Chapter 40.
At breakfast, instead of sitting at our own tables, we all sit at the Hades table.
The mess hall is packed and so when Chiron asks us to move we already have our excuses planned.
"I don't know where to sit." I tell him, which is true.
"Same," Reyna agrees.
"And I'm comforting Katy. I know she seems fine but I know Katy and she doesn't like to talk about her feelings. Plus, there isn't enough room for me and her at the Aphrodite table, so we came here." Which isn't exactly true and Chiron raises an eyebrow.
"I can't leave my sisters alone, and there isn't enough room at my table for both of them either." Chantelle says.
"I always sit with Nico. So, one of us is going to be sitting at the wrong table." Will reasons.
Samantha says, "the Hermes table is crowded enough without adding me and Andrew. Besides, I should sit with Liam and Katy, I am their legal guardian."
"Percy kind of scares me." Grace says, which makes Chiron laugh.
Thalia says " I don't want to watch Jason and Piper get all cuddly together. They're practically attached at the lips. Which I cannot bare."
"You could sit at Artemis's table" Chiron responds
"And be all by myself?"
A large guy wearing a cape like Reyna's, called Frank, says "I should sit with Reyna, and it's a force of habit since I'm used to sitting with Hazel at Camp Jupiter."
"And what about you, Lexi, Jessica and Rosie. There is plenty of room at your tables." Chiron asks.
"Please?" Jessica bats her eyelashes.
"Normally I'd tell you all that you're being ridiculous but, given the circumstances. I'll turn a blind eye, just make sure you sleep in the right cabins." Chiron says before leaving.
"That should be fun." Liam grins at Chantelle. "Drew hates one of me, can't wait to see her have to share a cabin with mortals."
"So, Katy," Frank begins, "if Athena's not your godly parent, who do you think is?"
"Aphrodite for sure." I joke. "Didn't Coach Oak say that my mother's Athena?" I recall.
"Yes he did." Liam puts the apple he was chewing down.
"Harold?" Thalia asks. Liam nods. "He retired last year"
"Also, he said he was sent five times. But if he failed the first time, why send the same one back again, four more times?"
"Because that's not Harold." Thalia shakes her head
"I have a theory" I gasp. "My necklace, you know how it actually makes you look like he person who wore it last, so like a shape shifter," I pause. "What if who pretended to be Harold, and me, had a some thing like that?"
"What did you wear on Sunday night?" Thalia asks "it would have to be easy to take on and off. Annabeth has a magic hat."
"Hang on." I open the locket and nothing happens. "This is Harold guy was gone by the time I got this, and I never opened this up after my look alike happened."
"Then why give it to you at all?"
"I just found it lying around."
"Maybe it got lost and they pretended it was a gift from Athena to explain away what happens when I open it?" I consider. "Then on Sunday, they just replaced it with an identical looking necklace."
"It's a stretch." Will says
"How do we know this hasn't been you all along?" Grace asks. And I think she's serious.
"You saw them when they were pretending to be me." I say.
"Exactly. And Katy's our sister, Grace, come on." Liam defends me.
"Alright. Keep your hair on." She rolls her eyes.
"Besides it's only an idea." I murmur as I play with the locket chain.
"What do we know about this person?" Nico asks.
"They targeted Katy first." Liam says. "Even before she knew what she was."
"Ok. Why?" I ask. "And what do they want? And also, in school they told us to wait to be it picked up, to be taken to a club."
"Where you met me." Jessica grins and I laugh back. "But I don't know how they knew I would be there."
"Well, all we needed was a child of Hephaestus to do what your father wanted." Lexi says.
"So they wanted us to meet you. Maybe, that's what caused us to go to that place." Liam says.
"Jessica, what did you see that night?" I ask. Jessica had thrown a knife at some thing.
"A spider." She says. "It was a big one though. And I hate them."
"That reminds me. Katy, you used to scream because of spiders. Like other children of Athena." Liam says,
"Perhaps it was because you're a half blood. Arachne hates all half bloods." Will says
"No she doesn't, just Athena's." Rosie says "I garden at home a lot and the spiders don't care about me."
"She's right," Nico says, "you're just trying to explain why he screams whenever he sees some thing that moves." He smiles at Will.
"Have you not heard of the Brazilian Wandering Spider? Because Hades to that!" Will crosses his arms.
"Yeah, everyone hates spiders. Maybe they thought you were a daughter of Athena. That would be good enough for them." Jessica says.
"Ok. So what do they want though?" I sigh in frustration.
"We're missing out something here." Thalia says.
"Well, who wanted us?" Nico asks.
"Dad." I look over at Liam as I think it. "But he didn't know about me."
"Where's dad?" Andrew asks.
"Let's go for a walk." Samantha says before taking him away,
"What if your dad was being used. There's no way any monsters would let you four slide. But if it meant that they got seven half bloods in return, three of which are children of the big three, they thought it would be worth the wait?" Nico says.
"Then just leave him." Liam adds.
"You seem very busy over here." Piper, Liam's other sister, comes over to us.
"Alright sis." Liam asks.
"Liam shut up." She grins. "By the way, you're bunk is a mess. Drew has been ranting about it all weekend and I've had to stop her from taking a bin bag to it twice."
"You should see his room." I laugh.
"Why, who are you?" She asks.
"His sister. My name's Katy." I smile.
"So, I'm curious. What the Hades happened this weekend?"
Nico dives into a summary of what happened and finishes with "so there's, what, three days of my life in never getting back."
"Sounds fun."
"But, the thing is, that we all thought Katy got claimed by Athena on Friday but this morning she came and told us that she never." Liam says.
"Oh." Piper says.
"Yeah."
"So, you don't know who your godly parent is?" She questions
"Nope." I reply
"I thought the gods promised to claim all half bloods by the time they're thirteen."
"Maybe they forgot." I joke "or, maybe they're a really hated goddess who pretended I was a daughter of Athena to stop themselves from getting thrown into a fire or whatever?"
"Or a goddess who would have been going against her own morals if she had a half blood, which would ruin her, so she passed you on to another.." Thalia says.
"You don't actually think." Piper says. "Hera, seriously?"
"It makes sense." Thalia shrugs
The sky above us goes dark grey and a bolt of lightning burns the table next to us.
"He's angry because I'm right." Thalia mutters.
After the sky returns to blue, my skin glows gold and Thalia has a smug smile on her face. "Told you."
"And here I was thinking that the day when Percy was claimed was the most shocking claim I'll ever see." Will mutters.
(AN: So, I didn't know where I was going to take this story and then it hit me, screw the fact that Hera would never cheat on Zeus, I need a reason why someone would pretend to be Athena by claiming Katy. I'm also pretty sure that the personalities in this story change far too much over four days and I still have to explain some things which I don't even know how I'm going to do so but I will. But I think I know what I'm doing.)