A/N:
Keep the reviews coming if you want more! Glad everyone's enjoying it.
Chapter 5: Frank and Jason
After lunch, the Seven and Nico had yet another free period. They figured the least they could do was take advantage of this free period, knowing that it wouldn't last long. They'd have time for one chapter, at the very least. And even then, they didn't know if they'd be able to finish it before their next round of lessons began.
Sitting near the canoe lake, Percy felt relief that at least this chapter didn't contain anything that would trigger panic attacks. Though he also understood that that wouldn't last long. A lot of what had happened from his first quest left a fair number of scars – his time in Tartarus only worsened it. Chiron had said it was lingering PTSD. But Percy was uncertain whether he and Annabeth would ever get over it.
We were so young. We had no damn clue what we were doing he thought. Getting thrust that much responsibility at twelve years old . . . it's absurd. I would hope the next round of campers to go on a quest don't get assigned one until at least sixteen. Even eighteen would be reasonable.
Closing his eyes, he listened to the waves of the Long Island South, which crashed along the shoreline. Annabeth remained firmly under his arm as he heard the others approaching.
"At least we're past the worst of it," she said in an assuring tone.
"Yeah," he agreed, breathing in her familiar scent – a scent of lemon soap with lavender. But their moment alone didn't last long. Jason came forward and sat next to him, with Piper resting in his arms as Frank, Hazel, Leo, and Nico joined them.
"Alright, who's reading this time?" asked Percy.
"I'll go first," Frank offered, taking the book from Piper who'd retrieved it from Percy's cabin.
"By all means," Percy said with a nod. Only the title of the chapter got Frank grinning as he read it aloud: "I Play Pinochle With A Horse."
Leo snickered, because it was such a "Percy" type of title name.
"Are all the chapters going to have weird titles?" he asked.
"Yeah," Percy said. "Our lives are far from normal. You might as well have eccentric chapter names to go along with it."
Annabeth laughed in agreement, tightening her arm around him as Frank started to read.
"I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food," Frank read.
"Okay, that's hardly a dream," said Leo, rolling his eyes.
"Can you blame me for hoping?" Percy asked. "I'd just fought a bull-man wearing Fruit of the Looms and learned my best friend was half-goat! I wanted it so badly to be a dream."
"No, I can't," said Hazel. "You had a lot to process. No one can expect you to fully accept or understand it."
"Yeah, thanks," Percy said. "If only Annabeth had been understanding."
"What?" Annabeth asked, looking at him with a slight glare.
"You got mad at me for asking stupid questions at the Hermes cabin my first day. What did you expect? For me to know everything?" he asked her.
"Well, maybe I expected you to at least pretend," Annabeth said. "It was embarrassing."
"Oh, wow! I just get through watching my mother vanish and I learn I'm half-god. And you expect me to just accept it and move on?" Percy looked at her incredulously.
"I had to," Annabeth said, her face turning pink as she tucked a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear.
"Well, we can't all be you," he retorted. "Besides, my mother hid it from me for so long. You couldn't expect me to understand or get it."
"And I'm sorry about it, now," Annabeth said. "Okay? I just thought . . . I had hope that you would . . ."
"I know," Percy said. "You wanted a quest so badly. You had hope that everyone new who walked into camp would be that someone to take you for a quest. I can only imagine how many times you were disappointed."
"I was ambitious at twelve years old. I take after my mother. And like her, I have high standards." Annabeth shrugged.
"Maybe a little too ambitious. Take a step back and relax once in a while," advised Percy, leaning a kiss against her forehead.
"Alright, can we continue please?" asked Jason.
Percy and Annabeth both nodded, allowing Frank to keep reading. He read, "I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered-popcorn, only it was pudding. The girl with curly blonde hair hovered over me –"
Annabeth blushed deeply, her face going two shades redder as she looked down at the ground.
"– smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon."
"Oh, so you liked doing that?" grinned Piper, batting her eyes at Annabeth.
Annabeth's face went even redder. "Oh, shut up, Pipes," she muttered. But her glare wasn't very convincing. It just caused Percy to chuckle as he leaned a kiss to her lips. Secretly, she had enjoyed nursing Percy back to health upon his arrival. And to a point, she did enjoy taking care of him whenever he got sick or hurt. But she would never admit that to anyone. Not even Percy.
"The moments where I saw you were my favorite," he said to her around a grin. "I don't think I ever fully thanked you for that." Nonetheless her face stayed beet red. He brushed some of her hair out of her face before kissing her forehead softly.
