The Kid Named Jameson
Percy POV
Previously:
But of course, all good things come to an end, and the coming storm of loss, sadness, anger, and betrayal was inevitable.
And it was named Jameson.
Present:
It was a peaceful day. The sun was shining, the trees were dancing, and Percy was just enjoying the feeling, resting on a hill and letting the grass tickle his feet. That's when he heard it. A scream.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
An unknown figure came barreling toward Camp Half-Blood. Right behind him were two vicious-looking hellhounds, following in hot pursuit. Percy quickly got up and ran down the hill, hoping to help the person before they became dog food. Percy leaped down the hill and pulled out Riptide, uncapping it with the flick of his thumb. The sword sprang to life. He slashed one Hellhound on the side, turning the overgrown canine into dust. The second one lunged at him, but Percy was quicker. He rolled to the side then chopped the creature's head off, it falling to the ground. Percy stood up and capped Riptide, and turned to see who the Hellhounds were chasing, and surprisingly found a boy his age, that had similar features to himself.
The boy had dark brown hair, and sea-green eyes, only his were murkier. His clothes had small cuts and tears all around them, and he looked like he hadn't bathed in weeks. 'I wonder who his parent is,' Percy thought to himself. He held out his hand to pull the boy up.
"Hi my name is Percy Jackson, and yours is?" asked Percy, pulling the boy up.
"Jameson, my name is Jameson Forester. What the heck was those things!?" Jameson asked, a terrified look on his face.
"Those were Hellhounds, and if you don't want to see anymore, I suggest we get into camp," replied Percy. Jameson nodded his head quickly, and the two boys walked into the camp borders, to be greeted by Annabeth.
"Hi Percy, who is this?" questioned Annabeth, kissing Percy on the cheek.
"This is Jameson. He is new and needs to see the orientation video. Could you bring him there?" Percy pleaded. Annabeth rolled her eyes.
"Sure thing Seaweed Brain, just don't become too lazy, you still have a cabin inspection today," replied Annabeth. Percy's eyes widened. He cursed in Greek, and made his way to his cabin, in hopes of not being assigned kitchen duty for the garbage bin he calls a cabin. As Percy left, Jameson looked at him in wonder, before walking off with Annabeth. If only Percy knew that Jameson would be the cause of so much misery for him. If Percy had known he would have let the hellhounds eat him. But he didn't know. He didn't know what was coming at all. Not at all.
Everyone was sitting at the campfire. Percy was at his table all alone, watching Annabeth chat with her half-siblings. Oh, how he wished he had siblings. He was always so lonely at his table by himself. Percy noticed Jameson at the Hermes table, chatting with Travis and Connor Stoll. He saw them swipe his wallet, and Percy chuckled to himself. He was happy to see Jameson "getting along" with the Stoll brothers, but he couldn't help but wonder. Jameson looked to be about Percy's age, but if that was so shouldn't he have been claimed already? Why was he only appearing now? Percy shook his head. He could always find out another time.
Soon, it was time to offer food to the gods. Percy took a chunk of his steak and slid it into the fire. Soon the Hermes table got up and put their food in the fire. Jameson stood up and awkwardly walked over to the fire to rip some of his cheeseburgers into the fire. As soon as the chunk of the beef hit the flames, and the smoke rose from the fire, a glowing green trident hovered over his head. Everyone stared in awe. They were definitely not expecting that. Jameson looked up and then looked at the crowd.
"Ummmmmm what is that?" Jameson questioned. Chiron snapped out of his stupor and started to speak.
"All hail Jameson Forester, son of Poseidon, the god of the sea, earthquakes, and horses!" Everyone clapped. Percy was surprised. Jameson was almost as old as him, when did this happen? Where was he during the war? During the great prophecy? Percy shooed those thoughts away. Other than the surprise, he was ecstatic. He found he had a godly sibling. No longer would he be alone at his table or in his cabin. 'Life just keeps getting better and better' thought Percy. Oh, how wrong he was.
