Disclaimer:

I DO NOT own this series. That goes to the wonderful Rick Riordan and Hyperion Books. I am just borrowing the story and characters. I will say that the story lines will be written down because it makes it much easier to follow along and know the current placement, especially if it has been a while since reading the book. Also, this is not beta'd so there will most likely be a few mistakes, feel free to let me know. Enjoy!

Oh, this is also only my second story ever so please be gentle. I've been really enjoying getting to share how I would imagine characters would react to their tales and I hope to continue to do so.

Book

'thoughts'

"speech"

I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom

Laughter burst out throughout the room. The demigods and a fair few of the gods were clutching their stomachs, aching from deep belly laughs.

"Man, you have the best thoughts!" the Stoll brothers cried out, struggling for breath.

Clarisse on the other hand was NOT laughing. This chapter was going to be so embarrassing. Chris managed to calm down his laughter and tugged his girlfriend into his side giving her a smile for comfort.

Rachel took a deep breath and settled in to start reading.

Once I got over the fact that my Latin teacher was a horse, we had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind him.

Percy was sent a glare from Annabeth and her mother and wasn't that terrifying.

"Everything was still very new; you can't blame me for having thoughts like that. I just wanted to normalize what I was seeing." Her said hands raised in surrender.

I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times, and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back end the way I trusted his front.

Dry snorts are heard. A few winces are seen as well.

"Sorry, Chiron." Percy grimaces.

"It's fine, my boy. I've heard much worse." Chiron assured his student.

We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, "That's him."

Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters. I wasn't normally shy, but the way they stared at me made me uncomfortable. I felt like they were expecting me to do a flip or something.

"Can you?" Travis asked.

"What?" Percy questioned.

"A flip." Connor continued.

"Oh, well I can now…"

"Really?! Prove it!"

"Children, why don't we continue and save things for our next break?" Hestia, the ever-calm hearth goddess, managed to interject before the kids could start arguing.

"Yes, let's." Hades states, giving his sister a look of thanks before motioning for the mortal girl to continue.

I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realized—four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. I was checking out the brass eagle weathervane on top when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched.

"My oracle moved?!" Apollo exclaimed giddy at the thought.

"You know, it is weird that she only ever moved when Percy was involved…" Annabeth murmured.

Percy shuddered, "Don't remind me."

"What's up there?" I asked Chiron.

He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic."

"Somebody lives there?"

"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing."

I got the feeling he was being truthful. But I was also sure something had moved that curtain.

"Come along, Percy," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."

We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe.

Chiron told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort."

He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.

The campers groaned at the mention.

"Those strawberries are sooo good!"

"Delicious!"

"Man, now I'm hungry again."

The last one was Percy, causing the campers and his mother to laugh. A hungry Percy was pretty much always expected.

Apparently, Dionysus was feeling quite pleasant, it MUST have been the allowance of wine, because he conjured up a big collection of fruit (strawberries included). The campers were quick to dig in, the gods leaning in as well, some fighting to grab some by the bunches.

Rachel, with her reasonably filled bowl of fruit, sat back with the book beginning to read once again.

I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music. I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D.

"Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" I asked Chiron. "I mean…he was a good protector. Really."

"Thanks, Perce." Grover nudged his friend smiling.

"'Course, G-man. Gotta look out for my goat boy." Percy laughed ruffling the satyr's curly hair.

Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horse's back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill."

"But he did that!"

"He did. They only really ran into trouble because he had to search for Percy." Thalia pointed out.

"I might agree with you," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there's the unfortunate…ah…fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part."

"Stupid council…" Grover grumbled remembering how the elders used to be.

I wanted to protest. None of what happened was Grover's fault. I also felt really, really guilty. If I hadn't given Grover the slip at the bus station, he might not have gotten in trouble.

"He'll get a second chance, won't he?"

Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that was Grover's second chance, Percy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age.…"

"How old is he?"

"Oh, twenty-eight."

"What?!" the Stolls yell.

