hanging out with Leo (which is weird, cause they fight all the time).
That was mostly our little group. A picnic blanket lay in the middle of the spot. Hazel, Frank, and Jason were having a conversation about something, Calypso was yelling at Leo, hitting him on the head with her lunch box (as usual) and Thalia and Phoebe were talking about tactics for the CTF tryouts.
"Hey, guys," I said.
Everyone looked up at me. Then went back to talking.
That's usually how it went here.
I took a seat next to Jason. The sun shined down on me, it's rays blinding my vision.
"I really hope I get the spot of an archer," Frank said, with a worried look.
Hazel smiled at him and put her hand on his shoulder.
"You're gonna be fine. I've seen you with a bow and arrow. You're great at it." Hazel reassured him.
"Yeah you're gonna be fine," Phoebe said.
Frank turned to Phoebe and smiled.
"Encouraging to the competition, how nice of you," Frank said with a sarcastic tone.
Phoebe raised her eyebrows.
"So I'm the competition now?" She questioned, as she pushed her glasses into place.
"I mean we are fighting for the same position," Frank told her.
"Fine, competition. I guess you don't want any tips on how to get the position." Phoebe smirked as she turned back to Thalia.
"Wait!" Frank called. Phoebe turned around. "Why would you help me?" Frank asked.
"Because, there can only be two archers. And I'm sure that we both can be the archers." Phoebe explained. Frank nodded and they started discussing tactics.
"So what are you trying out for Jason?" I asked him.
"I'm gonna be an Offender," Jason told me, proudly.
Thalia snorted "In your dreams."
Jason turned to his sister and raised his eyebrows.
"And who was the one that beat the famous Thalia Grace." He asked himself. "ME."
Her smirk disappeared and she glared at Jason.
"You always mention that. When will you shut up about that?"
Leo put his hand on Thalia's shoulder.
"It's okay to lose Thalia. Especially to your beast of a brother who proved that he is ten times better than you." Leo said in a reassuring voice.
"That's right." Jason cried as he and Leo high-fived.
"Like you're any better, Mr. Valdez." Thalia retorted.
"C'mon Thalia, don't gang up on Leo. I'm sure he'll grow some kind of muscles when he finally goes through puberty." Calypso chimed in.
"Heyyyy." Leo cried. "I have gone through puberty."
Calypso to a good look at him and raised her eyebrows.
"Keep telling yourself that."
Everyone laughed at that.
Anonymous p.o.v.
I watched as Jason and his friends laughed.
Why isn't he focused on the mystery? He should be trying to figure out the next clue.
I just hope that he is prepared for what is soon to come.
But I'll let him have his fun… for now
A/N
Lol I had alot of fun writing this chapter! The drama, the funny scenes, everything. Its like 10:30 at night right now and I'm posting this. I pre-wrote this chapter earlier this week and I guess I'll post it today. Today was a good day I guess. My phone freaking cracked yesterday so I can't even use it! But my dad is gonna get it replaced tomorrow so thats good. And I goddamn twisted my foot today at lacrosse today.
Anyway, enough of my problems. What did you guys think of the chapter. What are your thoughts about the first clue? And Vikus's reaction when Percy and Annabeth went to see him. And please tell me that I wasn't the only one who was dying during that Leo and Calypso frog scene!
Don't forget to review your comments if you liked the chapter. They mean the world to me. And add a follow and favorite if you like!
yours truly,
the one and only longshot39 ;)