Hello! Here is the second of two chapters I promised. I may even get three up, who knows? I am not one who sets an update schedule just because I have a very busy life and I don't want to make any promises I can't keep. As I said last chapter, I didn't have any reviews, but I'm not one who begs for attention. I'm just writing this to keep my over active brain, thoughts, imagination, etc. at bay. So thanks again to the favorites and follows.
Chapter 5: Pantless
"Must we read about a boy losing his pants?" Artemis asked. All the gods looked at her with quizzical expressions. "It's the name of the title!" She explained. Zeus made a continue gesture with his hand. Artemis sighed in resignation.
"Grover Unexpectedly Loses his Pants,"
"I swear I'm just reading the book." Artemis said quickly.
Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.
"That wasn't the smart thing to do, Seaweed. Granted he was freaking you out, but still." Annabeth chastised Percy, who had the decency to look ashamed.
I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to be sixth grade?"
Piper grimaced "Yeah, that would creep me out, as well, but dumping him may have cost you your life."
"Okay guys. I get it. I shouldn't have left Grover. Need I remind you that this has happened to me already?" Percy demanded. Seriously, they were going to scold him on something he did when he was twelve?
Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom.
Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.
"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.
A word about my mother, before you meet her.
"Everyone loves Sally! She even lets us use her apartment as a safe house sometimes." Nico grinned. He considered Sally to be his adopted mom.
Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world,
"Duh. She has me for a son." Percy said with fake pompousness. Annabeth quickly smacked Percy on the head. "Anna, you're going to give me brain damage!" She hit him again, harder.
"You can't damage something that wasn't there in the first place," she smirked. This brought many laughs and one pout.
which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.
"Isn't that the truth." Thalia said while looking over at her best friends. Annabeth and Percy didn't deserve to fall into Tartarus, but they did anyway.
"That or she has two broken Styx oaths running in her blood." Percy mumbled, though loud enough for everyone to hear.
Her own parents died in a plane crash
"Adoptive parents. Her real ones were murdered by our favorite King of Gods! Give it up for Lord Zeus!" This made several gods and goddesses glared at the King. They could stand a lot of things, but they would not condone murder.
"Why would you kill her parents?" Demanded Hera, who feared her husband had cheated on her again, for good reason, too.
"One was Roman the other was Greek." Zeus said simply. Percy let it slide, for now.
when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist,
"A good career, but it can get stressful. Writer's block is absolutely horrid." Athena said shuddering.
so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.
"The poor dear," murmured Hestia.
The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.
I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.
See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.
Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.
"Is it possible to be lost in yourself?" Hazel asked.
"Quite possible, daughter of Pluto. It happens more than you think. Most never realize it until it's too late." Hera replied.
She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.
Thalia laughed. "No way were you easy. You were the Adams Family, the Brady Bunch, and Rugrats all rolled into one person."
"How do you know? You never met me until we were older."
"Your mom tells some great stories about her little Percy-bear and his stuffed fish, Swimmy." Percy turned beet red and hid his face. "And other stories about-"
"Artemis, please, I'm begging you, please continue reading." Percy got down on his knees in front of said goddess.
"Fine." In truth, she was impressed that the boy was humble enough to beg…even if she did want to see him embaressed.
Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him,
"Wonderful. Something tells me I'm going to love this," grumbled Poseidon.
then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nick named him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth.
"It is the truth!" Apollo stood up and declared, only to dodge an arrow.
"Sit down and let me read!"
"Sure thing, little sis."
"Gah!"
The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.
Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.
"Example of what exactly, Perseus Jackson?" Thalia was ticked. No one had ever told her of this, and obviously Annabeth knew.
I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.
Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."
"Where's my mom?"
"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"
"Hello, Gabe! Yes, school was great. No, I'm ready for summer. Sure I'd love to go walk outside with you!" Orion said sarcastically. Theseus snorted.
"Percy! Glad you made it back safe! Hope life has treated you well. Here's some money! Go buy yourself a welcome back present." Theseus had taken over Orion's idea. Orion froze.
"Sorry, Thes, but I perform solo." Both brothers crack up at the same time. Percy just grinned, he loved his brothers. Then Orion suddenly turned serious. "Why was he asking you for money?"
"Uh, no reason." Percy said, way too quickly. Thalia didn't like the sound of that.
