Chapter 4

Percy covered his nose as he carried a bucket of soapy water towards the stables. A wet rag hung on the side of the bucket as the water inside sloshed about. The afternoon sun was bearing down on the son of Poseidon. The combined effect of the summer heat and the horrible smell of the stables had Percy ready to vomit, it was like going to a zoo on a hot summer day.

He watched as other campers went about their day, laughing or chatting with one another. The Apollo campers were holding their archery lessons, firing arrow after arrow at targets. The Demeter cabin played a game of volleyball against a group of satyrs, the Ares cabin played a game of basketball in the commons area.

Percy looked away, seeing stuff like that would only make him feel worse. It was bad enough that he had to do this for two weeks straight, but he also had to sacrifice hours of his free time to get everything done. He'd learned after the first day that cleaning the stables wasn't easy.

The stables were constantly being used, and even if they weren't, the pegasus housed inside often caused messes of their own.

The smell of the stables got stronger as he stood outside the building, his face conveying utter disgust at the smell. He set the bucket down and grabbed the rag before getting to work. He had to clean the stables by hand, he tried using his water-control powers but they weren't exactly the most precise tools he had at his disposal.

Washing the stables was bitter work, it was especially bad for Percy since he was alone. He knew he wasn't getting any help with this, no one would really want to help him and he really didn't blame them.

The smell of soap and horse poop combined to make a smell that would make even monsters flee. A few campers gave him pitiful looks as they walked past.

Percy walked towards the bucket, his arms felt like someone had filled them with molten metal, his fingers felt like they were about to fall off. Sweat ran down his face, which he wiped with his free hand.

After a few minutes of cleaning, he found himself having to get a new bucket of water. He was just about to reach the bucket when a pair of Ares campers walked by. One of them kicked the bucket over before walking off, their laughter annoyed Percy just as much as the spilled bucket.

With a sigh, Percy reached down and grabbed the bucket. He willed the water on the ground to dry before he walked off to go get more water. The Big House had the soap he needed, which meant he had to head their first.

As he walked past the armory, the door opened. He looked over and found Annabeth walking out with a clipboard in her hand, a wide smile on her face while she laughed. Jason followed not far behind her, he was laughing just as hard. He had a clipboard of his own. They must've been doing armory inspection. That didn't stop the flash of jealousy that took over Percy's body.

He sighed, he couldn't afford to lose his temper, things looked bad enough for him already.

After finding the soap in the Big House and refilling the bucket, he started to head towards the stables again.

When he got to the stables, he nearly let out a shout of anger. The stables, which were partially clean, were now filthy again. Dirt had been thrown where he had cleaned, muddy water had been spilled onto the walls.

He sighed, he had gone through this before. Every time he cleaned the stables, someone would come along and trash it. He told Chiron about it, but there wasn't much anyone could do with zero evidence of who did it.

Anyone could've been trashing the stables. Word had spread about Percy and his alleged negligence during chariot inspection, he was certain some people thought he was a piece of garbage for cutting corners in something like that. No one believed him when he told them he hadn't done anything wrong.

It wasn't just the chariot fiasco that Percy had to deal with, he also had to deal with the fallout of being accused of breaking Clarisse's spear. He'd gotten away with it last time since it was during capture the flag, but this time it seemed like a totally unprovoked attack on her, and as much as people didn't like her, they didn't like unprovoked attacks either.

Percy set the bucket down and got to work on cleaning the stables. He found himself frustrated, not just at the boring and difficult chore he had, but at everything that was happening to him. He never had to deal with this type of treatment before, not even when he first arrived. People were now treating him like he was some sort of monster.

Someone set a bucket down next to his, causing him to look over. Annabeth was standing there, a spare rag in her hand as she watched him clean.

"I brought you these." She said before setting the extra supplies down, "Do you mind if I help?"

"Don't bother." He said as he went back to work, "This is my chore."

Annabeth walked over and started helping him anyways. He didn't bother telling her to stop, she probably wouldn't listen. He didn't really care, he needed the help.

"I tried telling Chiron to give you a different punishment, you know." She said, "I mean, it was a accident after all."

Yeah, a accident I didn't cause. Percy thought.

"I got it cut down to two weeks though." She said brightly, "That's something, right?"

