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Firstly, I'd like to thank a reviewer for correcting I name that I totally misspelled.
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Hope you enjoy reading chapter 3. Let me know what you think
3 The God of War Signs My Death Certificate
What happened next was really not one of my proudest moments. As Clarisse's friends hauled me into the boy's toilet, Clarisse kicked open one of the stalls, took ahold of my hair and came up way too close in my personal space. 'You like water, don't you, seaweed brain? Well time for you to take a swim then'. With one powerful swing she pushed me forward and literally tried to drown me in the toilet. Luckily for me, her first drowning-Percy-because-that-is-just-so-much-fun attempt failed. My instincts helped me out and I felt a familiar tug in my gut. As my face was supposed to hit the smelly toilet water, the water parted and my head hit, well, nothing, to the displeasure of a very mad Clarisse. 'Oh no, not this time' she shrieked and like a mad woman she started banging my head against the wall which made me dizzy as hell. And not the fun-I'm-on-a-rollercoaster kind of dizzy, but the crazy-girl-is-banging-my-head-against-a-concrete-wall kind of dizzy. Not very pleasant. As my mind was all over the place, Clarisse's second drowning attempt succeeded. My face hit the smelly, stinky water and I tried with all my might to get up. Unfortunately, my body was still paralyzed from the electric shock, so fighting back was not an option. The only thing I could do was try not to think about what usually landed in this toilet, except for the occasional head of a son of Poseidon of course. I also tried to be glad that I had the ability to breath under water. At least I didn't inhale the nasty toilet water.
I guess after some time drowning someone in a toilet loses its magic, and Clarisse hauled me up and threw me out of the stall. As I was gagging and trying my best not to vomit I heard something break and then I was showered by toilet water. Honestly I don't think it was just toilet water because the water that gathered itself on the ground was a shady yellow, but I just forced myself to think it was just water. Nothing else. Clarisse and her gang stood there for a minute, laughing, and then left me to soak in the toilet water.
After what seemed like forever and what was probably just a few minutes, I was able to move my left leg. I concentrated on trying to move my other limbs, instead of concentrating on the horrible, horrible smell that came up my nose. After a few more minutes I finally managed to stand up. I was surprised I guess. Normally when I dive into a pool or something I don't get wet if I don't want to. But my head, my body and especially my ego were pretty banged up, and I had only managed to keep my right leg and arm dry. The rest of me was absolutely and completely soaked in toilet water. Great, I thought, just great. As I started to walk out of the boy's public restrooms I was still barely able to stand up. All I wanted to do now was get to my cabin and sit in the shower for a few hours while trying to forget this had ever happened. Smart person that I am, I had totally forgotten that it was dinner time, and I walked straight past the eating tables, and a soaked banged up son of Poseidon does not really go unnoticed. 'Hey looks like Poseidon Junior had a fight with the toilet!' Clarisse yelled. A huge wave of laughter followed from the Ares table while all the other campers stopped with eating to gawk at me. I found my cheeks turn red and I decided to just walk up to my table and sit down. I tilted my head back and closed my eyes. This was NOT happening. Camp was my home. I fit in here. It was only the first day and I was already the laughing stock of camp, plus Clarisse would never let me forget this. Ever. Mr. D, who was of course also attending dinner, made it even worse. 'Peter Johnson, you are spoiling my appetite. Go and put on something that doesn't smell like, well, you, and then come back to eat'. I shot him my most angry look, thinking that I had definitely not missed him this year, and started to get up. 'Percy what have you gotten yourself into this time' a familiar voice sighted behind me. I turned around and saw Annabeth, one of my two best friends at camp standing behind me looking worried. Being a daughter of Athena, Annabeth was as wise as she was beautiful. With startling grey eyes, California blonde hair, an athletic build and more knowledge than most dictionaries, she was pretty impressive and sometimes quite intimidating to be around. Not that I would ever mention that to her of course.