"Let me guess," smirked Piper. "Seeing a beautiful girl taking care of you was a nice sight?"
"It stands out more," grinned Percy. "And it really does help. I prefer waking to her caring for me than someone else. After nearly getting killed by a Minotaur, it was a sight for sore eyes."
Annabeth's face remained scarlet. But even she couldn't help the smile that played on her lips and the soft giggle that escaped.
"I would do it all over again," she admitted, leaning her head into Percy's chest.
"When she saw my eyes open, she asked, 'What will happen at the summer solstice?' I managed to choke, 'What?' She looked around, as if afraid someone would overhear. 'What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!' 'I'm sorry,' I mumbled. 'I don't . . .'" Frank read.
"I love how you just assumed he knew," grinned Nico.
"What else was I supposed to think?" Annabeth mumbled, her face still deeply red. But at least the color was draining slightly.
"Someone knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding," Frank read.
"Well, that's one way to get you to shut up," joked Leo. Now it was Percy's turn to go bright red in the face. Annabeth laughed softly, tousling her fingers in his hair.
"The next time I woke up, the girl was gone," Frank read.
"Aww, you almost sound disappointed," cooed Piper. "You missed her already."
Annabeth and Percy both rolled their eyes.
"Waking to her beats waking up to Argus," Percy muttered.
"A husky dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes – at least a dozen of them – on his cheeks, his forehead, the back of his hands. When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surrounding, except that they were nice than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt. On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry. My hand was so weak. I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it. 'Careful,' a familiar voice said. Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange t-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover. Not the goat boy," read Frank, taking a moment to laugh softly.
"Goat boy," grinned Jason, chuckling. "Someone send Disney a pilot script."
"And Frank can join the cast," joked Leo, only for Frank to try reaching around Hazel to punch him. Only for his fist to be caught by Nico.
"Read, Frank," Nico suggested.
Frank nodded, continuing to read. "So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay." Only the sentence caused tears to come to Piper's eyes as Jason's arms tightened around her. "We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped her at this big house for some reason. And . . . 'You saved my life,' Grover said. 'I . . . well, the least I could do . . . I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this.' Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap. Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare. 'The Minotaur,' I said. 'Um, Percy, it isn't a good idea –'"
"He's right about that," said Annabeth. "The more you say their names the more they'll go out of their way to kill you."
"'That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?' I demanded. 'The Minotaur, half man, half bull.' Grover shifted uncomfortably. 'You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?' 'My mom. Is she really . . .?' He looked down. I stared across the meadow. There were groves of tress, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight."
"Oh, so you said my sister looks beautiful?" Jason asked, raising an eyebrow at his cousin.
"I didn't know she was a tree, Jay," Percy said, rolling his eyes and nodding at Frank to continue.
"My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful. 'I'm sorry,' Grover sniffled. 'I'm a failure. I'm – I'm the worst satyr in the world.' He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole. 'Oh, Styx!' he mumbled. Thunder rolled across the clear sky. As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, Well, that settles it."
"That's how you realized it wasn't a dream," mumbled Hazel.
Percy nodded.
"Grover was a satyr," read Frank. "I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head. But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even Minotaurs. All that meant was my mom had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light. I was alone. An orphan. I would have to life with . . . Smelly Gabe?"
Annabeth's stormy grey eyes stung at the thought. Although she knew they were past that, the thought of Percy living alone with Gabe made her sick. Just knowing he'd physically, mentally, and sexually abused him for so long still left her mad. But what left her so upset was that Percy had held it in for so long.
"I wouldn't have allowed that," she mumbled.
"No. That would never happen," Frank read. "I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army."
"You really were that desperate to have that man out of your life," mumbled Jason, hardly able to imagine it.
"I still hate that man so much," Percy mumbled. "After all he'd put me through . . . what he put my mother through . . ."
"I get it," said Leo, noticing wet trails already making their way down his friend's face. "I've lived in my share of shitty foster homes, too. I ran away from one, too. So, you don't have to explain it."
"I'd do something," Frank read. "Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid – poor goat, satyr, whatever looked as if he expected to be hit. I said, 'It wasn't your fault.' 'Yes, it was. I was supposed to protect you.' 'Did my mother ask you to protect me?' 'No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least . . . I was. Don't strain yourself,' Grover said. 'Here.' He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips. I recoiled at the taste, because I was expecting apple juice. It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate chip cookies. Liquid cookies. And not just any cookies – but my mom's homemade blue chocolate chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting."
