Chapter 8: Grover Is Not A Spy, But If He Was A Spy, He Would Be A Bad One
(Andi)
Even for a boy, Peter was a total weirdo. I couldn't believe that he wanted to hang out with Percy more than me. I knew most of the boys at camp, but I'd never really talked to Percy. He had never sent me a love letter and I was glad because he kind of scared me. Sometimes he had this look in his eyes, like he knew stuff he shouldn't and might make you swim with the fishes if you asked him about it.
And I don't mean the nice fishes either.
I tried to tell Peter this, but he didn't listen. He just responded with a bunch of bad words and ran off. Afterward, instead of avoiding Percy, Peter seemed to be avoiding me! I never saw him outside of meals anymore. While I went through my days of:
- training at the arena with the best fighters at camp excluding Luke,
- hanging out with Nico,
- rolling around in the strawberry fields,
- practicing archery with Luke's cabinmates and a couple Aphrodite boys,
- receiving countless love letters,
- tolerating Grover,
- daydreaming about Luke,
- swimming in the lake and playing volleyball with most of the guy campers excluding Luke,
- talking with Daddy about camp and Luke,
- learning advance mist magic with Chiron,
- riding Princess, and
- sending at least 50 Iris messages each day to random locations in the hope of finding Luke,
Peter and Percy were doing their own boy thing all summer which included:
- swimming to the sound,
- laughing too much,
- various trips to the forest,
- sharing too many knowing looks,
- having too much fun,
- flying Pegasi,
- gaining notoriety around camp,
- practicing swordplay, and
- generally looking like a happy couple of friends.
How do I know what they were doing if I never saw them outside of meals?
Grover.
Since Peter liked Grover for some reason, Grover was able to get close to him and Percy no problem. After Grover saw how Peter kept being mean to me, Grover offered to spy on him and Percy for me which I, of course, refused because spying is wrong and creepy. Instead, I told Grover to just keep an eye on Peter and Percy, tell me about their adventures at every meal, and alert me if there was any trouble.
Grover was happy to oblige as he had nothing better to do. But to my surprise, Nico didn't like it. He had mumbled more than once that: "If Peter wants to hang out with that weird Percy kid instead of us, leave him be. It's none of our business and you deserve better anyway, Andi."
But I couldn't leave Peter alone because it was my business. Nico just didn't understand. I was positive that I needed to keep an eye on Peter. Him pushing me away was another sign of how much he needed my help.
So, even with Grover following Peter around, I still did my best to be friendly and available to Peter despite my own very busy and productive schedule of:
- training at the arena with the best fighters at camp excluding Luke,
- hanging out with Nico,
- rolling around in the strawberry fields,
- practicing archery with Luke's cabinmates and a couple Aphrodite boys,
- receiving countless love letters,
- tolerating Grover,
- daydreaming about Luke,
- swimming in the lake and playing volleyball with most of the guy campers excluding Luke,
- talking with Daddy about camp and Luke,
- learning advance mist magic with Chiron,
- riding Princess, and
- sending at least 50 Iris messages each day to random locations in the hope of finding Luke.[1]
I invited Peter and even Percy! to sit with me most days and I said hi and asked Peter about his day whenever I saw him. He mostly responded by swearing at me and it hurt, but I kept trying even as Nico rolled his eyes and Grover kept me informed because I wasn't worried. I knew I'd win Peter over in the end.
Then after a few months, something bad happened. It was just before dinner and I was playing Mythomagic with Nico when Grover ran up to me. "Andi! Andi!"
Nico rolled his eyes. "Here we go again," he muttered.
"Hey Grover." I tried to put on my best smile.
"Andi, it's horrible. Terrible. It's—"
"What is it Grover?" I said interrupting him.
"Percy and Peter are missing. They went into the sound and haven't come back," he said, frantically.
"So?" Nico mumbled. I had to agree. Grover despite being a nature spirit often lost track of Peter and Percy when they went into the sound or into the forest.
I asked, "How long have they been gone? A few hours?"
"No! They've been gone since last night," he said, nervously rubbing his hands together.
I exchanged a look with Nico. Even he looked a bit surprised.
"We should inform the Stroll brothers and organize a search," I said, decisively.
Grover looked relieved and was nodding.
"Not yet," Nico whispered.
I turned and looked at him. "Not yet?" I repeated, confusedly.
"They might turn up tonight," Nico whispered. "Let's not make a big deal of it yet. They're always disappearing. Maybe they just got held up by something."
I frowned. Nico might be right. It was common for them to skip out on a meal every so often due to their weird boy schedule, but still… "We can't take that chance," I said, decisively, "We should inform people tonight."
"After dinner," Nico whispered, "It's time." He gestured at the campers going to their tables.
"Fine," I said. We went to dinner, but I was tense. The Hermes cabin barely seemed to notice Percy's absence and Chiron just frowned at Peter's missing seat, but said nothing. According to Grover, Peter and Percy had missed every meal today. I was surprised how little anyone seemed to care. Annabeth and Luke were already gone. I would have thought that people would be on high alert.
As soon as dinner ended, I informed Chiron and the Stroll brothers, but they also wanted to wait until morning.
"It is already quite dark, Andi," Chiron said sagely.
"Yeah, and those two are always disappearing these days," one of the Stroll brothers said.
It took me 2 whole minutes to convince them to change their minds.[2] Even then it was a short search session. We found no sign of Peter or Percy besides a hippocampus mentioning they went searching for one of its eggs yesterday. Grover talked with the thing, but it didn't have any other information for us. In the end, Chiron forced us to call it a night.
I went to my cabin, still worried and upset. Grover offered to stay with me and play me music to help me sleep, but I declined. Grover had greatly improved his playing this summer, but I didn't like the idea of him watching me sleep.
