Chapter 8 : I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom
3rd Person P.O.V.
"I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom," read Demeter with an eyebrow raised.
Once I got over the fact that my Latin teacher was a horse, we had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind him. I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times, and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back end the way I trusted his front.
Everyone laughed at that.
We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, "That's him."
"Ego-boosters!" said Thalia.
"I need to find out who they are, so I can make sure they get punished in Capture the Flag," said Annabeth.
Travis and Connor gulped at that, knowing it was them, while Katie was giving them knowing looks.
Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters. I wasn't normally shy, but the way they stared at me made me uncomfortable. I felt like they were expecting me to do a flip or something.
"He probably could do one if he wanted to," said Nico.
"Now maybe, but back then he was just a scrawny little prissy," said Clarisse.
"Do you remember what the "scrawny little prissy" did to you Clarisse?" asked Chris while she gave him a half-hearted glare, and the Stolls gave their brother a jealous look, because had they said anything, they would have gotten electrocuted by "Lamer."
Chris just gave Clarisse a smug smile, and then gave his brothers the same look.
I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realized—four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. I was checking out the brass eagle weather vane on top when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched.
"Is there something up there?" asked Jason.
The demigods who knew what was up there just shuddered in response, and Apollo looked down at the ground thinking why can't she have a new host?
Hades, having figured out they were talking about the Oracle, glanced around uncomfortably in his throne.
"What's up there?" I asked Chiron.
He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic."
"Somebody lives there?"
"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing."
"Nice cover Chiron," said Travis.
I got the feeling he was being truthful. But I was also sure something had moved that curtain.
"His feelings seem to usually be correct about the situation he is in," noted Piper.
Annabeth added in an undertone, "Yah, but it takes him years to understand what they mean, and do what his feelings say he should."
"Come along, Percy," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."
We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe.
Chiron told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort."
"Thanks to my children," Demeter said proudly, and Dionysus added, "It's mostly me," which caused Demeter to glare at him.
He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.
"That punishment was unfair," grumbled Dionysus, while Zeus sent him a death-glare, which prompted him to shut up quickly.
I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music.
At this, all of the demigods who knew how Grover played at the time laughed at him, while he blushed saying, "I got better."
I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D.
Grover nodded.
"Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" I asked Chiron. "I mean ... he was a good protector. Really."
"Thanks Perce," said Grover.
All of the Gods and Goddesses were thinking he really is a good friend.
Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable.
Annabeth and Thalia glared at the book, both imagining it was Chiron at the time he had said that about Grover.
To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill."
"He's done that a lot of times," said Thalia while Nico and Annabeth nodded her head in agreement, Grover blushed, and Zeus tried his hardest not to glare at Grover.
"But he did that!"
Thalia and Annabeth nodded in agreement.
"I might agree with you," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there's the unfortunate ... ah ... fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part."
"He is the most courageous satyr ever," protested Thalia, while all of the demigods who knew him nodded, and Grover blushed.
I wanted to protest. None of what happened was Grover's fault. I also felt really, really guilty. If I hadn't given Grover the slip at the bus station, he might not have gotten in trouble.
"He'll get a second chance, won't he?"
Zeus, Annabeth, Hermes, Thalia, and Athena winced at this.
Grover signed even more miserably than before.
Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that was Grover's second chance, Percy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age..."
"How old is he?"
"Oh, twenty-eight."
Leo, Travis, and Connor stared at Grover and then simultaneously yelled, "THAT SUCKS!"
"What! And he's in sixth grade?"
"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."
"That's horrible."
"You can say that again," grumbled Grover.
"Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career..."
"Never," said Grover defiantly.
Rachel laughed and then said, "Channeling him, now are we?
All of the other demigods laughed at that, while the Gods and Goddesses, and Piper, Jason, and Leo were just plain confused.
"That's not fair," I said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?"
Yes thought everyone on Olympus, apart from Jason, Leo, and Piper.
Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"
But I wasn't quite ready to let the subject drop. Something had occurred to me when Chiron talked about my mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word death. The beginnings of an idea—a tiny, hopeful fire—started forming in my mind.
Annabeth and Grover sighed, knowing exactly where this was going.
"Chiron," I said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real ..."
"Yes, child?"
"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"
At this, everyone's jaws dropped, except for Annabeth, Grover, Nico, Thalia, and Hades, who just raised an eyebrow at the new information.