"So, the nectar tastes different for everyone?" asked Piper.
"Yeah," said Annabeth. "It takes on the taste of what's most comforting for you. It helps rejuvenate you in ways that mortal food can't."
"It's pretty amazing, actually," said Nico, smiling thoughtfully.
"Well, what do you taste when you drink it?" Piper asked.
"My sister's spaghetti with jarred vodka sauce. She'd make it before we got sent to boarding school," Nico said, his eyes brimming as he thought of Bianca.
"I recall tasting my dad's black bean soup," mused Piper. "He'd make it whenever I got sick."
"Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay," read Frank. "Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted. 'Was it good?' Grover asked. I nodded. 'What did it taste like?' He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty. 'Sorry,' I said. 'I should've let you taste.' His eyes got wide. 'No! That's not what I meant. I just . . . wondered.' 'Chocolate chip cookies,' I said. 'My mom's. Homemade.'"
"Remind me when we get to your mom's, to bring extras back with us," said Annabeth.
"I will," Percy assured her.
"He sighed. 'And how do you feel?'" Frank read. Only what he read next made him smile a bit wider. "'Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards.'"
"Or go find Smelly Gabe and give him a little payback," muttered Hazel, a smirk on her lips.
"Maybe I could've," Percy said, managing a smile.
"'That's good,' he said. 'That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff.' 'What do you mean?' He took the empty class from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. 'Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting.'"
Frank set the book down, glancing around at the others. "Who wants to go next?"
"I will," said Jason, taking the book from Frank. Looking down at the page, he started immediately. "The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse. My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held onto it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go. As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath. We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture – an open-air pavilion, and amphitheater, a circular arena – except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange t-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings. Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them."
"Well, Annabeth, waiting for someone?" smirked Nico, which earned him a scowl from the blonde.
"Shut up, Nico!" she hissed. But as pink as her cheeks were, Percy knew deep down that she was just as amused as she was embarrassed.
"The man facing me was small, but porky," read Jason, already laughing at the description. He knew exactly whom Percy was describing. And if this said person knew, he wasn't going to be happy. "He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels – what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turn middle-aged in a trailer park."
Jason leaned over, slapping his knee as he shook with uncontrollable laughter. Nico looked as though he were about to piss his pants. Leo kept trying to stifle his giggles. And Frank couldn't help smiling. Even Annabeth, Piper, and Hazel were giggling hard.
"I'm sure Mr. D would love to hear that," laughed Leo.
"Tell him that, you're dead, Valdez! But I'll probably spare you since our dads are best friends," Percy groaned, shaking his head.
"Don't worry. Your secret is safe here," Jason said, turning to smile at his cousin before continuing.
"He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my step-father," read Jason, still smiling. "'That's Mr. D,' Grover murmured to me. 'He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here long than just about anybody.'"
Annabeth wore a slightly proud smile, a glint in her eyes.
"'And you already know Chiron . . .' He pointed at the guy whose back was to me. First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard. 'Mr. Brunner!' I cried. The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple-choice B."
"Of course, Chiron would do that," grinned Annabeth, a playful glint in her eyes.
"'Ah, good, Percy. Now we have four for pinochle.' He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh," read Jason. But what he read next made him laugh softly. "'Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you.' 'Uh, thanks.' I scooted a little farther away from him because, if there was something I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult had been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr."
Leo and Piper both chuckled softly at Percy's description. But there was a hint of sadness to the laughter. From what they heard, Gabe would often physically abuse Percy if he had too much to drink, which they could assume had been often enough. And Percy had grown wary of being around people who had too much alcohol in their system. Annabeth just responded by squeezing at Percy's hand gently.
"'Annabeth?' Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl. She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. 'This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now,'" read Jason, smiling a little wider. He eyed Annabeth, who was glancing downward. Somehow, she knew what was coming next as her face went slightly pinker. "Annabeth said, 'Sure, Chiron.' She was probably my age, maybe a couple inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and her curly blonde hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image."
Annabeth glanced at Percy incredulously. "Wait . . . ruined the image? What's that supposed to mean?" she asked.
"They were startling grey, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight."
At that, Annabeth giggled slightly. But her face was slightly pink.
