Chapter Six - Oh God

It should probably come as no surprise that our library outing was promptly cancelled. Two monster sightings in close proximity - even if one of the monsters in question was technically being attacked by the other - was apparently too much for Andromeda's grandparents. I didn't even get a chance to go back and check out my book before we were all loaded up into the Station Wagon and taken straight back to the Brownstone. Apparently the building was protected.

"Okay, I'm here," Andromeda's mom said when she came walking in not ten minutes later, taking stock of the mostly subdued atmosphere in the room. "What's happened? Is everyone alright?"

"Everybody's fine," Lydia said, trying to soothe her daughter. "But, Penelope was attacked by a cyclops."

"I knew going to the library was a mistake," Andros grumbled.

"Technically I was attacked by a sphinx," I said, speaking up. "The cyclops saved me."

"What?!"

"Well... Okay, so the sphinx only attacked me because I attacked it first," I said, getting blank looks from everyone.

"I need to make a phone call," Desi said, shaking her head. "In the meantime, I really think you should probably start from the beginning,"

So I told them about how I thought I saw Percy being attacked and rushed to save him only to realize my mistake afterward.

"And when I saw everyone running towards us, I told the cyclops to run away," I said. "He hadn't hurt anyone, and in fact had saved me, so I didn't want him to get hurt before I had a chance to explain things."

"How could you mistake a cyclops for your brother?" Andromeda asked.

"Well..." I shrugged. "They're both taller than me?"

Nobody laughed.

"My Aura sight kicked in and I saw a flash of sea-green being chased outside," I said. "And since Percy's the only person I know who's that color, I just naturally assumed it was him."

"You shouldn't be using Aura sight in public anyway," Andromeda chided. "Seriously, someone could see you."

"Yeah," I sighed. "About that..."

"Oh, no," Andromeda shook her head. "Nope. No. Uh-uh."

"Turns out Cleo the mysterious demigod was also at the library today," I said. "And she kind of cornered me. Apparently she's seen my eyes glowing at school."

"I told you so," Andromeda glared.

"Yeah, well... Now i have to figure out what to actually tell her and how by Tuesday," I finished. "It was the only way to get her to back off at the time."

"Penny, you can't!"

"I don't think there's much of a choice," I said. "I'm pretty sure she's more than clear sighted. I've seen her eyes glow. She might be completely unaware of the bigger picture, but her curiosity is going to lead to her seeking out the strange things she's seeing rather than keeping her distance. Case in point with me. I was minding my own business when she came up out of nowhere."

"I don't know what you think you're seeing, but she's not one of us," Andromeda insisted. "She can't know about us."

"I kind of agree with Penny," Percy said, speaking up.

"What?" Andromeda and her brother both asked.'

"Yeah," I said, also a little shocked. "What?"

"Whether she's like us or not, she can still see the weird stuff happening around her," Percy said. "I just remember how I felt like I was going crazy after Mrs. Dodds attacked me, and Grover and Mr. Brunner tried to gaslight me into thinking nothing had happened. 'For my protection'.

"Obviously we can't tell her everything," Percy added. "But, maybe some stripped down version of the truth. Enough that she doesn't feel the need to go looking for answers on her own and end up getting hurt or worse."

"That... Could work," Andromeda's brother said, hesitantly.

"You can't be serious," Andromeda argued.

"Look," I said. "I've got to tell her something. Maybe we can work together to figure out what that is. Kind of give us time to get our story straight. If I try to give her some half-assed lie, she'll see right through it. She's scarily observant."

"You do what you want," Andromeda said. "I want nothing to do with any of it."

"Okay, I just got off the phone with your mom," Desi said, coming back out from her office. I hadn't even noticed her going in.

"What?" I asked, worried. As far as I knew, mom was off on some college class or something for the weekend."Is she alright?"

"She's fine," Desi said, a little bemused. "Mostly, she's worried about her daughter after hearing that she'd been attacked by monsters."

I blinked, "You told her about that?" Everyone looked at me like I'd suddenly grown a second head out of my stomach. "What?"

"When we agreed to let you stay over, we accepted responsibility for your safety and well-being," Lydia said. "Ideally, nothing would happen and things would be fine. Unfortunately, a monster attack is a pretty big risk to both your safety and your well being. As such, it is important to let your mother know what happened and that, despite it all, you are fine. Naturally she's worried and wants to verify your safety with her own eyes."

"I mean, yeah... A monster attack is kind of a big deal," I agreed. "But, compared to the time a shapeshifting monster lured me out of the house in the middle of the night, this was noth-mmph!"

"We need to talk. Now!" I was cut off mid-sentence by Andromeda clapping both her hands over my mouth and shoving me into a side room.

"Your sister's kind of an idiot, isn't she?" I heard Andros say before Andromeda closed the door behind us.