That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?
"Is the poor baby being mistreated?" Hercules mocked.
"Hercules," Perseus sighed, "You may be my brother in blood, but please, for the sake of everyone with ears shut the Hades up!"
"I'll 'shut the Hades up' whenever I feel like it!" Hercules snapped back.
"Don't use my name as a curse again, half-blood." Hades nearly snarled at his least favorite nephew. Hercules jaw dropped. He point to Perseus.
"What about him? He used your name."
"I rather like him. Plus he was using it to insult you, so, I gave him a pass."
"BOYS! I'm trying to read a book here!" Artemis yelled.
Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.
"Not quite." Aphrodite said as she shuddered at the thought of being married to him. Hephaestus at least was better looking than that.
He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course.
"Of course! We can't live without beer or cigars!" Piper exclaimed.
Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds.
"That…that…" Thalia couldn't speak coherently.
"Bastard?"
"Slob?"
"Beast?"
"Son of a-"
"Leo Valdez, do not finish that statement!" Piper scolded.
"I was going to say buck. Son of a buck. Sheesh."
He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.
"That would be called abuse." Hestia snapped. Everyone looked at her incredulously. The sanest, calmest of the gods had lost her temper.
"Um…he didn't abuse me." Percy said. Apollo merely looked over at Percy, but he didn't say anything.
"I don't have any cash," I told him.
He raised a greasy eyebrow.
Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound,
"We could turn him into a dog!" Hermes said with an evil smirk.
"Why should we insult dogs? I rather like them." Reyna asked, thinking of her metal greyhounds. No one answered.
which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.
Athena gasped. If that's the reason…
"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"
The central fire flared. "You. Are. Wrong! Percy is a child! He should be getting money from you, not vice versa! Eddie if you agree with him, I will find you!"
"Easy Hestia. You are never like this. What's gotten into you?"
"Nothing. Continue." Nobody wanted to question an angry fire goddess, so they did as told.
Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy.
"Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."
"Thank you, Eddie!" Apollo shouted.
"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.
"NO!" Most of the room shouted.
Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels.
Ares gave a sarcastic laugh. "Way to have a backbone."
The other two guys passed gas in harmony.
The girls all looked disgusted.
"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."
"Count on it." Hermes and Dionysus said at the same time. When looks were sent to the wine god, he shrugged.
"No one is allowed to make their lives more miserable than me."
"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"
"He may not be the smartest, but he's smarter than you!" Athena defended the Sea Spawn.
I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.
I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.
"Home is where your family and friends are. It's where the heart is," Hestia said softly. She was under control now.
Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.
"You really want to go there?" Perseus asked, raising an eyebrow.
But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons. Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"
She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.
My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room.
"The boy cares for his mother. That is how a family should be." Hera stated with a look at Hephaestus and Ares.
"The mother also cares for the boy. That is how a mother should be. She shouldn't throw him down a mountain because he was different." Hephaestus shot back.
Ares nodded before adding, "Or tell her son that she is disappointed on how he turned out."
"Well, the boy is loving, handsome, loyal, and brave, while you Hephaestus are ugly, horrid, and hateful. Ares, you are egotistic, stupid, and just ugh!" Hera said this like it explained why she treated them like she did.
Percy was ticked. He still wasn't happy with Hera about the kidnapping thing, or trying to kill Annabeth. "Or you are just a horrible mother who tries to be perfect, but never reaches it. I think you are jealous because all of Zeus' better children in your eyes came from other women besides you. Look at Athena, smart and pretty, or the twins. You should try and help your sons instead of pushing them away. Maybe they aren't the mistakes, maybe you are." Most of the people in the room were either sniggering or trying to hide it at the end of Percy's speech.
"You dare accuse me of-"
"Yes I dare! You stole eight months from me to save your precious family, yet you curse at them for being imperfect, or hate them because they are a sign that Zeus had kids with other women. Don't even get started on how you hate that they all have kids outside of marriage. You could easily claim more than one to be your champion if you want someone to represent you. If they didn't have demigods, who would come behind you and clean up your mess and defend the Olympians?" Percy was about to continue, but Annabeth hit him on the arm.
