Chapter Four: Biagio Takes the Plunge

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, nor anything else but the plot and characters. Any pop culture references are incidental and put in to preserve the spirit of the original series. I'm alive! Everyone miss me?

--Μαησηνας

Darkness was beginning to steal over the valley as Biagio, Grover, and I headed back towards the Big House. Crickets—at least I assumed they were crickets—were chirping in the distance, back behind us the Hades cabin's torches glowed eerily in the dusk, and I could hear the sound of waves washing against the shore in the distance.

"All right," said Biagio after a while. "So…the director." I could tell he was trying to sound brave and nonchalant, which under different circumstances would've been weird on a senior.

Grover nodded. "Right, Mr. D. Don't worry about him too much, though—just show him the proper respect and you should be fine. Before you meet him and Chiron, though, we'll introduce you to the other half-bloods who turned up lately. You know—get to know each other a bit." He chuckled. "They're probably all as nervous as you are."

We'd only heard about half of what he'd just said, though, because at that moment an unearthly, rumbling howl had sounded from the woods, totally freaking both of us out again. Grover noticed our concern while I was still trying to form the sentence "What the heck was that?!?" and answered for us:

"Oh, yeah—we keep the occasional monster in the forest for training purposes. Don't sweat it, though—they won't come after you here or anything. Just make sure to bring a sword if you're going in there later."

I decided not to go on any nature hikes in the near future and quickly changed the subject. "Oh, um, sorry. Sure. You were saying…?"

"Right, the rest of the new kids." He started counting locations off on his fingers. "There's a few from the Midwest who just got here today, five or six who came all the way from the West Coast—dangerous place, you know, they ran into a lot of monsters on their way—and, hm, a couple of others. And, of course, can't forget you two! Let's hear it for Philly!"

Biagio, who was closer, slapped him a high five. I rolled my eyes, but grinned. Those satyrs—always satirical, it seemed. By this point we were in front of the Big House. Grover turned to leave, but stopped to give us some parting advice.

"All right, good luck, and welcome to Camp. I'll be seeing you. Oh, and there's one more thing…"

"Yeah?" we both asked. "…Columbo," I added under my breath, never one to miss an old pop culture reference.

"The odds are pretty good that your godly parents will send a sign to claim you tonight or tomorrow, now that they know you've arrived safely at camp. Be ready for that." And with that, he was gone.

I drew a deep breath and kicked absently at a piece of gravel. "O…..kaaaaaay," said Biagio after a long silence.

"Um, yeah," I agreed, stepping onto the porch nonetheless. "Shall we?"

Biagio made a quick adjustment to his bow tie and flicked a possibly unreal speck of dust from his lapel. "After you."

Steeling myself, I walked up to the heavy wooden doors and pushed them open with a creak.

***

We found Flint waiting for the two of us just inside the doorway, reclining in a comfortable-looking wicker chair and working his way steadily through a bag of Doritos, his hooves propped on a coffee table nearby. He waved at us and mumbled something indistinct, then swallowed and brushed the cheese dust out of his beard.

"Um, sorry. Hey, Jason, Biagio. You guys got the grand tour from Grover? What did you think of Camp?"

We both nodded. "It's amazing!" was my first reaction. "Well, it's all kind of crazy, but…amazing nonetheless," I added with something of a nervous laugh (I'd been doing a lot of that lately, I noticed, but luckily I was particularly good at them).

Flint grinned. "Amazing but crazy—yeah, that's the camp I know all right. All the rest of the new kids are in the den over there"—he pointed out a door to our left—"and Chiron will take you guys from there. All right, see you around, good luck!"

The last part of this sentence was hard to understand due to the fact that as Flint was speaking, he'd wadded up the empty Doritos bag, shoved it into his mouth, and swallowed. I did a major double take at that, naturally, but assumed that it was a satyr thing and, with no further comment, followed Biagio across the room to the next door, behind which the other new demigods awaited us.

