I end up grave robbing on my birthday

I lay awake in my bed. 15 years, and I still haven't been claimed. Well, I had until the end of the day. Children of the gods were supposed to be claimed when they turned 13, but here I was, on my 15th birthday and still unclaimed. Mr. Grover and Mrs. Juniper were probably downstairs, waiting downstairs with some presents and decorations. I quietly got up from my bed making a careful effort to avoid making noise and letting my adopted parents know I was awake. I put on a pair of jeans and my orange "CHB" shirt.

"Haaaaappy birthday!" Someone had burst into my room. If I was anymore awake, I would have kicked him so hard he'd be limping for a week.

"Jesus Christ! Good morning to you too, Ryan." I grumbled. He hated it when someone said his real name, so I would call him that when he got particularly irritating. I called him Ryan a lot. Rye, or Ryan, was the oldest of Mr. Grover and Mrs. Juniper's kids. He was also a Satyr, like his brother Oak and Mr. Grover. The youngest was Honey-Dew, a wood nymph who was either 4 or 5, I forgot.

"I know what you're thinking about today…" He teased

I started brushing my hair in my mirror, "Oh yeah? What am I thinking of then?"

"You're wondering if you'll get claimed today!"

He was partly right. I don't know who my godly parent is, or who my mortal parent was. I don't really think anyone does. I know it isn't Apollo, I'm terrible at archery and I can't sing. I've ruled out the big three, because I mean- I'm realistic. Athena could make sense, I'm smart, but not even close to how strategic and nerdy the Athena kids are. Maybe Ares, but I wasn't born being angry or good at fighting, I just trained. One by one, I slowly ruled out the olympians, most major gods and at least half of the minor gods by now. I'm 15. Most half-bloods get claimed at 13 or younger.

To say I've given up is just a lie. I'll never give up until I find out who my godly parent really is. It's just something that will always gnaw at the back of my brain, and I've learned to ignore it.

I stared at him through the mirror. "You can be a real douche sometimes." I sneered.

He shrugged his shoulders, "Don't get mad at me. I just call it as it is. I also read your diary." I don't think of it as a diary much, just something I like to write curse words into.

"I'll start calling you deceased if you keep reading my journal."

"C'mon Sonia, I'm just playing. Besides, everyone but I forgot your birthday. Don't be too disappointed."

"You're irritating." I stepped on his foot when I walked past him.

I quietly made my way down the stairs, my socks not creating any noise on the hardwood. I knew what was going to happen as soon as I entered the room. Mr. Grover was going to be hiding behind the couch, Mrs. Juniper was going to be behind the armchair, Oak would be under the coffee table and Honey-Dew would be standing in the middle of the room with her hands over her eyes. She was too young to understand the whole process of a surprise. Now that I was thinking about it, I couldn't wait to enter the room.

I walked through the doorway and was greeted by nothing. There was nothing! I had no idea what to think. I was completely stunned. Where were my birthday pancakes? Where were the presents? Why wasn't everyone hiding in predictable places? Instead, Honey-dew was sitting on the floor near the front door putting on her shoes, Oak was running around the kitchen island, Mrs. Juniper was chasing Oak around the kitchen island trying to force a jacket on him, and Mr. Grover was nowhere to be seen.

"Mrs. Juniper?" I asked.

She stopped wrestling Oak and looked at me, "Good morning Sonia."

"Where are you guys going?" Today was my birthday, right? Shouldn't my family be there to make me enjoy it?

"Honey-Dew has her kindergarten parent-teacher conference, and I'm bringing Oak because last time I wasn't home, he spent the entire day with the river nymphs."

"I remember that! They told me that they found him crying in the woods!" I took the easy opportunity to tease him.

He stopped running from Mrs. Juniper and paused to something back, which gave her enough time to put a jacket on him. "Did not!"
"Wait, Mrs. Juniper, where is Mr. Grover?" I asked.

"He's at a meeting for the cloven elders." She pinched her nose, "Look, Sonia, I need to go. When Rye wakes up, tell him where we are."

They all walked out of the front door, Oak still groaning about his jacket.

"Told ya so!" Rye had silently followed me downstairs. He always needed to tease me.

I ripped my jacket off the coat rack. "I'm going out," I grumbled.

"15 years old, and people are already forgetting about you. I always thought you would last until you were 17." He just kept on mocking.

"I'll beat you up, Goat-boy!" I snapped.

