Annabeth sat down at the table next to Percy. It's only the two of them as it is only six in the morning.
"Alright, what did I do?"
Percy didn't make eye contact with her, "What do you mean?"
"You've been acting strange around me since about a month ago. You keep staring at me with a confused expression, now you're avoiding eye contact. Did I say something?"
"No, you haven't said anything. It's um... How have you been lately?" Percy said stumbling through words, his cheeks aflame as he recognized he sounded incompetent.
"How have you been lately? Are you sure you're okay, it seems like something is bothering you."
Percy scratched the back of his neck, "I don't know what you're getting at?"
"C'mon seaweed brain. Why the sudden awkwardness you've developed in the last month?"
Percy shrugged.
"Well it couldn't have come from nowhere. Maybe it's the-"
Annabeth's whole head turned into a tomato, "Did Thalia talk to you?"
"No no no, she did not!"
"That bitch!"
Percy eyes widen, he had never heard Annabeth curse before. She's the one who got angry when one of them ever used any profanity around her.
"Language!"
"You're the one who always curse, why are you calling me out for it?"
"Because one of us has to do it."
Annabeth schooled her features as best as she could before clearing her throat, "Where I was getting at is you've been very skittish after Triton pulled you for a chat two days ago."
"Why would I be skittish?"
"That's what I'm asking you! What did Triton tell you? Don't tell me what you told at the table as that is a lie, a white lie."
"You can tell this... because?"
"I known your family long enough. Now I admit I hardly know anything about Triton, but I do know one thing. Triton doesn't want to be associated with you, the fact that he asked to talk to you is a massive giveaway."
"Giveaway to what?"
"Something bigger than asking your half brother if they've been hanging around their rival. Now I believe you're being honest and that was a starter conversation to get to the point, the point which has something to do with Luke. The point is not something petty like you would like us to believe, but something dire. You're keeping it a secret, why?"
"How many Sherlock Holmes books have you read?"
"I see it now! You either don't fully understand or you have some lingering doubts on the matter at hand. I'm suspecting your not willing to express the information until you have evidence?"
"How could you possibly do that?"
"So I am right?"
"I didn't know you can read minds, wise girl?"
"Wise girl? Really? It's a matter of reading and connecting the dots. Anyways If you're willing to share I can maybe help out the pieces together for you. Perhaps figure out the clues to sustain the proper evidence for what you're looking for."
"I swore on my mother's grave that I wouldn't tell my father."
"Do I look like your father to you? I promise I won't go blabbing my mouth to Thalia if you're that concerned."
"It's honestly probably nothing. A dead end, as there's no way it could be true. Since you can read minds apparently, maybe you could put it at ease?"
Annabeth nodded eager to solve a mystery.
"Triton has this theory that Luke is working with our grandfather?"
Annabeth's shot her eyebrow up, "Luke? I mean he isn't the biggest fan of Triton, but he wouldn't work for him because of that. Did Triton give you a reason why he believes so?"
"Apparently Luke has been laying hints about the letters we've been getting."
"The death threat letters?" Annabeth asked.
Percy nodded.
"Well he wouldn't have heard it from Thalia, nor Jason. Obviously you nor Triton didn't tell him. That would leave a few people behind, such as Mr. Brunner and Mr. Hermes. But they wouldn't have willing given that confirmation up to any one other than family."
"So it's a dead end. Luke probably has nothing do with it, right?"
"Well it isn't normal to have family a member send in death threats. He shouldn't be able to hint at it without knowing, it's too abnormal for it to be a coincidence. There needs to be something else..." Annabeth rubbed her chin in concentration, "Has Luke seem off around the first encounter with Kronos?"
Percy thought back.
"See you later Jackson. Wouldn't want to be off guard now would ya?" Luke smirked at me before turning his back and stalking off into the hallway.
"He did say that I wouldn't want to be caught off guard."
"That sounds suspicious when you put it into context of your current family's state. Luke worded it in a way as a hint yet vague. I don't count it as much to go by, nor as any sustainable evidence. What about after Triton's allergy attack."
"Pardon my manners Jackson, would you like an olive?" Luke asked sliding the jar of olives that was hidden out of his sight closer to him.
Percy felt his palms grow sweaty, "Shit"
"I'll won't call you on that. I assume you remembered something?"
"I got to go, he had the olives!"
Percy exited the cafeteria and headed towards the the locker room. Percy had never been down this way before as he wasn't in sports.
Luckily he didn't have to go far as he ran into the person who he was searching for.
"What are you doing here?" Triton asked.
"Luke."
"I knew it would be a mistake to tell you."
"Well you did nonetheless. If you hadn't, you wouldn't have piece of evidence you need."
"I doubt you have anything that I wouldn't know."
"Did you know Luke had olives the day you had the allergic attack?"
"That was over a month ago. Either you knew that then, or you have been lost in your mind spectating theories, which isn't proof."
"I saw him eating them that day after you were admitted. He was in an awfully good mood, as he was laughing the whole ten minutes I was around him. I didn't put two and two together until just now."
