Percy

Luke led the cabin up a hill to where a simple marble flooring was. There was a rack of swords on the sidelines and benches sitting beside them. Two boys, looking like twins, ran first to those swords and began arguing for one medium-sized leaf-shaped blade. Percy recognized them immediately, thinking back to those two people stealing his Minotaur's horn. He was going to destroy them soon.

"Grab your swords, everyone. Make sure they're balanced too." All the other kids ran over to the swords and eventually, only two swords lay still. Luke went over to the one of the left and picked it up before grabbing the other one and handing it to Percy. Something was wrong with this sword, though.

"It's not balanced." Luke looked skeptically over to him before looking at the empty rack.

"Well, there isn't any others. I guess you just have to deal with that one for now." Percy nodded before Luke continued, "Everyone! Grab a pair!" Everyone around the arena started to partner up with each other with none giving Percy a glance. Luke looked over to Percy and offered to be his partner, Percy agreed.

"Loser still got an ego, huh? He thinks he can stand a chance again Luke!" He heard someone say and he turned around but everyone just stared back with smiles.

"Luke's the best swordsman in the past century!" Someone else said.

"Great. Now everyone is going to watch me humiliate myself again." Percy mumbled to himself, tightening the grip around the hilt of his sword so tight it made his hands pale. A tremble appeared in Percy's pocket as he remembered his pen.

"Can we bring our own weapons to use?" Percy asked and Luke shook his head.

"No, these swords are specifically designed to not kill anyone here. They might just scratch you but not kill. You have your own sword?" Luke asked, making Percy groan and then shake his head, not wanting to show Luke Riptide yet.

"Let's start the lesson!" The counselor of the Hermes cabin begun to teach everyone some new techniques and he taught the newer campers some basic techniques. Percy barely even paid attention, just staring at Luke absentmindedly while facing anxiety for the impending embarrassment he was about to face.

"-Percy, you awake? Hey!" Luke shouted, waving his hand in front of Percy's face. Percy begun to blink rapidly and nodded while rubbing his eyes.

"I'm awake."

"Excellent. You're my partner, which means I have to teach everyone here how to parry." Everyone around him snickered and walked over to the bench, muttering. Some cash was exchanged between them with the probable bet being 'How much will Percy be beaten?' Percy figured most of them will have bet on 'A lot.'

It went exactly like how everyone expected as Luke continuously bruised Percy up as the latter tried his best to block every shot. He did block a few but Luke was just casually slashing all over, making cuts over Percy's 10-year-old body. It didn't seem exactly fair and Luke seemed to understand as he stopped.

He told everyone to take a quick break before humiliating Percy again. They all went over to a water station that appeared at some point, getting cups and drinking them. Percy gulped down a couple of cups, feeling better than before. He saw Luke pour some water over his head and he decided to do the same. He felt even better than before and much stronger.

After the break, Luke started to talk about parries and follow-up slashes. Percy was the test subject. Luke told Percy just to simply slash at him, which Percy did happily. However, it seemed as if Percy didn't even hear what the lesson was as Luke blocked it and slashed back at Percy. The boy didn't even bother to block it as it grazed his arm.

Luke grimaced, "Your turn Percy. You don't have to hold back." It was an indirect apology and Percy accepted it. Luke then made a very simple slash at Percy to which Percy immediately blocked and slashed back. Luke parried the slash while grinning like a proud dad. He slashed at Percy and then it was time for Percy to parry.

This cycle went on for a few good minutes and Luke seemed to get more frustrated with every passing second. His hits were harder and faster than before and it seemed like all of Percy's energy had just left. Finally, Luke attempted a slash and Percy moved his sword to parry it.

However, Luke didn't clash his sword with Percy's but instead pulled it back and slashed on the other side, faster than Percy could react, and slashed his arm again. 'Ow. If the voice from the pit really does trust Luke and wants Percy to trust him, Luke wasn't making it easy.' He thought as Luke pulled out some pudding.