"Aw, you're no fun!"

I ignored his tease. "I'm going out," I repeated.

The cold winter air felt good on my face. I liked that my birthday was in the winter. It was overcast today, usual winter weather here at Camp-Half-Blood. I decided to take a walk down to the beach. It was pretty quiet out today. Most campers only spent their summers at camp. Some people did stay year-round, though. My best friend stayed all year, but most of my other friends were only around during the summer. Today was a weekday, but because of a snowstorm that closed schools, everyone got to stay in camp. There wasn't much to do on snow days. The barrier stopped any heavy snow from coming into camp, but we still felt the cold and the wind.

The sea was choppy and violent, as it usually was. I ended up at the huge statue of a hero. Percy Jackson. It showed him wearing a beaded necklace and pointing his sword toward the sea. It had been built in the sand, but it never seemed to get worn down by the waves. The sea would crash close to the statue, as if trying to reclaim the late hero. Percy's body language suggested serious nature, but his facial expression and messed up hair pointed towards the other direction.

Near the entrance of the camp was an equally large statue of another late hero, Annabeth Chase. She held her Yankees cap in her left hand and a bronze dagger in her right. Her blonde hair was let down, cascading down her shoulders. Annabeth's fierce eyes pointed towards the woods, as if daring a villain to appear. "Come out and face me!" It seemed to say. Someone told me I could have hair like hers if I dyed it blonde and "put in some effort". Later that day I beat the crap out of him during a combat exercise. I liked my choppy hair the way it was.

I sat on the sand, watching the waves crash. I was only a few feet from the Percy Jackson statue, when I swore I saw movement behind it. I turned my head to look at it. Someone was on the other side of the statue.

"Hello?" I yelled, slowly making my way around. I quickly jumped to where I could see the other side. No one was there. "What?" I said to myself.

A raspy voice spoke in my ear, "You will not find them." It wheezed. I spun around and wrapped my hands around whatever spoke. I jumped on top of the figure and took it down to the ground. Instead of finding some vile monster, it was another demigod.

She managed to get a few words out despite my hands around her neck.

"Sup'- 'Ni-a."

"Natalie? What were you doing behind Percy's statue? Why couldn't I see you?" I berated her. Natalie has been my best friend for three years. She's the daughter of Hecate and was pretty good at manipulating the mist. I pulled my hands away from her throat and helped her up.

"Trick of the mist! Just like the reason I followed you here!" She pointed to the platform at the base of Percy's statue. A red velvet cake with dark red frosting on it.

"Dude! Red! You remembered!" Dark red was my favorite color. I was so happy that she remembered my favorite color and a present that I didn't mind that we didn't have forks. The cake tasted good. We sat there in comfortable silence, watching the ocean and eating cake with our hands. I broke the silence after a few minutes.

"Hey, what was with you saying 'You won't find them' or something?"

She looked genuinely confused, "I said something like that? When?"

"Just now, idiot. If this is a prank, it's not a good one."

"I put it on the gods, I didn't say anything like that." She insisted.

She wasn't struck down with lightning, so she must not have been lying.

In classic Natalie fashion, she already was thinking about her mischievous act of the day, "You know those balls that turn people into bats? Well, Chiron confiscated them, and I think we should go take it back from the big house."

"Are you sure? I already don't think Chiron likes me. He's never tried to talk to me, but whenever I see him at dinner he'll just look at me with disgust and then walk away."

"Disgust? Maybe you just smell like hay." She teased.
"Yeah, probably. You're 100% sure you know where the bat bombs are in the big house?"
"Definitely. The attic, where all the cool confiscated stuff is. Chiron is doing his morning rounds, and we have like 40 minutes until he gets back. 20 minutes if it starts to rain."

"200 pushups?" I asked. It had always been a very "dire" promise between us. It meant you fully believed you were right, and if you weren't then you had to do 200 pushups. Natalie's older brother was the son of Circe, and always made us do extremely grueling exercise.

"200 pushups." She confirmed.

We both stood in front of the big baby-blue house. I didn't see any campers, but I did hear some loud music originating from the Apollo cabin.

"So, what does the Big House look like? I've never been inside." I asked Nat. She looked at me as if I were stupid. "You've lived in the camp your entire life, and you have never been in the Big House? That's wild."

"Shut up, small brain."