It might have been a mistake though. I had weird nightmares and I felt horrible in the morning. Worse yet, Peter and Percy still hadn't returned.
The camp began searching in earnest the next day. We looked over the hippocampus's nest as best we could. Then we looked over the rest of the beach and water. Scuba gear was used and the satyrs convinced the sea creatures to help us for a while, but we didn't find anything. It really seemed like Peter and Percy had disappeared.
After a couple days, most people had stopped searching, but I kept looking with Grover and Nico. However, after a week, even they were getting tired of looking.
"Andi," Nico muttered. "We have searched everywhere. Seaweed Brain and kelp boy are gone."
"Yeah," Grover agreed. "I agree with Nico. It's been days. Not even the sea creatures know what happened to them."
"But—"
"I'm sorry Andi," Nico whispered.
Grover tried to put an arm around me but I shook him off. "No guys, we have to keep looking," I said determinedly.
"Do we though?" Nico mumbled.
"Yes!" I snapped.[3]
Grover and Nico just looked at me.
"Yes!" I repeated more forcefully. "Come on guys!" I nearly shouted at them. Didn't they understand? We couldn't stop looking.
Nico held up his hands and Grover actually cowered.
"Alright," Nico hissed, giving in. "Fine. We will keep looking. I'll even do another reading to make sure those idiots are alive, but all that will have to wait until tomorrow morning. Okay?"
I hesitated.
"Come on Andi. It's dark and way past curfew," he pointed out, quietly. "We should at least call it a night."
"Yeah, I'm tired. Let's go to bed," Grover said, heartlessly. "I'm sure things will look better in the morning."
I sighed. "Okay."
I knew they were right about it being late, so we headed back to camp emptyhanded. Again. Nico went to the Big House and Grover went to wherever he slept. I got back to my cabin and stared up at the statue of Zeus, Lord of the Skies and King of the Gods. I hadn't wanted to bother him. He really didn't like Peter, or any boys really, but I needed help.
"Daddy?"
The statue came to life and he said, "What is it, honey?"
I told him the situation.
"More missing boys?" Daddy said, rubbing his beard.
"Peter is the son of Poseidon, remember?" I said, hoping that would catch his interest.
"Oh...him," he said, disapprovingly. "It might be for the best that he's gone. We don't want another prophecy kid running around. That Hades boy is bad enough." [4]
"Daddy!" I cried and a single tear rolled down my cheek.
"Oh no. Honey, don't cry," Daddy said, hugging me. Now there were two tears rolling down on each cheek. I was so very sad.
"Do you want a new pony? Would that cheer you up?" [5]
I shook my head.
"How about another oak tree?"
"No."
"An eagle?"
"Daddy!" I wailed.
"Fine. Fine. I'll tell Hermes to keep an eye out for that Peter boy, okay?"
I sniffled and nodded.
"And…I'm sorry I said the boy was better off dead," he grumbled.
"It's okay," I said.
He sighed. "You have too many male friends, Andromeda. It makes your daddy jealous."
"I know, Daddy. I'm sorry."
He sighed again. "Still, it is strange. Yet another boy missing," he said wonderingly. "First Luke and now this Peter fellow and the other one." He shook his head. "I'll make sure Hermes does his best, but I make you no promises," he said huffily.
"Thank you, Daddy. I love you."
Daddy relaxed and he smiled down at me. "And I love you, my little sunshine. Come give me a kiss goodnight."
I got up on my tip toes and kissed Daddy on the cheek. Then I said, "Goodnight, Daddy."
He smiled at me even more and hugged me tight. "Goodnight, honey," he said lovingly. When he released me, he turned into stone once more.
I watched the statue for a moment longer. I had thought that getting Daddy's help would make me feel better, but the whole conversation just reminded me of losing Luke.[6] I began to cry again.
I continued to cry as I undressed, put on my pajamas, brushed my teeth, washed my face, brushed my lovely honey hair 33 times, got into bed, rolled over, pulled the covers on top of me, and went to sleep.
I was still crying in my dreams. They were filled with the angry voices. Among all the rage and judgment, I heard Peter's voice saying:
You should be ashamed.
I wanted to answer him and all the rest, but I couldn't. I had lost Annabeth, Luke, and now Peter. And yet all I could do was cry about it. What type of hero was that? What type of hero lost everyone they cared about?
I was ashamed, how could I not be?
Footnotes
[1] So, after that lovely call back to the passage six paragraphs ago, you might be wondering what sort of editing I'm actually doing for this fic. Honestly, for Andi's chapters I try to do as little as possible. I correct most of the spelling and grammar errors but I like to leave the good old sueish content alone. And I'm perfectly willing to sacrifice the English language to preserve what I perceive as authorial intent. (So, smile happily, my friends.) Thus, Peter is where my editing skills go as he's not supposed to sound like a Mary Sue. As a side note to this footnote, early in my editing, I had to decide whether to cut down on Peter's swearing. I was tempted to (with less of his colorful language around, I might have managed a T rating), but once again I put authorial intent first. After all, the damn curse words are part of his fucking charm.
[2] As you can imagine, Andi is not used to having to convince people to do stuff. Usually asking is enough.
[3] Usually.
[4] Like I said usually, but today is a rough day in Andi land.
[5] I am pretty sure he means a baby Pegasus.
[6] Yes. There was a very similar conversation in Sea of Monsters about Luke. (Though it took things a bit more seriously.) During that conversation, Zeus also offered an eagle, a pair of oak trees and a baby Pegasus. Obviously, Andi held out for what she really wanted, but on another occasion, she did ask if she could have the Pegasus, but I don't know whether Andi acquired the pair of oak trees from that conversation or a completely different bribery conversation.