Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
CHAPTER THREE: DINO AND LYRE HEAD
I could really go for a Sundae Kiss right now. It was a welcome home treat my dad made whenever he got back from a trip and I got back from camp; it use to be a regular Sundae until we found out I was allergic to cherries, then he just substituted the cherry for a Hershey Kiss. It was our way of celebrating being back together; we were safe, we survived another year, and the trouble was over- at least for the moment anyways. There are so many reasons I wish I had a Sundae Kiss on hand but the one that seems to be screaming at my head at the moment is that if I was eating a Sundae Kiss right now that my trouble were over and judging by the room full of glaring adults, Leo, and Satyrs, an aggravated Mr. D, and a sympathetic Jason… my troubles were just beginning.
"What kind of idiot prays to a stranger?" Clarisse Rodriguez said angrily. If looks could kill I'd be six feet under.
When we went to Annabeth and Percy they decided the Camp workers should discuss this before notifying any of the counselors or Chiron who was still on vacation. So lucky for me I got to be glared at by only half of the council- rather than all of them.
"This is not good" Grover Underwood one of the Lords of the Wild said nervously chewing on one of Mr. D's empty diet coke cans. I looked down at the table guiltily.
"This is just great!" Travis Stoll sighed. Oh great now Elsie's big brothers were mad too- I really was in trouble. "Now we've got to worry about the Big Guy up the elevator coming and blowing up camp."
"Not necessarily" Annabeth said although her tone suggested a different story. "Let's just think this throu-"
"Oh for my sake!" Mr. D huffed annoyed, "Let's just go straight to the source and ask his Annoyingness who asked him to give Raisin here a present" Raisin? Wow Mr. D is running low on materials. No one seemed to have a better idea so Mr. D continued. "Alright Pierre, give us something to work with"
Percy looked like he wanted to knock the diet coke out of Mr. D's hand but he managed to give us some mist anyways.
"Drachma please Rachel" I thought for a second that he was talking to the oracle Rachel. "Now don't be stingy, this was your doing so you should pay the price" Oh course he meant me Mr. D's goal in life was not memorizing names.
I dug in my pocket and threw the coin in. "Oh g-"
"Don't forget to specify who your asking for this time" Mr. D smirked- now I was the one that wanted to punch him.
"Oh goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering. Please show me Apollo." I said as Percy's mist shimmered a little to show a room full of people cheering, with "Don't Stop Believing" blasting from a high tech stereo system while a blond headed guy that looked an awful lot like Jason both sang and played the guitar controls for rockband, that was definitely Apollo. Upon seeing us he paused the game and sent the onlookers out.
"Nice to see ya Rosie- especially now that you're turning into such a lovely young wom-"
"DAD!" Jason yelled mortified and as red as Mr. D's bloodshot eyes, I was darker by at least a shade or two.
"Merely an observation Jason- besides I don't date my kids friends or an ex's kid" Apollo said smirking, now I was weirded out. "So Rosalina, did you call to thank me? I'm flattered really but I have to say your timing is off- I really would've liked to finish that all-star performance."
"Not exactly Lord Apollo-"
"Apollo please, Lord Apollo's my dad- actually Zeus is my dad but that's another myth altogether" Apollo said still grinning; he must be the god of bad jokes too. I noticed Jason now matched my own complexion.
"Not exactly- um- not that I'm not grateful- it's just that, well-"
"Oh for crying out loud! Move aside Ruby." Mr. D said annoyed (was he ever not?) shoving me out of the way, the better to glare at Apollo. "Now you listen to me, who told you to give Raleigh here that gift?"
"What makes you think it wasn't my idea?" Apollo asked feigning hurt which seemed to drive Mr. D over the edge. He turned as red as I did a few minutes ago only it wasn't from embarrassment, I backed away some.
"Will you answer the question? You're stupid little game is interfering with me playing mine- not to mention Captain Thunder is sure to lengthen my sentence at this camp if little miss hippy kills his kid. And Chiron would never let me hear the end of it-" Mr. D practically wailed until he realized he was in a room full of good for nothing heroes (his thoughts not mine). "Just answer the question Lyre-Head!"
"Lyre-head? After thousands and thousands of years that's still the best you got? Come on Dino where's the creativity?" Apollo laughed making Mr. D turn purple (I wasn't the only one to back away this time).
