While Annabeth and Nico are having their adventure, Percy Jackson is exhausted from another day of practice at the pool.
Chapter 3- Meeting Percy Jackson
Percy sat on the bench in the gym staring at his locker. The NYU label glared up at him, as if scolding him for being in pain. He stared at the symbol hoping it would pop out and kill him. Yesterday they had lost a water polo scrimmage against Cornell. Percy was team captain so when they lost…well he really lost. Meaning their coach would drill him the hardest.
Normally a fairly easy opponent but yesterday Percy had gotten into a huge fight with Rachel before the game. Rachel was his girlfriend. Of a few months, so they were still getting to learn what the other meant when they fought. And fight they did…often.
It wasn't angry fighting, it was just the fighting where she was right and he was too stubborn to admit it.
After the team's loss Coach Ares thought that nearly killing the guys on the team with drills and laps until they beat the school's all-time lap record or until Coach felt they were sufficiently 'trained.' Needless to say both options failed to happen. He could feel everything yet he couldn't feel it except for the pain. Percy was so sore.
He had tried to remind Ares that their real match against Cornell was next Saturday and exhausting them now wouldn't be good for 'strategy.' Son of a bitch! I swear I'll kill him! He thought as he rubbed his arms, only to wince from the pain. Taking his mind from the pain he thought of yesterday's match.
Percy would never admit it to his face but he also added the reason for their loss being his 'cousin' Nico. He was a freshman at Cornell this year and although he wasn't amazing at the sport he was good. He did, however, score three goals yesterday because of Percy's distracted mind.
('Cousin' because they weren't related at all.)
His dad, Poseidon, Nico's dad Hades and Thalia's dad Zeus were best friends. They met in college and were inseparable. They made it a point to get together at least once a month just to catch up and talk about good times.
The three father's saw each other often enough from their jobs. They were New York's 'BIG THREE!' They were seen together so often that people from New York just started calling them that. Why big?
Because of what they did.
Combined they owned more than half of New York. Zeus, Thalia's dad was the business head and owned the entire Empire State Building. Along with every big business that happened in New York, including Broadway.
Hades; Nico's dad owned every night club in a 300 mile radius of the Empire State building and he was constantly using his 'club' also known as gangs to spread out his territory. And Poseidon, Percy's dad? Well he owned every Park, forest, lake, river, stream in the New England states of America. Every north-east outdoorsy place of America was owned by the man.
They constantly were expanding their territory, but once a month they gathered with family for what they called 'reunions.'
Reunions, ugh! Percy hated them with a passion but he still went to see Nico. What about Thalia, you say? Well he saw her whenever he wanted; she was his roommate in college. Thalia normally roomed with Bianca, Nico's sister but this year she joined a sorority of virgins that called themselves followers of 'Diana.' Their leader was the crazy lady who thought herself the reincarnation of the Roman Goddess.
Anyway the group was constantly rioting and doing political things for the 'cause' so Bianca was gone. She visited every now and then but when she did, Percy and Bianca would always hang out. Their dad's Poseidon and Hades always liked to think that they'd be married one day. They had even dated once, but Bianca chose to be friends instead as did Percy.
Why would Bianca join a group of virgins? Bianca hated boys. The only exception would be Percy and Nico. So it eliminated any chance of Hades becoming a grandfather by her. Now it fell on Nico's shoulders.
Back on topic, Thalia was the PERFECT roommate. She was incredibly clean, not the "Ugh GET YOUR SHOES OFF THE CARPET PERCY!" But the, "Hey, I just vacuumed, get dirt on it in five minutes and I cut off your legs." Well…actually I think the second option is worse. Anyway needless to say she hated 'dirty'.
Percy cooked and she cleaned; the perfect duo.
Sometimes however, they would completely forget the other one was there or in Percy's case he didn't care. They would leave their bedroom doors open while they changed and things like that. They were just comfortable with each other. According to Thalia's boyfriend, Luke, they were too close. Percy didn't care though; he'd flash a smile that basically said 'get bent' or his personal favorite, 'Suck it.' Complete with the hand gesture and everything.
The best thing about Thalia was that she really cared about Percy and she looked out for him. Percy just kind of thought of her as a really hot, best friend. Thalia was your typical punk, chin length hair in the back and bangs that could cover her face if she wanted them too. Percy loved her, not like 'that' but a 'you're totally awesome, if our 40th birthday comes around and were both single, I'll marry you.'
He didn't like Thalia romantically, he just really loved being around her. Thalia even took Sally's role as his mother figure in college. Sally expected full reports on any romance in Percy's life and Thalia happily obliged.
The reason Percy 'hated' reunions and why he was a good cook, ran hand in hand. Poseidon had once had a fiancé who was not Sally. He had actually been engaged to a very well off Artist and owner of a studio. Her name was Minerva and she taught painting classes at her studio. Poseidon later cheated on his fiancée Minerva, with Percy's mother, Sally. Sally had no idea that Minerva was even in the picture. The only reason Sally even knew Minerva was because of Minerva's painting classes.
