Note: Sorry for all the new names that are swimming around the second half of this chapter. I couldn't think of anything to do about that.
SNOWFLAKES AND ARGUMENTS
Chiron had a lot to worry about.
Most guidance counselors dealt with college applications, wayward morals, and the occasional teen pregnancy. He got hoards of ADD children, the Stoll brothers, and as of late, death threats on his most high profile students.
The man sighed as he rolled down the pallid hallways of Caduceus Medical Centre. Nothing like this was in his job description. By the gods, if he didn't love these kids as much as he did, he'd have quit twenty years ago.
"HEY," someone cried out, the sound drawing nearer. "WATCH OUT!"
Chiron looked to the left just in time to be slammed in the side by what felt like a cannonball.
His chair toppled over as the old man was jostled off it, sprawling uncomfortably on the cold tiled floor.
"Nico!" a chastising voice called. "What've you done to this poor man?"
"I told him to watch out!" the first person said. Chiron heard the faint, familiar squeak of a wheelchair approaching him. "Hey mister, are you okay?"
A helpful hand hovered in front of Chiron as he craned his head up to see who was offering it. Black brown eyes met his as he took the hand to pull himself up into a sit. The old man's legs stretched out uselessly in front of him and he sighed yet again. "You really shouldn't be racing around the halls like that, boy."
"Sorry," the brown-eyed boy mumbled.
Sharp click clacks sounded, announcing the arrival of a stern faced nurse. She gave Nico a scolding look before righting Chiron's chair and gently guiding him back into it. "I'm sorry, sir. Nico gets a bit restless after being cooped up for so long."
"It's no problem," Chiron reassured, setting his wool blanket back on his legs and smoothening out any creases. His arms moved back to grip the metal rail of his wheels when he felt something odd. "Strange, I don't seem to be able to move…"
The nurse gave him a worried glance before spotting a broken axle on his left wheel. "It looks like you'll need a new chair. I'm sorry again, sir, but you'll have to sit down somewhere while I get you one."
Chiron checked his watch. Still around twenty more minutes until his meeting, no big deal. "No problem, that thing was around a decade old anyway."
So, happenstance saw Chiron sitting quite awkwardly on a spare gurney with a rather grumpy boy stuck next to him. Nico, the counselor had heard the boy called, sat quietly in his wheelchair, absentmindedly picking at his hospital issued wristband.
"So," Nico started, seeming all of a sudden nervous. "Um…how long have you, uh, been in the chair?"
"For as long as I can remember," Chrion replied, turning to face the boy.
The conversation died for a while as Nico mustered enough courage to ask another question. "Do you ever, you know, wish you could stand?"
"Stand?" Chiron parroted, raising a grey tinged eyebrow.
"You know," Nico elaborated, making vague waving motions with his arms. "Up."
"Ahh," Chiron said, looking the boy over. As a guidance counselor, he'd been trained to notice certain things about the way people acted. The way Nico sat, how his shoulders hunched forward, and how he shrunk himself into the seat of his wheelchair so that could touch as little of it as possible…
"Don't you hate it?" Nico breathed, opening up for the first time to a stranger he'd just met. But a stranger who shared the same shackles he'd been bound with. "The needing? I can't open doors. I can't reach anything above three feet. I can't even go to the bathroom without help!"
The boy's quiet whisper became a barely contained shout as he went on and on about his disability. About the rehabilitation that wouldn't let him walk anyway. About the pitiful glances people sent him when they thought he wasn't looking.
"Nico," Chiron said soothingly as the boy wound himself down. "Look outside."
Feeling wretched and crushed, Nico obeyed and saw bright white specks drift past the window. "It's snowing."
"That's right," Chiron affirmed, careful not to sound too patronizing. "What's the most well known fact about snowflakes, Nico?"
"Each one of them is different," Nico replied. He sensed where the adult was going with this and frowned. "Just because they're different doesn't make them special. They were all made that way. They were all meant to look like that! I wasn't meant to be stuck like this…"
Chiron took the outburst in stride as he continued. "A little known fact, Nico, is that when all snowflakes are created, they're exactly the same."
The two of them stared out into the first snow of the year and Nico stayed silent.
"It's the chips and bumps that they get on the way, that make them different," Chiron told him. "It's the things that knock them down that make them special."
"Sir?" the nurse called, bustling towards them, a brand new wheelchair in tow. "Sir, sorry again, but here's your new chair."
"Thank you, ma'am," Chiron said as she helped him into it. The guidance counselor looked to Nico and smiled. "I hope you feel better, Nico."
And with that the old man rolled himself away.
Yes, Chiron had a lot to worry about. But he knew that in the end, it was all worth it.
~O~o~O~
Sally Jackson hadn't seen her son's father in almost ten years now. And so she wondered to herself, as she made her way towards a meeting with the very man, why she was doing this.
Of course, the meeting was about Percy's safety and how people were trying to hurt her boy and his friends but if she was honest with herself, that wasn't the only reason she was here.
She had to admit, sometimes Don Mar Posei did cross her mind, bringing with him the 'should have's and 'what if's that always skittered across her thoughts.
But she steeled herself as she turned the knob to the room where they'd been told to meet. She wouldn't let herself be swayed by him again. Oh, most definitely not.
She stepped in, eyes scanning the room. People were gathered already, all dressed up in Armani suits and designer skirts Sally couldn't pronounce the names of.
But before she could say anything, a sunny voice decided to announce her arrival for her. "So you're the gal Posei's always sulking about!"