"Yeah, well, next time, don't waste your breath." He said in a dull tone while he scrubbed the dirt of the stables outer wall.

"What?" She asked with a confused tone, "You're telling me you wanted to do four weeks of this?"

"No, I didn't." He said, turning to face her, "I don't want you trying to do anything for me. Whatever people are trying to say I did, just let them think it at this point, I really don't care."

Annabeth stared at him, "What's going on with you? Clarisse told me you nearly gave her every drachma you had when she was only asking for ten."

Percy shook his head and went back to cleaning, "It's just a bunch of coins."

He could tell Annabeth knew there was something wrong with him, yet he found himself frustrated that she didn't notice the signs earlier. She should've realized there was something wrong when he handed his sword-fighting lessons over to Nico and when he started skipping lunch to clean the stables or deal with his chores. He loved teaching new campers how to use swords and he rarely ever missed meals, yet now the complete opposite was happening.

"Well, I'm sorry I snapped at you." She said, "If that's what this whole thing is about."

"Like I said, don't bother." He said, "None of it matters anyways."

The two continued working in silence, he knew she was trying to figure out what was wrong with him.

"I know something that'll make you feel better." Annabeth suggested, "How about you and I plan the next strategy for capture the flag?"

Percy gave her a half-hearted shrug, "I don't know, I might not even be at camp when capture the flag comes around."

"What are you talking about?" She asked, stopping her work completely.

The truth was, he was considering leaving camp, he'd even gotten to the point he was making plans. He couldn't go to his mom's house or Camp Jupiter out of fear that he'd cause trouble. He decided he'd spend a few days on vacation somewhere nice, like Florida or maybe even that cabin in Montauk.

"You aren't planning on leaving, are you?" She asked with a worried tone.

He shook his head, "It's nothing, don't worry about it."

He felt guilty lying to her, but he knew she'd try to stop him if she knew. She was always adamant on him belonging at camp, yet at the moment, he felt like he belonged literally anywhere else.

"Well, if you are, don't leave." Annabeth said, "If I said something that really hurt you, then tell me. I promise I'll try to make it up to you."

"Annabeth, I really don't feel like talking right now." He said, "Can we just get on with this?"

Annabeth sighed, "Alright."

Neither demigod spoke for the rest of the time it took to clean the stables.

Ω

After Percy was finally done with cleaning the stables, he walked off before Annabeth could find him again. He really didn't want to talk to her, at least, not in his current state. The reason he didn't want to talk to her was very simple, he was afraid he was going to say something that would make her worry more.

The truth was, he was hurt by her words, he was hurt far more than she had probably expected. It also wasn't just sadness that was building up over the past few days, a quiet anger had been bubbling inside Percy, he was angry at the way he was being treated. Just because he didn't show it didn't mean he wasn't angry. The only reason he didn't show it was for the same reason he didn't want to talk to Annabeth, he was afraid he wouldn't be able to control himself and he'd end up doing something stupid, like crying.

That's how he ended up on the trails in the forest around camp. He figured some time alone in a nice peaceful area would soothe his mind enough so that he could actually face Annabeth when he inevitably returned to camp.

He wanted to be angry at her, to show her how it felt to be treated like garbage over a mistake, yet he just couldn't find it within himself to be angry at her. To him, it wouldn't fix anything and it would just hurt them both, a eye for an eye makes the world blind. Plus, she was the only person to ask if he was okay ever since everything started going downhill.

As Percy walked through the trails, he couldn't help but think about Grover. He was certain that if Grover was at camp, he'd be in a much better place. Grover would've known something was wrong with him, especially with their empathy link. He figured he probably knew that already since his emotions were all over the place recently.

The walk through the woods was soothing, it helped Percy. He could've sat in the cold darkness in his cabin but it probably wouldn't have had the same effect. He felt free now, like he could actually breathe.

Percy went over all the things he'd say to Annabeth. He wasn't going to break up with her, that was a given. Every relationship had rough patches, this was nothing more than just a bad fight between them, he thought it was stupid to break up over this. Yet she needed to know that what she did didn't help him at all.

However, if there was one thing that he wanted to get across to her the most, it was that he didn't do anything wrong. He needed someone to believe him that all this stuff he was being accused of doing wasn't actually his doing. Even if it was only one person, he needed someone to know the truth.

Was Percy desperate? Absolutely.