***

Entering the den, we found ourselves facing sixteen or so fairly average-looking teenagers roughly between mine and Biagio's age, all of whom, not surprisingly, looked a little nervous, like they'd been chased across America by monsters that morning (which they probably all had). It looked more or less like a little slice of my own high school—good looking popular kids (apparently neither rampaging hydras nor learning of godly parentage had been able to part them from their iPhones for too long), athletic types (Nike? Ares?) practicing their finest surly expressions, freaks and geeks, and a whole lot of plain old ordinary-looking adolescents. The California contingent was by far the easiest to recognize, since they all looked like Biagio.

Ah, excellent," said that individual enthusiastically, cracking his knuckles and heading over towards the prettiest girls in the room like an iron filing to a magnet, 150-watt smile already in place. Typical. Rolling my eyes, I headed over towards the group of half-bloods as well, scanning the room for someone not already caught up in a conversation.

The first such person I noticed was a tall girl around my age standing in the corner of the room. She had long, shiny reddish-brown hair and deep green eyes, and was wearing a forest green sweatshirt and dark blue bell-bottom jeans with a bunch of homemade-looking, multicolored hearts and peace signs painted onto them. She was standing off to one side looking a bit thoughtful, holding onto a battered purple notebook in one hand. She really was kind of pretty, I decided—not what Biagio would've called pretty, but, well, that was Biagio. My nervousness took on something of a different cast as I walked up to her.

"So, um…hi." Oh, real smooth start, Jason. "You just got here, then?"

She gave me an equally nervous half-smile. "Yeah…do you think they're serious about all this? The Greek gods, and everything? Or am I just going crazy here?"

I wasn't sure how to answer that one, really, although I doubted she was any crazier than I was (not that that was a huge consolation at the moment). "I don't know," I finally responded. "It sure does sound crazy, but I get this weird feeling like they're telling the truth. You know—gut instinct or whatever. And for another thing, one of my friends turned out to be a satyr…I mean, I sure can't think of any other explanation for that. Oh, I'm Jason Williams."

"Ashley Summers." She shook my hand. "I can't explain it either—I mean, one minute I'm at Starbucks and the next, the barista turns into some kind of snake thing"—she shuddered and I gave her a sympathetic nod, remembering my Fury encounter—"and then my friend Heather tells me that she's a dryad and drags me halfway across the country here. Something not normal's definitely up with that, right?"

I had to agree. "Well anyway, we have some sort of orientation meeting after this. So I guess we'll find out."

Trying to find some more normal ground, we chatted a bit more – Ashley, I learned, was from Columbus, Ohio, she'd recently turned fifteen, and she was a good artist and flute player (as two fellow music geeks, we had some fun comparing notes on the bands to which we belonged – oh, notes pun, ouch. I SWEAR that was not intentional), she'd run into a lot of weird monsters on her journey, in which Heather the dryad had led her through a lot of forests and backwoods. At one point, I asked her about the notebook she was carrying.

She looked a bit surprised at the question. "Oh, this? That's just my poetry notebook. I'm not all that good, but I love writing anyway, and I always keep it with me. I guess that's a little weird, but…"

"No, not at all," I hastened to reassured her. "I write some fiction and stuff, but I haven't had all that much time for it lately. And right now, as they say, the truth is stranger."

A thought occurred to me. "Hey, you think my readers online would believe me if I told them I haven't updated for a month because I'm the son of a Greek god and I was off fighting Minotaurs when I should've been writing?"

Ashley laughed outright at that, which gave me the most genuine smile I'd had all day. Her cheerfulness was downright infectious. Following this exchange, though, her face took on a more serious cast.

"Um, if you don't mind my asking, Jason…"

"Fire away."

"Do you have any idea who… who your godly parent might be?"

"I don't know, seriously." (All right, it may have been rather obvious in retrospect, but at the time it seemed like disproving the Pythagorean Theorem would've been easier!) "It's really just kind of a crazy concept… I can't get my mind around it. Flint was maddening about that, though—he keeps hinting that he knows who my mom is, but he won't tell me anything!"