"Here, eat some but not all of it. It should help heal." Without a word, Percy gratefully grabbed it and gobbled it up. It tasted like his mom's chocolate chip blue cookies and he can almost feel the crunch on them even though he was eating pudding. Luke seemed to smile at his expression before his eyes went to behind Percy.

"Percy, Chiron needs you." A voice from behind Percy spoke and he turned around, seeing Annabeth again. This time, it looked like she was making a good attempt to not blush under Luke's presence. It wasn't a good facade though.

"Why?" Percy asked back and she started to give him a scowl as if saying 'Chiron needs you and I don't want to keep standing here while the idiot keeps making me look bad in front of Luke.' Percy wasn't sure she was looking at him like that but that was the best reason why she was staring at him with moe anger and distaste than Gabe would.

"It's fine Percy, you can go. Just come back to the cabin in an hour and take a shower beforehand because that is when dinner is." Luke said to Percy before turning to Annabeth who blushed as they made eye contact, "Percy is yours, Annabeth. Try not to bore him with architecture."

"R-right. I-I won't. C'mon Percy." She glared at him which prompted him to almost run up to her as they went back down the hill and towards the big house. Annabeth didn't talk to Percy all the way down the hill but Percy didn't really think too much on it. All he could think about was getting Chiron's disapproval because Annabeth convinced him to not follow his orders.

"No need to worry about getting in trouble Percy, Chiron just wants you to apologize." Annabeth told him, beginning to slow down once they started to get close to the big house.

"I'm not apologizing," Percy growled back at her and she sighed.

"You're useless." She murmured, "Why did I think you were any different."

"I'm not useless."

"Yeah, you are." Annabeth told him, grinning like he was someone fixing up her pride. She probably thought she was a million times better than Percy and he hated that about her.

"You're way to big-headed." He accused her and she looked at him incredulously. He stared back which made her start to ponder his words. They kept silent as they finished the walk to the big hosue were Mr. D was sitting down lazily on the chair with Chiron beside him.

"Maybe you're right..." she murmured before raising her voice, "You should just apologize to Mr. D so you don't get toilet duty every day for the rest of your life." He frowned at her while she made a signal for him to go and apologize. He complied, not happily, but more worried for his future.

"Ah, Peter. Looks like you're famous here." Mr. D smugly spoke, putting his feet on the table and his hands behind his head. Chiron said nothing but made a face at Percy as if telling him to do just apologize. "Well? You going to apologize?" Mr. D asked lazily and almost rhetorically as if expecting Percy to actually apologize.

"No. You're the whore." Percy spoke bravely back at him, refusing for Mr. D to easily disrespect his mom like that. If there was one thing that Percy hated second most to Gabe was people who hurt his mother and Mr. D fell into that category. Percy couldn't let his mother's image be destroyed by some pot-bellied egotistical Olympian.

Mr. D's eyes flared dangerously and Chiron decided that was the time to speak. "Mr. D, before you turn Percy into a dolphin just know that you can't hear his protests when he is one." Chiron seemed to understand that Percy was a lost cause with Mr. D and trying to convince the Olympian was useless. That meant that Chiron had to bargain with Mr. D which also didn't work out in Percy's favor as now he would have to do toilet duty for the rest of his horrible life.

Mr. D seemed to acknowledge this fact and his smile grew larger. "That seems like a wonderful idea, Chiron. Johnson, you are to be working from daylight to sunset with chores. You will have to do toilet duty for the rest of your life and various other jobs like Kitchen Patrol."

"What stops me from leaving?" Percy asked, the idea suddenly sounding very promising in his mind. Mr. D only grinned evilly in response.

"Then I can catch you and make sure you feel the pain of insulting an Olympian." Despite Mr. D being a pot-bellied man who probably couldn't stand for a few minutes without having to catch his breath, Percy knew that Mr. D's threat isn't empty. He just grinned back at Mr. D.