She laughed, "Chiron keeps all the good stuff in the attic," I reached for the doorknob, but she grabbed my arm, "We need more protection."

Natalie started shaking her hands around the air, and white mist congregated on her arms. She shook her arms above my head and all the mist fell on me. It felt like ice-water, starting at the top of my head and spreading down my body. She then did the same to herself. When she finished, it looked like nothing was there. I knew if I focused where she was standing then I would see her.

"You're invisible! I'm invisible!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, dingus! How do you think I snuck up on you? It's the mist, bay-bee!"

Then, I opened the door. The Big House looked similar to my house. Not exactly like my house, there was a jaguar's head on the wall. The Athena kids must not have been feeling inspired when they made our house, because the layout was the same. For some reason, it saw us. It started growling in our direction.

"What do we do? Should we go?!" I started to panic.

"Oh, yeah! Seymour!" Natalie ran into a room branching off from the main room, leaving me there to get growled at by the big cat. I saw a floating bag of sausages come into the room, and I knew Nat was back. She took out a sausage and threw it into the big cat's maw.

"You know it's name? Why does it have a name?" I asked her.

"Remember when Dionysus was like the camp leader or something? He left this here," She answered, very nonchalantly, "Wild, right?"

"Yeah, crazy."

I heard quick steps going up the stairs and assumed that Natalie was making her way to the attic. I followed her noises up the stairs and heard her cursing.

"What's wrong?" I asked her. She must have started jumping, because I heard sudden and loud sounds on the ground.

"Can't reach the damn attic ladder." She grunted.

A small ring hung from a rope on the ceiling. Like my house, the attic ladder would unfold once the rope was pulled. I was taller than Natalie, and I could reach the rope. At first, nothing happened when I pulled it. I tried again, pulling harder and the entire ladder came down. It crashed onto the ground violently, and I heard Natalie jump out of the way.

"Nice going, Sonia. Almost killed me." She said.

"That's your fault." I teased.

She climbed up the ladder and into the attic. I followed suit.

The attic was longer than it was wide. My head almost hit the ceiling. At the end of the attic was a three-legged stool, where the oracle used to sit long before I was born. Artifacts and half-destroyed weapons hung on the walls, remnants of heroes long before this era. Most of the artifacts were weapons, like the green-stained blade of Kampe, or a broken bow with no label.

"Sonia, think fast!" Natalie threw a pink scarf at me.

I must have been totally absorbed in the objects on the walls, because I was not ready to catch anything. I stumbled backward, stomping on the ground and trying to regain balance. Luckily, I'm not that clumsy and I didn't fall over. Right when I was about to yell at her, I noticed that I could see her. The mist is supposed to camouflage things, not make them visible. She was laughing at me. Why would anyone trust a Hecate child to do simple magic?

"What are you, stupid or something? I can see you! You're completely visible!" I whisper-yelled at her.

She stopped laughing, "I can see you too."

"I thought you were good with the mist!"

"I am!"

"Then why can I see your face!"

"I don't know, Chiron probably has some stupid magic resistant attic!"
I buried my head in my hands. If we didn't get out quickly, we'd totally get caught because we aren't invisible!

"Just grab your stupid bat balls and let's go."

"You know, your outfit would go good with that scarf," Could she not stay focused for a minute? "Orange shirt, black jeans, and a pink scarf. Dye your hair red, and you'll look like a sunset."

This girl, I swear to the gods, is gonna kill me one day. She covers me when we battle together, and she gives me honest fashion advice sometimes. Sometimes.

"You being for real? It does?" I asked. Nothing wrong with looking good, plus a scarf would help with the cold.

"Yeah, I promise. Have I ever steered you wrong before?"

As I was about to answer her rhetorical question honestly, I heard a door opening down on the main floor. It was followed by hooves on hardwood, and someone else angrily yelling.

"-deserved it Chiron! I don't care if he makes fun of Khione, but I do care if he makes fun of my mortal parents! He called them 'weak blood' Chiron he had it coming! He can't just say something like that and expect someone not to come and beat him up!" The voice belonged to a male teenager, likely a child of Khione.

Me and Natalie stared at each other for a solid 3 seconds, before she started quietly running toward the ladder. I moved opposite of her, and ran to the end of the attic. Next to the weird three-legged stool was a desk. I quietly searched for a piece of paper and a pen.

