Chapter 5- I Still Have To Go To Math Class

The weirdest thing about the next few days? How normal it all was.

I mean don't get me wrong, Achilles Academy was a crazy place, and Hermes House got the worst of it. After dinner we'd had a big sing-along campfire that went until the underclassmen (6-8th graders) were sent to bed. But the noise from the fire carried and I couldn't possibly go to sleep. Besides, even with half the kids still out at the campfire, Hermes House was crowded.

None to my surprise, the runaway frog turned out to be a girl, Jessica Jo, an unclaimed senior. No one had bothered to turn her back before dinner and the campfire, but Luke came back with the underclassmen to deal with the situation.

If she'd been turned into a frog by one of the Hecate kids, that wouldn't have been a problem. As I quickly learned, Hecate was the goddess of magic, the reason the Mist existed in the first place. Her children had inherited the same skills, and so turning someone into a frog? No problem.

But it wasn't a child of Hecate who had turned her into a frog. No, it was Sharron, another unclaimed senior. According to Sharron, she and Jessica had been 'catching up' in their room when suddenly Jessica turned into a frog.

An hour later Jessica admitted she might have kissed Sharron right before she turned into a frog.

An hour after that Chiron and Mr. D showed up to assess the situation. The god of wine gave a long lecture about why Jessica was better off as a frog, but, at Chiron's prompting, tried to turn her back.

And it didn't work.

Have you ever seen a god fail at something? I suppose not-probably you haven't ever seen a god. Let me tell you, when a god fails at something, it's big news. They brush it off, pretend they weren't trying, but you can see the fear in their eyes. It's that same fear straight A students get whenever they look at a test question they don't know. That realization that no matter how good you are, how smart you are, how powerful you are, sooner or later you'll come to a problem bigger than you.

So what did Mr. D do then, Percy? You may ask. Well, I want you to think for a moment. Any guesses?

You guessed it- he turned Sharron into a frog as well.

"Now Mr. D, you really mustn't turn students into frogs," Chiron chastised, but there was something in his voice which made me think this actually happened on a regular basis.

"Look at how cute they are though. Aphrodite must be vomiting Iris."

(It would be a few weeks before I understood my mythology well enough to get that.)

"No? Fine, but she's going to be more miserable as a human, mark my works," Mr. D sighed, then he raised his hand, and Sharron stood back before us.

Sharron broke into sobbing tears, and Mr. D just looked around the room like 'hey, what did I tell ya?'

It took a while for Sharron to calm down, but finally the truth came out. While she was a frog, Sharron had been able to communicate with Jessica. Makes sense, they're both humans who had been turned into frogs, why couldn't they communicate? Unfortunately, Jessica had admitted to Sharron that she liked her, but she didn't think they should date. Apparently Jessica had been having weird dreams. Every night she dreamt she was kissing Sharron. And every time she did, a woman appeared, waved her fingers, and turned them both into frogs.

At this, Mr. D and Chiron exchanged a look, and then, to prove they really had seen all of this before, they explained what was going on. The woman in Jessica's dreams was Aphrodite, goddess of love and Jessica's mother. Aphrodite, however, was also Sharron's mother. They were half-sisters. So when they, oblivious to their relationship, began to develop feelings, well their mom decided it was time to step in and turn them into frogs.

I don't know what weirded me out more, that they had accidentally gotten a crush on their sister, or that Aphrodite thought the best course of action was not to, say, claim them, but to turn them into frogs when they kissed.

Though granted, it gave me a pretty good idea of how gods' minds worked, and I resented my dad a lot less for having only ever given me pearls. At least he had never turned me into a dolphin or something. (Though when Mr. D caught me gaping at the whole situation, he threatened to do just that.)

They finally resolved the situation by getting this kid Adrian to kiss Jessica-the-frog, turning her back into a human. Adrian apparently had quite the crush on Jessica, and Jessica, frankly, was kind of flattered. I just hoped she and Adrian wouldn't start dating before Jessica and Sharron figured themselves out a bit more.

On the bright side, that was two fewer unclaimed kids in Hermes House.

But the crazy thing is that that, that wasn't strange at all for Achilles Academy. On Monday, I woke up to Luke muttering in his sleep. In the darkness it was hard for me to make out the older teen, but I could hear him, 'No, please, leave me alone.' For the first time in a long time, I hadn't had any dreams, but I knew what it was like to be trapped in a nightmare unable to wake up.

I crawled out of bed. It was still September, warm and muggy, but the floor of our room was cool against my feet. The sun was just beginning to rise. Out the window I swore I could see a Lamborghini on the horizon, but when I blinked, it was just the sun. The clock on the wall, the closest to 'technology' I'd seen since getting to school, read a little past six. Hermes House was silent for the first time.

I crept across the floor, grabbed Luke's shoulder, and shook, "Luke, Luke, wake up."