"Soon, I'll leave. And you won't catch me then." He stalked away, back to where Annabeth was standing worriedly. She seemed to have only heard snippets of the conversation but that was enough for her to understand what happened. She slapped him.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"For not apologizing, Jackson. You just ruined your life!"

"Does it really matter if I do?" He waved his hand out toward all the other kids, "Everyone already are disgusted of me. And I don't see any adults here which may just mean they left because camp life isn't for them. That means I'll leave eventually so what if some few years are ruined?" Annabeth seemed taken aback that he even managed to piece together that every adult left. 'Another point for me.' Percy growled to himself, more angry than proud.

"Camp is wonderful, Percy." She said softly, "If you actually got to know some people like Luke and got to do some activities you enjoyed. I know you like sword fighting, I saw it in you as you dueled Luke. If you could do these activities every day up until adulthood then that is a good life. You wouldn't want some stupid toilet cleaning to ruin it."

Percy finally seemed to understand what he had just gotten himself into when he disrespected Mr. D. He cursed himself silently, using some words that a ten-year-old should have never known except if that ten-year-old grew up with Gabe Ugliano.

"You need to take a shower." Annabeth interrupted his thoughts, holding her hands up to her nose. "You're all sweaty." She started to walk to the bathrooms which Percy forgot about. Luckily, he had Annabeth to help. They passed by the 12 cabins of each of the Olympian gods. Percy looked for the ugliest one, thinking it will be Dionysus', but instead he just saw a painted red cabin with a sword and shield on top.

A large girl whose body looked a lot older than she is was standing in front of the door. She was just as ugly as the cabin and her other ugly friends were all ganging up on some innocent kid and giving him hard pats on the back. Unfortunately, the big girl's eyes met Percy's and she grinned menacingly.

"There's the punk! Kid thinks he really killed the Minotaur?" She spoke as she approached Percy and her nabeth. Annabeth sighed in annoyance, waving her off like she was a fly.

"Go polish your spear or something, Clarisse."

"Sorry, wise girl, but I gotta show this punk that he isn't all that special." The Clarisse girl looked around three years old than him and her Camp Half-Blood shirt had streaks of red all over it. It probably would've looked like blood if it wasn't so badly painted on.

"Mr. D already did that." Annabeth told her but she just shrugged.

"Every newcomer gotta be punished." She made her way to Percy who tried to get into a fighting stance but was just pulled into her hand. He was scrawny enough for her massive hand, rougher than some concrete he fell against, were scratching his neck as he tried to stop her. She began dragging him to the bathroom with her ugly friends watching. Annabeth didn't do anything.

'Great. Now I'm going to get wet either way.' Percy didn't want to take a shower with a bully's hand around his neck but he didn't really have much of a choice as they entered the girl's bathroom and made their way to one of the open stalls. A gut feeling started to tug in Percy's stomach but he dismissed it as his natural instinct of being terrified of everything. Clarisse and her friends were all laughing, taunting Percy.

"As if he could have killed the Minotaur. The Minotaur probably died laughing because of how stupid he looks." Clarisse said. He was starting to hate her but he couldn't say anything because her grip tightened around his neck as she forced him to kneel down with his face facing the toilet.

Suddenly, right before Percy's head was submerged in the toilet that wasn't flushed (the masterpiece in the toilet was probably created by Clarisse in advance of their meeting), the feeling in his gut tightened. The infested water in the toilet flew right above Percy, slamming Clarisse right in the mouth while she was laughing.

She flew backward with her ugly friends standing there in shock. Another feeling on his gut caused all the showers and toilets to explode, making water slam into her ugly friends and push them back. Clarisse laid there, gagging, while small pieces of her masterpiece fell out of her mouth. Her friends were more lucky they didn't leave their masterpieces as they just drank some toilet water that touched the toilet where multiple masterpieces were created.