Minerva quickly dumped Poseidon and Sally never wanted to see him again. Nine months later, Sally received her greatest gift: Percy. She kept them separated until Percy was twelve at which point Poseidon was introduced to Percy as Percy's father, creating a huge shock wave in Poseidon and his friends.
His 'Uncles' would tease Poseidon and Percy both about the other. So much that the two males had grown to hate each other. Sally was never invited to the 'reunions' but that never bothered her. Especially now, that she had Paul Blofis. Paul was the sole reason Percy could leave home for college.
They met at a parent teacher conference of Percy's. Paul was Percy's English teacher and it wasn't that Percy was in trouble necessarily but his grades in English kept dropping. Needless to say you can guess what happened next.
Sally is in the final stages of beginning her career in writing. What does that mean? She's currently writing the final chapter in her story. It's already got a lot of publicity since she is the mother of Percy Jackson, Poseidon's son. Already, nature nuts were writing her fan mail hoping to just get a sneak preview of a chapter.
The book itself had nothing to do with nature. It was about being a mother to a teenage star who didn't want stardom.
Again Percy went away to college, meaning he had to stay at the dorms. That's when he met his 'friend' Grover. Grover…weird name huh? Well the guy was even weirder. He was a scrawny little guy that still had bad acne problems. And even though he could run practically as fast as a horse he had a disease that stopped muscle growth to a certain point. Meaning he was the exact opposite of Percy who hardly picked up a book.
He seen more footballs and swim trunks than words on a page, much to Grover's annoyance. Even though it annoyed Grover, Grover really liked Percy. When Percy was around Grover was invisible and no one picked on him. Percy wasn't mean to Grover he just hated being how Grover clung to him and so did his girlfriend Rachel.
Percy went to tryouts for Water Polo and to say he was a fish in the water was pretty damn accurate or said so his coach, Ares. He even earned a hefty scholarship that took care of school for him; however, the scholarship didn't go into effect until his sophomore year.
Meaning, he was in debt until the scholarship went into effect, guess who got the bill? His mom. And when Percy's grades started slipping Coach Ares didn't say anything about it. That Christmas when Percy got home Sally already had his grades and she wasn't happy at all. Percy was banned from the team until she had proof that Percy's grades were at least B average.
Percy needed a tutor, that's when he met Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the girl of his Dreams.
Rachel Elizabeth Dare or "Red" as Percy and his friends called her was a, you guessed it, red head. Her hair was about shoulder length and a dark red. Not the slight orange you sometimes see but more of an auburn color. She had these beautiful green eyes that danced when she smiled. She was extremely nice and very intelligent. She was now close enough to Percy's family that Sally thought of her as a daughter.
During their sophomore year Percy tried his hardest to get a date with Rachel. He didn't count their study time a date. Rachel would always say no and that she wasn't ready for a relationship. She didn't want to ruin Percy and her relationship if it didn't work out.
But as the year ended Rachel let "Perachel" start. That was their 'celebrity' name and Percy loved it. Rachel however, did not. Hence, this was the reason the fight started.
Things with Grover were better now but he still never left Percy's or Rachel's side. Every time Grover was around he'd flirt with Rachel by talking about how wonderful Rachel's art studio was. She had it on the side when her father forked over the cash to buy the building. The company was struggling because even though Rachel loved art she was no business major.
Lately, Grover had been hanging out with Rachel's best friend that was a total tree hugger Juniper. She was gone a lot for events like "Save the Owl of Witobi" or "save the Wild American Rat" something random like that. But that didn't stop Grover from flirting with Rachel, which bugged Percy to no end.
Shaking himself from his thoughts, he showered off the chlorine from the pool and dressed quickly because Rachel asked him to meet her at "The Big House." It was a nice little restaurant that NYU students went to all the time. They got loads of discounts and even jobs from the Manager and co-owner Chiron. The other was a man who they called Mr. D. because he was a young cocky know-it-all that was forced to run the restaurant for a few years before his father Zeus would allow him another larger company.
Percy was nervous, last time they 'talked' they had ended it with her screaming and crying and him punching a wall.
He was dressed in Khaki's and a blue/green polo that Rachel loved because it made his eyes stand out. He liked seeing Rachel smile; he missed it big time.
He sighed and fumbled his keys around until he finally caught them in his hand and was out the door. His 2009 Pontiac G6 was awaiting him and he grinned at 'Jasper' Rachel was a Twilight nut and named that car that. He didn't mind he just didn't understand why she was obsessed with vegetarian vampires.
Pulling up to the restaurant he became furious. He saw Grover's black Beetle in the parking lot. He saw Rachel's auburn hair through the black window and for some reason he immediately accused her of cheating and what happened next. Well, it confirmed his suspicions.