"What in Hades are you doing! We need to get out of here!" She aggressively mouthed at me.
"I'm gonna take the scarf, I just want to leave a note!" I mouthed back. It seemed like the right thing to do. Take a scarf, leave an apology note.

The piece of paper was an easy thing to find. There was one in the first drawer I looked in, but no pen was in sight. Not a single one in any of the drawers. I started getting frantic. Could it have fallen off the desk, or maybe behind it? Stepping back, I noticed something was on the stool.

A simple ballpoint pen. I hadn't seen it there before, but I guess people overlook stuff until they need it. I turned to Natalie to show her the pen and smile, letting her know that I'll be over there in a second. Her face contorted from confusion to threatened.

I took the cap off the pen and where the pen once was, was the hilt of a sword. The rest of the blade sprung to life with a satisfying shink! In my hand was the sword of the legendary Son of Poseidon. Riptide was Percy's weapon. I thought it was lost with him when he died, but no, it had been in the attic of the big house all along. Although not loud, it broke the silence. The voices downstairs stopped talking. Hooves were clopping their way up the stairs, faster than before.

"Who's up there?" Chiron yelled up to the attic.

Natalie turned around and made a gesture that roughly meant Shut up! "It's me Chiron, I just wanted my bat balls back."

Chiron knew who Nat was because she was always getting in trouble, "Natalie… Did you come alone?"

"Yup, all by my lonesome." She fibbed. Natalie was a lot of things, but she was not a good liar.

"Then who is that up there?" He gestured for Natalie to climb down the ladder and get out of the way. She did and he started talking directly to me, "Come here, right now."

I stuffed the scarf into my pant leg and walked to the edge of the attic, where I could be seen. Chiron's face lost a bit of color when he saw me. It could have been because I had Percy's sword, or because he just might not have known me at all.

"The sword has gotten longer..." Chiron took a small step back and gave me room to climb down the ladder.

I shamefully climbed down the ladder and held the sword out for Chiron to take. He held it gingerly as if it could spontaneously explode. The guy Chiron was arguing with was standing near Natalie. He obviously felt uncomfortable, even though he wasn't the one in trouble. I mean, here I was with Percy Jackson's sword.

I started to apologize, but Chiron cut me off.

"Today is your 15th birthday, right?" He quietly asked.

I was completely floored. You'd expect to get yelled at for sneaking into someone's house and stealing, not getting wished a happy birthday. This couldn't be happening.

"I knew I would have to face you eventually. Sonia, are you busy right now? I think we should speak." Chiron sounded... guilty? Maybe it was sadness? Regret, even? I wouldn't be able to define those words on a regular basis, much less when I was in trouble. See, I have dyslexia and ADHD. I'm not the most verbose person. I don't even know if I'm using the word right.

It was Nat's turn to chip in.

"Chiron, me and Sonia have sword practice in a few minutes. With weapons." She really was a terrible liar. I didn't want to keep my conversation going with the depressed sounding centaur, so I went along with it.

"Yeah, we should probably leave soon."

It was obvious he wasn't believing it either. Whatever speech Chiron wanted to tell me, he didn't seem to want to. "You two should be on your way. Charlie, you can go too."

"What the Hades have you done to Chiron? He froze up as soon as he saw you!" Charlie asked me once we had left the big house. I put the pink scarf on as he talked.

"I have absolutely no idea. It's the first time he's talked to me, and I've been at camp for-well, my entire life."

"Really? Which cabin are you in?"

"Not in one. Haven't been claimed yet."

This shut Charlie up. Makes sense, the numbers don't add up. To be frank, if someone told me they were in the same situation I wouldn't believe a word of it.

Natalie once again thought she should add some input, "Maybe that's why Chiron doesn't like you. What if you were like the child of a Titan and a mortal?"

"I should hit you for that," I said, "I'd be a lot stronger if I was half-titan."

"But I'm right. What if you're half-Titan? He'd have some type of grudge with you then."

"If I was half-Titan, I'd probably know." That answer must have satisfied her, because she didn't give any more theories.

She kept looking over at Charlie. I wasn't good friends with him. I think he was the counselor of the Khione cabin, and I heard he fought with a halberd and a magic spear his mom gave him. Otherwise, he likes to be called "Bison" because he had gotten that nickname from his mortal friends. He always struck me as one of the people that got into fights for good reasons. Another fun fact about him-my "brother" Rye had been his seeker last year. Here's one more fun fact-he won't shut up.