"Seaweed Brain, shut up. For one, you almost gave everything away. For two, I think you fried Hera's brain. She hasn't said a word for a while now." Sure enough the goddess of marriage was staring at Percy with her mouth slightly open. Artemis was in awe. Her stepmother never would shut up about how Artemis and Apollo shouldn't be here since they weren't born in wedlock. Maybe I should just read…
Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad.
I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.
"That woman must have the patience of a saint," Hestia announced.
Hades grinned. "Or your patience dear sister. You do manage to put up with all of us, especially my brothers and I." Hestia grinned, she loved her family, but she wanted them to get along better.
Percy, however, looked thoughtful. "I wonder where mom got her patience. She had Jupiter and Hades for grandparents and demigods for parents." Everyone shrugged.
"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"
Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.
"Man, can I please borrow your mom for a while? She's freaking awesome!" Leo shouted.
"Um, no. Don't worry though, she's like the Camp Mom. She takes care of any demigod who needs help." Poseidon grinned at his sons words. That was the Sally he fell in love with.
We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?
"Awe, was wittle Pwercy okay? He wasn't naughty was he?" Thalia baby talked. She ended up getting shocked by lightning. It didn't hurt (why would it? She's a daughter of Zeus) but felt more like what you would get in a pillow fight. You knew you were hit, but not injured. "What was that for?"
"Awe, wittle Thals was being mean! Big, bad Pwercy got her back." The future demigods laughed at the little performance, while everyone else was wondering if they should trust these apparently unstable people.
"If I may ask, how did you shock her with lightning?" Zeus asked Percy.
"Easy. When I discovered I was your legacy you unlocked my powers. Can we keep reading please." Zeus looked miffed that he didn't get to question him futher.
I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.
From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?"
"I can give her something to…add to the bean dip." Hermes said with only a hit on maliciousness.
I gritted my teeth.
My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.
"I offered, but she declined," Poseidon said slowly. "She knew I was a god."
"It is commendable for her to make life as normal as possible for her child and say no to living life with a god." Athena sounded impresses at Sally's sacrifice.
For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself.
"Either he's a good liar, or really gullible," Hermes remarked.
"Good liar," Percy said at the same time Nico said, "Really gullible."
Annabeth and Thalia looked at each other before saying "Both!" together.
I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.
Demeter shook her head. "Poor Nancy. Just so misunderstood."
"I don't feel any pity for her."
"You don't have a heart, Hades."
Until that trip to the museum ...
"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"
"No, Mom."
I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.'
"She was clear sighted. She would have helped you. Not that you knew that…" Frank trailed off. Percy had given him and the other Romans a brief rundown of his life before. They had also shared tons of stories on the Argo II.
She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.
"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."
My eyes widened. "Montauk?"
"I love Montauk." Percy and Poseidon said at the same time. They looked at each other before shrugging.
"Three nights—same cabin."
"When?"
She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."
"Hallelujah! You're getting away from Gabe!" Hazel cheered, and everyone joined in.
I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.
"Yeah, I call B.S. on that." Leo said.
Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"
I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.
"That is a hard choice. Get away from the beast, or punch him in the trachea. Eeny meeny miny moe…" Apollo drifted off when he noticed there was more than one silver arrow pointing at him. Both Zoe and Artemis were glaring at him.
"Let milady read the chapter." Zoe threatened. Apollo nodded mutely.
"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."
Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"
"No way. No one on their right mind would want to be away from you." Surprisingly it was Aphrodite who said this.
Piper grinned. "Good thing both Percy and Sally are right handed, that means they use the left side of their brains." Athena grinned. Maybe not all of Aphrodite's children were Air Heads.
"Beauty Queen has brains!"
"Shut it, Leo."
"Shutting."
"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."
"He will, young demigod. He will." Apollo said as he shined an arrow.
"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."
"Wow, she is definitely a keeper, Uncle." Hermes grinned.
Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"
"Really now!" Demeter shouted. It's not that she cared about the clothes, it was just the concept of the idea.
"Yes, honey," my mother said.
"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."
"We'll be very careful."
Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."
"That was made possible by him in the first place," Dionysus muttered. Why do I care again?
Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.
"Do it! Do it! Just one time! Please!" Everyone chanted.
But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.
Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?
"Because she cares for her son and is willing to do anything to help him." Hera said softly. These books were making her reconsider some of her choices.
"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."
Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.
Hades rolled his eyes. "None whatsoever, Gaby." Sarcasm dripped from the words.
"Yeah, whatever," he decided.
He went back to his game.
"How dense can you get?" Reyna asked no one in particular.
"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"
"Forgotten?"
For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air. But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.
An hour later we were ready to leave.
"About freaking time!" All the sons of Poseidon shouted.
Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.
"Gods," Jason Grace groaned. "He needs to get his priorities straight."
"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."
"Like he'd be the one driving." Perseus spoke to nobody in particular.
Like I'd be the one driving.
Both of the Perseus grinned. Great mind think alike.
I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.
"Dad? Oh father dearest? Do you love your children?" Orion asked.
"Depends."
"Can you please sic some seagulls on Gabe?" Poseidon grinned and nodded. He opened his mouth to reply only to be interrupted by his youngest brother.
"Hold on Poseidon," Zeus began. "You may only do that as long as I can send my birds as well." Both of the gods got a creepy, evil grin that had most people shuddering.
Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the stair case as if he'd been shot from a cannon.
Hephaestus simply said, "Powerful."
Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.
"Good idea." Hazel agreed.
I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.
Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets,
Annabeth and Athena shuddered at the mention of spiders.
and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.
"Love that place," both Poseidon and Percy said again. This time neither one looked at the other.
I loved the place.
We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.
"Poseidon can be romantic?" Aphrodite asked before looking at the god as if she was just seeing him.
"May I remind you, dear, that you are married?" Hera asked.
"Like that has stopped her before." Hephaestus muttered darkly, making Aphrodite feel slightly guilty.
As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.
"Okay, a granddaughter of the gods of the sky and underworld has a connection to the sea. Is anyone else wondering how that happened? Anyone at all?" Leo asked.
We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.
I guess I should explain the blue food.
"I was wondering if you were going to explain it." Annabeth said to Percy. He laughed.
See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.
"You have a streak like her." Athena corrected. "She's older and you mother, thus passes the trait to you."
"Could you use Punt Squares to figure whether I would receive the trait or not?"Percy asked, trying to sound semi-smart.
"He means a Punnet Square mom." Annabeth explained.
"No, I don't think so." Athena concluded.
When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.
"I will bless this woman to help with her dream."
"Thank you Lady Athena."
Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father.
"How precious. He had to work up nerve to ask his mom a question." Hercules sneered. Zoe snapped.
"He was feeling compassion, something you never felt!"
"Shut up. I do know compassion. I also know how to use a girl's feelings to get what I want, or do you need a reminder, pretty one? I do get lonely at night some-" That was as far as he got, because right then, he felt the cold bite of metal on the back of his neck.
"Hercules, you have overstepped the boundaries. Leave the huntress alone." Percy growled.
"Who's going to make me? You?"Hercules laughed, although rather fake seeing as he had a sword at his neck.
"After today's reading, we will fight. If I win, you will not say another word to Zoe, or be derogatory to anyone here for the rest of the book."
"When I win, I will still be known as the greatest demigod ever. You will give me your sword as testament to this."
"It isn't my sword to give. I must ask the true owner." Percy said. He looked over at Zoe. "Riptide rightly belongs to you. What do you say?" Zoe looked shocked that he was asking her permission. For some reason, she felt compelled to nod. "Then it's a deal, Son of Zeus." With that Percy walked back over to his seat like nothing had happened.
Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.
"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."
Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."
I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.
"I am always proud of you," Poseidon whispered, but Percy still heard him.
"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"
She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."
"But... he knew me as a baby."
"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."
"But I did come back to visit."
I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.
"How does he remember? He was only like a couple months old?"
"Well, at least you're not easily forgotten." Athena said, before realizing it looked like she had complimented Poseidon. She turned read and turned to Artemis pleadingly.
I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me...
I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.
"Dad, I'm not mad anymore. I understand why you had to stay away. You could have been much worse. Like you could've killed you child for falling in love." This last part was said while looking straight at Zeus.
"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"
She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.
"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."
"Because you don't want me around?"
"Percy!" Thalia and Annabeth screamed.
I regretted the words as soon as they were out.
"Good he better." Annabeth said.
My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."
Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy.
"Because I'm not normal," I said.
"Not even by demigod standards." Jason of the past said. Of course, what was normal for demigods?