"She glanced at the Minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me," Jason read. "I imagined she was going to say, You killed a Minotaur! or Wow, you're so awesome! or something like that."
"Yeah, right," grinned Nico, he and Hazel giggling like little girls.
"She would never say that," chuckled Frank.
"It takes a lot to impress a daughter of Athena," giggled Piper.
"Wait till you hear what she actually said," grinned Jason, as he read, "Instead she said, 'You drool when you sleep.'"
Nico, Hazel, Frank, and Leo all leaned over, laughing hysterically. Piper giggled fiercely as her body shook. Even Jason roared with laughter, hardly able to breathe.
"Seriously, Annabeth?!" laughed Frank. "That was all you could think of?!"
Annabeth's face went scarlet now as she kicked herself mentally. But Percy leaned a gentle kiss against her forehead, tangling his fingers in her blonde hair.
"Aww," cooed Piper, grinning as Jason finally caught his breath. He cleared his throat to keep on reading. But he could no longer keep a straight face after what he'd just read.
"Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blonde hair flying behind her. 'So,' I said, anxious to change the subject. 'You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?' 'Not Mr. Brunner,' the ex-Mr. Brunner said. 'I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron.' 'Okay.' Totally confused, I looked at the director. 'And Mr. D . . . does that stand for something?' Mr. D stopped shuffling his cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. 'Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason.' 'Oh. Right, sorry.' 'I must say, Percy,' Chiron-Brunner broke in, 'I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've waisted m time.' 'House call?' 'My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to . . . ah, take a leave of absence.' I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class. 'You came to Yancy just to teach me?' I asked."
"Now we know where your ego comes from," grinned Nico.
"I didn't have many people who went out of their way to do that for me," Percy said. "So, having Chiron do that . . . it just made me feel as though for once, I was more than just an impulsive kid who could hardly read."
Annabeth sighed, snuggling into his hold as Jason continued. "Chiron nodded. 'Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first. We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test.' 'Grover,' Mr. D said impatiently, 'are you playing or not?' 'Yes, sir!' Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, thought I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt."
Everyone laughed at that.
"'You do know how to play pinochle?' Mr. D eyed me suspiciously. 'I'm afraid not,' I said. 'I'm afraid not, sir,' he said. 'Sir,' I repeated. I was liking the camp director less and less."
"We don't like him either. The feeling is mutual," said Piper, sighing.
"'Well,' he told me, 'it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules.' 'I'm sure the boy can learn,' Chiron said. 'Please,' I said, 'what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr. Brun – Chiron – why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach me?' Mr. D snorted. 'I asked the same question.' The camp director dealt the cards, Grover flinched every time on landed on his pile. Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, I was his star student. He expected me have the right answer. 'Percy,' he said. 'Did you mother tell you nothing?' 'She said . . .' I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. 'She told me she was afraid to send me here, even thought my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her.'"
Annabeth sighed, her expression softening. Of course, Sally would want that. At least she'd been there and truly wanted Percy to stay with her. She'd done everything that she could to keep him safe, from switching his schools to putting up with Smelly Gabe. But it hadn't been nearly enough to keep him safe from what he was.
"'Typical,' Mr. D said. 'That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?' 'What?' I asked. He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did. 'I'm afraid there's too much to tell,' Chiron said. 'I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient.' 'Orientation film?' I asked. 'No, Chiron decided. 'Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know –' he pointed to the horn in the shoe box. '– that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either lad. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods – the forces you call the Greek gods – are very much alive.'
Jason paused, faking a wounded expression as he glanced at Annabeth and Percy.
"Really? He left out the Romans?" Jason asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Now, I'm just insulted," Frank said, shaking his head before Jason continued.
"I stared at the others around the table," Jason read. "I waited for somebody to yell, No! But all I got was Mr. D yelling, 'Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!' He cackled as he tallied up his points. 'Mr. Dr,' Grover said timidly, 'if you're not going to eat it, can I have your Diet Coke can?' 'Eh? Oh, all right.' Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully. 'Wait,' I told Chiron. 'You're telling me there's such a thing as God.' 'Well, now,' Chiron said. 'God – capital G, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical.' 'Metaphysical? But you wee just talking about –' 'Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter.' 'Smaller?' 'Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class.' 'Zeus,' I said. 'Hera. Apollo. You mean them.'"
"No!" Nico said sarcastically. "He means Jesus and all his apostles! Of course he means the Greek gods!"
"Shut up, Di Angelo," groaned Percy, shaking his head.
