Hey guys this is another Chapter. Hope ya like it. :)
Also Hi Allen R!
So Percy and Annabeth we're in the sandbox. Annabeth was making a giant castle. Percy was basically making was looks like his room but without the walls. Annabeth had a bucket full of water that Percy manage to get. Her castle was about up to her knees so she was basically kneeling the entire time except when she was doing the details in the inside she had a toothpick and was just craving out some doors in the ballroom. Percy was laying on his sand bed, and was taking a nap.
Jason and Piper were in the tree house, Yeah there was a tree house more like a tree house village because there were like seven trees all connected by these rope bridges and each tree had a house. Piper and Jason were climbing on some of the branches to get to this tiny platform at the top that was barely big enough to hold them. They were talking and Jason was grinning the entire time while he tickle Piper, basically three stories above the ground...
Frank and Hazel were sitting under a tree. Hazel just laying on Frank's lap talking. While Frank was making a flower crown for him and Hazel. They looked extremely happy, and they're were so cute too.
Nico and Will were on the swings well Will was swinging and Nico was just nudging his swing back and front. They were talking, Nico was blushing quite a bit. Basically he was putting all thing red to shame.
Travis and Connor were running from Katie. But they had smiles on their faces even though Katie was cover in flower petal. Basicall earlier Travis and Connor threw a bucket full of flower petals at Katie yelling Flower Power!"
Reyna was hugging a bunch of stuffed Pegasus. (Yeah She's a bit OOC in this)
Clarisse and Chris were fighting in the areana, enjoying them selves while everyone else were watching them. Rachel was smiling at a picture she took of Jason and Piper. So she could paint them later.
But in the throne room...
"We should have a vote!" Artemis said "This is a counsel!"
"Fine," Zeus grumbled "Who says we should script Heracule of his immortality and send him the the fields of yeah?"
Hera and Artemis raised their hands. Hades also raised his hand for a bonus since he basically stole his dog centuries ago.
"Who says we should just take away his honor and banish him from Olympus for the next thousand year?"
Apollo, Poseidon, Hermes, and Hephaestus raised their hands.
"Ban him in general?"
Athena, Demeter raised their hands
"Punish him like my wine son."
Mr. D, Zeus, Ares, raised their hands.
Aphrodite didn't vote.
"Okay we shall take away his honr and banish him from Olympus for the next century!" Zeus declared. he turned to his daughter, Hebes "Can you please get you husband hand him the letter." He waved her off, before she flashed away Hera yelled.
"Also you're not married to him now as he is a diagrace to Zeus," Hera grinned.
"Okay let us call the demigods to continue our story time err magicaly reading of the future." Zeus corrected, he blushed slightly golden.
Hera got up and helped Hestia to her feet where they flashed away to find the demigods. Hestia and Hera flashed in the middle of the areana and almost got slapped by Clarisse's spear.
"Sorry Lady Hera and Hestia," Her voice was a bit annoyed.
"We are supposed to get you guys back to the throne room now," Hestia said kindly, before a yell made the demigods in the areana turn their heads.
"YOU DARE DAB AT ME AFTER THAT!?" Annabeth was chasing a frantic Percy. (I'm sorry I was bored writing this story)
"I'm sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, SOO SORRY!" He kept repeating. Annabeth's castle was now a mound of sand. He ran and stood right behind Hera. "I'm sorry Lady Hera but HELP?" He said rushed before Annabeth tackled him to the ground.
"I swear if you dare dab again I'm going to-" Percy dipped his head to his elbow and pointed his other arm in the air.
Percy you're a dead man...
Annabeth Judo-flipped him and ended up dragging him to Hera and Hestia.
"What's a 'dab'?" Hera asked confused
"Well a dab Lady Hera is when you do this." Leo dabbed "It is a trend in the next ten years,"
"Okay then, let us go we do not want Zeus wanting any longer." They flashed to the throne room. "Zeus can you please read this chapter?" Hera asked nicely.
"Um okay sure," Zeus took the book and opened it to chapter 6 "Eh huh...
6. I BECOME SUPREME LORD OF THE BATHROOM"
Clarisse's eyes widen and she shook her head "Nope, I'm going to grab a some Ambrosia infused ice cream." She got up and left the room, Chris got up and followed her.
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. 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.
"Ahh Percy do not worry, Chiron had been potty trained centuries ago," Leo joked.
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."
"We aren't that obvious are we?" Travis asked.
Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMPHALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters.
"hindquarters," Connor snickered.
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.
"Probably," Rachel noted as she pulled out a small box of water colors and a pad of watercolor paper. She started painting the picture of Piper and Jason from earlier as Zeus continued "um...