As Annabeth launched into a series of questions about what I could possibly have done to get into trouble, Grover, my other best friend walked up to me. 'Perce what in the name of Pan have you been doing? You smell worse than my great uncle Andy's hooves!' He obviously went in for a hug but, wisely, changed his mind at the last moment and gave me a clap on my shoulder instead. His horns had grown since I last saw him and he seemed to be a little taller, but all in all he still looked the same as I had left him last summer. Both of my friends looked at me with worried eyes, but kept a good distance between us, which I understood considering how I was smelling at the moment. Annabeth took a deep breath. "Percy, as much as Grover and I would like to know what has happened, you should go shower, you look terrible and you smell even worse'. Her facial expression made me smile. "As much as I hate to tell her she's right, you should seriously hit the showers Perce. You could use some one on one time with a soap bar' Grover said, which was funny because Grover's version of one on one time with a soap bar meant eating the soap bar. 'After the shower you can tell us what happened' Annabeth added, as she forced a smile. As I turned around to make my way to my cabin and wash off the smell but mostly the humiliation of what had happened, I almost bumped into Chiron. Almost bumping into Chiron is very awkward looking at the fact that it meant I was bumping into a horse's trunk. He looked down at me. 'Well Percy, I don't really know what happened to you but Annabeth is right, as usual. You, my friend, are in desperate need of a shower'. Chiron shot my table a look and turned to Grover. 'Grover, save Percy some food for when he gets back, please'. It looked as if he was going to say something else, but at that moment the Stoll brothers got into a fight about something. Chiron sighted. 'It seems like I'm needed elsewhere. I'll talk to you later Percy'. He nodded to Annabeth and Grover and galloped away towards the commotion. 'Don't worry Perce, I'll save you some burritos!' Grover yelled, as he stormed off to the tables filled with food. 'I'll be showering' I said aimlessly and waved goodbye to Annabeth, who absent mindedly waved back, probably still trying to figure why I was smelling like a sewer. And she wasn't the only one fascinated. As I walked back to my cabin, I felt the eyes of the other campers following me, already gossiping about what could possibly have happened to me. All in all an awesome first day at camp.
After the longest shower of my life I finally gathered enough courage to go back to the camp scene. During my shower the sky had become dark and from afar I could already see the roaring pit fire that was set in front of the farmhouse. I tried to ignore all the obvious glances people shot me as I walked past the fire pit and sat down beside Annabeth who was talking to Travis Stoll about the fight. Out of nowhere Grover appeared, with a plate filled with burritos. 'Grover my man, I asked you to save me some dinner for tonight, not for the whole week' I joked as Grover crashed down next to me. 'No problem Perce, I'm a good friend, I'll help you eat' Grover said, as he took the top burrito and stuffed in into his mouth. 'Grover, that is just eww' Annabeth said as she rolled her eyes and turned to me. 'He also saved you a can of coke, but he already ate it'. Grover blushed. 'Yeah sorry about that Percy, I mean, it was just staring at me and begging me to eat it'. I laughed. 'It's alright Grover, I don't mind, really'. Maybe normal people would be weirded out by a best friend actually eating cans, but Grover was a satyr and if there was one thing he absolutely loved to eat it was Mexican food, and soda cans. Anyways, I thought it was pretty cool.
I threw a burrito into the fire as an offering for the gods, which is something we all do before we eat our dinner, and dived into my plate of burritos. Some of my other friends, kids from the Apollo cabin like Michael Yes and some sibling from Annabeth came up to me to ask what had happened today. To my dislike I could not come up with an excuse so I had to tell everyone how I got my ass kicked by Clarisse and her siblings. To my surprise, nobody actually laughed and most of them actually defended me. I finally started to feel a little better when, without a warning, the roaring flame of the campfire, died.
There was a slight wave of panic and suddenly everyone's attention was drawn to the front of the farmhouse. Torches flicked on all around it, which made the house stand out in the shady dark. A big, dark figure came out of the house and for a moment, my heart actually stopped. I heard Annabeth curse under her breath and Grover let out a small 'Yelp' while he stressfully started chewing his t-shirt. In front of us stood a big, muscular and familiar looking guy. He had huge, tattooed arms and wore some shady, ripped shirt. He was wearing camouflage pants, combat boots and some way too old leather jacket. He pretty much looked like a Hell's angel on steroids, only 1000 times as scary. His face was framed with multiple scars and he had this big wild beard. His eyes seemed to sparkle with a wildly burning fire. I felt Annabeth's hand on my shoulder and realized I had been holding my breath this whole time. I exhaled while Annabeth and I exchanged glances. We both knew the guy up there, and whatever his reason was for visiting our camp, it wasn't good.
