CHAPTER 2 – MY MOM LOVES A BLOWFISH

When I arrived in the kitchen, actually dressed, the smell of frying bacon caught my nose. Now that was a smell that didn't crop up often. The last time we had had bacon, it had been Christmas – a special occasion.

"What's the occasion?" I asked my mom, who was standing by the stove, vigilantly frying away. She turned to look at me.

My mom, Sally Jackson, is probably the best thing that's happened to me. Especially with the blue candy – now that is one of the nice bits of having a mom like her…

"I'll tell you at the table, honey," she smiled. "You're going to love the news."

Okay. That was strange. My mom actually seems happy about something for once. She hadn't had many happy moments in her life – Smelly Gabe was the only the start of it, and he had been a world-record-breaking jerk…

I sauntered across to the table, where Annabeth was talking avidly about modern architecture with my mom's tutor, Mr Blowfish – Blofis. Although he kept telling us to call him Paul. He seemed completely fazed by the fact that a seemingly average-looking teenager was talking to him about the 'constructional wonder of the Hoover Dam'. I still hadn't told her that we had been there and did a tour (along with cracking dam annoying jokes – there I go again) while she had been the prisoner of the enemy.

"Morning, Seaweed Brain," she said absent-mindedly, before returning to a lecture that her mom, Athena the goddess of wisdom, would have been proud of. I cringed as I remembered that same goddess was the one who wanted to tear me apart limb from limb to stop me destroying Mount Olympus when I reached my sixteenth birthday. That was only a year away – I was going to be fifteen soon. And the spring vacation was flying by.

"Heard any from camp yet?" I interrupted her architectural rant. If I listened to any more of that stuff, my head was going to implode – and I heard that wasn't going to do anything to improve my pretty appalling looks.

"No." Annabeth frowned. "It's weird though – Chiron hasn't told us anything. Cronus has been quiet recently – like he's biding his time. Mount Olympus is getting – "

I gave a little false cough to disguise the "Shut up!" I had sent along with it. Mom and I had decided not to tell Mr Blowfish – sorry, Blofis – anything about the fact that I was a demigod on whose shoulders most probably rested the fate of the whole Western civilisation, for fear that his head was going to implode too. I gave a little nod towards said Blowfish – dammit – and Annabeth caught wind of it.

"The big guys and girls upstairs are getting twitchy – they're getting together at the equinoxes as well as the solstices."

"Equinoxes?"

"They're the spring and autumn versions of the summer and winter solstices. The Vernal Equinox – the one coming up – is on March 21st."

"Yikes. Do they want us there?"

"No – all they do is talk and talk and when they get really fired up they start acting like a soap opera."

"Aphrodite thinks I'm some kind of soap opera star," I muttered a bit too loudly.

"What was that?" Annabeth asked.

"Nothing," I replied, going red. The stuff that I talked about my Aphrodite was a bit too embarrassing for me to tell Annabeth. She regarded me with those sky-grey eyes, and I knew at once that she could tell there was something wrong. I hid my face and decided to concentrate on something else. A sunflower.

A sunflower that was being eaten by a winged horse.

A sunflower that was being eaten by a winged horse that I recognised.

"Blackjack!" I said out loud.

Everybody turned and looked at me. Even my mom had taken her eyes off the bacon to stare at me. I crumbled slightly under their gazes.

"Um…Blackjack…you play it, right?"

They kept on staring at me, as if my small day-trip from the hospital had been all too much for me. None of them had noticed the enormous winged horse standing behind them munching the sunflower quietly.

"I need to go use the bathroom," I murmured. I was feeling queasy anyway – especially from the way Annabeth had just looked at me. On the way out I beckoned Blackjack to come too.

I let the bathroom door close behind me and I turned to face Blackjack.

"What the hell were you thinking?"

I'm just delivering a message, boss.

"Don't call me that."

Sure, boss.

"I mean it! What message?"

Message from big pony guy – Chiron, that's the one – he wants you to come to camp.

"That's it?" I growled. I had been expecting something a little more descriptive.

No. He added one of those P.S. things. He wants you to come to camp right now. He's sending over satyr guy who's on the coffee.

"Grover?" my heart leapt. I hadn't heard from Grover since last winter, when he had started looking for Pan again.

That's the one, boss. Coffee Guy's on his way over right now.

"Right now?"

Sure, boss. And by the way, when are we gonna get doughnuts drive-thru in New Jersey?

"Some time, Blackjack," I replied. "Now scoot!"

Scoot – I like that word, boss.

"And stop calling me boss!"

Sure, boss.

With that, Blackjack spiralled and soared through the bathroom window, knocking over most of the things that weren't stuck down in the process. Ouch.

I returned back to the kitchen, where Annabeth had finally found the breathing space to let Blowfish – oh, what the hell, I'll just keep on calling him that – talk about the writing seminar with my mom. He wasn't a jerk like Smelly Gabe, who nobody deserved, but he wasn't exactly – compatible. He kept trying to make me more school-ish (if that's even a word) which isn't an easy task when I have ADHD and dyslexia. But he made my mom happier than she had been, and that was what counted. Gabe failed both.

"Annabeth," I interrupted Blowfish again, "we need to go to camp."

"Why?" Annabeth retorted. "I only got here last night."

"Blackjack came over, and Chiron wants us back."

"Did he say why?"

"No."

"That's just so irritating – Chiron never tells us anything. Why can't people just tell us things? It'd make our lives so much easier!" Annabeth growled. I noticed that I wasn't the only one getting hormonal.

"Percy honey," my mom called, "sit down. I'm serving up."

We sat down, and tucked hungrily into our bacon. And then I remembered something I had asked earlier.

"Mom, what is the occasion?"

My mom glanced at Blowfish and took his hand tenderly. Electricity could have sparked off it right then. And then I noticed the sparkling new ring on her finger. My mouth just hung open in shock to the point where I could have fitted an entire watermelon into it.

"Paul's asked me to marry him. Isn't that great?"

I was too stunned to answer. Annabeth decided to answer in my place.

"That's great! I'm so happy for you two!"

"And that's not all," she continued, smiling thankfully at Annabeth. She pointed down at her stomach.

Okay, let's get things straight. I thought my mom had been getting overweight recently – she didn't get out the house much because she was still studying for her writing seminar. It was then I realised that in the place of her stomach, there was a rounded bump.

"You're getting a little brother. Isn't that great?"

My mouth upgraded to the size of a basketball.