Poseidon kept thinking he's going to go to Hades' domain to try to get his mother back, and I might lose both of them… But he is alive because the demigods said so, so does that mean he doesn't go or somehow makes it out alive?
Chiron's expression darkened.
"Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now ... until we know more ... I would urge you to put that out of your mind."
"That's just going to make him think about it more," said Thalia.
"What do you mean, 'until we know more'?"
"Come, Percy. Let's see the woods."
"Nice subject changing Chiron," joked Chris while his brothers looked like they were mad that Chiron could change the subject as good as Grover could lie.
As we got closer, I realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans.
Everyone chuckled at how wrong he was.
Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."
"Stocked with what?" I asked. "Armed with what?"
"You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?"
"Why would he?" asked Clarisse.
"My own—?"
"No," Chiron said. "I don't suppose you do. I think a size five will do. I'll visit the armory later."
I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armory, but there was too much else to think about, so the tour continued. We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much),
Everyone laughed at that, knowing why he didn't.
the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights.
Ares and Clarisse smiled at that, while everyone minus Chris and Aphrodite frowned at them.
"Sword and spear fights?" I asked.
"Cabin challenges and all that," he explained. "Not lethal. Usually. Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall."
Everyone glared pointedly at Clarisse and Ares, who ignored them.
Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.
"What do you do when it rains?" I asked.
Everyone except Leo mentally face palmed.
Chiron looked at me as if I'd gone a little weird.
"Going a little weird for him is more like becoming more normal," joked Thalia, while everyone who knew Percy laughed, and Poseidon frowned.
"We still have to eat, don't we?" I decided to drop the subject.
Finally, he showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were without doubt the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen.
"Well, we are all different," said Hermes, while all of the Gods and Goddesses nodded their heads in agreement, except for Hades who just grumbled about not having a cabin or an Olympian Throne.
Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory.
Leo and Hephaestus smiled at that.
Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass.
Demeter and Katie smiled at that, while Connor smiled at his brother, giving him a look clearly saying you are going to be spending a lot of time in there soon, to which his brother just glared back at.
Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at.
Apollo and Rachel smiled at that.
They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops (which were more my speed).
Jason nodded his head in agreement, while Travis said, "but he hasn't ever used them because he has always been busy." The demigods who knew what he was doing when he was busy chuckled a little bit at that.
In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined firepit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.
Hestia and Nico smiled.
The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front.
Zeus and Hera smiled at that.
Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them.
Zeus smiled at that, but Thalia and Jason on gave half-hearted smiles, in order to not make their dad feel bad about his cabin.
Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.
Hera smiled at this while Annabeth, Thalia, and Nico glared at her, making their parents mentally groan, because it seemed that their children were going to be getting into fights with the Queen of the Gods.
"Zeus and Hera?" I guessed.
"He actually knew something," joked Nico while everyone who knew him laughed.
"Correct," Chiron said.
"Their cabins look empty."
"Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."
"No one is supposed to," said Hera while glaring at Zeus and his children, which caused the three, minus Jason, to glare back.
Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot.
Everyone, even the Gods and Goddesses, who now knew how slow Percy was, sighed.
Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians. But why would some be empty?
I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three.
Poseidon and Annabeth smiled at that.
It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. I peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!"
Before he could pull me back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone. There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down. But there was no sign anyone had ever slept there. The place felt so sad and lonely, I was glad when Chiron put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Come along, Percy."
Poseidon couldn't tell whether Percy liked his cabin or not after hearing this, even though Percy complimented it, for the loneliness would most likely make him slightly unhappy there.
Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers.
Number five was bright red—a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists.
Ares and Clarisse smiled.
The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me. Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on me and gave me an evil sneer.
Everyone looked at Clarisse.
She reminded me of Nancy Bobofit, though the camper girl was much bigger and tougher looking, and her hair was long and stringy, and brown instead of red.
"I could take her," said Clarisse defiantly, while Chris smiled at her.
I kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other centaurs," I observed.
"No," said Chiron sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here."
"They are so much fun to party with!" yelled Travis.
"They are pretty cool," admitted Thalia.
"You said your name was Chiron. Are you really ..."
He smiled down at me. "The Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am."
"But, shouldn't you be dead?"