"DO. NOT. CALL. ME. DINO!" Mr. D yelled at a volume that made me clamp down on my ears.
"Please insert an additional drachma to continue your conversation" Iris' disembodied operator voice said. Did we really want to continue it? As if answering my question Annabeth tossed a coin in.
"Can we please focus on the point of this conversation" she asked annoyed. I flushed guiltily again and Percy shot me a sympathetic look- then again he grew up being a forbidden child and the center of a great prophecy, he went through much worse than this.
"Shut up Annie-Lou, no one asked you" Mr. D spat angrily before turning back to face Apollo again. "Alright he-who-speaks-in-crappy-haikus, Zeus' brat is in danger, little miss peace and love there asked a stranger for help and I need to make sure you didn't turn her into some kind of hippy hit man." Wow did everyone think I was a hippy?
"Don't get your jumpsuit in a wad Dino, I promise as the god of truth that Rosie is not some sort of ninja assassin now."
"I told you, don't call me Dino!" Mr. D yelled.
"How about butte-"
"So if they're not using Rosie to hurt anyone they're friends then right?" Percy said trying to get Apollo back on track- not to mention keep Mr. D from losing it and incineration all of us.
"Practically family- oh wait most of us gods are related some how- let's stick with the friends thing."
"So who asked you to give me the gift?" I asked unable to stop myself.
"An oath must be kept
When sworn on the river Styx
I cannot say who" Apollo said dramatically. "How's that for a haiku! Look, as much as I've enjoyed this conversation I really need to get back to blowing my guests mind with my amazing music skills… besides Rachel will tell you everything you need to know when the time comes. Don't forget to rock on!" And with that he was gone.
"Well he was no help!" Mr. D scoffed clearly still peeved about the 'Dino' thing.
"At least we know Rosie isn't cursed and we have a friend somewhere." Grover said optimistically.
"That and I'll be prophesying something soon" Rachel said a little darkly.
"You predicting something? That's not news at all" Mr. D said "I could have told you that much!" Aw was Mr. D jealous? Not likely.
"Alright Rosie it looks like you're free to train. Chiron should be back tomorrow so I don't see a need to interrupt his vacation for this but I'm sure he'll want to have a word with you then."
"So do we call a council or what?" Connor Stoll asked.
"I don't see a need, I mean not until we get a prophecy anyways, right now the camp isn't in danger and if we called one now we'd just have to call another one when the summer kids get here." Percy said.
"Alright, so no council then, I guess you three are free to leave to get ready for dinner-"
"Excuse me Arabella, you might be feeling in for the horse but I'm the only one who can dismiss them" Mr. D said, "Alright brats go before I change my mind!" Deep, deep down under the crankiness and alcohol withdrawal syndrome, I think he really does almost slightly care about us.
"Well that was less boring than I expected" Leo said. I think that was code for 'I'm really glad no one's using you to kill me Rosie' and I know he'd electrocute me and I couldn't imagine what Mr. D would do if I said it out loud, but I really think the two of them have a lot in common.
"It's camp," I said simply. Jason was silent choosing to run a hand through his curly hair rather than speak. "You ok Jason?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, sure. I'm just-um- sorry about my dad he's-" Jason broke off running a hand through his hair again. I felt a blush creeping into my cheeks. Leo was snickering.
"It's fine, no reason to apologize." I promised. When the sun god says you're pretty you tend to get a boost to your self-esteem if nothing else. Although the fact that he and my mom dated kind of made it awkward (when the heck was that?)
"Yeah you're right" Jason said letting out a relieved sigh and relaxing back into his usual joking carefree self. "Besides, I mean it's not like he was actually hitting on you anyways right? My dad flirts with every female he sees- he'd probably flirt with animals too if they talked." And there went the self-esteem again; apparently it showed too because Leo was almost doubled over from laughing so hard.
"Shut up Sparky before I make you hug poison ivy!"
A/N: Ok so it took a little while to get it up, to anyone that doesn't know Rick Riordan has the first two chapters up of the real Lost Hero, they're awesome and I was kind of right about a few things from my story (I won't say what). Anyways go to camphalfblood(dot)com, the password is newhero; the cover to the book is there and enjoy reading. When you do, or if you have please pm me so I can talk to someone about the amazingness of it, I'm trying my best not to spoil it but I'm just about to go crazy. Love you guys!