The man looked around the crowd, smiling. Whenever he made eye contact with a camper, they immediately cast their eyes to the ground. The man radiated a raw kind of power, and obviously enjoyed using it to intimidate others. When he spoke, his voice boomed like thunder. 'Hello puny campers, let me introduce myself. I am Ares, god of war'. Ares looked around the crown again, to let the words sink in. Some people looked shocked and some people looked actually scared. Then cheers erupted from behind me. Ares smiled. 'While some of you may not know me, and some of you do, I am here on strict hero businesses'. He took a step forward and spread his big hulk-like arms. 'We gods need heroes and there is no greater way to find a hero, than sending them on a quest. That is why, every 20 years, we gods test the ones who want to be tested'. He smiled showing off one of his golden teeth. 'The brave will face four dangerous, god-chosen challenges. The winner will triumph, and the losers, well'. Ares walked towards the group of campers and caught my eye. 'The losers might die. Or just get really really hurt. It all depends on your luck'. He smiled, as if the thought of mangled demigods was something nice, like winning the lottery or something. With a poof a roll or parchment appeared in his hands. 'Anyone who would like to participate may participate. The competition will be fair and no gods will interfere, but beware. The last 100 years, only the best demigods have won. Only my kids have won'. Ares was laughing hysterically now, while he started walking up and down the row of kids. 'So if you're afraid to die or just plain weak' he looked at me again, 'you simply don't enroll and watch the brave ones fight it out. So, who's in?' Of course Clarisse was the first to step up and looked moronically proud while ensuring her daddy that she was absolutely going to win. How touching. Some other Ares kids signed up and I watched Ares watching me. He was mocking me. I could just hear him in my head, calling me a coward for not signing up. As I started to move forward Annabeth held me back. 'Don't Percy. He's just messing with your head' she whispered. 'What' I said, and looked at her. 'You expect me to let Clarisse win? After what she did to me today?' I tried to shake her off but she wouldn't let go. 'Percy, this tournament is really dangerous, I've read about it and' 'Of course you have' I snapped back, still struggling to shake her off. But Annabeth wouldn't let go of my arm and forced me to look at her. 'Percy, the point is people have died in this tournament. Died, as in dead. You can't just'. I cut her off. 'No Annabeth, that's the point, I can'. Without giving myself time to chicken out, I finally shook myself loose. 'Oh, and by the way, I might not be smart like you, but I know what dead means, thank you very much' I yelled at her, while walking away towards my cousin and archenemy.
Ares looked at me and smiled. 'So brave nephew, here again to make stupid decisions?' he said sarcastically. Ares was openly mocking me, definitely referring to our last encounter and fight. 'Well my last stupid decision turned out to be pretty awesome. I got to kick my cousin's sorry ass' I replied. I didn't know why I said it, but something in this guy just made me really angry. Ares's smile faded. 'You don't know who you're messing with boy' he whispered. His eyes started burning very bright, and I was afraid he might change to his true god form and burn me up, but he seemed to realize that killing the son of Poseidon in front of a demigod crowd was not a very smart move. He smiled again and in a less threating voice went on. 'Are you sure you're up for the challenge? Last time you were up against my daughters things didn't work out very well'. I heard Clarisse behind me laughing hysterically. Obviously Ares had watched my bathroom pounding . Would definitely be his form of Friday night entertainment. Don't you just love my family? 'Well, I guess if no one is cowardly enough to paralyze me from behind, I'll beat them with two hands tied behind my back'. I replied. Ares's smile disappeared and his eyes shot fire again. 'Okay, knucklehead, it's you're funeral'. As I walked back, Ares wrote my name down on the list of contenders, while his wordskept repeating in my head. It's your funeral.