"You didn't know that?" Clarisse asked the pair, "I thought everybody knew the ages of the satyr's at camp."

"Uhhh, well." The brothers shrug.

"Whatever."

"What! And he's in sixth grade?"

"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."

"That's horrible."

"You don't know the half of it…" Grover moaned. "I'm just glad I got my searcher's license. Highschool would've been torture."

"Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career…"

"That's not fair," I said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?"

Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"

But I wasn't quite ready to let the subject drop. Something had occurred to me when Chiron talked about my mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word death. The beginnings of an idea—a tiny, hopeful fire— started forming in my mind.

"Oh Percy…" Sally whispered. It was pretty obvious where her son's thoughts were heading.

Some of the gods seemed to be making the same conclusion.

"Chiron," I said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real…"

"Yes, child?"

"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"

Chiron's expression darkened.

"Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now…until we know more…I would urge you to put that out of your mind."

"What do you mean, 'until we know more'?"

"Come, Percy. Let's see the woods."

"Awful segue there, Chiron." Apollo chuckled.

"Yes, well, I had hoped seeing the rest of camp would turn his mind away from the thought."

As we got closer, I realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans.

Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."

"Stocked with what?" I asked. "Armed with what?"

"You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?"

"My own—?"

"No," Chiron said. "I don't suppose you do. I think a size five will do. I'll visit the armory later."

"Ha, that threw him off." Nico sniggered.

"Oh, you weren't much better. I could see it in your eyes how you wished you could be in multiple places at once." Percy refuted causing the son of the Underworld to flush.

I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armory, but there was too much else to think about, so the tour continued. We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much), the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights.

"Sword and spear fights?" I asked.

"Cabin challenges and all that," he explained. "Not lethal. Usually. Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall."

"I still don't get why you were surprised by the armory." Clarisse said.

"Camps mortals have that potentially include sparring and the like are done with false weapons or more gentle objects in place of real weapons." Rachel explained. "Especially for younger kids they'll use weapons made from like foam and stuff like that. Usually because the camps don't want to be overrun by lawsuits."

"Huh, weird."

Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.

"What do you do when it rains?" I asked.

"Really should have let him watch the orientation film Chiron." Chris said.

"Yes, yes I get it." Chiron waved him off, "I still say Percy did rather well for not getting all the information new campers typically get."

"Um, wasn't there a huge storm near the camp area that year though?" Rachel wondered aloud.

"Mhmm." Percy affirmed looking to Rachel and slowly motioned his eyes toward Zeus who was thankfully not paying attention to them.

Rachel softly nodded in understanding.

Chiron looked at me as if I'd gone a little weird. "We still have to eat, don't we?" I decided to drop the subject.

Finally, he showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were without doubt the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen.

Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory. Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at. They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops (which were more my speed).

As the descriptions were read out each god and their children would perk up.

In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined firepit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.

"You saw me." Hestia comments awed. The other gods were in a similar state as the hearth goddess.

"I probably would've stopped and at least said hi if I wasn't on a tour." Percy shrugged. He didn't think it was such a big deal to see the goddess.

The campers were looking at Percy trying to hide their surprise. Those who had gone with Percy to Olympus during the final battle now understood how the son of the Sea God was not surprised to see the goddess at the time.

The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks

"Zeus and Hera?" I guessed.

"Correct," Chiron said.

"Um, I do have a question for Lady Hera." Sally gently interjects receiving a small nod from said goddess.

"Um, why would you want a cabin at camp in the first place? If you know you wouldn't be having demigod children then wouldn't say a statue or something similar be better?"

The question actually threw Hera for a moment, but she was able to come up with an explanation.

"Well, when the camp was built we just made the cabins representing each of us on Olympus. Decorative things and such came much later when it got to be more stable." The goddess said, withholding some information. She didn't want these mortals to know how she demanded the same representation as the other gods.

The goddess of marriage was thankfully not paying attention to the campers who all had looks of disbelief on their faces. They had all heard over the years just how dramatic and argumentative said goddess was.