Percy knew no one at camp would be willing to believe him. Everything that he'd been accused of had some merit behind it, he'd believe them if he was on the outside looking in. He did score the lowest in his entire archery class, a person who was petty enough would be willing to prank Will like that. The whole chariot thing was the hardest accusation to beat, he and Hektor were the only ones on stable inspection, and Hektor had to fix something he missed, so asking Hektor to help would've just made his case look worse. Then there was Clarisse's spear, he was the only camper anyone knew who had actually broken the thing before.

Yet the truth still remained. He knew he didn't do any of this. He never pranked Will like that, he didn't stroll into cabin five to break Clarisse's spear, and he certainly couldn't have missed something that would've hurt Annabeth. Maybe there was a loose bolt, but Hektor had tightened it, so there was no way it could've come loose. The possibility of him and Hektor missing a loose bolt seemed so low it was almost impossible.

Percy was just coming back to camp when he heard something nearby, something that sounded out of place. He looked around and noticed a thick line of bushes between a small group of trees. He walked closer to it and heard the distinct sound of whispering voices, someone was nearby and they didn't want to be heard.

He tried to listen in the conversation, mainly because he thought that he'd find out if this was the person trying to mess with his life. It had never really occurred to him that it could be a group of people who were framing him for everything.

However, just before he could get into a good spot to eavesdrop, the whispering stopped. Percy slowly shifted, his shoes barely crunching the leaves below. If he couldn't hear anything, he could at least see who was in the forest with him.

Then something strong and hard hit him in the back of the head. The forest floor seemed to fly up towards him as he collapsed, his vision slowly fading to darkness.

Ω

Percy's dream was…odd to say the least. He'd had weird dreams before, but this one was kind of up there.

He was in the middle of some log cabin in the middle of Nowhere Central. Two chairs were situated near a chess board that was placed on a light blue plastic table. The fireplace in the cabin crackled while filling the cabin with enough light to see. Two beds were placed in front of windows whose curtains were closed. The beds had definitely been used, their sheets were messy and all over the place. Swords were propped against each bed, their owners nowhere in sight.

At first, Percy thought the cabin was empty, he looked around but he couldn't seem to find anyone. He didn't know where he was.

Then the door opened, revealing two hooded figures. They strolled in, backpacks on their backs as they breathed heavily. One of their black cloaks was torn, like they'd torn it while they were running. Their backpacks bulged, one of the backpacks' zipper was threatening to fall off.

Both figures made their way to the chairs and started taking off their bags. They set them down and sat in the chairs, each of them letting out relieved sighs as they did so.

"Man, can I go on the record and say that sucked?" One of them said.

"You're not wrong." The other replied. For some reason, Percy felt like he'd heard that voice before.

"Things were so much easier when Zena was with us. She couldn't wait until we hit Pittsburg?"

The other cloaked figure chuckled, "Nope, you know her. She likes working alone."

"But dude, we were doing so well as a trio! I mean, we straight up mogged those dudes in that Walmart that one time."

The figures didn't take their hoods off, which Percy really wanted for them to do since he wanted to know exactly who these people were.

"How long do you think those morons will fall for the fakes?" The other cloak said, "Zena does good work. I mean, when she came walking up to us with them, I thought she'd went and stolen them already."

Now Percy was really confused, they were talking about swapping something with fakes while making off with the real thing.

"I think they'll work just fine. I mean, the magic signature is close enough. They'll find out eventually but by the time they do, they'll be long gone. Speaking of which, where are we going to hide this stuff when we get it? We can't keep it near us."

The other cloaked figure leaned in, "Well, I think we ought to pay Zena back for her hard work. Give her the shield, I heard it helps in combat. As for the staff, remember point MO?"

"Mount—"

"Shut up!" The figure hissed, "You know the rules. Luke told us to never compromise the code!"

"There's no one around us!"

"Still!" He insisted, "Don't say the real name. You know what it is then, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know." The other guy said, "You want me to hide it there?"

"Yeah, you'll be in the area for a while anyways, minus well hide it there."

Percy really wanted to know what they were talking about now. He knew they weren't up to anything good, but he couldn't tell what it was exactly.

Then, just as one of the figures started to pull their hood back, everything went white.

When Percy came to, he was staring up at the concerned face of Annabeth Chase.