1. My Mom Says Goodbye With Blue Candy
Luckily this school year had been a quiet one. Well for my standards. The standards of a demigod. It had been a bit over a year since I discovered that my dad, who I had always believed had died on sea, was actually the god of the sea, Poseidon. Yeah, I'm not kidding. Being the son of the god of the sea is my life now. No joke. Am I happy with this? I'm not actually sure. I mean, being a half-blood means I have all these cool powers like commanding water and being able to breath under water. I also have this cool pen that actually turns into a sword when you click it and it also always returns to my pocket. Pretty awesome considering that I'm a 13-year-old teenage boy with ADD, which means I have the ability to loose every item I possess in a matter of minutes.
I always lose everything all the time which is something that drives my mom absolutely crazy. My mom is the best mom in the world. She and I live in a small apartment in New York. She works in a candy shop and she doesn't earn very much but we get by. She has been there for me all my life and totally tries to understand my half-blood life. Of course she still worries about me like all the time, but I mean, that is her job, right?
During the year she mostly worries about my school. Looking back, I have probably been expelled from every school I ever went to, which is probably some sort of record. It's not always my fault, I mean yes I am dyslectic, have ADD and a slight problem with authority but mostly strange things tend to happen to me. Things I can't control. For instance last year my math teacher, Mrs. Dodd's turned out to be a fury, you know, one of the 3 servants of Hades, god of the underworld. She had never really liked me but had I expected her to turn into a winged monster with razor sharp teeth and a really bad temper? No, not really. So she kind of attacked me and tried to kill me but luckily my Latin teacher Mr. Brunner saved my butt. He actually turned out to be a centaur called Chiron, the guy from all the hero stories, who also trained Hercules. He's real too. Just as real as you, and me, and the Olympian gods. Still following?
Anyways, this school year I tried to be a good kid. Making my homework, trying to stay out of trouble, actually passing my classes for once. And to me and my mom's surprise I did not get expelled even once. Okay, there was a this minor incident that involved a very, very big dog, and when I say big I really mean BIG dog. First I just thought it was a Yorky who liked me and followed me around. After a few days I could have sworn it was growing in size and after a week the cute Yorkshire Terrier that followed me around had grown to full calf-size. He had razor sharp teeth as long as my fingers, which he used occasionally to try and bite my arm off. After running like hell and doing some research on Google, I found out that I was probably being chased by Laelaps, a mythical dog that always catches his prey, which was of course just great.
Luckily I found a story about him chasing a fox that couldn't be caught, so I called up my best friend Grover, who is a Satyr. Satyr's are servants of the nature god Pan, top half human, bottom half goat, and I figured if anyone would know where to find a fox, it would be him. Luckily he didn't disappoint me and in no time I had a brown fox in my possession. I set it free a few meters from the Laelaps, I mean I did want to give it a head start, and it worked. The Laelaps followed his mythical instinct and chased after the fox. I haven't seen him since. I just hoped for the fox's sake that history would repeat itself and that it would never be caught.
This minor incident pretty much sums up my life right now. Yes I have cool powers. But yes I am also chased by monsters pretty much 24/7. Usually it's my uncle Hades who is trying to piss me off by sending some of his pets over to say hi. Needless to say he is not my favorite relative.
Now July had finally begun, which meant that school had ended and I was to go to Camp half-blood to see my friends and train to fight monsters all summer long. I loved camp, but I could not stand leaving my mom for a whole year, so I had decided to only be a summer camper, and to not stay the whole year around.
I walked home from school and entered our small apartment. Of course my mom was waiting for me in the living room. She hugged me tight like only she was allowed to, and we sat down in the living room. 'And Percy, how was your last day of school?' she asked me. 'Very, very emotional' I replied smirking. She obviously knew I was more than happy to switch those dusty classrooms for summer camp. 'Well your bags are packed and I brought you something extra from the shop today'. She smiled at me and threw me a bag. I smiled back, already knowing what would be in it. The bag contained candy, but only blue candy. It was something of an inside joke between us. Her ex-husband and my ex step loser, smelly Gabe, had always said that blue food did not exist. My mom did her best to prove him otherwise, even though he was not really around anymore, and we both knew for sure he wasn't coming back anytime soon. 'Thanks mom' I said and I stood up and hugged her again. I didn't want to admit it but I was really going to miss her. 'Percy, promise me you'll at least try to stay safe' she said while smiling through her tears. 'I'll try' I replied, but she and I both knew better. Being a demigod pretty much meant I was in danger all the time. She kissed me on my forehead. 'And if you want you can always call or come back, you know that right?'. 'Yeah mom thanks, I know'. I'm definitely not a cry-baby, but realizing I had to leave my mom, who literally could not cross the boundary of Camp half-blood because she was human, made me sad. 'I uhm, need to get my bags'.
I walked to my room, wiped my eyes dry with my sleeves and got my bags. I walked to the door while my mom waved me goodbye. I once more looked at the apartment that I had called home for the last year, and walked outside. I made a mental note not to forget to call my mom every other day. I walked around the corner, looking for my bus when I faintly heard my mom scream 'I love you Percy!' out of the window. It made me smile. I found my bus, line 91, got in and slowly watched how the skyscrapers of New York City were replaced by the familiar landscape of trees and hills, with a whole summer of camp still ahead of me.