"You knew I went into anaphylactic shock because of olives at that time, and you thought nothing about my biggest rival eating olives and laughing?"
"To be fair, I didn't quite know how you got the olives in the first place at that time."
"And once you found out an hour, two hours later?"
"It didn't cross my mind. That doesn't really matter at the moment, but every conversation I had with Luke be laid out the hints."
"And let me guess, you been too oblivious to pick up on them until I said something?"
"I knew you to be oblivious, but I wasn't expecting this much oblivion. You really can't see it?"
Percy originally thought Luke was referring to Annabeth, but now another light opened the possibility to the involvement with their grandfather.
"Yes I've been slow, but the point is we need to tell dad or our uncles about this. We found the culprit of the water bottle tampering."
"Not yet."
"What do you mean not yet? Triton, Luke's the one who almost killed you. He's in the same building for eight hours a day, he could do anything at anytime."
"There hasn't been another letter yet."
"Now who's the one being oblivious? Dad didn't get the letter until after the attack, it maybe too late when he gets the next one. Even if there was a letter before an incident, we wouldn't know what it says as dad is adamant not to show us the actual letter."
"Just leave it be. It might not be enough yet."
"Not enough? What is enough?"
"Just leave it Percy. I mean it."
Triton began to turn and walk away. Percy already made up his mind.
"You're awfully quiet today." Nerus grunted as he set a bucket onto the table.
Percy shrugged as he mopped around the tanks.
"He's been quiet for the last two days. He hasn't participated in class this week." Mrs. Nereid piped in as she was shifting through some paperwork.
"Hmph, I hope you're not getting sick boy! I do not need to be disinfecting the whole aquarium." Nerus grumbled.
"I feel fine."
"Sure" Nerus muttered.
Percy's head snapped up at the sound of the doors opening, Delphin and his father entered with frowns marring their faces.
"No seal?" Mrs. Nereid asked.
"Unfortunately the seal already died by the time we got there." Delphin answered shoving his hands in his pockets
"As sad as that is, we don't need another grumpy pants. That's my role, there shouldn't be four of us."
"Four?" Poseidon asked as he counted three between Nerus, Delphin, and himself.
"Percy has been uncharacteristically quiet. I believe he might be coming down with something." Nerus informed
"I said I feel fine."
"Delphin take the mop from Percy and finish his job. Percy come with me."
Percy let out an exhale and handed the mop to Delphin and followed his father to his office.
Poseidon shut the door behind Percy as Percy took a seat at one of his chairs.
"Alright, you have been behaving weirdly for the past couple days. Are you coming down with something, or is it something else?"
Percy shifted his feet in his seat, "I have something to tell you."
Percy ignored Triton's glare from where he was sitting across the table. They are at home, and their uncles are over.
"Let me get this straight. Luke is Kronos puppet because he hates Triton?" Zeus clarified.
"It makes sense why Kronos chose this Luke person. Think about it, Triton and Luke has been in several fights each year out of the twelve years they known each other. Looking at the records between the two of them, it could be painted as a prank gone wrong." Hades set the files of Triton records on the table.
"So it's Kronos plan to use Luke to do his deeds particularly towards Triton, as no one will think it more than another fight." Zeus theorized.
"I don't think that's true anymore. Luke has taken more interest to Percy in the last month than me. After all Luke is Percy's computer project partner." Triton grumbled, not liking being talked about.
"You got to be joking?" Poseidon ran his hand down his face.
"According to Percy, Luke has already pushed him down the stairs. So there is cause for further affliction towards Percy."
Percy returned the glare to Triton for him to shut up.
"He pushed you down the stairs? When was this?" Poseidon asked rubbing his eyes.
Percy remained quiet and twiddled his thumbs.
"Didn't Percy fall down the stairs during the first day of school?" Hades asked.
Percy shut his eyes in resignation.
"Is that what happened? I did think it was fishy that you decided to use the stairs with crutches. Why am I hearing about this now?" Poseidon demanded.
"I didn't think it mattered."
Poseidon buried his face in his hands, "What do you mean you didn't think it mattered?"
Percy shrugged.
"How long have you known about this Triton?"
Poseidon groaned.
"Percy mention it as a passing comment two days ago."
"You know we can do something about this, as we couldn't with Triton." Hades said.
"Like what?" Zeus crossed his arms.
"The locker rooms don't have cameras for obvious reasons, meaning we don't have proof of Luke actually planting the olives in the water bottle. If Luke did push Percy down the stairs that should be picked up on the hallway camera."
"Does the cameras even go that far back? That was six months ago."
"Oh they do, Poseidon. They put the footage on a separate hard drive for each day. I'm confident we can get, I'll just need to pull a few strings." Zeus drummed his fingers at the table.
"And those strings are?"
"I have dinner with Dionysus's father tomorrow as we were supposed to discuss an agreement. I'm sure we will have the film by the end of the week."
Percy grimaced thinking back to his ungraceful fall back in August. He wasn't looking forward to revisit that moment.