Luke woke up, but he woke up violently. One second, he was asleep. The next, he'd grabbed my arm, twisted it, and brought a knife to my neck. I couldn't even see where the knife came from it was so fast, but I supposed he had to have kept it beneath his pillow. Who kept a knife beneath their pillow, especially in a place magically protected from monsters?

Luckily, Luke realized it was just me before he slit my throat, or I would have died right then-and-there. (Saving everyone a lot of trouble, no doubt.) He dropped the blade, and cussed, swapping between Ancient Greek and English in a long string of words my mother would have killed me for using.

"Gods, Percy. You can't do that."

"Why do you sleep with a knife under your pillow!"

"Why did you wake me up at six AM?"

No answer then. I didn't push the question, just shrugged. I felt pretty stupid, which, if you haven't noticed, happens a lot. Still, I was suddenly reminded of the fact that Luke was a senior in high school, and I was in 6th grade. Under normal circumstances we'd probably never meet. We'd certainly never talk. I supposed we were some sort of cousin, all demigods were, but still, even if we were normal mortal cousins we probably wouldn't have been friends. There was a big difference between twelve and eighteen. A big difference.

But Luke had been so nice to me. Maybe he was just curious after our chance meeting in Central Park, but it felt like more than that. He was just, just friendly. He didn't care that I was younger. He didn't treat me like a kid or get mad that I still kinda was. He just let me be. He'd given me a place on his couch, told me the truth about his past, commiserated with me about our dads… in less than a day he'd become a better friend than I'd had in years. Maybe that's sad, but it's true.

Still, when he looked at me all annoyed, I was worried he'd lose his patience, and fumbled a little bit, "I was just… you… you sounded like you were having a nightmare. I wanted to help."

Luke's gaze softened, and he just shook his head. "Percy, we're demigods. If we try to wake each other up from every nightmare, we'll never sleep. But I appreciate you trying. Now, go back to sleep. We still have an hour before we need to get up."

He rolled over, and almost immediately feel back asleep. I just wasn't tired. I wandered over to the window, and saw a bunch of kids milling about by the shore. My heart leapt. If they were allowed to do that, it meant I could as well. I quickly dressed and ran out to join them.

None of the kids looked like they had any real purpose for being outside so early in the morning. A few of them were playing 2 v. 2 volleyball, but others were just lying on the beach relaxing and talking to each other. Off to the side, a notebook in hand, I noticed one of the kids in my grade, the kid who'd gotten the glowing arrow over his head. I supposed that meant his dad was the god of archery, but I honestly didn't know any mythology beyond what I'd seen in Disney's Hercules so I didn't quite know who the god of archery was.

Still, I figured I might as well take the time to get to know the other kids in my grade. I already knew Annabeth I supposed, but she was so intense I didn't quite know what to think. This kid looked a lot more relaxed, even as he crouched over a notebook.

"Mind if I join you?"

"Go… Oh! You're not my brother!"

I laughed awkwardly, and sat down, "No, I don't think so. Why, did you want me to be?"

The kid shook his head, folding the notebook up and laying it besides him, "Not at all. Michael never seems to shut up, you know? I've always been an only child so now six siblings… it's a lot. Oh, I'm Dylan. Sorry, forgot that bit."

"Percy," I answered with a smirk. "But if you want to talk about crazy housemates you should drop by Hermes House." I then proceeded to tell him about the events of the night before.

Dylan shook his head, laughing hard as the story ended, "Wow. Sounds like the perfect setting for a sit-com. 'Forty half-bloods, four walls, Olympus will never be the same again!' I bet I could get it to play on Hephaestus TV at least…"

"What TV?" It had almost sounded as if he'd sneezed in the middle of that sentence.

"Hephaestus. He's the god of fire, or forges, or something like that. I'm still trying to keep it all straight. I don't know why he has his own TV station, but apparently he does. We had it on last night at my house."

"I thought technology didn't work here."

Dylan shrugged, "It's not normal technology, is it? Someone jerry-rigged a shield to play it, but I wouldn't get too excited. Last night was just six hours worth of 'I Love Leto' reruns."

Had I given up on being surprised? You bet it.

Silence fell over us for a moment, but then Dylan asked, "Why are you up if you're a Hermes kid?"

"Hermes isn't my dad… at least I don't think so. I'm still waiting to be claimed. And I guess I just couldn't sleep. I like the ocean. It reminds me of my mom." I left out the bit about how it might remind me of my dad as well.

Dylan nodded in understanding, "I'm from California, so this feels wicked early, but it's nice. I've always gotten up with the sun. Apparently it's an Apollo think, since my dad is the sun god. Maybe you are my brother and that's why you're up too."

I considered it for a moment. Somehow, though, the god of archery and the sun just didn't fit in with what I knew about my dad. I turned back to Long Island Sound and wondered what would happen if I just dived right in.