"And there it was again – distant thunder on a cloudless day," read Jason, before commenting, "Way to piss off my dad again, bro."
Percy rolled his eyes, saying, "Continue, Jay. Please."
"'You man,' said Mr. D. 'I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you.' 'But they're stories,' I said. 'They're – myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science.' 'Science!' Mr. D scoffed. 'And tell me, Perseus Jackson –' I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody '–What will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?' Mr. D continued. 'Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals – they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come sooo far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me.' I wasn't liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if . . . he wasn't. It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut. 'Percy,' Chiron said, 'you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that immortal means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for a long time?' I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty big deal, but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate. 'You mean, whether people believed in you or not,' I said."
"And someday, people will think we are myths," said Piper.
"To think that people will just claim our wars with the Titans and the Giants was just made up . . . to explain why whole cities got demolished," mused Frank.
"They'll believe this is all fiction," said Percy. "The more I think about it, the more I wish it were fiction. Because I wouldn't want to repeat a lot of what happened."
"But at the same time, with all that came a lot of blessings," pointed out Nico.
Percy nodded in agreement. The silence allowed Jason to continue reading.
"'Exactly,' Chiron agreed. 'If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?' My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. 'I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods.' 'Oh, you'd better,' Mr. D murmured. 'Before one of them incinerates you.' Grover said, 'P – Please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock.' 'A lucky thing, too,' Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. 'Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe!' He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine. My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up. 'Mr. D,' he warned, 'your restrictions.' Mr. D. looked at the wine and feigned surprise. 'Dear me.' He looked at the sky and yelled, 'old habits! Sorry!' More thunder. Mr. D waved his hand again and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game. Chiron winked at me. 'Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits.' 'A wood nymph,' I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space. 'Yes,' Mr. D confessed. 'Father loves to punish me. The first time. Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time – well, she was pretty, but I couldn't stay away – the second time. He sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Worth with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha! Absolutely unfair.' Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid."
Jason, Frank, Leo, and Piper all took a moment to roll their eyes hard. Of course, none of them were fond of Mr. D. They all knew how much he hated and resented them. Hearing it in writing made it worse.
"'And . . .' I stammered, 'your father is . . .' 'Di immortals, Chiron,' Mr. D said. 'I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course.'"
"Which makes him my obnoxious, jerk older brother," groaned Jason. "As if dealing with Thalia weren't bad enough!"
"I wouldn't say that, Jay," warned Piper. "Because you know how she gets when you say that. Continue, now."
Jason nodded, reading, "I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Win. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master. 'You're Dionysus,' I said. 'The god of wine.' Mr. D rolled his eyes. 'What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?' 'Y-Yes, Mr. D.' 'Then well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?'"
Everyone snickered at that. Thankfully, Mr. D wasn't in earshot of them. The last thing they'd want would be for him to hear them talking about him like this.
"'You're a god.' 'Yes, child.' 'A god. You.' He turned to look at me straight on and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a strait jacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life. 'Would you like to test me, child?' he said quietly. 'No. No, sir.' The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. 'I believe I win.' 'Not quite, Mr. D,' Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, 'The game goes to me.' I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. He got up, and Grover rose, too. 'I'm tired,' Mr. D said."
"When is he not tired?" Nico asked, rolling his eyes.
"He sleeps till eleven-thirty AM. But to his credit, my old step-father was worse," Percy said. "Smelly Gabe would sleep till two o'clock every day, and then wake up drinking."
"I still don't know how you and your mom lived with that man for so long," said Annabeth.
"We put up with a lot from him," Percy said bitterly, before nodding at Jason to keep reading. After all, they were almost finished.
"'I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need a talk, again, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment.' Grover's face beaded with sweat. 'Y-Yes sir.' Mr. D turned to me. 'Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners.' He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably. 'Will Grover be okay?' I asked Chiron. Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. 'Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been . . . ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."
"We were all waiting for the day he was allowed back," groaned Annabeth, shaking her head.
"'Mount Olympus,' I said," read Jason, running a hand through his sandy hair. "'You're telling me there really is a place there?' 'Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do.' 'You mean the Greek gods are here? Like . . . in American?' 'Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the west.' 'The what?' 'Come on, Percy. What you call 'Western civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has bruned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated.'"
"It's almost as if he knew," mumbled Annabeth.
"I know," Percy said.
"Wait, what are you guys talking about?" inquired Hazel.