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 weather vane 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.
There was an uneasy feeling everyone had, Rachel looked more sad than anything
"Poor girl," She muttered while glaring at Hades.
"Blame Zeus here, I don't go killing all of my brother's children." He grumbled
"Yeah you do," Athena pointed out, her eyes showing she was thinking about every word she said a dozen time befores she says them.
"Find Zeus started it, and He and Poseidon broke the oath!" Hades argued
"but you continued it!" Athena countered "You hold grudges too much,"
"Oh yeah what about you and Poseidon huh? I'm sure even if that Percy boy was a son of Zeus you would be cheering her on with her boyfriend!" Athena was quiet, the demigods were staring.
"Urm hi?" Hades said ducking his head. He tooked the book from Zeus's hands and yelled "I"LL READ NOW EH,"
"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.
"I guess you can say that..." Someone whispered
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."
Grover sighed "Thanks for trying to defend me Perce,"
Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses 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!"
"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."
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! 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."
Travis and Connor gasped and started to faun over Grover you poor satyr. Being stuff in that body for soo long,"
"I never understood middle school" Frank muttered
"What? didn't you go there when you were younger?" Katie asked.
"No in Canada there were some places where they had middle school and other just had elementary to high school."
"Being stuck with grade one to eight sucks" Connor argued
"It was actually from kindergraden to grade 7, so eight year in elementary.."
"WHAT?" Connor threw his hands up "So you're going to be stuck in high school for five years? How does that work?"
Frank shrugged "we didn't have freshman, and all that you were just known for your grade. Plus I live in the USA now..." He trailed off and looked at Hades who like the other gods were bored "No offense but can I read now, you sound like someone who just vomitted their lung out."
Travis and Connor snickered "Fine," Hades handed him the book and went to sit in on of the beanie chairs the demigods were sitting in "Why is this so comfortable?" But Frank already started reading.
"That's horrible."
"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.
"Chiron," I said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real ..."
"Yes, child?"
"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"
"Yeah of course it does..." Hades mumbled "Hey I have a feeling like I'm going to be the bad guy in the story, how come?"
"Erm well with everyone blaming each other for the stolen weapons" The gods gripped onto their weapons. The goddess just rolled their eyes. "You guys thought hey a twelve year old kid who had no idea about him being a demigod must have stolen it. We have no idea even if he did it, also how did he get in Olympus and steal the weapons, but na lets still blame the poor kid with all of our problems. Also don't you guys have mind reading powers or something." Percy mumbled, the gods stayed quiet probably thinking of what he same
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.". . ..
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."
"You know I never understood why the camp was so careless about the things inside the forest.." Percy trailed off. "The Greek one was how to survive, because their more of a loner. The Roman one had a place to live, their lucky for a god to protect their city. No when I think of it why didn't camp half blood every have a school like any child of Athena could teach everyone everything." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Athena beam slightly at the child of Athena.
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."
"Wow that must have been really confusing for you Percy," Clarisse mumbled, as she leaned on Chris' shoulder.. (:3)
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.
"Man I love spear fights," Clarisse said while twirling her spear.
"Cabin challenges and all that," he explained. "Not lethal. Usually. Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall."
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.
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.
"Bizarre?" Zeus asked indignant
"Well None of the building matched each other," Percy pointed out innocently.
"Man I remember coming there and being like what the ... are with those cabins?" Frank mumbled
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).
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.
"Hestia!" Some of the demigods cheered.
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 puffed out his chest and looked proud of himself. Hera looked more of surprised like my cabin is really good.
"Zeus and Hera?" I guessed.
"Correct," Chiron said.
"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."
"Yes Percy come along..." Leo said mysteriously, before getting smacked by Calypso.
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 HALF-BLOOD 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.
"HEY!," Clarrisse yelled she had just came back with a tub of ice cream, along with Chris who had a balloon hat. "Wait did you punks finished the chapter yet?"
"Naw We're about a third in." Percy smirked
The two sat down, well Chris grabbed two beanie chairs and Clarisse begrudgingly sat down.
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."
"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."
Percy, and several of the demigods, along with Hera and Artemis sneered at Hercules. Percy was mumbling some thing quietly along the lines of "Stupid... backstabbing... son of a ... no one... him ... deserve... be a god.
Hera and Artemis seemed to be surprised at Percy who was mumbling curse words at Hercules.
"But, shouldn't you be dead?"
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.
All the demigods looked sadly at each other, remembering all the lives lost. Clarisse was hugging Aphrodite, which is a sight no one thought that would ever get rid of.
