Hey people,

Thanks for reading this and especially Luna Jackson and TulipBook who reviewed the last chapter.

I hope you like this chapter and please point out any mistakes I make, whether it be spelling, ounctuation or grammer. It really helps me to learn them and then I'll hopefully make less mistakes.

Also, I am not usually very fast with updates, when I go back to school in a few days chapters will come slower so please bare with me I will try to update as much as possible.

Enjoy!

Party (part two)

Percy POV

I went back down stairs and saw Dionysus, he looked at me and I saw that he was having trouble focusing and he was swaying on his feet. I shook my head; 5:45 and he was already drunk. I walked out the back to where the pool, and the party, was. I saw Thalia sitting on a bench and watching as Apollo's friends messed about in the pool, I wondered which of them she was crushing on at this very moment, I walked up behind her and leant down to talk in her ear – the only way she would hear me over the music.

"You know Thall, you should stop staring at them at some point over the next hour, otherwise when Artemis comes down you'll have to sit through a lecture on the uselessness of men."

"Well distract me then," she replied in a robot voice, staring at Lee Fleture's six-pack.

"How about this for a distraction, as annoying as your idiot brother is he is entertaining for us both, so if you want him to live I'd advise you to sober him up before your Dad sees him."

Her head snapped round to me, "He's drunk already?!"

I nodded.

Thalia groaned, "Where did you see him, if Dad catches him he'll be telling me to babysit the idiot at school."

"He was in the door way of the den, trying to keep himself stood up," I told her. She nodded her thanks and ran into the house. Family have to look out for each other, even if you don't like each other.

I walked towards the pool and saw Lee dunking some kid and holding his head down, I knew that they were only messing about so I just started walking towards a sun lounger with a table next to it where I could put my stuff until Thalia gets back.

"Hey," I heard Apollo call from the side of the pool, he was climbing out, "My baby cousin's back." We have two other cousins that are younger than me, so why he insists on calling me the baby cousin I have no idea, but I put up with it. "You're not wet cuz," he pointed out.

"Really? I hadn't noticed. You're very observant today Apollo," I replied, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

"You dipped your hand in the pool earlier, are you scared to go in?" he teased.

"Apollo it's me I practically grew up in the water," I rolled my eyes. He carried on, ignoring what I said.

"Maybe you don't like it cold. Hey guys should we help Percy get used to the water?" there were cheers of agreement behind him. I knew why he was doing this; him and his mates had gotten bored of throwing each other in so were looking for a new victim, Apollo knew I wouldn't mind it so there's no danger of me getting him back. I'll play along, for now.

My cousin came towards me, Lee on the other side. I chucked my backpack over to the lounger I'd been heading for.

"Whoa guys wait. I would like to remind you that Thalia gave me this shirt, what do you think she will do to anyone who ruins it?" The two looked at each other. I took that opportunity to take off my shirt and t-shirt and chuck them on the lounger; I knew mentioning Thalia would distract them for a few moments because, despite the fact that she has never hurt anyone, her shouting and threatening has given her a violent reputation. But in fact the only time she has ever been violent was when Ares said something about me (no one will tell me what) and she stood up for me and the two ended up fighting. That was two years ago.

"Now your shirt is off, there is nothing stopping us from chucking you in," both guys grabbed me and chucked me high into the air. I fell into the water and swam down to the bottom and sat for three minutes before coming back up. "Show off," Apollo muttered referring to me being able to stay under water for so long.

"Oh come on Apollo, you know that I can stay under longer than that," I shot back with a smirk.

"I swear you're half fish," he said. I just grinned at him and stated swimming laps.

After three times around the pool I saw Thalia was back.

"Hey, Thall!" I called to her she came a little closer to the pool.

"Yeah?"

"The idiot sober?" I asked making convocation.

"Sleeping it off," she sighed.

I nodded, "Do me a favour? Can you take my stuff up to your room before it gets raided?"

She looked behind me at Hermes sitting on the other side of the pool, "What's in it for me?"

"I don't tell Lee that you were staring at his abs for over ten minutes," I smirked.

Her eyes narrowed, "You wouldn't."

"I seem to remember you saying that when I threatened to tell Luke that you had a crush on him. Remember how that turned out?"

Her eyes darted behind me, to Luke, and then she gave me a murderous glare, "You wouldn't do it twice," she didn't sound as sure as she would have liked.

"Hey, Lee?" I called and turned to swim towards him.

"No wait!" Thalia yelped panicky, I turned back to her smirking, "I'm doing it!" she picked up my stuff and took it into the house.

"What's up Percy?" Lee had heard my call. I quickly thought of a cover that would make Thalia either love me, hate me or both, probably both.

"You want someone else to throw in the pool?" I asked evilly.

"Who'd you have in mind?" he asked just as evilly. My eyes drifted to Thalia who was coming back out of the door. He grinned at me, "Now that will spark an interesting reaction. Just promise me one thing."

"What?"

"Don't let her kill me."

I laughed "Don't worry, I've no intention of hiding my smirk when she lands in the water, so she'll forget about who threw her and concentrate on trying to catch me." He nodded and climbed out of the pool.