Sally had in fact seen the children's faces, as well as some of the other gods as a matter of fact. So she pretended to nod in understanding and motioned to Rachel to continue.

"Their cabins look empty."

"Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."

Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot.

Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians. But why would some be empty?

I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three.

It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. I peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!"

Before he could pull me back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone. There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down. But there was no sign anyone had ever slept there. The place felt so sad and lonely, I was glad when Chiron put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Come along, Percy."

"Love that cabin." Percy said with a wide grin on his face, his father following shortly after with a similar reaction.

"Sounds nicer than mine…" Thalia muttered hiding a shiver at the memories. Staying in the Zeus cabin had been awful. The many statues alone gave her the creeps, not to mention that there was no bathroom. She definitely preferred staying in the Artemis cabin.

Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers.

Number five was bright red—a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists. The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me. Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALFBLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on me and gave me an evil sneer. She reminded me of Nancy Bobofit, though the camper girl was much bigger and tougher looking, and her hair was long and stringy, and brown instead of red.

"Ooh, sorry Clarisse." Percy grimaced.

"If I didn't know how bad our first meeting was I'd kill you for that." The war daughter growled.

"At least I didn't say it out loud?" Percy offered, realizing how flimsy the statement was.

Clarisse rolled her eyes and hunkered down in her seat.

I kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other centaurs," I observed.

"No," said Chiron sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here."

"Party ponies!" the campers cheered.

"You guys have met them?" Apollo asked.

At the ecstatic nods the Sun god lets out a laugh as a few of the others join him.

"Man, they throw the best parties!"

Meanwhile, Chiron was pinching the bridge his nose. If his kinsmen ever invited any of the people here at the same time he would need to make a plan to prevent the chaos that would inevitably occur.

"You said your name was Chiron. Are you really…"

He smiled down at me. "The Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am."

"But, shouldn't you be dead?"

"Subtle, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth deadpanned.

"Understandable though." Chris said.

Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about should be. The truth is, I can't be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish…and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."

I thought about being a teacher for three thousand years. It wouldn't have made my Top Ten Things to Wish For list.

"Doesn't it ever get boring?"

"No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring."

"Why depressing?"

Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again.

"Oh, look," he said. "Annabeth is waiting for us."

"Well that conversation got dark…"

The blond girl I'd met at the Big House was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven.

"How long am I the 'blond girl'?" Annabeth groaned.

"Pretty sure this was the last time."

When we reached her, she looked me over critically, like she was still thinking about how much I drooled.

I tried to see what she was reading, but I couldn't make out the title. I thought my dyslexia was acting up. Then I realized the title wasn't even English. The letters looked Greek to me. I mean, literally Greek. There were pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns, like those in an architecture book.

"It was."

"Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?"

"Yes, sir."

"Cabin eleven," Chiron told me, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home."

Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on old. The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor's symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. What did they call it…? A caduceus.

"You can remember caduceus, but struggled with remembering Echidna?" Annabeth asked incredulous.

"To be fair most of the myths I did know, she wasn't included in." Percy shrugged.

"Echidna?" Poseidon asked.

"Umm… later?" his son hunched in his seat.

Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center.

"This is why you need to claim your kids!" Hermes ranted.

Thankfully, hearing the description of the messenger god's cabin caused many of the gods to cringe and nod in agreement.

Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.

"Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner."

He galloped away toward the archery range.

I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at me, sizing me up. I knew this routine. I'd gone through it at enough schools.

"Ego much?"

"Just stating facts, they were in fact not bowing."

"Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on."

So naturally I tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of myself. There were some snickers from the campers, but none of them said anything.

The campers let out some snickers again.

"Ah, classic Percy." Thalia laughed.

Annabeth announced, "Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven."

"Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked.

I didn't know what to say, but Annabeth said, "Undetermined."

Everybody groaned.

"Why?" Hades asked.