He turned around, standing up on his feet. He was expecting his shoes to be absolutely soaked but they weren't. Instead, he was standing in an open circle of dry land. Water didn't dare invade the dry space that encompassed Percy's feet. The entire floor was flooded which meant that Clarisse and her buddies' clothing were soaked.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Annabeth staring open-mouthed at him. She was soaked just as much as everyone else in the room. He heard a large commotion start to come from outside of the bathroom but Annabeth looked like a fish gaping out for air. 'Is this a point?' He thought to himself.

"I'll kill you!" Clarisse interrupted his thoughts as she tried to stan up. Her friends grabbed her arms and pulled her out of the bathroom. Percy followed suit, stopping beside Annabeth whose attention was now set on a cursing Clarisse.

"You want to gargle more toilet water?" He growled at her and everyone who saw the scene was staring at him, horrified. Wonderful, now Percy gained at least some respect back after beating up the biggest child bully of the camp. He turned to Annabeth who was now putting her fingers up to her chin and thinking.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" He asked her and she blinked, realizing she was staring at him like how a kid would be staring at a piece of broccoli they don't want to eat.

"I think...I want you on my team for Capture the Flag."

"Great. You may want to get cleaned up real quick because everyone is staring at you." He mentioned but she frowned when she looked at Percy's shirt which was completely dry. She shook her head, her wet hair which lost the natural curls it had as it was soaked shook side by side. Some slapped Percy, making him grimace but she didn't seem to notice.

"Go back to your cabin and just wait for Luke. He'll lead you to dinner. Also, don't do anything like this to anyone else in this camp. You already made enemies of two people on your first day of camp." She told him before jogging off, glaring at anyone who looked at her weirdly.

"Show's over!" Percy shouted out to them and they all dispersed silently, making not-so-secret glances at him. He decided to actually heed someone's orders this time, making his way over to Cabin 11. It was completely empty, which meant Percy can enjoy some of the only alone time he would ever have in this camp.

He sat himself where he slept and began to think about the events of the day. However, everything he thought of always went back to one thing - the voice. Annabeth, when she was talking about good friends, mentioned Luke specifically. The voice also said to trust Luke and even though Luke beat up Percy and embarrassed him, Percy could see that he could also trust Luke.

Percy kept this thought process up, albeit struggling sometimes to process some things fully because of his ADHD. He kept just fiddling with his pen in his pocket, taking care to not accidentally uncap it because if he did, it would become the new target for all the Hermes kids to steal.

"Percy, do you see sheer number of sleeping bags here and bunks?" The voice Percy was thinking about spoke, creating a cold aura in the room. He huddled his legs together, wrapping his hands around them and nodding. "The gods, they discarded all of you. They don't care for you."

Percy remembered when he asked Annabeth how long it was going to take to be claimed and how her face darkened. He saw the dozens of sleeping bags on the ground, 'Not everyone in this cabin is claimed. Most of unclaimed.' He thought to himself, remembering that he was unclaimed but living in this cabin. Some others must have been doing so too.

He felt angry at them for their abandonment. Even if there were Ancient Laws, they can just ignore them and help them at least. At the least, they could have just claimed everyone including Percy so that the kids don't feel alone. The gods just knocked up their parents and just left, leaving them all alone. Percy felt most angry at the gods though because of their stupid lack of interference. They didn't do anything about his mother and they aren't doing anything about him.

"Yes Percy...they abandoned everyone." The voice in his head spoke, sending another shiver down his spine. However, Percy was starting to get accustomed to these cold shivers that appear when he talks to the voice.

"Hey, Percy. What happened with the toilets?" Luke walked into the room, making Percy's attention turn to him. The cabin's windows were mostly shut but the small sunset in the room seemed to shine onto Luke's orange shirt, making it glitter brightly. Luke's face was in the shadows, staring intently at Percy. Luke looked absolutely terrifying and his scar wasn't making anything better.

Percy knew Luke enough to know the boy isn't as bad as he thought. However, if Luke had been talking to the voice like Percy, resentment must be built up in the boy's chest. Of course, Luke was good at hiding it but that thought unnerved Percy.