"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."
"Safe from what?"
"Everything." Percy muttered. "She kept me safe from everything while she sacrificed herself."
She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.
During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.
"It was the only way I could check on him without Zeus getting angry!" Poseidon quickly defended himself. Some of the demigods in the room were jealous at how far the sea god went to protect his son.
Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.
"There is no way in Hades that the wimp did the same thing I did." Hercules looked like he was constipated.
"Prune juice, Jerk-er I mean Herk. It will help everything come out better." Hazel said with fake sympathy. Hercules was suddenly surrounded by shadows, and when they cleared, he was pale white and refused to talk. Hades shrugged.
"I warned him about using my name to curse."
In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.
I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.
"I don't know what say to that," said Athena.
"Then why did you say anything?" Poseidon retorted.
"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."
"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"
"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."
My head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born— talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?
"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."
"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."
"That would be confusing," Piper thought about how she would react in Percy's spot. Not as calmly.
She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.
That night I had a vivid dream.
All the demigods, beside Hercules, groaned. They hated dreams.
It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.
"As usual." Hestia grumbled. "Always at each other's throats."
The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.
"Hades?" asked Leo, quickly regretting it, because of the glare he was receiving from Nico and Hazel. "It said it came from the earth!"
"Why don't you suspect Demeter if that is your logic?" Nico replied. This left everyone stumped.
"Nico is right. We do tend to try and blame Hades first." Apollo said slowly. "I'm sorry Uncle, for treating you like an outcast." Everyone looked at the sun god in shock.
"You are forgiven, Apollo." Hades struggled out. It was hard not to hold a grudge.
I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!
"I win!"
"Do not be so sure, brother." Was Poseidon's reply.
I woke with a start.
Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.
With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said,
"Hurricane."
I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten.
"How dare you, Uncle!" Hermes laughed.
Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.
"Oh gods…" Reyna muttered. Percy didn't even have a weapon on him.
Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.
My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.
"No! Make sure it isn't a monster first!" Hazel yelled.
"Uh, Hazel? It's a book," Frank said to her embarrassment.
Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.
"What?"
"Hush and we can find out."
"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"
My mother looked at me in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.
"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"
I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.
"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"
"She just asked what he didn't tell her and then the satyr must ask if he told her? Gods." Zeus grumbled.
I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly.
"Pros of being half Greek god!" Thalia shouted.
I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on—
and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be ...
"Oh oh. What?" Leo asked excitedly.
"Think Leo, the title is Grover loses his pants, and we know Grover is a satyr." Frank explained slowly.
My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"
I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.
"Of course. Her son was discovered to be a child of the Big Three and now his life will constantly be in mortal peril." Ares said dismissively.
"Wow. Motral peril? Big words there Ares. I kind of expected you to say. 'Kid found. Will be in danger. Killed Painfully." Hephaestus grinned. Ares glowered at him.
She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"
Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.
Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.
"Dun dun dun!" Nico sang.
"Again with the creepy sound effects, dude." Jason Grace said while shaking his head. Greeks could be so weird. Nico merely grinned.
"I grew up in the Underworld. Please excuse me letting my inner child out for a little while."
"Nico, there is nothing 'inner' about your child like side." Hazel teased her brother. Nico stuck his tongue out.
"You!" He pointed to Jason Grace. "You turned my own sister against me! You shall pay!" Then both started to wrestle on the floor. They stopped when someone cleared their throat. It was Hestia.
"Niece, I shall read next if you will pass the book." Artemis shrugged and handed to book to her aunt.
"My Mom Teaches Me Bullfighting," she read.
"Why does she do that?" Hermes asked politely. Percy made a read on gesture. Everyone would hear about how he failed to save his mom.
Hope you all enjoyed. It is a rainy day and I have nothing better to do, so I may get one more chapter up. Please send out prayers to help the families in Oklahoma who were struck by the tornado. There have been 24 confirmed deaths and 237 confirmed injuries so far, and they haven't found everyone. This same town was hit by another huge tornado in 1999 and thankfully, most now had storm shelter that saved many lives. Yes, I am an Oklahoman and proud of it. Thank you!
P.S. I want to say a thanks to smegol26, he pointed out that my bold did not copy from Microsoft onto Fanfiction.