Chapter 2: Truth or Dare?

Piper

When I arrive at the messroom, I note that the atmosphere is rather tense. So far, only four people showed up for dinner – myself not included. Frank, Leo, Nico and Jason are eating their meals in silence. Obviously, they felt like dressing up as depressed persons today, and worse, they also act like ones. My mother certainly wouldn't approve of this new sense of fashion, and for once, I have to admit I'd agree with her. I take a seat next to Jason and start to butter a piece of bread. After a couple of minutes, I grow tired of the ongoing silence.

"Where's Hazel?" I focus my gaze on Nico, who looks like he hardly noticed I said something.

"Nico?"

He looks up – his mouth's full of toast. "What?" he groans, while spitting out some breadcrumbs.

"Can you tell me where Hazel is?" I ask, trying not to sound too disgusted by his improper behavior.

"How should I know? Maybe she's taking a shower, or maybe she's still sleeping. Dunno."

I roll my eyes. I don't think Hazel is late because she's simply taking a shower. By the tone of his voice, I'm sure Nico does not really believe that either. I'm about to tell him that, when suddenly, someone opens the door. I turn around, expecting to see Hazel, but instead …

"Brace yourself ladies, Winter is coming!" Coach Hedge storms into the messroom whilst attacking invisible foes with his wooden club. He's wearing a white T-shirt on which he wrote 'Team Daenerys' with a red highlighter. I laugh by the sight of him, as he looks extremely ridiculous, and I gaze at my friends to see how they react to Gleesons appearance: Jason is looking rather angry, Nico is still paying too much attention to his toasted bread and Leo is laughing – partly because of the coach and also because Frank tumbled out of his chair. "That's not funny coach!" I hear Frank grumble from underneath the table. Leo's laughing grows louder: "Sure it was!"

"Thank you for the compliment, monsieur Valdez," Gleeson says while making a bow. "I'm here to cheer you all up."

"And you figured the best way to do that was scaring the crap out of Frank?" a calm voice asks. I look up and notice that Percy is leaning against the doorpost, his arms crossed. I must admit he looks far better than the last time I've seen him. A bit of color has returned in his face and he's smiling a little. He dressed up in a shirt with a V-neck, so you can see a part of the bandage that's covering his chest. His sea green eyes are staring at the old satyr.

"Mr. Jackson!" the coach calls out in amazement, "What a pleasant surprise! I did not expect you'd join us for dinner."

To be honest, I did not either. I'm pretty impressed by Percy's determination to be part of everything that's going on around here. If I were him, I would camp in my bedroom for the rest of the year, drinking nectar whenever I could. But instead he showed up in order to dine with us, for the third day in a row.

"Anyway, you were telling us you've got a plan to cheer us up?" Percy says. The coach nods: "Yes, my dear boy. We're going to play capture the flag today, just as we used to do during the good old days at camp. Bit nostalgic, don't you think. Who's in?"

"I'm not," Nico replies bluntly, "I hate that game." Coach Hedge turns towards the others, but when no one reacts, he looks at us like we just decided to cancel his birthday. "Nobody?" he pleads.

"Sorry coach…" Jason begins, but Percy cuts in.

"I've got a better idea," he declares. Six pairs of eyes turn to him in amazement.

"What about a game of truth of dare?" he asks, sounding bitter.

Jason shoots me a worried look, like he wants to say 'I knew this was coming'. I wait for Jason to talk us out of the inevitable 'we-have-to-talk-moment' (I don't want to use my charmspeak on Percy), but instead he just says: "Alright, deal."

Leo's jaw drops. "Has he gone mental?" he mouths at me, but I don't know how to react. Percy, on the other hand, sits down at the table, reclines in his chair and points his spoon at Jason. "You, truth or dare?"

"Truth," Jason answer a bit reluctantly.

"Why do all of you act like I'm going to drop dead any minute?"

I sigh and drop my eyes, while a sudden feeling of guilt washes over me. We've all been avoiding Percy for days, which kind of seemed a bad idea all along. Even though his behavior has been kind of odd ever since he returned, Percy did not deserve to be ignored. The thing is, nobody wanted to talk to him because we all feel incredibly guilty about what happened. There is also no way we can justify what we did. I thought about apologizing to him several times, but when I played the scenario in my head, it always sounded like a really bad thing to do. I could not possible walk up to him like 'Hey, I'm sorry we abandoned you and Annabeth at Arachnes lair, almost let you starve to death in Tartarus, did nothing to find or help you and didn't even manage to reach the Doors of Death in the meantime?' So I figured avoiding him was the best solution, and apparently, the others had done the same.

After a few minutes during which nobody finds the courage to respond to Percy's question, he stands up. I expected he'd storm out of the room, but instead, he offers his hand to Jason. 'No more hiding from each other, alright? I think we need everyone on this ship, so we better start talking before we fall apart." Jason stares at Percy's stretched out arm for a couple of moments, his eyes are fixed at Percy's SPQR tattoo. I notice a tear welling up in the corner of Jason's eye. Then, he walks around the table and hugs Percy like he's reuniting with a long lost friend. Well, actually, he kind of is.

"I am so glad you're back Percy. I'm so sorry about everything - and that's an understatement." Percy sighs, relieved: "I missed you too."

When both of the boys let go, Jason gives Percy an encouraging smile. "No more hiding?"

"Agreed."

"Er…," Leo interrupts, "This is kind of awkward. But, Percy – I want you to know I really love to have you around." Frank nods approvingly: "Yeah. Me too… You know - maybe we should look for Annabeth and Hazel, we got a lot to discuss with them too."

I agree: "You're right. We'll search for them. We meet again in … an hour? If that's alright with you?" The others nod, and Jason gives me a wink, which gives me a warm feeling.

"Alright then," Leo announces, "Let's find the others , shall we?" He grabs Frank by the arm. "Come on Frank, let's go." Frank gives us a bewildered look as Leo pushes him out of the room. "See yah!" he yells, before the both of them disappear out of sight. "Well, we should join them," Nico stands up, still holding his toasts in his hand. He leaves the room, followed by Jason and Percy, side by side.

"Hey! Wait!" the coach yells at their backs, "what about my super-plan? I even made Game of Thrones-themed flags for our game!"