She nodded fervently. "Yeah… I live with my mom, so I guess my dad must be a god, but beyond that I have no idea."

It seemed like Ashley was going to say something more, but she caught sight of something elsewhere in the room and, suddenly, seemed to be trying to hold back laughter. "Um… who's the guy in the suit?"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, that's Biagio d'Amore. Friend of mine, and yeah, that's his real name. He's like that all the time." I indicated Biagio, who I wasn't surprised to see was half-kneeling and kissing the hand of a confused-looking girl from the California group.

"I wonder if he might not be the son of Aphrodite? Goddess of love, you know, and, well…" And with that, Ashley collapsed into uncontrollable giggling.

"I'd be the last one to rule it out," I said wryly. "'Course I don't know… does Aphrodite even have sons or are all her kids girls? Oh wait, hand on, wasn't Aeneas…"

I was cut short from those musings by an odd sound something like a small explosion and a glare of harsh red light that sprang up seemingly out of nowhere. We all jumped, and someone – oh fine, it was me – screamed a bit. We all gazed, dumbfounded at one of the jock types in the center of the room – well, not at him, but above him.

Revolving in the air an inch or two above the jock's head was this huge, glittering medallion of light – like a hologram or something – depicting a vicious-looking boar's head framed by spears. As we watched, the symbol began to fade and then disappeared entirely.

"That's Ares – he never had any sense of good timing," said a sage-sounding voice from the doorway.

Most of the other demigods, still on edge, jumped again, Biagio of course being one of them. Just within the doorway was a middle-aged man in the wheelchair with a curly brown beard and an amused expression, whom none of us had noticed arriving. Squinting, I made out MY OTHER RIDE IS A CENTAUR embroidered on his sweater. Was this Chiron, the centaur Flint had mentioned? He looked ordinary enough to me, but then again – an unnerving thought struck me suddenly – the Fury had been disguised as an old grandmother before attacking us. Was this the case now, too?

"Well, hail to the Son of the War God and all that," the mysterious fellow said, wheeling his way into the midst of us. Bizarrely enough, for a brief second I thought I hear thunder indoors, but I forgot about that as the newcomer began to speak once more.

"My name is Chiron Kentauros," he explained, "and I am the activities director here at Camp Half-Blood. As some of you might have heard, yes, I am indeed a centaur, although I prefer to remain in human form when meeting my new charges for the first time.

"Now!" – His voice increased in volume – "Hopefully you have already been told what I can assure you is the truth: you are, in fact, sons and daughters of the immortal gods of Mount Olympus." Ashley inhaled sharply next to me, as if she was just truly realizing this for the first time. "Here at Camp Half-Blood," Chiron went on, "young demigods train and learn together, in safety. Eventually, some of you may go on heroic quests to the outside world, battling the many monsters that lurk nearly everywhere you could think of on an errand for the gods, just as the Greek heroes have done before you.

"Sooner or later, all of you will be claimed by your immortal parent, as with"--he muttered a question to the jock who'd been claimed by Ares – "er, with Brian here. This may not occur for a few days, but don't assume that your parents have forgotten you. I can personally assure you that you will all find a place at camp of your own in the weeks to come.

"And now, if you'll follow me to the rec room, the director is waiting for us." Chiron turned on the spot and began to wheel out the door, then paused, shook his head and stood up with a groan… and then kept standing up somehow, after he should've been on his feet already – until there he was, an honest-to-Zeus horseman, standing in the middle of the den. He cantered out of the room, and after a few seconds of standing around staring at each other, we followed suit.

Biagio fell into step next to me and gave me the rueful grin I swear he practices in front of his mirror at home. "Centaurs… crazy," he said, shaking his head. A sly expression suddenly laced through his features. "On to a more important matter though: who is that charming young lady who was with you right now?"

"What?! Oh. Um, Ashley Summers… I just met her. Seems really nice, though. You, uh…" He'd flustered me, although I'd tried my utmost not to let him, and I could already feel my face going all red. "It's not like..."