The next day, Percy decided to talk to his dad. He had no problem with the new sibling, but he did want to know where he came from. Percy walked up to the front desk.
"Floor 600 please," Percy asked, tapping his hand on the counter. The receptionist looked at Percy quizzically.
"There is no floor 600, are you ok?" he asked. Percy sighed.
"Can we not do this again. It's me, the savior of Olympus," Percy said, looking straight at the receptionist. The receptionist looked like he was about to refuse again until Percy sent him a glare.
"Here you go," the receptionist said, handing him the card. Percy took it and went up to the elevator.
A long, boring elevator ride later (Apollo's music didn't make it any better) Percy arrived at Olympus. He knew his dad would be here today, he had some business to take care of. Percy walked to the throne room, to see Posideon and Athena quietly arguing.
"No you bumbling buffoon, your castle can't have a-" Whatever Athena was going to say was cut short at the sight of Percy.
"We can go over this another time," Athena said, flashing away. Poseidon looked at his son and smiled.
"Percy, what can I do for you?" Poseidon asked. Percy strengthened his resolve.
"You have another son?" he asked, looking straight at his father.
"I what?" Poseidon asked, a confused expression on his face.
"You have another son, Jameson. You claimed him yesterday," Percy asked again. Poseidon was about to say something before he stopped. He stared blankly into the distance, and his eyes flashed white before he responded again.
"Oh yes, Jameson, what about him?" Poseidon asked. Percy decided not to ask about the sudden blankness. He didn't know if it would be rude or not. He was still a god.
"I just didn't know you had another son, where was he during all the prophecies and war and stuff," Percy asked. Poseidon turned black again, his eyes flashing white once again before he responded.
"He was left safe with his mom, I didn't want him getting hurt," Poseidon answered.
"But what about me?" Percy asked.
"I knew you could handle it," the god answered. "Now leave me, I have work to get to," he said, before flashing away.
"Huh," Percy said to himself, before walking away, pondering about his dad's strange behavior.
The next few weeks were great. Percy hung out with his friends, girlfriend, and now half-brother. Jameson always seemed a little distant, but Percy shrugged it off. He did just learn about the existence of gods a few weeks ago. Who wouldn't be a little freaked out about that?
Jameson had no trouble gaining friends, and being the brother of Percy made him the friends of Percy's friends too. He started to hang out with them more and more, specifically Annabeth, but again Percy shrugged it off. Annabeth could hang out with whoever she wanted to, he trusted her. What's wrong with her hanging out with his brother. If anything he was glad that the two were getting along.
Then the incidents started. One by one Percy seemed to notice some changes with his friends. They were less willing to hang out, be he chopped it up to be having to work, but then it continued. People around the camp started to distance themselves from him, and he had no idea why. 'Did I do something wrong' was a constant thought in Percy's head.
Then, there were claims of him doing things he knows he didn't do. The Stoll brothers' recent pranks were all reported to Chiron, and apparently, he was the one reporting them. Percy had no vivid memory of him ratting them out, or of even hearing about their pranks, but Travis and Connor started to hang out with him less and less, and started hanging out with Jameson even more.
Then there was Katie, who started yelling at him for constantly ruining her plants, by either soaking out the moisture or causing a mini hurricane to ruin them. Percy told her that he would never do that, and even offered to help her replant her flowers, but Katie wasn't listening, saying she saw him do it. She wrapped him in poison ivy that had him itching for days.
Then campers reported seeing Percy beat up Chris severely, and that angered Clarisse. She broke down the door to his cabin and tried to impale him with her spear, not listening to Percy's pleas for innocence.
Percy was worried. His friend count was dropping like flies, and he had no idea why. He sat in his cabin pondering, why would someone do this. He couldn't ask Jameson, because he wasn't in the Cabin right now. Then he heard an explosion. Percy rushed out of his cabin and saw some oil, and a lighter, he grabbed the objects to move them back to their spot and rushed to the forest fire. When Grover saw Percy, standing near the fire, with some oil and a lighter, he accused him of starting the fire, and wouldn't listen to anything Percy was saying. Grover and Juniper stopped talking to Percy, claiming they could never be friends with an arsonist.