Everyone sighed at his bluntness, but Annabeth did it with a big smile on her face, because that was the Seaweed Brain I know and love. Annabeth's thoughts caused Aphrodite to smile at her, which caused Annabeth to start thinking of architecture, or basically anything else besides Percy, which caused Aphrodite to frown at her.
Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about should be. The truth is, I can't be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish ... and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."
"He will always be needed," said Katie, while everyone nodded their heads in agreement with her, and Dionysus grumbled, "then why do I have to be there." Luckily for him, Zeus didn't hear him.
I thought about being a teacher for three thousand years. It wouldn't have made my Top Ten Things to Wish For list.
Everyone except for Athena silently agreed with him.
"Doesn't it ever get boring?"
"No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring."
"Why depressing?"
Everyone, once again, sighed at his obliviousness, while Athena thought How can my daughter, like someone this… this… incompetent?
Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again.
"Oh, look," he said. "Annabeth is waiting for us."
Annabeth smiled, and then it disappeared as she remembered that Luke was going to be in the cabin and introduced into the story.
The blond girl I'd met at the Big House was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven.
Annabeth thought Blonde girl? Still? Seaweed Brain.
When we reached her, she looked me over critically, like she was still thinking about how much I drooled.
"No I was not!" Annabeth protested.
"Maybe not, but you were definitely thinking about him," joked Travis, who received a glare from Annabeth, who was slightly blushing, and a smack on the back of the head from Katie.
Athena, secretly, fumed inside, because that fact that her daughter was dating her rival's son was brought up again.
I tried to see what she was reading, but I couldn't make out the title. I thought my dyslexia was acting up. Then I realized the title wasn't even English. The letters looked Greek to me. I mean, literally Greek.
Everyone just shook their heads at the unintentional pun.
There were pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns, like those in an architecture book.
Everyone just shook their heads again.
"Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?"
"Yes, sir."
"Cabin eleven," Chiron told me, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home."
Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on old.
Hermes frowned, while his sons smiled, thinking about their cabin.
The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor's symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. What did they call it... ?
"A Caduceus," said Hermes.
A caduceus.
"Oh," said Hermes, blushing, while everyone laughed at him.
Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center.
Hermes frowned at the other Gods and Goddesses, while everyone except Artemis and Hera, just looked somewhere else.
Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.
"Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner."
He galloped away toward the archery range.
I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at me, sizing me up. I knew this routine. I'd gone through it at enough schools.
Good, Jason thought.
"Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on."
So naturally I tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of myself.
"Naturally?" asked Piper.
'Did we mention that he is extremely sarcastic to just about all beings, no matter how powerful you are, or whether you are in a life or death situation," said Rachel.
This caused Piper and Jason to have unsure looks about how they would get along with him, while Leo smirked thinking me and him will get along great!
There were some snickers from the campers, but none of them said anything.
Annabeth announced, "Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven."
"Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked.
I didn't know what to say, but Annabeth said, "Undetermined."
Everybody groaned.
All of the Gods and Goddesses who had children shifted uncomfortably and glanced at the demigods who had sad, annoyed, or slightly happy expressions. The Gods and Goddesses understood the first two expressions, but the slightly happy ones confused them.
A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward.
"Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there."
Annabeth's and Thalia's eyes became glossy, while everyone else had either confused, curious, angry, or resentful expressions on their faces.
The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty cool. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.
Hermes perked up, along with Zeus and Athena, having recognized the description, apart from the scar, which left Hermes wondering what, gave him the scar? It wasn't the quest am I working on getting him is it?
"This is Luke," Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow. I glanced over and could've sworn she was blushing.
A couple people snickered at Annabeth, who was glaring at all of them.
Jason had a slight smirk, now that his early suspicions about Annabeth's feelings for Luke were correct.
Aphrodite was smiling, thinking A Love Triangle, I should get to work on that as soon as we are finished with these books.
She saw me looking, and her expression hardened again. "He's your counselor for now."
"For now?" I asked.
"You're undetermined," Luke explained patiently. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."
Hermes smiled a little bit, along with his sons.
I looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given me. I had nothing to put there to mark it as my own, no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bag. Just the Minotaur's horn. I thought about setting that down, but then I remembered that Hermes was also the god of thieves.
Hermes and the Stolls frowned, and Hermes mouthed to them maybe another camper.