"There are many campers who are still unclaimed. Some have even been waiting a few years to be claimed." Annabeth explained despondent.

With that explanation the gods seemed to wince at the reminder.

A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward. "Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there."

The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty cool. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five differentcolored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.

"This is Luke," Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow. I glanced over and could've sworn she was blushing. She saw me looking, and her expression hardened again. "He's your counselor for now."

"You're too damn observant, Kelp head." Annabeth muttered.

"Yeah, it's a dam shame." Thalia smirked.

"It's dam annoying." Grover added with a smirk of his own.

"Dam right it is." Percy laughed playing along.

Everybody was looking at the group with confusion. Noticing the looks Percy just said, "Third quest."

"For now?" I asked.

"You're undetermined," Luke explained patiently. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."

I looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given me. I had nothing to put there to mark it as my own, no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bag. Just the Minotaur's horn. I thought about setting that down, but then I remembered that Hermes was also the god of thieves.

"Like Annabeth said, too observant." Travis griped.

I looked around at the campers' faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, some eyeing me as if they were waiting for a chance to pick my pockets.

"How long will I be here?" I asked.

"Good question," Luke said. "Until you're determined."

"How long will that take?"

The campers all laughed.

"Come on," Annabeth told me. "I'll show you the volleyball court."

"I've already seen it."

"Come on."

She grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside. I could hear the kids of cabin eleven laughing behind me.

When we were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that."

"What?"

"Jeez, Annie relax." Thalia said.

"I know, I know. I had bad priorities back then." The wisdom child replied.

She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."

"What's your problem?" I was getting angry now. "All I know is, I kill some bull guy—"

"Don't talk like that!" Annabeth told me. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"

"To get killed?"

"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"

I shook my head. "Look, if the thing I fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories…"

"Yes."

"Then there's only one."

"Yes."

"And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So…"

"Hoo boy, really girl?" the Thunder daughter asked.

"Bad priorities…"

"I think we can claim that you had a heavy case of cabin fever." Chiron added gently.

"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die."

"Oh, thanks. That clears it up."

"They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they re-form."

I thought about Mrs. Dodds. "You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword—"

"The Fur…I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad."

"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"

"You talk in your sleep."

"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?"

"No tact…" Hades smirked.

"Eh, Alecto is always gonna keep me on her bad side." Percy shrugged.

"Well, you keep calling her Mrs. Dodds." Nico pointed out.

"Well, it annoys her ever so much." The son of the sea grinned.

Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her. "You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all."

"Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?" I sounded whiny, even to myself, but right then I didn't care. "Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."

I pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or…your parent."

She stared at me, waiting for me to get it.

"My mom is Sally Jackson," I said. "She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to."

"I'm sorry about your mom, Percy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."

"You're about to overwhelm him more aren't you?"

"Probably."

"He's dead. I never knew him."

Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids. "Your father's not dead, Percy."

"How can you say that? You know him?"

"No, of course not."

"Then how can you say—"

"Because I know you. You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."

"You make us sound like a cult." Chris laughs.

"We kinda are from a mortal standpoint." Annabeth answered.

"You don't know anything about me."

"No?" She raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."

"How—"

"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too."

"Well, that's not creepy."

I tried to swallow my embarrassment. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD—you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."

"You sound like…you went through the same thing?"

"Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."

"Ambrosia and nectar."

"The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it. You're a half-blood."

A half-blood.

"That sounds so offensive. Demigod is much nicer." Rachel pauses with the thought.

"It is more pleasant to hear than half-blood."

I was reeling with so many questions I didn't know where to start.

Then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!"

I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin was sauntering toward us. She had three other girls behind her, all big and ugly and mean looking like her, all wearing camo jackets.

"Ah, right. This." Clarisse groaned. This was not going to be an enjoyable moment for her.

"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"

"Sure, Miss Princess," the big girl said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."

"Erre es korakas!" Annabeth said, which I somehow understood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!' though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded. "You don't stand a chance."

"Annabeth!" Athena chastised her daughter.