"Clarisse just ate a bunch of toilet water." Percy told Luke who just looked at him skeptically before grinning.

"That's the spirit, Percy! You're already becoming a pranker. You might just be my half brother." Luke said happily, moving forward and patting Percy's back like an approving dad.

"I don't look anything like you." Percy mentioned, glancing at Luke's sandy blonde hair. Luke sighed.

"That sucks. But hey, do you know who your parent is?"

"I don't know my dad but I know my mom." He mentioned, careful not to mention too much about his mom. Luke didn't ask, luckily.

"Well, there are hundreds of gods. Only a few could actually be your dad. Tomorrow, we could work together and try to find out what you're good at. Every camper here is good at something that relates to your parent. Like Annabeth, she's smart like her mom." Luke reachd for Percy's hand as if they had just agreed on a multi million contract. Percy took it and Luke pulled him up.

"You're counselor of the Hermes cabin, right? Do you know how many unclaimed like me there are?" He asked, the thought suddenly on his mind. If the voice told him he could trust Luke then the voice must understand Percy's curiosity for certainty. Luke's face darkened immediately and the room seemed to have turned dozens of degrees colder.

"About 20. Too many to count, really."

"It can't be that hard to count?"

"I don't want to. I just know there's too much." Luke side eyed Percy like he was one of his specimen that he just experimented on. "Why do you ask?"

"Just curious." He told half the truth before his stomach growled, "When is dinner?" He tried to switch the topic and not make it as dark as it was now.

"10 minutes. I just came down here to take quick shower. You probably don't need one, though." Luke joked before walking over to his bunk, grabbing his toiletries, and heading off into the showers.

A few minutes later, Luke came back fresh. Following his path was the rest of the cabin which Percy studied intently. He could immediatelynotice the differences between the cabinmates but also the similarities. All the ones that look like Luke all had pointy ears and the same facial shape and Percy deducted that those were children of Hermes. However, the other half of the cabin did not look anything like those children of Hermes. Percy deducted those re the unclaimed.

Everyone still kept their distance from him but not as severe as beforehand. One of the kids tried to give him a head noogie but he managed to sidestep the attempt, making the boy trip over and blush embarrassed. The boy tried again but Percy just ducked under the outstretched hands carelessly. Suddenly, before the boy could try and test the theory 'third times the charm', a conch horn blew.

"To Dinner!" Luke yelled out, "Move out!" The cabin all cheered before rushing out with Luke. All the other cabins seemed to be doing the same with Clrisse leading the Ares cabin and Annabeth leading the Athena cabin. The brightest of the cabins that had a sun statue along with a bow and lyre saw a large group of kids rush out, easily forming the second largest cabin in the camp. Based on the symbols placed on the cabin and Percy's knowledge of mythology, he thought that cabin was Apollo's.

An 8 year old girl wave her hand out to Percy but he couldn't see her face fully because of the little light that was left. Sunset seemed to have came down extremely fast, making it hard to see clearly. The hearth that the girl was tending to shined brightly, illuminating her face only a little. He couldn't see much of it though as he had to dodge another head noogie from a Hermes kid. He wondered what cabin she was part of and why she wasn't going with anyone else. She must have just ate before everyone else did.

All the kids and teenagers entered the pavilion, a large pavilion with thirteen tables, twelve for the twelve cabins and one for Mr. D and Chiron. Luke led them to the largest of the tables and sat down. Percy, being at the end of the group, sat on the end of the table. The kid beside him tried to scoot away from him but there wasn't enough room so he just sighed.

Suddenly, Luke came and ordered everyone to scoot down before sitting by Percy. The boy frowned, wondering why Luke, probably the coolest kid in the camp, is sitting with the biggest loser. He didn't complain though as this could help his reputation, albeit slightly.