He winked at me. "Say no more! I've met a few rather attractive girls already myself. They're veritable goddesses, really…oh, wait…"

I good-naturedly punched him in the shoulder. "Only you, Biagio. Hey—did you see that kid getting claimed by Ares?"

"Yeah—I guess that's us sometime in the future." We'd all caught up to Chiron by this point, and he threw open the doors to the rec room with something of a dramatic flair and waved a hand, bidding us to enter. The effect was amplified by a cloud of purplish smoke that curled out of the room, like something out of a movie. Nervously, we all shuffled in.

As the smoke cleared, we gradually began to see a silhouette seated at the head of what looked like a pool table directly in front of us. A few moments later the mysterious figure of the director snapped its fingers impatiently and the smoke vanished, and we beheld Mr. D staring at us blearily and humming "Margaritaville" off-key.

I'll admit that he wasn't precisely what I'd been expecting. Mr. D was probably about a head shorter than I was, although since he was sitting down it was hard to tell, was slightly overweight, and whatever of his face wasn't covered by a dark, curly beard seemed kind of sunburned. He was dressed in a tiger-print shirt and running shorts, with a golden laurel wreath perched crookedly on his head, and the smell of stale alcohol off of him was incredible. This was our mysterious leader? I would have laughed out loud, but I remembered how nervous Grover had been just at the thought of him. Besides, if I hadn't learned by now that appearances could be deceiving…

"So, you lot are the new demigods?" said Mr. D, suppressing a yawn. "Well, welcome to camp and all that. And I may as well tell you this right away, to avoid all kinds of grief later: I am Dionysus, god of wine, Olympian council no. 12 and the immortal, all-powerful trainer of young brats---I mean demigods here at Camp Half-Blood. So I'll be expecting the proper attitude." He gave us a baleful glare and then waved his hand, causing a can of Diet Coke to manifest itself in front of him. I couldn't help wondering why the god of wine would want to drink soda, but that was just in the back of my mind compared to the fact that the director had just claimed to be a deity. It made sense when you considered how scared Grover had been, but still…

"You're crazy. I don't believe any of this," a harsh voice snarled. Looking around to see who'd spoken, I was shoved out of the way as Brian, son of Ares, elbowed his way to the front. "The monsters, the camp, that centaur…it's all some kind of big hoax. And you are not a god."

Just as I was thinking that this was really pretty insolent and sure not to end well if he was wrong, Mr. D, apparently agreeing with me, took matters into his own hands.

It all seemed to happen way too fast. Quicker than thought, Mr. D threw out a hand, and his Diet Coke can exploded. And I don't mean "exploded" in the way soda cans usually do; there was a blast like a land mine going off, and a huge burst of flame, and all of us yelled and/or threw ourselves to the ground. When the smoke cleared, all that remained of the beverage was a small pile of ashes sizzling on the table.

Mr. D turned to Brian, who quite naturally had gone completely white in the face. "I'm not a god? Hmmm, really. How fascinating. Well, carrying on…"

He picked up a typed sheet of paper from the pool table, turned it upside down, and, with an official-sounding cough, began to read in a bored tone:

"Welcome, young demigods, to Camp-Half-Blood, where you will train with the best, build lifelong memories and learn to be true heroes…blah blah blah…." He scanned the page, apparently looking for something more worthwhile. Ashley turned and mouthed Are you kidding me? In my direction.

"I heard that," said Dionysus absently. "Ah, yes… 'campers as yet unclaimed by their immortal parent are to stay in the Hermes cabin until that parent sends a sign to claim them. Those that are claimed are to report to the appropriate cabin, where the counselor will provide further explanation.' Let's see, do I have any kids here? Ah yes, you in the back." He snapped his fingers, and a bunch of purple grapes blazed into the air above one of the California girls. The usual surprised reaction was cut short, as Mr. D kept talking over the surprised whispers.

