Chapter Nine - Friends and Family
The rest of the school day seemed to somehow drag on forever and simultaneously pass in the blink of an eye. Part of that was that Andromeda was no longer avoiding me during our shared classes. Thankfully, Cleo seemed to have been satisfied enough with my explanation of magic that she hadn't pressed me for more information. In fact, after lunch, she seemed to have made a conscious effort to avoid me altogether.
The last bell rang, signalling the end of the school day, and I grabbed my bag to put away my art supplies. Now that we'd gotten through the first week introductions, Mr. Saunders had moved on to having us draw still life images. Staring silently at a bowl of mixed fruit for an hour had me seriously reconsider taking his class. Of course, I only had to glance over at Percy's sketchbook to remind myself why I was here. He was super talented, but lacked confidence in his abilities. My taking this class with him was a compromise.
"Come on, Percy," I said. "School's out."
"You go on ahead," he said. "I'll be right out. Just need to ask Mr. Saunders something real quick."
"Okay..." I said, shouldering my backpack. "Don't forget we're taking the bus today."
"I know."
With a shrug, I left the classroom and practically ran head first into Andromeda's brother - narrowly avoiding falling on my ass. He may have been only slightly taller and broader than me, but he was deceptively sturdy.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, nothing hurt except my pride," I said, straightening my clothes and glancing around. "So, um... Where's your sister?"
"On her way to the pick up spot," he said. "Where's your brother?"
"Percy's still in there," I said, gesturing to the classroom. "Said he wanted to talk to the teacher about something."
"Oh," Andros said, awkwardly. "I'll just... Uh, I'll just wait out here for him."
"Suit yourself," I shrugged.
Making my way outside, I couldn't help but squint at the overcast sky with a frown. I really hoped it wouldn't rain - have I mentioned how much I hate getting wet?
"What're you looking at?" Cleo asked suddenly from behind me, making me jump slightly.
"Wondering if I need my umbrella or not," I said, tilting my head toward the gray sky after I composed myself. I didn't even start smoking, either. Total win.
"You have an umbrella?" She asked. I smirked and shook my backpack. "Of course you have an umbrella. That is seriously weird."
"It's useful," I argued as thunder rumbled in the distance. I wasn't sure if that was Zeus getting touchy about my abuse of a godly artifact or just normal weather, but I decided to pull out my umbrella just in case either way. "So, uh... No offense, or whatever, but why are you hanging around me?"
"Honestly? You're the first person I met who actually acknowledges the weird shit going on," Cleo said, falling into step beside me as we both made our way to the parking lot. "Plus, if this shit's as dangerous as you make it out to be, then I figure the safest place to hang out is with the people who can actually do something about it."
"And here I was thinking you just wanted to be my friend," I said, sarcastically.
"Aww, you already consider me your friend ?"
"What?" I blinked. "No, I said..."
"Nope, too late," she grinned. "You said it, so you can't take it back. We're friends now."
"But..." I was cut off by the sound of a car honking.
"That's my ride," Cleo said, giving me a mocking salute. "See you tomorrow, new best friend!"
I stared after her retreating form as she climbed into the back seat of an off-white Sedan.
"What the fuck just happened?"
"If I had to guess, I'd say you just picked up a stray," Andromeda said, startling me. Seriously, what was up with everyone coming at me from my blindspot this afternoon? "I told you this would bite you in the butt."
"Maybe it's not such a bad thing," I said, turning to face her.
"How do you figure?"
"Well, you wanted to fit in better, right?" I asked. Andromeda just raised an eyebrow in response, so I continued; "Our friend group is pretty insular. Just me and my brother and you and yours. It's no wonder we stand out. And, sure, we're surrounded by mortals all day in class and in the halls, but having a mortal friend in our group... Someone we could invite to hang out with during the weekends? She's clear sighted, so we wouldn't be blindly exposing her to anything extraordinary."
Before Andromeda could say anything, we were interrupted by the approaching sound of Andros and Percy having a hushed, if slightly heated, argument.
"He was being picked on," Percy was saying. "What was I supposed to do? Stand back and let it happen? I can't stand bullies."