"What if your godly parent is Athena or Ares? You wouldn't really know because they don't really do magic!" He acted like he'd outsmarted a monster, or solved a really difficult algebra problem.

"If that was the case, why wouldn't I have been claimed yet?"

"Okay, but what if some god chose you to be their champion?"

"They would have made it clear to me."

"Sure, but what if-"

"Would you shut up?" I snapped.

Nat must have been able to tell what Charlie was saying was starting to annoy me, so she tried to change the subject, "Hey look the arena is right there! Maybe this time I'll use a weapon. Right Sonia?"

Her attempt didn't do the trick. Charlie just kept running his big mouth. "Hey, I'm trying to help you out! Don't get all fussy with me."

"I've literally been thinking about this for 15 years! Have you thought that maybe I had tried those theories out? Or asked those questions? Why are you even here! Chiron didn't say I needed an escort to the arena, did he?"

I hadn't meant to be rude, I just wanted him to stop talking and go away. It worked.

He pointed towards the Hephaestus cabin and sputtered out, "Yeah, I uh, gotta go help out some people with the forge. Weapons don't cool themselves off, you know?" He sounded super awkward and that just made me feel worse.

After he was out of earshot Natalie turned to me. "You don't have to scare off every decent looking guy at camp."
"C'mon, he was being annoying. Were you serious about using a weapon today?"

"No." She told me.

I've just about mastered every weapon at camp. My favorite are the swords, just because they have a good mixture of power and length. Spears are too easy, daggers are too annoying, archery sucks. This also means it's difficult to find someone who actually wants to fight. There were a few other campers doing various exercises in the circle-shaped arena. Children of Apollo were practicing archery and some children of Ares were brutally ripping apart training dummies. There was another group of people, all surrounding a blond guy. The most annoying blond guy I've ever met.

"Jacob's here." Nat so helpfully informed me.

"Yeah. Guess that's the guy Charlie mentioned was being a huge jerk."

"What else has changed?"

Jacob was probably the guy I hated the most. His dad was Zeus, which meant that he had a god complex by the age of 4. His favorite activities are picking fights he knows he'll win, bragging about himself and his dad, and telling people that if they don't like him then Zeus will strike them down. He hates me just as much, probably because I'm better and more humble than him. He caught sight of me and yelled to everyone, "Watch out guys, there's a mortal here! Don't let her see you do anything! It'll break her weak mortal mind!"

I shot an insult back. "If I'm a mortal, then how'll your dad feel knowing I'm stronger than you!"

He whispered to one of his cronies. The guy pulled out a sword and handed it to Jacob. It was Imperial gold, somewhat of a rarity here at camp. Jacob claimed his dad gave it to him, but everyone knows he just took it from Camp Jupiter. It wasn't magical, but gold is a much better conductor than bronze. If you cross blades with that thing during a fight, it feels like you got tased. Since Jacob was constantly channeling electricity through it, he was a formidable opponent. Hey, just because I respect someone's tactics doesn't mean I don't hate their guts.

At this point, the Apollo campers stopped shooting arrows. The Ares campers stopped mutilating the dummies. Everyone had their eyes on us.

"You gonna fight him?" Nat asked.

"Yep."

"You gonna win?"
"I'll find out."

One of the Ares campers offered me their sword. I recognized him as Kevin Ocquendi. I had Geometry with him. His back was turned to Jacob, and he mouthed "Destroy him" to me. The sword he had given me was a bit too light, but I'd rather that than a sword that was a bit too heavy.

Natalie's older brother, Sho, appeared out of thin air. He was a child of Circe. Yeah, two siblings with different godly parents were rare, but not unheard of. Their father must have been a great magician to attract two goddesses of magic.

"You're fighting Jacob again?" Sho yawned.

"Yes."

"Don't you get bored of fighting him over and over again? It's not like you two are evenly matched."

Jacob must have started to get impatient. "Stop talking and face me, mortal!"

"Shut up Sparky!" I yelled back. Getting a nickname was too much embarrassment for him, so he decided to charge. Yeah he can call me names all he wants, but when I say something back I've gone too far.

Jacob was taller than me, but I was faster. I ran at him too and reached him before he could get to me. He swung downwards so I dodged to the left. It left for an easy opening, so I smacked him on the side of the head instead of striking. It got a couple people giggling and got him angrier. He swung at me again, so I leaped backward. The most annoying part of fighting him was that I couldn't block his strikes or parry, I just had to get out of the way. I jabbed at him and he moved to the right.