Chiron clapped his hands together, making everyone quiet down. Mr. D introduced Percy as Peter Johnson, much to the boy's anger, and gave the command for everyone to eat whatever their "fat" bodies could eat. Everyone seemed to growl at Mr. D at that comment but no one was as foolish as Percy to challenge the god.

"Just think of whatever you want and it appears. Watch this." Luke told Percy before a few moments passed of utter silence. Suddenly, a piece of steak and a few pieces of brocoli appeared on Luke's plate. His glass was filled with some soda, probably Coke.

Percy repeated the action, thinking of some beef roast and steak sauce. Immediately, his plate was filled with the said dinner. He thought of cherry coke and it appeared in his glass before changing color to blue after Percy thought for it to change. Before the 10 year old's mouth was filled with food, everyone started to stand up.

"Come on, Percy. Let's go sacrifice some food to the gods." Luke got up and Percy reluctantly followed suit, both approaching some fireplace. His eyes glanced at the pot bellid Mr. D whose sunglasses over his head did not do a good job of concealing that he was asleep. Luke cut off a decently sized portion of his steak before throwing it into the fire, muttering something resembling "for the gods."

Percy cautiously cut off a piece of his beef roast and threw it into the fire. "For all the gods except Dionysus." He murmured before gaining a whiff of the smell. It was a smell that percy could live off forever, smelling exactly like his other's cookies once they left the oven. He wondered if everyone who used cigarrates also smelt stuff like that but Percy doubted it as he smelt enough smoke to know it was disgusting.

As he walked back to his table, he caught eyes with one of Mr. D's eyes which was slightly opened. He seemed to be glaring at Percy but the boy just stuck his tongue out to the god before sitting down and munching on the newfound food. Before he could drink, however, the coke he just had was gone. His eyes darted around, thinking one of the Hermes kids stole it but none of them had it.

He thought back to Mr. D who was dirnking Diet Coke the first time they met and groaned. The god had just stolen his drink. He tried to think of the coke again and it appeared before disappearing again. He just stopped trying to get a drink after that second time, deciding that he will drink some water on the way back.

After everyone had finished their dinners, they all went to a campfire to start singing some random songs about the gods. It was fun, actually, and Luke was making faces on every single mention of every god which made it even more hilarious. It felt like Luke was mocking these songs as if saying 'the gods like these stupid child's lullaby songs.' Percy was still a child but he felt more mature, much more mature, than every other kid his age so he laughed at the jokes.

Once they were finished with the songs, Chiron dismissed everyone to their cabins. There was a few s'more fights along the way between Hermes kids and Apollo kids (which the latter won in a landslide) but everyone made it back to the cabins by sometime around ten pm.

"Fun day at camp, huh, Percy? It only gets better, trust me." Luke told him as they were starting to get ready for bed. The counselor moved Percy's designated sleeping area beside Luke's bed, making it clear to everyone that Luke approved of Percy. The boy was apprecitive of that subtle message.

However, for some reason, Luke's words lingered at 'it only gets better.' It seemed as if the 15 year old was starting to get bored at camp. Percy didn't know how long Luke was at camp but he didn't care to ask.

"I guess it was. Yeah, I hope so too." Percy answered, pulling the sleeping bag up to his chin. Luke stole it with him from the convenience store after they snuck off during the third song. They weren't caught by anyone important but Percy definitely wan't a Hermes kid because even a drunken guy can hear Percy coming from a mile away.

Percy felt Luke smile before snores started to engulf the cabin. The ten year old boy was content at camp, for once. He felt as if he found another home since the home when Gabe Ugliano came didn't feel like home. Montauk beach cabin felt like home but not anymore since thee were too many bad memories there. He smiled up on the roof of the cabin.

"Don't get too comfortable, Percy. Remember your mother's death. I'm the only one to acknowledge it, not the gods. Become my servant." The voice spoke to Percy but the boy just ignored it. He didn't want to feel angry and make it ruin the only good night he had since last year when his mom and him went to their yearly visit to Montauk cabin.

His eyes drifted asleep, the voice fading off in the background for now.