"Neither can I," Andros defended. "But, in this case, yes! You should have just walked the other way. As fast as possible. Without looking back!"
"What's going on?" Andromeda asked, focusing the boys' attention back to their surroundings.
"Um..." I tapped Andromeda on the shoulder, then pointed to the hulking figure standing right behind our brothers.
The figure stood almost a full head taller than Percy and was almost as broad as both Andros and Percy standing side by side, and staring down at us, partially hidden behind a fringe of dirty brown hair, was a single, large brown eye.
"Cyclops," Andromeda gasped.
"Hello, big sister!" the Cyclops said, his single brown eye lighting up in delight as he spotted me. As one, Andromeda and our brothers turned to look at me with clear confusion written on their faces.
"What?" Andros asked.
"Um, hey..." I said, weakly. "Little? Guy... Um..."
"Little?" Andromeda asked.
"You're one to talk," Andros said.
"He's younger than us," I said. "And still very small for a cyclops. The ones I've seen working for my dad are huge, nevermind the cyclopes that run the carriages around Olympus." Turning back to the cyclops, i asked; "Would you like a sandwich?"
"Can I really have one?" He asked, excitement in his voice. I nodded, pulling one of the leftover pastrami sandwiches from my backpack and handing it to him. "Thank you!"
The overstuffed sandwich looked almost normal sized in his massive hands, and he managed to devour the whole thing in three bites. I chuckled, passing him a bag of chips and another sandwich - which he took with delight.
"What did he mean when he called you his 'big sister'?" Andromeda asked, reluctantly tearing her attention away from the feasting cyclops.
"Oh, um..." I shrugged. "At the library, you know? I thought it was Percy being attacked, and before I realized that it wasn't him, I called him bro."
"Percy is also my brother," the cyclops said, drawing all eyes back to him.
"What do you...?" Percy started to say.
"Wait," I interrupted. "You're half brothers, right? Same father?" The cyclops nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense. So, what do we call you, little guy?"
"I am Tyson," the cyclops spoke up, smiling with crooked teeth.
"So, Tyson, you got a mama cyclops?" I asked, then remembering how the gods didn't adhere strictly to a gender binary - even in the classical myths; "Or a daddy cyclops?"
"No," Tyson said, his smile vanishing as he shook his head. "I am all alone. Or, I was. The other cyclopes were mean. They hit me on the head and kicked me, and then I had to live in a box. Then I was attacked by the mean cat bird and I met you. After that, I prayed to my father and he sent me here. To a new family."
Suddenly, our attention was focused at a space just over Tyson's head as a holographic sea-green trident appeared in a spray of ocean mist.
"Oh," I said.
"That's..." Percy trailed off, looking at Andromeda's brother for help.
"Good luck with that," was his only response.
"You have got to be kidding me," Andromeda said, incredulously.
"Well, okay then," I said, finally. "So, I guess that means you'll be coming home with us."
Thunder rumbled in the distance again, and I extended my umbrella. "And on that note, we really should probably get to the station."
"Right," Percy agreed.
"Just remember to hang on to your backpack this time," Andromeda said as we started walking, and I responded in the most mature manner affordable - by sticking my tongue out at her.
"What's she talking about?" Percy asked.
"Never let your bags out of your sight when riding public transportation," Andromeda's brother replied. "It's just common sense."
"In my defense, I don't usually ride mortal public transportation," I said. "Also, it was Grover who handled the bags that time."
"Mortal public transportation?" Andromeda's brother asked, quirking an eyebrow in confusion.
"There're some places on Olympus that I can't get to on foot as a demigod," I shrugged. "So the only way to get there and back is to hire one of the cart runners. It only costs about ten drachma at the most, usually."
"Only ten drachma, she says."
"I make almost twice that in a day from my sponsorship," I said, a little defensively. How I spent my money was my business, right? "Which, speaking of sponsorships... We should really get on them about your hair product, 'Meda."
"Not today," Andromeda said. "Or tomorrow."
"Yeah," I agreed, easily. "Better to go during the weekend so we have more time to hang around without having to worry about school the next day."
"Have I told you lately that you're not normal?"
"Normal is overrated," I grinned.