I tried to make some smart taunt or threat, but he kicked me in the middle of my line so I ended up saying something like "You fight like a w-ooooupgh!"

I fell on my backside and he raised his sword to the sky like a really jerky statue. The air started to smell like ozone. My hair stood up. He wasn't posing, he was getting ready to use a lightning bolt. I got onto my feet and dove out of the way as a lightning bolt hit him. It blew up like a grenade and took some of the arena ground with it. He stood in a small crater, breathing heavily and smirking. Gods, I hated when people smirked like that. "Got plenty more where that came from."

He jumped out of the crater, sword pointed down. He must have been 6 feet in the air, because I rolled under him and sliced upwards, hitting his foot. At first I thought I missed, because I didn't feel any resistance in my movement. But looking at the blood on the tip of my blade and his cut shoe told me that I had hit him.

"Right in the ankle!" Someone from the Apollo cabin yelled out.

If Jacob wasn't mad before, he was now. He had left his sword on the ground where he fell, and both of his hands held balled-up something. Lightning? It sure looked like it. I'd fought him many times before, but he usually beats me. I can't even remember the last time I'd wounded him. He walked towards me slowly. Didn't we fight until blood was drawn? That's how it usually went. His blood definitely was on my sword, but he didn't look like he was stopping. I'm not good at reading facial expressions and body language, but his eyes stared right into my soul and whatever they saw made him want to rip me limb from limb.

I think the other campers noticed it too. This had gone from a fight between enemies to a murder scene. Jacob charged at me and I leveled my blade.

The first to grab him was Sho. Then Kevin, and other people from the Ares cabin. Then the teens from the Apollo cabin sort-of moved me away from him. One of them congratulated me on winning. The praise felt good, but it was ruined by Jacob yelling "You've made a big enemy! Me, and Zeus!" as he was forced out of the arena.

Sho patted me on the back and said "You actually won. It woulda' been better if he didn't try to kill you, but nice job."

Dinner that night was anything but fun. Jacob and the 3 other members of the Zeus cabin were staring me down as I ate. It's not like they ever liked me much. Since I wasn't claimed, I got to sit anywhere. Just like satyrs. I sat at the Hecate table. Most of the people there were pretty funny, and their magic stuff was cool. They all gave me small enchanted items for my birthday. A ring that stopped my fingernails from growing, a headband that kept my hair from moving, gloves that steadied my hands, things that were little more than novelty gifts that might have a bit of use.

When Rye sat down next to me, I knew something was up. He didn't have his usual playful smile, and he didn't even tease me. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"It's hard to explain. Just finish eating." His eyes were red like he'd been crying.

"How are you gonna tell me to finish eating when you're acting like that? What's going on?" I demanded to know what was eating away at him. Before I got an answer, Charlie loudly asked Nat a question. "Hey, where's your brother."

She stared at him like he was stupid, "I have 12 brothers."

"The one that you're actually related to."

"I'm related to them all."
"Where's Sho."

"He's probably at the Circe table." She told him, matter-of-factly. I guess she realized that she wanted to keep talking to him, because she started the conversation up again, "Why are you looking for him though?"

"His katana's all finished up. I helped make it. Just thought it'd be easier to find him at dinner, cus everyone shows up to dinner."

"Why do you even work in the forges? Your mom is literally the ice goddess."

"I can withstand hot temperatures and I can cool down the metals real quick."

I was sick of hearing Nat flirt and I was irritated that my own brother wasn't telling me something.

I whispered to Rye, "I'm done eating. Tell me what's wrong."

He seemed surprised. "No, I'm not telling you anything. But I gotta bring you."

Rye brought me to the Big House. I asked him if I was in trouble, and he told me I wasn't. We walked into the Big House, and all of my adopted family was there. Honey Dew was sitting on Mrs. Juniper's lap, Mr. Grover was standing up with Oak next to him. Chiron was sitting in his wheelchair behind a large wooden desk with a redhead girl next to him. She wore a fleece sweater and bleached jeans with paint all over them. Nat's brother, Sho, was leaning against the wall behind both of them. I took an empty seat on the other side of Chiron's desk. It felt as if I was in court and I was already convicted.

"Sonia. Let me start by wishing you a happy birthday. I-"

"You told me that this morning." Maybe I shouldn't have been as rude as I was, but it shouldn't take 15 years for him to talk to me.