"Why depressing?"
Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again.
"Oh, look," he said. "Annabeth is waiting for us."
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.
When we reached her, she looked me over critically, like she was still thinking about how much I drooled.
Annabeth let out a small laugh.
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.
"Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?"
Percy looked at Apollo. "Apollo,"
"Yeah?"
"do you ever think I could learn archery?"
"Naw You have that curse."
"But you took it off of me and I still suck," Percy pouted, Thalia laughed
"yeah I remember that, I don't think you or Artemis could every teach him, even if you blessed him for something. He shot an arrow into both of his feet, and Apollo's hair." The demigods started laughing.
"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.
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.
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.
"Galloped away" Leo smirked
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.
"Ahh schools, can't say I went to school this year." Leo muttered.
"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.
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.
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."
"See how cramped it was, I was going to get a spot on the floor!" Percy mumbled. "That was why you freaking claim your children"
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 different-colored 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.
Annabeth ducked her head, and sniffled. Thalia had a sad smile, Clarisse had a blank face. Percy tensed teared up.
"This is Luke," Annabeth said,
Hermes coughed and everyone that was a in the future looked sad.
"What happened?" Hermes asked quietly. "What happened!" He had Tears now.
"I'm sorry.." Hermes sniffled and slumped into his throne.
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."
"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."
"Hermes is probably one of the most friendliest of the olympians, I mean other than Hestia," Percy noted. All the other gods nodded in agreement.
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.
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.
"He already know us so well!" Travis said.
"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.
"Man I didn't think we were that obvious, " Connor scratched the back of his neck.
When we were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that."
"What?"
She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."
"Man you sound creepy" Percy mentioned
"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?"
"Percy you're so dense sometimes, ' to get killed'" Annabeth shook her head. "But yeah to get killed."
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 ..."
"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die."
"That clears lots of things," Leo said, before cowering under Annabeths glare.
"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."
"You don't know how stupid it seems, from my point of view Hades sends a fury, who is a eternal torturer to be a math teacher of a demigods how has no idea how he is, " Annabeth mumbled.
"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"
"You talk in your sleep."
" you know it's a lovely thing to tell me, oh you droll on your sleep also you like to talk about your day in your sleep, don't you sound just a bit stalkerish?" Percy asked,
"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?"
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."
"Way to make me remember about my mom," Percy snorted, and Annabeth flushed
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."
"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 don't know anything about me."
"Ohh bad choose past me!" Percy snickered, "wait oh no she going to go dictionary mode!" Percy ducked for some reason "Run for your life's!"
"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."
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."
"Man I don't think I'll ever understand how much you can talk in one breath," Percy added.
"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.
I was reeling with so many questions I didn't know where to start.
Then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!"
"Hey my voice isn't Husky!" Clarissa argued, crossing her arms, "I'm gonna kill ya punk for that!"
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.
"Sauntering?! And what do you mean big, ugly, and mean looking?" Clarissa growled. Percy held his hands up.
"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."
"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?"
"And that my friend is how I met Clarissa!" Percy cheered for some reason...
"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."
Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."
"And that my friends is how a Percy got the nickname Prissy from Clarisse," Leo said, clapping.
"hey you copied me!" Percy whined, Leo shrugged.
"Percy."
"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."
"Clarisse—" Annabeth tried to say.
"Stay out of it, wise girl."
"Oh! Percy didn't come up with the nickname Wise girl!" Leo crowed "discovery!"
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 cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the bathroom.
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.
"I know right!" Grover muttered.
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."
"Huh Clarisse, " Percy crossed his arms.
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.
"Wait for it..." Nico said for the first time in ages. Well he talked more than the other demigods.
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.
"Haha," Leo was gasping for air, while Jason was holding his stomach, Travis and Connor were yelling at Percy for making them laugh so much.
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.
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 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."
"Not to be rude but don't you think that you would have realized that he was Poseidons kid by now? "
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."
"Yup, I figured," chris crossed his arm and shuffled a bit.
I probably should have let it go, but I said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth."
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."
"And that's a wrap!" Percy look at his imaginary watch. "It's about noon now so how about we talk a break now?" Zeus shrugged and nodded, before he flashed away. A flash in the distanced showed that he was in the Olympus market.
the gods slowly got up and disappeared with a flash.
"well let's go follow them!" Travis said cheerfully and they all started walking toward the gods...
end of chapter
So yeah guys I haven't updated in a while yeah I know, sorry. So I wrote a quick, well not very quick it took me over a week, chapter. Also check out any of my other stories, they're not that good but hey I'm improving.
Words: 6,804 Date: Saturday February 18, 2017