"'Please see Chiron for archery, sword fighting and most other activity schedules'—if you think that old horse-man can teach you anything—'next Capture the Flag, not that I care, is one week from tonight. May the Gods go with you, and welcome to Camp.'

"Now, get out, go on," Mr. D concluded with an irritable wave of the hand. "Do you think an immortal has nothing better to do than sit around lecturing adolescents all day? Go!"

He waved his hand again, and a dusty-looking bottle of wine appeared on the table where his Coke can had been before. An explosion of thunder followed immediately.

"Can't I get away with anything?" He changed the bottle into another Diet Coke and opened it wearily as he watched us file out.

***

"Don't mind Mr. D," said Chiron as soon as all of us had left the rec room. "Zeus sent him here as a punishment for chasing an off-limits wood nymph, and he's never been happy about it. However, he has your best interests at heart…somewhere.

"Now, head off to your cabins. Dinner is already over, but we're having some food sent in for all of you. Archery lessons start at ten tomorrow, for those interested." He walked off, leaving all of us with our heads spinning. Was Mr. D seriously a god? I couldn't help asking myself. He didn't seem all that impressive, to be honest, but he had sure thrown a lot of immortal powers around.

Well, it had certainly been an eventful day, I thought, suddenly realizing how tired I was. I guessed it was time to head over to the Hermes cabin for the night.

Night had fallen, but the moonlight combined with the torches set at helpful intervals made everything pretty visible. As I left the Big House, the first thing I heard was a shout of surprise, followed immediately by a loud splash. Wondering what was going on this time, I followed the sound of derisive laughter over to the canoe lake.

"It's that friend of yours in the suit," said Ashley as I arrived. "He got claimed all of a sudden and it startled him so much he fell into the lake." Sure enough, a thoroughly doused Biagio was climbing up the bank in front of us.

"Well…?" I began. Before I could get any further, he answered for me.

"Aphrodite. Goddess of love." His expression was hard to read, which for him was highly unusual.

I thought about this for a while. "So that means…"

"Yes!!" he shouted, sounding completely unhinged. "I…I'm related to all of the hottest girls at this camp and I can't date any of them!!" He ran off with an inarticulate cry of frustration.

"That wasn't what I'd been planning to say…" I finished lamely. "Looks like you were right, Ashley."

She grinned. "I doubt a flirt like him will stay down for too long."

I laughed, knowing that this was true. "Well, I'll see you around. I'd better go make sure that psycho gets to the cabins all right." I strode off, but all of a sudden stopped in my tracks.

It was a really weird experience—I didn't feel like I was paralyzed or couldn't move physically, but all of a sudden I just stopped walking, and I couldn't make myself decide to start again. Before I could start to panic, though, a new sensation washed over me.

Again, this was hard to describe, but all of a sudden I felt smarter. My brain felt really clear and lucid, my exhaustion disappeared, and a sense of infinite possibility swept through my mind. I had the feeling that at the moment, I could do any kind of advanced math, paint a beautiful mural, discourse on Shakespeare, name every Roman emperor…there was just so much knowledge out there, but it was all within my grasp.

Those of you who have guessed by now that I was being claimed by my godly parent are absolutely right. A burst of green light made me look up, to see the third Olympian symbol of the evening—a silvery owl framed by olive branches, carrying a spear in one claw. And one word sprang into my head, seemingly out of nowhere: ATHENA.

Athena? My mom was the goddess of wisdom? My knees felt weak. I…just couldn't believe it.

On the other hand, it does make a lot of sense, said my more rational side. I can see how she would have been attracted to your dad—he is a computer genius and everything, and let's face it, you are a geek. Besides, Athena has always been your favorite Olympian.

But…that's…insane.

Says the guy who was attacked by a Fury this morning.

Listen, I'm way too confused to even think about this right now.

This viewpoint eventually prevailed, and I stumbled off towards the cabins. Before I knew it, I was standing at the door of Cabin Six, staring at the Latin motto over the door.