"As long as Western civilization keeps moving forward, the gods and goddesses of Greek and Rome will remain," said Percy. "But if it all suddenly halts, then that means it'll all die."
"But you sound as if it came close to ending," said Frank.
"It did," Annabeth said tightly.
"Really? How? And why?" asked Piper.
"You'll learn what happened," said Percy. "But the outcome won't be revealed until we get to my fifth journal – the final one."
The way Percy said "the final one," it left the others – all but Nico, Annabeth, and Percy – tensing considerably. But Percy nodded at Jason to keep going.
"'The fire started in Greece,'" read Jason. "'Then, as you well know – or as I hope you know, since you passed my course – the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods.'"
"Finally, we're mentioned," commented Hazel, a gleam in her eyes.
"Nobody just forgot about you guys," said Percy.
"'Oh, different names, perhaps – Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on – but the same forces, the same gods.' 'And then they died.' 'Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the architecture. People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus and Rockefeller Center, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you to find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not – and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Roman, either – American is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here.'"
Jason took a moment to pause, really thinking about it. The idea that they – the demigods – could potentially have monuments built after them in a few thousand years from now was daunting. Their battles against the Titans and the Giants would forever be in mortal and demigod history text books – demigods would know the truth whilst mortals thought it all to be a natural disaster. It almost seemed unfair.
"Do you guys ever sometimes wish we can just shout it all out to the world?" asked Percy, speaking for everyone. "That the gods and goddesses exist? That they're the reason we have the religions that we have, like Hinduism? That they created all of this? They don't get nearly enough credit."
"But I doubt any mortal would believe us – not when we have things like science and atheists in this world," Nico reasoned.
"You've got a good point there," said Frank.
"Let mortals enjoy their ignorance for a while," Jason agreed. "Maybe one day, they'll know the truth about everything. Let's just hope it isn't any time soon." With that, he continued reading aloud.
"It was all too much," he read. "especially the fact that I seemed to be included in Chiron's we, as if I were part of some club."
"It's a club that mortals could probably only dream of," grinned Hazel.
"Well, they wouldn't want to once they learn we nearly get killed by monsters all the time," pointed out Annabeth.
"And that we were all connected to a prophecy," Percy added, sharing a glance with his cousins. Nico, Hazel, and Jason all kept their glances on him. Together, they'd united the Greeks and the Romans. If anything, it showed that they truly were family.
Jason turned his attention back to the page. "'Who are you, Chiron? Who . . . who am I?"
"The demigod that would unite us all together, and make a difference in the world. Maybe even change it," said Annabeth, a proud smile on her face as she moved to wrap her arms around him tightly.
"Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down," Jason read.
"That's what you think," grinned Piper, a playful glint in her eyes.
"'Who are you?' he mused. 'Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be s'mores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate.' And he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising about his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear, but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. The wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's not way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long a knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof."
"When you learn not only your best friend has hooves; your favorite teacher has hooves," grinned Leo.
"I couldn't believe it. At Yancy he was paralyzed. But when I saw him there, he had –" Percy's voice trailed off as he tried to find the words.
"A real horse's ass," grinned Frank, reaching over and squeezing Percy's shoulder.
Everyone laughed at Frank's comment. It was a comment that sounded so Chiron – something that he would say to new campers upon meeting them.
"Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of face human legs attached. I stared at the horse who had just spring from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly crafted to the horse's trunk. 'What a relief,' the centaur said. 'I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers.'"
"And so, your first week of camp begins," grinned Leo as Jason closed the book, just as they heard the conch horn in the distance, signaling it was time for the next round of activities. After dinner, they had one more chance to read another chapter before Percy and Annabeth left for the city to go and visit Sally. Knowing they had to wait so long just to read more chapters left them anxious. They wanted to keep going. But they got the sense that Percy would want to be there for that.
"Well, time for more fun and games," sighed Piper, rising to her feet along with Jason. She sprinted off to her archery lesson for the day while Jason went to his Pegasus riding lesson. Only Annabeth and Percy lingered at the canoe lake.
"I guess you and I should read the next one. It's only fair," grinned Annabeth.
Percy nodded in agreement. "Now, come on, so I can kick your ass in sword fighting."
"And you know you'll lose," Annabeth laughed.
"We'll talk about that, after I win."
"Oh, you're on, Seaweed brain!"
The couple laughed lightly as they sprinted off to their respective cabins so they could at least relax before their lesson, which they would be teaching to the younger Athena and Hermes campers.