I tried talking to Dylan a little bit more, but we didn't have much in common. He was a real 'artsy' kid and while I had nothing against that, I'd lived in Manhattan my whole life and never seen a Broadway show-they were just too expensive.

I was about to go ask some of his siblings if I could play volleyball with them when I all of a sudden heard a terrified scream. I looked up, and there on the shoreline I saw a girl floating towards us in a little sailboat. Unfortunately for her, the front half of the sailboat had been surrounded by what seemed to be a giant snake. When it squeezed, the whole bow snapped clear off, and the ship began to sink.

I didn't wait to see what happened next. Without thinking about anything like, I don't know, my utter lack of weapons, I dived into the ocean. Suddenly I felt stronger than I had ever felt in my life. I had always been a good swimming, but this was different. It felt as if the sea itself was helping me, as if the tide had suddenly decided to switch directions so I could swim faster.

Some advice, don't jump into the ocean when you know there is a sea monster lurking about. I don't care how strong a swimmer you are it's a bad, bad idea.

I reached the little sailboat just as the mast went underwater. The girl who'd been on the boat treaded water furiously. Her eyes brightened when I popped up from beneath the foam, but she didn't look happy. Instead she looked terrified. "Watch out!"

Too late. I had been so focused on getting to the ship I'd somehow forgotten about the monster which had caused it to sink in the first place. The only thing that saved me from getting eaten was the girl I'd come to save. She threw her hands out in front of her, and suddenly I found myself surrounded in a bubble of water. When the monster opened its mouth and tried to gobble me up, it was like trying to chomp through solid metal.

The monster was so surprised that it immediately let go, which is probably a good thing, because the girl's bubble of protection fell quickly. When I turned to look at her, she looked almost as surprised as I was about what had happened. Then her eyes drifted shut, and she promptly fainted.

Have you ever passed out? Probably not. It really doesn't happen all that often to normal people. But if you ever do pass out I would highly recommend not passing out in the middle of the ocean during a sea monster attack. She came back around almost as quickly as she'd passed out, but for a single moment her head had went underwater. I reached out, grabbing her and pulling her back up. She coughed and spluttered water all over us, and then said, "How is your hair dry?"

Demigods. We're ADHD even during a fight.

The sea monster burst out of the water, leaping over us. I knew it was just trying to scare us, but it worked. The thing was huge, like a ten foot long snake the width of a bowling ball. And its teeth… they were too big to even fit into its mouth, and covered in the rotting remains of shark fins. It was terrifying even without the intimidation tactics.

Especially because I had no idea what to do. The girl had saved me with her little bubble, but she was clearly too exhausted to do it again, even if she somehow figured out how she'd done it in the first place. The shore was pretty far away. I could see the Apollo kids frantically trying to help us, but we were too far out even for their arrows. There was no way we'd make it back there without getting eaten. And I had no weapon.

No, that wasn't true. I reached into my pant pocket and found the pearls inside. They wouldn't do me any good, I knew that in my gut, but they represented something more important. I didn't know who my dad was, but he was a sea god at the least. By the ocean, I always had a weapon.

I remembered the wave I'd sent at the dog-man and Annabeth over the summer. I hadn't even been trying then and it had been plenty to distract my foe. Now I tried. I watched the sea monster as it leapt through the waves, counted the seconds until it would be right on top of us. The girl besides me shrieked, and all I could see were the monster's dirty teeth opening wide to swallow me up.

I felt a pull within me, and focused all my energy on one thought-wave.

The monster came crashing towards us, but it was met with a tsunami of seismic proportions. The wall of water grew twenty feet in the air, swallowing the monster whole and lifting it high above the surf. I watched, teeth gritted, arms out, as the monster flailed and squirmed in its casing, trying to break free. So, I let it. I focused on pushing the waves backwards and flung the monster high into the air. I didn't kill it, so far as I know, but it disappeared into a blink along the ocean's surface.

"How… how did you do that?"

I turned to the girl and properly studied her for the first time. She was probably my age, maybe a bit younger, and tiny, with curly blond hair and bright Mediterranean eyes. She was soaking wet, but, true to her word, I was not. It was a strange feeling.

Though not as strange as, for once, being the one who actually knew what was going on, "The same way you protected me- our parents are gods of the sea. We're the same."

I expected her to be as excited about that as I was, but she just shook her head and bit her bottom lip. "That… that was nothing like what I can do."

My heart dropped. Wasn't this the place where I was supposed to belong? Why was I still the freak?

"Come on, let's get back to shore before that thing comes back."