Domus Minervae--Doctrina Perpetua—Erimus Miser Si Non Est Cena Magna Hodie

"Athena Cabin—always learning—we will be unhappy if there isn't a large dinner today." Whoa, how did I know that?!?I've never taken Latin... I guess it's an Athena thing, I thought bemusedly, then gave the door a confident knock.

And I opened it. From the inside. I found myself facing a mirror image of…Jason Williams.

"Oh, you're one of the new kids? Son of Athena? Great, come on in!" I'd never expected to hear myself speaking in a Boston accent. Talk about your family resemblances…

I walked into the cabin a little nervously, and was immediately greeted by a dozen or so teenagers, all of whom had my exact blond hair and gray eyes. Suddenly I realized how Grover had guessed who my immortal parent was—the entire cadre of Athena kids could've all been identical twins!

The oldest-looking of them—who looked like a taller, suntanned, female version of myself—stepped forward to shake my hand. "Hi! I'm Annabeth Chase, senior counselor for the Athena cabin. You just got here?"

I nodded. "Jason Williams. So your mom is Athena, too?"

"Right…I guess that means I'm your half-sister. Well, make yourself at home! We got the Hermes cabin to order pizza if you want it."

I thanked her and stepped into the middle of the cabin. Looking around, I couldn't suppress a "Wow…"

The Athena cabin was spacious, but it was crammed full of all sorts of academia. Bunk beds lined the walls, and all sorts of model gliders and old-fashioned airplanes and spacecraft and pterosaurs hung from the ceiling. Tables scattered around were covered in books, blueprints, cold mugs of coffee, and whatever, and a back room opened onto a huge, well-stocked library and fireplace. I also noticed a lot of weapons—spears and bows-and-arrows sets, all seemingly made out of bronze. "This place is incredible!" I couldn't help saying.

Annabeth laughed. "Thanks. The top bunk bed over there is yours. So, tell us how you got here!"

I collapsed into a chair and began the whole story that had started that morning. Ordinarily I might not have been up to it, but the Athena guys were really easy to get along with. They were all so enthusiastic, it gave you just as much energy being around them.

After everyone had gotten over chuckling at Biagio's various oddities, Annabeth introduced me to my other cabin mates. I was shaking hands with Malcolm, her second-in-command, when a loud crash echoed from the library.

I jumped a fair amount, having finally thought that the day's surprises were over, and whirled around to see a grimy-looking guy carrying a pizza box climb out of the fireplace. "Pizza's here," he said with a cough—rather unnecessarily, I thought, as he'd already captured the attention of everyone in the room.

Annabeth looked slightly exasperated, but amused as well. "Travis, you couldn't have just, I don't know, used the door?"

"Please. Where's the challenge in that? Be seeing you all." He set the pizza box down on a nearby table, pulled a grappling hook out of his pocket and started rappelling back up the chimney.

Malcolm rolled his eyes. "Travis and Connor…the two craziest guys ever to walk this camp."

"Meet Biagio sometime," I said with a yawn as I reached for a slice. Somehow, I felt like I was back home again.

Well, that's that! Sorry for taking so long with this chapter—I had a bit of writers' block over Spring Break, but I got it done eventually. Pokѐtopia readers, I'm about half done with the next chapter and hope to have that done forthwith! Thanks to all of my readers for putting up with such a long absence—life's been busy. Four musical rehearsals a week…!

SO, Jason and Biagio have both been claimed, although everyone had guessed Athena and Aphrodite by this point. It was kind of obvious, yeah, but there's no way the characters themselves could have known beforehand, and I hope it was a well-written scene regardless.

Mr. D has debuted! He was extremely fun to write. Of course, in the next chapter he'll get everyone's names wrong. I have a plan for that sequence that should turn out to be extremely funny.

I've introduced a pretty important character in Ashley Summers. You'll see a lot more of her later.

Stay tuned for the next chapter: "I Fall in Battle"! Also, you'd be well-advised to check out The Swift Storm, another really good Percy Jackson fiction on this site.

Maecenas out.