"This was so long-ago Mom." Annabeth said.

"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow through on the threat. She turned toward me. "Who's this little runt?"

"Percy Jackson," Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."

I blinked. "Like…the war god?"

Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"

"No," I said, recovering my wits. "It explains the bad smell."

"Ooh, burn!" the Stoll brothers cheer.

"I tell ya, Percy, when you think of a quip they are comedic gold!" Apollo chuckled.

Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."

"Percy."

"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."

"Clarisse—" Annabeth tried to say.

"Stay out of it, wise girl."

"Wait. That's where you got you nickname for Annie?" Thalia asked.

Percy shrugged his shoulders, "Apparently so."

"Huh, who would've thought."

Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it, and I didn't really want her help. I was the new kid. I had to earn my own rep.

I handed Annabeth my minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but before I knew it, Clarisse had me by the neck and was dragging me toward a cinderblock building that I knew immediately was the bathroom.

"Miss. La Rue," Chiron gave Clarisse a disappointed look. "I thought we talked about this 'initiation' before."

Said girl flushed, "Sorry Chiron."

I was kicking and punching. I'd been in plenty of fights before, but this big girl Clarisse had hands like iron. She dragged me into the girls' bathroom. There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. It smelled just like any public bathroom, and I was thinking—as much as I could think with Clarisse ripping my hair out—that if this place belonged to the gods, they should've been able to afford classier johns.

Clarisse's friends were all laughing, and I was trying to find the strength I'd used to fight the Minotaur, but it just wasn't there.

"Like he's 'Big Three' material," Clarisse said as she pushed me toward one of the toilets. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking."

"You already believed him to be one of the 'Big Three's' kids?" Poseidon questioned.

"Yeah, none of the other campers would have been strong enough to take out the Minotaur with their bare hands." Annabeth nodded.

Her friends snickered.

Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers.

Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head toward the toilet bowl. It reeked like rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets. I strained to keep my head up. I was looking at the scummy water, thinking, I will not go into that. I won't.

Clarisse cringed, she remembered where this was going.

Poseidon was beaming, the sea was stubborn after all.

Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach. I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. Clarisse's grip on my hair loosened. Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind me.

I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again, hitting Clarisse straight in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her butt. The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward into a shower stall.

She struggled, gasping, and her friends started coming toward her. But then the other toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away.

As soon as they were out the door, I felt the tug in my gut lessen, and the water shut off as quickly as it had started.

"Whoa."

"Awesome!"

"It was pretty great." Annabeth smiled at her boyfriend who was red with embarrassment.

The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn't been spared. She was dripping wet, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place, staring at me in shock.

"I got lucky it was only the shower water."

"Shut up, Wise girl!" Clarisse yelled.

I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around me. I didn't have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing.

I stood up, my legs shaky.

Annabeth said, "How did you…"

"I don't know."

"How did it take us so long to figure out his parent?" Chris asked.

"Denial most likely. After what happened with Thalia, I think we all were extremely cautious." Chiron said.

We walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. She gave me a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead."

I probably should have let it go, but I said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth."

"Another fantastic quip!"

Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.

Annabeth stared at me. I couldn't tell whether she was just grossed out or angry at me for dousing her.

"What?" I demanded. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking," she said, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."

"Ugh, that sucked."

"Sorry, Percy."

Rachel snapped the book closed throwing it on the table, "Well! Who wants to read next?"

Sally had picked up the book and seen the title of the next chapter.

"I will, this chapter seems tame enough." She said settling in to begin.

AN: And here's the next chapter, thankfully this one didn't take too long to get written up. Oh, I was able to make an Ao3 account so I am gradually uploading my HTTYD story there (for those who found me with that fic) and I will eventually be uploading this one there as well. My username is the same there as here. This fic will probably start being uploaded onto Ao3 within a day or so so it will be available at both sites.

As always feel free to comment/review or if you prefer to PM me feel free to do that instead. Thanks for reading and I will see y'all next time!