I saw Thalia blush when Lee walked past her and smiled to myself. Then Lee snuck up behind her, grabbed her legs to pick her up and she was tossed into the water with as she shrieked. Her head popped up right next to me and she saw my smirk. She lifted a hand to smack me but I grabbed it.

"If you can catch me, I'll give you a free shot," I told her and swam off. I heard he start swimming behind me but I was confident; my dad taught me to swim when I was four. By the time I was six I could lap him and anybody else who tried to race me. And then there's the fact that she still had her clothes on so couldn't swim as fast anyway.

On the second lap I went straight past Thalia calling,

"Come on Thalli try and get me." And she did, for two more laps.

"PERCY!!" she yelled. So Igave in and swam up to her.

"Why are you so mad anyway? I just gave you an excuse to talk to Lee," her face lit up.

"Fine I'll let you off this time," she told me, trying to sound like she was still mad. Then she climbed out of the pool and went in search of some dry clothes.

I was about to climb out myself when I heard the wobble of the diving bored and felt the splash of somebody hitting the water next to me. I turned to see my half brother.

"Percy," Triton nodded at me.

"Hi Triton," I said and smiled.

"Fancy a race? Five laps around the pool?" He challenged. I didn't really want a race. I had no problem with my brother, but he had a problem with me.

You see my dad was married to his mom, Amphitrite, and then our Dad met my Mom, he fell for her and they wanted to be together but my Dad said that he wouldn't put Triton under the pressure of his parents getting divorced when he was so young, my Mom said she would wait for him. A year later Dad and Amphitrite were having some problems. He went to stay with my Mom for a few days. One thing lead to another and a month later Dad and Amphitrite were back together and he got a call saying that my Mom was pregnant. For the first year of my life, my Dad visited me in secret, but then on my first birthday Triton saw a present in my Dad's car. He hid in there to find out what the present was, thinking it was for him. But my Dad got in the car and drove to my Mom's apartment Six year old Triton found out that he had a little brother. So anyway, Amphitrite stayed with Dad for the same reason he stayed with her, Triton. Until I was five, then Amphitrite told Dad that he had to disown and disinherit me, he refused so Amphitrite and Triton left. By then my Mom had married My first step-dad Gabe so her and my Dad didn't get together. Ever since then Triton seems to think that Dad chose me over him. So where as we get along a lot of the time; Triton feels like he is in competition with me, and he gets very competitive.

"Come on Bro, just a friendly race," he told me looking at my Dad out of the corner of his eye, yeah, friendly I thought.

"Okay," I sighed, "Just three laps though, I want to find some of the others."

"Four," he bargained.

"Fine, whatever."

We both backed up to the wall, I was in the corner so he already had a head start by having the inner lane. Triton called to Hephaestus to referee the race.

"On your mark ... get set ... GO!" The deep voice of my cousin shouted and we were off. Normally I would have gone a little slow so it would look like we were pretty close, but that normally ended in him arguing and accusing me of pushing him back at the end, today was Artemis (who had just came out of the house) and Apollo's birthday, I didn't want to ruin it with me arguing. So I swam at a fast pace which I knew I could keep up for miles. We went round twice and Triton was desperately trying to catch up because he was half a lap behind but my older brother had never learned to pace himself so he was getting tired. I went into my third lap and he was slowing down from exhaustion. I slowed down a little to give him more of a chance, but I still ended up swimming past him and starting my final lap before he had finished his second.

I finished and sat on the pools edge waiting for him to finish. When he did I offered my hand and helped him out of the pool.

"Good race," I said to him. He glared at me and I saw my Dad, watching nervously, from the corner of my eye.

"Yeah. I shouldn't race on a full stomach," he said looking for an excuse, but at that moment his stomach growled indicating he obviously hadn't eaten. I raised my eyebrows at him as he flushed read in embarrassment.

"Okay, well I'll see you later," I said and walked off towards the table where Bianca and Nico were sitting with Thalia.

I sat down mumbling hellos to the only members of my family who don't have Ancient Greek names (their Mom was Italian). Thalia handed me a towel and I rubbed my head with it before burying my face in my arms on the table.

"Did Triton challenge you again?" Thalia asked. I sat up straight and nodded.

"Percy I saw you race you beat him by miles!! It was so cool!" Nico said in his high pitched voice, indicating that he had consumed at least half a gram of sugar that day and was hyper. I nodded miserably.

"Why are you sad about winning?" He asked confused. Bianca gave him a look that silenced him.

"Why doesn't Triton get that your Dad loves you both? The only thing he is proving when he keeps challenging you is that you're a better swimmer than he is," Bianca said.

I shrugged.

"And better at basketball. And soccer. And a faster runner. And-" Nico listed but he was cut off by another of Bianca's looks.

"Not helping, Nico," Thalia told him.

"I just wish that he wouldn't get so competitive. When we were younger we got on fine. But then he turned thirteen and suddenly everything was a competition," I complained.

"You'd think he would have given up by now," Thalia started, "I mean, you beat him at everything when you were eight, surely he would save his ego any more damage," both me and Bianca gave her the look that Nico had received. She put her hands up in surrender.