I shuffled my feet, feeling a little awkward as Andromeda leaned against the door facing away from me. The room we'd entered was cooler than the rest of the house - as if nobody spent any real amount of time here. Glancing away from Andromeda, my eyes were immediately drawn to the piano in the middle of the room, a thin layer of dust that coated the keys only confirmed my suspicions that nobody had been in here in a while. The silence between us stretched on until Andromeda finally drew in a deep breath as if to steady herself before turning around to face me, her violet eyes flashing with barely restrained incredulity and frustration.

"You can't just dismiss stuff like that!" She all but shouted, and I took a half step back. "And you definitely can't talk about stuff like monsters luring you out of your house in front of my grandparents! They're already upset enough as it is and, whether you think so or not, sphinx and cyclopes are big deals in terms of monster attacks! So bringing up something like- You can't do that to them! They've already-"

She broke off and raked her hands through her hair. "Look, it's- It's not something we really like to talk about but... My mom wasn't always an only child. She had an older sister. A demigod sister. She died in a monster attack basically just a few blocks from home, helping get some newly aware demigods to camp. She was only a few years older than we are right now."

I blinked, stunned. "I didn't... I mean..."

"You didn't know," She said. "But now you do. So maybe try to be a little less insensitively blasé about this stuff and take it a little more seriously, huh?"

"I... Right," I nodded, shakily.

"Good," Andromeda said with a tone of finality.

"Um..."

"What?" she asked.

"What's with the piano?" I asked, gesturing.

Andromeda was silent for a moment, then said; "It was hers." Oh. "Now, let's get out of here."

"Y-yeah."

We walked back out to find the group had migrated to the dining room while we were talking.

"Did you have a productive talk?" Desi asked her daughter.

"I think so," Andromeda said.

"I'm sorry for upsetting you all like that," I said. "And, I'd understand if you don't want me to stay over for the rest of the wee- ack!"

"Don't be stupid," Andromeda interrupted, cuffing me in the back of the head. "Your mom's not even at home this weekend. Where would you even go?"

"I have a key to our apartment," I said. "And even if I didn't, and uncle Joe wouldn't let me stay in my old room, I know of a few good squat spots from when I was on the streets that I could stay until Tuesday."

"You're not staying on the streets!" Andromeda glowered.

"Andromeda's right, dear. You're not staying on the streets," Lydia said. "You are, of course, still very much welcome in our home."

"But..."

"Nobody's upset with you," Andromeda's mom assured me.

"At this point, I am," Andromeda said.

"Not helpful, dear."

"Don't think she's trying to be," Andros commented and Andromeda stuck her tongue out at him.

"We were just... Upset with the situation," Desi continued, turning a blind eye to her children's antics. "I understand you did what you did because you felt your brother was in danger, and I'm not saying that instinct to protect others is a bad thing, necessarily. But, you need to know how dangerous it is to run off on your own."

"I... Y-yeah," I nodded. "Sure. R-right."

"It's alright, kiddo, just keep it in mind, yeah?" Jerry said, ruffling my hair and chuckling as it magically settled back into place. "Well, that's a neat trick. Bet it would really come in handy for those two grandchildren of mine."

I grinned, looking over to see Andromeda and her brother wearing similar disgruntled expressions.

"I still need to get more product," Andromeda groused, tugging at a stray curl of her hair.

"They haven't delivered it yet?" She shook her head. "Huh. Maybe we could go up there and see what's going on with that."

"Maybe later," Desi spoke up, her tone indicating that 'later' might not come for a while. "In the meantime, why don't you all go upstairs and get cleaned up. It's almost lunch time."

As expected of a group of teenagers being informed there was food to be had, Andromeda and both of our brothers seemed to immediately vanish as they all sprinted up the stairs. Unfortunately, my height disadvantage meant I was the odd-girl-out when it came to available facilities. I was just about to give up and retire to my room to change my outfit, when I noticed another set of stairs leading further up.

"Well," I mused out loud. "Maybe there's an open bathroom up there."

With a shrug, I trudged up the stairs to find a single door at the end of the landing. The atmosphere of the landing felt oddly charged. My heart hammered against my ribs, and the hairs on my arms stood on end.

"Maybe I should just go back downstairs," I said, my voice coming out in a whisper.

I hesitated for a moment longer before shaking myself. This was an old person's house. If my recent delve into popular culture had taught me anything, it's that old people's houses had creepy looking spaces that turned out to be perfectly normal rooms. Besides, now I actually needed to use the bathroom. Firming my resolve, I reached out and opened the door.

To my disappointment (and odd relief), it turned out to just be a bedroom. The room was a dusty time capsule of an eighties music enthusiast. There was a bean bag chair in the corner, and a lava lamp on the dresser. Various cassette tapes overflowed a shelf and lay scattered across a plush, pastel colored shag rug. Every square inch of the walls was covered in posters or magazine cutouts of various bands and celebrities, and a half-completed rubiks cube sat on top of a pile of textbooks on the bedside table partially obscuring a massive boombox stereo. I turned, about to leave, when I suddenly felt the air in the room become super pressurized.

"What are you doing in here?" A man's voice boomed from behind me.