Jason and Piper were traveling the world, Hazel and Frank were at Camp Jupiter, and Leo was off saving Calypso. Soon, they started ignoring his Iris messages, and sometimes he would walk in to see Jameson talking to them after he couldn't get a connection.
Percy's life was falling apart. The campers despised him, often telling others new stories about what Percy had been seen doing, and he wondered how they could believe he could do something like that. He didn't save his friends just to bully them. But the reports kept coming in. Soon, the only people he could talk to were Annabeth, Nico, and Thaila.
That is until there were reports of Percy shaming Bianca's grave. Nico was enraged and Thaila was disgusted that he would ever do such a thing, going as far as to kick him where the sun doesn't shine and tell him he had changed. Soon, all he had left was Annabeth. Percy tried to message the gods, to ask them what was going on, but they had apparently heard all of the 'deeds' Percy had done and refused to speak to him.
Percy was walking along the beach one day, trying to recollect his thoughts. It was almost his eighteenth birthday, and he wasn't sure how to celebrate it, seeing as most of his friends hated him. As he walked along he saw two figures, one on top of the others, that seemed to be in a very heated make-out session. Percy chuckled, he and Annabeth used to do that. Now, not so much. As he continued walking he was able to identify the two of them. One of them was his half-brother, and the other was….. Annabeth.
Percy froze. What was he supposed to do in this situation? Scream at them. Attack them. Runaway balling his eyes out. Despite all the pain Percy should have been feeling, all he felt was numb. Numb of all the ridicule, and offensive comments he had been subjected to. Numb of all the broken friendships, and relationships. Numb from his own father not even bothering to check upon him. All he felt was numb.
"Why?" he asked in barely a whisper. Jameson and Annabeth jumped off each other and stared straight at the broken man. A tear rolled down his face. "Why," he questioned a little louder. Annabeth started stuttering. She tried to talk, but Percy cut her off. "What did I do to deserve this! What did I do to deserve any of this. I save your hides time and time again and this is what I get!". Thunder boomed and it started raining. "Fine, cast me out, enjoy this time, for when the next war approaches I will not be around to help!" Percy shouted.
"We don't need you anymore!" Annabeth shouted back. Percy doubled down. His heart hurt, everything hurt. "Everyone is fine without you, and I have Jameson, and you have become someone else, someone I don't love!". Each word felt like a needle piercing his heart. "I love Jameson, and you leaving won't change anything. So go, leave, no one wants you here anyway". 'No one wants you here anyway, no one wants you here anyway, no one wants you here anyway'. The sentence was continually repeated in his head.
He wiped his tears from his face and stormed into his cabin, determined to clear his stuff out and leave before his brother came back. He took all of his necessities. He grabbed some changes of clothes, nectar, ambrosia, some drachmas, and stuffed all of the stuff in his backpack, one that Hestia gave him that could carry ten times the size of the bag. He walked to Thaila's tree and looked back at the campers having fun.
'They really don't care' he thought. 'I guess this is for the better then'. He grabbed Riptide from his pocket and uncapped it. He stared at the sword. It was a reminder of everything he had here, and he didn't want to remember those painful memories. He cut his connection to the sword and impaled it into the ground. He rubbed Thaila's tree and petted Peleus before walking off into the distance.
"Goodbye Camp Half-Blood," Percy said.
(Thank you for reading A New Light Chapter 2. I'm happy to see you still reading this series, and hope you are enjoying it. I'd like to say thank you to SuperKryptonite3408 for suggesting that he stab Riptide into the ground instead of just leaving it on his bed. I thank and appreciate anyone who comments and shares their thoughts good or bad. I hope you stay tuned for Chapter 3, All Alone.)