I looked around at the campers' faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, some eyeing me as if they were waiting for a chance to pick my pockets.
Hermes smiled knowing those were his children, not those of his fellow Olympians, whom they had chosen not to claim.
"How long will I be here?" I asked.
"Good question," Luke said. "Until you're determined."
"How long will that take?"
The campers all laughed.
As some of those on Olympus were doing now.
"Come on," Annabeth told me. "I'll show you the volleyball court."
"I've already seen it."
"Come on." She grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside. I could hear the kids of cabin eleven laughing behind me.
"He really would have not made it a foot on his quest without you would he?" whispered Thalia to Annabeth, who just nodded in return, with a little smile playing on her lips.
When we were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that."
"What?"
She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."
All of the demigods raised their eyebrows pointedly at Annabeth who just blushed and said, "Not that one," which caused all of the demigods to laugh a little in response.
"What's your problem?" I was getting angry now. "All I know is, I kill some bull guy—"
Everyone snorted at that.
"Don't talk like that!" Annabeth told me. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"
"To get killed?"
"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"
All of the demigods looked at her like she was a Cyclops, and she just blushed and said, "Not anymore."
I shook my head. "Look, if the thing I fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories ..."
"Yes."
"Then there's only one."
"Yes."
"And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So ..."
"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die."
"Oh, thanks. That clears it up."
Everyone chuckled at that, why Annabeth huffed, remembering how annoying it was to explain things to him.
"They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them arche types. Eventually, they re-form."
I thought about Mrs. Dodds. "You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword—"
"The Fur ... I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad."
"You have no idea," said Nico.
"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"
"You talk in your sleep."
"So you watch him sleep?" asked Rachel, which caused everyone but Athena to laugh, and Annabeth to blush.
"Shut up!" yelled Annabeth, even though her face was still beat red, so it wasn't very threatening.
"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?"
Hades smiled while everyone else gave him disturbed looks.
Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her.
"It's possible," said Annabeth in order to answer everyone's unasked questions.
"You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all."
"Why do we call them that, even though they aren't kind at all?" asked Connor.
"We call them that because it is what Chiron calls them," answered Annabeth and everyone on Olympus say that as a sufficient answer.
"Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?" I sounded whiny, even to myself, but right then I didn't care. "Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."
"It depends on who your parent is," said Chris even though everyone on Olympus knew that.
I pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or ... your parent."
She stared at me, waiting for me to get it.
Everyone raised an eyebrow at her, and she said, "I get it, I didn't know him that well then," while blushing a little.
"My mom is Sally Jackson," I said.
"She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to."
Everyone, including those who knew she was alright, looked down at the reminder of what had happened to Percy's mother.
"I'm sorry about your mom, Percy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."
"He's dead. I never knew him."
Poseidon winced at this.
Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids.
"You have no idea," said Annabeth in an undertone.
"Your father's not dead, Percy."
"How can you say that? You know him?"
"Well, she would have met him if she visited Olympus, though she wouldn't have had any real contact with him," said Athena, which caused Poseidon to roll his eyes at her in response.
"No, of course not."
"Then how can you say—"
"Because I know you. You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."
"You don't know anything about me."
"No?" She raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."
"How—"
"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too."
I tried to swallow my embarrassment. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek.
All of the demigods thought about all the times that had gotten them made fun of, or the times it just flat out gave them humongous headaches.
And the ADHD—you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battle field reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."
"You sound like ... you went through the same thing?"
"Not like you, but close Seaweed Brain," muttered Annabeth.
"Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."
All of the males smiled at the mention of the food, while the Goddesses rolled their eyes at them.
"Ambrosia and nectar."
"The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it. You're a half-blood."
A half-blood.
I was reeling with so many questions I didn't know where to start.
Then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!"
Everyone looked at Clarisse, and Clarisse smiled, until she remembered what was going to happen to her, which caused her smile to turn into a scowl.
I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin was sauntering toward us. She had three other girls behind her, all big and ugly and mean looking like her, all wearing camo jackets.
Ares smiled proudly at the mention of his daughters.
"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"
"Sure, Miss Princess," the big girl said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."
''Erre es korakas!" Annabeth said, which I somehow under stood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!' though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded. "You don't stand a chance."
Athena nodded in agreement, while Ares shook his head.
"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow through on the threat.