"Paulo!" cried the voice that stirred feelings in Sally that she thought had been lost long ago. He looked at her and suddenly her resolve crumbled.
Sally didn't notice the grinning blonde who'd first spoken or anyone else who was in the room. All she saw were the sea green eyes she'd fallen in love with some fifteen years ago. All she could think of were warm sandy beaches and soft loving kisses…
"Sally…," he started, taking a step towards the only woman he'd break a vow for.
"Enough of this," a terse voice commanded. The black-haired woman who'd spoken looked impatient, almost annoyed, at whatever was going on between the lovelorn pair. "Posei, we came here to talk about the children, not to rekindle old flames."
"Come on, Di. Give 'em a break," the blonde said, giving his sister an affectionate pat. He turned to Sally and flashed a winning smile. "Excuse my sister; she can be such a prude. You must be Percy's mom."
"You've met my son?" Sally croaked, tearing her gaze away from those beautiful sea-green eyes.
"Yep," the talkative blonde nodded. "He and my goddaughter have some history together. I'm Paulie by the way, owner of Chariot Cars and heartbreaker extraordinaire."
Sally didn't quite know what to say to that and was relieved when someone halted the conversation.
"Enough," another unfamiliar voice commanded, the single word dripping with authority. Everyone in the room turned to the middle aged man sitting on an ottoman at the head of the coffee table. "Let us all sit down. We're all very busy people and I think, for Mrs. Jackson's sake, some brief introductions are in order."
"Geez, Zed, no need to be such a sourpuss," Paulie huffed, taking a seat at the table as everyone else settled in.
Sally wondered for a moment where she should sit, before hearing a quiet 'pssst' in her direction. She followed the sound to an empty chair beside a familiar face.
"Mr. Chiron!" she exclaimed, recognizing her son's guidance councelor. "I didn't know you would be here."
"I always end up tangled in whatever the children do," Chiron chuckled, motioning for her to focus on the meeting.
"I am Zed Deus," the middle aged man said, starting the round of introductions. His electric blue eyes scanned the table as he went on. "President and owner of Deus Airways."
The black haired woman Paulie had called his sister and a prude followed suit. "Diana de Lune, headmistress of Huntington Girls' Academy."
"Paulo du Soleil, the original prince charming and—"
"Mar Posei," the seaman interrupted, sending Sally a furtive glance. "President and owner of Posei Sea Trading Corp."
"Mort Sedah," a sullen looking man continued. "President and owner of Riposi in Pace."
"Chiron, Head Guidance Counselor at CHB."
"Sally Jackson," Sally finished, feeling out of place as the only one without a job with a title.
"Well now that we've gotten that over with," Diana said. "Let's get to the pressing matter at hand."
"Right," Zed nodded, turning to address the group. "There have been some suspicions regarding foul play from the Cronus monopoly for some time now, but now we are worried that Cronus may be targeting the children. Both of Mort's children have been at Caduceus since their traffic accident, the reason why we are holding the meeting here seeing as he refuses to leave, and Posei's son was here a week ago for a concussion and laceration."
Sally breathed out slowly, digesting all this information. She'd known about Percy's recent visit to the hospital, Annabeth had dutifully filled her in with details, but she wasn't away there had been a traffic accident.
"So you believe that Cronus is trying to harm the half-bloods?" Chiron summarized.
Zed nodded and turned to Paulie. "Correct. We also think this might have something to do with the recent Dare scandal."
"Whoa there, big guy," Paulie said defensively. He pushed his sunglasses further into his perfectly styled golden locks, eyes serious for once. "Rachel's got nothing to do with this. If you that's what you called me in for then prepare be bombarded by some strongly worded haikus."
"You can't deny that she now has some relation to this," Diana reminded him. "Running away with that Jackson boy, what was she thinking?"
Sally was beginning to think that Diana de Lune would not be a very good friend of hers. "Don't go badmouthing my son."
Diana looked at Sally, contempt in her eyes. "You deny his involvement with the Dare scandal last year?"
"People make mistakes," Posei retorted, surprising Sally. Was he trying to defend their son? "He was just being loyal to a friend."
"That's right," Paulie agreed. "They were what, fourteen? It's not like we're meant to know everything about anything by then."
"We're not here for this," Mort Sedah muttered.
"Mr. Sedah is right," Chiron said. "What's done is done. We're here about the attempts on the children that are happening now."
"These things might be related," Diana pressed.
"But it's not what we're here for!" Sedah exclaimed, standing up in exclamation. "We're here because kids are getting hurt, because Bianca is too scared to even think about getting into a car, and because Nico is in a damn wheelchair for the REST OF HIS LIFE!"
A few minutes of silence followed Mr. Sedah's outburst. He stood, breathing hard and lost in his tumultuous thoughts until a quiet voice broke the quiet.
"You're right," Sally said, voice soothing and firm all at once. She turned face these wealthy and powerful business people, who reminded her of a quarreling family, and asked. "What are we going to do about it?"
"We'll have to heighten security," Zed thought out loud. "Chiron, are there any big events we should know about?"
"The Masquerade Ball is coming up, Mr. Deus," Chiron informed him. "It's the school's farewell for the Huntington girls."
Sally watched as the business side of the meeting took over. Mentions of hired guards, security cameras, and entry control bounced back and forth. She sat there, listening to the business people do what they did best, and thought about the upcoming weeks.
A Masquerade Ball, huh?
Sally didn't know why, but the words gave her a bad feeling…
Note: Hm...wonder if anything big's happening next chapter.