Even gazed, the girl was as strong a swimmer as me. We made it back to shore quickly, and immediately we were surrounded by the Apollo kids. (Turns out Apollo was also the god of healing.) The older teens wrapped us tightly in towels, not even noticing I wasn't wet. Then they fed us these little cubes. They looked like gelatin, but when I bit down I was shocked to taste my mom's blue chocolate chip cookies. Suddenly I was overwhelmed by how frightened I really was. I hadn't thought about it much in the moment, but I had just been eaten by a sea monster. I'd just almost been eaten! And then I'd caused a tsunami!

Suddenly, I appreciated the towel a bit more. I wrapped myself tightly in it, and just tried to breathe. I was okay. The girl was okay. It had been a little fun as well. Still, it was a lot for 6:30 in the morning

I heard the clapping of hooves and looked up to see Chiron galloping towards us. His eyes passed over the crowd of Apollo kids, landing firmly on me. I gulped. Usually this was the moment when I got expelled. It wouldn't matter that I'd just fought off a monster; I would be in trouble.

But the words didn't come. Instead, Chiron looked right away, turning to the girl. She looked more nervous than I was, and sat shivering on the shore, eyes darting about. Now though they were entirely focused on Chiron, and she looked horrified. "You're… you're…"

"I am a centaur, my dear. Chiron, headmaster of Achilles Academy," he bowed his head. I got now why he'd used the magical wheelchair when we all first arrived. It was a lot to just suddenly show up at your new school and discover your headmaster was a centaur. Actually, it made me wonder if this girl knew about the gods at all. She didn't seem to. I felt for her in that regard, but I didn't move to offer her comfort, because I didn't want Chiron looking at me anymore. He just made me nervous. It was like he was just waiting for something bad to happen.

"What is going on here!" She asked. Then she popped to her feet, and started walking back towards the ocean. "I need to go. I think I'll take my chances with the fish…"

I couldn't help it anymore, I stood up then, grabbing her shoulders. She pushed me off but stopped moving towards the sea. Instead, her eyes met mine, and she asked firmly, "Who are you?"

"I'm Percy. That's Chiron, he's a centaur, as you can see. What's your name?"

She looked over my shoulder at Chiron, and then quickly turned back to me. Apparently it was a lot easier for her to focus on me than the centaur. Couldn't say I blamed her. She took a deep breath, then said, "Celia. Celia Knowles."

"Good," I looked over my shoulder. I most definitely wasn't the most qualified person to explain what was going on. I hardly understood myself. But for better or for worse, Celia and I had already bonded. You can't fight a sea monster with someone and not bond. Therefore I just did the best I could.

"Okay, Celia, how did you get here? Where did you sail from?"

Celia frowned, as if it was difficult for her to remember, but then she carefully said, "Cape Cod? I just went sailing last night around dinner. I was dreading school today and wished I could just sail off and never return home. But then… I don't remember really. Some guy was suddenly on the boat with me, and he said he was my dad, but my dad's dead so I guess he was a ghost? But he said he'd guide me to a place where I belonged, and then I fell asleep, and when I woke up I had no idea where I was. Then that…. that thing just jumped on my boat, and then you showed up and… How aren't you wet?"

The Apollo kids hadn't noticed, but I heard them muttering now at Celia's words. I blushed and shrugged, "It just happens… But Celia, I think it was your dad. You see, and I just learned this yesterday so I know it's hard to believe, but the gods are real. Like the Greek gods, the ones you learn about in school. They're real, and they're our parents. That guy on your boat was your dad but he's not dead. He can't die which is just as weird to me as it is to you."

Celia rubbed her temples, and then stuck her fingers in her ears, as if hoping that would fix her hearing and I would be saying something which made sense. Or at least that's what I'd wanted to do the day before, so I figured that was what she was doing.

Finally, she nodded. "Oh."

Chiron stepped forward, trying to look small, but failing because, well, he was the size of a horse. "Celia, did your father tell you his name?"

"Pal-something? I feel really stupid now for not remembering if he is my dad, but it was weird. It sounded like Greek to me…" She blushed bright red, suddenly aware of what she'd said. The Apollo campers lingering nearby snickered. I tried to offer her a reassuring smile, but it probably looked more like a cringe.

Luckily, Chiron seemed to know every god like the back of his hoof, and nodded, "Palaemon, a minor sea deity in charge of granting sailors safe passage. It is only fitting that he guide you here, and we are glad to have you. Percy will show you to Hermes House, and then I believe you both have math class first thing."

Yup, you heard me right. I fought a sea monster, and then promptly got sent to math class.

AN: To the guest reviewer. Sorry, Luke is just as bitter as in canon. This whole fanfic is inspired by Luke's bitterness. (Well, it's inspired by James Hayden Rodriguez's voice and how well it conveys Luke's bitterness in The Lightning Thief Musical, but same thing.) That being said, the quest, and Luke, is radically altered by the fact that Luke met Percy almost a full year early. Does that mean Luke's decisions play out any differently?… Well, we'll see. Fingers crossed you like it, and thank you for reviewing.