"I'm only saying," she justified.

"Not helping, Thalia," Nico said, trying and failing to mimic Thalia's tone, I just laughed. "So you like the swimming shorts then Percy?" he asked with excitement when he noticed I was wearing them.

"I told you I did when I unwrapped them, didn't I?" I told him, "Come on kid, let's go raid the desert table."

He stood up faster than I've ever seen anyone move, "Yeah! Let's go!" I stood up and we both turned to start running.

"Wait!" Bianca called, "Percy, Nico hasn't had any proper food yet," Bianca and Nico lost their Mom in an earthquake when she was just five, since then she has taken the role of Nico's mother. There are only two people who can get her to act like the kid she is; me and Thalia.

"Come on Bianca, don't be a spoil sport," I told her. Then I coaxed her with something I knew wouldn't fail, "They have mint choc chip ice cream..."

She stood up and said, "Let's raid!" I laughed as well as Thalia who stood up. We all started running but after a few meters I stopped and let them go past, I watched thinking 'I don't know what I'd do without my family'.

"Come on Percy," Thalia called back to me. I grinned at her, and then turned to my right. Grover was there trying to talk to Artemis, I thought I'd save her from her fan and make my best friend happy with just two words.

"Grover, food!" he looked up at me and started running as fast as he could, which wasn't very fast, towards me and Thalia. Artemis gave us a disgusted look but when my eye caught hers I saw a glint of gratitude, I scowled at her to keep her pretence up but flashed a quick your-welcome smirk at the last second before turning.

After that it was just like any other party. I avoided my brother, danced with the gang. Lay on the pool floor for five minutes in order to hide from Aphrodite, sang happy birthday. Then I stayed to help clear up once everyone but family had left and Dad was taking Grover home. Me, Thalia, Bianca and Nico played on the Xbox 360 until my Dad had gotten back and finished talking to my uncles.

"Oh yes! Four out of five!" I yelled rubbing my victory in my three cousins' faces. Then there was a knock on the door.

"Well you'll have to give them a chance to beat you next week," Uncle Hades told me from the doorway, "because your Dad says that he's taking you home now. Bianca, Nico, we're going too. Say good bye."

"Bye Thalia," Bianca said with a wave as we all stood except Thall.

"See you Monday morning Thall," I said to her.

"Yeah bye," she looked up at us and smiled.

"Bye-bye Thall!" Nico shouted, still hyperactive.

"Don't call me 'Thall' Nico!" she nearly growled at the poor kid.

"B-but, Percy did," Nico justified himself on the edge of the tears trick.

"Yes, and Percy is the only one who calls me Thall or Thalli."

"Sorry. Bye-bye Thalia," he corrected himself.

"Bye Nico, see you soon," she smiled. And with that the three of us followed Uncle Hades out of the door while Thalia switched to single player.

As we were walking to the door Uncle Hades asked, "Percy, could you do me a favour?"

"Well that depends on what it is," I answered and smirked at him.

"Your just like your father, you know that?"

"I've been told. So what's the favour?" I asked.

"Could you pick these two," he said putting his hands on each of his kids' shoulders, "up from school Monday and Tuesday and entertain them for a few hours please? We've got board meetings you see."

By now we were at the front door where Dad, Uncle Zeus and the twins were waiting.

"No problem. Dad said something about a meeting. I'll keep them occupied," I smiled.

"Thank you Percy," he smiled back, a rarity.

"Bye Percy!" Nico said and hugged me round the waist. I hugged him back.

"Bye Nico. Bye Bianca, see you Monday."

"See you Percy," Bianca smiled and the three of them walked out the door saying their thanks for being invited.

"You ready to go son?" Dad asked

"Yup. Thanks for inviting me guys, Uncle Zeus," I thanked them, not only because there was a journalist from a teen magazine outside covering the big party.

"No Problem Perce. Thanks for the present," Apollo said.

"Yes, thank you," Artemis said politely.

Uncle Zeus nodded at me. When he and Dad shook hands, saying goodbye, Artemis smiled at me. Apollo was the only one who could see and the fact that Artemis didn't despise me for being male was a secret between only the twins, me and Thalia. I smiled back and then walked out behind my father.

"So," I started when we got to the car, "can I drive now?"

Dad chuckled, "Get in the car Percy," he told me and then added, "The passenger side."

So I did, not bothering with the door I just jumped in.

"Percy," my father warned. I grinned at him and he shook his head.

I spent Saturday down the park with Grover, just hanging, nothing exciting. Sunday morning I swam, all morning with an Olympic size swimming pool, with a wave machine, all to myself. It's the closest I get to swimming in the sea once September comes around. In the afternoon I got my stuff ready for school and then played on the Xbox live, I beat Thalia again, but this time I didn't gloat because she couldn't see it.

I went up to bed and lay back. School starts tomorrow. I wonder what will happen this year?

So what did you think?

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Please I beg of you point out my mistakes! Seriously, it helps me. The only reason I can spell 'probably' is becuase somebody who reads my other story pointed it out to me.

Questions: What is your favourite part/line out of these two chapters?

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Love Thalia x