"Yes I could!" argued Clarisse, who added under her breath, "If Prissy wasn't on your team."
She turned toward me. "Who's this little runt?"
Poseidon scowled at Clarisse for calling his son a little runt, but she just ignored him.
"Percy Jackson," Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."
I blinked. "Like ... the war god?"
Ares and Clarisse nodded their heads.
Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"
"No," I said, recovering my wits. "It explains the bad smell."
Everyone laughed while Ares' and Clarisse's faces were red from embarrassment and anger.
Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."
"Percy."
"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."
"Clarisse—" Annabeth tried to say.
"Stay out of it, wise girl."
All of the demigods who knew Percy just stared wide-eyed at Annabeth, and then at Clarisse, and repeated this action, though none of the Gods noticed.
Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it,
and I didn't really want her help. I was the new kid. I had to earn my own rep.
Jason thought he should do better than I thought he might.
I handed Annabeth my minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but before I knew it, Clarisse had me by the neck and was dragging me toward a cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the bathroom.
Ares smiled, knowing what his daughter was going to do to him.
Poseidon, however, smiled knowing that in the bathrooms, Clarisse was going to get it.
I was kicking and punching. I'd been in plenty of fights before, but this big girl Clarisse had hands like iron. She dragged me into the girls' bathroom. There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. It smelled just like any public bathroom, and I was thinking—as much as I could think with Clarisse ripping my hair out—that if this place belonged to the gods, they should've been able to afford classier johns.
Everyone chuckled at that.
Clarisse's friends were all laughing, and I was trying to find the strength I'd used to fight the Minotaur, but it just wasn't there.
"Like he's 'Big Three' material," Clarisse said as she pushed me toward one of the toilets. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking."
Poseidon glared at her again, but luckily for her, she didn't notice.
Her friends snickered.
Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers.
Annabeth huffed, while blushing, "No I was not," while everyone laughed at her
Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head toward the toilet bowl. It reeked like rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets. I strained to keep my head up. I was looking at the scummy water, thinking, I will not go into that. I won't.
Ares' smile fell from his face, Poseidon's grew, and everyone else was leaning forward with grins on their faces, knowing that something funny was going to happen soon.
Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach. I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. Clarisse's grip on my hair loosened. Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind me.
Everyone was trying to contain their laughs while Clarisse and Ares had faces that were beat red, and eyes that were on fire.
I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again, hitting Clarisse straight in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her butt.
The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward into a shower stall.
She struggled, gasping, and her friends started coming toward her.
Athena shook her head, while laughing, knowing that they were going to get it as well.
Ares was just trying his best not to go beat up some of the demigods who were laughing.
But then the other toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away.
Everyone was laughing as hard as they could by now, even the Goddesses were laughing.
As soon as they were out the door, I felt the tug in my gut lessen, and the water shut off as quickly as it had started.
The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn't been spared.
Athena stopped laughing and frowned, Ares tried to give her a smug look, but failed, and Annabeth had a slight frown on her face, but wasn't too upset about it.
She was dripping wet, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place, staring at me in shock.
I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around me. I didn't have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing.
Poseidon smirked at Athena, her sent him a glare, and Ares, who didn't notice.
I stood up, my legs shaky.
Annabeth said, "How did you ..."
"I don't know."
"His answer to every question," joked Thalia.
We walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. She gave me a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead."
I probably should have let it go, but I said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth."
Everyone except Clarisse and Ares laughed at that, and Hermes said, "Nice one!"
Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.
Annabeth stared at me. I couldn't tell whether she was just grossed out or angry at me for dousing her.
"Both," Annabeth said.
"What?" I demanded. "What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking," she said, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."
"Can't get enough of him can you?" said Aphrodite.
Annabeth was going to smirk at Clarisse, but due to the blushing she did at Aphrodite's words, she decided against it.
"That's the end, who would like to read?" asked Demeter.
"I will," said Piper, who took the book from Demeter.
"My Dinner Goes Up In Smoke."
That's it. Sorry about the wait on my upload time, I was busy, and didn't really feel like writing anything, so I would only do a few paragraphs a day, until tonight. I am going to try to have half of the next chapter done, before I upload the one before it from now on, so after the wait between this chapter and the next, the wait for uploads should be lessened. Well, I hope you enjoyed and like and review and that stuff please!
Nicene Quotes