"Yes, I guess I did. The reason I asked Rye to gather you and your family together. I haven't been entirely honest with you."

"You haven't even talked to me. Chiron, stop dragging this out. What do you want to tell me?" I said.

"Sonia, you don't have a godly parent." He said bluntly. It got me angry. Not because I wasn't a half-blood, but because he never worked up the nerve to tell me.

"That's it? You never could have told me that I'm just a mortal that stumbled into camp? You never acknowledged my existence for 15 years because I'm not a demigod?"

The red-haired girl spoke up, "Zeus ordered that we didn't tell you."

"I don't even know who you are!" I yelled, hoping for her to take it as an insult.

"I'm the Delphic Oracle. When you-"

Chiron cut her off, "When you were born Sonia, Rachel," He gestured to the redhead, "relayed a prophecy. Weeks later, Apollo appeared in a dream of hers. He told her that the prophecy she had spoken was the last prophecy before the next great prophecy. Zeus feared the next great prophecy, and restricted Rachel and I from telling you about it."

I was confused. "Why are you telling me now?"

"You were given until you were 15 to live life normally. Well, as normal as a half-blood could live."

"Normal? You just told me that I don't have a godly parent! How is that in any way normal?"

"You're-"

"Just tell me the prophecy. Then I can go on a quest, and the next great prophecy will be told." I offered.

The centaur ignored my proposition, "You understand how demigods get stronger once they find out who their parents are, yes? I believe the same thing will happen to you. Your abilities will manifest soon enough. Let us hope you master them in time for your coming journey."
This was going way too fast for me. Why was Sho here? What powers can I have if I'm just a mortal? Why are Mr. Grover and Mrs. Juniper here? I voiced my questions. Instead of an answer, I received silence from Chiron. Rachel spoke up.

"I think your family is here because they love you. Sho is here because he's been having dreams of the prophecy."

Sho broke his short vow of silence. "Sonia, look I get this is hard for you an' all, but you gotta stop doubting Chiron. He's gonna explain everything."

Wait. Wait a second. Does Sho know about me? Did he know about my parents and never tell me? I pointed at him, "Did you know?" I yelled accusingly.

He held his hands up in an "I'm innocent" gesture. "I just found out yesterday."

What do I say to that? Did Nat know too? Was this all some kind of conspiracy against me? My mind was racing, and I felt like I was gonna crash soon. Mr. Grover walked up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder. I looked up to him, and he gave me a comforting smile.

"You should tell her the prophecy. All of it." He told Rachel.

She pulled a crumpled-up yellow sticky note out of her pocket and handed it to me. Mr. Grover looked a bit disappointed. "You're not gonna do the thing with the green gas?"

She stretched her arms, "Nah, I did that a while ago. Just had to write down the prophecy and keep it."

A bit of the paper was ripped off in the corner, but otherwise, the sticky note was easy to read.

When unclaimed blood reaches its boil

Dawn is freed from its primordial coil

Surf and mind are released from the void

If the chains within night are destroyed

Two new and one old will go west and face the general of before

The final prophecy will be read, the start of discord

"What does it mean?" I asked her. She shrugged, so I asked another question. "Is there a time limit?" I got another shrug from her.

Mr. Grover stared at the paper longer than I had. "Surf and mind…" I heard him mutter.

Chiron looked drained, like having the prophecy read sapped his energy. He dug under his desk and produced a blue box. "These belong to you. They were the only things your parents left behind."

"Parents?"

"Yes, your parents were both demigods."

I took the box with gusto. For a second, I hesitated in opening it. Everything would change once I found out. Chiron said something about powers manifesting? Maybe my dad would control fire or something. Maybe my mom was the daughter of Demeter and I could make plants grow. I took the lid off.

At first, what was inside looked like junk. It only took a few seconds for my brain to realize what the items really were. A beaten-up Yankee cap, and a ballpoint pen. Between them was a picture of two young-looking demigods. The girl on the left had blonde hair and storm-grey eyes, and the guy on the right had dark hair and sea-green eyes. He looked a lot like me. Or I guess I looked a lot like him. Mr. Grover started crying. Had he known the entire time? It didn't matter.

I lifted the photo out of the box and for the first time in a long time, I was truly speechless. No rude remark to make, no threat to be said.

"Your parents are Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson."